Online

As if it's not enough that Topshop delivers here now, my top-notch internet browsing skills have led me to this Korean website, Style Nanda, which has 'good price' for fast-fashion.

The best thing about the website isn't the clothes, the prices, or the way that the models look like they're the faces of Asia's hippest style blog.  What I like is that they seem to be trying to brainwash me into buying their clothes with random English slogans that don't seem to make any sense.

I think it might be working.

This Is It

I tweeted about this video not so long ago and now a behind-the-scenes video has been made about the making of the video.  I love that kind of convoluted stuff.  Check them both out; they include arty warehouses, trippy music, humans wearing cardboard and lifesize mousetraps.

If that doesn't sell them to you then nothing will.

ÅLAND

My new favourite shop in Korea is a superior version of Urban Outfitters.  It has a vintage market on the top floor, where the wares are super cheap considering all the clothes are grouped by colour, style and decade.  I could only take a few snaps as photography is banned instore but I think you can kind of see from the pictures that the vibe of the place is very much that of a hip grandmother's attic.

Elin

I've mentioned Elin Kling before because she was the first blogger to ever collaborate on a large design project, for H&M.  It's only recently that I've became vaguely obsessed with her though, in that way that you do when someone has the hair colour, wardrobe and life of your dreams.

My shopping list for summer has just increased tenfold.  I need a sheer peasant blouse, a jaunty black hat, tortoiseshell cat eye glasses, multipurpose skinny jeans, a cut-out dress, a perfectly-fitted boyfriend blazer and much much more.

I also very much need to practice my posing, a la Elin.

(Images: Elin Kling)

Habits

Although most girls would give up food before giving up their Topshop addiction, I was kind of pleased that I'd be finally kicking the latter habit by moving out of Britain.  I find that the price of Topshop clothing has dramatically increased in the last few years, while the quality has decreased.  I don't think one item I bought in the months before I went away lasted more than a couple of weeks without quickly eroding, seemingly gaining scars in the form of bobbles, holes and skags in the battles of day-to-day wear.

No one does fast fashion quite like Topshop though.  I find myself browsing the site right now since I went to an electro festival on Friday night and bore witness to thousands of Korean girls imitating the Western festival uniform of floral dress, wellies and a straw hat.  It made me feel nostalgic for summer at home and for the ubiquitous sunshine season's look that Topshop does so well, year after year.

Surprisingly, many items seem more affordable than usual and, oh dear, I see they've started delivering to South Korea.  The catch?  You have to spend over an-easy-to-reach target of £75.
This outfit has found its way into my virtual shopping bag.

The perfect summer designs, just like the ones I bought last year.  And the year before that and the year before that....
I guess some habits die hard, for both high-street clothing giants and materialistic 22 year old girls.

Hiatus

Blogging is difficult when you don't have the internet at home, hence the distinct lack of posting.  

Don't worry though! I am using my time wisely by obsessively watching Gossip Girl and Friday Night Lights instead.

Karley Krush

I felt a little blasé about watching this "fashion week without the fashion" video on New York nightlife but my interest was sparked when writer Karley Sciortino popped up on screen with her red lipstick and gravelly voice.  I’ve always read Karley’s articles in Vice but only recently discovered her acerbic blog Slutever, reading every sick, twisted and deliciously deranged post in a single weekend. Which is probably why I didn’t want to watch a film on nightlife in New York in the first place since in a previous life I tended to spend Fashion Week/ my entire life reading random blogs about girls who lead drug-fueled existences and live in London squats, while lounging in my pyjamas in the safety of my own rented home, toast crumbs smeared around my nostrils instead of white powder (I miss my mouth a lot when I’m particularly engrossed in what I’m reading).

Anyway, Karley is kule and I have a total writer's krush on her.  It’s odd when a favourite blogger appears in film medium because as a reader you’re generally only privy to whatever façade the blogger curates through their written or photographic work.  Karley herself announces that her blog is "intended to trick strangers into thinking my life is more exciting than it actually is" so there's a voyeuristically pull in seeing the real person behind the blog, if only fleetingly in a film about 'Hidden New York'.

 I haven’t been able to catch up on her blog for a while since it’s usually full of ermmm…controversial images (naked chubsters and blood-covered penises) and I don’t want the cute Koreans in my local internet cafe to think I’m a weirdo.

I miss reading about interviews with psychotic slaves and her inappropriate crushes on pasty, skinny males though.