tomboy for life

these looks all at www.jcrew.com

DIY Leather Insert Jeans

Glue some leather onto your jeans like this. Or cut a strip of denim out of an old pair of jeans and wear over leather look leggings. Perfect for when the weather gets cold.

Image: ? Does anyone know where this came from?

DIY Denim Waistcoat with Shoulder Pads

Love this cute little waistcoat with strong shoulders. Cut the sleeves off a denim jacket - leaving a couple of inches of fabric after the shoulder seam. Sew some thick boxy shoulder pads onto the jacket, then sew the edges of the fabric underneath tightly, so the rounded hard shoulder is created.

Image: Studded Hearts

2010 Sydney Hair Expo

Sat June 12, 2010

2010 Sydney Hair ExpoSydney's Hair Expo is held every June long weekend and every year it gets busier and better with awesome hair and beauty brands, hair & catwalk shows, conferences and plenty more to see and do.Brands included: O&M, Aveda, L'Oreal Inoa, GHD, Redken, Matrix, Schwarzkopf, Wahl, Denman, Napoleon Perdis and Youngblood.My biggest disappointment: Parlux was not

2010 Sydney Hair Expo Awards

Sun 13 June, 2010
2010 Sydney Hair Expo AwardsI am a HUGE fan of the Hair Expo awards. They make dreams a reality for talented hair stylists out there who may be seeking recognition and career confidence and create endless opportunities for the finalists and the winners. I am in LOVE with the photography and styling of each entrant's work - see below.The categories include:
Australian

Maxted Thomas PR Beauty Blogger Event

Sun 25 July, 2010Maxted Thomas PR Beauty Blogger EventAs a Beauty Blogger I am blessed to try oodles of beauty products in search of the best products for my readers and also for my own use of course. Yes, you can tell me you are envious of my job because for years I dreamed of becoming a beauty editor - it's the reason I applied to study Journalism at UNE two years ago. But did you know that a

GHD's Guest for Little Joe Fashion Luncheon

August, 2010

Pendolino Designer Luncheon for Little Joe by Gail ElliottEach month I seem to be spoiled more and more by fashion and beauty brands for doing what I love: discussing all things fashion and beauty. Long gone are the days when women turn to their favourite magazine or the confidential pages of a newspaper to see what is new - women want to read up on things as they happen and 

DIY Safety Pin Designs

Yes, I know I know, safety pin designs have been on the DIY radar for a while now (I promise I try to post new things you won't have seen too many times!) but I like this look - where the safety pin designs follow the print on a dress or top to give some texture.

Image: Ma Masha via Park and Cube

DIY Cropped Tops

Next time you get the scissors out to do some t-shirt cropping - choose a circular cut like this, and then either leave the back hanging down or crop that in a similar way!

Image: Stolen Girlfriends Club via Studded Hearts and Because I'm Addicted

DIY Knotted Skirt

Love this gorgeous maroon colour - and the knotted bottom is so cute and such as easy DIY.

Image: Anywho

Dove Reviews

www.mydove.com.au
Dove Face Care Cleanser and Toner in One ($8.99AUD) ★★★★Product type: foaming facial cleanser that doubles as a toner also. Packaged in a white plastic squeeze tube.
I don't mind Dove's Cleanser and Toner in One because it is gentle on my face, and does not upset the skin. I did however experience a tingling sensation around my lip area which I don't like the feel of. It smells

DIY Leather Belt

The girls from Anywho never cease to inspire me with their looks of the day, they always put together the most amazingly toned outfits (my favourites being the grey, maroons and blues).

Loved the look of these belts as soon as I saw them - then noted it was a DIY job. I can imagine that they sewed a long strip of leather (at least I think its leather? maybe its matte lycra or jersey?) around some foam or cushion stuffing. Has a certain jetsons feel.

Images: Anywho

Ps. Am crazy busy getting ready for my trip to spain and portugal. Won't be posting from there but have scheduled a few automatic posts over the next two weeks. Gotta keep the punter 'appy!

Today is also the last official day to enter my DIY Toolkit Giveaway. Have you entered? I will be drawing a winner and posting off the kit when I am back in London in 2 weeks (although if you want to enter between now and then I may turn a blind eye to the whole competition close date thing...).

x

2pm comps

street style

such a beautiful array of gorgeous women looking comfortable and beautiful. does it get any prettier?

once in a while

every day i receive an e-mail from Fashion Copious.

every day it inspires me, brings new things to my attention and allows me to feel a bit more connected to the fashion world at large.

and every once in a while I will get a mention on Fashion Copious.

Usually the mention is about something that I have posted on my blog, and often it features the interiors that I pull together.

but, this is the first time that some of MY work has been featured and I am very grateful and quite honored to have my styling work out in the world and on fashion copious.

thanks john!

jersey

http://fashioncopious (courtesy of)

New Grunge!

Bugger 'New Demure' - I'm all about new grunge! I posted this on my Polyvore a year or so ago - must be some kind of fashion savant, ha! (kidding)

New Grunge by LoulouBlue

Ever since Kristen Stewart rocked the plaid shirt in Twilight I have noticed a huge shift back to grunge - Pixies & Pearl Jam are touring, everyone is being seen in Doc Marten's, plaid shirt, opaque black stocking with floral button up dresses, velvet ribbon chokers and rocking the beanie. The High St stores are following suit & I even just scored a little black & ochre floral zip-up front number from the House of G!





New Grunge by LoulouBlue

Kim Gordon appeared on Gossip Girl as Rufus fondly waxes lyrical about touring in the early 90s. One show was even a flashback to the 90's - let's hope that spin-off eventuates! Speaking of Gossip Girl – little Taylor Momsen is channeling Courtney Love in a big way. And many celebs are doing the plaid-shirt-grunge- jeans style thing - Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen are the current Queens of grunge.

Courtney was a star in her day, I loved her style – baby doll dresses, shock of platinum blonde hair and a slash of bloody red lippie. Queen of cool. Even now she still features heavily in the top fash mags and has her own fashion Blog.

And yes, as usual it all comes back to my fave Kate Moss – the latest ‘Queen of Grunge’! Love her style and she has always kept the grunge look, adapting it with her rock chick looks and to the latest trends for the last 20 years. This article a year ago in The Sunday Times UK.

In the meantime, I’m rocking my Kate Sylvester Menswear plaid shirt, buttery soft and in beautiful blue, taupe & grey shades. While I’m a bit old for baby doll dresses, I’m also seeking out some neutral coloured floral dresses with button down fronts & cinched waists that I can throw on over black opaque tights with boots. My beanies will also be getting an outing. I just don’t know that I can go back to Docs - they take so long to break-in! Gotta be soft and slightly munted.

So, Kurt & Courtney’s rock progeny Frances Bean has just turned 18 and inherited an estimated 40% of her father's fortune. 18! My gosh, time flies!!! Seems like yesterday that a friend came to me saying “Oh my God I have heard this amaaaazing band, you’ll love them – Nirvana!” The rest, as they say, is history...

Grunge was born in the early 90’s in Seattle, with bands like Pearl Jam, Temple of the Dog, Soundgarden, Mudhoney and of course, Nirvana championing a look of plaid shirts, boots, baggy combat pants, woolly cardies & long lank hair. Of course it was all about the cold climate and being skint. I started University in Dunedin in 1991 and had no idea the clothes we were wearing were part of a worldwide phenomenon – I just thought it was what students wore in freezing cold Dunedin. We were all broke, living in freezing cold dilapidated flats with Jane’s Addiction, Nirvana, Pearl Jam and the Pixies to keep us warm.

My standard outfit in 1991-1993 was Doc Martens, boyfriend’s work/Norsewear socks, beanie, fishnets, short velour culottes or Karen Walker Mini-Kilt (she was a fledging designer with a small boutique on High Street then), black tight polypropylene jerseys and about half an inch of smudged black eye-liner. I was in love with movies such as Singles, Gas Food Lodging, Natural Born Killers and Reality Bites.

We watched TV shows Twin picks (lumberjack chic) and My So Called Life, which had Clare Danes & Jared Leto running around in flannel shirts and leather chokers. There was no Paris Hiltons or Rihannas, styled to the hilt and desperately trying to get photographed kissing girls or gets tattoos for press. Grungy young actresses like Julia Roberts, Ione Skye, Milla Jovovich, Winona Ryder & Juliette Lewis (both ex’s of Johnny Depp – who continues to rock the grunge look today!) ruled. Quirky rock chick brunettes, who kicked around in jeans, floral print dresses & clompy boots who hung off rock stars. We were Gen-Xers man, slacker cool!

Winona Ryder & Janeane Garofalo in 'Reality Bites'

In 1992, New Yorker Marc Jacobs - now an über-fashion star but then a young designer - started working as Creative Director at fashion house Perry Ellis.

Marc Jacobs 1992

Marc Jacobs by Terry Richardson, 2008

Jacobs had garnered a buzz in the industry via his friendship with the Supers who walked for him (Linda, Christy, Kate et al) and his super casual clothes which were made from plush, expensive fabrics (cashmere shrunken tees, etc).

Nadja & Kristen Steven Miesel shoot, Vogue, 1991

In 1992, Jacobs showed the seminal collection that was based on the style he loved, grunge. Flannel shirts, cashmere disguised as thermal underwear, Doc Martens, beanies straight from the street culture came down the runway on the likes of Kate Moss & Kristen McMenamy. The fashion world was aghast and Jacobs and his friend Duffy - who was hired as the President of Perry Ellis - were fired. But whilst the collection was slammed by critics, it was lauded by the cool kids and has gone down in fashion history.

Naomi & Kristen, Steven Miesel shoot, Vogue, 1991

Interestingly, Jacobs sent the collection to grunge darlings Courtney & Kurt - they weren't impressed - “Marc [Jacobs] sent me and Kurt [Cobain] his Perry Ellis grunge collection . . . We burned it. We were punkers-we didn’t like that kind of thing.”

Kurt & Courtney

A few years into the trend in 1994, Time Magazine wrote ('If Everyone is hip...IS Anyone Hip' by Richard Lacayo):

"But at a time when the pavements are worn thin by Doc Martens, when every open door admits a file of backward baseball caps and soul patches, when jocks sell attitude and all of rock is supposed to be alternative -- hipness is bigger than General Motors...Such bands as Pearl Jam and Fugazi may be able to maintain their position without submitting to every industry demand for videos or major-label distribution...("Unless people start wearing lumber," says the performer and fashion watcher Sandra Bernhard, "there's not much more designers can do.")

Kim Gordon had her own label. “So this year's most up-to-the-minute design-wear house, X-Girl, owned by Kim Gordon of the rock band Sonic Youth, is hawking brightly colored tennis sweaters, polo shirts and floral-print shifts that hark back to the Lilly Pulitzers of the horsey set, circa 1973”.

Kim Gordon



Carolyn Murphy & family imitate Courtney & Kurt, Vogue, Rock The House (November, 2001)

To end - one of the most amusing movie scenes ever - My Sharona from Reality Bites. Take it away kids!away!