Life with Bird A/W 2013

We're all still hanging around in shorts and t-shirts in front of the fan and it's hard to imagine it ever being cold enough to wear winter clothes again. It always surprises me how early designers and labels start to advertise and see their winter collections - I'm just not that much of a planner when it comes to shopping (to my detriment, probably). That said, I did enjoy looking through Life With Bird's A/W 2013 collection online, and have included some favourites below. I'm really pleased to see that gorgeous, digital floral prints are sticking around - breaks up those winter blacks and greys!

For any keen beens, pre-orders open Feb 25 at www.lifewithbird.com

xx

Insert "polka dots" pun here.

No, I didn't forget to write a title for this post. I just couldn't bring myself to call it something like "going dotty for polka dots", so I decided to let your own clever brains think of something better. Good move, am I right?

Anyway. ANYWAY. I like polka dots. I like printed pants. I like that the two have joined forces. I originally fell in love with with them after stumbling across the below picture on Atlantic-Pacific.

Picture courtesy of atlantic-pacific.blogspot.com.au

I'm still searching for a mustard or yellow pair, so let me know if you find them somewhere! However, I've found some other good options below, that I am tempted to investigate further. And by investigate, I mean purchase. I love the idea of styling them with stripes. I think they key would be to make sure the stripes are really thick, to prevent things looking too busy.

Spots and stripes by carolinelt featuring ankle length pants

xx

The spring clean continues - or, a relatively fun project for a rainy day.

It really is that time of year - it's such a cliche, but I seriously cannot stop going through my life and throwing things out. Mostly objects and clothes, but hey, there's probably some bad habits that I could get rid of as well...ba-doom ching.

My most recent spring clean venture was more like two projects in one. I was standing in front of my wardrobe the other day, trying to decide what to wear to work, and having one of those classic and ridiculous "I have nothing to wear! Nothing!" moments. I was laughing at myself at the same time of course, as it is patently untrue.

So I decided to do something about it. I would enlist the help of my old friend "Nudey Judy" and hold a little self-styling session, cleaning my wardrobe out at the same time. The idea was to take photos of all my workplace-appropriate ensemble options and store them on my laptop, to prevent the aforementioned "what the hell am I going to wear" moments from reoccurring. Also, this is the kind of thing I find quite fun. What can I say?

Meet Nudey Judy! I can't take credit for the name sadly, she belongs to Georgia.

What you'll need:

1. An empty afternoon

2. Some tunes. (I decided Taylor Swift was the most appropriate music to listen to for this project. I know, right? Incredibly surprising. You're shocked, I can tell.) 

3. A spirit of ruthlessness and absolute honesty.

4. I highly recommend getting your hands on some kind of mannequin or dressmakers dummy if possible. 

5. Pegs - it helps to make the clothes fit the dummy as well as possible, so they don't fall off mid-photo.

I started with dresses, then moved onto blouses and skirts, and I think my system worked out pretty well. I'd dress Nudey Judy in a blouse and then put together as many ensembles as I could think of with that blouse. I'm not going to lie, by the time I'd been styling for a couple of  hours I was pretty over it and I got less and less creative towards the end. Here's a couple of examples of my afternoon's work...

The photos are kind of crappy, but that wasn't really the point. All in all I feel like it was a worthwhile endeavour.  I got rid of a whole pile of clothes that I know I'm never going to wear, but I'd been hanging on to them for too long because I'd forgotten they didn't quite fit, or were uncomfortable, or just don't suit me. Clothes that I had been conveniently ignoring that I don't like wearing, and kidding myself I'd drag out of the back of the wardrobe someday. The great thing is, it's made me far more aware of what clothes I own that I DO like wearing, and that can be worn to work. According to my wardrobe I have a penchant for clothing that is slightly 1940s-ish or makes me look like an art teacher circa 1974. But a cool art teacher, I hope. I'm also pretty crap at accessorising. I'm lazy - mostly I just can't be bothered, and doing this little project made me actually think and put energy into dressing for work more creatively. Well, a little bit anyway.

Style challenge: Neon...and fluoro...and yellow...oh my.

I'm not a huge fan of all the neon that is making it's way into the stores for spring and summer. However, I know myself pretty well, and the likelihood that I will turn around at some point and decide that I MUST HAVE neon jeans is pretty strong. So, I thought I would hit the nail on the head, and do some advance planning.

I walked past Witchery the other day, and when I saw these neon yellow jeans I thought to myself - "What the frack do you wear with those?" And then I thought to myself, "Challenge accepted!" After a bit of thought, and some research I've come up with both daytime and nighttime options that I am mostly satisfied with. 

What I realised immediately with neon yellow, is that you can't immediately use the stalwarts of tan, black and navy blue that work so well with other coloured jeans. But that's okay - I like coloured jeans, and I'm glad they seem to be sticking around for a while. They really do make casual dressing a lot more fun and interesting.

I realised after a while, that the magic colour for neon yellow is grey. Which makes me happy, because I love grey. While the Helmut Lang jacket featured below is a bit of a stretch financially, you get what I'm going for, right? And a girl can dream...

I'm not as sold on chambray for the daytime option, but I do like the printed shirt... As in all things, I'd probably need to see it in real life to be sure. But hey, maybe I can make friends with neon after all?

Neon jeans - yellow by carolinelt featuring patent shoes

Lashes.

I'm a sucker for eyelashes. I think I hinted at this in our introductory blog post. False lashes, lash extensions and mascara. I think I love lashes the way many women (and men?) love shoes. Don't get me wrong... I love shoes too... but today, it's all about the lashes.

I wasn't a particularly girly teenager. This was probably, mostly, because I was overly self-conscious and lacked confidence but certainly, being a teen in the late '80s and the '90s meant that 'grunge' was a big part of style back then. And eyelashes weren't particularly important... eyeliner maybe, but lashes, not so much in my world? Girly or not, in the '90s I took style cues from the likes of Juliana Hatfield, who herself admits to having been very self-conscious, and also Lisa Loeb. I think I still do.

Now it is almost twenty years later and the internet is in my life. As Caroline was saying in her post about fashion and style blogs, I can take style cues from wherever I like. Amongst the thousands of average (and below average) blogs there are some excellent tips to be found. Lisa Eldridge is my current favourite but more about her another time. And so back to my point about eyelashes. I've tried and tried to use false lashes without much luck. Gluing my eyelashes together is about all that I've achieved until now. A few days ago I came across the best tip, I think, on the internet, for applying false lashes. The recent Beauty Department post is the only place that I have ever seen anyone suggest (carefully) applying the lash glue to your lash line rather than the false lash strip. It makes positioning the lashes much less slippery and a whole lot easier. Of course this will only interest anyone who has ever tried (and failed) to apply false lashes though, I'm sure. Check out The Beauty Department for more info.

Still on the subject of lashes, after battling with bits and pieces falling out of the bathroom cabinet over and over again I realised I have an awful lot of mascara (amongst other stuff). I don't strike myself as a person who owns twelve mascaras! But I do. Let me justify having this many mascaras. Firstly, I find it hard to go past a magazine that comes with a free mascara so a number of these were 'free'. I may not have read the magazines yet but I have the mascara. Secondly, facebook is sometimes a great place to enter competitions to win such things. I have to say that I think at least seven of the mascaras pictured here were free with purchase of a magazine or won from facebook comps. That still means I have bought about 5 mascaras in the last year though.

What am I going to do with all this mascara? I can't give it away seeing as I've 'tested' them all now. How about a few before & afters? You know I love a good before & after.







So today I present to you the Maybelline One by One Volum Express Mascara in Satin Black. This is a limited edition mascara I 'won' on facebook. I liked it before I took these photos but after looking at the pictures I can see the effects even more clearly. Definitely makes the lashes look longer and thicker in my opinion.


The thing about shoes and lashes (and earrings too) is that they fit you even when your jeans are feeling a bit tighter than usual. If only eyelashes made the sound Amber Dempsey's eyelash implants made on The Simpsons.

Girl Crush: Marion Cotillard

Marion is a fairly new addition to my official girl crush list. Although she's been on my radar for a little while now, it wasn't until I watched her charming performance in "Midnight in Paris" that I really started to pay attention to her confident, whimsical and utterly French style. And really, the woman knows how to wear her lipstick. As I write this post, I am struck with the urge to go out and buy some coral lipstick immediately. She also was on the cover of French and US Vogue simultaneously...I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall for that conversation between Anna Wintour and Emmanuelle Alt. But only a fly. Because it was probably scary.


I also really, really love her curly bob. It makes me want to cut my hair.I realise that doesn't say much really, because a lot of things make me want to cut my hair. I just fear the wrath of my hairdresser when I do... and she has a point, because really, what's the point of growing your hair for 3 years only to chop it all off again? To which I say...because I can.


To Paris? To Paris!

Marion Cotillard by carolinelt featuring a pencil skirt

Let's get fashion bloggy

To me the internet is kind of like a big fat magazine, specialising in whatever takes your fancy. Be it art, mechanics, travel or clog dancing, whatever information you're looking for is only a search engine away. Now, this is not to say that I believe that books will soon die - I don't - or that I don't sometimes treat myself to a chai latte and pay an exorbitant amount to read a real life magazine while sitting in the sun somewhere - I do. But that's more about the experience than the content. When I'm looking for inspiration, information and entertainment like everyone else, I turn to my laptop.

Given that a large percentage of my interest when it comes to the internet, lies in fashion and style (personally, I consider these two different concepts), I thought I would share with you some of the blogs that I visit on a regular basis. I tend not to go for the blogs that just involve the blogger taking photos of themselves in various outfits - I'm kind of in two minds about that whole...thing. The positive mind, thinks it's pretty cool that women everywhere are changing perceptions about what is "fashionable" and "attractive"  and moving things away from the sphere of fashion editorials and glamazonian models. There are style bloggers of all shapes, sizes, colours and...hmmm...for want of a better word "looks" out there. Is vintage rockabilly style your thing? Then there is a style blogger out there for you. Or maybe you're more into up-to-the-second high street trends. Yep, no problems.  Whimsical, floaty, and bohemian (ish) more your thing? Oh my lord. Style bloggers were made for you! My negative mind, however, just thinks it's kind of odd to be constantly taking photographs of oneself in different outfits. Like that friend in your Facebook or Instagram feed who uploads a constant stream of "selfies"...it just makes me ask, "but why?". I could go into a whole discussion about how the internet and social networking turns our gaze further inward rather than outward, but I feel that's another post for another time. The fact is, style bloggers are becoming a very powerful force in the fashion world, and the fashion world is paying a lot of attention to them. The good ones, that is.

The purpose of this particular post, is to share with you what are in my opinion, some of the better style blogs out there. Most of these blogs have genuinely lovely, well-crafted photographs  sometimes accompanied by thoughtful, interesting and often amusing (in a good way) copy. 

I start where all style bloggers start (or should start), with The Sartorialist. Scott Schuman is a fashion photographer, who regularly shoots for labels like The Gap and Burberry, and his blog consists of photos he has taken of people he sees on the street in his hometown of New York or in his travels to places like Paris and Milan. One of the reasons I enjoy The Sartorialist so much, is that he seems to photograph both men and women equally. Hey, just because I'm a lady doesn't mean I don't appreciate a stylish dude.

Image courtesy of www.thesartorialist.com

From The Sartorialist, it is a very small hop, skip then jump over to the website of Garance Dore. Garance is a fashion illustrator, photographer and writer and her blog is more like a visual diary. An incredibly delightful visual diary full of just the right amount of self deprecating charm and wit. She also happens to be ridiculously talented. I'm in love with her delicate and simple illustrations. Oh yeah, and she is Schuman's girlfriend. Tres cute. You will find more text and article-like content at this blog, but if you just want to browse through and look at the pretty pictures, you can do that too. You can find her work in such publications as Harper's Bazaar, Elle and Vogue - to name a few.

Image courtesy of www.garancedore.fr

Jak and Jil is the website of Canadian photographer, Tommy Ton. While The Sartorialist takes mostly head to toe shots, you'll get more of the details at from Ton. He shoots a lot of off-duty models - pre and post runway shows at various fashion weeks - and other fashion-y type people, so get ready for some amazing, beautiful and weird photos. Also, given that Fashion Week is on its way here in Sydney he is most likely in town so keep an eye out for some of your favourite Sydney spots. The blog is photo only - no text! - so have fun browsing.

Image courtesy of www.jakandjil.com

Okay, so this is pretty much my only concession to the aforementioned blogger-taking-pictures-of-themselves category that causes me so much internal confusion. I think part of what keeps me coming back to LoveMaegan is that I find her genuinely likeable, interesting and amusing. It's really more of a lifestyle blog - she does a lot of DIYs, and general posts about her day to day life, but the outfit posts are the real meat. I like that she is open about the fact that there are things she won't wear as a thirty-six year old that she would have happily work ten years ago. I like that sometimes her outfits make me go "What the...?" and I like that she links to most of the things she wears, and will reuse favourite items regularly. 

Image courtesy of www.lovemaegan.com

I think that's enough for now! This turned into a much longer post than I intended, but I hope you get as much entertainment (and procrastination) out of these blogs as I do...and maybe some inspiration too. 

Girl Crush: Sofia Coppola

I realised a while ago that what I would really like in life, is to live inside the soundtrack to a Sofia Coppola film. I try to recreate these sonic experiences whenever I can, and my iPod is filling up with albums and EPs from bands like Girls, The Radio Dept and Beach House. 


Of course, living inside the soundtrack would also involve having Sofia's amazingly simple, yet cool style. I've never really understood cool - because caring about being cool, is inherently uncool, right? But not caring about being cool is also kind of fey, and does anyone really believe you when you say you don't care anyway? And knowing that you are cool is also uncool. But if you don't acknowledge it, even though you know it, well - then you're just  a phoney, as Holden Caulfield would probably say. I'm editorialising at this point, clearly. So can you ever be cool, without being kind of uncool?



ANYWAY. Sofia Coppola is cool. She's married to a French rock star, and runs around the world shooting wry yet beautiful fashion campaigns and movies. Somewhere was a treat -Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning were seriously delightful and I've seen Lost in Translation more times than I can count. It's one of my life's ambitions to hang out with Bill Murray in a hotel in Tokyo. I'm even a fan of the much maligned Marie-Antoinette. 

Sofia Coppola by carolinelt featuring mid rise jeans

Monday Macrame Maybe?

I've ordered the bits and pieces to have a go at making these simple little bracelets from honestlywtf.com. I think I first saw them on Pinterest... maybe... but you all know what I'm like with bookmarks etc. A little bit of macrame on a Monday?

Update - I've actually made a couple and they are quite easy. Cheap and cheerful.

L-R - Present from my sister (from Pandora), present from my mother (unknown), and my two new handmade string bracelets.

Now to find some other coloured threads.

It's time to put on makeup...

A little Grover colour just for a laugh... who should I do next?

Inspiration Grover by georgialt featuring jumpsuits and rompers
 

Love me, love me...

When skies get turn grey and the temperature drops, you really can't go past a good cardigan. Sure, there's a bit of the nanna/grandpa stigma, but who cares? I don't know about you, but my grandparents were pretty cool. And it is VERY IMPORTANT to make sure your kidneys are covered during the colder months.

I particularly like how cardigans are becoming more common in mens fashion. Because really, dudes get cold too, and not all occasions are hoody appropriate. Slowly, slowly they are moving out of the hipsters only domain, and being worn by men who don't own skinny jeans. Hooray! This lady gives them the thumbs up. Also, cardigans are actually named after the 7th Earl of Cardigan, James Brudenell, who led the Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean War (thanks Google). Pretty manly stuff right there - and I'm sure he made it through because of his warm kidneys.

I've been a fan of cardigans for quite a while, although I'm pretty sure I hated them as a kid. They always seemed to be itchy.  Pairing a cardigan with a pretty dress, and whacking a belt around it all is one of my go-to ensembles for winter weekends. Also, cardigans generally fulfil my "all clothes must be stretchy" mandate. 

If Fictional Characters Used the Internet...

I'm afraid I'm struggling to get something wordy together for today's post. You will have to make do with my first attempts to use Polyvore ... after being inspired by Caroline and her stylish posts.

First up, Daria and her best pal Jane.

If Fictional Characters Used Polyvore by georgialt featuring a flare skirt

If Fictional Characters Used Polyvore - Jane Lane by georgialt featuring a red military jacket

And just to be ridiculous, some Sesame Street fun. (I know, I know... Big Bird is a boy... isn't he? It's inspired by Big Bird, not for him.)

Inspiration - Big Bird by georgialt featuring resin jewelry

Still got the blues

I need to be honest with you. Some of you will already be aware of this, but to those of you reading this who may not know me, there is something about me you should know. 


I own way too many clothes. My room looks like a monster from a Miyazaki film has opened its giant mouth and vomited clothes all over it by the time the end of the week rolls around. My wardrobe is stuffed - literally, and potentially figuratively. I live in fear of the clothes rail finally giving in and collapsing under the weight of clothing I expect it to support.


I don't feel guilty. I love all my clothes equally. Each piece, okay - item  (I never really spend enough to refer to my clothes as "pieces") is bought with grand hopes and dreams for the ensembles it will contribute to, for the life it is going to live. Everything in my wardrobe is perfect for something. 


I also like talking about clothes. Not too long ago, upon overhearing a conversation between me and my friend L about all the clothes she had purchased on a trip to London, a friend of ours commented that he could listen to us talk about clothes all day long. Not because he cared about the subject matter - I feel that he would like me to point out at this stage that he is an incredibly masculine, bearded Canadian, with little time for such trifles - but I like to think he found the rhythm and cadence of the conversation soothing. Maybe. 


As full as my wardrobe is, there is always room for more. With the change of every season there are new dresses and jackets to dream of and new sartorial hopes and dreams. This winter, I am delighted by the bright cobalt blue that I am seeing everywhere. It pops out from the seas of black and grey, while still providing the strength in colour that we look for in our winter wardrobes. When the temperature drops no one really turns to pale colours, do they? It's as though we need the strong tones to remind us that we are still alive, in the icy mornings.

Cobalt by carolinelt featuring a long sleeve silk blouse