IN LOVE WITH ETRO

It's official - Italy has taken over my brain!

With only 2 weeks to go before I jet off to Venice, I'm constantly finding myself googling gondolas, planning days out to Verona and Lake Garda, fantasising about bagging myself a bargain at all the flea markets and generally living in a wondrous Italian bubble! BELLA, BELLA!

Sorry, am I making you sick?! Aaaaaanyway I've also recently been perusing the Italian big dogs on Net a Porter for some sartorial inspiration and guess what? I LOVE ETRO!

Known for their bright patterns, bold colours and sleek tailoring, these lovelies are pressing a particular button with me right now. I'd love a few fabo dresses for taking away with me but sadly they range from £800 to over £2,000! Guess I'll have to make do with some vintage imposters instead.

Literally dreaming about this coat...

Belissimo!

Oh, and in OTHER Itallian-themed news, my friend David Vallance's graduate collection (which I talked about here) is featured in the September issue of Itallian Vogue - grab it if you can!

GET ON MY BACK

..you three crazy vintage shirts! Like NOW!

Still fantasising about being decked out in vintage goodness whilst running around Venice in a few weeks time. Winter? Pffft, not even thinking about it till I get back!

With that in mind, I also quite fancy this chic, understated bag too...

Demure. So uncool it's cool!

All pics from my favourites list over at Etsy.

BEBAROQUE AND PPQ

Scottish hosiery designers Bebaroque are teaming up with uber-cool London brand PPQ for their SS12 collection which will show next month at LFW.

Exciting! You remember Bebaroque, right? The label founded in July 2007 by Mhairi McNicol and Chloe Patience which uses hand embroidery and imaginative prints to transform tights and bodysuits into works of glorious fashion/art?

Aye, they're the ones!

And you know PPQ don't you? The label beloved by folks like Pixie and Peaches Geldof, whose awesome, structured headgear last season made the models look a bit like cats? (hello inspiration for Topshop Unique's dreadful AW11 collection of doggy-themed Dalmatian heinousness)

That's them!

I'm definitely excited by this pairing - and good on the girls for starting to really make a name for themselves! According to Vogue.com, "featuring colourful tights, knee-high socks and body suits, the collection melds the two brands' aesthetics - including a body and legging decorated with an all over repeat digital print combining leopard print, PPQ brand letters, rope and tassels; and a fully embroidered and embellished body incorporating Bebaroque's best-selling Priscilla print blended with PPQ's rose imagery."

That last part about a fully embroidered body suit with embellishment and rose imagery? I'M SOLD!

DICK! (LOLZ)

I recently saw this cool photo on another blog of Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams all decked out in insane Americana to promo their 1999 film Dick, and it reminded me how much I love this film!* Totally hilarious and underrated, plus don't Kirsten and Michelle look totally adorable?

And so ON TREND right now ladies, American-flag print is achingly hipster doncha know! Enjoy the awesome pics and trailer whilst I subtitle yet another episode of Heartland and mindvom. Vom... In my mind.

*I originally wrote "how much I love Dick!" but my inner 14-year-old's brain was literally exploding from the innuendo so it had to go.

The hats confuse me. Is that Paisley pattern?? why?

Ghost World much gals?

Everything about Kirsten's outfit is amazing. Everything.

Romy and Michelle take two.

I'm also suspicious guys. Suspicious about YOUR HAT, KIRSTEN!

The definition of 'so wrong it's right.'

Can I be pals with you? PLEASE?

 - 90s

-  supercute

- Americana

-  Kirsten Dunst

- smutty innuendo...

BISH BASH BOSH, DONE.

Lolz.


EDIT: PS, oh HEY you grungy hot mess, giez yer jumper. Thanks...

Vintage jumper - Etsy. Where else?

MY DADDY AND NEBRASKA AND JESUS CHRIST!

Yo! So, incase you didn't know by now I'm a GAGA nut!  Been belting out her latest single from Born This Way, the country-inspired You and I awww week and revelling in the madness of the video.

Do yourself a favour and get it up loud. YOU, YOU AND IIII!!!




Do I totally 'get it?' No. But do I love it? YES! Plus Gaga as Jo Calderone = FIT.

The video was directed by Laurianne Gibson and Lady Gaga, and the fashion director credit goes to her bezzie Nicola Formechetti from Mugler again. A full list of the outfit credits can be found here, and as ever it is IMPRESSIVE!

Oh, Mother Monster, you've gone and done it again!

SEEING STARS

When I first saw the highstreet's interpretation of Dolce and Gabana's star-printed fall 2011 collection...



which looks like this on an assortment of celebs



..I was NOT particularly impressed. Sure, I thought to myself, at least it's been picked up in the first place, unlike the unforgivable Christopher Kane galaxy-print fiasco. But something about stars inherently says TACKY to me. Call me crazy, call me a print snob, but that's just how it was.

Until I saw THIS fierce wee number in Look Magazine!

I don't know, I DO NOT even know why, but I knew I puuuure loved it. Still, ashameful rip off of this dress by D&G, but isn't that why folk love Primark?

Fierce!!  Anyway, reader, this morning I bought it...



Blusher much, Kirsty? Jeeze.



I know, RIGHT? So not me, but the heart wants what it wants.

Go figure.

LILYLOVELOCK

Glasgow label LilyLoveLock, run by the lovely Domonique, recently sent me their ad for their new collection available on Etsy and ASOS marketplace.

Pretty deeeelightful shot, yes?

Oh, American-flag-print. I feel somehow that I shouldn't lust after you so, but alas I DOOOO!

That playsuit is gonna fly off the virtual shelves, get in there while you can ladies.

DEVON AOKI (LUST)

Wowzers, can you spell B-U-S-Y! So many things have been going on in the last week or so! Managed to get my Masters portfolio done and handed in after a couple of major last minute changes (STRESS!) and also lined myself up some SAWEET job interviews!

One is located down near Southampton, and the other is for a magazine based in Glasgow. Positive thoughts for me bloggies! Good karma coming your way and all that... I'm really desperate to get my teeth into something new and the one down south in particular ticks ALL the boxes so keep 'em crossed!

Since my last yin, I've had loads of cool blogposts lined up but not had a spare minute to bash them out. This one's a bit of a cop-out but I hope y'all will appreciate the STUNNING images :)

Last week model and actress Devon Aoki (her from Sin City and Really Fast and Extremely Angry) turned 29. I took this as an opportunity to drool over some amazing photos of her. Slightly creepy? Maybe. Enjoy anyway:

Photos pinched from Google and Tumblr.

ALSO Blogger still being weird and fussy about letting me comment back, so appologies if I haven't been keeping up to date with commenting lately. I'm still there stalking! And HEY to my new followers. Love yeez.

x

THINGS I AM LOVING

First off, a few things...

Wow! My last post had LOADS of views from Gem's blog, so thanks again so much to her for agreeing to take part in my wee Q&A sesh, and for pimping out FFS :)

Oh and you may notice I have a spiffing new header. I'm afraid I can take NO credit for it's awesomeness - it was 100% the work of the lovely Charlene from Dainty Dresses - go check her out. Thanks again dawl!

OK. So whilst I fear the load of new followers I've amassed recently (*waves* hi btw!) might run screaming and crying to click unfollow as fast as their little paws will allow, let me show you some vintage picks I've been loving on Etsy over the last few days... Brace yourself.

Firstly, this little coral dress...

RIGHT,I know what you're thinking, but I'm going to Venice in four weeks and I'm REALLY lacking in pretty floaty dresses! Imagine this cut off to the knee, with the Mulberry Alexa and some chunky wooden sandals and gold jewellery. And a tan, obviously. Pretty, right? RIGHT? Hmm... I see you remain unconvinced.

How about this wee ditty:

I'm picturing this with a massive wide-brimmed black hat and oversized cat-eye sunnies, flat sandals and a load of chunky silver rings. Yes? Yes.

This wee handmade bow ring kind of speaks for itself. Who doesn't love a pretty little silver ring, aye?

I thought this was leopard-print at first but actually it's tiny yellow flowers on a black background. 90s tiny floral-print-tastic! Not particularly suitable for holibags, but you can never have too many vintage shirts. Fact.

In contrast, this slinky cardigan IS leopard print - tiny little leopard print at that. Just divine with something really plain underneath, and a chunky gold watch. As it's slightly colder in the evenings here (Glesga) I find my fingers drifting more and more to the cardigans/knitwear sections of my favourite websites. Looking very much forward to autumn... 

Silver crown thumb ring. Self explanatory. Would also look super cool strung on a long, delicate necklace. MUST HAVE!

Spotty batwing sundress. The 50s kitchness of this wee dress really appeals, and I keep picturing myself swanning around Venice, devouring gelato and blowing kisses to sexy gondoliers whist wearing it... This is dangerous !

American flag knitted cardigan. Part of me loves this and part of me thinks I'm not cool enough to pull it off. I wanna rough it up a little and sew band patches and ironic badges onto it... Still. I do like it.

Ivory-effect sugar skull pendant. Speaks for itself. Morbid, creepy, and cool as floof.

Bold colour block bikini. So although Venice is a city, and technically my week away there could be classed as a city break, I also can't stop coveting pictures of cool swimwear. Languishing on a scorching beach in this bikini, wearing Alexander Wang's angular sunglasses... YES please!

Sideways cross necklace. Keep seeing loads of sideways cross bracelets, but I'm loving the simplicity and uniqueness of this delicate wee silver chain.

Finally we come to my favourite picking. Does anyone remember seeing this picture on KnightCat absolutely AAAAAGES ago? Well I do! I could hardly stop thinking about this shoulderless, vintage wonder:

Seriously, I was googling 'shoulderless denim' for weeks after, but nowhere I checked did a good-enough copy. Until now!

OK, well technically this vintage shirt isn't perfect - not sure how I feel about those ruffles, pretty sure I'd be chopping them off ASAP. But I do actually like that this ties together, and it's the first thing I've seen that's remotely similar. I'm sorely tempted to get this and again rough it up a bit.

OR this little shirt is also a winner:

So. To new followers, this is the kinda borderline-tacky, 90s grungy, ugly/beautiful vintage shiz I am into. Feel free to unfollow if I've offended your eyes, but let me try and tempt you to stay with a plethora of lolz courtesy of the most ridiculous Etsy offering I've ever seen. EVER...

Because, hell, I don't know about you but I've been SORELY missing a blue, furry, Grover-faced high-waisted skirt in my life. WORD.