Craft is awesome. I love making things and I especially love wanting something and being able to create it myself (preferably out of something I already own) or even not being able to find something so creating it myself. I get a huge satisfaction out of creating and I think most other people do too. With this in mind, I was excited to get a special £1 subscription to the new(ish) craft based magazine, Mollie Makes. It’s beautifully designed, featuring stunning photography and some interviews with great crafters and city guides marking out creative areas and stores.
However, I’m not sold. The magazine seems to be entirely aimed at the sort of person who’s latched onto craft in some sort of aspirational lifestyle way, wears a lot of Cath Kidston, blogs pictures of teacups, displays ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ posters and owns an Aga. Each to their own, but it’s definitely not for the more experienced crafter (or to the newbie to whom any of the above are a bit off putting). Any of the projects could be easily worked out by anyone with a little bit of experience or a jot of intelligence and a lot of it is a definite case of style over substance. A whole shoot basically lifted from a Toast catalog is really just a big advert and one that’s not very craft related (though obviously, TOAST catalogs are gorgeous but I can get them free through the post) I fully applaud the magazine for pin pointing such a huge market in the UK at the moment and giving them exactly what they want, aka austerity chic for people willing to go out and spend a fortune on expensive equipment, wools and fabrics or for those who quite fancy an adorable twee lifestyle without really having to put a lot of effort in. I love the resurgence of craft and that people starting to make things for themselves and appreciate stuff a bit more but to me the biggest inspirations are always going to be on the internet – especially craftster.org. Want to know what to do with a load of old tights, how to knit your own socks or make a Tardis? It’s all on there with a huge community of incredibly creative brilliant people who just want to work things out for themselves.
Interestingly, many bloggers seem to have similar thoughts to me and I thought I’d feature a snippet from a post by someone who sums it up so much better than I have managed:
“I know people who get an enormous amount of pleasure from making beautiful things for their homes. But then again, it was mentioned in the comments to a post on this subject a few months ago that crafting is not necessarily a step away from consumer culture, and I think that perhaps one of the things that makes me a little uneasy about the proliferation of crafty lifestyle magazines is that it can be viewed as the publishers trying to cash in on the popularity of crafting and thrifting and to draw what started out as a reaction against consumer culture into the mainstream.”
Read the whole article here: – I basically agree with every point she makes. Problematic.
I certainly don’t mean to offend if you love the magazine; it’s just simply not for me. I do feel that there is a gap in the market for a publication aimed at us more experienced crafters who don’t just want aspirational images but then are we just getting it all from the internet? On that note, I’d love it if you would share with me your favorite crafting blogs or sites? Are you making anything at the moment?
I feel like we’re going to be getting a lot of 203s/30s inspiration in fashion this year in no small part due to the upcoming Baz Luhrmann adaptation of The Great Gatsby.
I’m not complaining; it’s one of my all time fave books and the era has always been my favorite (most of my top literature is from this time, and I basically just want to run around mansions having affairs and drinking champagne in a sequined dress). I’ve been looking at the Pre-Fall collections and the influences are apparent with dropped waists, velvet, fringing, fur, wide leg pants and hats all over the place. I especially loved Alberta Ferretti, choice highlights below:
I love silk pyjamas as daywear but I’m not sure I’ve got the guts to try it just yet. Maybe I’ll confine it to loungewear for the moment; I quite like this Princess Tam Tam pair.
Finally, this is a pretty spot on Daisy Buchanen outfit from Temperely London
(Ok, I wrote this before I saw the article in Instyle or Laverne published hers so shut up yeah? It’s a trend, the point is that everyone’s doing it. Ahem.)
Like most people I know, I have a bit of an issue with the term guilty pleasures. It implies you should feel ashamed about something that makes you happy and that’s BS, quite frankly. However, I feel like it sort of applies to my love of grey sweatpants/joggers/whatever. Comfort aside, I find something really aesthetically pleasing in their colour and shape but it’s almost impossible to wear them without looking like you’ve just got out of bed/the gym. I suspect it’s all in making sure the rest of you is flawless but I’ll be honest; this is not my area. Sportswear is a definite trend; Isabel Marant had tracksuit bottoms on the catwalk for 2012, albeit brightly coloured expensive ones and Topshop Unique’s take was gold lame. But it’s the boring, grey jogging bottoms that I love the most and I’ve managed to find some examples to show you what I’m talking about:
Saturday pants from J.Crew.
Superb styling from Saucy Glossie
Garance Dore
A google search brought up a lot of facebook groups aimed at slating this particular look and I’m sure a lot of you will be tutting, but…
I’ve spoken before about my occasional longing to chuck my entire wardrobe and confine it to montone basics*; if I was going to do this I’d probably do it with the Costume National pre-fall collection.
Those shoes! I need steel toe cap brother creepers in my life.
*I’m not going to, obviously. 1) It’s out of my price league and 2) I’d miss my weird mish mash of a wardrobe. Still, you gotta have dreams.
It’s been a while, so some of these links are a little old but I hope you enjoy them anyway!
I totally didn’t realise that Barry M was an actual until this interview.
Speaking of interviews in the Guardian, Benedict Cumberbatch seems to be a bit sad he hasn’t had children yet and I just really want to volunteer my services to the cause.
Sick of tumblr being full of 16 year old girls posting meaningless phrases over hillariously cliched instagramed pictures? Then you need this site.
I love this summary of an evolving style over 2011.
Microwaving stuff you probably shouldn’t microwave in the same of science.
Pretty fucking excited about the original threesome reforming, now that essentially any three girls in a room together at any time can claim to be the Sugababes.
I’m weirdly fascinated by what people carry around in their bags, and this post from Chuck is no exception.
I’m really enjoying following Penny Golightly’s guide to Jump Starting your January and it’s definitely making me feel better too.
I fancy making a January mood board, actually, like this one from Cartoon Heart.
I’ve started writing for Silence, Cupcake! now and you can read my first post on avoiding January sales remorse here. Check out Emma’s ways of saying Fuck Diet Talk too.
What have you been reading?
I’m often asked why I have an interest in fashion (mostly by people who maintain that they don’t). I find it offensive when it’s assumed I wouldn’t be into clothes because I’m ‘intelligent’ or ‘better than that’. Fashion is often seen as some sort of dumbed down, pointless enjoyment which is probably in no small way because it is still seen (outside of the fashion world) as something purely for women (hello misogyny). To those people I say: shut up. Following fashion does not mean that you blindly wear what a magazine tells you. It means that you get excited by new clothes in shops, by new ideas and new ways to express yourself through your outward appearance. I’ve banged on about this more than enough times before, but it’s still something that irks me.
I recently spoke to my friend Leo about this issue via twitter, and expressed my opinion that fashion is really just dressing up for grown-ups. Whether it’s the aspirational aspect of ‘If you wear this dress you will live an exciting glamorous lifestyle to match’ (which as we know is how pretty much all marketing works) or simply being inspired by something you saw on TV, one of the huge appeals of clothing to me is dressing up to create a character/persona. I briefly touched on it earlier in the week and it’s true; I get massively inspired by fictional characters. And I don’t just mean inspired by the style of a film, a tv show or a book (though of course that features heavily too), I mean being inspired by my love of one character. My love of empire line wedding gowns probably dates to my adoration of Emma Woodhouse and Lizzie Bennett and I once got my mum to make me a Tom Baker as Dr Who scarf (who doesn’t want to be a time lord?)
(still my icon tbh)
It’s not just fiction, but any ‘personality’. In music I spent a lot of my teenage years in velvet jackets due to Jarvis and in my early twenties my longing to be as cool as Kate Jackson from the Long Blondes had me in pencil skirts and berets. With the advent of blogging I found myself being massively influenced by their style too, in no small part due to the aspirational lifestyles their blogs featured I’m sure. When I first got into Gala Darling a few years back I found myself wearing a lot of pink sparkles and animal ears (cringe). It’s not being inspired just by someone’s style but being inspired by their entire lifestyle or personality. If you admire the way a fictional character or public figure acts and lives you probably want to copy them to some extent. At first I thought perhaps I was just hopelessly dissatisfied and desperate to be someone else but I think that perhaps we all do it to some extent. I’m pretty sure that we all want to be Lauren Laverne – I forsee a rise in sales of leopard print and babydoll nighties following her fashion columns in the Guardian.
(image from the Guardian)
I’m interested to see how other people feel about this. Do you actively dress to project an image or character (or is that me and my theatrical tendencies)? Are you influenced by any particular people or characters? Obviously I don’t get dressed every morning wondering who I’m going to be today but it does feature a lot and I do wonder how much other people feel the same.
And if you know of any books/literature that look at this please send it my way!
It’s been fairly obvious for a while that this blog isn’t a style blog but more a mish-mash of whatever’s in my head at the time. As much as I’d love to be a style blogger and my interest in fashion has never waned, there’s a few points that I always feel are holding me back.
(this is as close to an outfit photo as I come. I think you can see why I don’t bother)
A, I hate photographs of myself. I’m not comfortable in my own skin at the moment and most of my favorite clothes don’t fit me right now so I don’t feel much like displaying myself to the whole internet. Also, whenever I’ve posted pictures of myself before I’ve attracted various anonymous negative comments and it’s a bit much at the moment (although working on dealing with criticism is a pretty high priority for 2012). Apparently those negative anons haven’t noticed that I moderate comments before they’re posted, so they never go up. Yeah, censorship, whatever. B, I don’t really have a ‘personal style’. With most style bloggers, I can pick up on their style pretty quickly from a flick through their blog archives. Sarah wears pretty dresses, Harriet is ladylike and polished, Ellie does vintage, Queen Michelle wears ~edgy~ black and leather, Gala is all sparkly and bright. Total babe Amy tends to be more varied but always in a definitely fashion way. But me? I love the idea of having a defined ~style~ but in reality I bounce from look to look with very little holding it all together. These days I’m almost always in black and in my head I want streamlined, leather and a bit grunge but I can be anything from a borderline MPDG to harem pants to an 80s cocktail dress. I’m also at almost constant war with the side of my personality who just wants to wear science in joke t shirts and converse at all times (this side lives here). For me, getting dressed in the morning depends on my mood, what I’ve been reading or watching (yeah, sometimes I want to be a fictional character – more on this later in the week) or on a basic level, what’s clean. That having been said, I have a few sartorial aims this year; namely to tidy up my wardrobe of all the bits and pieces I don’t really love, to try and buy more secondhand and independent and to invest a little more in quality pieces (especially for ‘staples’)
I realise that with style blogs (just like reality tv) it’s all in the edit and bloggers aren’t really going to put up their slobby everyday outfits but I do feel like a coherent style is something I’m lacking. I’m also not sure if I really want one or I’m just feel like I should. What about you? Can you think of things that are uniquely ‘you’ or are you a bit of a mess like me?
My face, during party season
January is always filled with a massive sense of optimism, isn’t it? Even though we’re all feeling terrible from eating too much over the holidays, we’re back at work and we’re broke we all seem to feel like this is a new start, a clean slate. At least, I do. I’ve had endless hours of joy filling in the new sections of my filofax (sadly, I’m not joking) and planning all the amazing things I’m going to do this year. I’m going to be so organised, y’know.
For those of you who, like me, want to try and get your finances in order this year the money saving guru Penny Golightly is hosting a Jump Start January over on her blog which is a day by day guide to getting your cash straight. I’ve been following it and I feel more on top of things than I have in a long time.
Gala Darling is also providing inspiration on starting your new year with a bang; whatever you think of her, she never fails to give me a bit of a boost.
I’m really excited that I’m going to be contributing to Silence, Cupcake! run by my friend and one of my inspirations, Amelia. I’ve just sent off my first article for her editing delectation so I’ll obviously be pimping it out everywhere as soon as it’s up. I’m still writing for both Dork Adore and Agent2 so do check those out as well as Zeitgeist Tapes which is Ellie’s brilliant sideways look at popular culture. I’ve done one post for her and hopefully she’ll let me do more in the future too.
I’ve decided to take a photo everyday over on insta.gram, so if you want to see lots of pictures of cats and questionable purchases just add away (missbeliever there too, of course). I’m not doing the Jan Photo a Day series because I think we’ve all got enough letterboxes on our feeds already.
How is 2012 going for you so far? Are you feeling as unfailingly optimistic as I am?
2011 seems to have been a pretty terrible year for a lot of people I know, but in all honesty it was one of my best (bar some minor hiccups, but you don’t appreciate the good without the bad do you?). I finally felt settled in Kent and met some amazing people and did amazing things with them: book club (which has nearly been going a year now!), country rambles with jagerbombs and horses and scrumping, Lounge on the Farm, Sunday Club, parties with inflatable cacti, costumes and I really feel at home now having had some of the most fun of my life. I also went to a load of festivals and gigs, travelled abroad a lot, saw friends get married and have babies, see my writing actually start getting read, swam in the sea, set up my etsy store with mum (still a work in progress) and so many more things I can’t even think.
My main resolution this year was to start grabbing at opportunities with both hands and making my own chances, and I’m glad to say it’s paid off. I’ve been working hard on lots of thing and constantly trying to put myself forward and as a result I’ve done many things I’d never done before. As per usual, I volunteer myself for a lot more than I’m acually able to do and so in 2012 I hope to narrow my focus a little more. I’m also going to try and take care of myself a little better, attempt to organise myself a bit more and remember to eat breakfast. Exciting stuff eh? In terms of tangible goals, I’d like to knit an entire item of clothing, read 40 books (I have nearly met my goal of 30 this year, halfway through the thirtieth!) and watch 30 new films. This last one doesn’t seem like a lot when I have friends who literally watch hundreds a year, but I only managed about 20 this year so I don’t want to aim too high!
I also listened to a lot of great music this year (and I still haven’t fully caught up with all the years releases!). Special mentions to records from : Crystal Fighters, Wire, Summer Camp, Elbow, Nicola Roberts, Nicki Minaj, Alessi’s Ark, Daughter, Art Brut, Tom Williams and the Boat and lots more…
I also want to revamp my blog a little – it really isn’t remotely a style blog anymore but more a place to dump my ideas. As such, I have changed my subtitle from ‘Style Over Substance’ to ‘Enthusiastic about lots of stuff’ which is how a friend recently described me…
I hope you have had an excellent holiday season and I wish you all the best in the world for 2012. Cheers!
Ok, so despite the unexpected popularity of my post exposing the party season as the barrel of lies it really is, I’ve been really busy going to parties recently hence the drop off in posting. And if I’m not socialising I’m eating myself into a coma on the sofa with lebkuchen and trying to stop the cat from literally eating our (artificial) tree. Which is black, because my boyfriend wouldn’t let me have a pink one.
Anyway, I know everyone has done these but I really love reading them and stealing ideas, so here’s my list of Christmas desires. Obviously, my highly organisied series of Amazon wishlists were e-mailed out to the appropriate people months ago but just in case Santa is reading….
Hotel Chocolat Kirsch Cherries for Christmas morning snacking
How To Make Jewellery by Tatty Devine
The best album of the year by far
Awesomely geeky casio gold digital watch
A pink glittery star necklace please!
The Muppet Movie – I’m on a mission to replace all my Muppets films after someone borrowed them in 2nd year and never gave them back. That was 6 years ago.
My favorite Disney film ever, Beauty and the Beast
No Muppets lover should be without one of their OPI collection this Christmas and although I already own Rainbow Collection I’d love Excuse Moi too.
I have tons of mugs but always want more, and this scrabble mug would complement my words with friends addiction nicely
I’ve been lusting after a classic style Roberts DAB radio for such a long time now, but I never want to receive one big thing at Christmas because I like lots of little surprises. Because I am ten. Still, if somebody wants to send me this…
Skull snow globe! First seen at Furcoat and then in the flesh in Urban Outfitters, I want one so badly despite it’s total pointlessness.
Another mug, this time one that might sum up how I feel when drinking my coffee most Monday mornings.
Glittery skulls! Yes, they’re meant to be Christmas decorations but as I still have my pink one up from Halloween I think they can probably be an all year round household item.
I’ve wanted these mittens for a while and now they seem to be sold out. Oh santa, can you pull together some sort of Christmas miracle for me?
Finally, I would like a nail art pen so that I can create the leopard print nails I’ve been envying on just about every other blogger out there!
What are you hoping for from Santa this Christmas?
