My Personal Style Resolutions #8: Things I Fell In Love With Today

LolaDee is a crafty blogger and broadcasting student, with a love of vintage, photographs, personal style and pretty things who blogs about the things she falls in love with every day.

As I write this I'm drowning in a sea of shoes, dresses and a ridiculous amount of tights, in an attempt to de-clutter my wardrobe in time for the new year. I'm one of those freaks who lives by making lists, so this time of year is definitely my comfort-zone. Here are my personal style resolutions (these come sub-categorised under 'NY Resolutions: The Beautify-Me Part' in my resolutions list - because yes, my lists do have sub-categories... I did mention I'm a freak).

1. Dust off the sewing machine...
...that I bought this year with high hopes and subsequently never used, find some cute fabric and make, make, make! I've always wanted to make my own clothes and the new year seems like the perfect excuse. With my slightly (or, very) empty pockets and more time on my hands to create my own designs, I will be having fun drawing inspiration from high-street trends fused with vintage classics. Or at least that's the plan... I'm sure I will blog about the successes, but more often than that (probably) the many disasters.

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2. Charity shops
Once again, taking inspiration from my weightless pockets, I will be regularly venturing into Cork's fine selection of charity shops, to find homeless - lufflies at cheap prices and also so I can stand on the moral high-ground for a few minutes in the knowledge that my well-spent money will in fact make a difference to someone somewhere.

3. Vintage
When I'm not making my own clothes or scoring bargains in charity shops, I hope to find some timeless treasures in some of Cork's vintage shops or online. I see good vintage as a worthy investment because if its lasted this long already, it will probably serve me well also. That and the fact that its unique and more often than not, completely adorable.

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4. Wardrobe Remix
Finally, I want to make better and more versatile use of the clothes that I have. Lets face it, everyone's broke, so now the real fun is to be had in mixing and matching outfits based on what we already have and how we can accessorise to make them work for the season that's in it. If Sheena Matheiken of the Uniform Project can wear one dress every day for a year and still look amazing, then I think I can manage to make better use of my own wardrobe. Something tells me that this might call for a series of 'Wardrobe Remix' posts on the blog, which sounds like a fun challenge to me!


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Thanks to Sarah for inviting me to post my personal style resolutions Have a wonderful 2011. I hope to see you stop by my blog in the new year.

LolaDee xoxo



Blog: http://www.loladee.com/

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I Heart De Geuzen

There's not really much that I can say about De Geuzen, because when I try to explain it I end up going in circles and confusing myself  The website itself is a bit like peeling an onion, but with much less crying. Every time I click into a section, there's something within it to explore, then another thing, then another thing...  But I can say this much:

 - They are three women working together on a project basis and can be found at www.geuzen.org .
 - The Geuzen website is a smorgasbord of interesting, interactive bits and bobs that engage and encourage people to think about feminism, fashion, art and communication.
 - My favourite part of the website is the DIY section, where you can find instructions for such useful things as popcorn cones to your own temporary library.
 - My favourite item in the DIY section (see why I keep getting so confused?) is the paper dress.  This isn't your average paper dress though (if there is such a thing as an average paper dress).  This is part of the De Geuzen Uniform Series.  According to De Geuzen;

"The Uniform Series is a developing line of identity apparel uniquely tailored for De Geuzen. Negotiating the border between guise and disguise the garments suit a plethora of identities and a multitude of occasions. Seen as a whole, the outfits constitute a set of Geuzen vows.

Made in collaboration with fashion designer Margreeth Olsthoorn, this uniform is constructed from a paper pattern. Accompanied by step by step sewing instructions, the pattern requires a knowledge of subtle engineering and basic handy craft. The uniforms come in three different styles (Model Femke, Model Renée, and Model Riek) and promote a 'do-it-yourself' work ethic.

Crisp and tailored, all three garments combine amazon armor aesthetics with origami know-how."

This is the third effort in their Uniform Series.  Keep it white and it's an austere, clean uniform.  Scribble over it with felt-tips however, and it's a different proposition - an ability to subvert a uniform into a totally different thing altogether.

Maybe when I have the inclination and resources to do this DIY* I'll take my cue from last year's Grayson Perry collaboration with Liberty on their series of art fabrics. Maybe spice up a floral print with some dolls, gravestones machine guns, and damned-soul-ish face-type scribblings.

Grayson Perry for Liberty - images from Clothkits 

*Which is never, because I'm one of those people who makes all sorts of grand crafting plans but never ever gets around to sticking Tab A to Fold B.  It's a curse.

The best word in the world

Mamihlapinatapai - a look shared by two people with each wishing that the other will initiate something that both desire but which neither one wants to start.

For example, there is a definite mamihlapinatapai between myself and this €3,600 Moschino jacket.  I get the feeling it's only a matter of time before someone DIYs one of these bad boys.

L-R Photo by Tom Munro for Elle, Jacket and catwalk pic @ Net A Porter 

Is the Blog the modern equivalent of the Zine?

Many apologies.  If your computer is anything like mine, it may be crashing right now under the weight of such an image heavy-post.

Below, in all it's monochromatic, gritty glory is 1977 punk Zine How To Look Punk, which I found via a very interesting post on subculture and commodity at Threadbared (well worth a short click). 

I couldn't possibly add to their intelligent post in terms of the regimenting of punk style in a recognisable, homogenous format.  The zine itself is a fascinating peep into a whole world I was way too young for (and who knew you needed to wear two shades of blusher to be truly punk?).  It makes me want to create a whole new category on the blog called 'shit you can do with safety pins'.

But I'm steaming steadily off topic.  The boom of zines in the fifties to the nineties covers a realm of subcultures from sci-fi to punk to crafting to the riot girrl movement.  This begs the question - is fashion blogging the new subcultural topic - is blogging the 21st century equivalent of the zine?

So...here's a few correlations that you may or may not agree with

1)  Ease of publishing and distribution.  My granny can see about eighteen inches in front of her face and calls me by my younger sister's name but if I popped a computer in front of her she'd probably be able to figure out how to start a blog.  Likewise, zines have a DIY ethic that, while more traditionally hands on, still requires no financial backers, little or no start-up costs and a distribution network that relies more on word of mouth (for example, sending an SAE to an address with a nominal amount in it and receiving your zine in the post a few days later, an approach also used with cassette clubs in the late 70s and early 80s) than advertising proper.
2) A saturated market.  You could see Style Bubble as the fash blog equivalent of Sniffin' Glue.  Cultish and standalone at first, the existence of one good blog (or zine) will spawn a proliferation of similarly themed blogs.  Like zines, some blogs are excellent but not as widely-read as they deserve to be.  Similarly, some blogs are total dross and attract huge readerships due in part to the profile of the blogger him/herself and not strictly the body of work.
3)  Existence in an archival hinterland.  It's nigh on impossible to catalogue the number of fashion blogs and properly archive them for future viewing, just as there is no definite index of zines.  One gets the feeling that a large part of a subcultures history has been pre-emptively burnt away due to the difficulty of properly indexing blogs or zines (although there is a good archive of punk music zines here).
4) A singular fascination with one topic.  It's been observed by more than a few fashion bloggers that fashion has become less related just to the clothes that a person wears than a full time hobby.  Fashion and perhaps more importantly, personal style as a form of creative expression has become more of a subject of obsession (this may be due in part to the internet and the ready availability of information that would more commonly be found in libraries of scholarly texts).  A zine will generally focus on a very specific issue.

And a note for the future - will blogs be compiled into books - books that may go out of print and end up commanding astronomical prices, an ironic counterpoint to it's initial accessibility and low/no price point?  New copies of the book compilation of Sniffin Glue now cost around 100 euro...

Marie Antoinette Shoe Lust

Ah Marie Antoinette. All style, little substance (from what we're led to believe; personally I think the woman wasn't exactly expected to be an intellectual giant - so she probably just made the best of a bad situation with the naiveté of a teenage girl). With terrible, incredibly badly timed consequences.



Above is a clip from the Sophia Coppola decadence porn/historical biopic snoozefest Marie Antoinette. But wait, what's that? Could that possibly be... no, surely not... a lilac pair of Converse?

Yep, I know it's deliberate. Excuse me for being obnoxious, but Marie Antoinette can keep her Cons. I want a pair of the ostentatiously frilled, pastel pretty shoes in that there film. Or in the spirit of Marie Antoinette herself, I'll just take them all, thanks.

Even though the kitten heel is ostensibly 'back'  (Where did it go?  Was it on holidays?) I somehow don't think that Manolo Blahnik will be reissuing any of his designs for the film and that L.C.P de Pompei, the costume designers for the film, probably won't entertain my order for one pair of shoes.  Ho hum.

However, a quick search on Etsy reveals not one but two stores that repurpose gently worn court shoes and make them acceptably eighteenth century.  It's an odd cycle of history repeating itself - 80's court shoes are named after shoes not unlike those worn by courtiers.  Through the addition of embellishments, the shoe eventually devolves back into it's original self.

Marie Antoinette shoes from 4 My Favourite Things 

Marie Antoinette Shoes from Oxford Heaven

The shoes are at very reasonable price points - Oxford Heaven even does custom orders.  Unfortunately, not only do I not have a Manolo budget, I don't even have an Etsy budget.  Sigh.

Probably my favourite post ever.

Forever in Blue jeans
Originally posted on 30/07/09


Now that we're in a capital R Recession, nostalgia seems to have become a more highly coveted commodity than crude oil. Nothings more zeitgeisty now than pulling together, having an allotment and darning your socks with Brillo Pads or somesuch, because apparently we are now living during the Blitz and having to deal with the Horrid Hun and V2 rockets, and not in actuality having to deal with 15% pay cuts and having to buy cheap plonk and prosciutto. I'm being facetious of course.
In some ways it's probably a return to the norm (perhaps not the darning socks with Brillo Pads bit though...) because we all - yes, I do mean everyone - seem to have become supremely wasteful. Why make your own stuff; it'll take you hours that would otherwise be better spent on watching America's Next Top Model and eating bean burritos*, when you could pop down to Penneys/Primark and pick up a cocktail dress for three euros**? What everyone, me included, seems to forget is that people used to make their own stuff. This isn't meant to be a guilt trip by any means, but imagine what a happy place the world could be - recycling, individuality, holding hands under the rainbow, yurts, drum circles and so on - if we actually did.

A lot of books have been released on the grounds of this newfound Saving The World nostalgia in regards to fashion and clothing, notably Sew and Save and Make Do and Mend, which are reissued facsimile copies of the original 1940's booklets (see what I mean about the Blitz?). Another slightly less obvious example is the revival of the Jackie Annual. Do you remember being a kid and reading Bunty, Judy or Mandy magazine, with it's photostories about having your first kiss, and advice on how to wear make-up without your parents getting mad at you? Jackie and it's rival Blue Jeans (about which I can find virtually nothing) stopped being published in the early nineties and are as a rule a wee bit before my time. However, I was saved by an industrious granny who would bring me back annuals from local charity shops, along with less welcome things, such as encyclopedia indexes and copies of Stephen Hawking's A Brief History Of Time. I started collecting at eleven and stopped at fourteen. I think at one point I must have had about seventy to eighty annuals, including a much loved Monkees Annual from 1965 and a copy of another annual called Misty, which published exclusively horror stories about witches and magical yet vengeful trees and highwaymen hanging from gibbets. As you can probably tell, I wasn't the most popular kid in primary school.

This is my 1981 Blue Jeans annual, in case you couldn't tell for whatever reason.When I was younger I was much more enthralled with the Buster Bloodvessel interviews and frankly ridiculous photostories involving women who steal babies because they are grieving for a lost loved one, and the girl always ends up with a broken heart after her boyfriend dies in a motorcycle smash up cum race in a bid to buy her an engagement ring that the real, practical bits. In a way, Blue Jeans ruined my life because I was convinced that I'd be euphorically married at seventeen, and even if I wasn't, I would have a sizeable collection of zazzy headbands to make up for it.

But I digress. Now that I'm older and wiser, I'm much more taken in by the sheer amount of sewing that these girls had to do in between holding minor clerical jobs and crimping their hair. For example, this beauty...

It's Quicker by Tube'. Worra pun. Ok, so this may look a bit childish, but I can't help but wonder what would happen if the gold and silver snakes weren't worn as jewellery but instead used to add texture to clothes. Over the material = instant 3D stripes. Under the body = a mad textured effect. It's make and do piping and you can wear it around your neck! The sausages are great too. I'd love to make a few of these longer and in really dark, muted Winter colours - forest green, midnight blue, cranberry and so on - and pile them over an otherwise boring outfit, hopefully in a way that wouldn't make my head look like a christmas pudding. It reminds me very much of some of the Sonia by Sonia Rykiel A/W '09-'10 knits that had textured piping placed underneath the wool and twisted into three-dimensional bows that are slightly disconcerting and cool at the same time.  I'm a super sucker for 3D and novelty knits; it's the wee kid in me that does it.  Ahem, anyway, on to the next point...

If I had any handbag in the world, it would probably be a Chanel 2.55, because I'm generic that way. However, I shall never get my hands on one, unless I suddenly get more money than sense (not looking likely judging by the negative figures bank statement) or mug an Olsen twin (would be a bit counterproductive as I would have to buy plane fare to New York). However, Blue Jeans has evidently saved the day by providing it's own instructions on how to make a quilted bag of your very own. Hallelujah! Actually, it's not a bad idea. You could make some very badass colour combinations, or at least contrive to make the art of combining colours as badass as it possibly can be. Grey and bright yellow spring to mind - ooh, and a few pyramid studs to really add a contrast.

I'm still a bit of a novice at throwing an outfit together. As a rule of thumb, if it doesn't go with jeans and black Converse, then it's officially a bit scary and sits at the back of the wardrobe or on the floor. I am trying to break outside the norm though - with mixed results. So it was with trepidation that I looked at the Fashion Workshop below. I didn't really fancy sewing shoulder pads into my t-shirts. Oh how wrong I was. This double page (lovingly scanned and merged by the boyfriend - ta hon) combine stuff I really should have thought of - military buttons, d'oh - with slightly more consciously 'retro' stuff, like painting Mondrian-esque lines on your jumper and instructions on how to make those Cleopatra snake armbands. The text is obviously teeny, but the files are quite large so you should be able to zoom in.

*That might just be me.
**Again, that might just be me.

If the shoe fits...

This is one of my favourite posts from the old blog...
If you're the kind of person who feels sick at the sight of a person's bare feet (and there's more of them than you'd think) perhaps you shouldn't look any further.


I was promised a new pair of shoes. What I got was this... It took my best friend A more than an hour to painstakingly draw in all the aspects of an Adidas Predator (am I right?) soccer boot on my feet. Next time a pair of Ann D's I think. It's the only way I'll get my hands on a pair.

I love my new boots so much - I might just keep them. Below are some detail shots. Apologies for the poor quality. The photos were taken with my awful camera phone and the lighting was a shaky bedside lamp, resulting in overly-dramatic shadows.





My favourite part is the stud detail (though that was the tickliest to have done).