Books Galore

Normally at Christmas I will get one main present, generally something electronic i.e. 2009 I got an ipod touch, 2007 I got my laptop. But last year there wasn't really anything major that I wanted, so I mentioned to mum that I wanted to build up a sort of mini library of fashion and art books in order to learn more about the historical side of fashion and use them as references. In the end they bought me six, which is definitely more than I had expected! Shopping for Vintage is a great book; the first half gives you some info about style through the decades and the designers associated with them, accompanied by some beautiful illustrations, and the second half is basically a directory of loads of vintage stores and fairs throughout the UK, Europe and the US. In other words, if you're going anywhere at all then you can look in this book and you're likely to find a list of all the vintage places in the area. Super useful!

Vogue Fashion is another one which is really interesting, this one goes into more detail about the fashion from each decade since 1900 so it's really useful to get some background info.

Alexander McQueen- Genuis of a Generation is full of beautiful images from his collections, though not of every garment (shame!). There are also little bits explaining his inspirations for each collection, and a bit at the beginning about his life and his relationship with Isabella Blow. Definitely one of my favourite books- I've spent hours just looking at the pictures already.

Vivienne Westwood has the most beautiful cover out of all the books, not just because of the awesome colourful photo but because it's so smooth and shiny- just everything about it is appealing! The content it quite similar to the Alexander McQueen book in that it's full of photos of her collections and inspirations, and is equally interesting.

British Textiles isn't about fashion as such, but is full of photos of various different fabrics from a collection at the V&A (I think). Lots of pretty prints and patterns, and though I haven't looked through it properly yet it definitely looks like it'll be a great reference book!

Morris by himself is another which I haven't looked through properly yet, but this one is less of a picture book and there's more writing actually explaining the patterns, his life, and his inspirations.

The Alexander McQueen book is full of beautiful photos from his collections, and this is definitely amongst my favourites- I would love to get married wearing this dress, headpiece and all! I stumbled across a photo of Mary- Kate Olsen (I think?) wearing this dress with dark lipstick in a really old magazine the other day, but I think it looks better in the book because she was quite hunched over and sort of looked more old and vampire-y (not in a hot way) than it did elegant.

On another note, do you think the dark background of my blog is a bit too.....dark?! I don't mind it too much but I was thinking that it might look more appealing if I changed it to a white background and did some sort of illustration to use as a new header. What do you guys think?

Some New Resolutions

• actually comment on people's blog posts, rather than just reading them. Because I began reading blogs long before creating my own I was never able to comment, so now it rarely even enters my mind even though I often see posts I love!


• do not eat too much before march, so that I still fit in my dress for the school ball. It's 80's vintage and only just fits really because of my massive hips so I can't afford to put on any weight, haha.


• save up money for uni, or to invest in a designer handbag or small accessory. By the way, I read something on tumblr today where someone said she only owned four designer items, then listed them as being from Hollister, Abercombie and Fitch, and Joules. I had considered these to all be high street shops- albeit more expensive ones?!


• do more photoshoots on film, including ones in a garden centre and in a car park.


• don't fail my AS levels!

Have a great year everyone :)

Get Yourself Together

A couple of months ago my mum was reading Red magazine and there was a feature about making mood boards to find out more about yourself, or something along those lines. Basically the idea is to go through magazines and tear out any images which appeal to you, even if you aren't sure why. But you have to make sure it's not just a shopping list, because apparently that won't help you at all and will just put you down.
So, me and mum gave it a go, and it's much harder than it sounds! I could go through about three magazines in a row without seeing anything I liked the look of, which did get a bit annoying in the end and I did tear out a few photos which I didn't really love, just because I thought I was being too picky. The hardest part was trying not to just pick out pictures of clothes you like, because that's not what it's about- but clothes are the main thing I like! I think in the end I managed to limit myself pretty well, and i'm really pleased with how it looks in the end. Mum never finished hers, but mine now hangs on the wall in my room beneath my pinboard.
A major 'trend' on my board seems to be patterns, especially florals and William Morris/ Liberty ones. Obviously I had to include the Daisy Lowe image because she's just stunning, although i'm not sure why I liked the picture of the model in the yellow dress because I hate yellow clothes. I think it's the detail around the neck which appealed to me. The little image of the rabbit in the top right is really cute too; it was this person who bought various pocket watches and then put little illustrations in them. If I ever see a pretty pocket watch for a decent price then I think it would definitely be a fun thing to trySorry about the photo, I know it's hard to see much detail on it. I did take four close- ups but whenever I try and put them into this post it rotates them for some reason? They're the right way round in my pictures, weird! Hopefully you can see all of the smaller photos too though, like the stack of teacups and especially those shoes and socks at the bottom- that's my favourite image of the whole thing!

edit: if you click on the image you can see it bigger to get all the detail. If you're wondering about the chickens, it's because I have six pet chickens and those are my favourite breed. We don't have any of those ourselves though because they're huuuge!