gloomier days

The weather here . . . I'm not even going to waste any more words lamenting it. Boston is like rainy London sans the awesome English accent. We Bostonians do have our own accent, though, and I'm not sure if you've heard it before. If you haven't, you're lucky and really not missing out on anything remotely lovely. But if you're curious, imagine "car" as "cahhh" and "bar" as "bahhh." Lovely, yes? There are so many sunless days here, I might as well pack up my bags and relocate across the ocean.

Anyway, on days like this I also tend to wear dreary black, and lots of it too kind of like a vampire. I don't even need to shy away from the sun because there isn't any.

Wearing: Vintage silk Tiktiner blouse (note the velvet shoulder details!), American Apparel skirt, H&M bow sandal heels, Chanel purse with the equestrian charms from my Chloé Kerala bag, vintage necklace.

details in nature

There are three shows I wait for with anticipation every season: Givenchy, Lanvin and Jil Sander. They always set the mood for the coming months. I was very excited to see the Jil Sander S/S 2010 collection out and immediately read about the inspiration behind it, combed through all the pieces and details. Raf Simons mentioned how it was all about nature this season. The dresses and pumps looked like the peeling bark of birch trees, the detailed white voluminous shoulders reminded me of orchids, and the meshwork that appeared as pants and over dresses were reminiscent of spider webs. Even the rings reminded me of the quartz pebbles I used to look for in the woods as a child when I lived in Vancouver.

Completely inspiring. I'm still drooling over the details.

Mark October 1st on your calendar because that's when +J by Jil Sander finally drops in Uniqlo stores. The line includes trousers, jackets, button downs, cardigans and sweaters all in her signature minimalistic design. I love the austerity and sparsity, the shrunken collars, and the androgynous forms. I already have my eye on the wool trench and white button down oxford and the cashmere sweater for the boy. The perfect staples for Fall and onward. Too excited.

the softer edge

Anna J and COS. Couldn't get any better.

So this is what you get when you combine:

A bored girl
+
15 minutes of spare free time
+
Too many safety pins
+
Old tee
+
Scissors

Not too inspired nor even tremendously wearable, but my safety pinning skills have improved ten fold.

fashion shmasion

I have to say I haven't been too swept away with the Spring 2010 collections. Phi, Preen, Jill Stuart and Helmut Lang have been the only shows that have left a lasting impression on me thus far. I can see Phi's sinewy lingerie inspired dresses, Preen's corset girdles (which I admit to spending WAY too much time the other night looking for vintage versions of) and Jill Stuart's heavy 80s influenced pieces doing well and eventually trickling down to H&M and Zara. But that was New York. Now moving onto London. After some contemplation, I'm beginning to appreciate Burberry's show. Lots of ruffles, girlified (that's not a word, right?) trenches, ruching and mummy draping, and all in various pastel hues. All very pretty pretty. The only downer being I found the canvas belts and the Burberry plaid handbags immensely distracting as well as the hemlines being dangerously short (the dresses I selected here were the "longer" ones). Christopher Kane similarly played with a pastel colour palette but with mad amounts of plaid. Plaid never looked this feminine. Girls, prepare to wear plaid into the summer.

Eh, so in all in all, nothing too standout yet. I'm excited to see what unravels the next several days. What are your thoughts? Any favourites? I'd love to hear what you think.


Image source: Style.com

zinc

The marriage of metal and leather on these is just too perfect. Industrial, gritty, and bold. If I were the female version of Trent Reznor circa early 90s (disturbing imagery, I apologize), these would be on my feet. Available for pre-order on Oak here.

Also, congratulations to Jillian over at NovaStyle. She's been selected the winner of the ostrich feather trim DIY dress! My mind's been bustling with ideas, so more giveaways coming soon.

vintage goodness

I'm kind of going through a gaga for vintage phase (eh, not exactly a phase, it comes in waves, so more like poly-phases?). I was starting to feel a bit like a drone shopping at all those chain stores. It's too easy to dress head-to-toe H&M trend, which I must confess to doing a lot of lately. Doesn't make me feel like the most creative kid. I hopped on over to Etsy and found these beauties. I cannot wait to play around with these. I'm already envisioning these girly pieces contrasted with black tights or leather pants.

Clockwise left to right: [1] 1950s ruffled blouse (hrrm, wonder if it's really from the 50s) [2] 1970s J Tiktiner silk blouse with velvet sleeve details [3] same as 1 [4] vintage leather bucket purse (all from Etsy)

shake your feathers - part deux - the giveaway

I'm giving away this dress exclusively on Chictopia. I feel as if I've been neglecting the account and have only given my blog readers the giveaways. However, if you want to enter too, all you have to do is hop on over to Chictopia and stop by my profile here. Say hi, add me as a favourite, a friend, or throw tomatoes at me. The giveaway ends Monday at midnight, good luck!

shake your feathers

I hate it when the weather is gorgeous on a weekend, but I have to spend it nearly entirely indoors studying for exams. For lack of better words, POOP. Which is why before I locked myself up in my room, I just had to run some errands in a pretty dress, a DIY ostrich feather fringe dress I recently finished. I threw on a vintage vest, some black tights, and leather boots. The wind swept through the feathers as I walked . . . it was fantastic.

I'll be making a few more of these dresses since this one didn't turn out exactly how I had envisioned it (thus, I'm giving the one I'm wearing here away). Probably a white one and black one will be next and I'm thinking more plumage. Well, at least as much plumage as my overactive immune system and allergies can handle.

zombie part 2

H&M Trend white puffed sleeve shirt and Garbage Dress leather harnesses.

zombie

The gloomy days here always puts me in the mood for monochrome. My new H&M blouse was absolutely perfect. The instant I saw it in the store, I fell in love. The white cotton felt sterile, the cut minimalistic, and the sleeves were exaggerated and long dangling past the hem. The long sleeves landed far past my fingertips and were reminiscent of sleeves on a straight jacket--my absolute favourite part (I'm not trying to sound creepy!). Paired with my leather gloves, which I'm convinced I'll be wearing with everything as soon as it gets a little colder here, black trousers and leather boots, I had the perfect zany dark look.

I also started looking into some leather harnesses (again, not trying to sound creepy!) to wear with the shirt and other Fall looks. Of course I wasn't thinking and just typed in "leather harness" into Google search and ended up with some rather unsavory images. Ha, so don't do that. In the end, I found what I was looking for from Garbage Dress' store on Etsy. They are absolute beauties. Anyway, remember Meisel's editorial in Vogue Italia, "SuperMods Enter Rehab"? Sure it's from 2007, but zaniness is in for Fall. Well, at least for me. Insanity awaits.

dot the dots

I love these dotted tights. So I bought 3 packs. You know, it's like stocking up on canned goods before hurricane season.

shoe porn

So divine, it sends shivers down my spine.

Alas, sold out on Oak. Though probably a good thing too, since these probably cost as much as my darn education.

perspective

I've really been into mixing denim with leather and liberal amounts of black lately. I wear too much black anyway, but the denim really breaks up the black so well. The contrast is what appeals to me the most--light and dark, casual yet formal, playful yet somber. I guess I gravitate towards contradictions.

I'm wearing a black silk tank, denim vest, black blazer, opaque tights, denim cut-off shorts and a new pair of wedges. My boyfriend calls them "stilts." Stilts or not, they allowed me to safely stomp through puddles untouched by the water. My stilts: +1. His plimsolls: 0.

I also want to thank Blue is in Fashion this Year for featuring me here (alongside Fashion Toast, Kate Lanphear, Caroline's Mode, 4th and Bleeker, and Passe Partout just to name a few of the lovely ladies) and here. Kisses.

P.S. I've switched Twitter accounts for this blog. Follow me here for blog-related updates.

tweeting from new places

I've created an individual Twitter account for Phosphene. I find myself not updating my personal Twitter page very often, so I'm planning on slowly moving away from that one. Follow me here instead for new entries, DIY giveaways as they roll in, updates on what I ate for breakfast and other various droll but life-changing updates.

lucite

A very monochrome and minimalist day. Mainly I wanted to find a look simple enough to accessorize with my new lucite necklace from H&M. The necklace is huge and like a piece of art I'd expect to see at the MoMA or ICA. I knew a fussy outfit would've just been adding chaos. I also got a wonderful neck workout wearing it. There's nothing like working that platysma and SCMs after an exhausting day.

So, why all this acrylic talk? I'm actually pretty fascinated with acrylic in general. And before that, I had a short obsession with anything bakelite. During that phase, I wanted to make acrylic necklaces (and even acrylic furniture, like a coffee table). I realized that making the table was a little too ambitious--it would require buying large sheets of acrylic and bending them while hot with a strip heater element--so I looked into necklaces instead. All you probably need for that would be acrylic sheets and an acrylic knife (score and break). If you're interested in making lucite goodness, check out TAP Plastics which I especially liked for their variety in supplies and instructional videos. Good luck!

c is for cookie, that's good enough for me

Congrats to Amnesiac over at Chictopia, the winner of the rhinestone spike bracelet! I also have 2 other DIYs that I've been meaning to ship out (you know who you are). They're already wrapped up, but I haven't made the trek to the post office yet. I feel like cookie monster hogging up all the cookies. No worries, this will change. To the other lovely readers, more giveaways to come. I leave you with my favourite image of the moment.

image source: tfs

dark moves

I wasn't able to fall asleep last night so I finally got around to a mini-project I had in mind, a strong-shouldered fringe dress. Of course, my boyfriend just had to wake up before sunrise, perfect timing to see me sitting in the dark feverishly sewing shoulder pads and fringe onto a dress. Love is about accepting minor episodes of insanity.

Some readers have already asked me how I got the shoulder pads and fringe on. First, I placed the shoulder pads where I wanted them on the dress. After pinning them in place, I sewed them down. I then placed fringe around the seam between the shoulder and sleeve, pinned it down and sewed. Add more fringe further down the sleeve for more volume.

Hopefully that all made sense. This brings to mind a silly piece of art I saw online from a pretty prominent graphic designer (of course his name has slipped my mind). The picture is titled, "How to draw a chicken." Step 1 was to draw a circle for the head and another one for the body. Step 2 was an elaborate pencil sketch of an anatomically correct chicken. Haha. I bring this up because I feel I may have lost some of you in the steps. If that's the case, just ask and I'll be glad to clarify.

cold weld

Remember that I made this bracelet a few months ago? I actually had leftover materials from that project and made a second one (shown above) that's just been sitting around on a table in the closet. I dusted it off today and wore it, but what's the point of having two? I'm giving this one away, so don't be shy, say hi and I'll select a winner.

Since people have asked me how I make some of my pieces, I'll also throw in a tip. It's not hard and you don't need much equipment either. Originally I thought I had to solder everything together, but an easier alternative is cold welding. I hopped over to the hardware store, had a conversation/debate regarding the best cold welding materials and epoxies with the salespeople and walked out with JB Weld. Sure, it's not as refined as the almighty solder, but if it's good enough for "mechanics, farmers, homemakers," at least according to the packaging, it better be good enough for a DIY!

Make some bracelets, fix a tractor axle.

poor man's givenchy diy

I fell in love with the Givenchy FW 2009 collection. It was animalistic, dramatic, emotional, and what I thought to be one of the most inspiring collections that season. I especially loved the lace dresses with the burgundy and blue shoulder pads peeking through the delicate lace. They were magical.

So, what’s a gal to do? I made my own—vintage lace with burgundy shoulder pads sewn into the shoulders and finished off with a nude belt. It took me roughly 3 days of interrupted episodes of work to get it done and I'm so glad it took fairly quickly, because I wore it out today and IT.WAS.COLD. Any slower, I wouldn't have had the chance to wear it.

More DIYs to come.