Monday 22 December 2014

The Burbs -How to DIY a Burberry Prorsum Hand Painted Cropped Jacket


Heritage meets hand-painting for the ultimate luxury winter staple.


You will need

A suede jacket (faux suede might work - I jammily inherited a vintage sheepskin number so I wouldn't know!)

  • Pink.
  • Dark green.
  • Brown.
  • Lime green.

Difficulty



Easy-Moderate

Depending on the design you use and your fabric painting skills (I'd rate the design I did as moderate but if you were to simplify it, the painting itself is very straightforward).

Time

1-2 hours per side.

Paint your swag on


I was going to illustrate the stages in gif form but, since my computer appears to be getting a little bit too much into the holiday spirit - that is to say well into 'can't be arsed' mode - I've decided to illustrate my various painting stages in video mode. Nevertheless, enjoy!





Sunday 14 December 2014

Re-Tweed - Another way to customise trainers in the style of Chanel


So good, I plagiarised them twice!

Sneaker (see more tweed shoes)


'Tis the season for sentimental retrospectives as we pore over the pop cultural profferings that set 2014 apart. In a year that gave tomboyish comfort items wardrobe staple status, there was arguably not one so distinctive as the artistic trainer trend - a must for she who shoots her street style snaps on a bicycle and gets a kick out of colourful customisation. I might have tried it before but I had to go back for one more try.


You will need...

 

Not pictured

Neon yellow and green acrylic paint.

Clear lacquer or a similar fixative.

Difficulty



Very easy

The main reason why I revisited this trend in DIY form was to find a method that was easier (still) than my last attempt and I'd definitely say that this project met that criterion.



Time

1-2 hours.



Get your tweed on



Paint the soles in neon yellow and green and fix with clear lacquer once the paint has dried. 


Use craft mount to attach your tweed fabric. I used mine to cover the cushioned areas. If you find that the edges are a bit loose, you can tidy them up with a glue gun.
Paint the remaining panels in gold and silver.

Simple as





Monday 8 December 2014

Hippie hippie chic - How to DIY a Creatures of the Wind fringed necklace







Next spring is set to take fashion deeper into the 70s from cut and colour palette pastiche to the earthy, bohemian whimsy of hippie paradigms, from fringing to tie-dye and folk-inspired patchwork. It definitely captures the kaleidoscopic haze of the 'me decade' with its characteristic nod to crafty detailing and ethereally chaotic mix-and-match styling, so of course it would have me beavering away at my desk with any trims, fabrics and quirky embellishments I could find - it'd be rude of me not to!


You will need


I used faux leather in red, yellow, two shades of grey (no more needed, thank you), teal, light blue, white and black. I'd recommend sniffing around eBay or your local market for inexpensive samples.

Not pictured

Needle and black thread

Sewing machine with a leather needle - alternatively, if you don't have one or aren't too confident in the company of such an item, you can just as easily use a stapler.


Difficulty



Quite easy

It is fiddly, it does take a bit of care, technique and love but categorically I can't find anything too challenging here.


Time

Now for the bad news. Against my earlier expectations, this one turned out to be a 6-hour project.


You wanna be a hippie?



Cut a piece of black leather that's 8x20cm. Fold it over by 1cm at the top and  either glue it in place with craft mount or sew it along the edge if you're using a machine to fix it in place.

Cut a piece of grey leather measuring 6x20cm and stick it in place across the bottom using craft mount.



Sew or staple the fringing to the back of the faux leather. Don't worry about staples or stitches showing, as we'll soon be covering these up with fringing.


Starting at the bottom cut some coloured faux leather pieces and attach them where you would like them to go. I'd recommend cutting them in a trapezium shape that flares outwards at the bottom.


Cut the pieces into fringing, making the strips as fine as you can - no more than 5mm in width. If you're cutting trapezium shapes like I suggested, cut them so that they flare diagonally outwards. Add more colours as you move up the grey base and try messing some pieces about by tousling them with your fingers.


Once you have made your fringing design, cut two equal lengths of ribbon that fit around your neck and can be easily tied in a bow. Attach them and hand stitch some black gems onto them.



Thursday 4 December 2014

#TBT - Lace and lashes

Only catwalk models need appliqué?


My search for festive styling inspiration left me bitten by the millennium bug of Lancome's Instinct fragrance campaign from way back in 2000 (yes, I'm aware that through those few words I've just shown my age, but hopefully I've done so gracefully).

Devilishly dramatic was the order of this upcoming festive season, so far as I was concerned. You might have noticed from certain other recent posts that I'm all for a little experimenting with fabric appliqué on makeup and when it's so easy with eyelash glue, why not?

I wanted something quirky but kept to a single fabric and a limited colour palette, to avoid detraction from the outfit in question, or onlookers uttering words to the effect of "Yes, Black Swan was a great film but Halloween was over a month ago!" Fabric makeup appliqué made a brief appearance in the intervening 14 years since my inspiration, in Chanel's spring 2013 shows, again, with a monochrome colour scheme and delicate application of mesh.


Difficulty



Very easy


Time

About 20 minutes.

I started with a cheeky lick of eyeliner along the eyelids and some generously-applied mascara. I then covered my eyelids and inside of my eye sockets with a frame of black eye shadow. I used a brush to smudge the eye shadow slightly in the outside corners. Finally, I added a thin sliver of silver eye shadow to my eyelids to add definition (mind screw of a sentence, notwithstanding) and made the brave step of applying the lace along my eyebrows with eyelash glue. Incidentally, if you're wondering how such a thing is removed without an unintentionally botched eyebrow wax, I'd definitely recommend using cleanser or an equivalent for dissolving the glue first.


Use the darkest dark purple lip liner you can find for the outline and slick some pink liner along the inside of your lower lip, then, add a deep berry or plum and cover your lips with clear gloss. You can also use liquid eye liner to add the beauty spot if it's the real McCoy you're going for. Dust the underside of your cheekbones with a rose blusher.







Monday 1 December 2014

Cyber Monday chic



For those of you who were expecting some kind of merchandise sale or giveaway for when this inevitably pops up on my various social media pages, begging your pardons I remain. It just seemed fitting - and perchance fate - that on a day when I decided to debut yesterday's space age-style iridescent top with my saucer-like leather peter pan collar and geometric black appliqué jeans (not pictured) it turned out to be on a day they call Cyber Monday. By 'they' I don't just mean our dear friends from across the pond but a great number of us, albeit in aid of a sequence of events we borrowed from there. I speak, of course, of Thanksgiving and the infamous Black Friday. Regarding the former, if I were to steal any event from another country, it would probably be the Vietnamese Moon Festival, especially if it's adopted in the usual superficial aesthetic and culinary style we're known to love - it's pretty! As for the latter, forgive the lack of imagination but it's Black Friday, with its hypocritical premise and obscene savagery of jostling for clearance-standard goods  that should have stayed well and truly put, whatever its commercial or (perish the thought) cultural potential here.

Cyber Monday makes substantially more sense. Accomplishing as much shopping - particularly gift shopping - as is humanly possible in the Zen calm of your lounge or bedroom is infinitely more advisable for your sanity and mental wellbeing. You get a full ten square feet to yourself, it's quiet, it's clean (well, you know what I mean), you're not actively tussling with anyone for the item you've set your heart on and the biggest stress you're likely to encounter is remembering usernames and passwords. It contrasts brilliantly with the claustrophobic pressure cooker presented by its real-world equivalent. Streets and shopping centres are like mosh pits but without the live music, and with frazzled throngs in place of enthusiastic fan camaraderie. It's the antiquated strain (NB: operative word) of shopping where you race against the clock in a collision course of pavement parkour around slow-moving pavement blockers and toddlers who insist, to the chagrin of their exasperated mothers, on straddling footpaths twice their size, eyes too transfixed by the window displays to notice the snarl-up of raging pedestrians in their wake.

Yes, I know Black Friday sales can take place online but, just to clear up any discrepancies in my observation to all pedants, the pleasure of Cyber Monday sales is hinted in the title. So, please, seek bargains in a distraction-free room, through a medium where you can read spec in full and scan for rip-off potential before buying.

Just to wrap this up and salvage it from the diaristic, off-topic rant that it has become, my love of all things cyber has been expressed and I fancy I have dressed aptly for the occasion. Hopefully, you'd agree.