Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Flapper flipper



'Prohibition' theme this Saturday.
Nicely timed video for inspiration.
Via Vogue Paris

Fafilicious

Fafi sketch for her latest wall art in Mexico.
Via Fafi's blog on CoolCats.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Astro Taureau

Siri Tollerod as 'the bull' in Dolce & Gabbana, featured in UK Vogue Dec 2010.

Photography: Tim Gutt
Styling: Kate Phelan
Set design: Shona Heath
Via

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Paris vs New York

La Romantique

Le Café

Le Réalisateur

Artwork by Vahram Muratyan of Viiiz design studio. A Parisian living in New York City.
Paris vs New York site

New Cuts

Your Job, 2010, Rob Ryan

New work by amazing paper artist Rob Ryan, part of the series entitled The Stars Shine All Day Too.
Jusqu'a November 20 at The Air Gallery, 32 Dover St, London.
Via

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Boater beauty

Pic from Seafolly archives c/o Russh

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Mad Hatter


Strolled past this store on Rue de Rivoli today, took the obligatory photo out front, posted it on facebook via the blancberry, and meandered away dreaming of having one of theses hat boxes sitting on top of my wardrobe.
Then Scott takes a photo and posts it the same day that I've walked past.
You like this.


(FYI-my surname is 'Bate'. And I was wearing my new chapeau not dissimilar to the 'Newbury' above at the time.)

Embrace the ridiculous

"Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring."

- Marilyn Monroe

Arlecchino

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Inez Van Lamsweerde

Inez Van Lamsweerde.
Front cover of the latest 'the gentlewoman' magazine.
Wearing a moustache.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Wardrobe Emesis

I love this. Not each individual item, per se, but how the entire ensemble has been thrown together in a very "I love this, and this, and this, and now cross your fingers and let's hope it works" kinda way. Of course it works. For her. She's Taylor Tomasi Hill.

You can't get away with dressing like this here. Not without being stared at. The fact that I am un-Gallic in every sense of my being means I've noticed, and since become accustomed to, the staring, which the French are very good at I might add. Add to this the fact that I throw on what ever hat, shoe, jumper, short, dress etc that takes my fancy, and do not conform to the navy suede ankle-height 1 1/2 inch lace-up boot, gray skinny jean, long-sleeve stripe tee, gray knit, navy pea-coat/ trench ensemble that all French girls adopt as their unofficial street uniform, I scream expat. And the staring continues...

At the beginning I tried to conform. I didn't want to be considered an outsider. I wanted people to think I was a local and one of them. I wore stripes, a beret, sometimes, shamelessly at the same time! But I was naive. Because I'm not French. Nor should I want to be. Even my darling flatmate, who is French, reminds me, when I am spoken to in English without being prompted - "People know you are not French". "How?" I ask. "Because you don't look French". But, HOW?! I don't live in China, or Africa, where the exterior features of the people there are quite clearly different to my Anglo make-up and it is quite obvious I am from a different part of the world. No, they know.
Like an inbuilt 'Gaul-dar', they know.
And, so, I stopped trying. I wear what I want. Yes, I sometimes look absolutely ridiculous. Yes, I am an outsider. No, I am not English, or American, but yes, I am not from here. I stopped caring. The staring doesn't phase me any longer. And I'm happier.

'Wardrobe Emesis' is, and kind of always has been, my dressing mantra. I buy clothes I like. Not in any one particular style, genre, type, designer (although if I had the funds I wouldn't hold back on an entire wardrobe of Wang). And then I wear them. And cross my fingers it works. Sometimes I strike gold, most times I don't, but always I don't care.

My realisation of this came one day when I decided to wear to work white Converse sneakers, black tights, a black baby-doll bubble-skirted viscose-jersey halter-neck dress, with an "I heart NY" tee-shirt underneath. They were the favourite pieces from my wardrobe at the time. I thought it worked. My very minimalisticly chic co-worker/ best friend didn't. I received a finger-waving "Please, explain" from her, and the internal questioning about conformity vs creativity began...

If you can stand the staring, wear what you wish. And be happy.

Erin Wasson for Scanlan and Theodore

Scanlan and Theodore Spring '11 lookbook shot by Nan Goldin featuring Erin Wasson.
All images on the Scanlan and Theodore site

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Take it like a man

I donned a man's costume one night at work last week. I wore a waist coat and drew a moustache on my face. I thought I would go weird and be uncomfortable. But I liked it.

So ever since I've been drawn to a more masculine dressing aesthetic. But without loosing the girly touch. Just like this.

And, as a shout out to my place of residence, here's the Parisian gender bender dressing guide c/o 'Do it in Paris'... (click pic for link)

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Eclectic fantastic

Gillian Zinser.
Who? Precisely. Apparently a new-90210 actor.
Care factor... just the 0 - She dresses as if all four Parisian Frip' stores threw up on her and still looks shit hot. Bravo.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Anne He

She's 15.

I only hope that one day I, too, could be able to catch the light as she has done in this image with my photography. Some day.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

A new mantra

I need, need, need to change my current state of living.
Less Lady Gaga, Lady Marmalade, Lady and the Tramps...


And more Lady Ashley.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Caramello


Marvelous way to join this season's caramel bandwagon with out spending Euros and Euros on that Chloé coat you actually want. Where, oh where did I put those knitting needles...??

Wool and pattern from Wool and the Gang.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Ten times Rosie

 
Ten Times Rosie - new photography book by Rankin in collaboration with English label Thomas Wylde featuring Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.









For the life of me I couldn't choose one to put up, but I think the circus styling would have to be my préféré.
I like how Rankin can celebrate a woman's body and beauty in a very overtly sexual way without the models and pictures looking hideously sexed up. I think he's brilliant.

'The making of' video
Purchase
Rankin
Thomas Wylde
Pics via

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Poca-face

'P' theme next Monday at work for my friend's beeday.
I'm feeling a Pocahontas vibe.
Don't know if it's the yearning to be more of a free spirit, or because then I could wear a wicked feathered head-dress like these.

Littledoe 2010 collection via Kitsune Journal.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Monday, October 11, 2010

Abbey McCulloch for Russh

A star of the corkboard collective, Abbey McCulloch will be blogging for Russh fortnightly!
Yeay! Two, new, fashion-y Abbey injections a month...

  

She is one of Australia's finest young artists. She was an Archibald finalist in 2009. Abbey McCulloch will be blogging for The Collective every fortnight, taking inspiration from RUSSH shoots, RUSSH people and RUSSH TV.
This week Abbey watched RUSSH TV's Burberry Prorsum SS11 film. 

via Russh blog

Love hurts

Woke up, saw this, and thought "Yup, exactly how I feel about love today".
It can go f*ck itself.

The always clever Maurizio Cattelan recently unveiled a new sculpture entitled L.O.V.E. in front of Milan’s Stock Exchange to coincide with his retrospective at the city’s Royal Palace. Standing over 36 feet high, the statue flips off Milan’s city center and continues Cattelan’s brilliant tradition challenging convention with humor and sophisticated wit. Text Juliana Balestin.

Pic and text Purple Diary 

Sunday, October 10, 2010

The paper bowerbird

Back in the day, when I sat at a desk for a living, I stole an abandoned corkboard from some unused corridor in the building and propped it up in my little cubicle, behind my computer. It stayed bare for a long while, and as time went on, little by little, I would come across something I liked which inspired me,  and I covered said corkboard with the handiwork of some of my favourite illustrators and artists, most of which, I'm proud to say, were Australian.
With each job change, and hence cubicle re-location, all the little bits of paper print-outs, which I cared for like valuable canvases, that I had taped, tacked and wedged into the corkboard, would come off and then reassembled as a different white-ish quilt in their new 3m sq home.
For a while I had a girl who sat next to me, an art director and editor of a small food magazine, who had the same taste in pretty illustrations as me, and as we came across pictures we liked, we would swap links and print things off for each other, creating not-so-similar twin corkboards.
After the fateful "swift Exodus" from the building, all my bits of treasure that I had collected for years went into a manilla folder, and then into a box, and now live under my parents' house. Which kinda makes me sad.

My new 'office' no longer contains a desk, but I have recently acquired a new corkboard, that sits on my desk in my little wooden room, and while I wouldn't dream of recreating on my new corkboard the collage of favourites I had in my old cubicle, I missed seeing all these pretty images, and well, posting a few on  this little blog of mine is a different story...

Kat Macleod
Collaborator, author, and mixed-media extrodinaire.

Abby Mculloch
Portrait of Australian actress Toni Collette for the 2007 Archibald Prize.

Rebecca Wetzler
Illo for Australian fashion designer Marnie Skillings AFW show invite. My friend received this invite to the show, and I swiped it. Not to attend, but for the corkboard.

Sarah Larnach
Ok, a Kiwi, but in true Australian tradition, I'm including her. Ladyhawke's visual collaborator.

Look Twice

Latest summer collection from Elke.


Never met the girl, but wearing her jewellery around my neck almost everyday somehow warrants 'first-name-basis' status...
Love, love, love everything she produces.

Pic via

Friday, October 8, 2010

Love stamp

Artwork by Jerome Btesh as seen at 59Rivoli.

Namesake


Lauren Bacall. One of the most beautiful women, ever.
Actually born Betty Joan Perske, but we'll ignore that, shall we. Sure as hell grateful my mum did, too.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

The rise of Abbey Lee Kershaw

High school to high fashion. In 20 months.

      March 2009                                                                       November 2010
Pics; Modelinia & vogue.com.au