I kept this one quiet but I went on holiday to Dubrovnik, Croatia last week and it so happened that the first ever Dubrovnik Fashion Week was happening at the same time but I want to do separate posts on this at a later date and go into detail.
Dubrovnik stole my heart and I can't wait to come there in a few years time. The Old Town is surrounded by the beautiful sea and has a harbor, quirky little side streets that lead off the main road where you find cute little cafes and small hand made jewellery boutiques (I got a beautiful vintage style silver ring as a souvenir with a large turquoise stone in the middle, surrounded by tiny coral stones all around for about £48). The food is fresh, especially the sea food and cooked to perfection. Not everyone can afford to eat at Gil's, it's pretty pricey a Mojito set me back about £10 but I recommend at least popping in for a drink for the amazing view and service.
I also came across FAAR Magazine whilst picking up my passes at the DFW Press Office. Had a quick flick through and liked what I saw - check out the site.
And whilst I'm on the subject of magazines, also check out PUSH IT Magazine. The magazine is Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina's 1st International style magazine mixing the best of the Balkan's with the rest of the world.I've been following their progress for a while and like the look of their photoshoots. Check it.
I've always thought it a bit bizarre how people overreact over a famous person's death and take it so personally, especially when they have never even met the person but I have been deeply saddened by MJ's death as I grew up on his music and still can't believe that we won't be seeing him moonwalk for the last time. Not only was he a musical genius, a revolutionary dancer but a style icon in his own right (I didn't even realize how much people jacked his style until I saw the video for "Bad" on TV again. Two words - Russell Brand). As my own tribute, I was going to create MJ inspired looks on Polyvore but it doesn't seem to be working today (I might try again tomorrow). So I leave you with a photo of his changing style and recomend you watch the live coverage of the Memorial Service right now.
I've been coveting this dress ever since I laid eyes on it as soon as Christoper Kane's SS 09 collection came out but alas:
1) I knew I couldn't afford it 2) It wasn't a dress that I could exactly wear on a regular basis
So I was super excited to find out he had designed a unisex (more affordable) tshirst collection inspired by the hairy apes.
If I had a spare £180 (one tshirt will set you back 224 euros) or so, I'd get the one on the right (the Gorilla I believe) and wear it to death. However if you're in the money (feel free to buy me one as an early birthday pressie), these Christopher Kane tshirts are available at luisaviaroma.com in all sizes - the Mandrill, Baboon, Chimp and the Gorilla.
Whilst digging some more dirt on Paloma Faith for my previous post, I came across this video of her in a little paper world.
This little gem was directed by Petra Storrs who describes herself as "a London based Art Director whose work encompasses, set and prop design and construction, stage design, stage costume design, design and fashion design, for various stills, events and music promo clients". Oo er is there anything this lady can't do?
Her and Paloma seem to have a very close working relationship as this video isn't the first time they have collaborated. Storres also did the set design for "Stone Cold Sober" as well as creating the beautiful tin dress and other various stage outfits for Paloma (also spotted Patrick Wolf wearing one of her creations in her portfolio). Going through her portfolio, the images that stood out the most to me where these from the "Optical Opulence" paper editorial (photographed by Rai Royal and styled by Justine Josephs) she did for Sublime Magazine. Click on the image to see a larger version in another window!
Well when I say "new" I actually came across Paloma about 4 years ago in the dark and dingy basement of 333 when she was still more of a performance artist than a singer. She emerged out of a bath full of feathers and then gave birth to something full of fake blood on stage before unleashing her beautiful voice to sing a song. I instantly fell in love with her then and have been following her career ever since. So of course I got overly excited when I saw her new music video full of familiar East London faces (Russela, Ryan Styles, Amechi & Josh Weller amongst others) for "Stone Cold Sober" being played on TV. She has also made an appearance as an actress in the new "St Trinians" film and was filming a movie with the late Heath Ledger before he sadly passed away. But of course since I'm a fashion hag, what really drew to me to her straight away were her amazing outfits. Miss Faith has already gathered quite an impressive portfolio on her Myspace appearing and modeling for various magazines. Here I've picked out some of my favs. Watch this space!
What better way to get myself out of my non-posting rut then a post about a good cause! If you've read my previous posts, you'll know that I'm a huge fan of swishing/swapping and it has come to my attention that quite a few swapping parties and events are going down in the next couple of weeks.
1) First up is the Accessories Swishing Party on 22nd May (tomorrow):
Futerra Sustainability communications and the Shoreditch Women’s Institute will be hosting the first accessories swishing party on Friday, 22 May. Swishing started with clothes and for the first time will be expanding to include accessories!
Guests will experience a plethora of fun swishtastic activities from a fashion sins confessional booth, jewellery classes and workshops, entertainment by a cool indie band and of course, swishing! Guests are encouraged to bring at least 3 accesories to swish (belts, jewellry, sunglasses, bracelets, necklaces, scarves, hats, shoes, handbags, etc.) Guests who don’t have accessories to swish can bring at least one item of clothing. Unswished clothing at the end of the event will be donated to Cancer Research.
WHO:Futerra and the Shoreditch Women’s Institute
WHAT: First accessories swishing party
WHEN:Friday, 22 May at 7:00 PM - late
WHERE:The George Pub, 373 Commercial Rd, E1 0LA
2) Next up is Grazia's and Mary Portas's "Mary's Charity Shop" held at The Village (the posh designer bit - ironic right?) in Westfield shopping centre on 4th June - 27th June. The concept is simple - give your unwanted, unworn, unused stuff in like you would to a normal charity shop (items do have to have a minimum resale value of £5 though - so try to lay off the Primark) and from 4th June you can then buy all the items that have been donated. All money made goes to Save the Children - more info on this eventhere.
3) And finally it's Feather Duster byHybirdon Sunday 7th June. The clothes swap will run 4-6pm"followed by live, acoustic music from the new and awesome band,Human+ special guests. To participate in the swap please bring at least 1 high quality item of clothing or accessories. There is no upper limit to how many items you can bring, but we aim to keep the quality high, so please, no used sportswear".
The event will take place at: Adriadny's Nectar, 274 Latimer Road, London, W10 6QW.
I also found this article I kept from the February 26th 2009 edition of the London Paper about "Throw Away Fashion". I was shocked to find out that a cute pair of glitter Primark pumps could take up to 1,000 years to degrade and the article gives you tips on how you could help - like taking your unwanted bras to Oxfam, which will then make their way to Africa where there are very few facilities for producing them.
The name "Stylistique" was born when trying to think of a name for an imaginary boutique for a uni project - the idea for the blog came way before then. Hope you like...
