Breton stripe top outfit 3- Wardrobe remix!

Hi again! How has your week been? Thanks for the comments, I'll be able to check out everyone's blogs real soon when my internet is fast again :P This is my last week of uni holidays! But gosh I have been so lazy, I have hardly left the house all week... D:

So this is the 3rd outfit I used for my entry to the TeenVOGUE wardrobe remix competition, again using my Breton stripe top. This is my favourite out of the three looks I posted! This time I went for an edgy rock/ grunge look. "Blue denim goes well with everything, especially stripes, so I wore my top tucked into some high waist denim cut-offs. To add a more rocker vibe I layered a black vest over it, and of course no grunge outfit is complete without ripped tights and some lace up combat boots. Top it all off with some heavy chains and a pork pie hat and there you have it, an outfit that would not look out of place at a music festival or a rock concert- or general lounging around and misbehaving with the boys!!"
Thanks to Dan for taking my photos. He liked the last two photos the best :)
I'm wearing: thrifted stripy top, thrifted black Target vest, second hand denim cutoff shorts, Jay Jays pork pie hat ($1!!!), ROC combat boots from ebay, ripped black tights, silver chains and black layered necklace both from Diva.

Ok, so I'm really stressing out at the moment. I've been shopping like crazzyy recently. It's really bad. :S I seriously have a shopping addiction. If everything I bought was from op shops it wouldn't be so bad but I've been buying too much stuff from ebay, which including postage is really adding up. Mega wardrobe clearance is needed! I;m in the process of putting heaps of stuff up on ebay, I need to earn my funds back. I have so many things which are new or almost new which I never wear. ughh!

So, back to what I have read. Awhile ago I read two graphic novels by Adrian Tomine, Sleepwalk and other stories, and Summer Blonde.

So both of these are graphic novels, each with different short stories. Sleepwalk and other stories has a lot of short narratives, most of them only 1 or a couple of pages long. Each of the stories are separate, showing events that are both mundane and bizarre. In Summer Blonde there are four longer but still separate narratives in the whole book, each with one main protagonist. Each of these main characters is somewhat disconnected from society, either socially awkward, lost in life with no purpose, almost outsiders. Because of the length we get to know these characters a lot better. I thought the way the characters were portrayed through the images and the dialogue was very effective, it was really easy to understand what they were feeling, pretty relatable in some ways I guess.
I was looking up stuff online and I came across a review of Sleepwalk that someone else had written, and I thought it was really good so i'm going to post it here. I didn't write any of this, it's from http://graphicneophyte.blogspot.com/2009/11/touching-fictional-nerve-adrian-tomines.html:
"This collection of stories follows various socially awkward guys and girls through relationships, beatings, voyeurism, and other assorted plot lines. What seems to connect Tomine's stories throughout is the way in which each story is unnerving, some more than others. The most overtly disturbing is "Pink Frosting". In twelve panels Tomine shows how one man's day goes from great to horrible, ending with the protagonist "biting the curb."
Others are more subtle, yet no less disturbing. Perhaps one that best typifies Tomine's incredible style of combining art and story in the most concentrated effective way is "Drop". In just four panels we learn of how a man accidentally dies by falling off the side of a reservoir while trying to change a tire. The darkly inked four panels only show the man in silhouette, we never get to see his face only his hand reaching towards nothingness as he falls "backwards through the darkness, filled with disbelief". Tomine's characters are quirky, some suffering from debilitating relationship issues as in "Sleepwalk" or the social awkwardness of being a teenager as in "Dylan & Donovan". Other than being quirky, all of his characters can be characterized as being "outsiders", people who by choice or no choice exist at the fringes of our society.
My personal favorite from this collection is "The Connecting Thread". More text heavy then most of the stories in "Sleepwalk", "The Connecting Thread" follows a woman as she slowly realizes that a series of "I Saw You..." ads in the paper are about her. In the first panel we see her seated by the door of a coffee shop. It becomes clear she desires attention. She is at first excited and nervous about the possibility that someone may be enamored of her. But when the person who is supposed to have written the ads never makes him/herself known, and the ads continue to be printed each week, each time more personal, increasingly more stalkerish, the woman becomes terrified. At the end Tomine writes "Finally, not knowing what else to do, Cheryl stopped looking at the personals, and that week, the ads about her stopped appearing". Were there really ever any ads about her, did she make them up, is it true, is it fake? In true Alfred Hitchcock style Tomine leaves us spooked and intrigued, our minds twisted up in the plausibility and implausibility of each situation. Each story, in some way, leaves you lingering (in a good way), mulling over the plot line and outcome of the story. I suppose what makes Tomine so intriguing is that each story is accessible to the reader, even the more extreme ones like "Pink Frosting" are, in reality, perfectly plausible in our reality."

Interesting huh? Well that's all from me for now,

Teen Vogue Wardrobe Remix Two!!

Hello hello, how was your weekend? Mine was pretty good... :)
So this is the second part of the entry I posted on Chictopia for the TeenVOGUE Wardrobe Remix competition.

This time I decided to style my Breton stripe top in a sweet and feminine way. I also wanted to play with different patterns and textures. In this outfit, "I tried out something else that’s currently in vogue- mixing stripes and florals. I wore a yellow floral dress and wore the striped top over it. The striped top was quite long, so I tucked half of it up inside itself to create a sort of crop top, and put a waist belt over it to secure it. Sheer pink tights underneath floral lace tights add some colour and another layer of pattern to the outfit. I wanted to take a step further by experimenting with different materials and textures so I wore a black faux-fur stole over the top to complement the feminine elements of florals, bows and lace in the outfit. Sure, all the elements and colours may clash somewhat but that’s just the fun of dressing up! This outfit is very sweet and girly and would suit occasions like picnics, tea parties, or just hanging out with the girls."

Wearing: a thrifted yellow floral dress, thrifted Supre gold bow belt, thrifted Inniu flats, Dotti faux fur stole, pink tights, Kmart lace tights, my favourite and most dearest vintage bag :)

So I had a good weekend... Friday morning I caught up with bestie and one of our lovely friends T who we hadn't seen in a couple of months. We had morning tea in a little place on Centre Way in the city, however my eggs benedict was expensive and not very good :( haha! Then T and I walked to ACCA (Australian Centre of Contemporary Art) to have a quick look at the exhibition by Peter Cripps: "Towards an Elegant Solution." T told me that the three rooms of installations had changed twice over the exbition period.It was quite beautiful, there were some wooden sculptures and installations with boxes and large shapes. I need to visit art galleries more often! Sometimes for my art history subjects at uni we go on excursions to different galleries but I always end up skipping them! So bad.Image taken from the ACCA website.

On Friday night I watched my friends' soccer team play and then Dan and I watched Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince at his house. :) Saturday we slept in, Dan cooked us a nice lunch and then we went to the Footscray Savers in the afternoon. I got a couple of nice things, a dark pink wool jacket/blazer, a small leather satchel bag and a red skirt. Saturday night we went out for dinner with some friends. So it was a pretty good weekend I guess! How was yours?
Ugh my internet is going sooo slow at the moment. I can barely load any pages :( Gotta wait until Friday until it's fast again and I can check out other people's blogs!
Well, the final set of photos from the Wardrobe Remix competition to come in the next entry. Seeya then!

Breton strip top-Teen Vogue Remix- One

Hey again! So i've got a whole bunch of outfit photos to put up and i'm behind as usual :P Last week I went to the beach for 5 days with Dan, which was fun, relaxing. And I got to take some photos of me on the beach wearing my sailor dress! :P But those photos will come later.
Sooo, this is one the outfits I used for the Chictopia TeenVOGUE wardrobe remix competition. What you have to do is choose one item of clothing, and style it three different ways, offering tips on how to remix your wardrobe. I decided to choose this Breton stripe top I found in an op shop for $6.
I think remixing is an important part of everyone's wardrobe. Especially if you're a poor student like myself, it's good to have pieces that are not only stylish, but are able to be mixed and matched with lots of other things in your closet. I chose the Breton stripe top because in my opinion a striped top is an basic, essential part of everyone's wardrobe- male or female, young or old. They are so simple but chic and very versatile. Plus the Breton stripe design is a classic one and will never go out of style!

I'm just going to show one of the outfits in this post. This first outfit is kind of Nautical inspired/ Trendy/ Casual. It's kind of a whole lot of recent trends thrown together with my own personal twist. I tried doing the Alexander Wang side braid to match the nautical feel of the striped top and red high waist shorts. I felt that some light colours were needed to create a Spring/ Summery feel so I added a cream blazer, and also for some extra pizzazz wore white lacy socks with clog sandals- another popular trend. This outfit would be perfect for anything from lunch with the family to strolling along a pier on Summer days! (Unfortunately right now it’s Winter and it was cold, overcast and about to rain while I was taking these photos!)
I'm wearing a thrifted Breton stripe top $6, second hand red high waist shorts, thrifted cream blazer $2, Vintage leather bag $4, White ruffly socks from ASOS, second hand shoes from ebay. I was wearing pantyhose as well but this just made my legs look even more abnormally pale!

So, I'm really quite angry about those shoes I'm wearing in the photo. I won them off ebay for like $1. Fair enough, and postage was pretty cheap too. They were listed as only being worn a couple of times so still in great condition. I was really excited about receiving them because they look clog-like which of course, that trend is huge at the moment. But when I received them the seller hadn't bubblewrapped them when sending them and parts of the sole had chipped off. That was ok. But I wore them around the house for a couple of minutes, took them off and realised that they were not in good condition because sole was starting to get cracks in it!! I didn't say anything to the seller because after all, I had got them for $1 plus postage and I was stressed about uni stuff at the time. So I thought, even if I only wear them a couple of times it's worth it. So they other day I wore them- to take these competition photos only. That was about 20 minutes and it involved very minimal walking- mostly standing and posing. Nonetheless, when I took them off after the photos were done, the shoes were literally BROKEN IN HALF. And I am not kidding. I don't know what the material used for the sole was, but it was very crumbly. The shoes broke in half in my hands. Like, each shoe is now in two separate parts. So I am really quite annoyed about this... :( I can't really do much though, I guess i'll just write it off as a bad purchase! Really angry though because I think the shoes are really cool! :(

So anyway, onto my next thing. I'm so behind on this whole book review thing even though I have been reading lots I always forget about writing a review for it!
The book I read was "after the quake" again by Haruki Murakami. I’ve been reading his novels like crazy recently. As soon as I see them on the shelf at the library I borrow them! after the quake is a collection of short stories, which all have one thing in common- each story deals with certain characters' lives after the 1995 earthquake in Kobe, Japan occurred. Although it doesn’t detail anyone whose life has been devastated by the earthquake, instead it references the earthquake in subtler ways- for example one character is estranged from his family who used to live in Kobe. The translator Jay Rubin has said that in the collection, "The central characters in after the quake live far from the physical devastation, which they witness only on TV or in the papers, but for each of them the massive destruction unleashed by the earth itself becomes a turning point in their lives. They are forced to confront an emptiness they have borne inside them for years." Overall I enjoyed this novel, but some of the stories were a lot better than other ones. Like Murakami’s other novels, this one deals with some slightly surreal or supernatural themes. My favourite story was probably “Super Frog Save Tokyo,” which is kind of exactly what the title is, a giant frog appears in Katagiri’s apartment and says that they have to battle a giant Earthworm who resides under Tokyo, who causes earthquakes when he is angry. However this story isn’t written in an over the top action superhero way, but is quite contemplative so that you immediately accept the surreal elements in the story and enjoy and go along with it. All of the stories are quite short so this book was easily readable in one sitting.

Well hope you had a lovely week and check back soon for my other two wardrobe remix posts with my stripy top!

exit through the gift shop

Hey darlings, here's another post from me :D
I went op shopping today and made several lovely purchases! :)
Do you remember a few posts back I mentioned that I saw the film "Exit Through the Gift Shop" with a friend? Well this was my outfit. I bought these amazing combat boots off ebay a couple of weeks ago and wanted to wear them with something a bit more edgy and suited to the film!
I got this blue velvet dress from an op shop a year ago for $2.50 but this was the first time I wore it, typical me. Leggings were $5 from Cotton On DFO, as they had a hole in them (but not the holes that are already there lol!) I was really annoyed as I only wore them for that night and when I got home there were more huge RIPS everywhere in the fabric! So glad they were only $5 and I didn't buy them for the original price. ROC lace up combat boots- the most expensive shoes I have ever bought! They are real leather and even though they are a bit tight on my right foot hopefully they will stretch and last me years. Lace bow headband $5 from Sportsgirl, Slouch bag $5 from Dangerfield. Aaand a black blazer which was $6.99 from Savers but I got it for free courtesy of my besterest friend (well my besterest friend's mum!!)
Sorry about the blurriness of this photo, my camera battery died!
So anyway... Exit through the gift shop. I saw it a couple of Mondays ago with one of my friends, at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) in the city. If you haven't heard of it, it's the directorial debut of infamous graffiti/street artist Banksy. If you haven't heard of Banksy... well he is a British graffiti artist whose identity is unknown to the public. He is probably the most famous graffiti artist and he is known for his stencilled images which often include things like rats, policemen and children.
You can check out some of his artwork at http://www.banksy.co.uk/index.html
So onto Exit Through the Gift Shop. I have to say that it was close to being the best film i've seen all year. It's presented as a documentary, but a lot of people have been questioning it's authenticity. It follows the story of an American immigrant Thierry Guetta, who was obsessed with video taping his life. A chance encounter with his cousin, known as street artist Space Invader, turned his video taping focus to street and graffiti art, and changed his life- he took thousands of hours of footage of this developing art movement in the 1990s and 2000s, meeting dozens of artists and eventually Banksy. It's what happened when "this guy tried to make a documentary about me (Banksy) but he was actually more interesting than I am... so now the film is kind of about him."- Banksy.
Street art is one of my favourite types of art. The film was funny, thought provoking, bringing up some really interesting debate- What is art? What is modern art? Modern art is rubbish. Anyone can become famous... and so forth. The enigmatic character of "Mister Brainwash" and his art show/ success has lead people to ask whether the film is a hoax or not. Either way, it's a thoroughly good watch.
If you get the chance to see it, I definitely recommend it! Those of you from Melbourne- it's currently showing on a limited release at the Nova in Carlton, get on it!
If you're interested, here is a short 5 minute video taken from clips of the film. Enjoy!!

Hope you had a great Monday!

sweet sugary goodness

Heya! Sooo here I am again. Thanks to new followers and those who have commented :) Ughh haven't commented anyone back in ages. Sorry! :S
This weekend has been pretty good. 3 more weeks of uni holidays left, it's gone by pretty fast.

So these are some photos from ages ago, I wore this to my friend's housewarming party. He lives above his work (a hairdresser's place) in an apartment right next to Melbourne Uni and the city! Such a convenient location :) and even though the bathroom and toilet are outside, and there's only a kitchenette behind the hairdressing section the apartment was larger than I expected. It was a really random night.. I guess the outfit isn't really suited to a housewarming party but ehh, sometimes I like looking cutesy. Besides, I need to wear this dress more often...
Wearing: Lollipop dress $5, a white slip dress underneath with ruffles on the bottom $1, white polka dot tights, vintage black shoes, which were all thrifted :D Random black sash and bow in my hair of course!




So here are the next set of travel photos, from Venice! We stayed there for about 3 days. It was incredibly cold after coming from Rome! On the last day we were there, it even snowed. Venice is beautiful, and it's really sad to think that one day the whole island is going to collapse back into the water. I'm really glad I got to see it, but i'm aware that it's tourists like ourselves which hasten Venice's eventual ruin...
We got to relax in Venice and had fun simply wandering around the laneways and getting completely lost! The streets are incredibly windy and it's hard to find the names of them. And our map wasn't very reliable either! It was great looking at all the beautiful masks and stores. Unfortunately we didn't go on a gondola ride because it was so, so expensive!!
St Mark's basilica
The main canal:
Piazza San Marco!
So many gondolas...
Venice at night :)
Have a lovely Monday,