Body Jewellery

Old Uncle Karl doesn't really do much that amazes me. Yeah, he does a good job with Chanel, and his own label is ok, but I have more respect for Monsieur's Galliano and Gaultier. Plus, they're not as visually creepy. However, looking through an editorial in Junes Vogue Italia, I was reminded of the fabulous concoctions created for the Karl Lagerfeld ss09 show. Made by Erik Halley, style.com informs me the body jewellery was originally intended to mimic tattoos. The black ones are certainly sinister, reminding me of scorpions, whereas the white ones are much more dainty and innocent looking. The mind boogles as to how sturdy/comfortable they are, how they are attached, how they are made... I mean they look pretty fragile. Sadly I'll probably never find out, as they seem to be the sort of pieces made for the runway and editorials only. Googling Halley doesn't yield much, apart from an interesting piece he made for Swarovski. Perhaps this body jewellery isn't the most commercially viable product, but I can't help but want all the pieces. How amazing would they look with a simple black dress?

And because its so pretty, here is the rest of the editorial...

Abbey Lee actually looks really good as a platinum blonde. Imogen Morris Clarke looks a little washed out in a few shots, but I love the Rodarte dress on her below. Her black hair really compliments it, so much so its making me want the dress for myself. Rodarte isn't a label I normally lust after, and admittedly there is a lot going on with the dress, but it's really grown on me. I'm going to go out on a limb and say I think I'd wear it better than Emma Watson did. It's too badass for nice little Hermione!

images from style.com and tfs

Erdem meets Monet

You may recall this Topshop blouse from when I included it in a number of hypothetical summer outfits back in March. I really fell for the beautiful watery floral pattern and the colours used. The effect is that of a Monet water lillies painting, as re-imagined by Erdem, particularly the ss09 collection. Topshop is a little crazy these days with key pieces selling out fast or only being available in certain stores, so the good news is that not only did I manage to find the gorgeous blouse, but it was already in the sale. The bad news? Well, my size was nowhere in sight, so I had to settle for 2 sizes too big. It's therefore a little ill-fitting, but the blouse is so pretty I don't really care. Being 100% silk, the blouse is light as air, perfect for the warmer weather. Warmer weather also means I can wear open-toed summery sandals, something I have been looking forward to for the past few months. These silver snakeskin peep-toes aren't very comfortable, but they sure are cute!

Shoes (Miss Selfridge), cardigan (Topshop), blouse (Topshop), trousers (H&M), belt (gift).

Later on, I changed into an evening look for dinner round my nanny's. I tucked the blouse into my AA disco pants, and wore some incredibly comfortable heels from New Look.

Gazette du Bon Ton

The blog has been woefully neglected recently, for which I apologise. I have had a stressful/busy couple of weeks. That's not to say I've not been wearing clothes. but rather, I've not had the time to update nor think of new outfits which warrant a post. I do fear that I'm getting repetitive or boring with my outfits. I haven't posted daily for a while now, because, to be honest, I do of course repeat outfits in real life. Sadly, my wardrobe isn't never-ending. Anway, there will be an outfit post later on, but for now I shall share some beautiful images from early 20th century French magazines. The images aren't mine, they are from this website, which hosts hundreds of scans from a range of antique-vintage publications. Unfortunately, it is in Japanese, so it's a little hard to navigate and I can't give you too much information. However, the pictures are quite lovely enough without verbal explanation. Oh, but if you do speak French, some of the articles look quite interesting. It's taken me hours to look through the images and select the ones to post, there are just so many to choose from! I've only managed to go through th 1912-1915 images thus far, and already I've saved hundreds of images. Maybe at a later date I'll post some of my favourites from the 1821-1833 and 1920's scans.

Yesterday, I purchased five antique magazines via eBay. Looking through this website has enhanced my excitement at receiving my new purchases in the post; hopefully they will contain similarly glorious images. Some of the smaller accessory details are more interesting than the whole outfit images, with masks, gloves, muffs, hats, decollete, purses, capes, make-up, hairstyles, shoesm parasols, jewellery and belts being illustrated. If you have either the time or the interest, I recommend clicking and enlarging each scan for a better appreciation of detail.

all images from here