charity shopping

exams are over.
And I am thus free from schooltime and lessons until Monday, June 16th. In these next four weeks I have got so much to do, for I desperately need to:

a) catch up on my sleep
b) write and design a short film
c) read a minimum of five books ("A Maggot" by John Fowles, "Selected Short Stories" of F. Scott Fitzgerald, "The Portrait of a Lady" by Henry James, "The Magus" by John Fowles [again], "Les Mains Sales" by Jean-Paul Satre [in the original language]), plus "The Idiot" by Fyodor Dostoevsky and "Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy, if I have time...
d) come up with a costume collection (independantly of the film), realise at least three outfits, and wear with pride
e) re-upholster Cecilia

After my exam ended at lunchtime I took the bus and popped into a few charity shops on the way to the shoe bank, to donate two pairs of old shoes which don't have holes in, and thus are wanted by Oxfam or something. I spent £5.50 and got:

The aim was to find a second-hand mug to take into work, since I am sick of washing up the same mug over and over again, leaving it clean, sparkling and good-as-new, only to come back the next week to find that it is teastained and unwashed again. I looked in a total of three charity shops and finally scored this perfect Silver Jubilee mug from 1977! It was £2.50, which I felt a bit steep, but I couldn't resist it in all of its dainty, tacky charms.

I also bought a green metallic thermos flask for £2 (I think it was new as it had a make sure you wash before use-type leaflet inside), so now I can make tea and take it on train journeys! and drink it on the bus journey to school! etc. And a copy of "The Magus" by John Fowles which is on my to-read list (see above please).

It's quite nice having a backlog of things to post about :) I just need to get round to taking decent photos, or at least, uploading them.

xox

small scarves

one of the many interesting things which makes languages difficult to learn is the way in which consonants are often substituted in plural form.


small scarf one - a handknitted rectangle with two triangular points at each end, in leftover 4-ply cotton and some inherited crochet cotton, with a white crochet border of shells.


small scarf two - a handknitted irregular rhombus in seed stitch using larger needles, no crochet hooks, and a stray ball of debbie bliss' cotton double knitting yarn.

blurry pictures courtesy of yours truly, avoiding learning phrases such as "nous vous serions reconnaissants de bien vouloir si..." and "soyez assuré que ceci ne reproduira plus" by knitting, sewing, surfing the net, trying to find a second job for the summer by applying to a MODELLING AGENCY (HAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHA, if they actually accept me it will be beyond hilarious!!!) and, you know, generally wasting time.

xox

ps - after clicking on the "publish post" button I saw that I had received the following e-mail:

Dear Model,
Thank you for sending us your details.
We are very interested in your look but we need to see you personally.
So please call us the day and time you are available.
We will then see if you are suitable for any modeling jobs.
We hold appointments from Monday to Saturday between 11am to 6pm. If u have professional photos bring it with you otherwise the photographer will charge you £10 for taking yours professional photos. Thanks

Note:. Due to heavy rush we are unable to reply all emails so please call us in person for an appointment or email us just for an appointment only . This is also applicable if you are looking for part time work.

Looking forward to hear from you.

Regards
PHASE 7 MODELS
401-402
RAMILLIES HOUSE
1-2 RAMILLIES STREET
LONDON W1F 7LN
PH: 02072876559 / 02077345665

I just love the fact that they didn't address me by my name, made several typos, and are trying to make me shell out a tenner. The question is, do I do it or not?

happy skirt

- and i'm happy, so incredibly, incredibly happy that it's the end of the day and i can finally go to bed. but as i feel that this blog has been sadly neglected, and as i have two lovely girls to write e-mails to but i can't be asked, have a post.

i have actually been stealing small pockets of time from my life in which to create things, although i made this skirt ages ago. this photo is from monday, when it was breezy and sunny and i had my german oral exam. now, the weather is a total opposite - back to normality. it's cold, grey and wet, and this morning the radiators came on, even!
ummm, this skirt was made in order to be the most ridiculous thing i could concoct; last month or something, i wore it to work with my doc martens, lou reed t-shirt and black tights and my supervisor just stood there shaking his head at me, staring at the boots and going, "you just look so cool."
i've been making a vague attempt (as all my attempts are) to dress a little wackily in the last few weeks which remain before the fucking uniforms get imposed on us. i don't know what i'm going to wear tomorrow, but i'm thinking a dress, because you can't wear dresses with stupid black shirts with stupid big fucking logos on them. on one hand they're not as bad as the xmas uniforms were (i massacred my friend's one with a pair of blunt scissors after the christmas season.....)
but back to the skirt. (i took the day off work last saturday to finish off my art coursework and as a result it feels as if i haven't been there for months.) i made it because i wanted something this silly which had the potential to be worn somewhat subvertedly (imagine, if you will, calf-height doc martens, which i don't dare buy because my mum will accuse me even more strongly of copying her than she already does, because when she was my age it was the 1980s, and she was a goth, and apparently i bought DMs JUST so that i could copy her, and i want to do costume design JUST because i want to copy the [unfulfilled] ambitions of my mother) as well as in a generally girly way. it uses hello kitty fabric on the waistband and bottom edge, which is attatched to some "vintage" net curtain that my grandma used to have in her bedroom. then there are two layers of lining, akin to petticoats, one of which is hemmed with a band of light pink lace. it's very tacky and very cool. there are sooooo many gathers, and i was fighting my sewing machine to do it. fabulous.


oh, and my jeans frayed and there's a massive hole in the knee now. they were from topshop and i've had them for a few years now. but i don't know what to do with them! i don't much fancy attempting to mend them, so do i carry on wearing them, sell them, give them away or what?

bises.

egg-zams

rawr! examage next week! i have:
German oral on Monday
English Lit (Translations) on Wednesday
Then on Friday I have SIX HOURS of exams. English lit (Shakespeare and Emma/poems), then German listening and reading/writing.
Finally on Tuesday I have French, reading/listening and reading/translation.
And then I don't have to go to school until the 16th of June!

The picture above is of what I created for my art exam. I did it yesterday and to-day and the hat is just so beautiful it makes me weep. Every bead, every sequin and rosette; each feather; the binding, the veil - hand-stitched. It took seven and a half hours in total. But I love it so much. Sadly I won't get it back until next October - although I will be able to wear it for the party season :)

may

I woke up this morning and Boris Johnson was the mayor of London.
I was very disappointed and also slightly let-down. I'm too young to vote.
Now I must continue my blogging exile.

just to let you know that i will not be blogging or active on the internet for the next four weeks as i have exams to prepare for. i will however be checking my e-mails, so if you need to get in touch try there.

lula skirt

There's not that much to say about this one, except that I'd been staring at this fabric for months and months because I just loved the colour so very, very much. Originally I wanted to make a 1950s shift dress out of it, but there wasn't enough fabric. But I came up with this design after trying on many similar buttoned skirts in vintage shops over the holidays, and especially with the glossy shank buttons, I think that this skirt makes me look elegant and grown-up. I wish (again) that I was wearing stockings. I'm considering ordering some off figleaves.com but, after my recent splurges on clothes and earrings, think that I shall have to leave it for a week or two.

P.S. I've just seen that somebody has left the following (very nice) comment on the Flickr photo page:

self-made? i'm impressed, it looks like you take it from a catwalk:-).

This raises a smile for the following reasons:

1. My skirts will be on a catwalk one day. (Or, you know. Screen. Or stage.)
2. Catwalk creations are handmade - by a seamstress, couturier or realisor.

But it was such a nice thing to say :)

Bises.

lula skirt preview

Look in the top button - can you spot me?

I'm in one of those strange, strange moods. I think I was in an equally strange mood when I wrote the last post, which I've now deleted. School starts again tomorrow, so I've got two or so hours to do the homework that I should have finished two or so weeks ago. To-day I had planned to go to this specialist milinery store but I had to stay at home and help out with the kiddies. I put together this though, yesterday evening and this afternoon; it needs a hem and a press and then I shall show it to you. There are quite a lot of things that I want to write about, quite a lot of things that are on my mind, but I decided to stop using this blog as a diary some months ago and I'm going to stick to that. It's important to know where to draw a line. But the things that are coming up are:

• Lula skirt (as above)
• Hello Kitty skirt
  
• Hair obsession
• Magazines collected in France
• Thrift finds
• A note (to you) about comments
  
• Destash!

Meanwhile, I'm still actually pretty upset about not getting a place with NYT, although I'm having a hard time admitting that to anyone (much less myself). My sweet friends and sweeter family are being so nice about it though, mostly with the "they don't know what they're missing..." tactic. (Well it's true. They don't.) But it just makes me want to work even harder, this rejection leading me to be even more stimulated and enthused about the path that I'm going to take. I feel as though I want to succeed even more, if just to prove National Youth Theatre (and Snobby Theatre Woman especially) wrong. But for now, I really must write an e-mail and start an essay.

Kisses.

beyond retro, cheshire st.

Last week I made very vague plans with Rhi to go thrifting around Brick Lane; in the end neither of us could do it (the plans were very, very vague) but since I was in the area to-day, I decided to take a detour on the way home and make my way to the Beyond Retro on Cheshire Street.

Beyond Retro have become quite well-known when it comes to vintage shops, and there's a store in Stockholm as well as Soho and the East End (off Brick Lane). As such, I have seen it featured in many shopping guides and magazines; I guess it is one of those places to go if you're looking for vintage. Because in recent years, being different has become fashionable. Cutting up jeans, sewing an appliqué on a T-shirt, going to charity shops - these are all things which have been celebrated in the media, especially teenage magazines and the Internet. Dyeing your hair is "in", as are bright colours and clashing prints. And as such, when prompting teenagers and young women to dress different, they all actually just end up looking the same. (I go to an all-girls' sixth form so trust me, I know what I'm on about.) The magazines are saying, individuality is in! but ironically, it is one type of "individuality" which is being glorified, and when everybody tries hard to look different, everybody ends up looking totally alike. And when people dress differently to this differentness, they still end up looking a little odd because it's not the right kind of different.

For me, Beyond Retro represented all of this. As I mentioned before, for a bunch of old outmoded clothes, second hand is never actually cheap. And everything there was more than I wanted to pay - because it's not new! It's still all old clothing, and for some reason shopkeepers have found that customers are happy and willing to pay far more than they did for the clothes, and far more than the original owners would have too! I heard a girl in the changing cubicle next to me yell to her friend, how much is it then? The friend said: It's only twenty quid! the girl said What a BARGAIN, get it get it! It was like, a pair of shorts. Maybe it's my thinking that's outmoded - myself being outmoded, I guess I wouldn't really know.

But it wasn't just the prices. There're more reasons why I won't be going back, even though they had a lot of stock, even though the displays were nice, even though the staff on the whole were very nice and there was a cat sitting on the counter next to the till who lives there and let me stroke his or her neck. There is: the music, horrible trendy music, blaring out from speakers hidden beneath every other rail. There is: the other customers, who were all very trendy and young and fashion-forward. There is: the equally trendy staff who made me feel like I'd dressed like a frump (I think I'm projecting my own insecurities onto strangers again). There is: the atmosphere in general, made up of all of these things are more, things that Beyond Retro can't really help, such as the fact that it was cold and windy, the sky was bleak, the queue for the changing cubicles was long, and I was tired after a lot of walking about. But these factors are all valid and humane. I just didn't like it there, although I did complete my quest for a jacket (picture forthcoming, it needs a good press).

At least I've now visited it and know now to bother. I'd rather have a different kind of differentness, the type that I'm always happy with until I enter institutions like the flagship TopShop, my school on non-uniform day, this store. I like Lula, Vogue, Numéro. I like Couture and Fashion with a capital F. Not Glamour, Closer, Bliss. Not fashion with a small f, signifying trends and celebrity "style". But, you know. If you don't mind trendy people and trendy music, if you're willing to pay a bit more than I am, if you like following trends or concern yourself with what's buzzing at this current moment, rather than discovering unspoilt gems, then by all means head straight to Beyond Retro. It's the trendy girl's vintage dream. But me, I think I'll stick to the East End Thrift Store.

Beyond Retro (East End)
http://www.beyondretro.com
110-112 Cheshire Street
London

To get there: take the central line to Bethnal Green and take the exit for the Bethnal Green Road. Turning left, either walk for 15-17 minutes or catch either the number 8 or 388 bus for 2-3 stops (can't remember how many, sorry!) and turn left at St Matthew's Row. Walk to the end and turn left; it's about fifty yards or so along.

The longer route would be to catch the 8 or 388 until Brick Lane (about 1 extra stop), walk for about 4 minutes down Brick Lane and turn left at Cheshire St, walk for a bit more and see Beyond Retro, but it's honestly far quicker if you take the shortcut through St Matthew's Row because otherwise you're effectively going in a big circle.

PS - got back from Troyes yesterday, safe, sound and glad to be able to speak in English without getting stared at, and speak in French without being ridiculed.

national youth theatre (wardrobe department)

i didn't get in people.
guess i just didn't tick all the boxes. (forgetting my portfolio at home probably didn't help either)

never mind. i'm a bit disappointed to tell the truth. this first taste of rejection cost me £28 and leaves a bitter flavour in my mouth. thanks for your encouragement though.

proper post to follow. love you lots. nush xxxxx

babette my pet

I follow quite a few fashion blogs, although it must be said that I find myself more interested in what the writers wear habitually and their thoughts than following or forecasting fashion trends. Although it's interesting when a fashion designer is quoted, or a reference shown, I take no interest in reports on upcoming "must-haves". It's the personal that I like.

One which I read, though it's not a favourite (sorry!) is Kingdom of Style, and it was here that I first heard about a miniskirt which was a catwalk Miu Miu creation (I don't know when it was from, possibly for S/S '08 but it is likely that I am mistaken).

I then found this beautiful Finnish girl on Flickr after she commented on a photo of my sixties shift dress (see the previous post), and on her blog she'd posted a little cry for help as she wanted to comission a similar gathered Miu Miuminiskirt, this time to mimic one in red silk. Ho-hum. (I did offer, but someone else gave her a hand in the end.) Clickety-click and I find the blog Childhood Flames and the writer is my age, insanely stylish (with an enviable figure to boot) and had made many such Miu Miu-esque skirts. Well! I might detest fashion trends, but these skirts are pig-easy (pardon the coarseness), take little time, and go with so many things! I'm have a skirt moment at the moment and as soon as I saw these, couldn't get over how well simplicity works. So I decided to make my own. I found some stone-coloured cotton dwill in my mother's fabric hoard (there was 1.7m of it so I need to get rid of some more...) and started stitching. At first it was frumpy, then dumpy, then I played around, did some trial-and-error and actually came up with something very 'me', and very much better than those plain gathered-waistband skirts.

I love, love, live it. The design I name Babette. Although the colour is a bit blah, it's neutral and thus can be formal as well as casual. Plus, if I get sick of it I'll just dye it. It can sit on the waist or a little below; I love how the waistband grows organically out of the skirt and forms a peplum. It's kind of bell-shaped, as well. I'm just so happy with it.

I wanted also to write about the T-shirt, which I'm wearing backwards. I took a tip from the girl who writes The Clothes Horse, although I had been interested in this concept for some time (fascinated is too strong a word), since I heard of the way that certain girls in the '50s (it wasn't a widespread fad) wore their cardigans - backwards! I did this because I actually really like the boat neckline that it creates. I'm not hugely comfortable with scoop-necked T-shirts because although they are a nice shape, I am not that shapely! However, I have a really nice back (I've even been complimented on it! Kind of bizarre, but also nice), so why not? Other recent doings for me have been tucking T-shirts into the waistbands.

Tomorrow I depart the house at 6.15am for the Continent and return on Thursday morning. Or shall I specify? Demain je partirai de la maison parce que je vais aller en France aves des autres élèves de ma classe à l'école. Je retournerai en jeudi.

sixties shift

The last seam of this dress, the last edge overlocked, was sewn in February. Since then, it has languished on the back of my chair, waiting for the hem to be put up. The facings to be secured. Now that it is APRIL, and that we're going for lunch to celebrate prematurely my granddad's birthday, I finally got round to it.

The pattern was a free one from some magazine, maybe Prima, that my friend's mum subscribes to; she ripped out the pattern and gave it to me. It's a sixties-style A-line shift with capped sleeves and a kick pleat, which I love. I only wish I was wearing stockings instead of tights.

Stupidly, I didn't take my measurements before blindly cutting out the fabric so initially it was too long in the body. I forgot that I was short. So I had to fudge around with the side seams before it looked semi-decent. (You can't tell when I wear a belt with it.) The other alteration that I made was completely accidental - I was meant to add something like 10 or 12 inches of length to the dress block, but didn't see these instructions until it was too late. But I prefer it shorter, anyway.

The fabric is vintage, if you can call it that - my mum bought it an age ago, intending to make a 1950s style hourglass dress for my aunt, but never got round to it. Since there's another, what, two metres of it left, I might make a twirly skirt out of it too.

I definately need to make more 50s/60s dresses. I also need to make more neckscarves; this one is the only one I have really, and I could do with some more.

Bis bald, Lieblings.
Anushka x x