FOUR MORE DAYS...

Only four more days of pure line drawing, cardboard cutting, play-doh modelling, latex pouring, photoshop editing.... and I. will. be. frigging. free. from. this. frigging. project.
Ice lollies have proved to be amazing energy boosters for these occasions!
yummy yum yum.

I'm sorry... come again?!

Ok, hold on to whatever stable object is near you as I present the following:

Why must you do this Onkel Karl??? US$230 (around £115) for a pair of tights? I was very much ready to panic call every Chanel boutique in September to get my peasant mittens on these... £80 tops. £80 tops. Alas, the £80 have been thrown at my face. Rejection sucks.
I shall wait patiently for a high-street cheapo version... if they did it to the Prada socks, they can do it to these tights ...right?
Yet somehow... there's a little voice with a peculiar german-french accent telling me to go the extra £35 and get the real thing...

omg shoes.

For some reason, I find it harder to be criticized on a design that I know was half-done than a design that I put all my effort on. I guess it's because there's more to learn from the latter... and that I should know better than to present half-arsed work. Either way, enough pointless ranting.

Pretty shoes were made for a reason. Some people may say it's to put us in debt. I say it's to cheer us up whenever we put them on. Cheaper than therapy and faster effects.


While these ones haven't had an outing yet, they have been used quite a lot whenever I feel like adding a little bit of spring to my feet. (no puns intended). Add a cup of tea, some ice-cream and I'm as good as new. On to the next step. (this time: awful pun intended).

It has landed.

In all it's fluoro flowery glory, the elusive flowery prom dress has landed the Topshop website. Ironically enough... two months ago I would have run over to Topshop at midnight, forced the doors open with my T-square, raided their storage, left £100 quid and run away with the dress. Today... I just sit here in front of my laptop, look at the decent £50 tag, think "feh... can't be bovvered...." and scratch my belly.

ayayay steve madden!

Out had to come my spanish "ayayay dios mio!" when I laid eyes on the blatant copies of the Balenciaga FW07 shoe that Steve Madden has produced. Many complaints have been around the internets about the designer copying that sly Steve Madden has been up to. I never really thought much of it until my eyes settled on the "Bukled Bright Multi". A flamboyant bad copy it is, what with the awkward padding, weird dangling buckle on the back and just overall "hey, I'm better than nothing".

As if the poor shoe hadn't gone through enough suffering! I mean.. first came Beyonce who took all it's dignity away... and now this? I wanted these shoes badly when they came out, but with a £2000-ish tag (supposedly went down to £700?) ... I had to refrain. I still talked about them night and day to my friends. I would look over and over at it's pics on style.com... So, as much as I dislike the copy, there's a part of me listening to the SM shoe saying "oh come on babes, I ain't as good as Bal but I'm the only single guy left around and we all know you're lonely so gimme a try eh"....ayayay dios mio.

UPDATE:
"que carajo..?!" came out of my mouth when I found this abomination:
Balenciaga shoe, I know you must be going through some hard times, call me. Let's talk, let me hold you...

Yada yada yada

Between the alternation of spring cleaning and my self-made ArchiCAD crash learning course (nightmare) I did some flipping through my fashion inspiration file.

What stood out the most was the exagerately flared jeans. Unfortunately the only time I tried one of these on was with a friend who went to great lenghts in order to make me think that "these are butch lesbian trousers and as such should never ever eeeeever be worn yada yada". I shall buy these from Topshop, bring out whatever "butch lesbian" I have inside and wear them proudly with my Peacocks wedges (a copy of some Marc by MJ ones) or Miu Miu heels.

Another thing from the files was the bottom left pic of the girl in the denim bustier and sheer cardigan. I own a floral denim bustier which I always wore on top of a t-shirt since it was quite revealing... it had never occured to my marshmallow brain to layer it UNDER something... doh.

Alas, it is back to the ArchiCAD crash learning course and all dreams of 70s style frolicking must be swallowed up by 3D buildings... ugh.

Spring-cleaning story-telling

Back in my youthful days, I took a lot of pride in the fact that I could remember the origin of all of my toys. From which store they were bought to how I came to like them and the such. My deluded self had hopes that I would re-sell them when I was older and become a millionaire so I could buy one of those barbie cars for kids. My greedy dreams were crushed when my mother decided to give all my toys to my cousins.

I still have the same kind of obsession with attaching a story to the items I own. Today's spring cleaning was geared towards the accesories and there were a few things that even though no longer worn, have too much of a story to be thrown away.


The first necklace is made with some beads I got on a trip to Japan. The beads came in a bag along with other random ones. I always had hopes of making many things with them but never got to it since I'm a terrible procrastinator. On one of her cleaning frenzies, my mum decided to just make random necklaces with them so they wouldn't "go to waste". Out of the many she made, I brought this one for some reason I can't really remember... maybe because the others reminded me of frankenstein.
The second necklace doesn't have much sentimental value but is is special. It's made with a peruvian seed called Huayruro. There's a tradition in Peru where a bracelet made with one of these seeds and a little metal charm in the shape of a baby is put around a new-born's wrist so he won't be vulnerable to evil. Not many people do it nowadays.
The third necklace/bracelet is also traditionally peruvian. It was my favourite necklace when I was 18 and I would wear it EVERYWHERE.
The last one is from a backpacking trip to Thailand (I know, how cliche). I got many random bits of jewellery on that trip but this one I would wear all the time with a Paul Frank t-shirt, those thai fisherman trousers favoured by backpackers (again, how cliche) and a battered pair of Adidas trainers.


The first scarf was knitted by my mom before I came to uni in the "so so cold" UK, and is the true example of a family curse where us the females get too excited and add as much crap as we can to our crafts. I do wear this scarf every once in a while, mainly because my mum stopped knitting things for me when I was around 5 (I think she couldn't be bothered to knit big jumpers) and her knitting something for 19-year-old me was a. big. deal.
The second scarf was made by my perfectionist best friend. This simple-looking scarf cost her blood, sweat and tears. If a row was 0.0001mm thinner than the others, she would get pissed off and redo the whole thing. While she could have spent max 3 hours on this, she ended up spending over a week or so. In her words, she wanted me to not find a better scarf than this one in the UK. She also recognizes it was her way of dealing with her fear that I would replace her. Alas, I have not.

£600 for a pair of dewy-eyes.

When I was little, my mother hung pictures of puppies, ducklings and kitties in my room. I really wish she had kept some of them because they were terribly cute... in a cheesy way. My favourite was a version of the painting Dogs Playing Cards where the grown dogs had been changed into puppies.

Today while browsing the charity shops I came across the following tray:

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. This is exactly the kind of paintings my mum hung on my room. I know I'm supposed to abstain from shopping but at £2 how could I say no?? I'm gonna proceed to turn it into a proper frame and hang it on my room, to kinda feel more homesick and cosy at the same time.
But one of the things it also reminded me of was this tunic/dress by Paul and Joe that I drooled over at Harrods:

I mean, come on! How more cheesy-cute can that tiger cub get??? I really do think it looks amazing in real life, the colour of the silk is a bit creamier and that really makes the tiger pop. But at around £600 (or was it £300...?) I think I am abstaining and holding on to my puppy tray/frame.
Am also hoping nobody else's mother hung cute-cheesy puppy pictures in their rooms so nobody will buy the tunics and they will go on sale for like £80. But that's just the child in me hoping hopelessly.

the wardrobe bitch-slap.

Spring cleaning is always there to remind me that no, I do NOT need any more clothes.
First, there's plastic drawers jam-packed with daily tops. Then the two plastic boxes, one for daily dresses and skirts, the other for bags (the bottom suitcase is filled with books...). The actual wardrobe bursting with shoes and outerwear. A roxy suitcase and the metallic suitcase filled with clothes that don't fit me anymore cause I've gained a considerable ammount of weight. The black suitcase on the bottom which is half-filled with DIY ideas and the turquoise suitcase with some vintage clothing (the suitcase on top of the turquoise one is empty). There's also a box full of shoes that I couldn't be bothered to dig out since it's underneath my bed behind some very delicate models. And let's not get started on my book situation...

I feel bitch-slapped and I do deserve it! Only today I was browsing through a charity shop thinking how much I needed a raincoat when you can see in my wardrobe a perfectly fine blue one...

Time to put a lid on the moneys.

Branded like a cow

Last night after painting my nails, a silver marker caught my eye so I got all giggly and started drawing stars on top of my blue coat.
After realising that not only had I painted my nails with Chanel nail polish but had also blatantly copied the star-print from the SS08 collection, I got even more giggly and thought of drawing a chanel logo... my senses got to me before the marker got to my nails though. While I think some brand-loving can be alright to some extent, as in you love the style of a brand and immitate the style (kinda like painting stars on my nails), brand-loving can go really wrong and end up like this:

So I'll be keeping that marker away from my nails for some time...

fish vs. bunnies!

Coming from the lovely catholic continent that is South America, if I were back home I would be facing a weekend full of religious movies and being force-fed fish soup by my mother. Not complaining since it is after all what I grew up with and while I hated it when I was little, I do miss it now.
Instead, I decided to fill this Friday making cheesy easter bonnets and picking up daffodils from campus while cycling since the sun made a shy brief appearance. Some easter-themed cookie decorating with the flatmates was in order too. We ended up drawing bunnies and chickens worthy of a horror flic. They were really ugly. But tasty.

Hope you have a wonderful easter, without ugly bunnies/chicks in your cookies!

I really hadn't realized the sudden explosion of celebrity "designed" clothing... but after clicking away on New York magazine's article on Kate Moss' collection... WOW.


Avril Lavigne, Rachel Bilson, Heidi Montag, Whitney Port, Pete Wentz ... huuuuuuuuuuh??? While I don't really mind celebrity lines, if the designs are good... but they are after all based more on the celeb's popularity rather than skills and mostly we end up with overpriced unfortunate garments... here's hoping that the Rachel Bilson for DKNY collection produces some good pieces.

Dress-shopping for the food-obsessed.

All the dresses below are from Topshop, can you guess which one is from the Kate Moss collection?


Yep, the overpriced one.
I got the polka dot one... and what did I do with the extra £15 you ask? Eat half a chicken from Nando's with peri peri chips and coleslaw... and a massive popcorn sundae from Friday's. The best of it all?? The empire line shape of the polka dot dress will hide all the weight gained from such a scrumptious meal. I love it when things come together as nicely as this.

mister thirty-seven, my love drifts a little...

Many people know the wonders of charity shopping, mainly the browsing that then gives to finds such as a gorgeous vintage dress for £3. It then becomes the most special treasure since it was meant for one and for one alone... or at least that's what I like to think when I find something special...
Yesterday I went back with my bike to the lovely town I went to last time. Of course, many wonderful things were found... but the thing that absolutely made my day was the following:


When I went inside the shop I started browsing through the teddies and the lady who was putting them together smiled and said "It's a teddy bear picnic!". Apparently they had received a massive donation of teddies and decided that instead of shoving them all in a basket like most charity shops do, they would put them in a table and have them picnic. Yep, those are real edible gingerbread men!
Among the picnickers I managed to find a Lion King plush that I really wanted in my young years but that I never got because my mother couldn't afford it. He is now sitting in my desk.

So yes, charity shopping... true love.

mister thirty-six, all that glitters is not as smooth as gold

Sequins, sequins, sequins. I love sequins. Sequin dresses, sequin leggings, sequin tops, sequin skirts, sequin jumpers... even sequin bras if I could find them. It would never fit in my heart that anybody could hate sequins. My world would crumble if I heard such vile words.

Yesterday I did. From the mouth of my bestest mate. It all started about me asking him how this formal party at his girlfriend's house went. He went straight to it: "It was good, except that Patricia was wearing a chastity belt". Upon further enquiry he ranted about how he wouldn't dare touch her for fear that her sequin dress would shred his sensible hands.
According to him, this isn't the first time he has encountered "the hostility of sequins". Apparently his prom date was such a case. My world did crumble... how could such pretty things as sequins be so hostile to the opposite sex??

On second thought... I considered how useful my sequin leggings will be when those wandering hands often found at cheesy student nights decide to wander beyond their boundaries.

mister thirty-five, let me clutch you.

Image from Zavvi

Onkel karl. How can you not love him. I know some hate him but me... I really wish he was my onkel. Anywaaay, out is his DVD! (actually... has been out for some time) and while his musings may not be as funny as the girls from Go Fug Yourself make them seem (my favourite) ... I still feel like spending a lazy afternoon watching him work. Add to basket it is!

On a side note, does anyone else find the Zavvi website really ugly?

Edit: As always youtube has something. Preview can be found here.

mister thirty-four, temptation temptation....

Image from Net-a-Porter

... comes in the shape above. Seen here... I've found one for £350. ponder ponder ponder. Answer will most likely be no.

mister thirty-three, bite me.

Lovely dress the one above, huh? Really pretty... but think twice, once you get hooked... it will bring out the worst in you. It got me to the point of dress-stalking... a chapter I'd like to forget...

Topshop decided to play the misterious card with it, what with random prices (ranging from modest £30 to appaling £100) appearing in different magazines and an unknown sale date (a topshop girl actually suggested it would be out in 2 months...!).

With my birthday creeping up on me, matters had to be taken into my own hands. A browse in London's Beyond Retro last last Wednesday provided the floral dress, unfortunately there's no before picture since I went chopping as soon as I could. Trust me though, old lady floral dress it was! Some chop-chopping and amateur stitching later:


I know, it's practically a copy of the Topshop one but I really liked the design. What I did was chop off half the skirt part of the dress and then make a mini-skirt out of it with elastic. So basically I've got a dress/top, a skirt and well, there's no tutu... it really is just tulle fabric attached with safety pins.
Was an amazing party dress though, I felt like one of those wedding cakes with loads of sugar flowers on them.


So yeah! who needs topshop anyway?? huuuuuuuuuuh??!!!

mister thirty-two, say bye to Cathy!

Oh wallets wallets wallets, it's a love hate relationship between me and them. Love them because the alternative is a pandemonium of receipts/pictures/coins/cards/candy in my bag. Hate them when they dissappear and leave me vulnerable to this mean mean world. Still, it's more love than hate and my love tends to be too rough on them.

Meet Cathy, she has been with me the last year and a bit... she is one special lady and even though I've made her gain some serious pounds (no puns intended) with all the crap she carries, she still holds up... but I think she's begging to retire...

Now meet her brief alternative ... she is gorgeous, soft to touch and svelte. Don't let her good looks fool you cause the lady has some serious organising techniques inside there. Unfortunately, knowing my history with wallets... she won't be able to take the abuse. She is to be returned soon, I don't deserve her.


And we arrive to the one I see some serious future with:

Image from Dollydagger

Not only is she blessed with looks but she seems to be made for people like me who feel some ridiculous need to store as much crap as they can in their wallets. She is to arrive in the next week or so...

ps: just realized I made that last wallet sound like a mail-order bride...

mister thirty-one.

two guggenheims, two architects. two shoes, two designers. one broke girl surviving on toast.

Chloe s/s 08, Solomon Guggenheim Museum by Frank Lloyd Wright

Prada a/w 08, Guggenheim Bilbao by Frank O. Gehry

mister thirty, it's my birthday...

... even though I don't look like it / the day doesn't seem like it, it is still a happy one. More details once I'm de-stressed out.

mister twenty-nine, oh the woe you give me.

Image by FaceHunter

The woe, the woe. Where are those striped tights from??

mister twenty-eight.

This past Wednesday, I did some day-tripping to London. Of course, the main purpose was researching at the amazing RIBA library but I couldn't stop taking a peek at Topshop on my way there.
After much wandering, I stumbled upon the VV Rouleaux stall. All those feathers, birds, flowers and colours lured me in. I hovered round and round the stall not deciding how to approach so much colour. Eventually I made my way to one of the lovely girls attending the stall and she helped me make a little headpiece. The colour scheme I meant to keep to was blue... but like a kid in a candyshop fills his bag with loads of mismatching candy, so did I fill my headpiece with as much colour as I could. The result was the following:

The best thing of this whole deal? It was free! I couldn't believe my ears since most of the headpieces on sale where above the £30 tag. I attached the comb to my hair, a big smile to my face and skipped my way to the RIBA.
Once I got there, it was fun to see the guard's shocked face to see this massive feather/flower ornament on my head.
I was quite sad that once I got back to Topshop to buy one of the headpieces for sale, my card couldn't be used and the ATM wasn't working and the VV Rouleaux girls where leaving and I had to go back home. So I had to leave the most precious bird headdress... well, the guy at the cashier disagreed since he actually stared at the headpiece I was going to buy and exclaimed "£39!!!!!!!! ... damn, I could make this myself!"

Anyway, ebay has a lot of millinery materials for me to browse and make my own headpieces. If not, Etsy has some precious ready-mae headpieces as well.
To start, this Marie Antoinette one which I would definitely wear, even if it was meant for a doll. Then, one for our inner mermaid. And even though it was not meant as a headdress; my favourite is Pinky Finch.

I definitely recommend getting down to Topshop Oxford Circus today since it's the last day the VV Rouleaux stand will be there. I would if I didn't live in the Midlands... and didn't have a project hand-in, magazine design and birthday planning to do today.

Ugh.

senhor vinte sete, tá na hora de brincar

When I was little, me and my mother would go to Brazil all the time. I loved (and still do) love that place, specially Sao Paulo. Back in those days, Xuxa was the biggest thing ever for children my age.


I remember getting my first pair of jelly shoes from her children's footwear line and never wearing anything else. They were perfect for rainy Sao Paulo but of course, by the end of the day my feet would smell really bad, which wasn't a good thing considering the hotel me and my mum stayed in had no air con!

Fastforwarding to today, a little trip to Peacocks provided me with some cheap jelly shoes!

When I put them on, I am instantly reminded of the Antarctica soft drinks, the coconuts I would drink, the endless amounts of Turma da Monica comics and the trips to their theme park. The hot dogs boiled in onion, day trips to Campos do Jordao, the Simba Safari Park and of course, the beloved Praca da Republica.

ilari lari lari e
o o o

mister twenty-six, let's dance to vanilla ice.

I love food. I love smelling it, looking at it, cooking it, obviously EATING it and now... I like wearing it! (almost...)

RECIPE:
* 1x Screw Eye
* 1x Food Eraser of your choice
* 1x Small chain to attach the charm to.

PROCEDURE:

mister twenty-five.

As mentioned before, my bike and I went on a date today. Oh the good times we had.


As for what I was wearing... well, just an old sweatshirt and some ugly trousers.