// Mermaid nails

Posted on | June 30, 2010 | 3 Comments

This is officially my favorite nail polish for this summer, Zoya Charla in all its glittery goodness.

I gravitate towards bright nail colors a lot, (teal) greens and oranges being my favorites — but I often stick to creme finish. Glitters are a pain to remove — and the sparkling colors are often more fetching in a bottle than actually on nails. But this is such a delightful exception. Even better in direct sunlight.

Posted on | June 30, 2010 | 3 Comments

// Pirates, ahoy

Posted on | June 30, 2010 | 9 Comments

I wanted to reward myself for my exercise project with something that I have wanted for a long time, something I believe I do use a lot and something I don’t consider completely outrageously out of my price range. So now I’m a happy owner of classic slouchy shaft Vivienne Westwood pirate boots in suede. The taupe color goes well with my wardrobe and I love the lightweight construction, these can be well incorporated to summer outfits as well.

The weather is very warm and summery, so the dressing is simple. I’m wearing an old Diesel sundress covered up with H&M cardigan — this piece has been probably my best high street purchase from this spring. The slouchy cut is excellent and I love the lively material. One of my Pilgrim pendants is hiding underneath the dress.

So… …this was the last month for my start for more physically active life — and although this month either was perfect from the exercise perspective (traveling and now the flu) I think I have actually changed something in my habits because I’m actually missing regular exercise when I’m not doing it. On this period I did not focus on weight loss, but I got down 4 – 5 kg and it certainly has not been my muscle mass.

Naturally this was not the end of the project. My summer holiday starts tomorrow and when I get well I’m planning to have a physical activity filled semester. And I could really focus on weight loss for a while. I’m still quite chubby.

Posted on | June 30, 2010 | 9 Comments

// Something blue, something borrowed

Posted on | June 29, 2010 | 10 Comments

I had several outfit photos packed to my hard drive, now starting to purge…

There’s not much about this outfit, it’s just a pile of cheap stuff. The silhouette draws this to the girly-cutesy side, I let the patterns and colors fight back just a bit to keep it from going too sweet. Tank is quite old American Apparel see thru one (I love electric blue in small portions), cotton cardi is from H&M, skirt from Monki sale (excellent piece, the watercolory black and white plaids are such an unusual and eye teasing print), the belt is from flea market (why would somebody like to sell perfectly worn in cognac leather belt, just asking) and the shoes are old Topshop wood wedges. Cat looks a bit upset about my choice of pattern… …I had to assure her that no animals were harmed…

Posted on | June 29, 2010 | 10 Comments

// As fast as you can

Posted on | June 28, 2010 | 3 Comments

I’m considering another break from high street shopping… …but boy they are making it difficult. Mark Fast pieces for Topshop are too body conscious for me to use as is — but wouldn’t they be awesome for layering? Images via Dazed Digital.

Posted on | June 28, 2010 | 3 Comments

// Warsaw

Posted on | June 27, 2010 | 7 Comments

So… …I’m back from Warsaw. To be honest it would probably never been my pick for holiday destination — but now when I have been there I definitely want to go again on my own time. Although my trip was four nights the conference schedule was so packed that I had very little time of my own — but I tried to make the best use of it by spending the time with my favorite activity — wandering around the city, sitting and eating in cafe’s and restaurants.

The beautiful Krakowskie Przedmiezkie street and university campus gate.

Fashion blogs are all about fashionable people mingling in various parties, right? Nobel peace prize winner and former president of Poland Lech Walesa opened our conference — and happily mingled with university people from around the Europe.

My first impression of the city was the strong resemblance to Tallinn, scaled up to city of population of 1.7 million. The old buildings mix up to contemporary glass towers and grim soviet style colossae — in Warsaw this mix is further extended with numerous green spaces and Vistula river with vast park area on the east side with the bank that looks to be almost in its natural state. And compared to Tallinn — which is partially over-renovated to my taste, old Warsaw has definitely more rugged charm.

The mirror staircase in the university old library reveals the inner wounds of the building.

The dark history of the city is pretty evident with just a bit closer inspection, the old buildings are scarred and rebuilt partially or alltogether, a soviet style building suddenly pops out on a perfect row of old ones… The nazis demolished over 90% of the historical buildings and about 80% of the whole city on the WW2 — and the fate of the civilians of the city was unthinkably tragic. I’m definitely one of those boring museum goers and I feel almost physically bad for not making it to the Warsaw Rising Museum.

The beautiful old town. Soundtrack provided by numerous doves. I managed also to stalk this tailor on his work. The weather was horrid on my old town visit, I managed to get all wet and cold… …now I’m having a flu…

Anyway, the layout of the city is quite tourist-friendly — main street Nowy Swiat continues as Krakowskie Przedmiezkie and leads to the beautiful oldest parts of the town — and many of the historical buildings are at — or at very close proximity of this street. The “new center” with soviet era culture palace and numerous shopping possibilities begins from the opposite end of Nowy Swiat.

Schoolboys examining “Chopin bench” — these installations had information about the famous composer / pianist — and they played music as well. A restaurant musician on Nowy Swiat.

The overall atmosphere in Warsaw is definitely continental European — and live music is everywhere. From all the great men and women lived in Warsaw the Warsawians seem to love Chopin most — this might be partially explained by the fact that in this year they are celebrating the 200th birthday of his and the city is full of happenings and installations on a theme.

My new Inglot palette. Got two of these (Like I needed them — not using my current eye shadows either, duh! At least the stacking magnetic palettes (actually both new palettes are in the picture, just opened the top one for photographing) are easy to store… One palette like this costs about 25 €..

I did very little shopping in my trip, but here are some general impressions. There are several modern shopping malls in the city, Zlote Tarazy with awesome glass structured roof being one of the easiest to access with its central location near the culture palace, Arkadia another giant on the north with easy public transportation access via Jana Pawla II. Almost all European high street chains have made it to Warsaw from Topshop (only in Zlote Tarazy) to Zara, Bershka to H&M. A local equivalent in this class is Reserved — but to be honest I took just a very brief peek in so I can’t really tell much about the prices nor quality. The high street prices overall seem to be similar or slightly lower from Scandinavian ones. On Nowy Szwiat and its proximity there are options for high end shopping. I was hoping to run on some local boutiques, but that did not happen too much. I have to mention though Cafe Telimena with awesome selection from local independent jewelry designers and Kapela Folk Gallery (also at Krakowskie Przedmiezkie) with crafts with contemporary twist, especially their ceramics and embroidered felt bags were very beautiful. One Polish brand definitely worth of mention is Inglot — their makeup concept of DIY palettes is great, color selection incredible and at least the eye shadows, blushes and nail polishes are quality stuff (just haven’t tried the others…).

A bakery kiosk near the old town and the most delicious, crumbling piece of meringue cake I have ever tasted… …mmm… …meringue…

On culinary side the city was definitely a positive surprise. I haven’t heard much praise for Polish cuisine — but for omnivore with taste for simple food made with quality ingredients has nothing to complain, really. Traditional polish kitchen mixes Russian influences to simple, rustic continental European style with tasty and uncomplicated results and ample portions. Add the incredibly low prices to that and you can probably understand my happiness. We ate a three course meal with my two workmates, with a bottle of red wine on the table — that made about 200 PLN (under 50 eur) hole to our budget. The food was excellent and we enjoyed the live piano music during the dinner. Main courses are typically based on meat, but the traditional pierogi (Polish equivalent for dumplings or ravioli) have often tasty vegetarian filling options — just know that these are often served with lard and pork side cubes — so ask for butter or olive oil instead.

The city is a battle ground for western cafe chains from Wayne’s to Starbucks (none of them dominating yet) — but do yourself a favor and seek for traditional or French style independent Polish bakeries with cafe’s — the quality is excellent and prices low. In many places you can buy cake slices by weight — so you can adjust the portion to the severity of your sugar cravings and/or estimated energy expenditure.

The nightlife aspect I left (again) totally unexplored — but from my playlists in Last.FM I would guess that Warsaw might have a lively electronic music scene…

Posted on | June 27, 2010 | 7 Comments

// Perfectly worn in

Posted on | June 24, 2010 | No Comments

Poets blouse from UnderCapricorn.

Tan leather clutch from PansysPlace.

Frye mules from Early Mornings.

Posted on | June 24, 2010 | No Comments

// Super summer

Posted on | June 21, 2010 | 4 Comments

To not forget the theme of this blog entirely… …my newest sunnies — white frames at last! I have been hoping to bump into a white pair of Wayfarers in some flea market for a long time now, but got tired for waiting for that to happen. So I went for this sturdy retro design by Super — and don’t feel any regrets. The slightly transparent, jellylike frame is awesome in person, and I really like the clean, heavyweight design. The shipping was a snap from Retrosuperfuture webshop.

Neon orange nails by China Glaze Sun Worshiper. Pain to apply, delightful result. If you like toxic-waste-warning-sign-kind of orange, that is. The image does not give the full retina burning experience of this color — but I have to say that despite of its brightness (or maybe because of that) this color is very kind to my skin tone.

Posted on | June 21, 2010 | 4 Comments

// 50 mm

Posted on | June 21, 2010 | 2 Comments

A cheap but very useful Canon EF 50/1.8 II lens is the newest addition in my camera bag. It weighs almost nothing and works so well in low light — so I definitely can forgive the cheap, plasticky build of it. The large maximum aperture lets me play with depth of field, too. Because of the EF-S mount of my EOS 500D the focal length is merely 80 mm (you have to multiply the EF lens focal length by 1.6 when using it with this mount). Still quite useful but bit tricky for indoor full body portraits — some space is definitely needed. But it works awesomely for detail shots — and because of the small size and light weight it will probably be my preferred lens to travel with.

Posted on | June 21, 2010 | 2 Comments

// Off to… …Warsaw

Posted on | June 20, 2010 | 2 Comments

Time really flies — it felt that my Warsaw trip is somewhere distant future, but actually it starts tomorrow. The focus is on work, but I’ll bet that there will be plenty of time for wandering around. I probably can’t post much next week… …but after the trip I try to make it up for you!

Enjoy the summer!

Posted on | June 20, 2010 | 2 Comments

// Fashionclash by Dusturbance

Posted on | June 18, 2010 | 3 Comments

One of the definite blogging highlights for me this spring has been the opportunity to follow dusturbance Fashionclash project behind the scenes. I call it blogging highlight because without this blog I probably had never known the fabulous women from dusturbance nor got this opportunity — but so far you readers have been excluded.

I’m definitely not a fashion critic and aim not to be one. On the fashion publishing side I keep things in this blog 100% self indulgent and I publish whatever I want, the emphasis being in indie fashion and affordable brands. With dusturbance there are so many things I respect — and I would definitely have posted even without the background connection.

Anyway — I have been seeing the metamorphosis of simple, beautiful fabrics to these awesome, hand painted ones. The Hitchcockian birds took over the gently flowing silks and sturdier fabrics for bustiers and jackets. The ropes and tapes took sculptural forms without loosing their utilitarian appeal. There were basic pieces, easily recognizable as bustiers or dresses — but then there were attachments, to be zipped and snapped to basic pieces, transforming them beyond the original function. Some of you might remember the idea from Queen Michelle’s dusturbance dress.

The women in dusturbance were not 100% pleased the presentation of the Fashioncash show — and I respected the request to not post instantly after it. And the short wait was worth it — they continued to a collaboration project with new Toni & Guy brand Art Director. This collaboration produced image material which gives you a much better idea about the designs — the hair needs to be photographed from several angles — and thus you can see and appreciate the dusturbance 360 degree take on design. The back view without attention just does not exist in dusturbance world.

Catwalk images by Peter Stigter, Art Director hair and fashion show pictures by Tristan Melano.

Posted on | June 18, 2010 | 3 Comments

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About

Location: Helsinki, Finland

Contact: kamicha (a) gmail dot com

I'm especially interested in young designers creations, non-established labels and indie fashion. So if you have something interesting to show, feel free to contact!

You can find Finnish design from both specific and some outfit posts - but both are tagged.

You might be also interested in DIY posts, How-to posts, DIY ideas - or my adventures in Etsy =).

More about me and this blog.