// 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

// Double bubble

Posted on | June 10, 2010 | 2 Comments

I think that I will not raid the sales this summer. I have no specific needs and to be truthful my wardrobe is so full that I really have to slow down my purchases. Got to admit that I’m stalking just one investment piece… …but if it does not go on sale then it will be no deal for me. Still… …today I just accidentally slipped in to Monki — and got this super soft boxy little sweater and one very nice cotton printed skirt –50%.

This is one of my comfort outfits — not a least bit trendy, oversized stuff over oversized stuff that someone could call terribly unflattering, but for me it is very important to be able to hide under ample layers of cloth if I feel like that. I also like this kind of childish kawaii look, without too many frills. I know that it is all too young for me, but I don’t care, I don’t have to prove myself to anyone. I’m also starting to master the self photography on a level, that you hopefully get one very important dimension of this outfit, the tactility. All these materials have that specific feel I’m often after, subtly worn out look with volume and movement.

The skirt is really old and from Vero Moda, the dress (rather a tunic) over it from H&M and old as well. Shoes are from Topshop and the necklace from Etsy by Tilly Bloom.

Posted on | June 10, 2010 | 2 Comments

// The black fringe

Posted on | June 5, 2010 | 3 Comments

My DIY:s tend to be simple and not particularly creative. They often evolve around a specific need — like the sheer chiffon skirt / dress I needed for layering purposes — or piece of particular material — or DIY knockoff so simple that it can be created in few hours max.

This time the trigger was an amazing fringe trim I found my neighborhood buttons and trims shop. I have been going there for a while just to see and stroke this amazing stuff, but the price was so steep that I did not want to buy it just in case I would get inspiration one day. The speciality comes purely from the length of the fringes, there is enough centimeters to heal the worst Rapunzel envy complex ever — except that this acetate substitute is raven black.

So I made a simple plan for a plain chiffon dress with fringe layer front and back. Nothing too original, but quite effective. I can layer it over a simple slip and it works as a little black dress — or wear it over a pair of pants or leggings as a tunic. The dress has actually very simple oversized tank shape with identical front and back — I thought that it would be good for the delicate trimming to be able to switch the sides, but goes also displaced when worn quite easily. I don’t care about that, I’m not going to wear this in formal events anyway.

So it was french seams for shoulders and sides, turning the neck and arm holes plus the hem. In this overexposed image you can see a bit of the detail of the fringe:

I’m definitely not a master seamstress but I did try to tackle the challenges of delicate material by hand sewing the turns. It was not 100% success, but after mutilating the fabric with my steam iron the turns look relatively neat. I think that I can live with them. The fringes move so beautifully over the silk chiffon that I’m starting to feel guilty about my lack of dancing skills. The gigantic chandelier earrings are from Lindex and shoes are old Topshop wood wedges.

At my summer holiday I could kick my lazy arse and put little more effort to some project — maybe create something bit more than just useful.

Posted on | June 5, 2010 | 3 Comments

// Youth vs. Future

Posted on | May 23, 2010 | 2 Comments

I had a fashion filled Saturday — I started it by visiting in design shop Goodis (back to that later) — walked to Odd Day design market in Diana park — and in the evening to Anna Ruohonen fashion show.

At the design market I finally got myself one Youth vs. Future feather necklace — I might be the last one doing so in the whole Finnish fashion blog scene, haha (BTW, see Sugar-Kane rocking hers and Jenni a black one)! They are selling these online, but I sort of wanted to see them in real life to be able to decide the color. And now I did. The delicate feathers have been toughened against the hardships of life with a coat of acrylic paint and combined to chains with various finishes. My feathers are silver, on oxidized silver chain.

Could not resist to combine the feathers to something heavy… …thus the silver bauble necklace. My wardrobe has been clearly lacking one ridiculously oversized T-shirt, because I’m living in this Weekday one. Skirt is from Topshop and silver leather sandals an old department store find. I have actually been wearing my fringe down quite a lot, but today I wanted it off from my face because I spent several hours outside. That explains also my minimal make up… …some bronzing powder and brow pen. For going to the fashion show I just showered, did my hair, applied a light make-up, changed the shoes and added a sheer tank top under the T for more dressed look. And yes — we are experiencing an unexpected heat wave here… …mmm…

My upper back posture problems are quite visible on the side image… …I think I have to blame my lady lumps. Unfortunately I have experienced only minimal cup size shrinkage with my weight loss, but I’m still hopeful, I think I’m still shrinking. Could also target some training to specific back areas, I guess that the muscles that draw the scapula down and middle could be stronger — that would pull my shoulders back a bit. And some foam bar / tennis ball rolling for the thoracic spine area, perhaps?

Posted on | May 23, 2010 | 2 Comments

// Childlike

Posted on | May 18, 2010 | 4 Comments

So I wanted to wear this specific dress today… …and got a bit regressive mood, wanting to create something immature, innocent, slightly moody… …well, however I’m wearing AttilaDesign dress, We Love Color tights, Only (?) burnout T, dirty pink Zara cardigan, COS scarf, Topshop bag (which I had to change to my horrible laptop bag which I have for my work laptop), Vagabond shoes. Nothing new. Nothing borrowed. Something blue.

Posted on | May 18, 2010 | 4 Comments

// I’ve got straps

Posted on | May 16, 2010 | 3 Comments

Relaxed intergalactic sportswear for casual movie night out. Left my laser gun home, though. I’m wearing applique detail jersey skirt from Topshop, mesh tunic / dress from Weekday, American Apparel lightweight sweatshirt, Bronx sandals, Pilgrim leather strap bracelet and ancient spike bracelet. A bit of tan makes me look so healthy that I can’t believe my eyes, they soon want my picture to the cereal box (not that I consider any cereal healthy… …but well, that’s the image they want to deliver ). Oh, the knee looks still quite battered — no cereal box deal coming up in the very near future…

The film was Ridley Scott on Robin Hood — ah well, the guy can convert even that tale to epic war movie. However I love his taste for cinematography — those cool toned, realistic and not too polished pictures soothed my eye. But Russel Crowe as Robin… …come on!

Best part however was the end credits, the animation going on background was awesome, made me thinking Alexandr Petrov’s amazing work (did not find him from the credits, though, so it was probably not him).

Posted on | May 16, 2010 | 3 Comments

// Pattern thoughts

Posted on | May 1, 2010 | 4 Comments

This spring I have become aware how pattern poor my wardrobe really is. That is not because I don’t like patterns, on the contrary. I love them. I would love to have more elaborate style, mixing together all sorts of patterns: prints, lace, embellishments, woven patterns. I have been thinking why don’t I express fully this side of me in my outfits and came to the following explanation.

Patterns are expensive to make — excluding simple prints. So embroideries, embellishments, woven patterned fabrics and elaborate prints are relatively rare in cheap and middle priced wear that actually form the majority of my wardrobe.

Good print is hard to come by — often the prints look like a sorry excuse to bring together the season colors to one garment. I don’t know how tightly the fabric illustrators work with designers on mass produced clothes, but judging from the results the co-operation could be improved.

So I’m developing here a strategy on adding that pattern to my wardrobe. I like the idea of mixing different kind of patterns, two or even more prints with some embellished details, perhaps toned down a bit with more calm, repetitive woven pattern. I like the idea of combining patterns of different scale to one outfit. I like both restricted palettes with wild patterns — and just wild palettes with wild pattern. A good trick is to mix black and white (or any other two tone) pattern to more elaborate design.

The images are from few of my all time favorite pattern themed shows Dries Van Noten spring 2008 Wunderkind spring 2008 & autumn 2009 (all from Style.com).

So, currently I’m looking for:

1) An embellished or printed full skirt with bright colors (the linked one is fab, but not my colors…)
2) A black and white floral print skirt, preferably with large scale print
3) (Ethnic style) embellished vest, maybe even jacket
4) Sheer and lightweight dresses and blouses with prints, preferably with buttons on front and easy, loose shapes
5) A fitted tapestry coat with fancy floral motifs. I would prefer a white or cream base for the pattern.

I will keep my eyes open in charity shops for these and definitely stalking Yoox sales for some bargain finds. I might pop in to those ethnic bazaar shops when encountering them on my travels (a trip to Stockholm and Warsaw on sight). With the tapestry coat the best option would be sewing it by myself. There is one interior fabric shop in Helsinki that at least used to have an awesome collection of jacquards and brocades.

Oh, and I still don’t have any neat digital prints for my sci-fi moods…

Posted on | May 1, 2010 | 4 Comments

// Space rags

Posted on | January 5, 2010 | 9 Comments

This is the type of outfit post I thought I will not be posting. I’m really not wearing it. However comfortable these bargain Topshop sale shoes are, I’m simply not able to walk on ice with heels. And they would definitely need socks if I could.

The pair was a total slip off from my shopping plan for London. I knew that my Castañer wedges were on their way and I can’t really say that I’m in desperate need for shoes. But I kind of fell for them, the sculptural heel design is pretty awesome and the foiled leather build with slightly alienesque design is just the right way tacky to really allure me. Plus the shoe is surprisingly comfortable, well balanced and the cage’y structure dense enough to not to dig into my skin. I have to confess that I often fall for pieces that are sort of leftovers. There were huge amount of these left in blue, green (kind of loved that, hard times to decide) and magenta, in all sizes. There were two other designs with this heel, too, an awesome thigh high boot — which I just could not justify to purchase, and a great, detailed ankle boot (see it on Queen Michelle, if you haven’t already). It might be the color — or the fact that these remind me very vaguely of the awesome McQueen Atlantis-collection — but this was the pair I walked out with.

Pewter colored foiled leggings from Vero Moda have not been too much in use, but suddenly they found a neat pair from the All Saints T-shirt dress in almost same shade. Under the dress is an old mesh dress/tunic, might be from American Apparel. I have mixed feelings towards it. To be fair it is not that bad on, but I hate the plasticky feeling when I pull this on, and the brittling sound of static. On the other hand it is a great underlayer. I draped my old A.F. Vandevorst giant shrug over the dress, this time I used another sleeve opening as a neck opening, so the symmetry was broken just a bit. A bit more drape over that, American Apparel circle scarf in delicate burnout fabric — I really like this piece but I believe I haven’t photographed it here yet. And Pilgrim crystal bracelet.

The result is quite monochromatic but not totally colorless and very subtly chameleon-like — the mauve tinge on dress and leggings is accentuated on some light. It is also a typical example of one thing I tend to do… If I have two shiny items, I like to have them close to each other… …in the same way the draped items are on top of each other. My outfits are usually not built around that many items and repeating a distinct item in very separate places creates easily a scattered, uncomposed effect. Or at least I think so. But this rule of thumb is not valid all the time…

Well, I sure will wear this later on the spring! Quite good for my sci-fi mood… …or space-hobo, whatever…

Posted on | January 5, 2010 | 9 Comments

// Damn you, Topshop

Posted on | October 7, 2009 | 1 Comment

I kind of trusted that the Cristopher Kane collection for Topshop is sold out instantly — and my credit is safe. But whatta hell, the supply seems to be endless. I’m not after the famous crocodile print — I like it, but I think that it is bit too recognizable. I really like all the mirror embellished mesh numbers — but to be honest I feel slightly turned off by the fact that they all are dry clean only. Oh yes, I would probably end up hand washing them and suffer the consequences. But on the other hand… …the more I stare the neon yellow bandage dress, the more it looks like the most perfect layering piece ever. And I really like the shoes, too. Plz someone, hide my credit card!

bandagedress

Posted on | October 7, 2009 | 1 Comment

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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.