i'm livin it major, i'm livin it major

just some quick shots from the Selby that i had already uploaded into photobucket..it's playing up for me right now so i'll post the rest of my faves (of which there are maaany) soon when the uploading option is back and running for my account.






images via

the collection is mostly blue because he's colour blind and blue is one of the few colours he can see

hello, hello, hello, hi.

i've been waiting on official photos from the festival of fashn to drop into my hot little hands soon (via school ?, not sure) so i can post them here..if theyre ok.
but i really dont think that thats going to be happening any time soonskies.

so a while ago i was going to post some of my quick sketches/fashn illustrations here, but didnt want to until after the festival - assuming that i'd finish making them all before that night. no.
i ended up finishing some pieces for the red carpet section and another 2 for resort - all half-finished/half-arsed attempts which i didn't even like in the end which bothers me, just cos i ran out of time.
but oh well. i also lost a whole heap of study time bc of the hours i spent on fashn stuff, which is equally annoying..i dont think i did nearly as well in the last set of exams as i could have. or assignments. and theyre all so goddamn important right now.

but back to belated fashnfest review; i think my resort duo were in the ~wrong section, and i know this def mirrored the judges' opinions because it seemed that they considered resortwear to be strictly lycra/togs..
that did annoy me a tiny bit, but was expected. its funny though, bc resort collections at fashn weeks around the world (paris, ny, etc) have the occasional swimwear incorporated into the collection, but always include dresses/shorts etc and the whole summer 'look'. hm.
i was luckie enough to score a 'special mention' for my 'edwardian' get-ups though, which is kind of cool.
so here are some of my drawings from january '09 up until about june/july..when i got lazy:
originally i planned on doing a slouchy/drapey set of tops. i wanted them to be made of loose fabrics so they sat loosely but maybe with shoulder pads underneath for even more of an androgynous/boxy shape. just in muted colours or greys and blacks or something. its hard to explain the image in my head and this picture's actually quite terrible..one of my first sketches so its rough and horrible. and i guess fairly subconsciously yohji-inspired, accidentally, with the mesh incorporated and what have you.



this is image is also a little hard to decipher due to the dodgie picture quality, but i had wanted to do a set of three jackets, at the start of the year, to go with three dresses - all to go in as one entry in the after 5/red-carpet section. at that stage, that balmain collection hadn't been soo publicised, so the boxie zipped/studded/embellished jackets weren't at that stage so overdone and difficult to stomach. i'm now so far from enjoying the collection bc im so sick of seeing it done and re-done and in spreads in most magazines for months afterward.

the original plan for the dresses:


here is a version of the dresses that was closer to those that i ended up sewing. the colours at least..you can ignore the embarrassing descriptions beside each figure haha..that was just for the benefit of translation when i entered it into the illustration comp thingo..
and also for those who are unaware, i have a massive Sunday bun hair fetish. so thus the amy-winehouse-beehive ish buns times trois..

originally for the resort section i wanted to include a set of (again) slouchy draw-string dresses. i wanted three and for them to be made of similar fabrics/colours but to each differ slightly - ie. different sleeves or asymmetrical or drawstring used in different sections of each dress.
i struggled to find patterns that fitted the exact idea/s, obvz, but mum has a few big boxes of old patterns so i managed to mix and match to find patterns for the tops and bottoms of each.
i wanted to incorporate originally a sort of neon transparent fabric into each..but couldnt find anything like that in our one/two fabric store/s, of course. so i stuck with a steady range of whites and beiges with some black string. this idea let me use doilies which i had wanted to include in/make a dress out of for yonks..
ALTHOUGH doilies/doilie-esque fabric proved too expensive, so i just used a whole heap of different types of lace that i bought/had lying round from past mini-projects, curtain-making and art stuff for school.


this was a different unfinished tangent alltogether, but sort of had a similar idea to the transparent neon action that i was hoping for in the resort idea above.


i suppose this one was more of a wearable art piece, but i still wanted to enter it into the evening-wear section..in a mishmash-of-pretty-fabrics-and-fairly-muted-colours-but/so-still-wearable-with-confidence-rodarte sort of way..
i guess if i had included the antler/twiggie and/or bird-wing/feathered alexander mcqueen ish headpiece it would have tipped it over into more of a not-so ready-to-wear category..but as if i even started/finished it at all in the end D:
i guess i was still in a bit of a white/fluffie mood after my wearable art piece for school and so was still feeling the beige/gold/shades of ivory and white soft fabrics. i wanted to use a heap of different types of wool in those colours as well as transparent and floatie fabrics as weeell as some rougher more textured ones..but all in a feminine fairie sort of fashion. i guess. i dont know..the image in my head was ~relatively awesome haha..i can assure you.


i guess just a shorter, slightly modified equivalent of the one above..
god, none of these are even slightly identifiable.


here's a slightly similar set of three that i had quickly jotted down (i think there's something about me and threes ?) one afternoon in about 20 minutes.

this was going to be entered into streetwear i spose - was more for night-time escapades but there was no section in between street/day-wear and full-out evening gowns.. i wanted the skirt on the left to be mostly luella-like gold and black non-symmetrically-aligned ruffles..maybe made out of taffetta or something a little structured and firm so they would be kind of excessive and hold their shape easily. the top was just going to be a black leotard i think..~ something fitted and non-descript so that it wouldnt draw attention away from the bottom half.
the second dress was going to have a big silver/gold/something sillie and metallic-ly coloured whopper of a frill that travelled from the front of the waist up around the neck and back down to stop just below the wearer's collar bone.
i wanted some ott bow/bunnie ears on headpieces - probably just metallic also/black..a little like louis vuitton S/S09 did at the louvre !
sidenote1:i think every 'idea' of mine has referenced a really obvious copy of someone else..revolting.
and 2:embarrassed at the link content in this post ! hahah, sick of it yet ?


this was nuclear-cloud-shape inspired. i guess direct theft from chris kane. again i'm totally ripping off other people. thank god my career tangent isn't based around anything to do with fashion..this week.






i have so much more to write about and some of my favourite recent Selby pictures to post. so there's a large chance i'll post another blog tonight if i find nothing better to do.

her assignment paper had the scent of his first madonna album

there was a decorated general with a heart of gold, that likened him to all the stories he told
of past battles, won and lost, and legends of old; a seasoned veteran in his own time.
on the battlefield, he gained respectful fame with many medals of bravery and stripes to his name.
he grew a beard as soon as he could to cover the scars on his face, and always urged his men on.

but on the eve of a great battle with the infantry, in dream, the old general tossed in his sleep and wrestled with its meaning. he awoke from the night to tell what he had seen, and walked slowly out of his tent.
all the men held tall with their chests in the air, with courage in
their blood, and a fire in their stare. it was a grey morning and they all wondered how they would fare,
til the old general told them to go home.

He said, ‘I have seen the others, and I have discovered that this fight is not worth fighting. I have seen their mothers, and I will no other to follow me where I'm going.
So take a shower, shine your shoes. you’ve got no time to lose, you are young men you must be living.
go now, you are forgiven.’

but the men stood fast with their guns on their shoulders, not knowing what to do with the contradicting orders. the general said he would do his own duty, but would extend it no further; the men could go as they pleased.
not a man moved, their eyes gazed straight ahead; til one by one they stepped back, and not a word was said. the old general was left with his own words echoing in his head. he then prepared to fight.

He said, ‘I have seen the others, and I have discovered that this fight is not worth fighting. I have seen their mothers, and I will no other to follow me where I'm going.
So take a shower, shine your shoes. you’ve got no time to lose, you are young men you must be living.
go now, you are forgiven.’

this is a song about weapons of mass destruction and fridge magnets/the wonky factor

solar, lunar,
stigmata,
nasa


image via
a solargraph, or solargraphy, is a photograph that was taken using an exposure long enough to track the movement of the sun in the sky..therefore, exposure time can be anywhere from a couple hours to six months. a 6-month exposure will enable you to image six month's-worth of the 'sun's luminescent trails and its subtle change of course caused by the earth's movement in orbit..dotted lines of light are the result of overcast days when the sun struggled to penetrate the cloud.'

what is perhaps the most amazing thing about solargraphy is that the image is made using black and white photo paper..but the image that is created is in colour.
the paper is so overexposed that the image is visable without any processing needed - a pretty large attack of the woah, if you ask me.


well played, ruffles, well. goddamn. played.
'Think of a nice, polite, knee-length dress you might find a rather mature royal wearing to a garden party, add an ample amount of sickly sweet confectionary colour, then look at it through psychedelic tinted glasses, give it a matching handbag, shoe and hat and this season's character is born.
Pink, purple, lilac, orange all done to punk proportion. This is cute and proper to the point of subversion; from the pink velvet tatler bow right at the top of the rock Sloane quiff down to the paneled tweed and lace skirt suit, and to the multi-coloured heart fronted heel at the bottom.
On first glance everything is rather proper, with bow fronted blouses, pleated skirts and mini, structured queen mum bags but there's a strange, wonky undertone. Things aren't quite present and correct. - luella.

i dream of having an enrollment at: the whitehouse institute of design, accademia italiana (which whitehouse gives full scholarships to D: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), central saint martins. big hopes ? no way.

i really prefer the backs to lots of dresses and skirts, they seem more delicate and nice as ice.


Stigmata freaks the pants off me.
according to wiki, yehe,:'stigmata are bodily marks, sores, or sensations of pain in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus.'
and it actually happens. in this century and everything.
unrelated people, around the world, have gotten these sores that never heal/just bleed and bleed and bleed forever..in their hands and feet on the same spots that jesus had crucifixion wounds. some also receive these unexplained and ongoing wounds in their head, like from the crown of thorns. incredible ? terrifying ? you pick.
the majority of reported cases have been in females, but obviously not all of them..
some people who have stigmata claim to feel the pain of the wounds, though show no external marks; these are referred to as invisible stigmata. in other claims and cases, stigmata are accompanied by extreme pain.
it is said that the wounds do not appear to clot, instead cotinually staying fresh/uninfected.

i'm not going to include any images in here, but run an image search in google for Giorgio Bongiovanni at your own will.


Karma Police, arrest this man..he talks in maths.
he buzzes like a fridge, hes like a detuned radio.
Karma Police, arrest this girl..her Hitler hairdo is making me feel ill,
& we have crashed her party.
for a minute there, i lost myself, i lost myself.

go away ricki-lee 'i'm proud of my curves' coulter

don't be a hard rock when you really are a gem baby girl, respect is just the minimum.
cos you said the brains i had went to my head.



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wow. i really don't like images of different sizes alongside each other ^. gross.



just found a cassette that i hadn't been aware of before, containing:
wonderwall, don't look back in anger, song 2, leaving home, freak, prisoner of society, into my arms, etcetccceteteeteeetc..

the start of it was a nice coincidental tribute to oasis, no ?

style.comnomnom

michael finch lended me his portfolios for both project runway and his general book of pretty impressively non-crap stuff for me to have a look at (to help with me considering the fashn course at qut..) the other day..was so so nice and exciting !
connections go a long long way with these sorts of things, yehe. the photos of his evening gowns and dresses were so gorgeous, and so much attention to detail. most were just black and white and had super ruffle attacks - all things i can't go v far past; at least not without looking back.
i'll post some images and say what i've been building up over the last few days/wks with after qcs and exams and stuff are over, so probably in the holidays, if not a little earlier..
in the meantime, here's some pretty things to ease your eyes if you've been QCSing also (or even if you haven't !)

god, lucky i wouldn't cry at all when i saw anything in person by chris kane.. :/

(arh i just looked back at this post and realised that some/most of the images have been kind of cut off on the RHS >, you've got to save them and have a look ! all worth it !):

S2009:




F2008:


F2009:



RESORT2010:



S2008:




S2007:


and also, here's some sonia rykiel amazeo action that i found in a blog about a week ago, doesn't it just make you want to desperately be right there/then ? looks like such a fun fairie partie, and i like how each of the models' hair is slightly different..these are seriously only my very very favourite picks of the bunch !:













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astrology is the study of the relative position of the celestial bodies in the belief that they influence events on earth

most of what we 'know' we have taken on the authority of others, and it is only as others continue to confirm this 'knowledge' that it continues to be plausible to use.

i have some current little influences right now:
astrology and images taken from and of space, artificial intelligence, nick cave, the balance mechanism in the human ear, the history, culture and natural environment of the Inuit population, ramona, christopher kane, existentialism, feathers, counterfeits and forgeries, criminology

there's a little truth behind every 'just kidding', a little curiosity behind every 'just wondering', a little knowledge behind every 'i don't know', and a little emotion behind every 'i don't care'.

i prefer those who don't feel the need to return my compliments with one themselves. that way, i know that when they pay a compliment it's genuine, and not just because of an awkward sense of obligation.

another story about vampires

Nothing that I have physically produced, nor thoughts or literary works of mine, are original. I am the combined effort of everyone that I have and haven’t met; a granule of earth from every corner of the globe that I have visited, as well as from those that I am yet to travel to..

I draw inspiration, subconsciously, from most aspects of life, but try to keep my chosen influences limited (in order to avoid directly copying from another source or work).
If i do create something that appears to be my own; an original design, that is only the case due to my attempt at emulating someone else’s work and failing or falling short, thus the creating of something new.

I am an optimist – perhaps on too large a scale. You see, I get myself worked up in looking forward to things that I hope to happen – dreams. When they don’t, I come crashing down to earth - it hurts. And, unfortunately, I bruise like an elderly grape. At least, I guess, old grapes can/do get turned into alcohol..which is one small up-side to it all.
Oh, woe.


Andy Goldsworthy is a Scottish ? artist who i really got into after doing a partial assignment on him either earlier this year or maybe in '08..i really can't remember which.
he works with nature to incredible extents, and often creates sculptures and structures that are only temporary - being slowly washed away by the ocean after being built in front of an incoming tide, or being made of loosely but skilfully-placed leaves and twigs - always always made out of natural things out of the environment around him. part of the reason that he does these temporary works is to mirror the constant movement and change within nature and the world around us, i think. i find that really interesting.



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this was about part of a rare indoor exhibition that he did in 07, with one room having the walls coated with a gorgeous thick layer of pre-made cracking clay:

another, called the Wood Room was just as impressively beautiful, but also a little haunting - at least from what i can gather from photographs.
the room is 'an intricate dome of coppiced chestnut branches that looks like an upturned nest. Inside, it's claustrophobic, oppressive.'
'I hope the room feels like entering the stomach of a tree, it's very intestinal.'

'The piece was inspired by his memory of a visit to the park in 1983. A much skinnier Goldsworthy tried to wriggle through a small opening at the base of a sycamore into a rotting cavity (the manoeuvre is recorded in a series of photographs also on display in the show).'
'I was under threat when I went inside that dead tree, I really didn't know if I'd get stuck halfway.'

andy has all of his works beautifully photographed (i'd like to grab one of his books for my own coffee table) at the time of creation, as a lot of them do not stay around for long.

this was also said by AG about the Wood Room:
[i created the Wood Room]'..because of the number of times I've been in woods, working in a strong wind, and have felt threatened. Big trees have fallen right on two places where I've worked a lot recently. This has happened throughout my life. When I was a student, I worked on one particular rock at Morecambe that I called my workbench rock. When I returned a couple of years later, a big boulder from the cliff had smashed the stone. In geological time, that was a near-miss.'


this was a whole heap of twigs stitched together with thorns, obviously a very slow and delicate process. like this one, he has included a lot of perfectly formed circles within his pieces. maybe that's got to do again with the continuation and impermanence of nature, i'm really not sure.:


andy g: 'since I have had my own children, and seen how intensely a child looks at things, you really can't describe that looking as naive.'
'After a visit to the Arctic in the late 80s, Goldsworthy experimented with snow and ice. Thus perhaps his greatest coup: thirteen large snowballs from the Scottish Highlands left to melt beside London's high streets and tube stations on Midsummer's Day, 2000. As they melted, bucolic debris packed inside - wool, crow feathers, branches, Scots pinecones, elderberries - rolled out onto the concrete. These melancholic acts don't disappear entirely, of course. They're documented and preserved, and sold, through Goldsworthy's photography.'

i could go on and on and on, but i'll refrain and instead leave you with the following images of some of his stuff. i had found a whole heap of great photos of his pieces earlier today but lost the site, so i just found these after a quick internet search in google images. oopz.
i hope you enjoy as much as i have and do:



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so the fashn fest is on next saturday, better be there or be rhombus.

(& lately i've been listening to:
White Lies, The Big Pink, The Whitlams, Crowded House more than ever).
OH WOAH. just heard the best new song by the Basics, features the most awesome harmonies. woahaoahoahaha. google it or something. woah. WOAH.