Thursday 3 December 2009

Vice does cool stuff with Henry Holland... YAY!

Vice teamed up with Vodafone and spent the last few months working on a series of projects with some of their most talented friends, making short films, flying planes, building high-fashion wendy houses - that sort of thing.

Obviously they brought cameras along to film everything, and you can watch it all here - http://bit.ly/69amgQ

It's truely awesome, and since i'm a big BIG fan of Henry Holland and his House of Holland brand (see previous posts about his tights collaboration with Pretty Polly!) I reckon you should all check it out... NOW!

Love to you my dear readers,

MerrieGirl
xxx

Monday 30 November 2009

Albums Of My Decade

It's one month until the start of a whole new decade. 1O years ago I was 11, it's crazy stuff to think about really.

When I was 11, things were different, as facebook will tell you;

- Freddos were 10p and Space Invader Crisps were 15p.

- Kids played outside instead on on games consoles all the time.

- Nobody knew how Harry Potter ended.

- There was no such thing as an ipod or an iphone, you had a cassette Walkman and cassettes to play on it,

- Your mobile phone was as big as a house brick with a great big arial sticking out, if you had one at all

- Everything was sequinned and sparkly because the millennium meant everybody loved futuristic styles.

- S club 7 were the hottest thing in pop and everybody did dance routines to their songs at the disco.


All that stuff seems like such a long time ago. But It really wasn't. I guess I'd have to say I grew up in the noughties. I started a child and finished an adult. I discovered a lot of things; money, shoes, mulberry, beer, sex, fashion, filth, drugs, love, Brian De Palma, heartbreak, travelling... But the most important, the most influential, the most life changing thing I discovered was music.

I come form a music loving family, my parents raised me on Brit pop and post punk, Primal Scream , Joy Division and Blur were some of my childhood memories. The radio was on permanently, Dad was a John Peel devotee and mum went to more gigs and festivals and concerts than I can remember. But it wasn't until the noughties that I really began to care about the music.

I let it rule my thoughts, my style, my habits, everything. I devoured copies of Smash Hits at 11, Kerrang at 12, Q at 14 and NME at 16. I listened to every free CD, spent my pocket money on singles and made endless compilation tapes that I listened to at every opportunity. I was, and still am a bit like a female version of John Cusack in High Fidelity.

Music made me who I am, to quote a terrible cliché there. It made me artistic, passionate, creative, expressive and idealistic. Music made me feel more powerful than any drink, drug, achievement, fuck or love ever has.

So, to jump on the 'best of the decade' bandwagon, I give you the songs, the artists and the moments that shaped my wonder years. In no particular order, here are my top 10 albums of the noughties:



- The Libertines, The Libertines
This album came out towards the end of the band's success, when Peter was off being a twat with Babyshambles. It basically describes the implosion of the libertines is heart wrenching honesty. What Became of the Likely Lads always sends chills down my spine. Purist fans will argue Up the Bracket was better, but I definitely felt more of an affinity with this record.



- Jet - Get Born
This album was successful off the back of one song, Are You Gonna Be my Girl. That song just reminds me of being in my friend's front room, with a bass guitar and a battered drum kit yelling along to the words. As an album, it made me want to dye my hair black and dress like Johnny Ramone circa 1978. So stylish, so attitude-y, so very cool.



- Amy Winehouse - Frank
Everybody raves about Back To Black, which undoubtedly a great album, but Frank was more subdued, more considered and full of beautiful, elegant love songs and songs about how guys need to shape up and how real love never works out the way it does in films.



- Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
This came out as I finished secondary school. It's all about being too cool to be a jock and how it's more interesting to be the kids in band Tshirts that carry collage-covered briefcases and have a rubbish band that practices in the music rooms after school and studies physics or history or art, which is what we were. Best song is Michael, Alex Kapranos has never been sexier.



- Ash - Meltdown
This was all about the riff, the signature track - Clones - we ripped off in one of our band's songs cos it was so cool. The guy/girl vocal dynamic was exciting and so YOUNG sounding. Fave lyric - How's it feel to be a freak? Oh so pale and so unique. To walk lonely in the rain, unashamed that we are not the same



- Red Hot Chilli Peppers - By The Way
This was probably the first entire album that I got properly excited about. It's just 4 old ex-party boys with recovering heroin habits, but they sure make good summer songs. It probably didn't help that I had a massive crush on Anthony Keidis, haha.



- The White Stripes - Elephant
The start of a long and beautiful love affair with TWS. I saw the video for Seven Nation Army and was hooked. Cold Cold night is a stand out track, as is the concluding song - It's true that we love one another. I later bought this album on vinyl at their 2005 Alexandra Palace show, it's even better as a record.



- Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head
This is the album I always turn to when I'm down, when I need to relax or even when I need sleep. It's perfectly melancholy and bittersweet. A truely great break up album, will have you howling the house down. Best song is Amsterdam, right at the end, my friend played this on the piano when we were dating, very sweet, reminds me of him always.



- Daft Punk - Discovery
I liked this album thanks to the incredibly cool anime-style videos for one More Time, Digital Love and Harder Better, Faster, Stronger. I was a big Sailor Moon fan in my youth (still am) and it just caught my eye. It wasn't long before the best dance music ever made got right under my skin and stayed there.



- My Chemical Romance - Three Cheers for the Sweet Revenge
A bit of a guilty pleasure. Was a huge influence on me when it came out, me and all my little chums bought Helena on picture disk in HMV for £1 each. One friend dyed his hair black and wore eyeliner in tribute to Gerard Way, he looked a lot like him I must say. Best track - I'm Not Okay (I Promise). Perfect touch of mainstream-emo-pop fodder.


Luv and kisses,

Rosemerrie
xx

Friday 27 November 2009




"The spectacular wardrobe of Grace Kelly will be on display at the V&A. Tracing the evolution of her style from her days as one of Hollywoods most popular actresses in the 1950s and as Princess Grace of Monaco, the display will present over 50 of Grace Kelly's outfits together with hats, jewellery and the original Hermès Kelly bag. Dresses from her films, including High Society, will be shown as well as the gown she wore to accept her Oscar award in 1955. These will be accompanied by film clips and posters, photographs and her Oscar statuette. The display will also include the lace ensemble worn by Grace Kelly for her civil marriage ceremony to Prince Rainier in 1956 and 35 haute couture gowns from the 1960s and 70s by her favourite couturiers Dior, Balenciaga, Givenchy, and Yves St Laurent."

Yup yup. Grace Kelly's wardrobe will be on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London from April 2010, just in time to be a major major influence on street style for summer.

The catwalk shows tell us that next S/S will be a fairly feminine affair, softer, ice cream colours as an antithesis to last year's acid brights and colour blocking. White will be a big player and the statement shoulder of the last 12 months will give way to a more waist-centric silhouette (we live in hope, waists are a great deal more wearable!)

Princess Grace knew a great deal about style; she was classy, she was classic, the epitome of ladylike chic. I mean, she was a hollywood leading lady who became an actual princess! You can't see the likes of Paris Hilton doing that, though she might argue she already lives a better life than a princess but who cares, Paris Hilton is incidental.

I just can't wait to see the beautiful clothes that sum up this amazing icon of class, elegance and femininity.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/6622755/Grace-Kellys-wardrobe-to-go-on-display-at-VandA-museum-in-London.html

Monday 23 November 2009

More drawings, enjoy my lovely readers.









Luv and kisses, MerrieGirl
xxx

Sunday 22 November 2009

A very beautiful poem

Words, wide night -Carol Ann Duffy



Somewhere on the other side of this wide night
and the distance between us, I am thinking of you.
The room is turning slowly away from the moon.

This is pleasurable. Or shall I cross that out and say
it is sad? In one of the tenses I'm singing
an impossible song of desire that you cannot hear.

La lala la. See? I close my eyes and imagine the dark hills I would have to cross to reach you. For I am in love with you

and this is what it is like or what it is like in words.

Friday 20 November 2009

I'm sick, so I spend my time drawing...




Just a selection of drawings I've done over the past 2 days. A little bit risqué and there is some partial nudity, so view with that in mind please. Enjoy...







Hopefully will be more to come.

Luv and kisses, 
MerrieGirl xxx



Tuesday 3 November 2009

As promised - what to wear to a strip club...

Gosh I am so behind in this blogging business, it has been about 3 weeks since I meant to post this blog. But unfortunately work has been intense and our internet and phoneline have been cut off (shock horror much!)

So I'm actually writing this from the uni library. Yes I am in on my day off and in the library like a GEEK. Well I am a geek, but that applies regardless. I am not terribly happy to have missed my Tuesday morning lie-in, but que cera cera. Life goes on.


So, strip clubs.



If you should ever visit a proper strip club (not one of those fabulously entertaining burlesque clubs or special event nights where the women are elegant, sexy and dressed in Agent Provocateur and custom made sequinned bikins with those amazing feather fans in jewel colours - think the film Gypsy) but a real old man in an overcoat, bouncers on the door, cliche type thing, the most important thing to remember is that the women will look good. I mean, it's their job, the better they look the more money they make. There will be naked bums, boobs and legs everywhere. It will all be smooth, hairless and toned from hours of pole-dancing training. It will be fairly intimidating (even if you are a guy).


I recently went to club in Cardiff for a friend's 21st. We were a group of about 20, mostly guys but a few girls including myself. I later spoke to the girls there about the struggle I had deciding what to wear, I mean full on sexy isn't going to even compete with the girls there, and jeans would mean a shake of the head at the door most likely.


The consensus was that smart-sexy-chic was the way to go. Too much leg/bum/cleavage and you risk looking try hard, like you're trying to out-sex the girls. This would leave you looking like you were a strip club reject. Never a good look!


However, you did need to have a little bit of flesh on show; a cheeky hint of cleavage or a stocking clad leg poking out of a pencil skirt or little cocktail dress. This was, more than anything, to remind any male company that 'hey, I'm a seriously sexy woman too!'


Altogether, the look to go for is one that says 'I'm not trying to fit in with the stripper girls, I'm trying to look a little more sophisticated, a little more titilating - without wearing a sparkly, thong bikini and putting my nipple in your mouth.'


Personally, I wore a monochrome pencil skirt that sat high on the waist, belted, with a black low cut top with 3 quarter length sleeves (hey it was Cardiff, I was cold!) and a lacy camisole peeping out of the top to lessen the cleavage impact, you know common decency applies in ALL situations. And my ubiquitous black tights and black mary-janes. A slash of red lipstick and bed head hair gave it a kinda sexy twist, but in a low key way.


Did it work? Well i felt at ease, I felt sexy, I felt classy. So I guess it did. Probably an 8 out of 10 overall. Higher heels, such as these...




would have made more of an impact. Toe cleavage, after all, is ALWAYS acceptable. But never mind, something to remember for next time.

Much Love,
Merrie Girl
xx

Monday 19 October 2009

Celebrate HOH!


 Whilst perusing the lingerie Dept of Debenhams in Birmingham, I came across a stand full of these little beauties. 


As a pretty big House of Holland fan I just HAD to get a pair. The had all sorts of different designs with the little house motif and loads of bright colours n stuff. But I just loved this Over The Knee style. The black was a bit classic and I fully intend to wear tehm with coloured or white opaques undernieth for that added edge.

How fabby do they look! Everyone go out and buy a pair! Right now goddamnit!

Luff and kisses,
MerrieGirl

coming soon, my adventures in Wales and what to wear to a strip club....

Thursday 15 October 2009

Wagamama is amazing! Agree?

Wagamama are holding a t-shirt design competition where the winner will receive £1000 and also see their design turned into the new Wagamama uniform for all the restaurants across the UK. 

Find out more here www.viceland.com/wagamama

I will totally be entering! I think you should to! And if you do win don't forget to bring me along to your celebratory meal at Wagamamas! Mine's a Chicken Katsu Curry with rice and a juice :)

I <3 Borders


On a rainy day there's nothing I like better than going into the city and wandering around the bullring. 

While I love a good mooch around Selfridges or Debenhams (I know it's a bit sad but I love department stores) today I thought I would go see 
what the new magazine releases were. I was not disappointed. I picked up the new edition of French Vogue (about 1,000,000 times better than British one, even if I cant read it that well, hey i don't read the british one!)





This is the October issue that's causing a bit of controversy due to a photoshoot by Steven Klein and French Vogue editor herself Carine Roitfeld, featuring hot-as-you-like model Lara Stone. While this sort of thing is typical of Vogue, this particular shoot is more risqué than usual because Miss Stone has been painted. Her skin has been covered in make up to make her look black. 


Yay or Nay? I personally find it a bit tasteless. Stone is stunning in her own right, for her own colouring and features. There are also so many beautiful dark skinned models out there - Naomi Campbell, Jordan Dunn, Alek Wek? If they wanted a black girl they could've used these women. It seems a bit strange to have done what they did. But you can't dispute the boldness of the shoot and the quality of the shoot. Kudos Steven Klein, as always.



I also picked up Lula, a fairly new magazine, with a really hyper feminine feel to it, it's all girly type-faces and soft colours and female icons (articles on Grace Coddington, Mercedes Helnwein and Emmylou Harris) it's a nice antidote to the increasingly androgynous focus in a lot of magazines. I like it anyway, definitely something to get again in the future.

I also looked at, but didn't buy, Notion magazine. Which is a very 'nu rave' style magazine. Very edgy, androgynous and just a bit fierce.



I just had a quick flick through while I was in Borders and found an advert for the fabulous Vivienne Of Holloway, a favourite of my flatmates. I'd never seen VoH ad so though i just had to stick it on the end here. 



So that's my most recent overspend in Borders. I'm sure it shall happen again soon.

Love and kisses, MerrieGirl
xxx

Tuesday 13 October 2009

Red Bull, bags, hair and SERIOUS boot envy


It's a bit belated, but what with moving back to B'ham and getting back into the swing of uni I have neglected to report on the experience that was the Red Bull Fashion Factory for London Fashion Week. It was really lucky that I got to go. The illustrator Miss Led, whom I follow on facebook, posted as her status that she had 15 guest list places for the first people to email her. So I did and then me and my sister were on the guest list to a LFW party! So we got the train to good old London, got lost finding the venue but eventually ended up at the right place and has a really excellent day - even if I was the fattest person in the room.



 It really was an OH MY GOD moment when I saw this particular lady. A great big, black, patent MULBERRY ROXANNE nonetheless!!! I am quite the devotee to Mulberry, their bags are the absolute sex. This madame rocked a VERY expensive and chic look, despite being in hareem pants, Topshop shirt and oversized cardie (on paper it's a dress down look, no?)
But, she brought it to a whole new level with such an amazing bag. I want to be her in the future. Totally.


I was seriously impressed with the print on this girls frock. Between tribal and floral - but with a surprisingly winter twist. It really doesn't look like a summer look somehow. The blunt fringe makes it bold though, and NOTE! NO BARE LEGS!!!!!


Another killer outfit with a HUUUUGE Vivienne Westwood bag. I actually love the check on this, and it was a nice nod to the fact VW had shown her red collection at the Fashion Factory venue on Old Oxford Street the previous night. I did actually have guestlist places to go to that night but, due to lack of transport and money, just couldn't make it. Apparently there were problems with the guest lists and I probably wouldn't have been able to get in anyway, as a mere student! Though I did blag my way into the Felder Felder show on the Monday night, lots of attitude-y studding, black and more than a touch of biker.



 The girl with the pink hair, my pink hair twin for the evening. I dyed my hair pink in true fashion student style - statement hair, without the cost of a decent hair cut! It was crazy to have this girl rocking pretty much the same shade of magenta pink, we were both at the Old Sorting Office all day, guest list-ers of course. And she had great shoes!


And lastly, these boots.

Basically the sexiest little things I saw the whole time we were there, even beating the SUPER high wedges in the graduate shows. They summed up the kinda thing people were wearing - fierce, buckled, super high and BLACK. But basically they were amazing. Kudos to the wearer.

Thursday 1 October 2009

Vice-y Goodness

The all new ViceUK student guide is now ONLINE folks!
So get viewing, get laughing, get LOVING IT, fo sho mo fos!


http://www.viceland.com/blogs/student/


I know it's a shortie and I haven't posted in a while but I will write a proper post soon. Cross my heat and what-not.

Much Luff,
MG

xxx

Thursday 17 September 2009

Chocolate Biscuit Wonderland


I met a guy today in town, a friend of a friend. He bounds over and proclaims 'I'm a chocolate biscuit!' 

...

That's the title explanation half done so now onto the main feature. It's the advent of London Fashion Week (LFW). It starts tomorrow and it will be one hell of an event. As I mentioned before La Wintour is going to be there along with all the great editors - great snippet in the Observer food monthly about how Wintour and Carine Roitfeld of French Vogue would go to the great eateries of London and not eat and want to smoke there tres tongue in cheek of course. The Times is doing a massive style section this Saturday as a reflection on the events in London. I'm sure they won't be alone. 

So while the international glossies will be doing the 'best of fashion week overview in their next issues, the weeklies will be doing the who-wore-what and so on and so forth...

The magazines who's comments I'd most like to read however, are unlikely to do anything remotely in depth regarding fashion week. Which is a shame. Wonderland is my personal bible. When the current issue was released, after a summer hiatus and re-style, I was so excited to see the white typeface glowing from the shelves in WHSmiths I actually squealed and RAN (yes RAN) across the store to go and grab a copy. Which I bought and read in Cafe Nero within half an hour of setting eyes on it.


So basically I'm a fangirl.

I've seen the last 2 rebrands, am familliar with the fashion team - Lauren Blane was my tutor for a module at uni and Way Perry follows me on facebook - and am constantly inspired by the shoots. It just rocks.


------Sorry for the delay on this, I never got around to publishing it so it's a bit old school but a bit abut the new issue of Wonderland was too good to skip over------

Luff and smoochies, 
MG

Tuesday 8 September 2009

Did Anna say that?

It's all about Anna right now. 

Which Anna? Well should you even be asking this question. It's THE Anna, Anna Wintour, the devil (in Prada).

In last Sunday's Observer Magazine - truly crucial reading as ever - Anna Wintour was the topic of the regular 'Did I Say That?' feature.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/sep/06/anna-wintour-american-vogue

I like this:

"I read in the New York Times this week that I'm an ice queen, I'm the sun king, I'm an alien fleeing from District 9 and I'm a dominatrix. So I reckon that makes me a lukewarm royalty with a whip from outer space. Whattaya think?" (2009)

  She's probably more than a bit right. 

  No fashion figure generates so much awe and animosity as La Wintour and it doesn't look like it will end any time soon. The highly anticipated 'September Issue' docu-film is due to be released in days and from the look of trailers and previews the public perception of Anna will remain unchanged. 

  In all the coverage of the film she comes across as a hard woman, business driven, bold and successful. She's scary, out of touch and cold. She's skinny, groomed to within an inch of her life and draped in the most successful and au fait of designers around. I mean, if La Wintour wears your designs then you're in, no questions asked it's pretty much the ultimate kudos to a collection if she even turns up to your show. 

  London fashion week starts on the 18th of September, it's the 25th anniversary of the shows, loads of brands that had moved their shows to Paris or NYC are returning (Christopher Bailey at Burberry, eeeee!) all in all it's setting out to be the highlight of the fashion weeks - upstaging Paris? Now I'm not sure about that but wouldn't it be something. Of course there is one extra thing that never usually happens - La Wintour will be in attendance. Yup, Anna Wintour is going to be sitting (her bum on a seat and all that) in the London shows. 

  Imagine what it would be like to be a CSM graduate right now. What if you were the hot young thing from the best fashion school in the world who had scored a place somewhere in LFW (with a designer or something) and you knew Anna Wintour was in town? This year will bring some very very memorable moments from LFW. 

  So despite her 'Nuclear Wintour' image and the near constant bad press that follows her name, but never seems to affect her success, Anna continues to be a force to be reckoned with, maybe even a force for good?

  I wanted to end this post with a picture (google-stolen of course, it's not my picture sadly) of La Wintour in her full glory. I wanted the fur wearing, glossy, groomed lady with the serious face - the one that we all think we know. But then I found this image and maybe, just maybe this is Anna. She smiles, she looks comfortable, relaxed and just a little bit... normal? But of course, she's not normal she's Anna Wintour.





"Coffee, please."