Fairies and Feathers

When I was small, what I wanted to be way more than a Cinderella or Snow White, was an American Indian princess. Not Pocahontas mind you, though I do have the cherished barbie doll . It was Tiger Lily from Disney's Peter Pan film that I aspired to! I had a jumper with a little native american girl's face on the front, with real plaits made of wool. It was amazing, I wish I could get a bigger version. I went through a phase of only wearing plaits and refusing to leave the house without a favourite necklace round my forehead.

But I digress. The point of that introduction was to say that these memories, along with a general fascination with flappers (began when I read the Great Gatsby and grew as I slowly realised I would never have the correct figure for quite a few other eras of fashion) made me think about feathers recently. I wear hairbands as crowns as opposed to headbands due to the ahem comparative length to width of my head and the knowledge that headbands only emphasise my long face. So I've been thinking about sticking feathers on these makeshift crowns for quite a while, to get a sort of Tiger Lily slash 20s feeling.

But over the last few seasons seeing all the amazing feather dresses has brought to mind yet another obsession. Has anyone else ever read the book "Fairie-ality"? It is a thing of beauty. I got it for my 15th birthday and ever since have kept it in a special box...that is how much I love it. The book is full of photographs taken by the artist David Ellwand who spent months making tiny tiny fairy outfits out of natural materials such as feathers and leaves. It is so pretty it makes me want to cry and/or dive into the pages.

When I read that (obviously) all these outfits decay rather quickly and are only preserved on the page I seem to remember going into mourning for quite a while. And also being very impressed. I got upset about leaving my gap year apartment in France and having to take down my perfect poster collages of magazines (that was after three months,god knows how I'll deal with leaving this overly adorned halls room). I can't imagine how it must feel to have your art work just fall to pieces before your eyes. Now I am older and think about it more, I suppose it may count as some kind of a comment on the transient nature of fashion, but really I just love the book for the shallow reason of how amazing it looks. I want to dress in fairy outfits and drink tea in the sun.

Truly I now want every ridiculously over the top feathered ballgown I see. But Christopher Bailey's Burberry Prorsum dresses are the ones I can see most
realistically fitting into my wardrobe...

Realistically if I had the money that is, hmmmm

Occy

Canis Lupus

Post Marc Jacob jacket satisfaction, I feel it is necessary to begin to divulge our inspirations. So I will begin with one of particular importance.  THE WOLF.

As Occy pointed out in a previous post, we have an unconditional love for Wolves.  Needless to say if I had a spirit animal it would most definitely be a wolf. 

It all began about a year ago, with a very special jumper that my friend KJ pointed out to me in a vintage store in London.  'This looks like something you'd like' she exclaimed whilst holding up a worn 'Jerzees' jumper.  Lets just say it was love at first sight.  

It's their piercing eyes, their stealth like movement, their chilling howl, their beautiful fur, Angela Carter's 'Werewolf' in "the Bloody Chamber and other stories', the full moon, the snowy mountains and landscapes of Canada and the deep dark forests in which they linger.

Be it through t-shirts or jumpers my collection is ever multiplying...and the love seems to be spreading!  It was to my great excitement to see Jack Black sporting several amazing wolf t-shirts in Michel Gondry's new film 'Be Kind Rewind'.  The combination of his aviator glasses and scruffy wolf tops led way to a great look.  Unfortunately I couldn't find any evidence of this in pictorial form on the net, so instead I urge everyone to go and watch the film to see the wonder of his wardrobe.

Post film/wolf excitement, and a result of a Google search yesterday entitled 'wolf fashion' I came across a flawless Autumn/Winter 07 line by Kate Sylvester (who I had not heard of until now).  The line was centred around the chilling combination of little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf.  Reading a review on runwayreporter.com I discovered that the sound of wolves howling was played throughout the show, and bright 'wolf vision' eyes glared into the audience at the entrance of the runway.  

"You are the unnatural spawn of Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf!"

Was the message for the models before entering the runway.  

Why hadn't I discovered this before?! I only wish that I could find somewhere online that still sells this collection.  I love the innocence and femininity of little Red Riding Hood, combined with the big woolly knits of her grandmother and the sexy, dark influence of the wolf in the fur capes.  The juxtaposition of the innocent and the savage works perfectly to create an amazing collection.  

pictures-www.smh.com.au

               -www.scoop.co.nz

Lashes

jacket lust

Lashes is now the proud new owner of this fabulous Marc by Marc Jacobs denim jacket.

I must say I am envious. It manages to embody lumberjack style, be actually not overly manly on AND I am guessing it's also rather good at keeping you warm. I tried it on but sadly I don't think its to be, my shoulders make it a bit TOO masculine. I shall probably still steal it sometime though! My jacket lust lies elsewhere....a far less practical elsewhere:

Ah the beautiful Richard Nicoll for Topshop blazer.

Since I saw it, it's been a rollercoaster of emotions! First there was excitement, then a crash when it had sold out in my size. Then IT WAS BACK. It seemed like this gods were smiling but unfortunatley by this time I had reached my mid to end month no money left really need this for food point. So I am left looking at it every day, hoping it will still be around in March when more money comes into my account. I know its unreasonable. It's not blazer weather, I already have a rather nice black one (see below) and knowing my clumsyness, it's likely it would get wrecked rather quickly. But still I lust. And lust. And look at Anna Molinari and Calvin Klein's perfect summer tailoring on Style.com and lust some more.

I swear I am planning outfits for it already! Talking of planning outfits, I took the opportunity to wrong-foot my old classmates at a party the other weekend by wearing an enormous flower hairband as a crown, latex leggings (hardly new but shocking to the guy fools I went to school with) and stars stuck on my face. It was fun.




Occy

a little more about the rangers...

It could be argued that with our weather rant we jumped right into the blog without proper introduction! They were feelings that couldn't be contained...

So I feel an introductory post is in order. We are Lashes and Octavia. We like the aesthetically pleasing, we love interesting details...this leads to a general adoration of films, art and people but comes out most strongly in STYLE.

Here we are:

And here is a jumble of influences:

~River Phoenix - My Own Private Idadho - Lightspeed Champion - Wes Anderson - Bats - Tim Burton - Wolves - Magic - Bat For Lashes - Jane Ray Illustrations - Arthur Rackham - Foxes - Owls - Harry Potter - Witches and Wizards - Johnny Depp - John Waters' Cry Baby - This is England - Tartan - Sin City Comics - Superheroes - Kurt Cobain - Iekeliene Stange - Vampires - Christmas - Tattoos - The Royal Tenenbaums - Bat For Lashes - Woody Allen - Party Monster - Tarantino -Irina Lazareanu - Chloe Sevigny - True Romance - Trees with no leaves - Pirates - Talking Heads - Kirsten Dunst - The Lost Boys - Lou Dillion - Au Revoir Simone - CocoRosie - Arcade Fire - Clemence Posey - Olsen twins - F Scott Fitzgerald - Nouvelle Vague - Debbie Harry - Victorian dandys - Justice - Uffie - Sunglasses - Luella Bartley - Daphne Guinness - Poison Ivy - Harley Quinn - Anouck Lepere~

With the rain/wind wrecking our outfit plans (hiss!) and a lack of funds limiting our purchases, our fashionselves have been feeling starved of late. Hopefully this page will be a good outlet for our obsession!

Occy

spare us cloudmaster

Totally over the winter weather. Ok, so about 99.9% of the time it has been raining once a day in Glasgow, not only that but the biting wind makes it almost impossible to stand up, let alone trek the distance to uni everyday. Wind, rain, fog, snow AND -1 degree temperatures = layering to the max and quite frankly we are sick of it.

Spring/Summer lines premiered back in September before the winter months have even begun. The fashion media and press already predicting the bigger trends, anticipating the high street copy cats. So often we find ourselves way ahead of the game.

In Summer 07 we were already longing for Stella McCartney's chunky knits and imagining treking around in Marc by Marc Jacobs skating boots. Eventually, as Christmas approaches, you finally get to wear whats been on your mind all summer...then why is it all you can think of is pinic attire? Picturing tea parties and sunglasses, we dream of the day when we can wear our Luella-esque florals.

So in conclusion to this post, we beg you, elements of the earth, show us some sun!

photos-Style.com