Jalouse?

Very pleased to announce that I shall be trotting off to Paris tomorrow...

Unfortunately this fantastic news has thrown me into a hysterical state of anxiety mixed with euphoria. I'm currently trying to pack but have realised I don't own any clothes to speak of!  If I had my way I'd be swishing past the Eiffel Tower in a lab coat and jewels like my current sartorial obsession, Ms Helena Rubinstein 

The hints of Helena in Giles' Resort '13 collection hit my nerd reflex and I went researching until I couldn't take my eyes off this picture. I love the contrast of the severe labcoat and puffy sleeves. I love the lab setting and the lipstick, the harmony of the  polished 'do and the perfectly ordered scientific instruments. I've also always had a thing for creepy medical/scientific things (not in a way where I find a speculum a recreational tool for fun outside the gyno office, I just think creepy photos of early 20th century nurses etc. fascinating)

Anyway, I'm stressed and tired and have clearly forgotten how to write coherent sentences, so here are some of the pictures floating around Anna's head at the moment....let's call it 'Helena Rubinstein and Diana Vreeland open a meth lab'

Just some unstructured thoughts...

I promise to be a proper blogger in Paris! xx

Day Rest of the week because I'm sick of this

I have been a very bad fawn and have tired of writing about the whole work experience experience (there are only so many self-deprecating fat jokes a girl can make, after all), so I’ve decided to squish the rest of it into one post, and then get to writing something much more fabulous.

Wednesday 16^th May

On Wednesday morning I arrived to the glaring absence of Ms Annie Edison- apparently due to some family issues she wouldn’t be able to complete the week. My heart nearly fell out of my butt. I was terrified that without Annie as a buffer I’d be even more disliked, but hopeful that I’d be able to prove myself and maybe do more work in the areas I was interested in.

Thankfully the happy highlight of the week was waiting for me in the fashion cupboard. The fabulous fashion coordinator peeked out from under her giant beanie and offered me a full, 3 month internship! Giant Beanie had pressed play on my success montage, and the rest of the day/week went by in a happy blur... that afternoon I even got glamorously lost in the CBD with a pair of Jimmy Choos. 

Oh, and on this day I wore silver cullottey things, a charcoal shirt a boy must have left in my room once, a grey marle sweatshirt, leopard slippers and a giant chunko Alexander McQueen skull ring.

Thursday 17^th May

After the excitement of Wednesday, Thursday seemed to drag. I think my body finally thought it could relax and let the exhaustion in.  A few of the highlights included heading to Menya for lunch, feeling more comfortable with the other interns and compiling a list of cute, shoppable knick knacks for a ‘what’s new’ section in the mag. 

On this day I wore an orange brocade skirt from Cue, another shirt from my bedroom floor with a face on it that I believe is meant to be Marilyn Monroe, holey stockings and leopard slippers.

Friday 18^th May

Friday flew past in a sad/excited blur. I breezed through the coffee run, fashion cupboard packing and tidying up, and even got to help one of the art department girls lay out the magazine on the cupboard floor. .. a definite highlight.  I spent the rest of the day hiding from and staring in awe at The Editor (in the most beautiful jacket I’d ever seen, made from a thousand freshly skinned Snuffleupagi) and thinking of what Annie Edison would have bought for everybody on the last day. I settled on cute cards and giant chocolate freckles, left in a cloud of hugs and started planning my internship wardrobe. 

On this day I wore a green digital print Veronika Maine dress that is way too big and makes me look like I have saddle bags, a Christopher Kane white shirt with green/blue gel collar from AW 2011 and those trusty old leopard print flats.

OK! So that’s it until my internship diary thing I’ll try to start in August – expect all the same glamorous fashion hoo ha and at least 40% more tales of the Murray’s bus characters I shall encounter on my travels. 

Now let’s just start posting self portraits n’ shit.

Here is Donald Glover hanging out with Alexander Wang... 2/3 of the most beautiful threesome in the world.

(from  style.mtv.com )

Day Two - and again.

Tuesday 14th May 2012

I happen to be an incredibly impatient person. One day where I didn’t immediately fit in or become incredibly successful was enough to make me think I’d made a huge mistake and decide to pack it all in.  Thankfully I’d been listening to a fair bit of Beyonce recently (and couldn’t afford the trip home until Wednesday), so was inspired to turn my sense of inadequacy into sassy lady power!

 I convinced myself that Day Two would see me starring in my own transformation montage, working harder than ever and emerging as the greatest work experience girl who ever lived! I got up early, grabbed a soy chai skim sugar substitute thing at a chic cafe, breezed through reception like I was Anna Wintour, swished my hair around ... and was greeted by Annie Edison. She’d arrived almost an hour early, had finished all the photocopying and regaled me with tales of the bakery treats she’d made (from scratch) for the entire office last time. 

Oh well. Annie was actually very sweet and quite good company. We had a few laughs as we returned to the beauty cupboard to help send off more excess product to nearby women’s shelters , and she guided me through the never ending cycle of packing, unpacking and checking invoices that the fashion cupboard has to handle whenever PR companies send in new items for photo shoots. 

Once again I felt most comfortable hidden in the luxurious chaos of the fashion cupboard. While I felt the beauty department could tell immediately that I lacked both knowledge of and desire for Moroccan oil/hair straighteners/lamb placenta to increase bust size, I was confident with fashion and knew I could pick out collections and labels with the best of them.

Finished the rest of the day enjoying working quietly (one of my favourite things about the office is the persistent quiet and the lack of pressure to make small talk) and got to know a few of the other interns. Once home time came I raced back to the hostel to grab my things, bid a fond farewell to Sven my cannibal roommate and took my friend up on her offer for a place to stay for the week. 

That night I showered like only a lady who has lived next to a by-the-hour hotel can. 

How Anna tried to look today

I really just wanted to be comfy and happy today, so relied on old favourites - Romance Was Born and dressing like a boy.

Inspired by Romance Was Born Spring/Summer 2010, 1940s archer ladies, headpiece by Kate Rohde for Romance Was Born Spring/Summer 2010 , YSL's beautiful mix of baggy jersey and shiny acrylic in their Spring/Summer 2008 campaign , Prada Spring/Summer 2012 jewellery, another lady from the 1940s, and the inimitable Luke Sales.

Day One - Hiring the smart fat girl.

The first of what is basically a lame diary entry about my work experience week at a fashion magazine - very self-indulgent, so forgive the whining and rambling both!

Monday 14th May 2012

After a night spent planning outfits and thinking of ways to politely convince the Nordic man in my hostel not to eat and dismember me, I let Google Maps take me on the scenic route to my glamorous new workplace. 

I sat in the foyer, the lone brunette in a sea of perfectly polished work experience girls, was collected by a stressed out editorial coordinator and it had begun.... whirlwind tour of the (surprisingly small) office, directions to the photocopier and straight into the coffee run. It soon became apparent that my fellow ‘workie’ was a returning guest star who’d interned before, remembered everyone’s names and was friends with the editor’s husband. (She shall now be known as Annie Edison.)

Of course, Little Annie Adderall took to our next task with infuriating chutzpah, chatting away pleasantly as we helped sort out the mess in the beauty cupboard.  Apparently every few months the rivers of unused lotions, crèmes, masques and sprays sent in by various PR companies threaten to drown tiny beauty editors, so a ‘beauty sale’ is held. Everything from Schwarzkopf to Shu Uemura is carted out by various interns, chucked on a table and sold to the girls in the office - $5 for as much crap as they can fit in a bag. 

It was then that I had my first clichéd glossy mag moment, as Annie, myself and the other interns were ‘paid in product’ for our help. I came away with a $250 hair straightener, cologne, moisturiser and make up and am still trying to find people to give it all to – not a bad perk for my first day on the job.

Lunchtime was when all my crazy showed up. Despite the work being relatively easy and gift-filled and everyone being nice and polite, I felt like a big fat fuck on my first day at school. I couldn’t compete with Annie for hair shine or bubbliness, my efforts at conversation  had fallen flat, and while my outfit had seemed all Comme-y and sporty and 90s cool at 8.30 that morning, I might as well have turned up wearing Bjork’s skin as a hat. I sat by myself eating a salad, wishing I’d worn skinny jeans and ankle boots and wondering what the hell I’d got myself into.

Me, 1.00pm Monday 14/5/12

Once I’d exchanged my salad for a burger and dusted off the remainder of my self-pity, I was sent to help out in the fashion cupboard, where things started to look up. A shoot was planned for New York the next day, so we stuffed DVF and Bally into suitcases and put layers of duct tape on the soles of beautiful shoes – just getting to touch these things was definitely a highlight for ol’ Anna, and I spent the rest of the day letting out happy squeaks at each new item.

I finished day one a little happier, though couldn't shake that awful feeling of being a big fat nerdy loser. I went home, leapt straight into a glass of wine, and dreamt of Stanley Tucci turning up to give me a make over and help me fit in...



I had planned a  proper outfit post, but it shall have to be recreated once the shiraz is gone from the dress I wore... until then...

How Anna tried to look today - a moodboard thing

 

Inspired by Hussein Chalayan for Puma,  the athletic/balletic choreography of Emio Greco and Peter C Scholten's 'Rocco', and Pierre Rigal's 'Game Over', Comme Des Garcons Spring Summer 2012  and Nike's collaboration with Liberty

I AM AN INTERNET GENIUS!

Just plugged a thing into a corresponding thing and shall be posting again in no time! I'm sure you're all very excited.

Photo illustration: Everett Bogue, Photo: Getty Images via http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2008/02/lagerfeld_jacobs_prada_dont_kn_1.html

Maybe they think I'm funny?

So, due to a fabulous twist of fate slash administrative error, I've got myself an internship at an intimidatingly successful Sydney-based fashion magazine.... Hopefully some outfit inspiration will hit me soon.
Glamorous September Issue style blog posts to follow!
xx

Like your mum saying 'bling bling': Part the Second...

And here, to further prove how behind the times I am, is a review of Lisa T's Autumn fashion show (mere weeks after it actually took place!) and written in a slightly bitter haze after the inimitable Susie Bubble wrote about Lisa before I did.

Goddamn that Susie Bubble...Pioneer of the fashion blogging scene while I wasn’t even cool enough to have a live journal, discovering Christopher Kane while I dripped sauce on my Sportsgirl top, and now, with one blog post, ensuring the worldwide superstardom of Canberran artist Lisa Twomey while I was meant to be writing a review of her Autumn fashion parade.

To be fair, Susie has a knack for uncovering exceptional talent, so it was only a matter of time before she stumbled upon the sequin-sprayed pixie that is Lisa T. But, now that Ms Bubble has stolen my thunder and provided the definitive description of Lisa’s work (noting that they could be embedded with Clare Boucher’s voice, no less), I guess there’s nowt left to do but post a gushy, fangirl love letter before Lisa becomes too famous. 

Lisa is one of life’s very fabulous little magpies, hoarding mountains of fabric, sparkles and inspiring things until they explode over vintage jackets and dresses.  The result is a riot of colourful embroidery, sequinned shoulders and heavily embellished fur coats, the likes of which paraded around Honkytonks on a cosy, slightly drunken Wednesday night back in April. 

On Thursday morning I woke up with images of lethally studded jackets in pinks and blues and fur coats dripping in jewels and quilting running through my head. Sleeves were either fringed or covered in lace, and were combined with flowing kaftans and nightgown-inspired shifts that a 90s-era Courtney Love would do unspeakable things to own.  More of the 1990s was evident in the bare midriffs, floor-sweeping boho skirts and Adidas stripes, but Lisa’s creations elevated these touches beyond the tired, self-conscious styling that has become almost inescapable. 

It goes without saying that choosing a favourite look amongst all this was rather impossible, but I must confess, a creamy, vintage lace gown still haunts my dreams, and it has become my life’s mission to own a jacket with pagoda epaulets covered in chainmail and leather fringing – at the very least to ensure bitches don’t mess with me in bar queues. 

Lisa T’s work constantly stands out in a sea of hopeful designers, not for the sequins and sparkles or David Lynch dreaminess of it all, but for the absolute honesty in every single piece - Lisa collects and she creates and she covers her work in things that she loves or is inspired by. There is no marketing push or trend-following in Lisa’s work, just the energy, talent and inspiring aesthetic of a real artist who is wholly herself – something the fashion world sorely needs. 

Aside from an incredibly cute and self-deprecating blog, Lisa isn’t one to self-promote, so I’ll take the opportunity to do it for her... buy a piece of her “shamans and shit” (her words) here!