London Fashion Week - A Portrait

French Illustrator, Damien Cuypers gives us a refreshing spin on all those "street style" shots of  London Fashion Week fashionistas that have been saturating the web in the last week or so.

 He captures them as they race from show to show, capturing their personality so well with speedy and suggestive skill and LOTS of colour. It's the simple crayon style mark-making and array of colours that give them a child like quality, albeit a child with highly developed artistic vision!

  ....guess who?

 

For the Frieze Art Fair last year, he was asked to churn out some super fast two-minute sketches of some of the big names gracing the week's activities- caricature at its best!

 Tracey Emin

 Jay Jopling

 Grayson Perry

 ...and then a bit of Terry Richardson for good measure!

 Check out his website- www.damienflorebertcuypers.com , some really amazing work!

On a completely unrelated note....

Lent update.... quite easy to omit chocolate, pizza and crisps from my shopping but i still need a munchie "fix"- have been pigging out on pastries and such instead, sleepovers and smoking does not help this. Ok...so some crisps may have fallen into my mouth on Sunday(sea salt & black pepper mmmm) but I'm just going to pretend that never happened and carry on!

Thou Shalt Not Eat Chocolate...

Diet...fast...Christian observance...torture - whatever you want to call it, Lent is upon us! 

I remember you used to always be told, " Lent is not about what you give up, but what you TAKE up!"  Like praying or being nice to your little brother... or maybe start smoking full time to replace the CHOCOLATE, PIZZA and CRISPS :( What better way to mark the begginning of 40 days and 40 nights of self denial than with a very over indulgant Last Supper! And yes, yes I did feel a bit sick after I ate it all!

Of course you gotta have your Pancake Tuesday as well, compliments of my flat mate Kirsty. UHT spray cream is still AWESOME!

So I shall try my very hardest to give up these three things which feature highly on my shopping list, not looking forward to it, especially with my flatmate asking how am I to last through uni deadline season without my comfort food... However, there is one day of respite- St.Patrick's Day ♣ ♣ ♣

Blue Dip Dye DIY

Finally dyed the ol mop blue (decided on it way before Katy Perry!) It took me ages to actually get around to buying the dye and bleach and then there was the effort of putting time aside some evening to don plastic gloves and have your eyes sting with the peroxide for a few hours!

 A lickle bit of inspiration...

  I had a look online for some dip dye tutorials, of which there are an endless suplly! There are some very very boring and pointless video "tutorials" out there. No doubt many of the creators of these videos would have otherwise been talking to themselves in the mirror, only for the suggestion of a friend that they should SO make a video for YouTube...

But I found this one which I'd reccomend - from Free People 

 The LIVE Colour (approx. £4) works a treat and the Crazy Colour (approx. £5 from Ebay)is dead easy, and quite messy to apply!(as you can see)

There's always that scary moment when you dry the ends of your hair to reveal just HOW bleached it is. This is scary because it is the point of no return and hopefully it is not a hideous point of no return. Thankfully even though my dying skills have a lot to be desired, I was covering up any uneven bleachiness with BLUE!

 The first time I did it, the blue wasn't left on for long enough- it says 15-30mins but I left it about an hour for each section and that works so much better- even my mother approved at the resulting depth of colour! However, as it is a semi- permanent dye, the slightest sniff of shampoo and it starts to run out of your hair!

All in all I'd say... it will be an effort to upkeep and my reasonably silky ends are now rather dry and quick to tangle :( But I do love the colour, and at least I've done something to my hair as I was getting pretty bored.

And sure while we're here I'll just show you the rest of this outfit because I LOVE this jumper I found in YMCA the other day :) and I LOVE my Levi's shirt which a friend sent from the sample Sale in her Levi's office, Belgium (thank you!).

jumper...YMCA

denim shirt...Levi's

jeggings...NewLook

Reebok hightops...UrbanOutfitters

 

 

 

 How cute is the little fabric bag the shirt came in?!

Kick Ass Lingerie- Ann Summers

So I'm a day late with this here post but lingerie ain't just for Valentine's day- it's for LIFE! At least it should be but on my budget I can only wish away and window shop...and copy and paste :)

Don't know if you remember Ann Summer's hot hot hot TV ad before Christmas? But yeh, it was hot and their stuff looked daaamn good and my flat mates and I (laptops to hand) were straight onto their website as the ad was still playing. While they have had some sort of website facelift they haven't had a complete taste over - haul and still stay faithful to their slightly more tacky side - Que the obligatory body stockings...hmmm...if you got it flaunt I guess?!

I've chosen my favourite items...that remind of Supah Hot Heroes! The chain mail bra is AMAZING, where the hell you would wear it I don't know but I want!!

super is super does

leopard print lovliness

kick ass colour combo

cheeky chain mail

attack with black

MEET FEAST

Would you just LOOK at that beaut! 

Nothing like a pizza after a long day of fruitless labour in the library! Don't ask me for a slice though because I don't like to share my pizza.. I'm totally selfish when it comes to munch, anyone who knows me well enough knows I'm a greedy gobbler! I'm also a bit OCD about rearranging the pepperoni before it goes in the oven. This is in the event that if I am obliged to offer a slice, said person won't get any more pepperoni than me- rather childish but you can see where I'm coming from though right?!

Well, I need to savour every slice while I can because I'll be saying N.O. to the 'ol frozen pizza section soon for Lent. That's 40 days and 40 nights people, lest some of yee forget your Bible stories! I gave it up successfully last year along with crisps and chocolate although there were a few "mishaps" invloving the odd Crunch Corner yoghurt and accidental chocolate chip muffin... 

God loves a tryer though ;)

Drum Roll please...MAD MEN Season 5!!!

The best thing about this March? Mad Men Season 5, that's what and a two-hour premiere on March 25th no less! I cannot tell you how excited I am for this, definitely one of my favourite TV shows ever ever ( Buffy was top dog for a while but I think I've grown out of that!). Not only am I dying to feast my eyes upon the amazing clothes and to find out what the hell happens next but watching Don do his thing is a pleasure in itself.

The poster for Season 5 complete with iconic ad man is apparently cooking up a bit of controversy for those who draw comparisons to "the falling man" of 9/11... far too grim I say!

I can't sing this show's praises enough- the writing, the casting, the wardrobe, the sexism, the chauvinism, the prejudice. It's such a perfect window into that era, unlike Pan Am which has unjustly been dubbed "the new Mad Men". I know a lot of people love it but I find it just another sickly sweet US drama with access to a dressing up box and which never scratches below the surface. It has Christina Ricci sure, but I haven't seen her in anything decent since Buffalow 66 and the Opposite Of Sex! I'm die- hard Mad Men- can you tell?!

Aaaanyway back to Mad Men, check out the Season 4 costume commentary from the Costume Designer, Janie Bryant- what a dream job that woman has!

 One of the best things about Mad Men are the sharp one liners, here's a few gems...

"If you don't like what's being said, change the conversation" - Don Draper

"When you don't have any power, you have to delay things." - Betty Draper

"Let's take it a little slower. I don't want to wake up pregnant." - Don Draper

"When God closes a door he opens a dress." - Roger Sterling

"I hate to say this, but this has really made me wonder about civil rights. Maybe it's not supposed to happen right now" - Betty Draper

Peggy - "I have a boyfriend."
Joyce - "He doesn’t own your vagina."
Peggy - "No, but he’s renting it."

"What you call 'love' was invented by guys like me. To sell Nylons." - Don Draper

The man himself on a fictional cover of Scotch & Smoke magazine :)

Talking Heads : David Lynch Does Barbie

 

This is a very weird, slightly unsettling ad from the brilliant and warped director turned advertiser, David Lynch. Believe it or not this is a legitimate ad for his own brand coffee- one hell of a way to market it because you will definitely not forget this video - so odd but I love it!

I had heard about his film, Mulholland Drive for years and finally got around to downloading it and watching it a while back and it is so strange. It's one of those movies that leaves you scratching your head for ages afterwards, you know the ones where your not quite satisfied by the ending but you still really like it?  Highly recommend it purely as something to bend your mind for a while!