Unicorn Hair Braiding

I had the pleasure of attending another class hosted by the School of Fabulousness, an initiative sparked by Melbourne's own mermaid, Lady Petrova! I've visited Petrova's boutique a lot this year and am always welcomed by the most delicious assortment of tea and cupcakes. The classes are no different, but for two hours a group of women learn new skills such as how to start a fashion business, draping for design or how to make your own flower crown! This time I attended the Unicorn Hair Braiding class taught by the lovely Theresa Winters of Braidance where we learned to braid each others hair. I finally was able to master the fishtail braid but also learned how to rope braid (as seen on Lady Petrova) and create "the waterfall". It was so much fun- and at the end we used hair chalk and glitter as well as fake flowers to achieve the desired dreamy unicorn affect. If you live in Melbourne and are interested in attending the next School of Fabulousness class, I recommend you check them out on instagram. If you're really passionate about hair or are a mad Game of Thrones fan and want to recreate Daenerys Targaryen's hairdos visit the Braidiance website.  

Wearing: Vintage dress and coat, Disneyland sweater, Asos Heeled sandals (available here), Asos faux fur scarf.

Attending the School of Fabulousness I also got to debut my newest purchases from Asos! This outfit is my own homage to the wonderful women of Advanced Style who have shown the world that to age gracefully does not mean fading into obscurity. The scarf was on sale and has now sold out, but the shoes are new and all sizes are available now. This vintage dress and coat are my go to outfit but I cannot wait for the weather to get a little warmer and to be able to go outside without wearing multiple layers and thermal tops. 

hair-raising

I've taken fashion blogging to new highs in terms of beehive hair, but also lows with what might be the worst (i.e. unoriginal) title for a blog post- ever. That said the content is absolutely fine and in fact I greatly admire the work of Julien d’Ys, who you might recognise as the hair stylist for Rei Kawakubo's colourful collections. In particular, the flamboyant fluorescent yellow locks that graced the stage at the Comme des Garçons Homme Plus presentation. These sculptural hairstyles were just one component of a collection which redefined gender at Paris Fashion Week. I remember seeing the hairstyles for the very first time in a youtube video, featuring the best of mens' fashion week and watching cool and disaffected male models exit the rear of a building. While not hugely practical or something that I can imitate on this blog, I thought the looks were worth sharing as inspiration to other bloggers or simply those who are dissatisfied with their current hairstyle and craving something different.

*Images via Dazed Digital, Photography Ilker Akyol

a bespectacled, studious youth

I've known I would need glasses for about a decade now- both my mother and father have two pairs of glasses each so it's always been something I've secretly looked forward to. I thought that this would happen during a later stage of life, specifically in my late thirties or early forties if I really looked after my health. The long hours I've spent scanning through specimens on a microscope is beginning to take it's toll though- and I frequently complain about sensitivity to light as well as eye strain. It's time to face facts: shopping for glasses isn't all doom and gloom although the sudden prospect of wearing glasses did slightly upset me. It seemed serendipitous that at approximately the same time, Eyeglass Discounter contacted me it seemed too good to be true! Although my eye tests came back as a negative on the glasses I did enjoy perusing their online catalog as well as finding photos of badass babes rocking their designer eyewear. For my North American and European readers it's also important to invest in a good pair of sunglasses for the upcoming Summer! They offer further discounts on their cheap range of both glasses and sunglasses, so I would highly recommend in buying a spare pair if you're thinking about traveling during the break as well. They also have some really cool hipster style glasses, along with many of the classic clubmaster and wayfarer styles to choose from.

*All glasses via Eyeglass Discounter
1- Arabelle Sicardi. 2 & 11- Tavi Gevinson. 3, 6, 9, 12- via Eyeglass Discounter. 4 & 5- How to Find the Vintage Eyeglasses of Your Dreams via Rookie Mag. 7, 8 & 10- Advanced Style.

Real witches don't wear black

Wearing: Meadham Kirchhoff X Topshop dress, deadstock tights, POMS earrings, Topshop zebra print jacket and Atilin saddle shoes.

One of my favourite things to do is take a well-known troupe and deconstruct it and then rebuild it in my own image. Witchy chic is one of those things normally associated with lots of black, dried rose petals and wooden trinket boxes but instead I decided to make it more cute and kitsch. While I admit this look definitely needs like a cute pentagram necklace or something I am happy with how it turned out. I've been so busy wearing my Asos faux fur coat that I totally forgot about this zebra piece for a little while. It's not exactly versatile but it is super fun to wear with other patterns such as this dress. The weather is finally cold enough that I can wear these cute tights again and I no longer feel that it's necessary to wear a petticoat with this dress. I think it demonstrates that slowly I am growing in confidence not just in terms of my outfits but also my body type.

Keep it simple, stupid

Wearing: Target turtleneck and skirt, Asos faux fur coat and Dr Martens boots.

I wore this outfit on the weekend and although it's fairly conservative for me I still got a few looks. I'm not sure if it's because it was a strange hour of the night or what I was wearing, or a combination of red hair and pink lips but I think at least one lady was trying to smile at me. It might have also been because I was with my boyfriend who's white and even though I'm mixed and halfway some people might still have a problem with us? I don't know, it's pretty confusing trying to guess what someone is thinking. Anyway I needed to wear a warm jacket because we went out to the city to celebrate a friend's 21st. It was a friend from work but we often hang out to play video games and order pizza and he's crazy good at just about everything. We ate at B’Churrasco, located on A' Beckett Street which served yummy Brazilian barbeque-style cooking. Our dining experience included fourteen different meets served on sword-length skewers, thankfully there weren't any vegetarians but the banana fritters were absolutely delicious.