Wednesday, 28 January 2015

ACforAG '15 Collection.






Alexa Chung's influence within the ACforAG collaboration is clear as Alexa's trademark Parisian chic aesthetic is merged with a dying trend, denim. Denim has been cut and styled every single way possible over numerous seasons and this collection brings nothing new. Stone-washed denim shirt dresses and boring boot-cut jeans brought no raw artistic flare expected from Chung but rather, left a deflated launch audience to "ooh" and "ahh" over Alexa's block printed name on the label. The only individualistic pieces presented were a mumsy denim shift dress with a ruff-like neckline and off-white jumpers with french print loosely translating to "I have the soul of the wave", very "coffee shop hipster"-esque. 'Wearable' is quickly becoming a dirty word in the fashion industry and one has to consider if this launch would have been as successful without the excited bubble of Alexa's appearance.





[ Ill be doing a guest-post over on Shy,Strange,Manic about the actual event and I may do another here about the interview she did at the launch, so look out for those!]







Friday, 16 January 2015

Faces of Fashion: Leigh Bowery.


Notorious king of the club-kids turned murderer Michael Alig was recently released from prison after 17 years for murdering fellow club kid “Angel” Mendez. His release has thrown “club kid culture” back into the limelight thanks to the modern medium of social media where Michael interacts with fans. But it wasn’t just in New York that “club kid” culture thrived, here in London it survived via Leigh Bowery.

                                  

Australian-born Bowery made his name in London thanks to his “pro-weird” stance on fashion and its prevalence in performance art. Bowery saw himself as a piece of walking art and used this ideology as influence in his seven collections which premiered at London, New York and Tokoyo fashion week. His collections were a mash of conceptual surrealist culture presented as couture. One of Bowery’s most famous pieces was a full form oil black cat suit made of wet look PVC and covered everything but the mouth with an added power-tail hairpiece on top. London was a place where “freak” thrived in the underground scene but Bowery pulled the fashion of the movement from its roots to the surface of society.

             

After cultivating the fashion industry Leigh became fascinated with club culture and decided to migrate the clubkid lifestyle to London through his club Taboo where he, like many clubkids, worked as a promoter. Taboo became a hit and attracted celebrities such as Boy George who developed a close friendship with Bowery. Taboo quickly became known for its quirky underground atmosphere and the enormous amount of drugs that passed through it, two things considered fundamental to the club kid movement.

Taboo was Bowery’s gateway for the young and rebellious of the time to access a medium of art in juxtaposition of the “norm”. However it appeared to be short-lived as Taboo was shut down in 1986, but this didn’t deter Leigh from continuing his stint in the spotlight.

                                        


Leigh went on to thrive within the art world as a budding friendship grew between himself and Lucien Freud who painted Leighs best friend Sue Tilley in “Benefits advisor sleeping,” which went on to break the world record for “highest paid for a painting by living artist” at £17.2 million. It was at this point that a silencing reality came crashing down for Leigh as he was diagnosed with AIDS.

Soon after Leigh decided to pose for several completely nude paintings for Lucien Freud. Through the eccentric makeup and outlandish outfits, the bravest costume Bowery ever wore was his own skin.


                                         
Leigh passed on the 31st of December 1994, and still Bowery was determined to live on, as he asked his friends to “Tell them Iv gone to Papua, New Guinea”.


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Friday, 5 December 2014

Julien Macdonald SS/15.


Julien Macdonald’s Ready-to-Wear SS/15 collection was a slow burner.
Awash with geometric Great Gatsby style prints and knee-length bodycons, the opening pieces were nothing too show stopping. The audience were more preoccupied spying Abbey Clancy and Tanya Burr in the FROW than the designs they had come to see. Macdonalds usual audience don’t seem the type prepared to spend a mint on such boring run of the mill pieces and if he knows his demographic at all, who is he designing for?

The drab opening left the press curious, Macdonald’s usual style was pushing out high glamour from start to finish, all embellished trumpet dresses with a blinding amount of glitter. So far the collection was boring and deflatingly highstreet, nothing to call home about.

When half the collection had been shown the show started to pick up as a sweetheart off the shoulder cut empire line dress stormed the runway in a flurry of tulle and metallic lace. A somewhat jellyfish silhouette reminiscent of scuba diving, a very subtle nod to summer.

Fashion photographer Dan Cowley said the pieces were “Remarkably crafted” and while this is true, Macdonald has upcycled many elements of his collection from AW/14, same hair, same makeup, and same materials. Most of the gowns were chiffon and lace with diamond encrusted detail and had a subtle Aquamarine theme. An idea that has proved popular so far for the coming season and is very in character for Macdonald compared to previous seasons.



The flourishing finale fresh out of the studio was a floor length lace wedding dress with a short train. The detailing was nestled and layered around the lower region of the dress and thinned out towards the top to give a faux nude look. The traditional essence of the piece was skewed as the model-bride had ditched the veil and instead had pieces of lace instilled in her hair. As his first wedding dress on the catwalk it was impressive. Simple and elegant but not what he is known for, could this be symbolic of change at the atelier of Macdonald?
















Thursday, 23 October 2014

Maybe its because I'm a Londoner.

Hey everyone,

A lot of exciting things have been happening with me lately, mainly due to the fact that Iv recently moved to London! I must have gotten too in tune to the "£2 a pint" north because I cant help but scoff at every product/bus fair/tube fair/ticket price/service tip.....basically anything that costs anything and being a student on top of all this isn't really fair on my bank balance. Being in the busy city has kept me on my feet and being the cheapskate I am Iv devised a list of the best apps to save you bucks and help you get around in London!


1. Timeout London:


Timeout London is a great app that let you know what's going on in and around your area and central London, It gives recommendations for everything from Art Galleries and events to cafĂ©'s and restaurants and on top of that it shows you how to get tickets to events cheaper than the door price. If you're really stuck on places to go then you can just hit the "most popular" button and it will show you what everyone else liked. This is a good app for Planning


2. City Mapper:


Citymapper is an app which uses your current location (Location button on for this app) to help you find any destination you need to get to whether it be a pub, shop or tube station. You just type where you want to go and hit "Get Route" and the app takes you to a page of travel options (see second image). It gives you options for walking, bus, bike, taxi, tube, what's safest for rain and it will calculate how much it will cost and how long it will take you to get there. Once you've chosen your transport method it takes you to a map which has the instructions laid out beneath an aerial view map of where you are. It even has a working compass on the map so if you're walking in the wrong direction it will tell you! This app is great for Travel.


3.Runtastic:


If, like me, you don't want to pay for the gym but still fancy staying in shape then Runtastic is perfect. It uses your location to map out your running journey and works similarly to the Nike+ app in the sense that it shows you how long you've been running, how many calories you have burned and lets you choose what music you'd like to listen to while you run. It also has a feature for speciality training such as 10k training, weight-loss and marathon runners. It also gives the option of "story running" in which the app uses your earphones to deliver a live-story that is affected by your running. For example, you may be running from zombies and the earphones will reflect that as you hear them getting closer behind you. You have the option of one free story "run for those who cant" and the rest are around the 99p mark. This app is perfect for Fitness.

4. Farm Hero Saga. 


I'm recommending Farm Hero Saga because its my go-to when im on the Tube. 1. You don't need internet to use it, AWESOME 2. You don't need signal to use it, AWESOME 3. Its really fun and occupying for when you have long distances to travel, AWESOME. Just try and not play this while walking anywhere because you WILL get too involved in the game and end up shouting "oh crap" in public and/or walking into a small child. Lesson Learned. This app is good for Killing Time.


xoxo

Fashion-Fox.


PS. Apologies if this is becoming confusing, since beginning my degree in Fashion Journalism I have decided to revert back to my original alter-ego "Fashion Fox" and I am happily back into the swing of blogging regularly and have some great posts and videos scheduled for you guys.





















Thursday, 13 March 2014

Street Style: London Fashion Weekend.


So last week I attended London Fashion Weekend and reported the Julien Macdonald catwalk for Platfform magazine, it was seriously mindblowing, mainly due to the sheer amount of embellishment and detail in all of the pieces. Whilst milling around the little shopping stalls etc quite a few outfits caught my eye so I decided to photograph them for you all, enjoy!


We bumped into the lovely Celia Orford keeping it simply stylish by wearing block colour basics, mainly blacks and pastels, but jazzing it up with a fabulous faux-fur caramel coat from Zara (around £100). I especially love the black skinnies and black heeled ankle boot combo as it brings an essence of effortless style while keeping the attention on the coat.



Jessie took the opposite approach by using layering to create an effortlessly chic piece. I feel like this outfit is a good representative of London fashion culture as it uses a mix of street and high fashion to create one overall piece. The bottom is very tailored and floaty whereas the top is all about textures and layering to create a cluster and fall effect.
Coat: H&M
Necklace: Zara.

 Catheryn Smith wore this bubblegum pink soft box coat, a reoccurring theme at London Fashion Weekend was defiantly the emphasis on outerwear as the main focus piece, as is evidenced here by the large overcoat taking main stage within the piece.
Coat & Glasses: Both ASOS.

Nasreen used a variety of textures and colours to create this outfit. A blue fur coat, Lime silk scarf and Fringed suede boots combine to create a crazy mash-up of all this seasons trends.
Coat: Topshop
Necklace: Accessorize.

Micheal Taylor incorporated a traditional British heritage within his piece as he adds a red tartan scarf to a quilted coat. He also carries a rough and ready brown leather duffle bag, the ideal balance between prim and country. The white shirt underneath his coat was customized by Micheal to add black buttons which give the shirt an overall sheer look
Coat: River Island
Bag: ASOS

Joao + Yvonne channeled a very Italian style outfit with sharp tailoring an classic prints. Joao wore a cape coat he had made in Portugal with Italian Leather gloves and a crisp white shirt and trouser combo. Yvonne wore a gingham coat from Paul and Joe coupled with a simple lilac shirt dress. LFW brought a whole mix of different cultures into one place.






Sunday, 16 February 2014

Little Mistress Competition:



Little Mistress are an online womenswear brand who seem to specialise in girly cuts and classic dresses. As part of the E-tail PR blogging competition I was asked to pick any pieces from the site to style my own ideal outfit. This piece features a LBD dress layered with a floral pencil skirt. The use of an LBD as a top section means that you can wear it twice as a dress and as a two-piece. The floral in the skirt draws the eye as the mesh blouse-top acts as a simple but stylish base layer.

What I like about the skirt is the way in which it almost looks like the flowers are painted, like a form of artwork. I always look for artwork in fashion because fashion should be about expression and beauty and passion and culture in the same way that art encompasses these societal details and expresses them to an audience or in this case just anyone you meet.

More posts soon, guys!

CelestialMoonRock .xx

PS. Im in London this week for a Uni interview and for London Fashion Weekend (IM AN OFFICIAL REPORTER FOR PLATFFORM MAGAZINE) so I swear to do some posts on that while im there.

Sunday, 9 February 2014

WHATS BEEN GOING ON WITH YOU?!?

I know that on this blog it must seem like im the flakiest thing since Greggs pasties, so allow myself to explain some SUPER DUPER EXCITING stuff that's been going on with me.

 SO first it was my 18th birthday on the 5th *champagne cork pops* so I partied for that. Shortly after I spent birthday money on LeedsFest tickets etc etc yadda yadda yadda spend spend spend.

BUT THEN,

I recieved an Interview for my first choice Uni "London College Of Fashion"





So I was pretty pumped and planning outfits and printing of journalism pieces for my portfolio........

AND THEN

I received an offer to have a Telephone Interview to Intern at RedRock Fashion Studio in Northampton!


So obviously I was freaking out about that and tweeting like you aint even seen........and then my E-mail alert went off and it was kinda weird cause I don't get important e-mails im barely 18. So I went on my e-mail and saw an e-mail from a girl id tweeted a few weeks back..........ASKING IF I WANTED TO REPORT LONDON FASHION WEEK FOR A MAGAZINE WHICH, UM, YES PLEASE, THANK YOU MA'AM, GODDAMN THIS IS EXCITING.


NEVERTHELESS, I have some posts and videos planned, Im still deciding between a How-to-style and a "__ Ways to wear" on a certain pair of gorgeous Gingham Trousers......all shall be revealed in coming months. 


Bear with me young padawans and I promise to make more time for you (and your fabulous requests for Dan to style me, that'll be a laugh)


Kaycia xx

Monday, 27 January 2014

Student Cooking Series #1: 100 Calorie Pancakes + Homemade Blueberry plumb compote.


Hey guys, I'm back!

Its been an absolute whirlwind of university applications, exam preparations and YouTube videos but iv finally made a comeback to this blog and I promise ill be on here alot more now that iv sorted out my schedule.

I made these pancakes today for myself and Dan and they were absolutely amazing and they're only 100 calories per pancake! I don't know if you know this about me but im super into recipes that are free of all the nasties like fats, sugars, gluten etc and although these arent completely angelic they're at least halfway there. Whilst making them I also knocked up a decent quick blueberry and plumb compote so i thought id share that info too. If you try these id love to see your own versions so tag me on Instagram/ Tumblr (@Celestialmoonrock) or Twitter (@Kaycia_) and let me know what you think!


I made six pancakes for myself and Dan and the portions are 100ml of batter per pancake and 3 pancakes each. If you want any less or more just half or double the quantities and it works just the same.

Ingredients for Pancake Batter(6 Pancakes):
  • Two Bananas (the softer the better, theyre going to be mashed)
  • 4 Tablespoons of any kind of flour
  • Four medium eggs (Dont bypass the yolk, its packed with protein!)
  • 120 ml of milk (1/2 an American cup measurement)
  • Cooking spray or oil, Im using Frylight spray.
  • Optional extras: Small or chopped fruits, Raisins, Oats, Chocolate chips.

Ingredients for Blueberry Plumb Compote:

  • Blueberries
  • Plumb(s)
  • a sprinkle of sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon water

Equiptment Needed:
  • Frying pan, griddle or hotplate
  • Mixing bowl
  • Measuring jug
  • Spatula, Spoons + Measuring spoons, fork or rolling pin for mashing.
Start by chopping the bananas in a bowl, it doesn't matter how you chop them you could chop them into tiny pentagrams for all it matters, they're about to get smashed into oblivion anyways so don't worry about it! 

As you do this next step remember "Beauty is only skin deep" and chant it as a mantra as you smash the bananas into looking like some weird devil baby food/sick type lumpy concoction which makes you question how reliable this recipe is. (Very reliable I swear, as reliable as a person on the internet can be to another person on the internet while making pancakes)

Add the flour in to the alien banana mush. Don't bother sifting unless it really bothers you because lets face it, who has time to sift. Oooo just had a thought, if you wanna vamp up the health-nut vibe on these pancakes use coconut flour or whole-wheat flour, or any other kind of flour that sounds impressive when you tell your friends about your knew lifestyle choices as they groan into their Mcdonalds. Mix the flour in well until it starts to go abit dough-like but still pretty much spawn of Satan at this point.
It says "Tip: for fluffier pancakes beat the eggs before adding them". This is my way of telling you all that i forgot to beat the eggs before adding them and that you should probably do that, although they came out more or less the same so if you can be bothered do it, if not don't, its all comin up pancakes.
So now it should look less terrorising and more child-friendly, it should be a bit frothy from where you tried to salvage the fact you didn't beat the eggs by whipping the whole mixture, it will still have lumps in it from the banana mush but that doesn't matter cause it will make the pancakes nicer in the end.
Now add the milk (Health-nuts its time to get the soy/almond milk out) and whatever else ingredients you want in your pancakes. I went for blueberries cause im super into blueberry muffins and I figured pancakes and muffins arent all too dissimilar so what the hell. If you're going for chocolate chips then im wholly jealous of you, we never have chocolate in the house, booo!
TURN FRYING PAN HANDLES IN! The amount of times iv jumped back from an almost deep fat fried foot incident has been too many for a 17 year old so don't even take the risk (I'm not liable if you scald yourself, I warned you). I also once made a really nice pasta sauce then knocked the handle and tipped the entire contents onto the floor, the dog apparently enjoyed it very much. Dont cry over spilt milk but spilt pasta sauce is different, there's more ingredients wasted.
Saying that Dan doesn't like healthy food is like saying that Kim Jong Un was kinda mean, an understatement. He was only just allowing the fact there was blueberries in it (he likes some fruits) so I halved the batter and put cherries in my half, yay more for me.
Turn the pan on a low heat and spray it with cooking spray until its mostly covered. Then measure out 100ml of batter and pour it in the middle of the pan. These pancakes are quite thick and fluffy but if you want proper american style ones then put a pancake ring in the pan (if you're fancy enough to have one evidently im not)to make a perfect deep pancake circle. Cook it between 2-3 minutes, check it at two though because I didn't and you don't even want to see a picture of that hot(cake) mess.
Now we separate the chefs from the "ill give it a go"-ers. If you can flip pancakes then you deserve a medal and a certificate that says "i can flip flipping pancakes me" because in real life who can actually flip pancakes, really, honestly, actually though, without help. If like me you're flippedly challenged use a spatula instead to save splattering the walls with half cooked blueberries. 
A compote is abit like a jam only less painstaking at you don't have to add loads of sugar or sieve it. Mash up some blueberries and put them in a small pan. I cant judge how long it took me to make this part cause i spent a good ten minutes getting my head around the fact that blueberries are green inside.
I only needed a handful of blueberries and one plumb because like I said earlier Dan didnt want anything he didnt like so he piled strawberries and honey on his pancakes. If youre using plumbs be super careful when cutting the stone out because i litterally nearly took my fingertip off. Sprinkle a bit of sugar over the top to sweeten it up abit and to make it abit syrupy so you can pretend its unhealthy when its not.
Cook it on a low heat and keep stirring it till the juice from the blueberries starts to stick to the pan a little bit, if its not syrupy enough add 1/4 teaspoon of water, if its too syrupy you're lying to yourself. Never too syrupy.
Now you can go all "child let loose with the decorations" and make it look all fancy. I put the compote on top then honey and milk cause im lying to myself that its cream and a spoon of fat free Greek yogurt on top.

Yaaaaay, you should have made pancakes by now and if you followed this it should look like Gordon Ramsey bobbed over for breakfast, if not you've obviously done it wrong or you've attempted a pancake flip when i warned you not to and its on the ceiling/walls/floor/your brother/your dog, in either case you're missing out.


PS. Dont be offended by any of this by the way, im not targeting you personally im litterally targetting whoever is reading this so its not personal, okay?, we okay?, we good? good.

Thanks for reading, comment with questions, experiences, any old rubbish really I like reading comments.
Ciao xx