IN DRAG

Well alright, time for a little different kind of posing then.

I went to a fab drag event the other night. As there was no idea to compete with the queens when it comes to lashes and lipstick I went the other way instead; in drag. My habitus instantly changes when wearing more masculine clothes, it's not something I even think about that much or try to do. I know that well from the days of harbor work.

(I apparently only have one "man face"... And my glitter nails kind of give it away instantly but, once again: yey for pockets!)

Some makeup in strange places, combing my hair in a way I otherwise would not and in Eddi's clothes - there you have Mr.Freelancer.

The evening ended with a heart breaking proposal on stage between two dear friends of mine so I was  really happy not to wear my normal eye make up when sobbing aonf with everyone else!

PREP O'HOI!

It always feels like a small victory when it's warm enough again to take out the spring jacket and tuck away the winter boots! And that time is here now. Yes.

The suit and bag are vintage and the sailor top is from Tara Starlet a few years back.

On another note, every now and then I get this issue with outfit posts and posing and posting about it. Sometime wonder if I should just start doing them all like this...

...or then maybe not.

Novelty and conversational prints A/W 14

Novelty prints are often my favourite part of the catwalk collections, they never fail to excite and amuse me!This season proved to be no exception!There seemed to be several themes in the novelty/conversational prints for A/W 14; domestic animals(cats&dogs), birds, horses and woodland creatures. Gone are the tropical and exotic animals championed by Kenzo several seasons ago, comforting homely animals are in! 

In the S/S 14 collections faces seemed to dominate the novelty scene, for A/W 14 it was hands!I suppose with such a strong handcrafted, artistic and painterly trend coming through the catwalks it is only to be expected that the hands themselves would become a focus. Included in the collections of Holly Fulton(bejewelled hands), Opening Ceremony(palm outstretched),Karen Walker(mechanical) and Devastee(artistic hands), the popularity of hand imagery was evident throughout all 4 fashion weeks!Of course the painterly art inspired faces that were so prominent in the S/S 14 collections are still present for A/W 14- Sister by Sibling, Andrew GN and Marios Schwab all still had oversized placement faces on the garments in their collections.

Celestial and Ancient Greek imagery A/W 14

Around last September, shortly after the culmination of the S/S 14 fashion weeks, I speculated that a celestial trend might be on its way (http://textilecandy.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/paris-fashion-week-trend-report.html). This trend prediction was based on Valentino's introduction of the symbols of the zodiac as necklace pendants. Sure enough celestial imagery began to filter into other catwalk collections and, as can be seen in the moodboard below, several designers jumped on board this trend. Matthew Williamson dedicated his whole A/W 14 collection to recognised celestial imagery(stars!) whereas Preen and Rodarte took a more novel route using imagery from the Star Wars films- questionable in terms of commerciality but they made me chuckle none the less. My favourite prints from this trend are those that reference less obvious celestial imagery i.e moons,clouds and lightening bolts as seen at Diane Von Furstenberg(DVF) and A Detacher, I feel like is a better way to respond to this trend than using an overworked star motif.

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Heavenly/Celestial imagery has strong associations with the zodiac and Greek mythology and so it is unsurprising that motifs from Ancient Greek design began to seep into the A/W 14 collections. I use the word 'seep' because there doesn't appear to be a very strong following of this trend on the catwalks as of yet, but it is slowly being injected into the designers collections. There is a particularly strong usage of the straight edged swirl patterns in monochrome, taken from carved/painted clay pots in Ancient Greek design. 

LIME-COCONUT BREAKFAST ENERGY BALLS

Inspired by one of my favourite ready made raw snack-bars these energy balls are a little less sweet and with an edgy hint of lime.

Made of
Sunflower seeds & Almonds (50/50)
Soft or soaked dried dates & apricots (about 2/3 dates & 1/3 apricots)
Lime peel & lime juice
Coconut oil & Coconut flakes

Mix the almonds and sunflower seeds in a mixer, about the same amount of both. You don't have to mix them flour-or butter smooth; leave some texture. Add a little bit of cold pressed coconut oil and the peel of one lime.

Put in the fruit bit by bit until the crumble somewhat sticks together when you form a ball. In other words you don't want it to be too compact and chunky.

Squeeze some lime juice in so that the crumble easily can be rolled into balls. (If you feel the mixture got too wet you can add some coconut flakes to suck up the extra moisture).

Roll the balls in coconut flakes -or cut into squares/bars and sprinkle coconut on top.
Store cool in an air-tight jar.

 Dag likes his. Well actually he snatched one while I was still taking pictures.  ("Cake" he says.)

 Or two actually, one for each hand, so that he would not miss out.

And there's just enough left for me still.

SHOWS FOR SOFT SUNDAYS OR SORE THROATS

I always have this idea of catching a slight cold and staying in bed for a few days just drinking hot black currant tea and watching a ton of series. Because then it would really be justified, to just lie there and take it easy, do nothing. It doesn't work that way though, since I either feel too ill to manage watching anything or then would have so much to do I lie there worrying about the time I'm missing out on... And the past year(s) when I've been ill I've had Dag to care for and entertain at the same time so not so much rest for me.

The past days both Dag and I have been ill, and it's been the kind of flue that has kept us sleeping most of the time. So no tea-and-cookies-series marathon for me, this time either... (Hashtag: firstworldproblems)

Apart from the obvious True Detective -Game of Thrones-The Walking Dead- and-so-on super series, here are some funny ones I could marathon when sick/hangover/insomniac...

Arrested Development.

It's probably the most hilarious show I know. I remember watching it on and off when it aired back in the early 00's but didn't catch onto it until just around the end; you can't get it unless you watch it properly. I've rewatched it on Netflix later, they have all the seasons (plus made a new one).


Episodes.

Stumbled across Episodes by accident and it's damn funny! I Think I was able to watch the whole first season on YouTube. Haven't seen the two following, so I suppose I'll aim for that for the next time I'm ill or can't sleep.

AbFAb

Absolutely Fabulous was one of my absolute favourite shows when I was teenager.  I realised it's been forever since I watched it and wondered if it still would work today. Oh yes, Patsy will always be Patsy!

A/W 14 Catwalk print trend analysis: Abstract and Linear

Abstract mark making prints-possibly my favourite trend for A/W 14, which somewhat surprises me as I don't usually buy into abstract prints. I feel like this trend can be broken down into two main groups; scribbly mark making prints and white noise style prints. This print trend focusses on creating abstract textures on flat surfaces, the majority of the prints in this group tend to be very graphic and usually stick to a black and white colour palette. The list of designers who jumped on board this trend is endless but I have included a few who I feel worked the abstract prints best in the trend board below...

The linear trend is another favourite of mine!I was quite shocked that the marble/water ripple prints didn't take off when it was introduced in the S/S 14 collections. I actually raised this question with a few of the design studios at Premiere Vision and their response was that they were only just starting to work on marbling/water ripple briefs so hopefully this trend will gain popularity. 

An interesting observation I made while trawling through countless catwalk images was the development of this linear trend. What began as thick fluid marble-like lines seems to have taken a turn towards more geological contour lines as seen on OS maps. The Linear trend also seems to have decreased in line thickness causing the line formations to take on the appearance of fingerprints, could this be connected to the novelty hand prints that were all over the A/W 14 catwalks?(See next post).

I am finding it extremely interesting analysing prints for A/W 14 after having an insight at Premiere Vision into what the trend predictions are for S/S 15. I feel like, with this knowledge, I am now able to cross-reference what I have identified on the catwalks with future trend predictions to make a more informed decision of which trends I think will stand strong.

Print trend catwalk analysis A/W 14: Grids and hounds-tooth

I'm trying to break down the print trend posts into groups of two so that it isn't too overwhelming, I have first hand experience that being exposed to too much imagery all at once can really baffle your brain!So here are the next two print trends:

Grids....hitting the AW/13 catwalks hard in the form of traditional tartans, the grid trend is still around. IfI'm completely honest I'm not a huge fan of this trend, in terms of print, there is only so much you can do with a grid to create a contemporary update. In this board I have tried to use examples where I think thegrids used are quite fresh and unique. A particular favourite of mine is the A Detacher dress(No.10) which breaks up the solid grid lines with a mark making effect. When looking at the catwalk print trends I am constantly aware of the implications each trend has on knitwear and how workable each trend is. Unfortunately, grids and tartans can prove problematic with some knit factories as regular, straight lines can be difficult to print. The A Detacher mark making grid could be a great solution to this issue.

Another trend that was surprisingly popular for A/W 14, particularly at New York fashion week, was houndstooth. Another traditional fabric for the Autumn/Winter season, could houndstooth be the 2014 answer to 2013's tartan?I sincerely hope not...but it appears to be making a comeback. Fortunately I did come across some tame and tasteful ways of incorporating the houndstooth print into garments. Despite my distaste for the houndstooth fabric(in my opinion it's almost as bad as the Burberry check)I do love the J by JS Lee take on this trend with the blue to lilac houndstooth ombre(No. 12 below)and the blurred bleach resist effect of the Jil Sander Navy houndstooth trouser. I think both of these techniques are a great way to update the houndstooth print, they completely soften what is in its original black and white format, an overtly garish fabric. Another runway designer who, I feel, worked the houndstooth trend very well was ICB- their broken up houndstooth placement prints against a white base felt fresh and futuristic not garish and overpowering. 

These two trends are not my favourites, but I don't think they should be dismissed as they proved to be very popular featuring in most of the well known collections(Chloe, DKNY, Marc Jacobs, Vera Wang et al.). As with every trend there is always a way of interpreting thing to suit a variety of contexts, although the general consensus on the houndstooth check is that it can only be worn by the daring, the softer ombre interpretations of this trend could prove to be extremely commercial!

Womeninmaking competition and runway print trend analysis AW/14: Florals!

This post is a bit of a mash up. I'd like to start by saying a huge thank you to everyone who follows me on bloglovin and google+ and everyone who has ever viewed my page as this week I surpassed 30,000 page views (I'm now on around 35,000) such a motivation to feel like people are actually reading and responding to what I'm posting.

Secondly I would really love it if everyone could take 2 minutes to click on the link below and vote for me to be shortlisted for the Women in making competition. If i get shortlisted I have the chance to win £10,000!I'd really appreciate it if as many of you as possible could vote. I am currently in the lead with the most votes but there are 38 days left of the competition and I am eager to keep up the voting momentum! If you do vote please comment on this post saying "Done" as I am adding each voters name into a limited edition print which will be released if I get shortlisted!

Anyway here's the link, get voting please and encourage your friends/families/colleagues to do the same:

https://campaign.triumph.com/uk/profiles/rebecca-lois-burns#profile-wim_profile

                           ...........................

Now that the shameless plug is out of the way I can move on to the long awaited runway print trend analysis...

Let's start with florals!Consistently popular amongst the high end and high street designers, florals are feminine, commercial and completely changeable-hence their appeal. The most popular floral update for the next season was the dark ground floral, championed by anna sui, msgm, Diane Von Furstenerg and topshop unique to name a few. Darker florals for Autumn/Winter aren't particularly groundreaking, but this floral trend provides a new update for the dark ground floral moving away from the tired dark floral/dark ground combo towards florals with a stark black ground and bright bold floral imagery. I am a huge fan of any trend that prevents a return to minimalism and promotes print and colour, these dark ground florals are the perfect way to inject colour into the default monochromatic winter wardrobe.

Blurred florals are the second new AW/14 floral update, reminiscent of watercolour paintings and slow shutter speed motion photography, could this be an offshoot of the artistic painterly trend?Maybe as a reaction to the art attack fashion movement that has emerged over the past year, blurred photographic prints are going to increase in popularity. If this is the case it's going to be problematic for printed knitwear which favours screen over digital printing.

 Although the blurred floral trend wasn't as prolific as the dark ground update, it provides a softer floral alternative which I think has the longevity to continue through to SS/15. The majority of designers who introduced the blurred trend into their collections( MSGM, Peter Som and Vera Wang) combined this with the dark ground floral.

Over the next week I will post all of my catwalk print trend boards and follow them up with style posts interpreting the high end AW/14 trends on a high street budget.

THE BROWN ROOM

There is one room downstairs in the farm house, behind the door with the chipped paint, that you have not seen that much of. Well, anything of really. A room that at some point will become a proper study & guest room.

The past year it has been full of left ocrs from the renovation as well as old and nice and old and ugly furniture without a place for their own. Plus Eddi's windsurfing gear and geology stuff an my dead plants I tried to keep alive in there during winter.

We've aimed to fix it up to level one every free weekend this year we'e had but so far no luck...

It will however turn out great when it's  done, eventually. For now it has no electricity and an ugly plastic carpet on the floor which I to start with, before getting it properly done (that'd be level one), intend to cover with lots and lots of rag rugs.


It has the nicest light in the house with windows in two directions and old wallpaper that is both yucky and pretty at the same time.

RANDOM MIXED & THE PRACTICAL BOOTS

I realised it was time for me to get a pair of bad-weather-playground-trips-countryside boots to wear other than just my old workwear boots (that are too hideous and heavy to wear for real when you know, "going somewhere") and landed on these classic lace up boots with a small heel. Which have now been on  my feet also when the weather is not that bad.

The wool skirt is vintage and the rest just random stuff I had hanging around in the mess also known as our bedroom.

4 x IN THE KITCHEN

RANDOM LIST no1

I am a list person. I need to make lists in order to get things in order, or, at least to feel things migh be getting into order at some point. The more there is to do, the more lists there are to be written, both on tasks and want-to's. Sometimes I even need to make a list of lists to be made.

Here's a totally different kind of list that serves no actual purpose - I see these different question-lists circulate on blogs and I for some reason find them rather fun to read. Maybe for the same reason we click Like at people's pictures of their lunches on instagram... I never done one ,self but copied a couple of those here for fun -

What did you look like exactly a year ago?

 I happened to blog exactly a year ago and then I matched my nails to our wallpaper!

What do you look like in this exact moment?

Oh my. But I started doing this so then I will. Well, as you know I surf the internet at night so I'm in a robe and it's dark and blurry but at least I have nice two-tone nails.

What's bothering you right now?
Right-right now? A runny nose; my runny nose.

Have you done something lately you've never done before?
This winter I worked out with a personal trainer and I always wanted to do so. Otherwise, with a small child you sort of get to do new stuff all the time, or do them from another point of view, as some of those things I did or might have done as a kid, games and learning and such.

Last thing you ate.
Chocolate!

Last thing you bought.
That's usually most often food but otherwise, a magnesium-chili lotion for aching limbs.

Last thing you googled.
"true detective"

Last image search you did.
Can't stop laughing at this one now.

(Heh. "'Daryl the walking dead comics" actually. But apparently he's not a character in the original stories.)

A quote that suits you.
"Think of what you're saying so you don't say what you're thinking"
Not sure if it describes me per se but that's a good one to remember every now and then.

Something you need to get done.
In alphabetical order? Too many things but first of all answer a bunch of emails before they get lost in the abyss of my inbox. Thankfully since gmail started sorting itself and separating mails my unread ones changed from a four digit number to three which makes me feel a lot better about it...

Something your obsessed with.
Apart from checking said inbox via my phone several times a day nothing in particular really.

MINT GREENS (OR CLOSE ENOUGH)

That mint green itch of mine is back.
Not that it ever really has been gone either. Sea foam or pistachio works for me as well.

As usual at this time of year it struck me, the need of a slight  renewal. Both when it comes to cleaning out the closet(s) and re-arranging at home, and, of course, the irrational urge of putting new stuff in. That includes me dreaming of new dresses (and strongly believing that the upcoming summer will very long and warm and sunny and full of moments to strut around with those dresses on).  I have luckily come to the point in my life where I've learned not to click anything home at 3 in the night -that's when I usually do my inter netting nowadays - but wait until the morning or a day or two before I do so, which often means I have the time to grasp my breadth and remember I can live without whatever it was I thought I just had to get. Especially this year, as I decided  - well kind of, let's not set any limits her quite yet - not to get anything new for summer and instead use my money for paying for more work outs with my personal trainer (which I have been doing this winter; it's rather expensive but I have to be honest, it's awesome working out like crazy again, more worth than any Trashy diva dress in the world!  Or well, almost. ) So any dress browsing I might indulge myself in now would be totally useless. But looking won't hurt,  right?

And then of course another thing struck me, which is -and how is this even possible : I don't own one single mint green dress!  Very little mint green anything as a matter of fact. Perhaps my butt muscles will forgive me if they get one or two hours less of work and can instead have something nice and mint green draped around them, hmm?

The shorts are from Vivien of Holloway
The dresses with a grey background are from Etsy/ Fleet Collection
Light turquoise dress with embellishment from Trashy Diva
Dresses in the lower left corner from old fav and affiliate ModCloth
Sweetheart top from Etsy/Contrariety Rose

WEDDING DRESSES

On the coldest day of this winter -which apparently is not over yet thank you very much god damn second round of snow!- I drove up to a pretty location in Tampere to shoot some of my friend's Olivia Rouge's vintage - and rockabilly inspired wedding (& bridesmaids) dresses.

Thankfully I was not part of the ice cold outdoor shoot... although the pictures do look beautiful!

All photos by Anna-Liisa Nikus.
You can browse Olivia's made-to-measure wedding dresses in her shop.

LOW KEY AND A LITTLE FLOWERS

This is how I dress up for work sometimes...

Atelieri O.Haapala was, as usual, present at the Helsinki Burlesque Festival a few weeks back with their pop up atelier. Here's one of my performer photos for this year, I love it!

The number I premiered was one I had planned for years. I spent a lot of time working on the costume, although I did not do everything myself. The headpiece, with leaves that turn into fans, was, as you know,  made for me by Fiona Timantti Millinery, and many of the flowers I used for my clothing was made by Anastasia, The Crazy Flower Maker. There is also a dress, which you can't see here, that Olivia Rouge sew me.

Although I had the costume ready planned in my head for a long time I sought up some inspiration pictures to go along while putting it together, some of which you can see here:

(pictures from retronaut.com)

You can see more of Atelieri O.Haapalas fabulous festival photos here.

A LITTLE HISTORY OF (MY) HAIR

Went trough some old photos of my hair(-styles) during my years of blogging. In one way I have an itch to do something about my hair, just anything new, on the other hand I feel a bit surprised every time I actually let it -the hair- out of that damn beret I tuck it into all the time. It's gotten so long almost feels a bit "new".

When I started this blog back in 2007 I was blonde, in the fourth or fifth year of bleaching my locks, but my hair was still in pretty good condition and quite long. I had my second or third round of bangs going on back then.

Which I tucked up quite often too. (It's a good thing remembering that, that it was quite easy in the end to hide the bangs, as I'm still undecided about one more round of those.)

I was working my shade towards more platinum. That's when i still had lots of hair and did lots of hairdo's.

When I had had the ultimate platinum blonde shade for about a year and a half I had also lost about half my hair, some of the hair just broke off. I started growing my bangs away.

But I got myself a set of faux clip on bangs instead!

In spring 2010 I put some think pink stripes in my hair to achieve a cotton candy look.

But then it was time to end that era and get my hair to grow back! I went darker shade by shade a few rounds as the colour didn't want to stay on bleached hair that well.

And then I had my own color back, pretty much. Here with a rolled faux bangs and one row of extensions to fill out the gap of the lost hair.

And then it was time for the one thing I had never done before but had been feeling for some time: cut it short! This was late in summer 2011; I had all the damaged hair cut off and was left with my own, new hair to grow. My friend was cutting me at that time, she cut it in a sassoon halo cut which in some aspects resembles a middy.

My hair grew a little longer but I kept it short. I had always thought short hair to be easier but it was in fact not, for me at least  -  if i didn't do anything about it it looked quite awful. And pin curling it took more time because the curls had to be made smaller than I was used to in order for the hair to get around to curl. Phew. Here modelling for Fiona Timantti.

 In certain light my hair gets rather red undertones. My hairdresser friend thought we'd try them a little stronger and gave me a light color treatment in a few shades warmer. It made my hair look rather red, but mostly in photos.

The clip on bangs ask  are the transition from blond to darker to toffee and got the name "the rat" due to that as it looked like a sad little wet rat when taking on color in a bowl.

A little before I had Dag I cut my hair the shortest it had been. Which informatively enough was three months shorter than when this pic was taken.

And after that I've only been to the hairdresser once, which was almost a year ago. Time have been busy, I've just dealt with the ends myself certain late nights with the kitchen scissors in front of the bathroom mirror, trying to figure out how it will look in the back when slightly cut from the front.

And now my hair looks like this, well, which al of you know. Like I said in the beginning of the post, I feel I mostly wear it quickly tucked into my beret (and most often use hair pieces at shows, the shows are so frequent I can't make the effort to set it before each and every one and my hair also thanks me for that) so when I do take a look at it I am quite amazed at how much it has grown and how much there is of it nowadays again.

Even though the thought of going all cotton candy with the hair, or -why didn't I come up with the idea before!?- mint green, still would be lovely those days are gone now; I will stick to my own color for the sake of my scalp and hair. I don't want ot go trough the feeling when noticing some sections suddenly were 10cm shorter ...

So, I think  the time has come to book an appointment with the hairdresser! At least for the sake of getting rid of a cm or two without trying to grow eyes in my neck to be able to do it.