Natural Mystic

Chloe and I decided we wanted to take more photos again yesterday. I recently bought a beautiful sheer shirt from pandaeyes.bigcartel.com and now I never want to take it off! Chloe brought some bindis back from London so I pinched one for the day. We've found such a good place to take photos in Stratford however we're not revealing where so no one steals our idea. I want to wear this shirt out more but the weather is atrocious and I'd more than likely end up with hypothermia.

Wasteman

My friend Chloe and I decided to have a fun photo shoot around Stratford. Most of the photos were taken in/around the Royal Shakespeare Theatre which provided some really cool lighting! During our little 'adventure' we went on a McDonalds binge and naughtily used the 'Staff' Lift in the RSC. Bad kids.
I wore:

•  Black Beanie Hat - River Island
• Pentacle Necklace - Oasis Market, Birmingham
• Black String Vest - Ebay
• Plain Black Vest - H&M
• Black Hoodie - Primark
• Acid Wash Denim Levi's Harley Davidson Jacket - Vintage Store
• Black Slim Fit Jeans - Next
• Rings - Topman

Topman AAA Collection

I have a love/hate relationship with high street store Topman. The majority of the clothing they produce is often out of season, was never in season, over-worn, and generally tacky. These clothes tend to be worn by the wrong people who think they're being alternative and edgy by swapping their Adidas for chinos. My friend and I have a game where we walk around Topman smiling, and we're not allowed to frown or cringe at anything. I haven't lasted a minute yet.

When Topman get it wrong, they get it incredibly wrong (see here). But when they get it right, they do incredibly well. They did so with their AAA collection, which has recently been taken out of stores unfortunately - which I'd like to think was because it was far too fashionable for the 'chindie' men - however most of the items are available for purchase online.

Ignoring the later items in the collection, i.e. the blue dip dyed gloves and tartan shirt which has no cohesion with the rest of the collection what so ever, it is incredibly up my street. My personal favourites are the cable knit jumpers, string vests and the glitter trousers. I'm not really too sure what occasion you would wear the final item to, but still a fun idea. I think I've spent a fair amount of my wages on the AAA collection, and I definitely think you should too! Get it while it's still there.

And because I'm so kind I've provided you with a link: http://www.topman.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CatalogNavigationSearchResultCmd?langId=-1&storeId=12555&catalogId=33056&beginIndex=1&viewAllFlag=false&pageSize=20&searchTermScope=3&searchTermOperator=LIKE&searchType=ALL&sort_field=Relevance&searchTerm=aaa&x=0&y=0

Jewellery

I thought I'd add a post about jewellery as I tend to wear quite a bit. And when I say quite a bit, I mean covering every possible digit on my hand with rings and cramming my neck with chains.

Digressing slightly, the picture on the left is of me at Brick Lane in London. I did like Brick Lane, however a lot of it does seem like the perfect scenery for a mugging at night time. The place is crammed with vintage shops which was really cool to see although I walked away with solely a Bob Dylan shirt as I don't really tend to suit a lot of typical vintage clothing.
As you can see, I wore mainly black with a few necklaces, lots of rings and two earrings in. I only have one ear pierced (that's because I couldn't afford to get the other one pierced at the time and I seem to keep seeing beautiful items to spend my money on) so I wear fake clip-ons in my left ear. In spite of that, I wear very convincing ones and I have never had anyone accuse me of wearing fakes!

I have a vast cornucopia of 'bling'. I tried to take a picture of my collection but - not even exaggerating - I could not fit all of it into one camera frame without losing detail. I have been equated with a magpie by a couple of friends! Black and white with a nest full of shiny items; I think I fit the description. I think this is partly influenced by my parents, as my father was incredibly old fashioned and believed that you showed you how well you treated your 'woman' by the amount of fine jewellery that was resting on her limbs. I have always seen my mother be treated to expensive designer brands of glistening rings. Whilst it will be an incredibly long time before I can purchase Bulgari rings for myself, I do seem to recreate this with much more cheaper accessories, mostly from Topman and New Look.

Here's a list of some of my 'must haves' for your jewellery box:

Armour ring from Ebay - £7

Skeleton Necklace from Vivienne Westwood -£90 / or it's cuter little counterpart - River Island £3

Cross cuff hand chain from Topshop - £12.50

Spike drape ear cuff £7.50 - Topshop

Along with those, I think it's important to have a few very shiny (fake) diamond rings, as they can look incredibly convincing when cleaned well and mixed with the real thing. For women (and a few men that do actually suit them) I would definitely consider investing in some chandelier earrings. This is partly due to an adoration of Edie Sedgwick, but with your hair up and some of those babies dangling from your ears, you can go from trashy to classy in seconds. 

As you have probably noticed, I do not really wear gold jewellery. I think that silver suits paler skin far better, and is also usually much more inexpensive. High street jewellery tends to rub away to the copper underneath and leave your fingers with a green residue, so make sure to give them a few coats of clear nail varnish before you wear them out. 

Versace for H&M

I wrote a short article on Versace for H&M a couple of months ago for an English assignment. I have stretched a few things as I figured my English teacher wouldn't really have a clue on what actually goes on in terms of fashion sales. I must have written it in an extremely bitchy mood, looking back. You'll probably be able to see that! Anyway, I thought I would share it on my blogspot as it is fairly relevant.

Versace for H&M 

An alarming amount of the so called "fashionable generation" have cashed in on the latest collection Versace has designed for H&M. As well as looking extraordinarily garish, the prices are beyond ridiculous. I'm not sure who exactly would want to pay fifty English pounds for a jumper that looks as though a chessboard has been ripped apart and glued back on to various items of clothing. If Donatella Versace was looking to create a collection that gives passers-by a headache simply for looking at it for a mere few seconds, she has certainly fitted the job description.

A large part of fashion is creating carefully planned 'throw backs' from past generations, as most people in their mid thirties would recognise several eighties trends walking around these past couple of years. Versace has decided it is time to bring back the nineties, with disgustingly bright tropical patterns sewn on to whatever pieces of material they could think of as wearable. The nineties were most certainly not a time of high fashion, with red pleather jackets gracing the likes of the Spice Girls and of course Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake waltzing into awards ceremonies in triple denim. If there is one decade which certainly does not deserve to be brought back into 'fashion', the nineties is it.

I am sure most people who have a television have probably seen the advertisement for the H&M collection. If you had to put the advert into one word, it would be 'terrifying'. The advert starts with strange music that you would expect in a fun house or circus, where Donatella Versace is the ringmaster. In the advertisement she controls her models of choice into doing strange tasks such as walking round a maze and being puppets in a wardrobe. If that hadn't made your skin crawl enough, the end of the advert certainly does; Donatella turns to the camera and bares a strange, twisted smile at the viewer with her over modified face. It is fairly safe to say that Donatella is no longer human looking with the various treatments of surgery she has undergone in some odd attempt to look 'attractive'.

The models of choice for the collection are Daphne Groeneveld and Lindsey Wixon. Which, quite frankly, and probably the poorest decision that anyone could ever make considering they both bear a face that seems to have been smacked in the face with a shovel a few times. All in all, Versace has still managed to retain the trashy feel of 'high class' Italian fashion with the ridiculously huge gold chains and logo plastered wherever it could fit. Donatella has once again proved the point that she certainly did not deserve the head designer position of Versace after Gianni's death. On the other hand she has a very strange way of tricking the population into buying her hideous designs as it was the quickest selling collection to date, selling out in under 24 hours. One must asks how this is possible, or are we all simply puppets to Donatella's fun house games? However, I, certainly am not.

Introduction

Hello and welcome to Une Armoire Noire (A Black Wardrobe). This blog will be used as a place to express my opinions on fashion and post my outfits occasionally. If I were to describe my style it would be black, eighties inspired, with a touch of occultism. I wear a lot of black clothing, slim fitting and often touched with splashes of 'gothic' fashion; usually reflected in my plethora of jewellery. I hope you enjoy reading my blog, and please bear in mind that this will be my own personal taste in fashion. I do not claim this to be the fashion bible or a definite yes and no of what to wear. I am completely open to giving out fashion advice and helping you decide what to wear. I also speak French and Spanish. I have a personal blog here: prettyblondeboy.tumblr.com 

Enjoy!