Pashleys at the ready!
As part of their green week which starts tomorrow, TopShop is keen to get us on our bikes and looking chic while we’re at it. Here’s a sneak peak at their ‘what to wear on your bike’ video …
Using What you’ve Got
One of the results of the economic slowdown is being a bit more picky about what one chooses to fritter one’s money on. Those little £20 Primark splurges which all too often end up neglected and unworn (and still tagged) in the carrier bag aren’t quite so clever any more. Neither is the prospect of the summer sales so appealing. Where once the idea of vastly reduced See By Chloe would have me hot-footing it to Harvey Nichols faster than you could say “I’ll take two”, now I’m dreading the lure of the sales and the subsequent guilt of buying anything new.
So I’m embracing the concept of Using What You’ve Got. I’ve always been against that oft-repeated advice that says you should throw away anything you haven’t worn for six months. Six months! That’s not long enough at all. Six years maybe, but even that seems ungenerous. To prove my point, I recently unearthed a pair of John Moore boots that had been hibernating in my wardrobe for some years. John Moore boots are stompy Commando-soled bovver boots from the early nineties, very much part of the Westwood/Christopher Nemeth/Joe Casely-Hayford deconstruction period. Think Westwood pirate boots crossed with a monkey boot and you’re fairly close (oh dear, don’t they sound hideous?). I had a well-worn pair back when I was a fashion student, and then happened upon another pair about eight years ago in a clearance sale. They haven’t looked quite right with anything I’ve been wearing in that time but a chance encounter with some two-year-old Levi’s that had been put on the back-burner soon resulted in an impressive new outfit. By turning up the hems of the skinny Levi’s and pairing with the John Moores, plus throwing a high-necked swiss-dot blouse in the mix, I came up with a new take on an old look, suggesting something of a sweet-skinhead hybrid with a nod to Victoriana.
Clever as ever, TopShop is also championing the Using What You’ve Got initiative as part of its first ever Green Week which starts on Monday. They’ve partnered with Rubbish magazine to launch TopShop Wants Your Rubbish, a fun but practical website all about reusing, recycling and restyling. Lucky Londoners get a special treat with an-instore clothing workshop at Oxford Circus by Cheap Date’s Kira Jolliffe. Although a sensible part of today’s make-do culture, Using What You’ve Got is also a great deal of fun. If you’ve committed something to the style Siberia of your closet, it’s very much a case of out of sight out of mind, which means it’s all too easy to forget what you own. So that when you eventually unearth said New Look poncho/Maharishi combats/Adidas Gazelle trainers (delete according to age) you also find there are endless new outfit possibilities when you add it to all the things you’ve bought since you last wore it.
Mind you, it’s not all plain sailing. Using What You’ve Got can end up creating more gaps in your wardrobe than it plugs. Chuffed as I was with my new turn-up Levi’s-and-John-Moore-boots marriage, I couldn’t help but feel something was amiss. If only I had a nice cherry-red Margaret Howell Harrington jacket, then my outfit really would be a goer. Which brings me to the inevitable question…when does the Margaret Howell sale start?
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Quote of the day
“There’s that feeling ‘Oh, night time’s coming again, thank goodness. It’s like a comfort. The whole feeling changes. The sun’s going away, you can go out. It just feels more comforting to me. And it is like velvet.”
Kate Moss goes into PR-speak overdrive at the launch of her new fragrance, Velvet Hour
Pic: popsugar.com
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Tagged: Seven songs for spring
Madame from Shop at Maison B has tagged me to list my ‘seven songs I’m into right now’. Oh where to start? I must be the only person in London who never listens to her ipod. I mean I have one, but I never listen to it, which means that when I do decide to give it a whirl, it’s run out of charge. And also *whispers*… I don’t know how to upload it. I know, I’m a techno-moron, really I am.
To be honest, I’m quite happy playing my crackly old tapes (only £2 from the record & tape exchange!) so the winner of most-played song so far this spring/summer is The Jackson Five, Girl You’re So Together. In fact, I highly recommend any greatest hits Jackson Five album, every song’s a winner!
When I’m not listening to tapes, I listen to my treasured 45s. This week it’s The Mighty Wah, The Story Of The Blues. Talk about an uplifting anthem, Phil Spector eat your heart out mate! Another uplifting sing-a-long-a-belter from many moons ago (sorry I don’t do ‘modern’ music apart from cute-looking French bands) is The Flirtations, I’m Gonna Be There. Pure feel-good music to lift you out of the biggest doldrum. I don’t know a jot about them but D brought this home last month and I make him play it on a daily basis – gotta love those heartwarming harmonies.
The song I’ve had in my head all week is Phoenix, Too Young from the Lost in Translation soundtrack. In fact, the entire album is amazing, not a duff song throughout. And the intro to Jesus & Mary Chain’s Just Like Honey at the end always stop me dead in my tracks (which reminds me, must see that film again).
When I’m not listening to tapes and vinyl, I listen to music on YouTube. Joe Strummer’s version of Redemption Song is really touching not least because of the intro to this video (spot the Jim Jarmusch cameo). I’m so going to visit that mural when I go to New York in September.
Another blast from the past that’s come back to haunt me is Orange Juice, Falling & Laughing. I went to see Edwyn Collins play at Shepherds Bush Empire a few weeks ago and it was beyond fabulous. Silly me, I only realised recently that Falling & Laughing is about 20 years old and not the fairly new track that I thought it was. Finally, the Beach Boys is the soundtrack to my summer every summer. Their song Disney Girls helped inspire my blog so it’s gotta be my number 7.
The rules of the game as set by Simon Reynolds: “List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your spring. Post these instructions in your blog along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they’re listening to.”
I’m tagging:
http://indigoalison.blogspot.com/
http://parisawalklett.blogspot.com/
http://makedostyle.blogspot.com/
http://discothequeconfusion.blogspot.com/
http://fredbutlerstyle.blogspot.com/
http://flyingsaucer.typepad.com/
http://julystars.blogspot.com/
(WARNING: Do not attempt this exercise in a hurry. Once you get on Youtube, you’ll get hopelessly sidetracked by videos like this, this and this.)
