Dolce and Gabbana

Day 12-Whatever tickles your fancy.

All eyes on Alexander Wang. Now that we all know what Autumn/Winter is going to look like on the fashion side of things, bitten nails and hopping, excited girls are everywhere anticipating the jumper dresses, floaty skirts and long grungey cardigans that contrast with the season that they will belong to. Personally, my eyes are less on the weather forcast and more on the calender as i'm counting down the days to see how the highstreet will attempt to make an affordable version of the beautiful creations that strutted, strolled and floated down the catwalk.
Alexander wang in particular caught my eye. The women he sent down the catwalk were clad in chunky over the knee socks, jackets almost reminiscent of straight jackets and-as usual-a very monochrome, clean palette. Pinstriped jackets that reach just above the knee leaving a small line of leg is ultimately sexy and gives the impression of a smart all-in-one. His creations would be to die for in the office and his office worker woman would definitely turn heads. There was an extreme sense of power to his clothing this season and all of his woman seemed to be very strong characters. A Wang woman takes crap from noone. There was almost a hint of matrix style straps and this ties in with the power creating a super hero sense to the women who don his clothing.
Saying this he still managed grace and the detailing is equisite with folds, pockets and buttons that really bring the pieces to life. The subtle hints at figure and peeks of flesh keep the clothing sexy and modern whilst the leather, office tailoring and neutral colours keep it clean-cut and sophisticated. Well done Wang.

Day 11-A photo you've taken recently

Here's a photo of some ducks i took in Shrewsbury two thursdays ago. It was such a stunning place and i was surprised that i'd never heard, or somehow been compelled to go before. There was endless ammounts of charity shops filled with unthinkably beautiful hand-me-downs and cast offs and i got some amazing thrifty buys. There was also tonnes of amazing little pattisseries and cheese shops. The place was just generally beautiful, quaint and a typically cosy town. I will definitely be going again and i suggest you do to. I love this photograph because the duck looks like it's in a really intimate position. It's a very personal photograph with the duck cleaning its plumage. I love how the water looks silver and it looks as though it's been photoshopped but this was merely the magic of light.

Day 10-A photo of me taken over 10 years ago

I'm not sure how long ago this was taken-i think it was either 10 or 11 years ago. The air was crisp and the tangy ache of salt was in the air and my toes had been squished into wet sand and countless sand castles made and crumbled by the ebbing flow of the tide. I loved the sea as a child. This is me and my Dad.

Day 9-A photo i've taken

This is another photo of Laura i'm proud of because i was messing around with shutter speeds and due to a very slow one managed to layer two images of her pulling different faces-the effect is she looks as though she has the ghost of herself layered over her face.

day 8-A photo that makes you angry/sad

Okay, so i'm not exactly doing this by the book. I'm leaving it a few days and doing 5 days at once but i like it this way. Means i can have a break from the computer and have one long creative splurge.

This makes me sad because all the greatest heroes of mine have died young.

Day 7-A photograph that makes you happy

This makes me very happy. This is a photograph of me and my best friend Laura. This is one of the only photos i like of me smiling but only because it's with her and it was real laughter.

Day 6-Whatever tickles your fancy

This tickles my fancy right about now. This is Tim Walker who's my favourite photographer. His work is just beautiful.

He's English and it's very obvious in the photographs that he takes and the compositions he arranges that he's very quintessential and the quaint quirks in his photographs declare his naitonality with great patriarchy. He uses a lot of props in his photographs and blows unusual items up to gigantic scales, (Lily Cole is famously photographed caught in a gigantic fishing net and Coco Rocha is found leaning on a giant ladies glove-both shoots for vogue). His playful and childlike nature is said, by himself, to be greatly inspired by Cecil Beaton. There are certain aspects that mirror Beaton's composition and genius behind the arrangement of the scene and the mood created by whoever the subject is. Walker's work is so appealing to me due to the prominent playfullness inside; he offers and coaxes this out greatly with his sense of wonderland and the fictional aspect to most of his photo shoots. He usually creates massive props and the models seem never to be serious. Their facial expressions, or the mood they create is that of the audience of the photograph-joy. You want to climb into the photograph and be part of this fantasy world. I remember the first photograph i saw by him, i think was the India shoot with Ikeliene stange. I'd never seen a fashion shoot like this before-I was used to quite formal and chic shoots focusing on the clothes rather than the set and the theatricality of the photograph itself. It blew me away because once I'd seen more of his photographs it was obvious it was him, with his quirky and wonderful style of creating this oversized, intense scene seems to come alive upon the page and that, after all, is the point of art-to entertain. We are supposed to be entertained by art and, a lot of the time, transported to another place or another time or another person's head-Tim's head is a wonderful place to be and his dandy world of quintessential Britain will always be my favourite scene for a photograph.

Day 5-Favourite quote

There's so many but i think the one i've just posted about Perks has to be the most profound and is one of the first lines of the book. At the risk of sounding completely pretentious: it did really speak to me.
"And i want you to know that i am both happy and sad and i'm still trying to figure out how that could be"

Day 4-Favourite book.

Undoubtedley would have to be The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I really connected with the main character Charlie and i'm not embarressed to say it changed my life. The world needs this book.
"And i want you to know that i am both happy and sad and i'm still trying to figure out how that could be"
"So, I guess we are who we are for alot of reasons. And maybe we'll never know most of them. But even if we don't have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there. We can still do things. And we can try to feel okay about them."
It's awash with stunning quotationsssssssss.

Day 3-Favourite t.v programme.

Day 2-Favourite movie

Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind and The Dark Knight have to be my favourites. Depending on which mood i'm in they help and they're extremely deep and interesting to ponder. The sort of films that catch my eye and grab my interest are the ones that make you review your own existance and perhaps tempt you to alter your life or at least your way of thinking somehow. Both of these films have done that. The Dark Knight may seem like a perculiar choice as it seems like just another hollywood blockbuster even if it strays from the shiny mold and is slightly darker, yes it's primarily an action movie. Its story is somewhat simple to follow and the characters are based on a comic book. But it's much deeper, darker and political than that. It's basically the story of anarchy and existentialism subtley slipped into a batman movie. The main villian-The joker-goes on a rampage around gothem city introduces the freedom of choice to all of its citizens. Playing each main character and each civilian against each other he attempts to create a state of chaos and pandamoneom simply by coaxing out the 'human nature' of darkness and evil. He expresses brilliantly and Heath Ledger plays the best, most tortured and madness stricken character i have ever seen.
Eternal sunshine is just a stunning film that tells us all that we should not regret the mistakes we've made for, whether we like it or not, and no matter how painful it all is to endure, they help us; without them we would be lost and wouldn't learn anything. I also take from the film a great sense that, even though we could possibly, in the future, remove somebody from our memory, from out lives, there's some sort of banevolent force that attracts us to each other. Sometimes people are just meant to be.

Day 1-Favourite song

Okay so i really don't have a favourite song. Not even a favourite band. I love music too much to seperate people like that so here's a song that's in my head and is, and always will be, one of the hundreds of favourites.

It was 1969. The country had been swept and romanticised by the beatles for almost a decade and the swooning teenagers were getting caught up in the midst of rock and roll. A lot happened musically in 1969. Woodstock took place with acts such as Richie Havens and Jimi hendrix and the youth movement was thriving and the music as well. The love and peace of Woodstock had changed the face of America and soon to come was the Isle Of Wight festival in which The Doors would play, (having turned down a place at Woodstock). The country; the world, was on the brink of a musical explosion.
Meanwhile, in a studio in London, Iggy and the Stooges were working on their self titled album 'The Stooges' in an Elektra recording studio. Little did the world know that the musical explosion was all down to this one man. The musical explosion was: Punk. Or so the media called it once it splashed suddenly onto the pages of magazine and newspapers and flyers on the underground music scene. Iggy was a god and 'I wanna be your dog' was a phenomenal hit and swept the nation introducing it to the crotch thrusting, hard hitting, animalistic wildness of this new musical movement.

to do

Day 01 — Your favorite song
Day 02 — Your favorite movie
Day 03 — Your favorite television program
Day 04 — Your favorite book
Day 05 — Your favorite quote
Day 06 — Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 07 — A photo that makes you happy
Day 08 — A photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 09 — A photo you took
Day 10 — A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 — A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 — Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 — A fictional book
Day 14 — A non-fictional book
Day 15 — A fanfic
Day 16 — A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 — An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 — Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 — A talent of yours
Day 20 — A hobby of yours
Day 21 — A recipe
Day 22 — A website
Day 23 — A YouTube video
Day 24 — Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 — Your day, in great detail
Day 26 — Your week, in great detail
Day 27 — This month, in great detail
Day 28 — This year, in great detail
Day 29 — Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 — Whatever tickles your fancy