all i want

[1. Topshop lace dress 2. J Brand jeans 3. Erdem lace skirt 4. Jess Hart for Pencey Standard shirt 5. Rosamosario camisole 6. Topshop leggings 7. Topshop organza dress 8. A.L.C. cotton pants 9. Dion Lee silk cutout blouse 10. Tibi silk top 11. Topshop scallop edge shorts 12. Nicholas cutout shirt 13. Tibi skort 14. Equipment blouse 15. No. 21 lace skirt

Loving the gorgeous lace-floral-organza-patchwork thats going on in All I Want, Karla Spetic's collection for SS12/13.  Keeping with her signature pastels and ultra femme silhouettes, the trousers and high buttoned shirts have a refreshing masculine edge to them. Can't wait for it to hit stores, in the mean time here's a few pieces that will give you the look.

recap

Mini / Maxi dress

Future basic tank

Collars

Floral shorts

Ombre skirts

Paint pants

Metallic peplum blazer

Splatter skirt

Candy stripe dress

Velvet peplum top

I've been looking through my 'DIY history' and decided to do a recap post on my favourites. This is partly spurred on by the fact that I'm in the process of a whole new load of DIYs which I'll be putting up for sale. Sometimes I'm tempted to sell some of my designs when people tell me they'd pay for me to make them something or buy an existing piece off me, but the problem is that most of the time I've made something out of a small piece of fabric, without a pattern and fitted to my body measurements so it's extremely hard to replicate. Another issue is my emotional attachment to pieces, I may not get a whole lot of wear out of some stuff but just the thought of never seeing designs again is enough to haunt me! Sounds silly, but when I slave over a piece and end up producing something I'm seriously proud of it sits close to my heart. SO that's why I'm making pieces specifically for sale! It will be a mini collection of painted skirts and jeans, all exclusive styles. So far I've finished one skirt and started a second, hoping for them to be done and up for sale before July starts. Watch this space!

botanical

My new Sara Phillips dress. What can I say? Possibly the most gorgeous floral print I've ever laid eyes on. Did I mention it is pure silk and cost me a measly $150?! Unfortunately I think it's sold out now, but there are still some incredible bargains to be had at their online store HERE.

[Wearing: Sara Phillips cape dress, Windsor Smith Loren heels, choker from Ebay, Asos cuffs and vintage bracelet/ring]

marguerite's menagerie

I'm completely obsessed with Hermione de Paula's exotic prints at the moment, they're the ultimate florals on acid. These images are my collages of some shots from the latest collection for AW12 titled Marguerite's Menagerie, photographed by Kristin Vicari and featuring some gorgeous shoes by Nicholas Kirkwood. Some of the most inspiring and original prints I've seen in a long time!

Images from Hermione de Paula

in search of the perfect silk shirt

I've recently been on the hunt for the perfect silk shirt. Quality is something I'm willing to justify forking out a lot of money for, so when I see something is 100% silk I'm very happy to pay the price. But this often isn't the case for a huge majority of big-name designers who are more than happy to make a fully polyester shirt and slap a $250 price tag on it. I'm not an idiot, you may have called the fabric 'crepe', but I can read a label and it definitely doesn't doesn't say anything about silk. I'm not trying to hate on polyester, it has it's place in a vast amount of my wardrobe and it serves it's purpose well, but it's just not a fabric with which I associate luxury prices and quality fabrics.

So the dilemma still stands as to what's a reasonable price to pay for a silk shirt. Plain, single colour fabric I would be willing to go up to $150, but I'm more interested in printed silk, namely digital, as I know this a hell of a lot more expensive to produce. Depending on how nice the print is, $300 is about the ball park for me, but that's honestly not the sort of money I have to throw around at the moment.

I thought long and hard about buying the Sara Phillips printed dress shirt in the top image, which was $495 down to a sweet $250, but decided it was probably best to wait until I'm feeling a little more affluent! For now I might settle for the beautiful green water print shirt from Asos, a steal at $73!

Top image: Sara Phillips digital print silk dress shirt

Bottom image: Clover Canyon printed chiffon shirt

Emma Cook denim print silk/cotton blend shirt

Asos Premium silk water print shirt

3.1 Phillip Lim silk crepe shirt

Equipment daddy printed chiffon shirt

ambition to create novel [prints]

Acne SS12 prints. A digital floral dream

Photos from Acne

superhappyfun shorts

I don't mean to toot my own horn here, but these could possibly be the best shorts ever! There is no way you can be unhappy in them for a second!

Another DIY project, I copied a pair of Target boxer shorts I found in the back of my wardrobe to make my own pattern. Found this wonderful floral fabric lying around and BAM! BEST SHORTS EVER!

Ok, ok that's enough self promotion for now..

Wearing with Hi by Henry Holland tank, Verali wedges, random necklace, jade bangle and turquoise bangle and ring from Vietnam.