august wish list

Friend of Mine Smith Sweater / Theyskens' Theory Vala bag / Style Nanda baggy jeans / Topshop boots / Nixon The Kensington watch

In preparation for warmer days I'm thinking I need to invest in a cropped knit and an open-air ankle regime including cuffed jeans and cut-out boots. The collection of new knits at Friend of Mine is ridiculously good (also got my eye on the Lafayette dress), the perfect season tie-over. Although I hope I'm not kidding myself in thinking we're getting out of winter sooner rather than later!

spring clean

So I'm trying to convince myself that it's nearing the end of the horribly cold season known to most as winter, and making room in my wardrobe for bigger and better things by selling some clothes I never wear anymore or in fact have NEVER EVER WORN! These few items are just a very small portion of what I'm selling. All prices are negotiable! Check it out HERE.

copper pretzel

Here's a quick look at a DIY piece I made not long ago. It's made from copper wire I found at the hardware store using the same method as the twisted wire rings seen in this post, the shape reminds me of a delicious pretzel! Super easy to do and it makes a nice edition to my growing copper jewellery collection.

shredded

Inspiration: Maison Martin Margiela

-What you need-

1 pair of jeans for sacrifice

stanley knife

-Method-

Slit jeans on back pockets and down the front by cutting straight horizontal lines at 'random'. I drew lines with a pencil to roughly guide the slits, don't make them too uniform or they will look weird.

Cluster the slits in sections about the thighs and upper shin area of the jeans making incisions no wider than 1cm, this makes it easier to pull the threads out.

After you've made the slits, start to pull away the blue vertical threads with your fingers (or tweezers if this is easier). I find it's quicker if you wriggle the white threads away from the blue as much as possible before trying to pull them out.

Done!

If you want, go back over any patches that look bare, but make sure you don't make holes too far up the thighs or you may end up showing off more than you want to. You can make them as shredded as you like, I went pretty far here, but you can go more extreme depending on how you like them. Just be careful if you're going to put them in the wash because they may end up disintegrating completely, hand washing is probably the best option for keeping the finish.

Note: This method is pretty time consuming (I spent a couple of hours on these!) so if you're feeling lazy, just throw the jeans into the washing machine to get the threads out. It works almost as well, although you don't have as much control over the result this way.

It's been a long time since I've put up a proper DIY, so when I stumbled upon this pair of almost perfect Ksubi jeans at Savers ($10!!) I knew they would make the perfect easy DIY shredded jeans.

I also cropped these jeans because, apart from the fact that they were a little bit too long for me full-length, I think they look much better shorter and when the weather warms up I reckon they'll become a wardrobe staple with jelly sandals and a basic tee.

[wearing: thrifted DIY'd Ksubi jeans, Siren heels]

leather love

I was traipsing around my wardrobe, still thinking about bomber jackets from my last post, and came across this leather one I've had for years. It was a big chunky bomber with a hideous belt and all around frumpy shape when I found it at my favourite op shop in Preston, it wasn't until not long ago that I found this pic on a street style blog of a girl in leather jacket with a curved cutout back and decided to try and replicate it with my manly bomber. I took the sleeves in, chopped the belt off and cut a semi-circle into the back and I think it's a pretty good makeover to be honest. It's still a hard piece to wear everyday so I've tried to put together something with a little of the badass attitude it deserves.. A very short skirt and my new 'Wangs'.

Now I know people are extremely opinionated when it comes to fakes, and I thought long and hard about how I'd feel wearing these phony heels, but when it came down to it I came up with these excuses; I currently am not in the position to afford real Wangs, these are extremely well-made/genuine leather blah blah blah, and I love the style (the Joan) so much that that is what mattered most. It's not like I'm going to go around telling people they're real, because that is totes not cool (totes wang?!) and I would feel like a genuine idiot. So thank you iOffer and the dodgy factory in China that produced these beauties! They will be sexing up lots of outfits for a long time to come :)

[Wearing: thrifted/DIY leather bomber & skirt, Sportsgirl tee, heels from iOffer, DIY copper jewellery]