Mujeres juntas, solo difuntas

Today Elle and I went to the Death exhibition at the Wellcome Collection. OBVIOUSLY I loved all of it, as did the other patrons as it was so busy you could not reall take in all of the exhibits. I had gone with a mind to buy the 'Picture Album' to accompany the exhibition anyway, but I'm glad I did as it's a great way to pour over some of the artifacts in more detail. It's also old fashioned in feel as it is coarse cloth bound (I do get very excited about details like this).  I could have gone utterly wild in the book and gift shop but stayed controlled and only purchased the book of Mexican prints as large postcards - I hope to frame some of these - along with all of my other skull/Mexicana decor, it might be overkill, but we'll see!

As anyone who knows me and cares to notice, I like to dress to theme, and therefore I wore my second necklace from the Tatty Devine sugar skull range, a jointed skeleton. I just can't get enough! We finished up with dinner at Wahaca, claro que si! 

men swear

My Daks check jacket. 

I just can't even describe how much I love this vintage mens jacket. I got it for £20 from Sue Ryder a few years back, but it is worth so much more! This is the original check print designed by Daks in 1976, and is still available today. Of course its over sized and sits a bit wide on the shoulders but the length is perfect and its great for tying in black and brown, which I do hate to wear together. I wore it past the flagship store on Old Bond Street today, taking it back to its roots in Piccadilly. I like to accesorise it with my own twist on heritage; the brogues are battered and my feather has a skull charm attached (Little Wing)

hay mas tiempo que vida

My lovely friend Sammi stopped by with a belated birthday present for me -what a sweetie! I love the little details on this Tatty Devine sugar skull pendant, especially the little stilettos. As you may have noticed, I love sugar skulls and am always happy to have a unique one to add to the collection. I have wanted to get one tattooed since 2007 but as I want the design to be just right I haven't quite got there. Since then they have become very fashionable, which is a bit annoying, but doesn't detract from the fact that I love their symbolism, but also the aesthetic of them; they're both morbid and goth, while at the same time being feminine and alive with colour. Also for my birthday, Elle got me an amazing book on Day of the Dead by Antoni Cadafalch and Dr Alderete. It's full of beautiful images that should be good inspiration on designing a tattoo. I need to get a move on this! Leopard print playsuit was in the Monkii sale.

hot like Mexico

Last night my flatmate had people over for some Mexican style grub and I helped cook/provided the Margaritas. Making and eating the churros was the best bit, mmm. Typically overdressed I wore this vintage ruffle sleeved dress that I swiped when my flatmate was having a clear out. I had my eye on it since I first ever saw it and couldn't hide my delight when I saw it in her charity bag. In preparing for the Mexican night we discovered this awesome shop that is so near to our flat that we couldn't believe we never knew it was there before! The skull and feather earring is Little Wing.

http://www.casamexico.co.uk/

 

The tan is Vita Liberata which I definitely recommend as it is the only product I have tried that does not smell of fake tan at all.

talkin' bout an evolution

As my friends, family and anyone who sits too close to me on the tube have no doubt heard many times, I love the shop Evolution on Roman Road. There are a few others dotted around the country but this is 5 minutes from where I live so naturally I went there to do some of my Christmas shopping when the idea of getting on a tube to Stratford or in to central was too daunting. I ended up buying stuff for both my sisters, my friend Elle and my friend Simone from there... oh and for myself. OF COURSE. I also got a free £5 gift voucher, swish. Well free as in I spent over £50 free so sort of like a loyalty card. 

Why do I like it so much? It's one of those sort of hippy homewares shops but has some really awesome stuff (guitar shaped candles, ying and yang sun catchers, Marilyn Monroe movie poster straw holders, mirrors in the shape of skulls - in fact, just lots of skull things) and the prices are great (I get carried away) and it's ethical.

When I went in there to do my Christmas shop they had a new line in - Dia de los muertos calaveras. Me encantas! I basically bought everything from the range,`including this brooch which I attempted to style with my silk Whistles shirt today....

Now I want to get all of the colours and wear them with everything! NO LUCY. I wear too many skulls....

I have also been enjoying this purple D&G lipstick, shade name 'purple pearl' that I got for £1 at a beauty sale. I don't really know if it suits me but it smells great and has such a lovely texture.

P.S. the skull in the background on the bookcase was from a charity shop on Bethnal Green Road, we keep sweets in his head.

happy death day to you

as today was the Mexican 'Day of the dead' or Dia de los muertos, I would like to show off my little calaveras brooches from Beyond Retro...

these guys co-ordinate

 

and this guy is a bit of an odd one out but he is drinking a beer and wearing a stetson, I HAD TO HAVE HIM. Yes, I did also wear a t-shirt with a skull-with-a-quiff on it today, its my favourite. The pics of the brooches aren't great because it was so hard to get an up close detailed shot without glare, the Beyond Retro blog has this for a better idea. Gotta catch 'em all.

brown and black and birthdayed all over

Saturday night I managed to have yet another faux birthday, but closer to my actual birthday and still awesome. My actual birthday was kind of lame in the day and then better in the evening, but leading up to it I have been completely spoiled with love and generous gifts, which I will blog when appropriate, as I am basically too lazy to document it all arbitrarily. I don't like how I looked on the night as such, the tranny eyelashes were a huge mistake (again, I think its time to send them to early retirement) and my outfit would have looked nice on a wee waif but on me was just unflattering. However, I like to use this blog to record my charity shop and second hand finds, and this outfit contained a few doozies. I didn't have the foresight (or time) to photograph it so I have robbed these pics from Elle to demonstrate. And Simone had backcombed my hair something fantastic... A classic picture demonstrating how ridiculous Furr and I look together. I've really helped the situation with the frou-grab. The suede jacket was a tenner from my (ex) charity shop, its ginuwine Pioneer Wear, made in the U.S of A, baby. I love its pronounced shoulders. The skirt is vintage Topshop - not from the vintage section in Topshop, actual vintage Topshop. TopshopTopshopTopshopTopshop. I got it from a charity shop in Worcester Park a couple of years ago for a fiver and it was - what is very fashionable now but incomprehensible to me then - midi length, so I had it taken up, although it is still just above the knee, not mini. Wish I had left it alone now but how could I have known that a fashion that accentuates a bulky calf would be something I would want to wear? The print is all kinds of rad animal prints and animals. You can just see my new Little Wing earring, a gift from Elle which has skull beads on the top.

I will eat your heart. Creepy right?
Waaa I wanna be blonde

In the other ear I had a loooong feather earring from Topshop (which pre-dates Little Wing so is allowed...) and I wore a silky nightie from Asda as a top. Oooo look at all my hair. Elle also gave me a necklace and this Dia de los muertos skull bead bag charm. I am mad sick in love with it: .... yes this was the bag I took out on Saturday, I have some perverse matching problem. Incidentally, the bag was £2.50 from the second hand clothes shop that is opposite, and rival to, my ex charity shop.

Next up will be my sissys 21st birthday and I can't wait to see her!

fly on little wing

My friend Elle has just launched her handmade, feather based, online jewellery shop! I friggin want everything from it, especially the feather hair extensions, but of course my personal favourite is the earring 'Dia de los muertos Lucy'!! Love it. Please check it out and start purchasing, I know I can't wait to be wearing this





Elle is also offering weekend hair appointments at weekends for customers in the Berkshire region of the UK. An appointment package includes bespoke extensions and installation to your hair. Email her at littlewingfeathers@gmail.com for more information.

day of the dead wedding cake toppers

clearly has to be done. Google away, oh the joy.

I would need this cake to complete my imaginary never gonna happen wedding:

by Julie Cupcake, click pic to link

showing some ankle

I got this dress from a charity shop in Camden for £4.99 a few weeks back and have cracked it out (along with my ankles) in this glorious weather we have been enjoying. It is a weird midi length and quite 90s, I feel like Elaine Benes when I wear it with my flat tan ankle boots, but I love the masses of swishy skirt fabric. I wore it quite plainly styled today with my genuine Pioneer wear suede two tone jacket (chazza shopped - will post a pic sometime) Primark platforms and Topshop jewellery, but it also looks good with a hat, with suede fringed waistcoat, a denim jacket, various vintage belts...Ah I just love it.

my american idol

I know this is not a new trend, nothing ever is. I was first turned on to it a few years ago when the Cox household were having a heavy Miami Ink phase and Kat Von D wore feathers in her hair and looked far out in a happening kind of way.


Then last year I realised the ultimate style plate Steven Tyler wears them. It was something I wanted to do but it obvs works better on long hair, which I don't posses the ability to grow. This year I've grown my straggly ends down a bit and thought, fuck it, could give it a whirl. Or in the spirit of Steven Tyler's American Idol censorship, BLEEP it, could give it a whirl.

Incidetally, this shirt is also brilliant and reminds me of the vest he wears at the end of Wayne's World 2. Excellent.

So I was in Toppers, source of my other feathery finds and I found this:
The band is almost the same colour as my hair and it sort of worked in the heat of the moment so I bought it. Unfortunately my hair has the thickness of brown smoke so I can't actually wear it without my ears poking out like a gelfling. I tried to wear it out last night, in which case it could have looked like this:



But I think instead I'm ging to take it off the band and attach the feather chain to a kirby grip as it will be easier to wear this way. Want the duck feather one now too, prettyyyy.

I also want to share the top I wore last night. It is not flattering on me but I couldn't bear to not have it as from the front it is a normal vest but the back....




Some sort of netty, skull thing is going on.

little shop of horrors

Catherine just took us to a little shop of curiositys called 'The Last Tuesday Society' on Mare Street. She couldn't describe it before she took us there and now I understand why... taxidermy cats with wings, shrunken heads, a dinner table with guests fresh (decaying) out of 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre', celebrity poos in jars, a piece of felt from one of Al Capone's hats, The Cunt Colouring Book, taxidermy 'largest rceorded erect penis' from a man who was hanged (and well hung, apparently) in the 18th century, Pancho Villa's trigger finger, a jar of used condoms and a packet of viagra allegedly from a 2003 hotel room used by the Stones. Need I continue....

There is a £2 entry fee and they are a bit snooty, but they also have some more palatable (and affordable) goth/curio stuff such as the jewellery and these tin mariachi band figures that I bought to hang on my wall, click the pic for a link to the website. They're cute but I think I'm missing a trumpet/horn player:


Also, I've been wanting to blog these for a while, another of my favourite little finds, Russian politician Russian dolls, from a charity shop for £1, but sadly I'm missing the littlest doll, who I think must have been Lenin:

Ha looking a bit dusty....