Saturday 29 June 2013

Let's go swimming.

Hello! I have another outfit post for you today, with another new/old addition to my wardrobe.
These rather wonderful vintage shorts! I love these, and I feel like they perfectly match my aesthetic at the moment. I realise that's a really pretentious ~fashun~ thing to say, but I love the pastel block illustration and I feel like it really fits with my personal reclaiming and championing of femininity through clothing. I'm also trying to break out of my own cycle of clothes buying at the moment too, by choosing things that are slightly different to what I'm wearing right now. I feel like for the past few months, maybe even this whole year, I have been quite restrictive in the way I choose clothes, not buying anything that doesn't fit with how I want to present myself. Not that I've actually bought much! I do want to change this a bit more though, by just relaxing a bit more and being more creative with colour and silhouette. It might not be a change noticeable to anyone but me, but I think that's fine. The way we perceive and think of ourselves will always be different to the way others view us, literally here in the case of how I dress myself. These shorts seem like a nice bridge between the pastel-obsessed me and the still pastel-obsessed, but slightly more relaxed me. The shape is not something I have really worn before, but I like them and I think they look really lovely with this blouse.
The print in close up. It's a repeated pattern of three swimmers in slightly different styles of pink, blue and turquoise swimsuits and pink and turquoise swimming caps. I just love the print, and I've never seen anything like it before. The shorts feel pretty modern, so I don't think they're any earlier than the 80s, but I still feel like they are an homage to those 1940s and 1950s postcard swimsuit babes.


(all images via Google)
I bought these shorts for an amazingly cheap £6.50 in a beautiful vintage warehouse me and my friends from Sheffield found. We went there for a photo shoot for a very exciting magazine my friend is setting up. Each issue is going to have a theme, and the first is feminism, so basically my ideal theme! The photo shoot (starring me!) was a twist on the idea of the vintage housewife being a thing of the past; me in a vintage kitchen with smeared lipstick, holding a potato masher and growling menacingly. I haven't seen the pictures yet, but Sam is very talented so I am looking forward to it!
Shorts - vintage, blouse - vintage/DIY, cardigan - Tesco, shoes - H&M, socks - Topshop.
Also, I am so excited about these shoes! I was browsing in H&M the other week and saw them in the sale, the only pair left and in my size! An absolute stroke of luck considering I've been looking for a pair like this for a while.
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As I'm sure lots of you know, Google Friend Connect will no longer exist on Monday! So if you want to stay updated with my blog, please follow via Bloglovin. Thank you! (:
Also, I thought it was about time I made an email for the blog! So if you wish to contact me (and I am quite friendly, I promise!), the address is charlotte.kook@gmail.com.

Monday 24 June 2013

Girl power.

I bought some very cute brooches a couple of weeks ago, and I thought I would share them with you!
I am so in love with this girl power brooch! You can't really see it too well here, but it's got a really pretty glittery sheen. I am starting to build up a collection of feminist brooches, and this one is such a lovely addition.
The girl who makes them is really talented and she does custom listings too. She had this brooch listed in pink and I sent her a message to ask if she'd consider making it in lilac and she made a new listing for me right away! Please visit her shop cryybaby because everything is adorable, and also it will stop me bankrupting myself to buy everything in it.
(Picture from my Instagram, @strawberry_charlotte)
I wore it a couple of weeks ago when me & a few of my girls from my block surprised another girl for her birthday. This was a couple of days before my last (and only!) exam, and it was a really nice night! We went to a cocktail bar in town and hid in a booth until she arrived.
I pinned the brooch to my lace jacket, which I have yet to post about on here! I think I'm going to do a full post on the outfit I wore that night because I was just so pleased with how it came together. Let's just say it would be in my Greatest Hits of outfits. It does make me miss my pink hair though!
This is the second brooch I bought from her shop, and I absolutely adore it! Ab Fab is one of my favourite TV shows, and Patsy is such a good character. I wore it here with my vintage jacket from this post.

Monday 17 June 2013

Valley of the doll.

Hello! I am back in Newcastle for the summer now, and I have lots of plans that I am determined to carry out before September. One of my plans is to learn how to properly alter clothes, instead of just handing things to my mum when it all gets too difficult! I've bought lots of clothes in the past, mostly vintage, just because they're pretty and not because they actually fit, so this summer I am going to try to alter them all on my own.
This dress is the first piece I have finished! Well, my mum helped A LOT but I'm slowly learning. I bought this for £7.99 in a charity shop just round the corner from my student accommodation, I really will  miss being just a two minute walk from a thrift shop!
It has a cool spotty pattern which really reminds me of hospital gowns. Which, in a strange kind of way, I quite like. It feels like a costume from a weird 1960s psychological thriller film.
It has a really 1950s housewife vibe (although my mum says it's definitely from the 1980s), which I think really works with the hospital patient/thriller type thing. Very Stepford Wives, I feel.
I watched Addams Family Values for the umpteenth time yesterday which I think really influenced my thoughts about this outfit. I really love the character of Debbie, like the way she is dressed as the typical, demure 1950s housewife, but turns out to be a warped serial killer. I really love that subversion of the submissive wife trope.
 My hair is really hilarious at this point. It really needs cutting, bleaching and redyeing, but as I am currently trying to get a job I think I'm going to have to make the difficult move back to brown. The pink era could be over!
More housewife vibes from this glow in the dark ironing ghost my brother got from a Kinder egg like 15 years ago. I made this into a necklace a few years ago, I think it's so adorable.
Pin up girl poses forever. (Open bathroom door ruining everything forever)
Hopefully be back soon, I have several new clothing items which I am excited to post about! Also, I realised I recently reached over 300 followers on this blog, which is so amazing thank you everyone!  Although I have no idea what is going to happen when Google Friend Connect disappears, so who knows what will happen then!