Up-cycling seems to be the “mot du jour” in interior design. Over the last few weeks Things of Random and I have become slightly obsessed with the antics of Bob and Cortney Novogratz and their New York based company Sixx Design. I think it’s a nesting instinct, coupled with an admiration for their parenting of 7 children and their astounding commitment to design. Their Bravo TV show, 9 By Design, has me completely hooked. Their main premise of their enterprise is mixing old with new, finding reclaimed pieces to accompany slick designer modernism. Old pieces of furniture are up-cycled by adding new upholstery and new paint, to give a cooler, renovated look. The trend seems to be everywhere; Mary Portas showed Dazzle and Denny how to do it at 37 Old London Road and Elemental sells industrial cabinets for £2,000 a pop.

This led me on a search for the same trend in fashion. The term “vintage” and all it means in its many guises (second hand, charity shop) has been a darling of the industry for decades. Just saying it adds a certain kudos (and most definitely an elevated price tag) to any outfit. I’m on a search for renovated fashion or garments made from unusual materials. One item has caught my eye by Swedish Blonde Design’s Cockney Jewellery. Broad beans accompany pearls and motifs of our Royals to create surprisingly delicate necklaces and accessories. The Old Broad Bean, The Queen, offers a very fashionable neckpiece, snapped up by Supermarket Sarah for her site/blog.

Is the Cockney Jewllery an example of fashion re-cycling? Up-cycling implies an improvement and an increase in value, which I guess the humble broad bean has experienced. If you consider yourself a fashion up-cycler please get in touch. I’d love to see what your opinions are and discover if up-cycling is a trend embracing all elements of design.

(Queen artwork by Ann Carrington – a favourite of Mr. & Mrs. Novogratz)

So, where to begin with this post…it’s a difficult one as I usually choose to not reveal too much detail about “me” on my blog. My blog of course IS me; but my personal details usually only interfere sporadically. So, to the news; I have become a human incubator. There’s a little bump of Random Fashion Coolness and Things of Random Coolness developing on my interior ready for a Christmas release date!

The reason I need to tell you this is my perspective on my personal style has been forced to change. I don’t want to make this into my baby-centric blog; my love and appreciation of the aesthetics of all fashion still remain. But every blog post I write feels like it requires a little aside of, “of course I won’t be able to wear the new season Celine til my post-birth bump deflates (or more accurately, “until I win the lottery.”) I am a very honest person and this honesty seems to pervade every aspect of my blogging, compelling me to pass on my important news.

Another reason I’ve been reluctant to mention anything up until now is that this is a whole new world for me, a completely new territory. I may be 31 but I feel I have the maturity of a small child. The responsibility of parenthood still overwhelms me, despite exciting me at the same time. The plethora of things that can potentially go wrong still makes me reluctant to share this information now…but there is kicking & poking & hormone induced euphoria that means my joy can no longer remain hidden.

My changing size is something I’ve taken the longest to adjust to. I think it’s the lack of control you can exert on this process that I’ve found the strangest part. I remember, pre-bambino, telling my friends, “When I’m pregnant, I’m going to eat like a monster and love every minute of justified expansion.” The reality of the first few months was most of the food I love was out of bounds. Shellfish, cured and rare meats, blue and mould ripened cheeses left my fridge, plus my appetite shrunk and nausea dictated that only the blandest foods possible passed my lips. I’m half way through now and my appetite is back with a vengeance…my cravings are for all the taboo products listed above! There is an obvious bump but the rest of me is yet to swell as I expected it too (childhood moon-face will probably make an unwelcome return in September ;)

Shopping has become more of an exercise in observation and visual appreciation, especially of the new Autumn/Winter pieces. I am however looking for a camel cape, as it’s a perfect expansion piece but all the delicious Céline inspired pieces cropping up everywhere are for my viewing pleasure only.

There endeth the news. I am blissfully happy, yet apprehensive. I intend to blog away as I grow and offer you a new perspective from my little world of randomness. My aim is to achieve this “glow,” I shall let you know if I ever attain it!

I adore summer; ‘tis my favourite season of the year (most would agree as our fair isle gets flooded with more light* than usual) As the light increases my pallid skin starts to crawl slightly. I’m not built for this weather. I was created in a Gollum style mode; meant for damp and darkness. I tan EVER so slightly (after 6 months!) and the required effort often doesn’t feel worth it. I freckle in the heat of a log fire, the sun catalyses this process waaay too much. From a distance, I may look tanned; up close, the freckle feast is revealed.  I am also not a porcelain-skinned beauty. My paleness unfortunately equates to sickliness. I cannot tell you how many times I have been asked recently if I am, “feeling 100%?” Please do not extol the virtues of fake tan to me. I have tried and failed with many brands. I refuse, point blank to remove all clothing and be sprayed like a Cuprinol-ed fence by someone I probably babysat for 15 years ago! Instead, I mask my pallor with bright clothing and prints. Unfortunately some days I may leave the house looking like a Magic Eye construction, but this confusion on the retina seems to work for me.

A second thing that summer brings is a proliferation of hair growth. I have fine, light hair but Jesús Cristo does the sunlight speed up growth. I wax my underarms and legs but summer regrowth occurs approximately 3 days later! Regrowth for me brings with it a beautiful heat rash and ingrowing bewilderment. I saw someone questioning on Twitter why anyone would wear opaque tights or leggings in June? My excuse – I am averting the eye from my wax nightmare! Garance Doré offered a very honest post that included her appreciation of laser hair removal. I would LOVE to offer this gift to my underarms but I still cannot justify the expense (I think each leg would cost £2000  too – I am quite tall!)

To balance out this post, I must convince you that I do love summer in some way!

1. I adore eating outside. Even if it is just a sandwich in the garden, the meal seems infinitely more tasty and exciting al fresco.

2. The beach makes me smile. A winter beach conjures up morose images of melancholic days; the summer beach, makes me smile even from a distance. The waft of saline air must release huge amounts of serotonin in my little brain; as I find my cheeks hurt through all the happiness.

3. I love the freckles. I secretly moan about them but they make me, well, me! I once played join the dots with them and made an awesome giraffe on my arm.

4. BIKES. I love my bike and the summer means he gets a good airing. I do have a bike obsession though. I am going to purchase a beach cruiser from my cousin but have spent several hours redesigning this beauty from Urban Outfitters. Bikes appeal to me a lot more than shoes. Luckily their price curbs my ownership to one pair!

If you have any advice to ease my very trivial summer woes, I would greatly appreciate it. Is there a light self-tanner that doesn’t make you vomit? A hair removal idea that has worked for you? I am sitting with my pad and pen ready to make summer that little bit better.

(*light does not always equal sunshine!)
Beach hut image from Paul Mannix on Flickr. Illustration (left) Garance Doré

I am having a crise du blog. It is hard to put this one into words but over the last few weeks I feel I have lost my blog “mojo” (I despise that “m” word but is the only thing that adequately describes my lack of lustre towards blogging.) It started slowly, with emails asking for blog statistics and comment numbers as proof of my worth in the blogosphere. It escalated when I was asked to remove collages for infringement of copyright. Vagabondia then seemed to sum up all my thoughts, concerns and fears in this perfect, succinct post. I too do not rely on my blog as a source of income. I am and have always remained true to my personal set of blog morals; I post things I personally find interesting and accept no freebies on the promise of a gushing post. The numbers, the statistics – yes, they massage my ego but I never began the blog for that reason.

I feel as if the last few weeks have provided essential research. I have scoured the Internet looking at the many types of blog on offer. My eyes have been opened. The Internet is saturated with blogs! Some are so similar, I wonder what it is that makes them stand out or be considered unique in any way? I put myself in the place of a publicist and started to look at the number of comments and what they had to say about the blog. The quality of the comment, not the number, revealed A LOT to me. Those with intelligent readership, elicited insightful comments that paralleled the quality of the post itself and were just as enjoyable to read. Those whose posts represented a bit of filler “fluff” to me, presented equally mundane comments, albeit in a greater number. When all bloggers attend the same occasions, how can you make your version events stand out? (See an example of GREAT alternative posting here by Isabelle O’Carroll!) I also decided being a publicist doling out tickets for Fashion Week must be a minefield! The criteria upon which they base allocation must plague their souls (I personally would go with my quality theory!) Unfortunately, my research compounded my fears; with so many great blogs out there, providing such great, regular content, where did mine fit in?

So today, I bite the bullet. I am writing and have a host of other things to tell you about lined up. I shall leave my Outsider post below sans collage, as a reminder of my mini-crisis! So here goes…

P.S. The novelty journal pictured above is available from Maiden – a great ironic gift for any blogger!

(Image removed…new one on its way soon!)
My location has never worried me but I have been forced to ask myself over the last few weeks if it disadvantages my blog. I chose to move out of London many years ago, as I didn’t feel it was a lifestyle I could maintain. I was constantly on the go, surrounded by others yet at the same time surprisingly lonely. These people were mainly anonymous, sporting the expressionless “don’t look at me or attempt to engage me in conversation” faces that Underground etiquette can often dictate. During London Fashion Week I asked the other 4 people on my late night train if they minded me changing my boots. They looked a little shocked and a young boy who was about 16 said to me, “That’s the first time that anyone’s ever spoken to me on the train ever.” I asked him if he’d been living in London long, to which he responded, “All my life.”

I digress. Over the last few weeks my inbox has been bombarded with press day invites none of which I have been able to attend. My real job hasn’t allowed me the time nor do I unfortunately have the funds to reach Londinium. So I again ask myself does this put my blog at a disadvantage? I can view all the look-books online, chat to al the necessary contacts via email, Twitter and Facebook and live it vicariously through the posts of my fellow bloggers. The vital part for me is still missing. There is still no substitute for the connection you make when you meet people and no replacement for the instinctive feel you get for a collection on viewing it in person.

So let’s consider the benefit my location allows me. The main luxury is perspective. I am out of the London fashion loop. Where I live people are stylish yet not dictated to by trends, nor are many trendsetters. Clothing is cool but not painfully so. The best way to describe it is, I always feel I am pushing the fashion envelope until I bypass Reading on the train! I then realise my efforts are quite mediocre! I am also able to choose and be selective about the events I attend. Make strange, crazy efforts to reach the capital for a few hours and then work on the train all the way home.

What I’d like to know the most are your thoughts. Are you a London based blogger? Does this offer you an insight into the industry that my distance doesn’t afford me? Do you think location makes no difference now that the Internet has created one global community? Am I paranoid to feel that people treat me differently as a blogger once they know I don’t live in the capital? Personally, I would change not one thing. My little blog began in my lounge and still gets written there most days. I love the fact that I can dip in and out of London life but just wish I had the funds to indulge in journeys more often and see the other bloggers and publicists that I feel have now become friends.

As the years have progressed, my hair has shrunk. It is now officially short. What I have found strange while rocking this shorter look is the reaction of other people. My Mum is verging on disgusted. For her, hair length is synonymous with femininity…mine therefore has gone. My hair has made me into her 14-year-old son (in her mind!) Like Samson, my feminine strength has disappeared with my locks. My father-in-law has had a similar reaction. He sees me on a slippery slope that will see me bald or with a shaved head within the next year! The “young” seem to love it. As they begin to feel comfortable in their looks they seem to exude a certain admiration for those willing to take a risk with their style. As they straighten their hair to within an inch of its life and wear jeggings with pride to fit in with the uniform of the day, anyone prepared to step outside of that box elicits a certain admiration.

Of course I get hair envy. As I brushed my niece’s heavenly locks yesterday and plaited and pruned her hair into many varied styles, I briefly considered a regrowth plan. But then my 10 minutes in the shower and 5 minutes drying time (with no straightening or curling requirement) quickly changed my mind. Who knows, I may look back at this period of my life with disdain. Heaven knows I feel that way about my basin cut of 1982 (I was but 4) and my blonde with black under colour of 2000..but so what! Hair always grows; I have sobbed after certain disaster cuts of old and TRIED to repeat this like a mantra! Trends and styles continue to change and once you release the comfort blanket that is your hair, you sometimes feel set free.

(Photo credits: Jak & Jil Blog, Facehunter and Vogue)

I write this post to inform you that I shall be AWOL from the blog for a week or so, as well as my Twitter and Facebook page. I’m heading off to Canada to partake in a little skiing, although at the rate the temperatures are rising, it could be a spot of water sport. I am slightly worried about the lack of Twitter. I’ve been kind of weening myself off it the last few days, to see if I can go without reading my whole feed….it’s not going to be easy; I predict high temperatures and night-sweats! I’m detouring via New York on the way home to breathe in a little American (well New Yorker) style. Please feel free to email, I may not respond until my return but it will be nice to know you are thinking of Random Fashion Coolness.

Several recent incidents or articles have left me mulling over what to write in this post for a few weeks. What actually spurred me to finally post it was this conversation,

“That is SICK but in a good way. That is sooooo sick but in a bad way.” This intellectual exchange was the treat that lay in store for me once my iPod died on the way home from Manchester a few weeks ago (damn you Apple; I LOVE you but hate your limited battery life!) Two twenty-something university students were sitting discussing the specimens on offer in OK Magazine. Their hair was ironed to within an inch of its life. Foundation was caked on in cement style proportions. UGGs were donned, jeggings were worn. I have no issue with these superficial details but I do take umbrage with their conversation, which continued in such a manner for 3 hours. Every aspect of it revolved around the trivialities of what, by some, is perceived to be feminine; fake tan, make-up, waxing, Cheryl’s hair, I could go on and on….but I wish not to relive the torturous banter suffered by my fair ears.

I so happened to be reading an article on Sexism in last month’s Elle at the same time spurring me on to debate, who is today’s feminist? Most teenagers I know idolise Cheryl Cole to an unhealthy extreme. She has finally taken action and left her adulterous husband; could this be seen as a positive step for feminism? None of us actually know the truth of their relationship woes, therefore can we judge anything about the soon to be former Mrs. Cole? If you read the Daily Mail, 90% (their favourite statistic) of teenage girls aspire only to be a WAG. I know many who perceive this a positive element of feminism in the new decade as these women are finally taking control and going after exactly what they want.

Fashion is an industry in which many strong women reign supreme, but would they earn the same level of respect in any other industry? Are they where they are because of their inherent male traits that they overtly demonstrate to emphasise their power?

This issue is HUGE and not one that can be debated in a single post. For me the feminist of the new decade doesn’t burn her bra or demonstrate with placards in the street. They act subtly and with integrity to gain and earn respect in whichever field they work or sphere of society they inhabit. They seek independence and self-improvement, regardless of what others around them achieve. It’s not about competition but a desire to progress for one’s self as opposed to pleasing someone else.

The Terry Richardson saga has recently played out in the press. His methodology in gaining overtly sexualised images has been called into question, as many models come forward with their tales of exploitation in his hands (quite literally at times.) Some of the stories I read left me sick to the pit of my stomach. Were they tales of a step backward on the feminist trail? In my mind yes. I was then forced to ask myself why only a small minority of models have come forward with their accusations? Is it because the others are the new true feminists of our time? Are they harnessing their sexuality to gain exactly what they want? To witness the number of females that offered themselves up for American Apparel’s Best Bottom in the World competition was evidence enough of people taking ownership of their own gender dominance. No-one forced them to offer up pictures of their derriere, no-one offered them obscene amounts of money – the recognition of their rear’s prowess and some A&A goodies were all that was at stake.

I’m really interested to know what your thoughts are on this matter. Who is the feminist of today for you? Are there any females you admire, look up to and would hold in high esteem to anyone that asked? I am left confused and worried and no clearer on who she is.

I remember when they were one of few e-tailers, under the guise of As Seen On Screen, selling wares “inspired” by celebrities. You could buy Kylie’s famous white lycra all-in-one, a J-Lo inspired deep plunge dress, the list rolled on. ASOS has come a long way from those humbler beginnings. A dominate force in the British e-shop market, ASOS now boasts independent designer collaborations, alongside well established designer names and high street products. They update at a rate of knots, so I was interested to see their set-up when invited to their recent “Access All Areas” blogger event.

The night, for me, was a story of people and not of clothes. A select group of bloggers was assembled, champagne was added and the ASOS girls mingled. The ASOS employees, many of whom have Twitter, uphold and represent the brand perfectly. What I liked about actually meeting them was that their loyalty seemed utterly genuine. This didn’t seem to be a contrived marketing machine, albeit a very slick one. Finally meeting the people that email me little stories, send out press content and @ me via Tweet Deck was a joy. They were as sincere as I expected them to be (or they are the best actors I have ever met…get them to Hollywood I say!!)

Bringing together bloggers is a flawless way to generate happiness. There must be a collective noun for bloggers by now? Well, whatever we are, when we come together a hive of creativity and chaos seems to emerge. It was great to catch up with my faves; Disney Roller Girl, Mademoiselle Robot (pictured centre with the The Very Simon G,) Isabelle O.C., Kiki’s Delivery Service (2nd from right) and Catherine Kallon of Red Carpet Fashion Awards (far right) A highlight of the evening was chatting with the lovely Joe and Katie from What Katie Wore. We moaned about the extreme heat while I hid in the corner in my pvu (bad choice) jacket, ate every canapé that passed and stroked Butters the Pomeranian!

There was no catwalking for me (not my thing,) plus my pvu (a.k.a. pleather) jacket had brought me out in a sweat…or was that the champagne? Stephanie and Susie of ASOS were delightful; I hope to chat to all the other ladies properly on my next visit. My biggest surprise was the gift bag as I left. I didn’t get a chance to glance inside til my return train journey finally commenced. I was so delighted I emailed Susie immediately. In an inconspicuous little envelope hidden under lots of other little treats, was a gift card to spend at ASOS…my only dilemma now is what to buy! In a way a voucher is harder to shop with than “real” money as I feel I should get something worthwhile, different, that I wouldn’t normally choose to spend my money on. Any suggestions would be greatly welcomed!

Other brands take note! ASOS dazzled the bloggers and in many cases did more than just keep us “on side,” they converted us to the ASOS way (all before offering us free stuff!)

P.S. The clothes! OOops….The selection on offer was pretty special some amazing rope shorts, high-waisted hareems; as and when I spot them online, I’ll try to point them out.

I have a problem, I’ll admit to it…but only here on my blog. I get VERY excited about things very easily and then obsess over them a little bit (well quite a lot.) I guess that’s why the blog suits me so much; it can be an outlet for all my gushing madness! If I think something merits greatness I want to shout it from the rooftops.

Two things have caught my eye this week. One is thesixtyone. It’s an online music-streaming interface that showcases new artists. What I love about it is its aesthetic appeal matches the pleasure it offers to the ears (aural pleasure just didn’t fit there!) The artists offer little pop up bios and info as you listen as well as photos and artworks. These little snippets, sometimes submitted by the artists themselves, offer a great insight into who they are and what inspires them musically. Often, a musician’s external influences appeal to me more than their actual work, revealing a truer picture of who they are. (Thanks to Appendix Magazine for pointing me in thesixtyone’s direction)

The second thing is a set of city guides, which would adorn any shelf with their beauty. Portraits de Villes by be-pôles may look good but their appeal lies in their content for me. Photographers/artists are asked to photograph a city through their respective lens; the result – a photo-log of their experience. The ensuing shots may not be what you’d expect to see of that city but it sheds a whole new light on what the metropolis means to that person. A personalised view of a city holds so much more than a banal, “visit this” “do this” repetitiveness of some (not you Wallpaper or Le Cool ;) guides.

There endeth the discoveries for today. See more of what catches my eye over at AnOther Magazine.