VIDEO | Experiment: Wearing The Same Dress for 30 days

How versatile can a basic piece be?
Versatile enough to be worn everyday to every occasion that comes up?
And if it is, how meaningless will a large wardrobe look?
Will I miss my other clothes?
Will this dress be burned afterwards because I'm so sick of it or will I continue to wear it daily? I'm going to find out by wearing this dress from June 1st every day until the July 1st.

Wearing the same item for a certain amount of time isn't anything new, for example wearing the same jeans for a year. Though while fast fashion is now dying a slow death, this little project seems more relevant than ever.
I'm wearing a COS tanktop in a size large as a dress, later on I found out that there is also a longer, dress version of it.

D I Y / 15 Minute-Two Toned Platform Heels

Back in January I did a guest post for the lovely DIY blog A pair and a spare about my two toned heels. After my previous posts I got a few emails about the heels, so here's the tutorial on how I altered them!

Stripper heels?
I found these babies at a secondhand market. Their perfect shape struck me immediately and reminded me of a pair of pointy Jil Sander platform heels. Though their silver color in combination with their heel- and platform height made me doubt about the possibility for them to be part of a tasteful ensemble. Did they used to belong to a Spice Girl or a stripper? Yes the shiny silver had to go. Or at least half of it.

Materials
These heels are made out of a synthetic satin-like material. Special fabric paint would probably work best on cotton, canvas, velvet or any other real fabric coated shoes. For Leather shoes there are special leather paints for sale at any shoe maker. But this cheap material almost feels like woven plastic, a permanent marker was perfect for the job. Permanent marker also works like a charm on faux leather.

How to
Draw a line along the exact middle of the shoe with chalk. If you have a very steady grip draw along it immediately with the permanent marker. Else you can always stick a piece of tape along the line to avoid making mistakes. Then fill in all the color, remove the tape and Voila! Two tone heels!
I don’t care to which 1995-stripper, -Spice Girl impersonator or drag queen they used to belong, with this 15 minute alteration they became a nice addition to my shoe collection!

NOVELTY | Arnhem Mode Biennale

one of the Maison Martin Margiela installations, photograph by me

Tomorrow the Arnhem Mode Biennale opens their doors for the fourth time. This year the theme is the identity of fashion; personified by the fictive character 'Amber'. Getting to know Amber(fashion) means getting to know yourself as fashion mirrors society and shapes our identity.

The exhibition takes place in a spacious industrial hall on the outskirts of Arnhem. Damir Doma showed a mountain of salt on which his mannequins on thick creepers were showcasing his latest fall collection and Rad Hourani came up with a movie consisting of uncountable short clips. Other contributors to Arnhem Mode Biennale include Maison Martin Margiela, Juun J, Rodarte, Anne Sophie Back, A.F. Vandevorst and Prada.

Next to an old factory full of inspiration there will also be interesting lectures and workshops in for example photography, textile dyeing, knitting, fashion styling and working with leather. So if you are in the neighborhood (it is under a hour and a half away from Amsterdam or Dusseldorf) be sure to drop by the
Arnhem Mode Biennale before the July 3.

ACCESSORIES | Practicality

backpack secondhand, shirt vintage Cacharel, shorts American Apparel, necklace selfmade, sunglasses Episode

You might expect me to blog about oversized zipper clutches in neon colors. I must admit; a neon yellow rectangle in your hand does complement an outfit. Unfortunately I don't go to cocktail parties where I only bring a lipstick and my phone. The harsh reality is that I need to carry around a laptop, books, a camera, a nest of wires and chargers and much more uninteresting stuff. On top of that I need to be able to jump on my bike, run to catch a train, pick up my kid from school and occasionally go through some racks of clothing. So I could show you what I would wear to a cocktail party, but I could also show you what I would wear to school or during a city trip. That would be my beloved leather backpack.

SHOES | AW 11 Alexander Wang

image credits: 5 inch and up, fashion toast

Alexander Wang fall winter 2011 shoes and a beautiful black rack in one if his stores.

BEAUTY | Going Grey

After buckets of bleach and chemicals my hair is finally grey. A color that is being stared at and commented on a lot because silver hair is something that most women would rather avoid. Being old isn't desireable apparently. And grey is associated with that, the only thing that our society seems to like nowadays is everything young. And in order for every idea to be young it must be replaced by the next in a short matter of time.

A good idea isn't good if it isn't a new idea. A beautiful shoe isn't acceptable because it has been out for three seasons and a person isn't beautiful if it isn't 17 years old. Luckily as fast fashion is slowly dying and people's cravings for the next new thing are stilled these insane and unrealistic thoughts are disappearing.

Good ideas last forever, I still love my Givenchy shoes from 2007, I just turned 23 but am jealous of Kristen Mcmenamy's looks.

D I Y / Hardware Store Rings

Stop by the plumbing section of the hardware store next time you are looking for new jewelry. These brass things apparently are made to connect two tubes with eachother but they look more like rings to me. They make the most delicious clicking sound when wearing them.

NOVELTY | Dion Lee ss12

images: DazedDigital and Stylebubble

Dion Lee's spring summer 2012 collection was all about bringing together conflicting elements in a composed way, for example the synthetic treatments that were used on natural fabrics. The cutouts in the structured garments seemed like the dissecting work of a surgeon and the colors (minty green and white) that are usually worn by hospital staff added even more to a clinical feeling.

It's impressive how conceptual the work of Dion Lee is. For example instead of inviting his guests with a regular piece of paper in an envelope, he prescribed them a dose of composure and the invitations came in the shape of a box of pills. (They were filled with mints in case you were wondering)