Come on...VOGUE!!!

There are so many AMAZING vogue covers from the 20s and 30s. I could post hundreds of them, had i the time or inclination.

December 1916

December 1917

January 1925

January 1926

May 1929

July 1929

(all images from http://www.coverbrowser.com/covers/vogue)

Love Kaylene

A Kenzo Winter!

I finally got a chance yesterday to have a proper look at the Kenzo A/W 2009 collection, and I have come to the conclusion, "this is how I must dress this winter...even if I have to make shoddy first year design student quality knock-offs". And yes, the quote marks are necessary as i did indeed proclaim such a statement out loud the first time I looked through the collection.

You've got no just how much I want these platform lace-up ankle boots.

And this is definately the way to go when venturing into the sleeveles fur-trimmed vest genre. I think this may be the perfect garment to try and recreate for myself. Just got to find a place to buy rabbit fur. And no Centine, I am most definitely not cutting up my new rabbit fur jacket!

Inspirational panelling!

Love the shape and the print.

Ridiculously large frogging detail gets two thumbs up from me.

I think this is a look I need to adapt for everyday wear....although I really need to get those shoes....

The contrasting textures are perfect!

Antonia Marras, you're a good man.

Love from Kaylene xo

The remaining 2/3rds.

As promised, here are the remaining 2 of the "3 items for $20" sale I found on my way to cocktails.


I was so excited to find an Akira skirt in the second hand store for approx $6 and 67cents. Absolute bargain!


I love the way the tiny knife pleats fan out!


I also found this silk skirt (which happens to be in an almost identical material to a top i own...however i think it would be very unwise to wear them together).

I also felt the need to include this picture to show how ridiculously long the sleeves in my jumper are. This is my lounging jumper. I live in it when in the confines of my apartment. It's kinda like a big mustard cable-knit security blanket. Everyone should have one.

Love Kaylene xo

A night of shiny structured 80s jackets.

I headed out a few hours ago for a few casual cocktails wearing this shining exemplar of an 80's silhouette:

(please note that these were not actually taken before leaving the house, but just 2 minutes ago...hence the slightly frazzled/tipsy expressions). I found this little number in a junk store in melbourne. The thing I love most about this top is the back side. What a great shape! 

I digress...

On the way from the Station to the Sly Fox (cheapest cocktails in Sydney) I stumbled across one of my favourite second shops...open at night...and with everything ON SALE!!! 3 garments for $20!!! And so I came home looking like this:

Tadaa!

This tuxedo jacket feels like it was tailor made for me, and it's also really good quality. All these factors however play second fiddle to my main motivation for purchasing this jacket -  it makes me feel just a little bit more like Bryan Ferry.

-Love Kaylene.

P.S. - Stay tuned for the remaining 2/3rds of my second hand bargains!!!

I like "borrowing" t-shirts.

I've learnt some very useful things about self-photo taking since starting this blog. The first is that you should move the camera to capture yourself, and not move yourself to fit in with the camera. Otherwise such silliness occurs:

Also...I think it'd help if I had just one plain wall in my unit, for a fresh Jane from seaofshoes.com look. (She's my blog hero). Alas, in my crowded apartment it is near impossible. 
I love this Madonna T-shirt. It's from her 1993 Australia "Girly Show" tour. I borrowed it from my fiance Lax, who has one of the most extensive T-shirt collections of anyone I know. Thanks love :)

Madonna shirt worn with vintage sequined vest, op-shop belt, cocoon skirt from ebay and Ann Demeulemeester boots.  

Love Kaylene xo

Music Revisited - The Raincoats

Lately I've been revisiting a lot of my favourite bands and albums from when I was in my teens. Today has been all about The Raincoats - one of the first all female post punk bands. 

Their sound was distinctly minimalist, punctuated by punchy and John Cale-esque violin playing.

It was not uncommon for their songs to spiral out of control and descend into chaos, only to be directly followed by the most serene and moving of instrumental sections that could parallel more recent bands like Sigur Rós.

Their first two albums are completely flawless. Check them out!

The Raincoats - 1980 (recorded 1979)

Odyshape - 1981

And don't you just love their album artwork?

-Love Kaylene

My favourite.

Rick Owens may not necessarily be my favourite designer, but he is definitely my favourite person who is a designer. Am i making sense? Don't get me wrong, I'd do almost anything to be the proud owner of this vest:Or this jacket
Or even these boots if I had really skinny legs...

(style.com)

But in the mean time, I'm more than happy to watch clips of Rick Owens on youtube. He's so lovable. Before knowing much about Rick, I assumed that he may be a rather austere and perhaps even pretentious avant garde character. But I guess that's a lesson for me to never assume anything, and don't judge a book, etc etc.

The moment I knew I truly loved Rick Owens was when an interviewer asked: "The title of the show is strutter, what does that mean?"

To which Rick replies: "Strutter is one of my favourite KISS songs...Paul Stanley kinda screeches strutter all through the song and once you her him like singing strutter it's kinda like always in your head". 

That made me smile.

-Love Kaylene

Goot schmoot.

Pictures from style.com

I was so excited to see Josh Goot's new collection today...that was until I actually saw it. To me, the best feature in Goot's previous collections was his amazing dreamy prints. I guess I would have expected that to become his signature and for his prints to be recognisably his own, in the same way that a Pucci print is undeniably Pucci.

Goot retained his minimalist aesthetic in terms of the lines of garments, but there was just not enough substance to warrant any excitement. His theme was "geology", and if you're going to have something as boring as rocks as your theme, you really need to find a way to inject some life into it. 

It basically was a whole lot of this...yawn.

The only redeeming features of the entire collection were this top: 

..and this print featured towards the end of the collection, finally giving some respite from the endless amounts of black and neutrals:

Unfortunately for Goot, Graeme Black also had a geology themed collection, proving that such a subject can be a little more than a mind-numbing trip back to year 9 science class.

Graeme Black Fall 09

Love Kaylene

"I'm a man-eating machine"

Last month I was lucky enough to get tickets to see Grace Jones perform when she was in Australia for the Sydney Festival. She absolutely blew my mind, both aurally and visually, but given the nature of this blog, i'll focus on the latter. 

There was a lot of hype surrounding the Philip Treacy headwear, but i must say, some of the capes and jackets she wore were equally amazing, and i've been trying to find out who they were designed by. If anyone knows, please drop me a line. 

Photography by Andrea Klarin

Grace has played muse to many famous designers and artists since the late 70's, but her recent comeback with the album "Hurricane" has once again secured her place in the fashion world. In the last six months, her image has been directly influencing many collections and editorials:

Jean Paul Gaultier Sring 2009 Couture

(Images from style.com)

Photos be Steven Meisel for Vogue Italia August 08

Grace Jones...I love you.

From Kaylene. xo

Work shoes? Play shoes more like it!

I got these lovely purple suede shoes from work today. One of the perks of being expected to wear their current stock. They're such a conservative classic shape...but then the purple suede gives them that touch of silliness which i need in order to justify wearing them. 

On an unrelated note, I'd like these please:

These are by Derek Lawlor - one of the Central Saint Martins graduates who showed today as part of London Fashion Week. Very talented indeed!

Love Kaylene.

Portrait of an artist as a smock.

I've been thinking about the Sonia Rykiel Spring 09 collection, which was in short a joyous celebration of all things Sonia. Her signature was all over the collection, but most obviously in the dress with the image of her face brought to life by a blaze of orange hair. I was aware that this particular show marked the 40th anniversary of the label, but i wasn't aware until...well...this afternoon when i decided to read up on the collection, that the looks which came out at the end of the show were tributes to Sonia Rykiel by an array of designers including Margiela, Rodarte and Gaultier. 

The aforementioned portrait dress was by Castelbajac, who made similar dresses last season featuring Kirsten Dunst and Natalie Portman. Before I had gained this knowledge I had assumed the self-portrait dress was designed by Sonia herself...what a ballsy/admirable/self obsessed move that would have been!

For those of you who don't know me, My name is Kaylene, and I have recently (2 weeks ago) started studying Fashion Design at Ultimo Tafe in Sydney. What I want to know is how long will it be before I can justify my own self portrait dress? Will I have to wait for someone else to make a tribute one? I'd be down with that also. I'd wear my own self-portrait dress complete with hair trimmings everywhere. 

I only got Photoshop a few days ago and have no idea how to use it properly...you may have already picked up on that. 

What do you think Centine? Is it too early to start my tribute dress?