Pin-Up Panic!!

So right now there is little money, which fyi – SUCKS BALLS – and with little money comes the interesting task that is: Job Hunting. Oh. Fuck. Yeah. Me and Commander [okay, mostly Commander] have been doing up my CV so I look like some badass sort of human that everyone will want to employ, and I've had the oh so difficult task of handing them out to prospective employers whilst in the sudden sweltering heat bestowed on London in the last two days. First impressions, you know, make-up less and sweaty.

First attack:

Vivien of Holloway.

Really, the fact that my boyfriend literally lives up the road from VoH and I got excited about it the first time I went over to his was the primary reason that I took an active interest in retro/pin-up/vintage fashion. I'd been a fan, but never tried my hand at it. And my first sort of “vintage” piece was a black red bustier from there that Commander bought me as a Valentine's Day/White Day present. [And subsequently he took me to a burlesque show and bought me these beauties]

And I had a call back during my tube journey between Holloway and Stratford, in which I was asked by the lovely woman at the desk to send in an email with a headshot of myself with “vintage hair and makeup”, because as a vintage repro brand, the aesthetics are pretty much mandatory. This was no problem, and I got excited about it enough to envisage myself doing measurements on lovely ladies and prancing about in circle dresses for a while.

That was up until the pin-up panic began.

Am I vintage enough? Does my crappy-ass easy-done victory rolls constitute as a vintage 'do? Are my red lipstick and cat eyes really the right look?

I've been into this fashion actively for about.... a grand total of say 4 months? I'm still learning, and I'd like to think I have a certain “pin-up” look... But enough to start working for somewhere which is pretty iconic amongst pin-up, vintage and rockabilly girls [sometimes guys, too!], and I'm not so sure I'd be the best person to stand around and be part of this.

I suppose maybe I could be one of those “ugly ducklings” that they'll transform into a fantastic, beautiful swan... with v-rolls and shit.

Or I could just choose something out of these few pictures to send off and see what happens?

Or of course, option B is to sneakily do as much research as possible, do a quick photoshoot in the morning and have it sent off by the afternoon looking like a vintage queen!!

Or I'll end up working in a bar and serve ugly old men.

Melody♫

Karim Sadli for Candy.

Honestly, I have a bit of an outline for this blog in which I was certain I'd follow, but this came up and I feel that I need to  at least show it, because it's simply fucking beautiful.

As a fan of lingerie and things you wouldn't quite expect, when this popped up on my Tumblr dash, I was pleasantly surprised and fell in love instantly.

All photos from thefashionisto.com

Please go and look at the whole editorial over on The Fashionisto, because I seriously love the whole thing and think it deserves to be seen by everyone!

I just adore the soft colouring in the photography, and it always helps when a photoshoot happens to have Andrej Pejic in it, who I personally think is the most beautiful model for a long time [male and female!!] .

Sadly the site doesn't specify where each individual piece is from, because I would love to know where the fan-laced corset and the longline suspender belt is from!

Off topic - Is it just me or is latex everywhere right now?

Melody♫

Hello Sailor!

Every now and then I want to do a "What I wore to this, this or this" feature on here, because everyone knows bitches love outfit posts.

The first of these posts goes to Torture Garden, the "worlds leading fetish club", according to the London Fetish Map [and to TG itself but I wanted to shove in a link to LFM anyway].

Me and Captain Jeans have been wanted to go to TG since October, and June was just perfect, considering this:

BOAT PARTY.

Hell yeah. A boat party. This meant I could finally use my Collectif sailor pencil dress I've been dying to use for three months now, and get my sailor on.

I've gotten into the habit lately of drawing up my outfits, one for drawing practice and two for show, because this is a lot prettier than my face.

But here is a picture regardless, with added Commander, looking gorgeous in a dinner suit! ♥

And then my face.

 Outfit rundown;

Hat: Ebay, with a bow stuck on it.

Jewellery: Both bow and treble clef from Claire's Accessories

Cardigan: Collectif

Dress: Collectif

Stockings: What Katie Did

Shoes: Bordello

And it's unseen, but I'd like to mention my underwear, my beautiful What Katie Did corselette, which I highly recommend to anyone looking for a bit of support under their pencil dresses!!

Graduate Fashion Week

So. As I've said before, I'm a student at University of East London, studying fashion.

My uni is very lucky to be one of the universities that show at Graduate Fashion Week - which is the best place for graduates to be spotted by companies or designers, and often they get work from this.

Our uni has this whole policy that the first years of the fashion course must help out the third years with their graduate collections. The added bonus for the first years is that when they help out the third years, they can be picked to dress the models. I got to dress, and I was happy as fuck with it.

L-R designers: Eliesha, Sarah, Steph, Becky.

Shoes.

I've never in my life before been backstage at a fashion show, so this was ultimately exciting for me, and gave me a real boost to work harder in my work to get to GFW myself in two/three years.... Looks like I've got to start putting real effort into work!!

It also made me feel really short.

Illustrated perfectly by Bug, this sums up pretty much how e v e r y o n e felt that day.

Models are tall. D:

And then things happened...

Basically, I'm not sure what happened at all on the catwalk, but I do know that that was the quickest, most stressful and most exciting twenty minutes of my life, and I'd love to be a dresser again sometime.

You can see some of the catwalk pictures here on the GFW Arts Thread page for UEL, as well as checking out the other graduate's work [including sketchbooks and CV] on the UEL Arts Thread. I will also be posting up images from the graduate catalogue on my personal Tumblr as soon as I find a a3 scanner.

I'd also like to take a moment to congratulate UEL graduate Le Thuy Le Thi on winning the ITV This Morning Viewer's Choice award!

Melody♪

Oh shit! Another fucking fashion blog?

You bet your fine arse it is.

So. Welcome to my fashion blog.

I'm Melody, 20-year-old fashion student of the University of East London, just finished in the first year. I have a... mix of different things that I am interested in, from the eccentricities of Japan's street fashions, to the sensuality of 1950's underwear.

I live in the east end of London in a flat lovingly called HMS. Your Mother, alongside my beautiful Captain Jeans and Admiral Mutton, and Blarney, the obligatory Irish. They, especially Cpt. Jeans, inspire me to drink heavily and miss deadlines due to a three-hour session of Irish snap. I own a boyfriend, too, going by the name of Commander, and he's pretty nice. He has flippy hair. And for the moment, that's all the friends you need to know of.

So, I've mentioned the fact this is a fashion blog. But it's not going to be one of those ridiculous "OmG i LoVe ChAnELz oMgZZZZ!!1!!!" blog, for two reasons. 1. I don't like Chanel too much. 2. My choices in fashion is a little more varied than established haute couture houses.

I've been into fashion since I was around 13/14, and I've been studying it since I was 14. My talent does not really show my time in study, as you'd think 6 years of being taught to sew and design would mean I'm some sort of queen of a sewing machine - wrong. I'm obviously crap at learning. But I do alright. I suppose.
But at the least I can say is that I can design, draft a pattern, sew, and big myself up somewhat to a decent degree.

As aforementioned, I have a mix of styles. For the good part of about eight years my style was always based on Japanese Street Fashions, Visual Kei, Lolita, Japanese Punk etc. but in recent months I've found myself extremely interested [and dressing] more in 1950's pin-up styles, and have an active interest in lingerie and fetishwear. As this is my blog, my posts will reflect my interests, so don't hope to see too much continuity in styles - I fully intend on bringing you the best of all my worlds. This'll probably mean there will be music posts, posts on my life, reviews on certain things, recommendations... You name it. But we'll see how it all goes.

So, dear non-existent readers, I welcome you on board, destination: ...undecided.
Let's have fun, hm?

Melody♫