Bat For (Paper) Lashes

Images: Paperself

Papercut Lashes

On Saturday we went to a party where I spent half the night trying to work out why a friend looked more beautiful than usual. For a while I thought it was her new super sleek hairdo. Then I thought it was her floaty dress which reminded me of a piece of fairy floss. But as we were about to leave, I realised it was the tiniest thing of all...her false lashes.

I've always written off falsies as more trouble than their worth. But after the other night, I am a believer. And after spotting these lashes by Paperself I'm obsessed.

Inspired by the traditional Chinese craft of paper-cutting, these lashes are as intricate as they are delicately pretty. Available in three styles - horses, peonies and peach blossoms which symbolise success, happiness and love respectively.

The only thing I now have to get down pat is the art of application, as there would be nothing worse than wayward peach blossom lashes flapping in the wind!

Large sets £12; Small sets £10; available online from Luna & Curious.

Take My Hat Off To You

Images: Maison Michel

Maison Michel S/S10 Lookbook

When it comes to lookbooks, if you've seen one you've seen them all. Produced each season by fashion brands to showcase their latest collection, they usually feature a snoozefest approach of a vapid model snapped in front of a white background.

This morning however, my theory was proved wrong when I came across the S/S10 lookbook by avant-garde milliners, Maison Michel. Featuring drop-dead-whimsical illustrations by Cédric Rivrain mixed with product shots, the overall result is fresh and seductive. And the icing on the top? Laetitia Crahay, Maison Michel's Artistic Director and Head of Accessories and Jewelry at Chanel, roped some of her (famous) friends including Milla Jovovich and Lou Doillon in as models.

If only more brands would take a leaf out of Maison Michel's lookbook - we would have less same, same and more different.

Tape Tie

Image: Supermarket

Sonic Fabric Necktie

If you thought the only retro thing about the revival of the necktie is the popularity of Mad Men, think again. Made from recycled cassette tape, Alyce Santoro and Julio Cesar's limited edition ties are giving mix tapes the world over a second chance.

Believe it or not, they are also audible if you run a tape head over them. So I guess you could say, they are music to your ears...or should that be neck?!

US $120; available online from Supermarket.

Lost Generation

Video: YouTube

Palindromic Video

If you have a spare 1:45 minutes today, take some time out and watch this nifty little video. It came second in a competition called u @50 and was submitted by a 20-year old student.

This video is based on a palindrome which reads the same backwards as forwards. However, in this case not only does it read the exact opposite, the meaning is also the exact opposite.

Confused? It will all make sense when you watch it through. It is also the perfect inspiration to consciously make changes.

Please, just watch it....

Found via.

A Cut Above the Rest

Images: Koi Koi Koi

Leather Etched Artwork by Mark Evans

Although I like to think I'm a creative person, I'm much better with the vision than the execution. My first indication this was the case was in my Grade 4 art class and the shambolic Linocut I produced.

Lucky for me, Mark Evans wasn't in my class because he truly is a dab hand with a scalpel. Mark creates hand-etched artwork using knives as his 'paintbrushes' and leather hide as his 'canvas'. Each bespoke piece is impressively detailed and life-like...although not that impressive if you're a vegetarian, I guess!

Found via.

All Run Out

Mother's Day Classic

Do you remember how I said I was going to attempt the Mother's Day Classic? Well, I did it! And here is me in all my red-faced-glory as proof!

Despite not being able to make it around the block six weeks ago, I ran the whole 8km and did it in a pretty good time...if I do say so myself! My secret weapon was a running program called Couch to 5km. I used this as the basis for my training, but tweaked it a little because I didn't have enough weeks to do it by the book. If you've ever wanted to start running but thought it was beyond you, give this program a try. Trust me!

Although Mother's Day is often written off as a hunk of commercial rot, participating in an event like this made my day. It was incredible being part of such a positive event that not only raises funds for breast-cancer support and awareness, but brings together so many different people who were all there with the same purpose - to support each other as they ran or walked.

Whatever you did, I hope you had a lovely Mother's Day, and that the week ahead is a ripper.

On My Soapbox

Image: Nicole Makauskas

Twenty Years On: Revisiting Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth

Oh Naomi! When did life pass you by?

Discovering your book, The Beauty Myth, rocked me to the core. So when you first stepped on stage at last night’s Wheeler Centre event, I felt a little star struck. But it all went downhill from there.

There is no doubt that images of beauty are still being used against women. However it’s a very different playing field to when you wrote your bestseller twenty years ago - and there are two glaring big differences you failed to mention.

How can you overlook the rise and rise of digital media? Never before has there been more images of an idealised concept of female beauty being produced and consumed.

Websites like Perez Hilton serve up fresh images of Lindsay, Britney and the rest of young Hollywood 24/7. With a click of a mouse, Style.com delivers snaps of every celebrity to walk the red carpet at the opening of an envelope. And don’t just think it’s the big names that rate a mention. The plethora of street style blogs, like The Sartorialist, are proof that so long as you are model pretty you’re worthy of online attention.

Not only has the number of images increased, digital media has forever changed our access to them. Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian are proof that in a post of just 140-words Twitter cuts out the middleman (the media) and brings the cult of celebrity closer to the average punter than ever before.

And what about this week’s Rosemount Fashion Week? Where once the FROW (aka front row) of a runway show was reserved for A-listers and a who’s who of glossy mags, you can now be front and centre from the comfort of your own couch. Everyone from Sportsgirl to Harper’s Bazaar has a ‘guest blogger’ reporting on these events. Vogue and any other respected fashion or beauty website is running daily – almost hourly – analysis of designers, models, goodie bags…oh and yeah…the fashion. And if that wasn’t enough, labels such as ksubi are live streaming their shows.

The other big difference between now and when you wrote The Beauty Myth is the democratisation of cosmetic surgery. Twenty years ago, it was only the ladies-who-lunch who had little nip and tuck. Now Botox is de rigueur, and cosmetic surgery tourism is a booming industry. It seems our quest for beauty, at any cost, has reached stratospheric new heights. Just ask Heidi Montag. The already-genetically-blessed starlet recently underwent a staggering 10 plastic surgery procedures at the ripe old age of 23. “We all want to feel attractive,” says Heidi.

It saddens me to say, but twenty years on the beauty myth is still alive and well. Our obsession with physical perfection is still trapping many women in an endless spiral of hope, self-consciousness, and self-hatred as they try to fulfill society's impossible definition of ‘the flawless beauty’. Today, we need a whole new set of tools in our kit if we are to break this nexus.

While digital media can be our undoing, this medium also presents the most thrilling of opportunities. We now have the chance for alternative voices and ideas to reach a large, immediate and global audience. We can hijack the modus operandi and set a new agenda. In another twenty years, I hope we are saying, “What beauty myth?”

All night I waited for you to utter these words, but they never came. Naomi, it’s time to pass on your mantle. It’s time for a new generation of critical thinkers.

Pun-tastic

Image: Laikingland

Tea Cup from Royal Delft and Laikingland

Storm in a tea cup

The perfect storm

Go down a storm

Not my cup of tea

There's a storm brew-ing

What's the best bit about this too-sweet-for-words tea cup? The fact that it is limited edition and only 12 pieces have been created? Or that when you turn the little handle, the golden boat rides the waves and the stormy clouds above reveal a shining bolt of lightening? No - it's actually the fact that this is the most pun-tastic tea cup going around! Ahuh.

£550.00; pre-order online at Laikingland for delivery in July 2010.

Bang on vs Oh so wrong: Met Ball 2010

Last night, the annual Costume Institute Gala was held at Manhattan's Metropolitan Museum of Art. Hosted by Vogue editor, Anna Wintour, I always find this red carpet a hell of a lot more interesting than the Oscars.

Here's my take on who was bang on and who was oh so wrong.

Bang On

Charlotte Gainsbourg

Oh Charlotte. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Head-to-toe Balenciaga. Killer pins. Understated hair and makeup. To have but one of these would be heaven!

Jennifer Lopez

I never thought I'd say this, but - well played J.Lo! You knocked it out of the park with your nod to old Hollywood glamour and smouldering smoky eye makeup.

Chanel Iman

This is probably my favourite look from the evening. Chanel took a risk with her Michael Kors jumpsuit, but it payed off. Big time.

Carey Mulligan

I have mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand Carey looks a little under dressed for a red carpet, but at the same time I love how sweet her look is. Is it a case of right outfit, wrong occasion?

Alexa Chung

Take a 3.1 Phillip Lim tuxedo add a dark red lip and you have Alexa's winning Diane Keaton-esque combination. Then again, I'm hardly surprised as I'm yet to see Alexa put a fashion foot wrong.

Oh So Wrong

Katy Perry

A dress containing LED lights? Mildly amusing in theory. Hideous in reality. I'm surprised she didn't accessorise with glo sticks.

Kristen Stewart

I'd look grumpy if I was wearing that ensemble as well. Oh hang on, you always look like that.

Christina Hendricks

The phrase 'mutton dressed as lamb' comes to mind....

Ralph & Ricky Lauren

Oh Ricky. Would you mind having a word with Alexa so you can find out where you went wrong with this look.

Ps: Your shoes make your feet look like trotters.

All images via Style.com

Blog Love

The ever-lovely Bianca from The Dinner Bell Rings, recently awarded me a Beautiful Blogger Award. Given how effortlessly stylish (and moorish) Bianca's site is, I blushed like mad when I heard the news!

So the deal is - having had my moment in the sun I now have to pay it forward by shining the spotlight on blogs that inspire me. Everyday I visit an almighty bunch of sites so selecting just a few has been excruciatingly hard. In the interest of keeping things short and sweet though, here are six blogs that are currently topping my list of daily prowls:

Mary & Matt: Their blog is as delicious as their chocolates (which by the way, are now stocked exclusively by Third Draw Down in Australia)

Hello Mr Fox: A winning combination of vintage + fashion + photography. What more could you want?

Rummey Bears: I feel so incredibly privileged when I read Anna's frank and beautiful adventures as a very new mum.

Fine Little Day : Serious eye candy from photographer and designer, Elisabeth.

Love Again: Keeping it close to home is this little piece of whimsy from Ballarat way. The images keep me coming back again...and again...and again.

Bright. Bazaar: We're about to embark on a pretty big reno so I often find myself drifting back to Will's inspirational edit of interiors.

What blogs are tickling your fancy at the moment? Please share them - discovering a new slice of escapism would make my day!

Personal Space

Images: Richard Renaldi

Touching Strangers

What are you like with personal space? Do you find a peak hour train never-too-close-for-comfort? Or are you more the type that would baulk at a Richard Renaldi photograph?

For each of his images, Renaldi asks two or more strangers to pose while touching each other. The resulting series is fascinating because it captures both personal space types. Some people look so comfortable that if you didn't know better, you would swear they are soul mates. While for others their discomfort is palpable.

"Touching Strangers encourages viewers to think about how we relate physically to one another, and to entertain the possibility that there is unlimited potential for new relationships with almost everybody passing by,” says Renaldi.

More images from this series are over here.

Laugh Out Loud

Hell yeah! This weekend is going to be a good one. My love and I are heading off on an adventure and will relive the days we were sans bambino. I already know we'll have an amazing time and that he'll make me laugh every minute we're together.

In the spirit of a hilarity filled weekend, here are a few things that made me smile...and do that embarrassing snort-out-loud-to-myself-thing:

Image: Vice

Do's and Dont's from Vice is an oldie but definitely a goodie that never fails to deliver...even if it makes me feel a little bit envious of the person who can write such brilliantly witty copy!

Image: POPFi

New York Senator, Eric Adams has launched an initiative to stop the boys from Brooklyn baring their arses to the breeze. And no, I'm not making this up!

Image: Keggers of Yore

Start happy hour early with ye olde party pictures courtesy of Keggers of Yore.

Image: Gawker

The Washington Post can't tell the difference between Obama and Malcolm X. For serious.

Have a good one.

x

Truth Serum

Geoffrey Edelston and Brynne Gordon.

Image: The Sydney Morning Herald

Go Try It On

On a recent night out, one of my best buddies proclaimed, 'I prefer your hair long and curly. I think it looks much better!' Unfortunately for me, my hair was short and straight at the time. We both continue to laugh about this moment and blame it on too much truth serum.

Maybe in the future though, she could direct her frank opinions to Go Try it On, a new site where you can get an honest opinion on whether your outfit is grouse or shouse . Recent brace souls who have posted their outfits online include Cami who is wondering if she can get away with matching her cardie to her gumboots, Karan who wants to rock a popped collar and Blair who needs convincing that her pretty frock is perfect for a country wedding.

The spirit of Go Try it On is helpful, rather than harmful. So helpful in fact, that when it comes to the likes of Brynne Gordon it can almost be considered a community service!