Tuesday 8 December 2009

today's words of wisdom

"We se(ns)e what we need to se(ns)e in a given context. We are not all confused, even if we are wrong."

"Our sensate bodies [...] do not operate in the transcendent realm of truth, but in the immanent kingdom of the real."

Peter Corrigan in "The Dressed Society"

in other words: i do not need to question every single word i wrote in my thesis, but must trust that my senses did not betray me.

Wednesday 2 December 2009

where books come to life

enchanting. amazing. beautiful.

Monday 30 November 2009

blog break

until i have handed in my thesis in two weeks i take a little break from blogging (as you probably have noticed).

here is a brilliant electro version with a brilliant video of one of my favourite swedish songs, "jag ger dig min morgon" - kite with "i give you the morning"

Sunday 15 November 2009

jeans

i do wear jeans sometimes. not often, but every now and then. this was the end of october.
















































jeans: voice of europe
longarmed t-shirt: new yorker
white top: h&m
belt: diesel
bangle: accessorize
scarf: vintage
boots: vagabond

Friday 13 November 2009

lila boots

i'm selling a pair of lila vintage winter boots on ebay, the auction ends on sunday:
































































they are extremely comfortable, very pretty and really warm. real, very soft leather with lovely details. size 38, fits a 37 as well. and i do ship to all of europe.

Wednesday 11 November 2009

vestoj

at the moment i'm not good for anything. i'm deep inside my master's thesis and even though i read my daily blogroll more or less regularly i can't really find the time to write anything myself.

however. there is something i found today. it all started when evis posted about a second, collective, blog she contributes to now. modearkivet. it's a swedish blog about fashion, and it's definitely not your usual fashionblog. it's about fashion in terms of research, in terms of fashion studies, in terms of reviews on books about fashion. since my thesis has a lot to do with exactly this, guess who got excited!


















anyways, modearkivet just offered a preview about this brandnew bi-annual fashion magazin. vestoj. and no, this is not your usual fashion magazine. this is serious stuff for us who are interested in fashion as an academic subject, not fashion as in shopping. it plans to be a bridge between academia and the fashion industries. it's not about the latest fashion shows in i-dont-know-where, but why are fashion shows important and how have they changed during time and what does that say about the fashion industry. (this is an example made up by me and has nothing to do with the exact contents of the magazine.) they have a manifesto and an article by elizabeth wilson, who is something like the bill gates of fashion studies.

and you can buy it on the net. here at papercutshop. klick on "tidningar" and then you'll see it already. they ship internationally for 25 swedish kronor. i already ordered it.

picture from here.

Friday 30 October 2009

weekend

last weekend i was at the fleamarket. this weekend, my parents will come to visit. even under big pressure it's really important to do something nice every now and then. and i am so looking forward to meeting them again. i don't see them so often, and when i'm done studying (soon!!) and move away i'll see them even less. which is a sad thing. but, this weekend they'll be here. which means i have to work very hard for another two hours to get my text done..

last sunday's outfit:

























suede skirt and grey cardigan: fleamarket
t-shirt: new yorker
tights and belt: h&m
necklace: accessorize
shoes: vagabond

Tuesday 27 October 2009

me and my room

i took a little break yesterday and changed the look of my kitchen/livingroom. what i did was that i turned my sofa by 90 degrees, so that instead of facing the entrance it is facing the kitchenpart of the room. the room looks a little larger now, which is nice.


















this also gave me the chance to try out a new place for outfit-pictures today. the light comes quite sharply from the side, so i'm not sure if i like it:

























dress: fleamarket, shortened by me
cardigan: h&m
belt: orsay
tights: gina tricot
boots: vagabond

desert flower

on saturday i've been to see the movie "desert flower", an adaptation of ex-topmodel waris dirie's autobiographical book with the same name.

i think this is an important film, with an important social and political purpose and message. it is well done. it is very well performed. and it was so generic and predictable that if it hadn't been for the importance of the content i would have been bored to death. so, as a cineast, i would not have wanted to spend 9euro on the regular saturnight ticket. thanks to yogurette and kinderschokolade we had two coupons enabling us to pay cinema-day prize (5,00€) on every day of the week, which was acceptable.



this is a german production. trying to look like hollywood, and almost getting there. it also is a german film about afrika, and the producer was the guy who produced "nowhere in africa", and some of the pictures could have been taken out of "the white massai". and it's a biopic. starting at one turning point in the person's life, following the person's rise to importance, plus a few flashbacks and a romance which does just get enough space to indulge those of us who need romance. both liya kebede (whom you can see on h&m's latest fall knit-campain - she is beautiful!) and especially sally hawkins do an amazing job in their roles and they really lift the film. as i said, this is not a bad movie. it is very solid, it is entertaining, and if you love africa and/or the world of high fashion you'll love the film.

Sunday 25 October 2009

friday's outfit

i finally got round to shortening these dresses which i got at the fleamarket. the blue one also got new buttons, and i'm thinking about getting some lace for the hem as well..

this is how i wore it last friday:
















































dress and bag: fleamarket
scarf: thrifted
cardigan: h&m
tights: c&a
shoes: dinsko

Saturday 24 October 2009

lüneburg, fall


















on sunday i went for a long walk with a good friend. we went through the old town, which is beautiful with small, really old houses, none of which stands straight. behind the old town lies one of my favourite places, the kalkberg. its a smallish, very steep hill in the middle of the town, a nature reserve and you feel so far away from the city, even though it's only a few meters away...

Friday 23 October 2009

all work and no play

this is how my workplace in the library looks like:



















books, paper, pen, computer, water and some stuff we're not allowed to take inside but do anyway (hidden behind the computer =). i keep the mobile on quiet-mode, as well as the computer. i also have a book-wagon for myself, at least until the end of the month. it's nice not having to schlep all your books back and forth all the time. i try to keep it nice from the outside - how about some coffee-table book on vanity fair with reese witherspoon??
















and this is how i looked like on wednesday - the lighting in the library is rather bad, so the picture was very yellow and i did my best with photoshop but there is only so much one can do. it almost got too blue instead...

























pullover: h&m
skirt: h&m, thrifted
cardigan: thrifted
tights: ?
flower-brooch: gina tricot
boots: topshop

the duchess

























i won! hübsch dich auf had a give-away where you could win a dvd with the movie "the dutchess", a costume drama with keira knightley, and i won one of the three dvds coco gave away... thank you, coco!!

























the package arrived some days ago at my place, and i guess i'll try and see it this weekend - though i should be viewing all those austens once more...

Sunday 18 October 2009

sunday

today was a good day, i feel like i got some necessary stuff done. such as laundry, dishes, a long walk with a friend in the sunny town... and my favourite person in the world booked a ticket to come here in november!!!

i also put some stuff up on ebay:

























retro dotted blouse by h&m divided (36)

























asian inspired paisley-blouse by only (s)

















































vintage 80s cocktaildress and matching bolero jacket with very big shoulders(m-l)

shopping ban, weeks five, six and seven

i'm so behind with the blog, it's impossible. but i kept track with my spending even though i didn't post two weeks in a row about the shopping ban.
i went into week five with 15,10 € on my budget. then i sold some stuff on ebay, and made 60€ that way which go into the budget, plus my 7 euro allowance per week, times three, makes alltogether 96,10€. wow.

and here is what i spent some of this money on:

























a purple cardigan on sale in oslo, 10euro (i actually owned this one in white already, but i loved the purple one so much i had to have it when it was on sale..)




















a black shirt on sale in oslo, 5euro

























a fluffy warm hat for winter, 9euro (say good morning to the very sleepy person peeping out from under it!)























and two pairs of tights, one (picture) for 8, the other for 5euro.

so, i spent 37 euro in week five, six and seven. out of a budget of 96,10, which leaves 59,10€ on the budget.. maybe a new pair of shoes next week??

Saturday 17 October 2009

emma

guess how excited i got when i discovered that there is a brand new version of jane austen's emma out there! or well, at least the first two parts of a miniseries of four parts, by the bbc.



the cast is something of a who is who of the best of british costume drama, both mr. knightley and mr. elton have played edmond in mansfield park (though in different adaptations) and finally michael gambon is playing a part in an austen adaptation (i have been waiting for this to happen..). the adaptations feels very fresh and modern, and still seems to capture parts of the book which earlier adaptations have failed to capture..



anyways. the first two parts have been aired, the third is supposed to air tomorrow. but. only the first part is available on youtube.. my question now to my british readers (though i don't know if there are many of you) - does any of you have the possibility to digitally record the miniseries for me? it is even available for streaming on the bbc-website, but they have disabled it for people outside the uk, and i would need it for my master's thesis. i know i could probably write to the bbc and ask if they'd be so kind and so on, but that's quite a hassle, so i thought i'd try it this way first...

damsel in distress

it's been ages since my last outfit post, i know. but, good news. a good friend of mine (thanks, verena!) promised to act photographer from now on. we are both suffering from the master's thesis syndrom and are therefore, together with some other friends, under quarantine in the library during daytime, and we thought this might be a good idea of how to spend the usual coffeebreak.

it's autumn now, so i could take out my damsel of the castle dress again. i bought it some years ago in berlin and love it dearly, even though i can only use it during the colder time of the year - it is quite warm. it also is very cosy and makes me feel like a fairytale princess. today i felt very much like adding a little steampunk to the dress, and dug out this wonderful vest (which is a little smallish, though) from the depths of my wardrobe. i got it as a present from my boyfriend at least two years ago and have never worn it until today.. *shame on me*

























dress: chapati
vest and hairflower: h&m
tights: c&a
boots: vagabond

Monday 12 October 2009

70s dresses

i've wanted to post about my last fleamarket finds from a few weeks back for some time but didn't really get around to doing it. that's how life goes.









































i found a book from the 50s or 60s, on sewing. it has lots of pretty pictures and drawings and maybe also the one or other smart word about sewing...




















a light grey cardigan. which i finally handwashed yesterday.


















































































and two really pretty vintage dresses from the 70s. both need shortening, and the blue one needed new buttons, which i fixed yesterday. also, i didn't like the frayed hem of the blue dress, at all, so it had to go. it only needs hemming now, then it is good to go.

Sunday 11 October 2009

el mariachi

every now and then i have a melancoly day when i somehow or other get the notion to google old acquaintances. today i wanted to see what became of one or two bands from my old school, and while i couldn't find anything about most of those bands i found that one, "repent", actually are still doing stuff. it's a trash metal band and i never really liked their music, but in 7th grade i was really fascinated by their guitar-player and also by their lead singer. they graduated that year, so they were a lot older, and i thought they were tough and cool. that was the time when i started to like guys with long hair. which i still think can be very attractive. the (now ex-) lead singer still looks like antonio banderas, just with a different nose, and the guitar-guy also still kind of looks the same as back then, only a bit older, with a few wrinkles and not as cool anymore. i think it's fascinating how your perception of what is cool changes with time.

speaking of antonio banderas, whom i liked very much both in zorro and desperado and once upon a time in mexico - i wonder when he will do a good movie again? here is a little music with him for tonight:

millennium

i took a little break from the blog. went to oslo. did something i haven't done for years: read three books in a row. in one week.

stieg larsson's millenium trilogy had been lying around for a few months and i decided i wanted to read them now. when i was a teenager i had a period when i read a lot of classic crime novels. agatha christie. g.k. chesterton. arthur conan doyle. i also had a period when i read a lot of political thrillers. grisham and company, you know. then i thought i'd try out swedish crime, wallander, and that was it. i just stopped. didn't like it. wallander wasn't my thing. instead i started reading romances.

so, i started reading the first book, män som hatar kvinnor, and got hooked. the man was a genius. he starts his stories at different points and with different protagonists and different plotlines. then slowly but steadily he gives you information. a bit here, a bit there, pushing the plotlines towards each other. he gives you just enough info at a time to stay interested. and he always leaves you begging for more. i just didn't want the book to end.

it did end but there were two more novels. plus the movie.



(i also checked the german trailer. it's bad. watch the original if you can.)

there is lisbeth salander. stieg larsson once said that she is some kind of modern pippi longstocking, and i'd say he's probably right. she is fascinating. misunderstood. independent. strong. there is mikael blomkvist. a modern day detective. journalist. easy going. likeable. there is harriet, the mystery. and there are men who hate women. they all are realistic, even though a little overdrawn. and then, it's a complex story. it really is. this is not a small universe of its own. everything takes place within society. that means, a lot of people, difficult situations. complex. interesting. exciting. critical. perfect.

the first part of the trilogy is a story with a beginning and an end. the second one kind of ends in the middle of everything, and the third part finishes the second. so one could actually say that it's only a duo, but the second book got so long he decided to cut it in half. smart. also, the first one is more of a detective novel, while the second and third are more of a thriller, but both genres are interwoven in a way. fascinating.

it's sad the author had to die so early. apparently he had planned a series of 10 books. only three got finished. i recommend them. i also recommend the film. i've seen the first one and liked it a lot. a great piece of swedish literature and cinema.

Wednesday 30 September 2009

ebay, again

slowly and steadily i'm selling off more stuff on ebay.

amongst other things

























a pair of highwaisted monki-jeans (size 30/30), very slim around the legs but supposed to be worn a little boyfriend-style at the hips, they were originally sized 28/30. they fit slim around the hips at size 30/30.


























a pair of &now-jeans by h&m (size 30/30), highwaisted, bootcut. perfekt 70s-look.




















a pair of vagabond pumps size 38


























a vintage dress size 36

Tuesday 29 September 2009

where the wild things are

we all probably know by now that spike jonze's new movie "where the wild things are" is going to hit the cinemas at one point or another, depending on where in europe you are, in december before christmas.





as we also probably all know by now, fake fur seems to be this autumn and winter's big must have.

opening ceremony apparently thought it was a brilliant idea to combine film and fashion, and just launched a line with loads of furry dresses, coats and of course the little boy's lovely pyjamas-suit. i think the idea is really cute and very inspirational, and even though i consider the line absolutely overprized, i think that the one or other piece could serve very well as inspiration for a pretty diy.

here are my favourites:


























puffy fluffy skirt. this would probably be what i'd try to do as a diy.





























big vest. fake fur on both sides. warm and cosy.



























this suit looks just so comfy and cosy. i guess i wouldn't freeze anymore on winter evenings..


























a fleecy and pretty curly miniskirt. i wonder if they have curly fake fur at my local fabric store?

Monday 28 September 2009

election day

yesterday was a beautiful day with sunshine and warmth, so i decided to walk to the elections, cast my vote and then sit in the park for an hour or two and finish my book - elizabeth gaskell's wives and daughters which i recommend very very much to anybody who likes jane austen.




















this is what i wore:

























dress: h&m
cardigan: vila
tights: strauss
shoes: friis and company via ebay

though for the walk i changed into more comfortable shoes (swedish hasbeens):

Sunday 27 September 2009

shopping ban, week four

another week is past (7€) and after having saved up a little from last week (20,70) plus selling a blouse on ebay (3,40) plus getting back some money from the german tax department (29€) i had a little more (alltogether 60,10) to spend than the previous weeks.

























i should have loved to be able to buy this amazing pair of suede pumps by minimarket, but them still being way out of my budget i contented myself with this pair by friis and company (via ebay) for 30€:






















they are shaped in a similar way and even though they aren't suede and don't have this cool zipper-detail they have a pretty fringed detailing instead, and i like them a lot.


and i got this pretty shirtdress with little flowers from h&m, for 15€












































i got it cheaper than the retail-prize because the right pocket was attached on the outside instead of the inside of the dress. i had no problem removing it, and now the dress is just waiting to be sewn together again where the pocket was.

i'm very content with this week's purchases and will go into next week with 15,10€ (plus 7) on my budget.