Blates didn’t use all the gold spray paint in London, cos I still have a can.
via: The Cut
Archive | October, 2011
From Facebook Phenomenon to Guest Editor for Swatch #MTVPlayground
When you think of Ireland (I had this conversation with Kate last week) I named Ronan Keating, Jedward and the potato famine, not necessarily the home of models. Faye Dinsmore is Ireland’s most successful model, signed alongside giants of the modelling world such as Freja Beha, Gisele Bündchen and Heidi Klum, to agency IMG, Faye’s career has been going from strength to strength over the last 18 months, and she is now the face of a lucrative global campaign for L’Oreal.
Faye has taken Facebook by storm, being the first ever Irish national to attract more than 100,000 followers on the social networking site (she now has over 200,000 fans, leaving Ronan Keating’s 35,000 cold) and now, the most influential and successful model Ireland has ever produced, is taking the helm as guest editor of online creative platform Swatch MTV Playground – in the run-up to the MTV EMAs 2011 in Belfast this year, on the 6th November.
And speaking of the MTV EMAs – I shall be attending as a guest of Swatch, so thanks again Swatch for the all expenses paid VIP trip (I can see your green faces from here).
Candy Coloured Treats
I’ve been looking at pictures of myself when I was in uni, and I was way more attractive than I gave myself credit for. Sigh. Probably because I ate less sweets. However after a adolescence of all black everything, I embraced my true nature and went for all outlandish colours. Bright colours are the best way to make you feel better. Also having nice colours on your person to look at makes you less likely to reach for the Skittles, imo.
I received this gift a while ago from Affinitas Intimates, and I kept forgetting to blog on it. I kept it in my bag for a while, as part of my “prepared for anything” demeanour (I also have a toothbrush, glasses, a coat, and a flashlight) but having a pack of knickers didn’t occur to me until I got a pack in the post. And the two greatest words in the world have to be “free underwear”. American lingerie brand Affinitas has just launched over in the UK and I got the Hipster Pack, a cute little packet of three sorbet coloured knickers for when you have “unexpected sleepovers” or in my case, when someone else has an unexpected sleepover and they need a fresh pair of pants. I like big pants because I like to be comfortable (also they hold things in), but these have a good amount of butt coverage and when I bend over in my jeans, they don’t ride up – score! They’re great for little gifts, or if you’re like me, to add to your capacious bag for any occasion. And Affinitas even has a full-bust line, Parfait by Affinitas, that caters especially to the curvier woman, like myself.
Do you have the HD?
Being a nonensical kind of person, I don’t really do interviews as I talk more than the other person. But Perou was a stand up chap, and indulged my nonsense questions – so I thought I’d try a dry run before the EMAs on my favourite question of the moment.
This clip was filmed on the BlackBerry Playbook and I was floored with the playback image and sound quality. The aspect ratio is a little messed up as the Playbook records in the MP4 format (read: Quicktime) and I wanted to use a clip instead of the whole recording. Since I don’t have Quicktime Pro, Final Cut or Adobe Premiere I had to convert the recording online from MP4 to WMV so I could edit in Windows Movie Maker (there’s some Tech 101 for you.) The Playbook also has HDMI output so I could have plugged it directly into a compatible TV, projector or laptop, as well as 3 MP camera, stereo sound and 720 & 1080 recording. And I also took some pictures with it to try out the lens which you can see below.
The Playbook’s strength definitely lies in the HD display and camera. Since I want to create more video content for my blog, this was definitely a bonus. You can easily upload to YouTube in HD via the Playbook also, but since I wanted to clip a portion out so I uploaded to my laptop to splice it. On the go, that isn’t particularly great if you want to live blog an event. However back in June, RIM announced that it was integrating Jaycut with its platform . That’d be nice to have a basic video editing tool on the Playbook, however no more news has been given since the initial announcement to when it will launch.
Oh and if you’re wondering what pop culture reference my post title is referring to, I direct you to the below:
Once You Go Black(berry)
It’s no secret that I’m a BlackBerry user and also quite fond of them. I especially like when you press the spacebar twice and get a full stop (I bet you’re going to try it).
My phone broke, so BlackBerry kindly loaned me a Playbook and the new Bold 9900. Due to the BlackBerry service being down for 3 days last week I couldn’t start my review, but as soon as it was up – I was documenting how the Playbook and Bold 9900 were conducive to someone like me, a blogger, stylist, writer, social media maven, lover of video games and cheese on toast.
I was wondering how I would get the files off the Playbook to my computer and I was kindly informed that you can share files over WiFi. Just find the Playbook’s IP in settings, and enter it into Run on Windows, or Connect to Server on a Mac which will then open the file manager. You can find tutorials over the internet, including this one here.
Well I thought it was nifty – but it was slow to work. I could access the directory of the Playbook – however when the drag ‘n’ drop began, it didn’t happen. It crashed my Explorer (no I don’t use a Mac) several times when I tried to do bulk drag ‘n’ drop.
It’s celebrity photographer Perou at the Levi’s Curve ID event
I don’t think it’s completely fair to blame the Playbook, because the internet in my gaff is pretty shit and it runs like a dream on the Bridge. I did manage to get a photo off during the end, using the WiFi dragging one at a time. However the Playbook needs a software update (which I can’t do as it’s I can’t change the BlackBerry ID on it) – so I procured a cable and proceeded to use BlackBerry Desktop Software.
I will show you my BlackBerry world.
If I buy a t-shirt from Valley Clothing, can I get the sexy tattooed Johnny Depp doppelganger too?
I did a shoot yesterday with a make-up artist who I’ve never worked with before. She was top notch, and we had a lot in common, and we spent ages talking. She remarked that I seem to know a lot of stuff. I do know a lot of stuff.
One of my old housemates (who I hate, because she’s a dumb bitch who owes me money) was an idiot vegetarian. I say idiot vegetarian not because I think vegetarianism is idiotic, but she would bang on about animal welfare, and how disgusting we all were, and how Eva Longoria wore a fur coat and she hates her now, and I’d ask her about animal by-products, such as the leather boots she owned. She said that’s ok, because other people eat beef. Yeah, I replied, but you don’t. You may not advocate meat eating but benefiting from their hides when other people are eating meat makes no sense at all. Also she’d bang on about lots of other shit which I never listened to her about, but also she’d make some comments about cotton and why couldn’t everyone just wear it and it didn’t hurt anyone. That’s even more bullshit.
I also wonder about brands who hand out cotton tote bags willy nilly. Plastic isn’t great for the environment, but nor are these bags. There is no accountability to how they are made. No-one seems to know how bad the cotton industry actually is for our environment. I’m the worse person to try sell stuff too, because I question everything. And when I question things, people, especially brands don’t seem to have answers.
The humble cotton t-shirt is cheap and plentiful. You can pick them up for very cheap, or for a hefty price (because it says Supreme on it). But these big brands – do they know/or care where their raw material is coming from and the conditions caused by manufacture or production
I’ve met quite a few two people t-shirt outfits before usually two guy friends with one really handsome one and the best friend who is usually my cup of tea (I like ‘em insecure). Valley Clothing is the first t-shirt brand I’ve seen who uses water based inks for screenprints, which I was quite interested in. Somerset based duo Elliot and Dryden produce a limited edition run of 30 t-shirts of each of their designs, which are certified by The Carbon Trust and audited by Fair Wear Foundation – it has been tested for harmful substances and has been awarded the Confidence in Textiles seal, and they design all their artwork themselves. Pretty impressive for a pair of 20 year olds.
I also really like their model. He has a tattoo of my band name also.
And being an ex psychology student/lazy stylist – this Rorschach t-shirt ticks all my boxes. My daily uniform doesn’t fall far from the t-shirt and jeans tree. I’ve stopped buying into cheap, disposable fashion, preferring independent designers and vintage. Science of Style indeed.
You can read more about Valley Clothing in their interview with The Creative Book .
I am here, spread the cheer
HULLO!
I know I have a habit of disappearing, I do apologise, it’s been a busy busy week. I am back and updating on all my activities, the Brick Lane Rokit x TSoS windows, my Blackberry madness, and MTV and Swatch news.
Await a flurry of posts clogging up your RSS Readers…
Cotton Love: I’m Sharing a Vintage Secret with you…
When I was in college (read: sixth form/when I did my A Levels) I got made fun of for buying clothes from eBay. That’s the kind of place I studied at. Got made fun of for eBay, having curly hair, being the wrong kind of Bangladeshi, not straightening said hair and wearing tons of make-up…
Oh well. The people I went to college with are either all married, or in dead end careers. OH WHAT A SHAME.
One of my favourite eBay shops was a store called Cotton Love, and I’ve just recently found out that they have a bricks and mortar store in Newcastle, as well an e-shop. Cotton Love is a vintage outfit which sells a lot of British heritage vintage (Barbour, Jaeger, Burberry) as well as choice designer and non designer pieces from elsewhere. And it’s always in pretty good nick and a lot cheaper than a lot of the vintage stores in London.
MaxMara wool long length coat (S) – £90
Brown suede sheepskin coat (M) £65
Since everyone who knows me knows I abhor shopping like the plague, and spend most of my time on the internets, I thought I’d share this with you, one of my best kept shopping secrets. Not only doing womenswear and menswear, they also cater for kids and lifestyle. And have free UK shipping.
Cottony Love indeed.
Surviving LFW with the Rimmel London Survival Kit
The flurry and hectic nature of Fashion Month means you rarely get time to sit and eat a proper meal, get a good night’s sleep, get blisters upon blisters, and have to look pristine while juggling bags a plenty whilst on public transport, or if you’re one of the lucky ones, in your own car that drives you around.
I’ve learnt over the past couple of years what you should always keep upon your person in case of events, parties or just somewhere where someone plans to take your picture. Rimmel London very kindly sponsored the Glam Suite this LFW, creating a calm space for us Glammers to relax, get our nails done, our make up touched up, catch up with friends, and just rest our weary feet. However, LFW doesn’t leave you much time to rest, so Rimmel London produced The Survival Kit.
THE LIPSTICK
Supermodel Kate Moss has developed her first lipstick range with Rimmel London, with 7 shades. My favourite is 01 – a blue based red. £5.49
THE EYESHADOW
For smokin’ your eyes up from day to night, the Glam Eyes HD with 4 shades lets you layer and create as sultry a look as you like. And as with Rimmel London’s other eyeshadows, you know it won’t crease or fade. £6.99
THE MASCARA
We’ve all done the unthinkable, removed our mascara from our make up bags and left it at home, leaving our lashes in despair. Never fear, Extra Wow is here, keep it your bag for a look that you can build up throughout the day with no clumps. £5.49
THE BASE
If like me, you never have time to do your foundation, or it slips off halfway throughout the day – you need a primer. The 5 in 1 formula smooths, resurfaces, mattifies, protects and brightens your skin – and can be worn with or without foundation. £6.99
Pinterest: My Favourite Social Network
Hullo chaps, I do apologise for my absence, have been very very busy. I’m in the process of redoing my blog, so I’ve been mucking around with a test server I built cos I am a geek and proud. Also slicing off part of my thumb on conditioner bottles but that’s a different story.
Since I am a geek, and adore the internet (because it is my friend) I feel I should display that. Look forward to a new round of posts on my favourite topic (not bread) but social media.
Techcrunch announced that social pinboard site, Pinterest has just received $27 million worth of funding. Pinterest has a very simple concept, you “pin” images from around the web to your own curated pinboards, via the Pin It button, a simple Java applet you drag into your toolbar or through logging into the site and posting the link. Pretty straightforward huh? It’s definitely simple but it’s not boring. You can now pin videos as well. A nice little collaborative feature is opening your board for others to pin, which I imagine would be very helpful on collabs.
It’s in semi private beta at the moment, but I’ve been on it for about four months, as I received an invite from Kit and I’ve been happily pinning away for a while. As a stylist, it’s great to pin all sorts of images I see for inspiration, or looks I like. As a hoarder, it’s my wet dream. And it has continuous scrolling, which is a definite plus with this kind of site.
You can follow other user’s pinboards, and re-pin their images and search via categories.
There are also a few brands on it already, including kitsch jewellery brand Tatty Devine. What’s extra useful is that you use Pinterest to sell items – by pinning items for sale with a price, users will click through to the actual merchant’s site, which avoids Pinterest’s need to implement a checkout and gets rid of an additional headache. It only works with merchants who have implemented a “Pin It” button on their products.
However according to Pinterest Ettiquette is that your pinboard must be not be used for shameless self promotion. Which by all means is great. For a brand, you can curate existing content as well as adding items of interest, letting consumers know what’s behind the brand, as well as having a selection of your products to drive traffic to your site.
I obviously like to promote memes and image macros.
The only issue at the moment, is that the servers tend to go down (not as much as Tumblr though.) However, with more funding, I look forward to when Pinterest is a lot more stable.
Does Pinterest sound like something that’d interest you? I have invites if you’re interested in joining. Drop me a comment with your email address and you could also be pinning away like a boss.
And you can 
by clicking on the button.
Get Social
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