Björk Swan Dress

I know Halloween is quite a while away and I've never been one of those girls that has been invited to lots of outrageous costume parties but if by some minor miracle I fell in good favour with popular people for once I would love to try and make my own Björk Swan Dress. The design is simple enough, a tutu skirt or petticoat skirt from American Apparel in white over a nude blouse or camisole, a white feather boa and then chopping off the head of a toy swan for the end and voila! You have given birth to an arty and iconic costume.

 

I don't know what really possessed me to think like this, must be my hormonal state and my affinity for feminine and frilly things. It had also occurred to me that while I knew Björk was an Icelandic star and singer, I had no idea what she looked like or what that infamous dress looked like either. While it may not be red carpet worthy for many celebrities, it looked a lot worse in my imagination and the swan head isn't all that bad. At least she had the good sense to cover up her body in tights as well as sheer body suit with sparkles on it unlike some of the classless tramps you see passed off as pop stars these days. If you're wondering who my fiery words of distaste and anger are aimed at, I never have, and never will respect Nicki Minaj.

Seeing other women before me making their Björk fantasy come to life has gotten my fired up and realising that DIY isn't that hard or uncommon- no matter how unorthodox the inspiration is. The three photographs of home-made swan dresses are kitschy and cute and I really do hope I have an excuse to wear such a dress in my lifetime... if not I can always live precariously through my daughter. I hope for my sake that my daughter is cool; I have decided that I want two now so their middle names can be Octavia and Olympia. I am going to be the worst mother you can imagine, but before that dream is realised it appears I will be the worst party guest imaginable. 

It seems that if you're skirt is fluffy enough and there is enough tulle, you can easily add the head of your swan at the top of your dress, though I'm a little unsure where you can buy large swan toys in the first place. Perhaps you can make it out of a fluffy white sock and sew together your own beak and head; the design doesn't have to be too complicated and I doubt many people will take much notice to your feathered friend. Just to pass judgement unceremoniously, I like the red beaked swan the best.

Bird Brain

Birds and I have a long rich history together, mainly how they sort of terrorize me despite their little size and me being afraid of them. I mean sure, I've been swooped before and that was more annoying than anything but their dried out tongues sometimes freak me out a little. Not very good when you want to be a veterinarian I suppose. Still, I do quite like the use of birds in design such as their silhouette in a print repeated on silk of even their claws being used in jewellery whether they are clasping your wrist or a small gem as a ring. The combination of the two elements in this single outfit was rather ingenious though, I tip my cap to however put this together.

At the shop I work at a girl had a tattoo of silhouette birds; it had a softer tone to it and less detail on the wings. There wasn't the finely sketched out feather though and I have seen this motif before but I do like the way this single photograph shows three shots of the flying birds from a single tattoo. It's probably the best artistic execution I have seen. Seeing something like this really put my faith back into tattoos as a platform of art, each bird is different and has a unique position springing from the top of the feather and every fibre has been meticulously drawn onto the skin with care. Whoever did this must be a master of their art form.

Never before have I seen birds such as these but I'd love to know the species or at least be able to get a good look at the mixture of colours on the birds. There's something very picturesque about the way they travel in large crowds as well as the poise of the neck, the striking black tipped and yellow beak as well as the brighter and darker breast of the bird. I'm sure if taken on by the appropriate fashion label a digital print of this image on a silk dress along the hem of a long maxi dress could be a runaway success.

As well as the bird silhouette blazer in a khaki colour, silver bangle featuring a gnarled bird's claw like something out of Edgar Allen Poe's poem 'The Raven' there's a tiny bird skull necklace thrown in as well? I love the empty eye sockets used to thread through the necklace chain and the side profile which shows off this tiny feature in design. While I love everything about the coordination of this outfit I do hope that these pieces were worn more than once and not specially bought for this single shot. It looks like something from a magazine but it's distinctly missing the ghostly pale writing in the corner of the designer pieces and their price tags.

Teenage Runaway

There are many means of running away from ones problems, my go-to method is to escape through fantasy by watching Doctor Who, reading books and also writing on this blog. There's also feeding my soul on things I can't buy but at times that one can get a bit overbearing and depressing. I can't really float on my back and close my eyes, although it would be poetic to enjoy a pool all to myself and pretend I'm being carried down an exotic river. There are however two things wrong with that scenario, A. is that I sink like a brick in water and can't float on my back all that well without expending a lot of energy and B. I don't own a private pool and the public pool is always full of noise and disruptions. Therefore meditation would be a pointless endeavour there.

For those of us blessed with coordination, style and natural swag we can skateboard away and travel to far off regions all by the use of a few little wheels attached to a board. How clever are we huh? Instead of a cosy knitted beanie though it may be a good idea if you're just starter out to wear a helmet and invest in a little safety gear though.

While I have never had mysterious and hard-to-decipher dreams in which I fly, I do sometimes look at the sky and imagine what it would be like to break the bounds of gravity and take flight. I imagine it would be very drafty and cold though at times and a lot of hard work if you didn't manage to read the air currents properly. It would be great though to take a holiday in the Winter and search for warmer weather just like migratory birds though, but maybe not too warm since I personally prefer the cold weather. But saying I'm leaving the Australian Summer for Winter somewhere else just seems a bit... odd though. It seems that normal people always love the Summer but I'm more about warm hoodies and drinking hot cups of cocoa. Plus nearly all of my pets died in the Summer so I have a mean and long grudge against it.

Never in all my life did I have the fantasy of running away to the circus although I do love the big lights and the clashing of red and yellow together. There's so much to photograph when a carnival/ show comes to town and in my neck of the woos it's only at one time of year. Maybe I could double my pleasure by going to the Easter show in Sydney this year and then waiting around for the Melbourne show in September when it comes around. These kinds of activities are always boring and lame when you're by yourself and I'm rather pleased to say that last year when I 'ran away' to the show for just one day I had a Diana F+ camera around my neck and a giant teddy bear my boyfriend won for me. It was a purple Care Bear and it's one of my favourite things he's given me.

If I were ever game enough to get a tattoo in a foreign city I would be attracted to this little date stamp shown here. In my opinion the best tattoos are the lest detailed ones and since I am wary of colour falling out just a simple black design would be good. A good place to put it may be the back of my neck put I can see pinning my hair up would therefore become a problem if I needed to keep it a secret.  Another positive attribute of this tattoo is that there's not a lot of needle work and it's a simple design that doesn't need to be filled in with shading or colour.