The Cambridge Satchel Company: The Designer

I really can't get enough of the Cambridge Satchel Company's bags and The Designer which features two shades of contrasting leather is no exception to my enthusiasm. It's a little more swish and slick but still features the classic design as well as traditional colours you would expect to see from the British brand. It all started in 2008 when the Cambridge Satchel Company was founded by Julie Deane and her mother Freda Thomasand in the space of three short years the label has already established itself as a brand synonymous with high quality leather goods. Aimed at school children but finding greater favour and reputation with fashion bloggers, The Designer is another brilliant variation for those seeking to channel school boy/ school girl charm.

The Designer radiates the best of vintage style in new condition with fantastic colours and leather material combinations. Although the tan leather and tartan insert satchel aren't explicitly part of The Designer collection and are instead a collaboration with online shop Asos, I thought it appropriate to include it and clump them together since this particular bag seems to have a particularly strong sense of school style about it. Worn with a sweet vintage blouse and your choice of knickerbockers or a skirt and tights combination all you would be missing is a boater hat to complete the look. Unfortunately I can't find this bag available to buy online anywhere, but there is a rather fetching leopard print pocket and black combination available on the Asos X Cambridge Satchel Company website.

I already had a small admiration for the fluorescent green satchel, but the contrast of navy straps as well as the pocket detail for name slip seems to be even better. It sort of tones down the bombastic nature and eye-catching primary colour used for the design of the bag and makes it seem a little more sensible and more suited towards school endeavours.

Something more up my alley is this predominantly black satchel and red straps and finer details- I say this after reorganising my wardrobe and realising I have many black and red jumpers but don't really ever lust after or wear any other shades of jumpers. Of course since the Summer season has just started in my neck of the woods I won't get to see a lot of them for a while but well, when Winter does come back I'm sure this will make a slick addition to any ensemble, particularly when wearing a red American Apparel cape and tights.

The multi-coloured coat is brightened up by the use of this sensational yellow coloured satchel. I like the use of black/ grey woollen hat, sunglasses, skirt and sandals which subverts themselves to the fur coat and satchel- it leaves them being the centre of attention. The pose in front of the vibrant red display window seems fitting and appropriate. I wish I could go around town and dress in a similar manner, posing for street style photographs or just for snaps to be featured on my own blog. Too bad I don't know anyone with similar aspirations towards becoming a fashion blogger, but maybe I'll meet and talk with other people through my links with Secret Hipster.

What do I see there being shy and hiding within the back row of these lovely The Designer satchels made by none other than the wonderful Cambridge Satchel Company? Could it be a predominantly purple satchel with lovely contrasting yellow straps? Why on Earth can I not find anything like this on the Internet in all my searching for images of the bag? It would fit perfectly around with the local football club; their colours are the exact same shades of purple and yellow. Alas, I'm not dating a footballer and it's a little too late to tag along to those sorts of games.

Another sensational colour combination that is equally elusive is this velvet and patent leather beast! There are so many lovely satchels that have been discontinued as well as others being made as Limited Edition stock which I am clamoring to get my filthy mitts on. I'm just a poor girl, nobody loves me; I'm just a poor girl from a poor family spare me my life of this monstrosity. The monstrosity of not being able to get all the lovely bags and things my heart desires that is.

I'm sure the future holds many shiny, bright, exciting and youthful possibilities for the Cambridge Satchel Company and I look forward to lusting after many of their new and exciting collaborations, designs as well as other products such as their storage trunks and school badges. Maybe even in the not-too-distant future I will even own my own satchel from the British company but knowing my penny-pinching ways I will most likely be searching high and low for discount bargains on the Internet as my source. I hope I've given you all something to think about and something to aspire towards owning.

Alexa Chung for Madewell: Sketched Shirts

Alexa Chung pictured wearing one of her collaboration t-shirts for Madewell featuing a vampire bat and the slogan hello- original drawing penned out by popular British model, DJ and television presented Chung herself. Some of the more "price accessible" pieces of Alexa Chung's collaboration include many more sketches perpetrated and illustarted and then printed on to shirts, both long and short sleeved as well as some small make-up pouches.

I've had my eye on a few of the shirts, and while they are on the cheaped end of the colletion's spectrum it would be well worth getting your hand's on anything affiliated with the style icon Alexa Chung. That- and the fact that while the shirts are basics, they can be layered and worn with versatility depending on the season. With a large coat, boots and jeans for winter or some ripped up vintage denim shorts for a scorcher of an Australian Summer.

There's a long sleeved shirt of the same illustration I hope to get at auction. The floral wreath over the head, veil as well as the lines of the eyelashes illustrate the perfect disgruntled bride-to-be. The coin and make-up pouched from the collection are made of a canvas like material and adorned in extracts from Alexa Chung's personal skecth book.

The sketches vary from animals (bats and bears_ to scrawlings of skulls and disgruntled looking women. When I was a young child I had a great love for drawing and creating things and had always secretly hoped that I would hone my skills to something of CHung's artistic and unique style. Alas, education and learning stood in my way of becoming a gypsy and drawing on the sidewalk in chalk for charity... maybe it is better that education had stood in my way.

The collaboration first launched on the 22nd of September 2011 and was her second collection for the American brand, Madewell. Her first collaboration with the US label was a runway success- which may be attributed to the ease it gave it's clients to access and imittae Alexa's signature style which as been described as "tombyo meets vintage-wearing-school-girl". It was the source of much fashion hype and many of the popular pieces sold out online- now only available on eBay and held for ransom at largely marked-up prices. These pieces include fury ankle boots, palm tree printed pyjamas and collared dresses. Luckily the sketch shirts haven't suffered too much of a mark-up but there may be some fierce competition in claiming ownership of the much coveted pieces.

The collection combines the best of Madewell's effortlessly cool pieces as well as Alexa Chung's vintage inspired wardrobe such as collared dresses as well as her sketches printed and immortlaised on cotton shirts.

Other pieces within the collection have been spotted on celebrities such as Elle Fanning in a sweet lace dress, Kate Bosworth and Alexa herself; all snapped up pieces the day before their official launch. The perks of being a celebrity are many and great.

Pamela Love X Opening Ceremony: Where the Wild Things Are Jewellery

I was interested in the 'Where the Wild Things Are' movie and the very adult take on such a simple children's book- it was the story of an outsider from many different view points and the struggle to reconcile relationships and how we relate to everyone else in our family. Amid the hype of the adapted novel and movie came the collaboration of Pamela Love's jewellery range and crafting of dark, gritty, oxidised jewellery as well as the alternative design and fashion Opening Ceremony brings across the globe to fashion hungry young people. I loved the motifs in the collection which remihnd me of the scenes of the movie.

There were the feathers from Douglas, in either a broad and artistic cuff or shaped in a crown reminiscent of Max's first encounter with the wild beasts and his clever wiles which save him from becoming their dinner. I'm not a fan of broad cuffs myself, there's too much restraint on my wrist movement and too much of it rubbing into and cutting softly into my skin. Still though, it's a lovely and rare design to see in jewellery especially in a cuff with such width to it. Pamela Love has made many lovely dark and earthy pieces of jewellery from silver such as rings, necklaces and bracelets and although I have not yet been lucky enough to own or even have a play of her pieces I trust her craftsmanship and her name affiliated with any piece of silver jewellery. The fact that it's a collboration with Opening Ceremony and they've taken inspiration from the children's book 'Where the Wild Things Are' only sweetens the deal.

This cuff is more my style, not as thick and broad and a better more usual shape in a strip with a claw scratching and carving into it. There's a lovely scene in which Mac uses the claw of one of the monsters to draw a love heart into wood with their initials. Reminds me of all the times I wished I had a sweetheart's initials to carve into trees or write on foggy windows. Now that I have one I haven't had time to do any of those activities but I'm sure that it's now not as important as I once thought. There's nothing more gruesome than a clawed hand carving and cutting the tought bark on a tree sitting on your wrist and seemingly trying to cut at that too.

My favourite and most coveted piece of the collection is a charm bracelet featuring the gold crown Max wears when adopted by the beasts, natural things such as trees, claws and feathers as well as the boat he uses to sail to their land. The links on the bracelet are much thicker and oval in shape then your everyday bracelet and there's a rough texture to them as well. My favourite charms are the crown and boat. I've seen so many photographs of youths wearing crowns made of cardboard on the micro-bloggins site Tumblr and it always reminds me of Max and Where the Wild Things Are. One day I'll but a A2 poster of metallic gold card just to make a fantastic crown. Then sooner or later I'll make my own wolf jumpsuit. If only I could find this charm bracelet on the internet to buy then my life would be completely immersed in the tale.

Stolen Girlfriends Club X Jeffrey Campbell

I had seen this image some weeks ago on the micro-blogging site Tumblr and held onto the photograph for a while, hoping one day to identify the brand of clothing and shoes. Those pieces of information came clear to me late last night when scrolling through my dashboard for blogspot when I spotted a post by Brisbane store Violent Green.

Now Violent Green first came to my attention in December 2008 when I did a Google search for Stolen Girlfriends Club, whose jewellery range had appeared in the Australian edition of Vogue of that month.
Ever since I stumbled across Violent Green's blogspot my life changed; the event affected my style and made it more alternative, less mainstream and a little bit darker and it was that site that inspired me to begin my own blog.

It seems only fitting that I learn the mysterious identity of the shoes I had a mild obsession with for about a week's length; and it's a collaboration of two of my favourite brands.

Stolen Girlfriends Club are of New Zealand origins and they create clothing as well as thick silver jewellery, whereas Jeffrey Campbell hail from the heart of Los Angeles and have been in the footwear trade for about a decade. The collaboration of the two brands has produced the magnificent Emma ankle boot.

What I liked about the photograph in which the model wore the shoes was the dreamy palette of colours of the shirt and the suede detail of the denim shorts. It was those two pieces that then drew my attention to the pattern detail of the shoes, a shape I should have easily recognised as a Jeffrey Campbell trademark and the beautiful two tones of tan leather. For a boot of this design and Western cowboy flavour the colours of the leather and the wooden heel were very important to fully deliver the design of the shoes and I love the colours used for the Emma ankle boot and as demonstrated they can be worn with a cute pair of denim shorts and a shirt. They add height and magnitude but they seem fancy and cute at the same time.

It feels good to have finally uncovered the mystery of the nameless Tumblr photograph, and I'm delighted with the outcome of the collaboration between Stolen Girlfriends Club and Jeffrey Campbell. The golden zippers and the delicious tones of leather make it on the top of my Christmas wish list to Santa this silly season, as long as I keep wearing my high-heeled wedges and get used to walking with height- I may just become crazy enough to get a pair of these beautiful ankle boots and call them my cowboy boots. With leather of that colour, wooden heels and sculpted so perfectly in the Jeffrey Campbell's design, who could resist? Certainly not me.