Jeanne Damas

Were it not for my uncouth and uncultured ways, I would have sooner discovered that Jeanne Damas is not a model as I first though she was, but is instead a French blogger... or that's what I gather from the little information about her but plentiful amount of Google Images associated with her name. Despite not being able to speak French at any level in school I still think it's fascinating to see what fashion bloggers from around the world have to show off on their websites and the clothes that they wear with the two hemispheres giving two different seasonal trends.

What impresses me most about some bloggers is the artistic quality of their photographs as well as the magazine quality fashion trends of their clothes and styling. I myself have been after some printed shirts from Etsy with edgy designs in obscure fashion and a warm woolen coat or something fluffy would be welcome to keep me company. I won't be taking up smoking anytime soon but I would love to sit by a window poetically and stare out at the city... were it not for the fact I live in a small suburban area and my window view is scarred with trees.

At the moment there are two Cambridge Satchel Company satchels in fluorescent yellow available to buy on eBay, the same wonderful bright shade pictured above. It must be my strange admiration for graffiti and longing to have bangs again that is driving me to pursuit buying the yellow satchel but if it can be worn with a simple ensemble of grey and brown, then it is bound to work with nearly anything; given the right levels of confidence to show it off. I sort of miss the grit of the street: the litter of stubbed out cigarettes and the dirty water in the middle of my own city- but not that much. Getting back to university next week and on public transport will be good enough for me.

Along with fluffy and furry coats to shelter myself in for the long and lonely trips on the train and bus, I have also been stalking my favourite vintage online store, Claire Inc. for some other sweaters and jumpers to add to my brimming wardrobe. Mustard yellow may not always be my forte, but I quite like the combination of elbow patches as well as dark red fleece don't across the chest of the friend on the left. Jeanna Damas may not be the apple of my eye in this photograph, but she still look fantastic with a lighter hue in her hair and classy, black blazer.

There's a great range of moods and tones about the photographs that Jeanne Damas stars in- never before have I seen such a great variety of different compositions of shots. Some fashion bloggers eventually get fixated and have a certain type of angle or shot they use to show off their outfits, as well as the same type of camera but I think the unpredictable nature of how Damas presents herself leaves a lot to the imagination. It's always wonderful to see elements of vintage film photography mixed in with the new and exciting filter effects achieved with the help of everyone's favourite digital enhancer, Photoshop.

I know how to achieve such a distorting and dysfunctional effect with the use of a flash, some cellophane and a film camera, but I have no idea where to start when it comes to generating a photograph in this image using Photoshop. I wish I was a little better at touching up my photographs, or in general, cared more about the process of further developing my images before uploading them to my blog. It's hard to summon the motivation to use the program though when all I have is a cheap free version on my computer that prevents me from saving them in their highest picture quality. No one can be that keen to look at large and blurry images, no matter how finely tuned and fixed they are by clever use of the clicker.

I never was able to resist an animal lover either, the combination of lust worthy red nails as well as smouldering brown eyes and pink lips with a kitten in hand is enough to overwhelm someone with my melancholia. There have been some small and unwanted guests at my parents house that could really be taken care off with the simple employment of a kitty- Dad is unfortunately not going to be swayed on the position of cat ownership.

There's also an apparent dark side to this stunning French blogger- within the first few entries of Google Images to her name, there are some tasteful shirtless photographs amongst the cigarette toting. In her hand is a charming book by the title of 'The World of Sex'. Now I'm all for dirty books since there is a wealth of information those before us have been able to pen down but don't expect to see any photographs of me getting my kit off- tasteful or otherwise.

It's not always just about showing off a good outfit and being justly described as being classically beautiful- there's charm and quirk as well as an ordinary magic to some of her photographs. Whether she's taking time out to feed her cravings on a chic balcony or simply scoping out the best food in the fridge, you can be sure to see the charming dark brown eyes fixated on the lens of the camera. I'd love to try a similar shot for myself when I get a better camera to really know what the image will look like- and a new kitchen. There's not many suitable places in my home for photography, aside from the bland and neutral hallway which isn't crammed full of junk.

As well as developing a pleasing visual style and playfulness about one's outfit, I think being a fashion blogger is a little more than just putting clothes together and looking pretty, smiling for the camera. There's a lot more that can be done such as composition and evoking certain moods and tones of romanticism, such as the shy glance of an observer hidden behind some curtains. I have yet to develop either of these skills and my priority first and foremost lies with study, you can bet that next holidays I'll be keen to get back in touch with my own imaginative side.

Yen Issue 55

Alternative magazines for fashion and style such as Oyster, Frankie, and Yen have been some of my favourites but I have only ever admired them from afar. A little while ago I went on a spree and bought several copies of Russh in bulk but they've been sitting around on my book shelf largely unread and on occasion I flick through the pictures. While I am content to look at online extracts of some of their brighter and bolder editorial spread, I can't help but wish I had a steady and reliable source of income to pay for magazine subscriptions and scour eBay for editions long since past. What I like most about these images from the 55th edition of Yen is the wild prints and clashes combined with chunky heeled shoes- it's so modern and on trend.

 

I mainly look to vintage clothing these days to find unusual structures such as long and flowing skirts with novel prints of animals on them and bright 1950s colours- I've currently got my eye on a lovely pink framed pair of sunglasses from Opening Ceremony but I really should sell my old Ray Bans before I make any moves on the eyewear front. With enough expertise as far as the sewing machine is concerned, a similarly patterned skirt could be fashioned in a patchwork style to match or clash as you see fit- something I hope to get around to by enrolling in a short course once the load of my university study finally lightens up.

As well as importantly delivering images of the current trends of the season so masses via media, magazines should also be creative enough to set their own trends and make pastel rimmed glasses cool when worn with sequin embellished jumpers and long dangly earrings. Art deco pieces with chandelier draping chains are my favourite accessories inspired from the 1920s and with the use of cheaper materials and more stunning materials I'm more fond of the new and reinvented pieces as opposed to the traditional antiques. If only I had places to wear such extravagant pieces, then my life would have a sense of fulfillment about it...

Where Them Girls At?

Please excuse the grammatical nightmare of a title for this post- admittedly my best thinking does not occur during hot weather when I simply cannot be bothered to tie up my hair and also when I've been sitting at my computer work station for far too long.Since I've been stalking Tavi's blog as well as the tag posted under her name on Tumblr, I sort of wanted to pull together a vague compilation of school photographs. In black and white and first is an old photo shoot for New Zealand label, Twenty Seven Names which I love to death. For some strange reason, their awkward clunky Doc Marten style shoes in brown as well as mid calf socks in white reminded me of myself and really did it for me. I kinda wish I could go back to high school, just so I could wear those socks everyday again and also wear Doc Martens for my school shoes this time around.

 

Another feminine feature I'm mildly obsessing over is 'Chanel' advertisements and to a lesser extent, the Marc Jacobs ones too. It's sort of gotten to the point where the actual content of the ad in question is pretty or not, but when I see that word or combination of words my mind instantly assumes that the 'innards' so to speak will be pretty too. I think I have one or two magazine extracts on my wall for Chanel and Marc Jacobs but none of them are set up in this manner but they've certainly cracked the market and gotten a following of girls online. Evident from the fake advertisements people create with say, a volcano erupting instead of a girl holding perfume.
 

 

At the moment I'm tossing up whether or not to join the photography club at my university but the outings they listed for last year are only really suitable for landscape photographers and I'm more keen to capture interactions between humans or get into a studio space and do a little old-fashioned film shoot. Nothing says romantic more than a gorgeous girl dressed properly as well as soft focus photography.

 

I'm usually not that big a fan of blond but on the model shown here the peroxide shade looks quite charming and becoming- then again, I do also have a fondness for model Amanda Booth who now has light purple hair and tan skin in a similar shade to this model. Maybe I'm jealous of their legs and how stick thin they are, I referee once a week and previously played basketball twice a weak but I never did manage to slim down my thighs and calves. I know my calves are all muscle but my thighs are just a let down in comparison to this shining beacon of hope.

Seeing an image like this makes me more inclined to get my eyebrows professionally down but they look natural and I'm happy with how they are plus changing them can really drastically change the way a person's neutral expression look. I'm also in a long-term relationship and going something like that may certainly change things in a bad sort of way so without the old ball-and-chain I might but for now I'm all good. The models who have striking and thick eyebrows are usually the ones with the most delicate facial expressions and features so I may not be able to pull off something as well as they can.

Bookworm

I was going to ask my father to help me move my adopted recliner chair into my bedroom which I saved from hard rubbish collection, but he's got a sore knee as well as a sore back. All that doesn't help the fact that there's a tiny little gate between my house and driveway that I think was dismantled when we moved into this house to get our furniture inside. In terms of having a soft and comfy chair to sit back into and get some reading down, things don't look so prosperous on that avenue.

My diary for 2012 was made from a recycled Little Golden Book- I bought Bambi in the end deciding against 'Barbie and the Scavenger Hunt'. I've never had a cool looking diary and while I often forget to write in it and refer to it religiously like a bible I still enjoyed taking it with me to my university information session and jotting down notes at the back. There's a whole heap of incomprehensive jargon as well as subject codes at the back and some notes about them from yesterday.

While there are several bookcases in my house, none of them look as cool as this wall bookcase spelling out the word 'read'. I have seen invisible hanging books attached to walls but nothing that really measures up to this frame and all the books contained within it. The bookcases at my parent's house are full of model engineering books belonging to my father and are crammed full of them. There's even books lying horizontally on the vertically stacked ones. I think the shelves would be sinking and dipping by now, if they weren't help up by more books crammed in the shelf underneath them.

I love the small bookcase in my room- while the middle shelf is occupied by my basketball trophies to make room on my desk, the top shelf is full of magazines such as Vogue, Frankie and Russh and the Kodak Encyclopedia of photography. I feel really cut about Kodak filing for bankruptcy, I remember my father showing me his Kodak Brownie, a gift from one of his sister's and his name written on a band aid in the handwriting of my grandmother who's been long dead. There's charm and nostalgia for me and the brand and I do hope to stock up on film as little mementos of a great age that has come to a halt thanks to the digital age.

I myself own the complete illustrated works of Lewis Carrol, although I'm willing to bet that my copy was a lot cheaper than this. For one thing my copy isn't a hard cover copy and has a pink cover with illustrations that seem to be in water colour and I bought my copy from Aldi, a discount supermarket who were also selling complete works of Shakespeare and also other classic novels. In retrospect I really should have stocked up on classic literature at the time but I've barely made a dent into my book yet. At $14 AUD, it was a good bargain though and unexpected.

The great thing about borrowing books and magazines from the library is that they often have lots of copies of Vogue from before I got my subscription and that the time limit of a loan pushes me on to read the book before I have to return it. I find that when I own a copy of a book or magazine that I seldom do read it, except for the day of purchase when I can't wait to pour my eyes over its contents. I'd really love to find my way around all those magazines piled high- I've got my eye on a few copies of Lula on eBay as well as Oyster magazine and a runway collection look from Vogue Paris of 2011's runway shows. So much literature, so little motivation to read it sadly enough.

I'd love to curl up in a chair in my room and sit with a good book for hours on end but the book I'm reading at the moment is a little more difficult than I had reckoned. It's a novel by Terry Pratchett called 'Making Money' and is a Discworld novel. He's most famous for writing 'The Hogfather' which was made into a film and has written about thirty of forty novels about Discworld, a world parallel to our own. There's witches and wizards, gnomes and clay monsters called golems and the city of Ankh-Morpork is run by a tyrant. I thoroughly enjoy all his novels but this one isn't as easy to get into initially as the rest. There's a lot of quick scenes and not enough background information to understand the beginning with ease in my opinion.

I love the artwork quality of old books, the hand sewn pages and material covers and even leather bound books kept safe from the elements. The collection shown here of gold gilt books that look like they could fall apart in your hands is an amazing way to decorate. It suggests worldly experiences and knowledge as well as intelligence and intellect.

In the weeks leading up to my rescue of the old red recliner I had a real inclination and fetish for vintage looking furniture, especially nurse stools and armchairs. There's something very comforting about upholstery as well as tapestry and worn out leather and the way it's sort of been squashed to fit around a person. When getting stuck into a good book being comfortable is essential and while lying in bed is one of my usual favourite spots, I would like to keep the two activities, sleeping and reading separate. Supposedly it makes it harder to sleep at night and you should only use your bedroom to sleep and nothing else.