Spectrum

Although there's many Autumn/ Winter collections for 2012 being released and minimalist design and colour, I can't help but dream about wonderful and colourful clothing as well as the effects of Aurora Borealis. My own clothing wardrobe is lacking in printed designs such as sweaters and cardigans as well as vintage blouses, of course I need to earn a bit of money first and sell my old clothes before I buy anymore as my boyfriend has so ceremoniously pointed out. I wouldn't mind having galaxy printed loose jersey shirts as well as pattened jeans/ torusers and a good pair of swanky brogues.

I've been trying to find the perfect pair of patterned jeans, I know Ksubi are often a great source of colourful and modern denim but I'm more eager to find something vintage anda  bit more softly spoken. The horrible thing about trying to find great vintage trousers is that they're all in tiny sizes that I can't dream of fitting in- even the legs wouldn't accomodate my calves which have been sculpted after years of participating in sport. Another reason I wish I had skinny stick thin legs- there are so many wonderul printed jeans I can't fit in to but am able to afford. I live in a cruel and unusual realm of fashion. I think I've let a pair of these striped jeans pass my by at a good and reasonable price too- they were from Urban Outfitters and I've been looking for something with Beetlejuice flair for a while but also have been prioritising some purchases above others.

My love for unusual printed pants and leggings lead me ti buy a pair of Black Milk leggings which I threw back on eBay after only wearing them for two costume occasions and being much too timid to wear them out and about on the street. I'm much more comfortable it seems in buying things more versatille or at least jumpers with big and bright patterns. I wouldn't mind dressing the patterned leggings with black band shirts, but there's a lot more to exeperience when it comes to fashion and it appears that layering is the most popular among other fashion bloggers- something I myself am trying to incorporate into my own styling with difficulty.

Among my admiration for wild patterns and design in fashion I can't help but be drawn to the staple pieces as well such as denim shirts and jackets, a good leather jacket to be worn with a variety of patterned blouses and dresses in order to change things readily with my wardrobe. I've been able to find so many wonderful staple pieces but can't bring myself to finally buy them- I know I should be disciplined and save my money as well as sell more things online in order to save for overseas trips as well as expensive and label named pieces. It's a tricky balancing act when finances are concerned especially when such a wide spectrum of style and clothing is to be considered as well.

American model and singer Sky Ferreira showing off those gorgoues pouting lips of hers smeared in red lipstick with a patterned jumper. A sweatshirt with as many colours as well as patterns like this should be worn with denim cut-off shirts and tights underneath and simple canvas shoes for full and blossoming effect. I'm not sure I'll ever be that sort of teenage girl, I find myself much more drawn to the label brands and finely made things using precious metals and the occasional semi-precious stone. However it seems that the most popular fashion bloggers can create so many different and wild outfits by buying vintage pieces and having a keen eye for style. I'm too much of a fashion snob at the moment to live in such a way and rotate my wardrobe as readily as some of the big names such as Booke Kao and Tavi Gevinson.

I guess I'm a little more preoccupied with buying garments that are timeless and good quality as opposed to raiding op shops mindlessly for mediocre quality clothing that I can easily mix and match to best fit my own style- it's difficult to be able to bring new outfits and ideas when I've had much the same wardrobe for the past few years and don't readily feel inspired when observing other people's images. Instead I feel stuck in my own little realm and world where everything seems very much unchanged and the same. If Ionly I had the wild senseibility of a young teenager once again who didn't know that wearing a certain top with pants was wrong and was simply free to do as they pleased. Or if I had grown up to be an angst filled semi-anarchist with bindis as well as black lisptick at my disposal. Then maybe I would be less boring and wear more exciting outfits when going out with friends.

Something I had planned to get more intune with was film photography when I had sufficient funds to develop the six rolls of film sitting on my desk. What's worse is that there's about fifteen unused rolls sitting in a plastic sealer bag somewhere else in my study space and the number of half used rolls in various cameras around my room. At least a few of them will be moving on to better homes sometime this week when my eBay listings go through and I pick up another extra hundred dollars as an added bonus. The wonderful thing about film photography despite its expenses is all the wonderful surprised you get when observing the colours and tone of your photographs and light leaks. Digital photography while more accessible to the masses and cheaper will never have the unpredictable allure of its older counterpart.

It seems a waste to conduct self-portraint photographs in black and white unless you aim to focus on the looks of a person rather than their colouration and clothing. While my camera is lacking in a black and white setting, it would be nice to be able to explore that function of a camera in order to show prints of an ensemble of clothing if the colours don't fit well together- while it is a bit of a cheat it's something else to consider. I hadn't really considered texture and material of clothing to be such an important aspect until a few years ago but I feel I'm getting a better appreciation for it as time goes on.

As well as patterend pieces I've also had my eye on Mongolian lamb coats and bags to spice up my wardrobe but I should be considering how to carefully integrate pieces into my existing wardrobe rather than simply buying somehting because I like the way it looks- it seems that kind of rational will only carry you so far and you must also think about the types of clothing you wear as a whole for presentation rather than picking out the items of clothing you feel like wearing for a particular day. It seems that the world of fashion has evolved from so much more than keeping yourself warm and comfortable for the fashion bloggers who take it seriously and really enjoy being engulfed in this surreal world of style.

Since I now have acquired two delightful Yves Saint Laurent Arty rings as well as a brightly coloured satchel, all that is left for me to do is take photographs of myself with the two in hand and I can be a young and fashionable lady and trend setter for the massess... yeah I wish. If I had any sense I would create outfits as I sell my olf clothes or try and match as many potential outfits revolving around a single piece of clothing and then post them certain days and weeks apart from one another. It's also difficult to be a fashion blogger without anyone else to take photographs of yourself on the street and create this papparazii appeal about photographs hosted on your blog.

Those Hipsters are Mysterious

It's hard to really know when hipster culture became an accepted part of society because the last sort of big trend of my teenage youth was the emo phase with the bad black hair and straightened fringes- I'm so glad that hipsters are now the new trend since they're a bit more social and fashionable to put it nicely. Also, last time I checked hipsters had more admirable qualities than emos such as an appreciation for film photography even if they mainly stick to single focus lenses and disposable cameras. They also lead more of a social life to and throw some wicked sick parties, although, all my accounts are second hand because... I don't party that much.

While some people despise guys shaving part of their head and maybe accentuating the top half I think there's an admirable quality about it but they have to have the right face to pull it off. If my own boyfriend got a hipster haircut I would probably pull all the hairs out of a shag carpet because I like the way he looks now and it's natural. There's not a lot I can see about hipster haircuts for girls, other than there's dip dyeing which seems like such an old trend but it's sort of like the second coming of Nu Wave really.

I suppose another cultural difference between emos and hipsters is that hipsters are more in their late teens and even early twenties, moving out and into weird things such as interior decorating and owning tapestry pieces of furniture such as moulding armchairs and also buying carpets off of Urban Outfitters. There's nothing wrong with any of the in my opinion though, it's certainly a step up from bad facial piercings although hipsters do seem to favour nose piercings as well as tragus piercings too. Oh well, some things never change too much after all.

Tavi in the 1960s

I find it just a little bit sad that I've been eagerly awaiting the drought to be broken on Tavi Gevinson's blog, rather than the ecological and climate drought of my own country. It seems that without a proper education and learning as a part of my routine my brain has turned to mush but even if I was at my full intellectual capacity I would still adore Tavi's latest post found on Style Rookie which has a very 1960s appeal to it.

It was Tavi's love of 'The Virgin Suicides' and fascination with other religious symbols of Christianity that cause my to buy two plastic rosary necklaces while away at Philip Island- I seldom wear them unless I know that I won't be seeing anyone I know since they'll know I'm not really religious but they are sort of fun. There are a lot of plastic ones that are 'prison issued' in lots of bright colours- those are my favourite for the kitsch and vintage appeal. If I don't be careful I may just end up collecting rosaries in pastel colours since there are so many available online for a few dollars.

I was never truly inspired by vintage 60s period clothes when scouring on eBay but I am incredibly jealous of Tavi for buying this jacket from Etsy. The colour as well as the political slogans, shape and sizes of all the beasties as well as the swirling effects. I would literally kill to find something as cool as this and wear it everyday, however it seems that finding cheap and kitsch vintage clothing isn't as easy as plugging 'plastic rosary' into the eBay search engine. My faith in the online community for shopping has been restored once again (as if I had any doubts really) and I'm also itching to get myself to Restrostar to try and find some 60s pieces there. If only the sizes weren't to teeny tiny thanks to Twiggy's influence.
 

While I do indulge in thick and generous eyeliner with flicking tails at the end, I'm not sure who keen I am to try the beehive but you've got to hand it to Tavi- she goes where no other modern woman has gone before and uses the past as her greatest source of inspiration. She's really opened my eyes to the beauty of this period and while I have been in love with Peter Pan collars and shift dresses for quite some time now, the colours and prints never had such a great appeal. But that novelty jacket she bought really blew me away I'm scouring Etsy right now for any bits and pieces she may have left behind in her wake.

Two brilliant 1960s pieces in colourful abstract prints and patterns owned by the one girl? Life isn't fair at all it seems, but I am glad that both went to the lovely Tavi who isn't one to hoard away her treasures and vintage triumphs. She's more than happy to show them off to the readers of her blog the Style Rookie. Sadly she doesn't seem to post as often as she once used to and seems to be focusing her attentions and efforts on her new blog Rookie which has a more practical and feminist approach to it.

I really could have worn my plastic rosaries in purple and pink with my Wednesday Adams outfit and hair but at the time I didn't want to over complicate things. I bet there's some great plastic rosaries to be had on Etsy as well and I'm particularly looking forward to finding more, like mine, that glow in the dark.

As well as outfits and pictures of diaries from the 1960s there are extracts of movies from the period as well, and while I may have not been paying attention with the precision of a hawk I was intrigued by the dresses as well as make-up of the photos. Oh Tavi, you sure do know how to get a girl's attention using quirky extracts of people in animal costumes, impossible tree houses and girls in Peter Pan collar dresses with binoculars.

Since Kodak has now gone under and filed for bankruptcy, I'm feeling the negative impact of the computer age more than ever. I miss little cute hand written notes in soppy handwriting as instead of emails and instant messenger. I would love to do correspondence by long and slow letters and buy stamps to send them. I know books being printed on paper will continue for at least another decade but how long will it be before that too is replaced with kindles and iPads? I love being able to publish online but sometimes I can't help but feel that ache and longing for handwritten things and pleasures of a simpler time.

Rock Out

It sounds cliche and overrated to want to dramatically alter your life and improve yourself at the start of the new year; you wouldn't change what you do month to month and the only thing that has really changed is the year not your life. But I still want to continue to improve myself and become a better person that what I was last year, while the sentiment is cheesy setting goals and executing them properly can help you to change. I realised that many people don't set smaller goals for themselves when writing out their New Year's Resolutions, they're usually wide sweeping statements such as "I'll lose weight" or "I'll be healthier". This is probably why the resolution is broken within a week. In fact my new 2012 diary has a page at the front in a neat little table with information such as New Year's Resolution and beside it: date broken. I don't want that to be me, my goals for 2012 are wide and varied and all very big and difficult but I know how I can achieve the first few.

While this post is a personal reflection of what I want the year to be it's full of beautiful people who have a rock edge to them because that's something I'm trying to aspire towards this year. With university just on the horizon doors will open and I'll get to meet a whole bunch of new and exciting people- I want to become a part of the social scene and really put myself out there. I will not be picked on; my transition from primary school to secondary school was the cornerstone and beginning of two years of depression for me. While I will not spend nearly as much time at university as the nine to three grind of secondary school rituals, it would be nice to get out there and meet more people. People with interests similar to my own, the book worms, the photographers and the lonely bloggers.

I'm unlikely to change anything radically with my hair so I will be avoiding shaving one side as well as wild colours, unless I finally get the guts to proclaim my hipster status to the world and dip dye my hair. I have an assortment of colours on my eBay watch list in shades of pink, red and purple waiting to be bought but I still have a phobia of peroxide. Besides, a cut and having my layers done again may be in order before anything radical is tried out in my bathroom. There's a lovely saloon next to my temporary place of work, I should schedule myself in for a trim before I start one last shift. Pretty cut, it doesn't look like they'll be keeping me on permanently so I applied for a bunch of places yesterday and also the local paper and flyer drop. I am very desperate at this stage.

There is no possible way for someone like me to become as beautiful as the model sitting here with wild pink coloured eyebrows, staggeringly beautiful dyed grey hair and perfectly executed eye liner to die for. Maybe I will never be able to make a career out of being a beautiful person but I'd certainly like to try my hand and make Secret Hipster into what it was supposed to be- a collection of day to day outfits posted by myself. Instead it's been covering brands and other people's work but instead of following the trends I'm keen to make them. That will involved cleaning my room, moving a desk and a bookcase as well as several square metres of dead teen magazines and dust to free up a plain white wall. I'm also tempted to get a rug in from Urban Outfitters to update my digs and include in the photographs. I have a reasonable camera and a tripod waiting the rest of my plan to fall into place.

I'm ashamed to say I have seventy sheets of Polaroid film waiting to be used, a Polaroid Mini Portrait camera waiting to be figured out and nothing to photograph. I need to meet people willing to pose in front of my lens- maybe I'll get up to some crazy shenanigans at university. While I will be in the boring Science faculty I'm sure there will be lots of Arts students floating about the place which I can innocently bump into and strike up a conversation with.

Coordinating outfits or becoming more eclectic and miss matching things more. It's one or the other- I'm sick of being stuck in this purgatorial half world where I am average in the way I dress and plain old boring. It's time to put my best foot forward and show everyone what I'm really like on the inside by dressing well on the outside.

I definitely will be investing more time as well as money in buying my favourite albums from great artists. I really must stop surviving on cheap free podcasts that while are great and touching do not properly showcase all the songs within a bands arsenal. My hit list includes The Grates, Kaiser Chiefs, Phoenix, Death Cab for Cutie and probably many others if I were to stroll down the aisles of Jb Hi-Fi with vouchers in hand. I just want to listen to interesting and new music again and properly rock out and feel in touch with the present- listening to stuff that's years old isn't helping my conversational skills.

I want to play more at night time and breach my comfort zone- I don't care if it is rather small at the moment and even saying hello to the delivery man is uncomfortable, something has got to give.

Last goal is to perfect my blogging style and finally mix in some of my own photography and outfits with brands I love- maybe wear a little more make-up day to day and mix up vintage pieces with new clothes. Go to markets more and find amazing clothing for cheap or raid second hand shops. Get a proper part-time job or pick up two more shifts of basketball refereeing. I have my work cut out for me but I want to rise to the challenge this year. Then smash each challenge into the ground and dance on its grave. Have a nice day everyone.