EUROPE

Hello!

It is exactly 12 days until I depart for my 2 month voyage around Europe. YES 12 DAYS. No I have not started to attempt to cut my wardrobe down to a mere 25kg. (Yes this is hard when I am travelling to London – approximately 5 degrees – and the Greek Islands – a lot warmer – as well as trying to narrow down my shoe collection). Furthermore, I am trying my hardest not to spend all my travel money pre-travel on clothing items. Below are some of the things I am dying to purchase.

Item A: Nike Air Force 1’s in all white. Obviously a necessity? I could wear them whilst walking/riding/running around Europe. I also don’t have a pair of Nike’s in my shoe shelf – A COMPLETE DISASTER in itself.

Item B, C and D: I have been looking for the past few months for the perfect pair of high-waisted bathers. I have come out completely unsuccessful. I thought Zimmerman would pull through with the goods – so far not good. Even Net-A-Porter’s selection was less than average (apart from a cut out Herve Leger one piece). So I ended up tossing up between the three above from Nasty Gal. Don’t know what my thoughts are about the mix-up top and bottom, although I do enjoy the leopard print bottoms. Also, I love the colour of the one-piece, however, I think it may look slightly ‘biddy’ as they say.
                      

Finally Item E: The necessary awesome beanie. To wear when: you have a hangover, you look like a giant ball of poo on the plane and when you just can’t be bothered doing your hair. (For me this is approximately 6/7 days). The shop I previously blogged about, Zero, is about to start stocking these beanies! I hope I manage to purchase one before jumping on the giant jet!

Lucky for you readers I will be blogging throughout my overseas journey, whenever I have wi-fi, with hopefully some B-Grade photos and hilarious anecdotes! 

ART-ILLERY: A DONOVAN CHRISTIE EXHIBITION

(Donovan with one of his paintings)

Donovan Christie should be a familiar name from my previous post about the ‘These Walls Don’t Lie’ Gallery – he is the CEO and founder. He is also an amazing artist in his own right and his exhibition at Sugar began last Thursday the 7^th of June (Yes this was the same night as the Espionage show opening – what a busy and arty night it was).

Donovan describes his work as ‘hyper-realism’ and it focuses on the themes of street art and urbanization. This was very prevalent in his work at the ‘Art-illery’ exhibition. Before we head into discussing the show, a bit of background. ‘Art-illery’ is described as: ‘the weapons of choice by today’s Guerilla Street Artists. An exhibition displaying the Art-illery, the culprits in the act and the targets of the night.’

All his artwork in this show was acrylic on plywood. The plywood definitely added another level to the pieces. I really enjoyed all the pieces on display - I thought they were very clean, yet emotive and interesting. 


Here are a few of his pieces from the show...

('Soak') 

('Tin') 

('Dial Tone')

Finally, Donovan with fellow artist and bearded male Yanni Floros...

I would strongly recommend you head along to the exhibition and check it out as well as having a drink (or a hundred). 'Art-illery' is showing at Sugar Nightclub on Rundle St until July 3.

Also head to Donovan's website here to check out some more of his work.

ESPIONAGE: A CUT ABOVE II

(Gallery Director Joshua Smith and his piece 'World's Apart #2')

The Espionage Gallery opened its show ‘A Cut Above II’ on Thursday 7^th June. The show features some of the best national and international stencil artists, including all of the Australian Stencil Art Prize Winners.  Three weeks ago I had no idea what stencil art was – I have since learnt very quickly and begun to really appreciate it. Gallery Director Joshua Smith showed me all the cut stencils he used to make one small artwork. The process is definitely very intricate and fascinating! (If you, like me three weeks ago, don't know what stencil art is I suggest you google it - wiki is always good at answering these sorts of questions. 

('Double Miracle' by REM)

My favourite piece in the show was ‘Double Miracle’ by Adelaide artist REM (above). He has used very different materials to create the piece – red wine on white carpet with the image of Jesus. This was extremely clever and although the art itself was not anymore detailed that other pieces the medium really lifted its profile.  The piece was only $120 so it obviously sold very quickly, however, he will also have work in the next exhibition at Espionage, which starts on June 21^st.

A few more of my favourite artists at the show were Fletch (also from Adelaide), 23^rd Key from Melbourne and Manchester Artist Irek Tankpetrol.

One collection of pieces by Fletch are his ‘Humanimals.’ I enjoy how they are framed and grouped together – but I also like how you can buy a piece of artwork for a bargain $33! (Although I would prefer to purchase the whole collection if I had the money).

('Humanimals')

23^rd Key painted one of my other favourite pieces at the exhibition - 'Face Off'. This is probably because I have a deep-entrenched obsession with skulls.

('Face Off')

Finally, Irek Tankpetrol had a couple of pieces that featured hot girls covered in tattoos. My friend purchased his piece ‘Vikki Blows’ – a quite appropriate name for the painting I think.

('Vikki Blows')

All in all the ‘A Cut Above II’ is an amazing exhibition. It finished on the 21^st of June and I would greatly advise you head along to have a look. 

Espionage Gallery is situated at Suite 1, Level 2, 93 Rundle Mall, Adelaide. 

BADLANDS

The chicks from the blog Badlands are pretty freaking dope. I am not always a fan of their outfits, but heaps of the pieces they make/find are definitely on my want list. They also have a great 'I don't give a shit' attitude, which is expressed nicely in their style. Anyway. Here are some photos from one of their recent posts called Dopeland. Enjoy.

COCKS & ROCKS

This is an attractive male:

(Robert Downey Jr from The Classy Polaroid) 

And this is a good diamond ring:

 
(Harry Winston Classic Winston, Oval-Shaped Ring 'here')

What women want.

ZERO

Zero at the bay has just renovated and reopened its brand spanking new store. It is amazing. The set up is great - you don’t have to sift through racks and racks of clothes to find something brilliant. The shop also stocks a lot of Adelaide brands that you cannot find anywhere else, including Jungles and Hungry as well as some dope designers from Byron Bay and Melbourne. Most excitingly they sell my favourite brand Backstage – I haven’t found anywhere else that sells this in Adelaide. The selection of Vans is plentiful and they often have a few designs that are unique. Finally, Zero has begun to stock I Love Ugly Hats. They are from New Zealand, awesome and a nice change to the overworn basketball snap-backs around at the moment.

Out the front of the shop they are in the process of setting up a very innovative idea – a virtual mannequin. Five LCD screens are placed in the window of the shop where videos (such as the Afends video) and images of models wearing outfits will be displayed. I love this idea and I can’t wait for it to be put in place.

Finally, as any good shop should have, there is a set of turntables. Last time I was in the shop they weren’t being used but I can imagine Dorsey and some other Adelaidians will be spinning tunes on them soon.

If you want to check out the store for yourself head along to 61 Jetty Road, Glenelg.

Photos by Dean Winter.   

THESE WALLS DONT LIE

(My friend Lauren and the piece of artwork based on her luscious hair by Yanni Floros - excuse the instagram filter)

On Thursday night I was lucky enough to attend the opening of the new gallery called 'These walls don't lie'. It opened with the show 'This Is It'- a collection of artwork from some of Adelaide's best artists. I must admit my favourite part about this show was the vast range of mediums present. One room you could stare at gorgeous photos and stencil art, closely followed by paintings and detailed charcoal drawings in the next room. The gallery itself was quite small and the opening was packed- but I actually enjoyed the atmosphere this created. You were forced to mingle with everyone and since it is Adelaide you were sure to recognise at least 90% of the people. Now let me begin my partly biased rant about one of the artists on display- Yanni Floros.

Here is one of his charcoal drawings that were on display at 'These Walls Don't Lie' art gallery. It is called Show Pony and based on my friend Lauren. I must admit that I do really like it and without being completely biased it was one of the best pieces on display. I was unfortunately very slack with taking photos at the opening, however, there was a professional photographer there so I will post some of those photos when they become available. Finally as this is meant to be a partially fashion orientated blog I will leave you with a horrible photo of what I wore on the night- note the utterly unimpressed expression on my face.

THIS IS WHAT I WANT

Apart from the fact that I desperately need (probably more likely want) numerous new pairs of shoes, generally of the Jeffrey Campbell variety, these are the things on my 'to buy' list. Top left is the Anndra Neen open cage clutch. It is the most amazing bag I have ever seen - not exaggerating. I very much enjoy the fact that the general public can see inside you bag, however, you may need to put tampons, condoms etc into a more opaque container. Next the Huf plantlife socks in purple and green. Okay they have currently been completely over-worn, but I don't think that socks covered in weed and bright colours could ever get old. Bottom left is the Jeffrey Campbell (ofcourse) Roxy Platform Wedge in black. I really wanted to purchase these off Shop Nasty Gal but they sold out in my size and I actually can't find a nice similar pair anywhere else. DEVASTATED. Finally, the best shoes in the whole universe the Andreia Chaves Invisible Shoes. I NEED SOMEONE TO GIVE ME $4000 TO BUY THESE SHOES. If only Solestruck did layby. Anyway enjoy lusting over these amazing items. Just don't drool on your keyboard - it's not very waterproof.

IDENTITY CRISIS

I am currently having an identity crisis when it comes to getting dressed. Struggling to decide whether I want to listen to my heart and dress manly like this (from Man Repeller):

or boost my ego and dress femininely like this (from Style by Kling):

Both outfits make me weak at the knees (note Stella McCartney denim overalls and Acne dress) and I am leaning towards having male genitalia during the day and breasts at night. However, this harsh conversion often results in me looking like a transvestite. Do you think this complete style conversion is acceptable? You let me know and I'll let you know the comments I receive after dramatically changing between genders.

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WINSPIRATION

Apologies for the corny title, I couldn't think of anything better. Whilst scrolling through The Sartorialist on a rainy day I decided it is the perfect time to pull out the winter coats. There is so much great outfit inspiration on The Sartorialist- here are just a few.

BRAND ON A TAG

On the 28th of May my friends at Brand on a Tag hosted a fashion show at the Lady Daly Hotel. Lucky for me they decided I should be one of their models (I am definitely not model material as you will see) but the show went amazingly! Their clothes are an awesome mix of vintage and op-shop clothes that they have sourced from around South Australia. The girls, Abbie and Amanda, are extremely talented at putting outfits together (putting many bloggers to shame. Hence, I left wanting to buy numerous items- including a pair of very over-sized mens shorts that I wore (see below). Apart from the clothes the night consisted of sneakily drinking Bulmers and shots upstairs, eating access musk sticks and lollies. We also had to battle drunk males attempting to walk the catwalk. I must also take my hat off to models and their ability to change incredibly fast. If you could of seen the hecticness as we attempted to do up shirt buttons and slip on shoes you would of been amazed. I definitely walked the catwalk at least once with my shoes not on properly (yes I am amazing). Thankyou and well done Abbie and Amanda- visit their site here for more clothes and where to purchase.