Saturday, April 30, 2011

Nothing to wear! Really now?


These are your peak years ladies! College/student life is never coming back. Yet each morning as you set yourself to open your dresser, you feel that horrid twist in the pit of your stomach. The hundred garments strewn in all corners of the cupboard fail to satisfy you. You have a major cloth famine…YOU HAVE NOTHING TO WEAR!
     
Full time college students that we are; girls consider us an authority in this subject. Follow the 3Rs of smart dressing: repeat, reinvent and refurbish.

REPEATING:
Remember you are not a big shot celeb or a pop star. Your purse is filled once a month and you are on a tight budget. You can afford to repeat! Nobody judges you by what you wear (at least in the real world). Repeating clothes as long as they are clean and fit you is fine. You are not committing a felony.





























REINVENT:
My favorite form of dressing up.=) it is the smallest pieces that make the biggest impact! Just clothes never made a statement. Even the biggest fashion houses had to expand to jewellry, shoes, and bags. Some accessories become even bigger than the clothes. Chanel’s No.5 perfume is an example.
An entire look can be changed depending on your taste for accessorizing. Buy lots of neckpieces, bracelets and head bands. Flea markets offer the widest range in the most affordable prices. Buying a dozen different laces for my converse is one way in which I can reinvent my look each day.
The size of your accessories and their different colors distract attention from your original wardrobe. This is handy while repeating clothes but still maintaining a fresh look! Different hairstyles and nail paint just add an additional panache.

REFURBISH
The one thing that can be refurbished easily is denims. Depending on the color, the type, and washing requirements; your denims can change faces like the moon.
Your oldest pair of jeans could just be cut short and worn to beat the heat also adding to your sexiness. The creative some may also convert them into a bag or simply add patchworks for a more grunge look.
Color your tees again. Just splash some fabric paint and they are ready!
Wear two T-shirts of contrasting colors and create the layering effect! (Note: please avoid looking like a Bella Swan though)
Love the same LBD much? Wear it with different patterned tights. Experiment with shoes or ask mummy to add a little sequin here there. (Remember Molly Ringwald in Pretty in Pink?)




















Additional Tips:
Prepare the entire week’s wardrobe well in advance; say at the weekend, in your mind. This not only avoids the daily struggle with you and your wardrobe, but also saves precious time when you are in a rush.
Divide your clothes according to the different events. Wear only basic clothes to college, keep the uberchic and ultra cool for a special occasion. For home adopt tracks, comfortable tees, and old jeans. Do not confuse your daily wear with clothes you wear at home, such confusion leads to wearing out of the novelty of your clothes and very soon they start boring you too.



Girls bear in mind that this works as long as you work and wear smart. The latest trends and even the most expensive pieces in your collection will fail to turn you into a true fashionista until you carve your own niche and adopt an individual style.
Every Cinderella story is a success!

xo
pictures: www.google.com,www.psimadethis.com,www.polyvore.com
find me at www.thesaltlist.wordpress.com
                     


Monday, April 18, 2011

THE LAST HAUNTINg by Alexander Mcqueen



For men may come and men may go,




But I go on forever.



-tennyson


Feminist Rants – letters to man.


Man
Bother to read this will you? i know you won’t, but nobody can stop me from trying. A day will find you reading this and all the other letters from my sisters, the day you will drown deep in remorse and your own guilt.
Are you that bad? Maybe not, you are after all made from the same soil as me. I believe good prevails, I hope you won’t let me down.
I hate how your dominance becomes the world order. How my sufferings go hand in hand with your courageous feats. Why must I be only behind your success, I want to have that equal role. I hate your power it overshadows ours. Why can’t I be a part of your game?
I hate how you stare. Do you realize it works like an X-ray? Your gaze strips me off my dignity. Our body is ours alone, dare you become my master.
I hate how you leave for work and crush me under my own responsibilities. Am I a slave? These kids are not my kids alone. Why are you so indifferent? I have raised them well, I have accomplished my job and role, now I want to work, rather earn. “No. you are not a woman of the world”.                                             A woman of the world?
You are over possessive. I am not a trophy, I need to fly free. You time limits and curfews make no sense at all. The size of my clothes shrouds your thinking.  My skin needs to breathe.
I hate your labels. I hate how we wear pink you wear blue. I hate your expectations from us. I hate how you sell us in our marriages. I hate how you can marry another and forget me altogether. I hate getting a cold welcome when I am born. I hate how we become products in your thriving business. I hate being used.
I hate being submissive to your will. I hate being your toy. Most of all I hate accepting you are essential to my existence. I hate giving in.
I don’t want to hate you anymore. I know that once you did love me. That once I was the only creature of immense beauty to you. That I was the centre of your universe. This society never let us be. Isn’t love meant to last forever?
Let’s forget the in-betweens, let’s just focus on this relationship. Me and my sisters want equality. You can be my father, brother or fiancĂ©, but I want this level playing field. I want your muscles, your brawn in return you could have my long hair, my soft skin. Give me your determination and grit, take my grace and belief. You could even take my motherhood; just give me your ‘respect’.




weeping woman- pablo picasso

also find me at www.thesaltlist.wordpress.com

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

VIVIENNE WESTWOOD love at first sight!




fashion is a form so ugly that it has to be changed after  every 3 months”-Georgio Armani
How true are these words  and how well Armani understands his profession.T his isn’t about him
Or  the Armani Exchange  but a diversified  designer  who has actually executed this change:
Vivienne Westwood.
I have loved her ever since I stopped on FTV on a boring summer afternoon spent surfing channels .
It was 2004 and  at that point I think I believed in ‘falling in love at first sight’. My first tryst  with fashion.
I have been in love since. Over the years I have studied Westwood and her surreal imagination.
The world needs just a glimpse of her mind to admire the woman she is. This is my effort to bring you that  glimpse.
She  started out as a primary school teacher ,a job she confesses to still adore.it was after  her second
Marriage  that she realized  her  true love for designing . Together  with  McLaren she set up her shop
Let it rock and gave England  the outcome of her  bold ideas.The  shop was renamed too fast to live, too
Young to die  at the onset of the hippie movement  but  featuring  rock clothing even when  Rock n Roll
Started playing  on the  radio. Her  first collection Pirate shown at  London  was the reinterpretation of
History.the collection  showed the In depth research undertaken by her and her  revolutionary ideas
This collection was very unlike the street culture that had brought  Vivienne fame.the collection was full
Of breeches and pirate silhouettes along with petty-drawers .

Nostalgia of mud was her  secondary collection showcased at  Paris fashion week  and  Witches the third.
S he continued  to use geometrical designs  and  draw inspiration from the gypsy wear.
After  a series of diverse collections like hypnos ,Clint Eastwood and  MINIO CRINIO
That   spoke rebellion  to the fashion trends of those years, Vivienne launched the Harris Tweed
Collection an experiment by her  that explored  the more feminine side of fashion.
With the Portrait  collection Vivienne  realized that  the fabrics  were chosen same  way a master
Artist  chooses  color pastels for his artwork.She put together fake furs  , and warm tones  to relive
The famous sketches .
Vivenne  is  a designer  who has not only  drawn inspiration from the surrounding  street culture
But  also from nature and  other designers  like Christian Dior. This is evident from the collections like
The  salon and always on camera. Her love for nature is revealed  in her collections  like the wild beauty
Nymphs  and Anglophilia , Pagan etc .Most of her collections demonstrate her  affection  towards
The English landscapes  and architecture.

I hope  my admiration for this wonderful  yet  disparate designer doesn’t  end  here. may she continue to draw inspiration and  inspire others  with her depiction of rock. Choosing her own way  and making a long-lasting mark  in punk  Vivienne  has created  a bold example  for those like  D-squared ,Stella  McCartney,sin city etc  to shoes   and  color the fashion world with rainbow of colors. 






xo



WALK THROUGH LIFE: A DOG’S MEMOIR

My entry for the ELLE FICTION AWARDS 2011, fingers crossed  :p


There isn’t much to do when you are at the close of your fourteen year existence. There are obviously very less expectations from you and you get a lot of time to reflect back at a life well lived. Self reflection is a routine, you start from the day you are born till the seconds you last breathed, like a small preview of a film called ‘life’. Today is no different.
I gaze at him curiously. He was sitting at the table, unusually relaxed, eating and what after many months, finally making peace with his lunch. For a second he looks at me and returns the gaze indifferently. It is that time of the year, I guess, sensing his calmness.
The earliest memory I have of me is being picked up by warm fingers. A heart beats rhythmically as these fingers stroke me gently. When I look up, I see shining irises, and that is my mother. Despite loud protests by her parents and him, she held on to me. She gave me a very funny name, she called me ‘Sinatra’.
I was two and healthy. Large for my age .My bark was deep and heavy, if dogs had a voice, mine would certainly be compared to my namesake’s baritone. I was powerful and fierce, I was a watchdog .She walked me proudly, and I tried to match her gait, we were like royalty. She did not hesitate in taking me deeper in the woods.
 These woods were a sanctuary for me. Here I was released from my leash, I was free. There was soft earth for my for my paws, noises and smells convincing me that this should have been the home for all that exists. She respects my solitude and lets me be free. This was the same place where she found me, I will forever be grateful to this piece of land.
That day our peace was crowded by an uncanny presence. The day lingers on to my memory and refuses to be forgotten. I look in her direction, but clearly she is unaware. I let out a low bark. As footsteps approach, so do voices I look at her again and now she’s standing straight and alert. There are three men, each a grubby mess, they didn’t look well brought up and their crass loud words made it certain they weren’t parallel in their social standing as my mother. One of them realizes alien company. He whispers into the other ones ear. Soon they change courses and proceed in our direction. There is hooting and, loud singing. Their eyes and intentions indicate they are drunk .She motions me to move, and we are fast on our way out. Her eyes are easy to decipher, and right now I see panic, however she fakes a brave calm and walks at an easy pace. They are right behind us, and now they are infuriating me. She is disturbed and I don’t like how her panic grows in me too.
I had enough! I run in the opposite direction to bite the one closest to me. The joy on his face disappeared in seconds; his face crunched as he felt my teeth puncturing his skin. His pain thrilled me. Even as the other two tried to wrestle me off, I felt overjoyed. He deserved it!
I wish I had a voice, I wish my eyes were easily explicable to her, as hers were to me. She would have run, if she could get the message. Instead she joined the wild scramble, trying to save me. The biggest of them all pinned her down. I was yelping at this point, fighting my own fight at the same time watching her loose her’s .Helpless I just retired. The last time I saw her, I looked into her eyes, tears clouded the iris, but horror spoke through unmistakably. My mother was in pain.
They had completely crushed me. Because I could not protect her anymore, I let myself fall into a deep dark well.
When I woke up, a torturous pain aroused in my left hind leg, instructing me not to move anymore. I barked feebly, I wanted herto comfort me. I knew I wouldn’t see her, she must be in her own pain somewhere else.but I barket still and moaned, I  wanted the comfort of her presence. Instead he arrived.his eyes were a nasty red surrounded by bags as if sleep evaded him for many days.Like his sister’s,his eyes spoke distinctly.Right now they spoke of a momentous tragedy.The walls around us started moaning and singing a melancholy song,  his voice feebly found its way through his throat and slowly said ‘Sinatra’. Just the way his sister did. I was to understand this single expression and arrive at my conclusion.She was no more.we were now heavy in our grief.
A dog may recover swiftly, physically and emotionally. We are parasitic to the person who loves us, we aren’t called ‘a man’s best friend’ for no reason. If love finds us in another way, we simply set out in that direction. A human, on the contrary holds onto the reigns of the past, he feels his identity is secure in doing so.I didn’t wait for her to reappear anymore,the sun would burn at the same intensity,the trees would grow undeterred, who was I to question the monotony?
I was still looked after well, my new friend was a small neighborhood child.but he had aged a hundred years, the mischievous boy never again  found a way into his personality. His voice, cracked with puberty, expressed remorse more openly. Grief had turned a boy into a man.
Each year,the same day,he took me to the clearing,a place where I waited to find guilt.A guilt of not being able to protect her, instead I find her manifest herself all around my sanctuary. This place knows her well, therefore it embraces me just like it embraced  her.He has learnt this aswell so he stands to breathe the air around him.He misses her deeply.
On some windy day you can hear the wind rustle through the leaves in the clearing. I think it sounds like her last shrieks, filled up with agony and a futile cry to save her.  I abhor the sound. However to him, I knew these songs meant something else for he stood up to listen to them. He closed his eyes and sobbed. She hadn’t left him; she only justified the reason for her absence. Today again he will ask me to accompany him. I will endure her shrieks and try to listen to her song for him. Maybe she will speak to me as well. I am not that strong anymore, but I hope I keep coming back again, he needs me to console him still.
The boy will grow old, age and die, he will find new ways to live, conquer different worlds, he will be someday be a father himself, very soon he may have to replace me too. He needn’t worry that she was snatched away from him, for whenever he misses her; he will find her singing through the leaves at the same clearing that was once my sanctuary, sitting next to her will be me, free.
                                                            -------------XX------------
THANKS FOR READING! 

AN ODE TO THE ETERNAL STARLET CELEBRATING ELIZABETH TAYLOR;THE ICON


She's the queen of them all
Walkin' proud with her colors showing
She's the queen of them all
-Neil Young


A day before ‘Liz’ left us for her heavenly abode on March 23rd,i was watching ‘The Girl who had everything’. The movie in itself was forgetful with the exception of its leading lady. cited as ‘the most beautiful women to ever have lived’, her fans would not disagree. The beauty of her violet eyes was spoken off far and wide. A gifted actor since a very young age, she was a class apart from her contemporaries like Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, and Bette Davis. Bold and enigmatic, Elizabeth ‘kitten’ Taylor is a true icon of Hollywood.
Elizabeth personified exuberance. While other stars displayed a special affection to clothes from the House of Schiaparelli, Chanel and Dior, Elizabeth just didn’t settle for couture gowns, she was the original material girl and she literally worshipped her rocks.



I adore wearing gems, but not because they are mine. You can't possess radiance, you can only admire it.
-elizabeth taylor

Lady gaga is said to have taken a leaf or two from Taylor’s bizarre book of headdress too. After ‘Cleopatra’ she was found expressing her individuality through these distinctive headgears.





I feel very adventurous. There are so many doors to be opened, and I'm not afraid to look behind them.
-Elizabeth Taylor



Fashion was never limited to just jewels and clothes for her, she made the short cut hair a rage in her times. Effortless and short, the hair were deliberately kept out of the way to pay greater attention to her shapely figure and her face cut.word has it,that taylor was also born with a queer sort of mutation of eyelashes,thus mascara effect.While others preferred a slim-barely there style for their eyebrows,Elizabeth chose to remain a natural beauty with fuller eyebrows which became even more iconic than her eyes.


"I've been through it all, baby, I'm mother courage."-Elizabeth Taylor

Liz did what people would call age gracefully. She lived the high life, loved parties and making new friends. Her alliance with Michael Jackson is fondly remembered by those close to her, she wasn’t a friend but a sister, a mother and lover to the troubled star.She recently adopted social networking to stay closer to her fans, something that is rare amongst the old Hollywood stars,but then again Elizabeth, as she believed was still young at heart,still a child.




I have a woman's body and a child's emotions.
-Elizabeth Taylor


Taylor’s life was one fully lived. She had, as she stated many times, the looks, massive wealth, fame, and love, at 79 going to your grave with such a treasure is a great honor. The gems she collected throughout her life, equaled nothing to what she contributed to this world, the existence of her beautiful soul.She will be remembered for centuries to come and reside in the hearts of young girls as the girl who truly had everything .

Honey you are a rock 
Upon which I stand 
And I come here to talk 
I hope you understand 

That green eyes, yeah the spotlight, shines upon you 
And how could, anybody, deny you ……
-COLDPLAY <GREEN EYES>


                                                   

                               
                                                                      R.I.P
                                            ELIZABETH  ROSEMOND TAYLOR
                                           (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011)

i can also be reached at http://thesaltlist.wordpress.com/