Sleeveless Trench – YesStyle, Floral Shirt – Motel Rocks, Dress – 18 AND EAST, Watch – ASOS

GHD Courtesy of ASOS; Photos shot in Hurwundeki

The pimple-ridden teenager that slams the door and plays on a ducktaped guitar the entire summer, would be my atopic (eczema) skin; and the neat kid that does his homework and keeps his allowance in a tin can for a bicycle, would be my hair. So now you understand the reason there are only two hairstyles in this blog, and hopefully also the reason I don’t own a blow dryer or a hairspray. But I do have a drawer-full of steroid creams, collected from literally every country I’ve been itchy in. Do any of you own medicine from Lithuania or Turkey, BECAUSE I DO. I’ve been more than content letting my hair run free, and since straightening is really the extent of pimping it I thought I’d share my choice of straightener and method. So far I’ve been happiest with the classic GHD Flat iron… and hey I just realised it’s probably a great tool for whacking the pimple boy at times but that’d be inappropriate so scratch that. I shall rule with a proverbial iron fist in velvet glove. Or with GHD in satin sleeve… dilemma.

All that’s needed is a good brushing throughout, then a even spritz of heat-protection spray (mine’s from Trevor Sorbie) before any contact with the iron. Using a brush, sweep a chunk of hair to the side and clip, then start straightening in sections from the underneath to avoid placing finished hair on top of unfinished hair. Works best if you lead the section of hair with a brush and follow with the straightener.

Thank you Flora for helping with the photos, and Hurwundeki for the location!

Top – Primark, Shirt as skirt & socks – Uniqlo, Bag – Yesstyle, Shoes – Courtesy of Zalando, Cardigan – Mum’s Massimo Dutti

You must be thinking woman can you get yourself a proper skirt, why yes I can, I believe I am capable, thank you for asking! I’m also capable of vacuuming the flat, brushing my teeth and doing the laundry… doesn’t mean I’ll feel like it. This shirt-as-skirt is the sartorial equivalent of shoving everything under the bed – hides the junk and the trunk – GOOD ENOUGH FOR NOW. And aren’t you somewhat impressed that I wear the same stuff more than once on this blog? That particular shirt might occasionally commute from north to south, but I can boast that it’s been with me since 2007. I have a few cardigans that were gifts from my mother… well if you count ‘finding out your daughter took it without asking and you don’t really feel like chasing her all the way to London’ a form a gift. Yesss we’re completely ignoring the two brand-new items, the shoes and the bag (courtesy of Zalando and YesStyle), I AM SO FRUGAL I’M GONNA DIE!

Vogue Girl Korea July ’11 Issue; Sally Hansen Double Duty (and Mega-Shine, later), BarryM Gold 289, OPI HLB11 & HLB10

I’m just gonna go ahead and call this ‘Skin-clipped-along-with-nail-hence-the-blood-stain-effect’ instead of rack my brain for cheesy names like Berry Kiss’d or Sunset flicker or Unicorn fart. I was flipping through Vogue Girl Korea and noticed Sandara (of 2NE1)’s nails in the Etude waterproof mascara ad. For some reason mascara ads never convince me – nevermind how miraculous the damn mascara brush, HOW CAN YOU HELP IT WHEN YOU HAVE NO LASHES IN THE FIRST PLACE. WHO AM I YELLING AT? Anyway the nails looked cute so I decided to give it a go. Ah, when was the last time you saw such a straightforward post here?

Gio Cat Cafe in Hong-Dae, Seoul, South Korea

When I disappear for 8 days, I disappear rather excellently, must say so myself – this time I raked in all the cats from the neighbourhood. Beat that, hiatus comrades! Unfortunately I cannot disclose the method in which I was able to accomplish this, as it is a secret of the trade, but I believe one can sniff a clue from among the photos. Pun intended. I haven’t named them all but I plan to start with

Stewie, Peter, Lois, Meg and move on to Rumi, Jane, Susie, Brianboy and so on.

Good golly, this cat cafe shots rank highest on Seoul photo pile – what a novelty experience! No no, this is not the first time I’m around animals, my mother did take me to the zoo regularly, in fact she left me in a basket there after birth and I was raised by Polish giraffes. To my horror, the hard drive with my Seoul (and Paris) photos passed away after the 10-hour flight, and even with repeated attempts at CPR (although I do think it’s the CPR that killed it) these precious shots were part of the very few I managed to recover. Why do I always have to learn the hard way that memories stored in bytes are fickle and must remember to back-up at every opportune moment… BACKUP NOW, PEOPLE.

Thank you to the FACE Magazine team for taking me to the cat cafe!

Middlesex University graduate show, Freerange Art & Design show

There really should be much less underestimating of student designers and even lesser overestimating of bigger designers, some of these students here bring more milkshake to the yard (+boys) than the powder milk I sometimes see during LFW. These are my top seven, but absolutely head over heels for the menswear collections by Yasmin Bawa and Rasha Swais. Head over heels also for that Asian girl I seem to have developed a girl-crush on in that 15 minutes of catwalk, WHO IS SHE AND CAN SHE HAVE MY NUMBER?

Freerange exhibitions of graduates and students of all manner of design ends on the 25th of July, get down there before I crack my whip.

Thank you to Lucy of Margaret PR for hooking me up with the show!