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Rise Above

Flatforms are a hot button issue. “I remember being on set once with a woman infamous for her over-the-top ensembles who said she wouldn’t be caught dead in flatforms. “Who needs the cankles?!” she proclaimed from her seven inch Brian Atwood platform pumps” recalls Steff Yotka, editor of Shop-Ghost Magazine, when just mentioning flatforms to her.

Fair. No one wants cankles. But as footwear trends have evolved from loafer to brogue to creeper to sneaker wedges, it seems flatforms are the last frontier of foot fetishism. Somehow the shoes of go-go dancers and glam rock boys would become the standard for lez tea-sippers to hiphop girls alike.

“Blame it on Prada, the brand so famous for making bad taste seem oh-so-good”, says Steff, again [See: plastic banana earrings, which I still dont understand why I like so much, but i have found 5 different outfits to wear with them already] Flashback to Spring 2011 collections and find the birth of the flatform on Prada’s runway, below beaded Josephine Baker dresses and fox stoles, merged with a men’s brogue, raffia trimmed, brown leather with treads on bottom. Right there was when the tacky flatform, reserved for highfalutin Japanese punks and ladies of the night became the asexual shoe that would woo women and men uptown and downtown alike. For a good year, there wasn’t a safe place to rest your eyes without chancing upon the Prada brogues or a knockoff cousin.

Zoom forward to Spring 2013 collections and you’ll find the flatform again on Prada’s runway, this time inspired by Japanese getas. Somewhere in between is Chanel’s Cruise collection at Versailles that bred Marie Antoinette with some sans-culotte rebels resulting in pastel pretty lifts fit for Louis XIV himself.

After such high profile support, flatforms are rising up to be the shoe of the now. With Superga flatforms you can feel like TLC, a nod to the nineties moment in skinny track pants, a cropped tee, and some hoops, or you can channel a seapunk avatar in a pastel Acne mini and bomber jacket. Strap on some sandal flatforms beneath your overalls to keep it Americana, or just throw on a caftan and you’re Verushka. Even Macaulay Culkin wears them with ciggys and a beer; that’s a good enough reason right there.

PRO/CON: FLATFORMS (by Steff)

1. PRO

   Being short and looking up at people’s chins can drive you crazy. [Look at Napoleon!] Flatforms are an easy way to gain height without looking like you’re trying too hard in heels.

2. CON

   Despite appearances, walking in flatforms is HARD. Feet aren’t meant to be perfectly flat – you need a little lift in the heel for support – so walking down a cobblestone street becomes an obstacle course.

3. PRO

   Comfort is a given. It’s pretty much a sneaker, which next to barefoot is the best you’re going to do.

4. CON

   In extreme flatforms you run the risk of looking like a fashion victim. Or at least confusing your parents.

5. PRO

   A good flatform goes with everything from cocktail dresses to jean cutoffs, meaning that during the summer months they’re going to get lots of wear and will make the money spent on them totally worth it.

THE ONES WE LOVE THE MOST, WE’LL GIVE IN TO THEIR EVERY MOVE 

Kenzo

Topshop

Opening Ceremony

Superga

Urban Outfitters

Antiques Appraisal

If i could choose to be like anyone when im 85, i would most definitely, hands down on the floor worship style, want to be like Linda Rodin.

I’ve never thought just anyone can understand fashion in its true form. And as i can admit, it’s easier said than done. But this ‘true form’ im talking about is simply just simplicity.
You need a sense of child-like playfulness and no seriousness at all, you have to know yourself and know your wardrobe and you need a strong mind not to give in to intimidation of fads and the way others dress. Even at 85-years-old, you can see Rodin has possessed these qualities in her, her entire life. She was born with it. Yes a lot of it is learned, takes practice and good will, but in those who are as good as Rodin at what they do, have had in them before they knew who they were.

Rodin’s father was a dentist and her mother was a decorator, she also owned an antique shop…

…which explains her vast collection of nitbits!

Rodin is a stylist based in New York who now focuses all her energy on her own range of beauty products, Olio Lusso by Linda Rodin. She began her career as a model in the 60s! She’s worked with photographers like Richard Avedon, Peter Lindbergh, and Herb Ritts.

She featured in a recent J Crew campaign.

Read all about her success story HERE.

LINDA’S LIFE TIPS TO HAPPINESS

1. Favorite Stores

   “I always find something in J. Crew. Always. There’s also this great store, Creatures of Comfort, and I like Uniqlo. They have the best jeans.”

2. Keep it Simple

   “I’ve worn jeans since I was 15, which I still wear everyday, and any shirt. I’ve had this shirt for 20 years, as you can see. I revolve everything around a good pair of jeans. … I don’t care who makes them, as long as they fit.”

3. Signature Color

   “I’ve always loved hot pink. Now I wear a mood lipstick that turns pink, and I wear a Makeup Forever pencil…. I just bought 25 lip pencils in this color!”

4. Fix It!

   “I learned from styling that you can always fix it. You can pin things, puff things, and fake it. I also have a great tailor. I can buy a coat that’s too big, and it can be scaled down. I can take a sleeve off of this and put it on that, put a waistband in something that didn’t have a waist. … I feel like I can buy anything.”

AND WHAT ABOUT GETTING OLDER?? eeeek :/

Linda believes that lots of sleep and a good diet are two of the keys to aging gracefully.

When it comes to looking older she says,”First of all it’s not easy getting older. It catches up on you all of a sudden. It’s definitely more interesting to let yourself go through the process than do a bunch of surgery and get addicted to a face that’s not even yours. You can’t chase youth. You’ll just look older with a face lift.”

WATCH! ‘A CHAT WITH LINDA RODIN‘

To be deemed or not

It seems that i have been deemed a cat person by various people who know me and also, to those you dont know much about me at all. Sometimes its nice t obe apart of something, and i guess when people dont know much about you, to say you’re part of a certian group will help them decide if they like you or not. Well being a cat person is a super easy group to belong to. You love cats and people keep sending you pictures of their cats and cute internet cats doing human-like things, etc etc. 

I recently had an extremely intense week or receiving a lot of cat pictures from friends. “Look at my new kitten, she’s rolling around on the floor… i knew you would appreciate it”, “im working all weekend so i thought maybe you could kitten-sit for me? It’ll be SO CUUUTE!” 
I like cats, its true. I like them more than dogs, except for puppies. But i really only LOVE my own cats and thats mainly because i’ve had many, many years with them. So i’d like to change my status, and i’ve thought about this for a whole 3 days. If being deemed a cat person means people keep shoving cats in your face, then i want to be a Chanel person from now on. I want Chanel handbags and lipstick and nail polish and sunglasses and work suits. But if you cant give me those let me babysit your Chanel for you when you’re not using it, or send me pictures of new Chanel goodies so i can lust over it and when the new Chanel Spring ’13 make-up range comes out, ill say “I want that, it’ll be SO CUUUTE on!” but not really. Here’s more of the kind of things i’d like to see: 

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Levi’s

Saturday morning with the plants, trying to figure out how to wear these jeans.

heel appeal

Two new additions to my shoe cupboard are these Superga x Henry Holland flatforms and a pair of  red Melissa x Vivianne Westwood boots. They are still to be delivered from the UK, BUT I LITERALLY CANNOT WAIT! I just cant resist a good shoe.

Since i was young i never thought i was a shoe and handbag kind of girl. But over the past few years i often find myself thinking about anything except that. It all stated when i read an article called ‘The Perfect Shoe’ in Elle many, many years ago. I still remember the illustration pointing out the qualities of a good shoes, and i still havent forgotten it.

When it comes to heels, a good shoe will be equally balanced. When buying a heeled shoe always hold it up and even out the ratio of toes and the balls of your feet to the heel with your eyes. The rise in the shoe will be right in the middle, therefore the distance from the middle of the shoe to the heel should be the same as the distance of the middle of the shoe to the toe. You’d be surprised once you start taking notice of this that there are so many heeled shoes that are not made this way and are uncomfortable to walk in.

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Living or dreaming?

When Steve Jobs died, a paragraph of a speech he’d given to graduating students of Stanford University in 2005 was spread across the Internet relentlessly. “You’ve got to find what you love…” he told his audience. “If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know it when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better…” The speech as a whole is like a triple-shot espresso of motivation, and leaves you feeling incredibly inspired. But just like an addiction (be it caffeine or motivational speeches) that reassuring buzz can wear off and leaves you feeling kind of deflated. Surely Steve Jobs could figure out why he was the one standing on the stage giving the speech. That’s because people who know what they want and pursue their passion with world-changing results are hugely out of the ordinary. Finding and forging a career is already a thankless task. And, telling hundreds of 21-year-olds and 22-year-olds to do the same seems almost ridiculous.

So what about the rest of us, the ones who still don’t know what it is that they love, or worse, how to turn it into something successful? These days, it’s not enough to just work hard, do a job well and reap the rewards at the end. These days you have to love your job, really love it, put it above everything else and succeed. It’s true that the relationship you have with your career will be one of the most engaging and long-lasting relationships of your entire life. But does that mean realising your most deeply held dreams will only do? That anything less of that is a failure?

For me it’s writing. As a child I wrote letters to invisible fairies, and I still have the 10-page book that I wrote, and illustrated when I was 12. As a teenager I wrote heart-wrenching poetry and wrote down the lyrics of music that spoke to me. I had a friend when I was 17 who wrote a thousand-page book, which lead me to writing a 462-page novel about alter-realities, and other stuff. I still write. I’d like to make a career of it, but actually I’m a waitress, I’ve interned and shadowed and temped since I finished college, it’s exhausting, but it’s waitressing that gets me by, as well as allows me to fuel my shoe obsession.

In a breath of relief, I’m not the only one. My old schoolmate hasn’t had a salaried job since she graduated. It’s not that she hasn’t worked, she works 12-hour days and sometimes weekends. But her job happens to be in fashion where the experience is meant to be payment enough. By now she was expecting to be offered a job, or anything really. She does exactly what she’s supposed to, but so far, it hasn’t got her to where she wants to be.
A friend of my sister’s was a model throughout her 20s and has been trying to pursue her dream of becoming an actress in the States for the last couple of years. She’s had her ups and downs, more downs than ups, i think. And it makes me wonder, are these dreams just too big?

A too-big-of-a-dream, is it possible? Whenever I watch X-factor I want to cry when those 3 red X’s light up. Those are people’s dreams too, just like mine, so thoughtlessly shattered by celebrities! And how do you ‘Not give up your day job’ when all you’ve been doing is pursuing your dreams? When I ask myself what it is that I would consider my dream job I picture this: London Fashion Week, the second row, wearing Jimmy Choo’s, clutching a writing pad and a pen, and a list of all the exclusive front row guests, models walking, and a media pass for backstage – to interview Louis Gray of course. I want to be a catwalk reporter. Dream big much?

It’s hard to compare this to someone who has it all figured out. A childhood friend of mine is an accountant and just put a down payment on her first apartment. She’s 25. It’s definitely not her dream job to work for a bank, but this way she gets to live the life that she’s always dreamed of, and she’s incredibly happy. “Work is boring, but the people are nice”, she says, and its given her the kind of things that makes the rest of us feel like we’re missing the point of what jobs are actually for. your job should be the strong backbone of your life – the bit that keeps all the other bits upright. But the insistance that it has to be your ultimate passion of your entire existence means that if you give it up then you have failed yourself hopelessly. So there it is, the answer just hit me. It’s not about doing what you love and being employed to do it. It’s about doing what you’re good at so that you can have the life that you want.

Though I’m only a year out of college, I’m not about to give up on my dreams, that’ll be like not even trying. And we have to at least try.  I’ll still write, and ill take every opportunity that comes my way. I’ll write whether someone pays me to do it or not. And as it may often be ‘not’, in the meantime I might as well pursue some other things too. Speaking to a fellow writer about this topic, she told me this, ‘There’s no denying that your career is a big deal but focusing all your energies on finding that one perfect job is like focusing all your energies on finding that one perfect partner. The search is unbearable and blinds you to the things that could enrich your life right now. So make some money however you can and enjoy your life.” After all earning a living isn’t supposed to replace actual living.

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feelings of change

When a new year is born, the feeling of change rises over me. I consider all the things that i can change in my life. Maybe ill stop smoking or start altering my eating habits. I’ll walk everywhere and think more out-of-the-box this year… When I think of  change I always picture the scene in the book Chocolat when the wind starts to blow and a yearning for something new; a fresh start, new beginnings, takes over. And when that wind blows, it doesn’t stop until you go with it. But  like most things that we tell ourselves we have to do, it’s the easy things that come first. And whats easier that changing the look of your blog?

Well, finding a good theme is the hardest part. I wanted to factor in all the things that make my blog what is it: the fashion and my thoughts on it. When I first started getting serious about Thrills it was Summer of 2010. The feeling of change was nagging in the back of my mind as a new year was soon approaching. I decided to start posting my take on personal style and it soon evolved into little projects that both Tom and I enjoyed doing. I started to notice pretty gardens and interesting walls  that made me excited as I matched outfits to fit each backdrop. Tom would snap photographs of me just before we’d go out to meet friends and suddenly it became as easy as that. Toms fondness to photography fueled my passion to dress more daringly everyday. It’s been 2 years since it all began, and by doing it, it has shown me the greatness of change is that it influences more change, more experiments and shows you that change is not that hard to get used to.

Regularly updating a blog reminds me of a strange kind of relationship that seems one-sided, but has its rewards every now and then. But the more you put into it (like any relationship) the more you get out. Over the last few months I would say that Thrills and I have been going steady, but it is one of my new years resolutions to publish more writing on here. Which brings me back to the reason I wrote this post in the first place; more change. I’ve changed the look of my blog to accommodate your eyes to the words written and not just the photographs displayed. Just like my outfit posts i’ll categorised  my writing under ‘personal style’ too. Style doesn’t stop where the clothes end. It flows right through you and into everything that you do, and this is where ill start.

So if this interests you, im glad. Along with the rest of my resolutions, one of the few nice ones i’ve vowed to is that i will start my collection of Vogue and Elle UK magazine. I have a dream of owning a library of my favourite magazines. Rows of months of years of fashion inspiration and also, some really great writing, right in the comfort of my home! No other thing will make me feel more like the person i want to be when im all grown up than by having this.

Some more of my new years resolutions? Yes, I will stop smoking and start changing my eating habits (firstly, by not eating when I get home at 3AM after a friday night out). I’ll attempt to walk most places, to and from my workplace, etc, and ill think more out-of-the-box (with the help of my magazine collection this shouldn’t be too hard), I will learn a new trade and work more with my hands (not only typing on my keyboard) and I’ll go overseas and live there for a while. This one will prove to be the most tough, but ill write all about it sometime soon…

x

Cat Clothing

 

 

Cat clothed drawings by Hannah Kristina Metz. If only they were real…

Enter the void

“I know no way of judging the future but by the past” – Elaine Maxwell

There is an undoubtedly strong link between the past and the future within everything that we do. The way we are brought up shapes our adulthood. When we look on the past we realize how important all of that really was. In fashion, we see trends come and go, and come and go. But in a way, what has come and gone has shaped what is still yet to be. I guess there is nothing new these days; someone else before you has done it all already, but you can do a better job of it, with the clarity of the past paving way for better creations, thought processes and a bigger, stronger imagination. These are some designer collections from 2007 – 2011 that have shaped the current trends of 2012 and 2013. Its strange how you can actually see bits and pieces of these in current runways trends. Each outfit above would be deemed socially acceptable today!

From top left: Betty Jackson Fall 2011
Charles Anastase Spring 2010
Alexander Wang Spring 2009
Bottom right: Balenciage Spring 2008
Bottom left: Donna Karan Spring 2007