Cause if you're not really here, then i dont want to be either

Its funny how you can always find things to do to fill the time whilst waiting for a train.

I decided to mess around with the 'mind the gap' sign and focus on the the 'Black and Gold' (hence the post title) accessories chosen to sport that day, much to the distress of those travelling home from the city during peak time... Playing with a camera on the platform when people are desperate to get home at the end of the day is perhaps a naive idea, almost falling into the gap myself amidst the hustle and bustle.

Since dying my hair, ive taken to wearing plainer clothes and less and less colour, fused with tougher accessories, to compliment and perhaps distract from the severity of the hair. The shoes, armlets and bracelets worn in this post have all quickly become firm favourites in my wardrobe. And animal print seems to be a common thread in the last couple of posts. What can I say....miaow ;)

Curiouser and curiouser...

Hats in all shapes and sizes came together last week to celebrate my turning 26. Previous posts make no secret that im a sucker for fancy dress, so we conjured up the Mad Hatter Tea Party theme - no hat no entry. 20 girlfriends, courtesy of Patrick - had an amazing sit down dinner followed by drinks and dancing into the wee hours of the morning.Invitations specified guests wear something fabulous, accessorized by hat of their choice - the too cool for school wore trilbys and oversized floppys J-Lo style, the wary dipped their toe in the hat theme and wore fascinators and oversized bows, whilst the brave opted for indian headresses and hats from the forces. There was even a pair of Louis Vuitton bunny ears in the mix - tres chic. Being the 'belle of the ball' and not wanting to be outhatted I took the theme literally and decided to fashion my head gear on the Mad Hatter himself, or rather Gwen Steffani's interpretation - a black top hat sprayed silver with fabric snow leopard print flowers (yes, after a xmas vacation the girl with flowers in her hair is back)

The club scene doesnt usually warrant a toe skimming dress, however birthdays come but once a year. Hunting high and low I finally found a black satin nightie I could work with, following a stern warning from the shop assistant whilst standing half naked - that you are NOT allowed to try clothing on, on the shop floor (NB. It was ten minutes till closing time on the penultimate day of my party, I did not have time to go in search of a fitting room!) This repremanding was quickly forgotten at the till when I found out the dress had been reduced to nine pounds. Happy Birthday to me.

Never one to leave things as they are, when I got home I ripped the straps to transform into a halter neck, cut a deep v to create a backless finish and felt tipped the red and cream floral embroidery for a completely noir ensemble. Et voila, customising is clearly the way forward when you're late, you're late, for a very important date!

Played you like a toy - sometimes I wish I could act like a boy

Have spent sunday afternoon watching the snow fall and doing little else apart from tasting the rainbow and picking at Skittles and a temporary watch swap. Unfortunatley Patrick got the raw end of the deal having to wear my metal ten pound bargain, whilst I gave birth to a newly found obsession with his Panerai diving watch...

Ive always preferred men's accessory departments, H&M, All Saints and Diesel in particular. They make their sunglasses, jewellery and hats that little bit bigger (ideal for encompassing my excessive mane) or simpler which are definitely more suited to my style. There's something quietly sexy about a girl wearing boy toys. Take for example the Panerai, I adore how the chunky face and tough oversize black strap highlight and accentuate the daintiness and fragility of a girl's wrist. The contrasting elements complete a fierce look that can either be played up with other androgynous pieces or dressed down with a girly floral number.

After visiting the Chanel head offices whilst in Paris I fell in love with the white ceramic J12 but this love has now been replaced by my quest to find a watch as cool as the Panerai at a fraction of the £3k plus price tag... suggestions on a postcard more than welcome ;)

So far Fossil and Aldo seem to be coming up with the goods and im currently trying to decide between the three below to add to my wishlist.

However I have a sneaky suspiscion that with the Aldo watches priced at £25.00, one of the latter two will most likely make the cut.

I've got love for you, if you were born in the '80s

5, 4, 3, 2, 1

And so we enter a new decade. It was the perfect start when literally on the stroke of midnight it started to snow. Most people were too busy attempting to link arms and sing Auld Lang Syne - I discovered I still don't know the lyrics. Equipped with my long lost polaroid camera (left at a friend's house 8 months ago following a cowboys and indians party,) it was the ideal accessory for some retro 80s snap shots.

The sailor's hat didn't make an appearance. Last minute change of plans meant if i'd had more time I probably would have worked some magic with a cocktail dress and shoulder pads. Instead I stayed with the monochrome and went for a fusion of Madonna circa 'Like a Virgin' and Winona Ryder in ultimate bitch fest Heathers. Body con skirt, red lipstick, batwing tee, lace cut off gloves and pearl necklaces, finished off with a pair of wayfarers and leopard print bangles.

After a lot of champagne, home made punch and the Flash Dance soundtrack, it was time to head home. Tubes were running all night, and we managed to source a 24 hour Wasabi for 6am sushi. Good times. As much as I love my new boots, after 11 hours standing/stumbling they had to come off, somewhere between Victoria and West Ken, hence the addition of a little glass to my foot. Sad times. But I was too high on life (aka tipsy) to care!

Happy New Year everyone.

Day dreaming in black and white

Sometimes I suffer from insomnia, tonight is one of those nights... I've been exploring in the storage room of my parents house (where I am staying for the holidays) and came across a mood board that I put together a couple of years ago of my favourite tear sheets...

It has reinforced my decision to opt for a black and white monochrome movie get up to see in the new year...perhaps with a touch of sin city red lipstick. That is unless I change my mind before leaving the house for a last minute costume swap. What I do know for sure is I will be paying homage to NYE 2006 and donning my sailor's hat. Just for the hell of it ;)

Accessorized with...

My favourite pendants I wear with everything - H&M men's dogtag, H&M rings on chain, Diesel 'Only the Brave' pendant with elephant

Even if the sky is falling down...

Damn you - THE LLBD - little leather black dress

It may be miserable and pouring with rain outside, but the countdown to the closing of the year has begun - in two days we say goodbye and thank you to 2009 and hello to all the possibilities 2010 has in store. Even though the night is ridiculously over rated, its an excuse to pile on the glitter and dress up to the nines, because its NYE! Stupidly I decided to buy a 2009 updated take on the LBD, a leather minuscule dress found in the sale, as an incentive to not overindulge at Christmas. Note to self, leather dresses, or rather PU, have absolutely no give whatsoever - apres Christmas parties are therefore not their friend. I now have a dress that will look fabulous hanging in my closet tomorrow night, as the prospect of squeezing into that baby is now a big fat Zero!

With this in mind I've decided to opt out of uber dress up and instead focus on laid back cool as a house party awaits. Hopefully there will be a childish impromptu game of twister, for which the leather strapless mini dress would have been most inappropriate. See, I knew there was a reason why I 'didn't want to wear that dress anyway' ;)

Merry Christmas and Festive Gift Wrapping...

Just a quick blog update to say Merry Christmas! From now on I will be regularly updating my blog due to Santa's generous delivery of a shiny new net book down the chimney/radiator pipes (see, it pays to leave out the Bailey's milk and Taste the Difference cookies) so no more excuses. I can blog wherever and whenever I like!

The girl with flowers in her hair has also, during the festive period, been gift wrapped and replaced flowers for bows. With Louis Vuitton debuting the Alice in Wonderland headbands and over sized rabbit ears this season (pictured above accompanied by thigh high boots...miaow) I decided to wear my over sized glitter bow (that has only made an outing twice, the first time being NYE last year!) and chiffon bow Alice bands during the Xmas holidays....makes a nice fairytale change from the flowers. No doubt they will return in 2010 ;)

Parisian Chic - Mais où est l'inspiration?

I havent revisited Paris since my childhood, and I can honestly say last weekend I fell in love with the city all over again. It felt as though I were stepping off the train and into the colour version of Luc Besson's stunningly shot "Angel-a". You can feel the romance and culture hanging in the air, the xmas lights and festive window dressing (a perfect example being Repetto, the famous ballerina shoe shop pictured below) adding the magical finishing touch.

Culture and city beauty aside, I had visions of walking into the pages of French Vogue - the style is fierce, the girls have a quiet arrogance - which indeed they have earnt; there is a definite sense of "look but don't touch." As a population the average woman is perfectly groomed, donning head to toe shades of midnight and charcoal with the odd spattering of white to lift the ensemble - the fashion industry's uniform palette. Paris is typically stereotyped for its achingly stylish crowd and it certainly did not disappoint, especially in the more affluent parts of town. However, as intimidating as this may be, the real head turners and eye catching ones that make you do a double take are hard to find.

Whilst in a small boutique courtyard off the Rue St Honore, we bumped into a trend forecaster in the midst of, to me, what seemed like a marathon style binge. She was visiting six top cities within the space of a week, posting her findings on trend forecasting website 'StyleLens.' She quoted that so far in Paris only two girls had caught her eye, one from Britain (which I am flattered to admit was myself,) the other from Ireland. Some may say a poor reflection of the street style in Paris. However, having been a particularly wet couple of days, feasible explanation for this could be that the French know better than to wander the streets battling against the elements, unlike tourists (par exemple - moi) who have no choice!

So maybe it wasn't the inspirational haven I thought it was going to be, maybe I didnt come away with a memory bank bursting with ideas, but I did get to visit Laduree for afternoon tea, (a childhood dream) and pouring milk from a silver Laduree engraved milk pot whilst eating mini rose petal macaroons was plenty 'Parisian chic' to make the whole trip worth while !

NB. No, the bottom photograph is not me sporting a beret in keeping with the french theme, temperatures were close to freezing, so for practicality reasons it seemed appropriate to accessorize with a wooly hat - much to the amusement of my housemate, who thought I had invested in a beret specifically for the trip. Luckily I decided to leave the necklace of onions at home..

Mary Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?

It is a rare occasion that you will find me on a night out without having first dipped into my garden of paper and silk flowers and adorned my hair with petals. Amongst all friends I have become known as 'the girl with the flowers in her hair.' Perhaps this signature style was initially to make up for being vertically challenged - attention seeking flowers were the perfect trick to prevent myself from disappearing into the abyss when swallowed by crowded bars or dancefloors.

These days I feel naked without one...

The Messy Perfectionist

Kate Moss, Mary Kate Olsen and Devon Aoki; style that looks like it couldn't give a damn

A friend once blessed me with the endearing title 'The Messy Perfectionist,' and to this day I have never come across a more fitting self description.
For someone who, on the whole, takes longer than seven minutes to get ready, the end result may not always look shiny and new - with every hair poker straight and items of clothing ironed to within an inch of their life. This is much to my mother's dismay; and in her opinion, the reasoning behind why I have not had a boyfriend for a little while... I know I can count on one hand the number of times I have ever used an iron - one of which includes ironing a blouse for graduation; but quite frankly, if a guy is more interested in how many creases there are in my leather jacket and the fact that I prefer to model my hair on Worsel Gummage as opposed to Jennifer Aniston's barnet - he's perhaps not the Prince Charming I was after.

'Haphazard' could have been my middle name, had my parents not chosen the slightly more feminine 'Kiyomi' (my mother is Japanese, and although she doesnt know it yet, the brains behind the title for this blog) they could have been onto a winner.

I would describe my style as playfully thrown together, fused with touches of pretty and an injection of something you can't quite put your finger on. Perhaps that's where the 'Messy Perfectionist' comes into it - curiosity from passers by posing the question - did she walk through a hedge backwards to leave the house, or was that look created on purpose? I personally like to keep people on their toes, so who knows, maybe some days I do pretend to be Alice in Wonderland and fall through the rabbit hole to get my look for the day. Or maybe, just maybe, I spent hours perfecting the 'Helena Bonham Carter' look, so that every hair was strategically out of place, hemlines substantially frayed and tights sufficiently holed, just how I wanted them to be ;)