Did I skip November? Yes. Did I have good reasons as to why? Yes. Will I tell you? No. Enh, why not. Very simple really, by the time I acquired a working camera and got all the pictures it was pretty much December. Besides who really likes November anyways? What’s it really good for? Back at TFS we had a week off, but don’t get that luxury now. We do Thanksgiving (properly) in October, so no holiday. And really the entire month is spent waiting for Christmas…for most people, at least the December break. Enough of the December rant, on to our Natur-Elle!

Meet Christianne. I think the picture pretty much says it all. Just wait until you read her interview, she’s a wild child. Christianne is in Rocky as a phantom and dance captain. She joined a bit late, but came right into the rehearsal room and one of the first things I remember her saying was “Okay guys, how about we run that again?” Music to my ears, and serious dance captain material. She’s been the love of my life since and we’re expecting our first singing, dancing, acting, fashion-ing, eating, drinking, slacking (off) child anytime now. I’m so glad she has started to do shows here because she always has the right attitude and knows what has to go down in rehearsal, I’m seriously impressed. And did I mention she rather spend all her money on clothes then suffer…but suffer in nice clothing? You can see why I like her.

The interview with our “Natur-Elle”, Christianne:

(Scroll down for pictures!)

How important is fashion to you?

On an average day, I would say I spend at least 50% of the day in clothes, right? So, I would have to say, yeah, fashion is fucking important.
I know, it sounds superficial to say, but that hardly makes me a bad person.

Fashion is definitely more important than most people would like to admit.

Personally, my style changes everyday. How I look lets everyone know how I’m feeling that day, whether it be diva-esque, ghetto-fab or just plain old crazy. I am influenced by what I see on TV, old movies and on the racks of value village. However, I’m also inspired by the styles of my friends, bold colours and art.

What in your closet can you not live without?

My grandmother’s black sequined cut-off tube top from the 80’s, she passed this down to me along with a gold halter-top made entirely of tiny metal pieces, extremely heavy, but so sick.

What incited you to become interested in fashion?

A mixture of things, but when I was an itty bitty, I spent a lot of time playing dress up. I would put on my grandmother’s black Ferragamo heels, her vintage Valentino sunglasses and one of my many princess dresses. I would then dress up my Barbie to match. We were an unstoppable pair, except when Ken would choose to marry Raggedy Anne instead of us. Seriously, what an asshole.

What is your favorite trend right now? Of all time?

Right now, I really like Lady Gaga, who in my mind sets a trend of her own called CRAZY!!!
My favourite trend of all time would have to be super high heels; beautiful to look at, but torturous to wear.

What was your worst fashion choice? Elaborate…

… Baby Phat shoes. White leather with accents of taupe alligator skin to make ‘em really POP. Yikes.

Are there any high fashion pieces that you covet?

A kelly green chiffon dress (crystal belt around the natural waist) by Alexander McQueen in his 2005/06 winter collection.

Favorite designer/store? How do you feel about designer labels as opposed to everyday brands?

Currently, Alexander McQueen. Not only does he present some of the most gorgeous clothes, but he does it with such creativity and grace. However, I will always appreciate Yves Saint Laurent and his impeccable gowns.
To be honest, I don’t own a lot of actual name brands, instead I am a definite thrift shopper. This includes taking trips to value village, raiding my dad’s closet and making use of my grandmother’s beautiful vintage gear.

What’s your take on the fashion industry generally only using extremely thin girls?

Everyone is built differently. If a girl pops out and grows up to be nearly 6 feet, 100 pounds and gorgeous, well good for them! Born to be a model, right? Beauty is obviously important when it comes to modelling, but who is to say that a bigger body isn’t a beautiful one? As a society we get to dictate what is considered the ‘norm’. In a perfect world every type of body could be showcased without question. Short, ultra-tall, curvy… what I’m really trying to say is that I wished that a girl weighing 130 pounds on the runway wasn’t considered plus size.

Nice quote, huh? If only I came up with it…but it speaks volumes. My lovely blog-crazed friend, Ally, showed me this article which is extremely interesting and is full of some great lines like the title above. It’s a fairly long read, but a good one and if you read this blog, other blogs, have a blog, want to start a blog, [insert verb here] blog, then I highly recommend taking the time to read it.

Onto pictures from last Thursday onwards that I’ve been too exhausted to put on! The last 2 weeks of school…Rocky crunch time, class crunch time and school applications crunch time. Remember in grade 12 when there was that moment of “What if not one school accepts me?!” I’m back there only this time directing a show and anticipating 2 class presentations which I am highly unprepared for…great. So now I’m blogging instead. Way to be, self.

Thursday: QMT & Rocky Horror Karaoke Night! We were all very artsy and sang in a coffee shop, like Friends…the Musical. Friday: PLAYERS! Oh how I miss Players. Luckily we got to sing onstage at the end, I don’t remember the logistics, but it was probably whether they liked it or not. Saturday: Hockey Rookie Party…yeah. It was an experience? Yup. I’m sticking to that. As tempted as I was to wear Charo all weekend (my new pet’s new name) I didn’t want to overdo it, so she made 2 appearances. Glad I didn’t in the end because besides my new boho vest that I wore to be boho at  karaoke in a boho coffee house, to the untrained eye (okay, anyone but me) I wore black dresses all weekend. Apparently I don’t feel comfortable wearing Charo against anything that’s not black or navy…actually all I really wear are black and navy…colour intervention? Maybe I’ll do that over the break…

And check this out! (And then watch all the classic clips. All.)

I have found somewhere new to waste all of my incredibly non-precious time…StyleCaster.

It is addictive! You get a profile and can list your favourite brands, stores and your “style”. You can favourite looks and items and pretend that you’re friends with all these fashionable people (yes, I’m sure we all know who I immediately “added to my network”….shut up). The best is the inspiration board! You can upload whatever pictures you want and when people go to your page it looks a little something like this:

Yeah, I’m pretty trendy and up and coming…NBD. For those of you that click from site to site saving pictures of things you like with nothing to do with them, this site is a must. There’s also a section for forecast to help you make fashion decisions!

Go! Go now! One more time: StyleCaster!

And this post will prove it!

(Disclaimer: there are more sequins in this post, I apologize…but deal with it.)

Unfortunately, rehearsal was canceled tonight which meant I could get a head start on my essay! Wrong. It meant I could discover Jane Aldridge’s Twitter page and it has been completely downhill from there. From some guy getting shot during an interview to searching through The City clips to find her cameo. I think I’m a bit too SeaofShoes crazy…I’ll work on getting my own life eventually.

Anyways, it always ends with me clicking from site to site creating a life wish list in my head…and some on here:

Sequined Sweatpants!

Plaid Sweater Bootie!

Koala Mum & Baby!

Those words were shouted far too often this weekend…even though I don’t do shoots. I don’t think I’ll explain the humour that lies in that phrase cause I’m lazy, it is a Sunday night after all. After getting a cumulative 15 hours of sleep since Thursday one might think that I would take this opportunity to sleep, but of course I’m wide awake.

Sparkly Louboutins

Two of my besties visited me this weekend which was very exciting (even though lame Tila only stayed for one night) and I really hope they got a vibe of a day in the life of me…gossip, drama, alcohol, paparazzi, drugs, sex, rock n’ roll, alcohol…yeah, as if I’m that cool. It was just nice to finally show them places I constantly talk about (my mecca: the QP) and the people I go on about (all of you). And at around 3am in the student center we went into this huge room and had photo fun! Most are pretty ridiculous which obviously makes them Facebook worthy. The next night (minus lame Tila) we went to a cast party and it is always fun to put someone new in a situation where they’re surrounded by not only “theatre people”, but a cast especially when it’s one like The Rocky Horror Show. Who knew most of them could dance like that? Faux krumping, crazy bum shakes, extremely entertaining! But being the director of a show that is known for extravagant costumes (fishnets, corsets, sparkles) I think I just have to do this before I post our pictures: Sequins. They’re back in a big way! As far as I was concerned they never went anywhere, but for any of you that frequent ShopBop there is a sequins revolution and it is FABULOUS. If I ever work in an office, which is highly doubtful, but IF, I will be wearing a full sequin suit. Sequin pants, skirts, blouses, cardigans, shoes, bags…walking disco ball. I realize I sound completely looney, but I just love them! I don’t own too many sequined items, mostly because I go shopping with people that talk me out of them because they don’t want to be affiliated with the walking sparkle. Sequins are also bloody expensive for what they are, shiny plastic. Remember back in the day when sequins were so normal? Sparkly baby animals on knit sweaters, red sequin mary janes, sock detail! Oh, to be 6 again!

TFS. Grade 1. The first year I remember learning a bevy of ridiculous french Hallowe’en songs. The one in the title (“Les Fantômes”) is pretty fantastic because it has a lot of onomatopoeia which is a hoot when you’re 6, but one of my best friend’s and mine’s favourite has to be “Dans Une Citrouille” because it’s a never-ending song (starts with “dans”, ends with “dent”). We would sing it as loud as possible over and over and over and over…because we were hilariously entertaining of course.

So Hallowe’en as a 20 year old…not too different from Hallowe’en as a 5 year old. I had a piece of candy thrown at me which I then bragged about and ate as slowly as possible in front of people without candy. Hah. Candy-less suckers. Although my lovely housemate had to continue to remind me that I was “in my twenties now…” Thanks. After the first “twenties” remark I insisted she put french braid pigtails in my hair, adult my ass! So night 1 I went as Mrs. Peacock along with the Clue crew and night 2 I was Little Red because…Lauren had it in her closet. I found a great Urban Renewal dress for the Peacock, it’s an old 80s dress that’s been revamped to look a bit more modern and therefore, trendier. I bought a Peacock feather headband thing to make my costume clear which I didn’t love on my head so it became a very tight belt, but it worked.

You’ll notice that these pictures are pretty blurry and not so…nice. Cameras hate us now. Sure, I abandoned one of their kind, but now they’re punishing both Lauren and I. Could it be the end of in focus pictures? Will the blog become even more of my ramblings about sparkles and pitchers? I hope not. More for your sake though, I could ramble forever. Some of the blurry ones from night 2 kind of make us look like illustrations or cartoons…like from a fairy tale book? Hmmm? I’m trying. And one of the pictures Lauren took of me actually turned out to be really cool. She was just snapping pictures in different settings hoping that one would finally give us a proper flash and now I have this very artsy photo. I realize it’s not artsy to say artsy, but I’m not artsy so: artsy, artsy, artsy. (Take that you candy-less suckers.)

P.S. Lauren is not, NOT, a beer garden girl. She is the wind up doll from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. You know in the end when they present the child-hating king with these elaborate gifts to get in the castle, but they’re actually people! Woah! Tricksters.

P.P.S. Les Chansons d’Halloween!

And pretty pink leopard print house key. I loved that camera. All red and shiny. I didn’t have very long with it, I hope wherever it is now it’s getting the love it deserves. I think the worst part is that there were some great pictures of Lauren and I on it and now they’re gone forever…or being used for some naughty purposes by a camera thief…shudder. Lesson 1: If one intends on drinking so much they convince themselves that they are locked inside the club with no possible escape route…don’t bring a camera.

I do have some pictures of some lovely gals left over from my birthday (See “Pose, Damnit!“). It’s getting harder to get pictures of me because most people are keen on posing, but not so keen on sticking around (away from the table with the pitchers) to then take pictures of yours truly. But this weekend is Hallowe’en! So hopefully I’ll get some great pictures of my costumes (taken at home where cameras are safe).

Since I haven’t posted in a while I figure I’ll make this one a biggie (it’s a biggie!) SeaofShoes anyone? Please tell me you’ve started reading it. Go do it now. Anyways the blogger, Jane Aldridge, not only has fabulous shoes, but through reading it you become familiar with some of her favourite items, like this ring…

I have to admit that I am hugely afraid of underwater and the two creatures I loath the most are squids and octopus. They’re creepy and ugly and just all around horrid…but I really like this ring. The designer is Antonio Palladino and the silver ring costs $965.00 and I have no clue for the gold one. I wish it weren’t an octopus, but I’ve been looking at different animal rings and this one is really the nicest. But let’s keep in mind the prices I’m finding are American and I would really rather not spend $1,029.84 on an octopus. So I was on Anthropologie and found this!

$199.37 CAD, baby! And it’s more sparkly! I’m not sure how I feel about the…ugh…tentacles not being so…shudder…dangly. But writing that sentence was hard enough so perhaps this version is a better way for me to go. Oh! I almost forgot! My 20th birthday present, the present to end all presents, I finally got a Chanel bag! I would have pictures with it, but that’s going back to the little red camera story so… I’m calling it my “grown up” bag. One step closer to being a real adult. Look at how much a bag can accomplish! Although I wear the chain as long as possible so I can just throw it around me and not worry about it. You know, go swing and play on monkey bars and jump into piles of leaves…clean leaves. Leather friendly, Chanel leaves, obvi.

There she is!

Here are my pretty girls!

The month of October is a very special month…Thanksgiving, Halloween, (my birthday), and the very first “Natur-Elle” gal! For our first pick we have Ruth who is a good friend of mine, always in looks that not only work for her, but that make me want to go home and try the same thing, ridiculously funny and extremely talented. I think she really embodies all that I would like this blog to be about. She is currently playing Columbia in our school’s production of The Rocky Horror Show and is great with everyone, obviously she’s got the pipes and acting skills to carry this role easily, but the cast already seems to love her and she’s always ready to do whatever is asked of her. Today we blocked a scene where she was basically just a big creep in the corner and she was so into it every time we ran even though she only had 2 words in the whole scene, it was great! I could rave about Ruth for a few pages so before that happens… Here’s her interview and pictures that were taken throughout last week!

The interview with our “Natur-Elle”, Ruth:

How important is fashion to you?

“‘Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.’

-Oscar Wilde

When it comes to style, [I think] it’s more important to wear what is appropriate for your location. If I were going to show up for a professional job interview I’d pull out a blazer, but if I was going tree planting…like I so often do…I’d probably pull something different out of my closet. I like dressing to impress because I think it gives people a good first impression. That’s not to say that I think everyone needs to be “fashionable” at all times, [just] dress everyday like you’ll be murdered in those clothes.

[There’s] also … a very sentimental aspect to fashion. When we were kids we dressed up to pretend we were somebody else. T he clothes I choose to wear … now that I’m 20 still allow me to use my imagination and put on a character. Fashion can be very uplifting in this way and can inspire the same confidence in me that I had when I was a child. ”

What in your closet can you not live without?

“A light grey cashmere sweater from Club Monaco.”

What incited you to become interested in fashion?

“Honestly? … An all girls high school, the movie Clueless, Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, [and] Barbie …”

What is your favorite trend right now? Of all time?

“I love when tends are reminiscent of the 30’s and 40’s. High wasted skirts, red lip stick…etc.”

What was your worst fashion choice? Elaborate…

“Modrobes…no elaboration necessary.”

Are there any high fashion pieces that you covet?

“Christian Louboutin shoes… black ones.”

Favorite designer/store? How do you feel about designer labels as opposed to everyday brands?

“Chanel. Hands down. When and if I can ever afford extravagantly expensive things, I will head straight for Chanel. I think it’s an Audrey Hepburn thing.

In terms of how I feel [about designer labels] … I think a white t-shirt should cost the same across the board, there is no need for a Marc Jacobs t-shirt to cost an arm and a leg. But I like seeing plain outfits accessorized with designer brands from now and then. Unless it is the Louis Vuitton pattern. For some reason I have a really big problem with the Louis Vuitton pattern.”

What’s your take on the fashion industry generally only using extremely thin girls?

“’To ask women to become unnaturally thin is to ask them to relinquish their sexuality’

-Naomi Wolf”