Things I Didn't Buy That I Love: Cleo Ferin Mercury

This special Things I Didn't Buy That I Love, I cover a specific lady designer who has been on my list for awhile, Cleo Ferin Mercury. She designs and prints her own scarves among other accessories and things, she ended up really popular for her 6 Icons of famous women in history and popular culture, I want them so bad. Now that I basically can't get myself to wash my hair, decorative scarves are my bread and butter for looking vibrant and not greasy.

She also did a collection for Tatty Devine (who’s collaborative collections I admittedly don’t love but I think this is one of the better of them).

Here is the stuff I crave passionately:

Scarves images via her blog

Grace Jones Scarf, £ 65.00

Brigitte Bardot Scarf, £ 65.00

My French Barbie fantasy dream house.

Cleopatra Scarf, £ 65.00

Okay technically that's Elizabeth Taylor but doesn't that honor two fabulous women at once? Also their glamor and um, affairs of the heart are somewhat similar.

Image via Ecouture

Hibernate With Me Collar - Hedgehog, £ 37.50

Image via Pattern London

Hearts & Anchor Cotton Collar, £ 23.00

Black Party Gloves, £25.00

The sinister elegance of elbow length leather gloves on supervillains is so embodied in these, but the beaded watch and fingernails kill me. I aspire to such goofy details like this in my own work.



P.S. Alexander Wang giveaway!! That's all that needs to be said:

http://www.reachcouture.com/2011/12/new-year-2012-giveaway-alexander-wang.html

Taxidermy Saturday

I want this for real-for real.

Aside from recent events, I've been watching a lot of Ray Wise things as of late (Twin Peaks, Reaper, that random Cameo on Psych) and this year I've just let my tween goth side substitute for my whimsical 60s library kid who plays hooky at The Monkees concerts. She just can't get enough Davy Jones.

So there's no cheap saves at my version of Black Friday, but you also won't get trampled by a guy trying to get a humidifier on sale. Also Christmas is coming up and as I always say, I am never above bribes. So I know it's all trendy and shit, but I've always had a respect for the macabre of taxidermy. I am someday going to live up to my friend's vision for my apartment theme as "Edgar Allen Poe's room". I'm trying to pick stuff that is not just a hummingbird skull on a chain necklace, but that's all I know! Let's pick stuff that's pretty and attainable-ish!


Let's get a Camila favorite out of the way (and one of mine):

Images via her wordpress

Jacki Holland's Fraudulent Animals, as seen in an earlier post, is just so organic and artful, she manages to use bones, quills and other materials in a way that is actually curated and not just relying on the aura of a deceased object.

Her collection is available at Robin Richman and her wordpress.

MRD74's Raven Skull Hair Tie, $28

MRD74 is one of those etsy stores that is a crossover legitimate business and not necklaces with frosted teal deer leaping over a mound of Yaz birth control pills or crocheted vaginas. I am guessing a husband and wife team, Mike & Dianne Doyle, who make paired down classic "skull on a chain" jewelry but with little bits to jazz it up like this hair tie which also comes in black. Ugh I want two for pigtails so I'll be like Courtney Love as Asian nerd #3 in basically any teen sitcom.

They used to make hair clips which I wanted terribly, I also urge to you to get them to make you some. For me. Obviously.

Photos by Steve Farmer

All images via artist's facebook

I can't do this entry without mentioning an MFA fibers student from my school, David Ross Harper (not to be confused by equally amazing nature sculpture guy).

His work is outta control, definitely the most finely crafted work I've seen from the fibers department and the school itself. When hearing him talk about how he would learn embroidery himself and taxidermy from his family and such, it makes me hate him. Not actually hate him of course, but that these impeccable skills were totally from his own dedication for the craft; that is unreal and treason. I mean he embroidered on a tough surface by hand! That is all NASA conspiracy theorist never happened.

I've been to his artist lecture a few times and though I completely respect (and envy) what he does, I don't necessarily assign any conceptual ideas to his work. Which is fine, I mean sometimes work is about striking aesthetics which his surely is. I had to go all creepy stealth on his facebook to get photos since the images are way too small on his website to encapsulate his work. I'm sure you could buy this work... if you were super rich.

Gold Baby Necklace via Atlantis Dry Goods, $550.00

Okay these Thumbelina babies didn't really die but it's a similar concept right? Keep in mind as far as the price, these don't seem to just be painted baby dolls, they're actually cast and made to hinge into each other. This shop is a mom and daughter shop of Sea of Shoes and her mother Atlantis Shop, who is possibly more fabulous than I can fathom. I mean, look at her. I don't even look that good on my best days.



So here was a lazy stab in the dark post on taxidermy. And I did it without using Reid Peppard or Julia Deville images. Go me.

Things I Didn't Buy That I Love

I guess this is turning into a bi-weekly feature. I know it's something everyone does but I'm generally picking stuff that is expensive but stuff that is also viably attainable. It's my amazon wishlist in pictures.

Goodnight, Day's Markham Collar in gray wolf

Detachable collars are on trend right now and it is one I support. If my coats can do it, my clothes can do it. But most of us can't afford Eleven Objects because we get minimum wage like normal people. This soft alpaca collar would be like a scarf so it's totally utilitarian right?? Well whatever, it would still be warm and wonderful for winter.

I hate when people say "I could make that" when obviously the idea and the craft are beyond their means, but yes, I actually could knit this. My blog may be named knitastrophy but I am capable of things. But I know I never will make this so I'll just keep petting my computer screen until one appears like a mirage. It comes in an adorable polar bear white too.

Valva Nat's Hand Felted Wool Fox hat

As seen on the ughwhyisshesoperfect Sea of Shoes, I love how 50s L.L Bean catalog in a children's book this hat is. I will say this is a reasonable price of 35 bucks because felting is a bitch. It's the one fibers practice that is totally simple and time consuming yet I still can't do correctly.

Valva Nat also makes these lovely felted flower neck scarves and wolf hat!


Now what would happen if you came into contact with an actual fox:

Von Erickson Labs' Dripping Blood Choker

This brings out the 13 year old goth in me that I am often fighting with over getting dressed in the morning and to stop playing all of that System of a Down and Placebo.

I think I prefer the thin collar to this thick one but they're both so freaking awesome. I mean with shipping, this is probably like 15 dollars. This is way better than Forever 21 badly made grown up costume jewelry or a stupid necklace of a bird with hearts for eyes flying into a sunset. And it also comes in bright red and bright radioactive green.


To finish the transition from the cozy wool warmth to cold teen metallica, this

The Lantern and The Shovel shop's Heavy Metal Chain Choker

I love chains. But not the gold "I'm going to be a club bouncer on Law & Order SVU" or "I am going to be an 1980s litigator who enjoys Miami Vice art deco". I'm into silver, sexually indiscriminate metal groupie chains.

I would obviously layer with this Leather Peter Pan Collar (because polyester is not good enough this).

Women Be Shoppin'

I was reading a blog and stumbled on this list (which of course starts with “what I will never be”): http://www.thefashioncamp.com/2011/11/i-will-never-be-the-type-of-fashion-blogger-that-will.html

I understand what she’s trying to say. The greater number of the infamous fashion bloggers are, well, not real people. Their photos are professionally shot, their clothes are too perfect, their lives are unrealistic to us as the majority. They represent an ideal like overtly preached 90s sitcom paradigm of “thin popular girls” in high school who have more money and influence that is unattainable much like any magazine model. I mean I love The Man Repeller, but you have not convinced me to spend $3,000 on an Alexander Wang maxi gown to use in my daily life.

However, I think blogging is about evening the field, dictating a third growing hemisphere of voices that would otherwise be considered non-existent in the print medium. Granted many of them become affiliated with these advertisers and eventually become part of that unreachable iconography, but they do it through taking pictures, being creative and just doing what they want to do.
It may take more work and effort to try and plan times to take pictures and edit them for a blog, but part of being a creative person is having a vision for something other than accepting the bare minimum iphone picture as “good enough”. Part of making something, artists often have trouble grappling with this, is for more than just for yourself.

If you were wondering, officer Billy Pierce has always been cool.

It’s very much like the show Popular (which I just started and basically have no right to cast out like I know the whole show but it's probably obvious anyway), where a cliché cheerleader girl and a cliché outcast girl both have very pre-conceived ideas of what is expected from people and themselves. Maybe it's because I'm naive and came from a high school where we didn't have sports teams (yet for some reason still had a cheerleading club), but I really can’t roll my eyes enough that the notion for an “edgy” television show these days is still preaching the popular girl as blond, anorexic and as white as Irish riverdance. Aside from being bothered by that as someone who has struggled with an eating disorder (which I may or may not write about if I ever have the audience or the patience for it), I feel like this list forgets bloggers like Fat Aus or Chicago’s own Fat Shopaholic who are super posed, incredibly styled and overall the same ideal.

And fuck, if you can own 100 pairs of Louboutins, you fucking do it. I wear 90% designer/vintage pieces and you know how I do it? Smart shopping. I haven’t paid retail since I was in 5th grade wearing Alice in Wonderland bell-bottoms and doc martens; yeah I was that kid. If you learn the designers, understand how well clothes are made and the importance of them, then you’ll get them. I got a beautiful black Doo Ri dress a few weeks ago from a thrift store for $7 and not a fancy Buffalo Exchange, the kind where families are yelling at each other in rapid Spanish and will still punish their kids with a wooden spoon. It just drives me nuts when people think I shop at some one magical store for everything, I hunt it down like thick sliced bacon which I would also cut you for.


Okay, this was way too much text without pictures, even for me. Let's do another round of Things I Didn't Buy That I Love. Keep in mind I try to pick things in the normal level of unattainable, not things that are a thousand dollars. Approachably insane in the membrane.

JF & Sons' Ombre Pleated Shirt Dress, $ 368.00

In case you were wondering, everyone still wants ombre. Which feels weird when my normal interests finally coincide with what everyone is doing (I tend to excitedly pick up something when everyone is already exhausted with it).

JF & Son is such an amazing New York brand. I hate them. In my fake mental spending account I'm already bankrupt three times over. Why do they do this to me? I can't imagine sumptuous colors like this ever making this dress dated. Bitch.

BHLDN's Stratosphere Mary Janes, $342.00.
I could totally use this for my planetary science class, right?

I've been doing wedding style research since I try to have a knowledge in every field of fashion and other than children's wear, is one of my slightly weaker points.

BHLDN is like the Anthropologie store of wedding wear, so if you're on a budget and not buying Vera Wang's affordable collection for David's Bridal, go here. I mean look at these dresses, Fondant Tea Dress & Victoria’s Reign Gown. I highly doubt I'll ever design anything that adorable. I don't want to have to be in a wedding to wear these shoes and luckily a lot of their designs are versatile, so I don't have to. Much like this ha(w)t: Soft Focus Cloche.

Bernhard Willhelm's REMUS Over the Knee Stockings, $29.60
Omg I want these so bad pleasepleaseplease

Among the many things I collect, socks are something I have buckets and buckets of. And I always need more, I mean, really. These are on superduperMr.Cooper sale and will sell out quickly and I want them on my legs now. I'm craving too hard to even be articulate at this point.

What is with women to be hardwired for sales like a cow being electrocuted in the brain to gravitate to the slaughterhouse? That's probably a bad analogy. Also inaccurate since I've been to a Temple Grandin lecture. But anyway, these also come in blue and pink which I want equally hard, if not, I don't know, SO HARD TO MAKE FAKE DECISIONS.

Royal Blue and Piiiink

And lastly also off Shopfatal.com, in my Julie Brown dreams:

JC De Castelbajac's Felix the Cat Cap Sleeve Sweater , on sale $138.00

SLEEPING FELIX THE CAT ON YOUR SHOULDERS. If you need more than that then I can never satisfy you and we're breaking up starting now.

Having a life is vastly overrated.

Things l Didn't Buy That l Love

I'm just going to go ahead and assume you've read Mindy Kaling's Things That I Bought That I Love and that my post title works in that mindset. Now I already splurge a huminahumina amount of money on clothes and things because I'm in my early 20s and if I'm not doing drugs I should at least be vastly irresponsible with money and knowing the value of a dollar.

But if I were to say be worse or y'know, had a job longer than 9 hours a week to which all wages were not spent on Starbucks hot chocolate, or were a really good kidnapper, this is some of the stuff I'd blow my ransom on.

(Tiny Pockets via Beacon's Closet)

Granted, I think polyester is something to be really cautious about especially because:
a) it doesn't "breathe" and you may sweat (not that I do, I refuse. It. will. not. happen.)
b) it can photograph nicely but in person be kind of cheap and gross looking.

But with this style of vintage one can get away with it, the colors are so cute with the contrasting pockets and a gold belt. Sigh. I would pair it with these United Nude boots, a company I have deep internal stirrings for and will do a special post about them. The boots have that bold 70s architecture influence that would go with this dress period-wise and offset it to a more modern interpretation.

Also fabulous, this Factory by Erik Hart dress.

Frankly, I want to have intimate relations with 95% of Jeffrey Campbell shoes (that other 5% is anything involving boot sandals or unexplained portraits of little dogs). But this shoe is like me personified: obnoxiously announcing itself to the world in neon pink, goth buckles and leopard print. If someone bought me these I would die, and not because I could never walk in them. I would obviously find an animatronic horse to carry me around or just ride a segway even indoors.

Other sexual partner Jeffrey Campbell footwear:

Darian shoes

Roscoe Boot

Zealous Shoe

Busted Shoe

Night Walk Shoe (a nod to the head to Noritaka Tatehana)

Wendy-O Boot

Image via Independent in Heels

(The Crystal Bra by Factory Fox)

Dude, this is so popular they had to make this bra it's own website. There are ladies who sleep with Alec Baldwin who don't get that privilege. I don't even have the upper frontals for this (it's all bra at this point), but I would stuff hummingbirds in there just to wear this under stuff.

I mean I wouldn't do the whole bra-commeth-over look, I'm not Britney Spears or even Jaime Lynn Spears' estranged uncle*, but just a severe non-sexy version of sideboob without the boob. Sidebra.


*I'm just guessing by odds there is at least one.

(Holy Cross Collar in Olive by Dimepiece Designs)

I admit it, I am into that corny faux rebellious L.A. teen skater style. It was inevitable.

This is admittedly still a spot of sturm and drang for me. I almost got this collar on sale super cheap on Karmaloop, but then the $10 off rebate issue took me several days and apparently didn't work on sale items, then there was all this extra shipping and handling, meanwhile they put it cheaper on ebay and I didn't know! So somebody bought the last one while I was trying to figure it out. I am totally still weeping internally.

Other cute collars by Dimepiece Designs on sale:

Holy Cross Collar in Black

Striped Collar


Other cute sale stuff maybe you can grab for yourself:

Something Else Moody Haze Cropped Linen Jacket with matching shorts or dress

Cut It Out Maxi Dress by Ibby Libby

Blake Dress by Motel

Pastie Skirt by Motel

Daisy Chain Crop Blouse by MinkPink

Hold Me Belt by Motel

Garden Party Oxford by Ego and Greed

I’m going to try not to cry that I paid more than this:
Plaid Torn by Ronny Kobo Shirt