Turn It Around

The wonderful, equally talented and beautiful, singer/songwriter Erin Marshall recently inquired as to whether I would be interested in bathing her in some vintage goodness and taking some press shots for her. My instinctive reaction was, admittedly, to simply stand dead still and gawk, rather like a bit of a buffoon. Style and photograph? There are very few things I'd rather do (the only one I can think of is writing with a purpose which, if you take all my blabbing into consideration, rarely happens.) Once my brain kicked back in however, I quickly and enthusiastically accepted. I invited Erin over to my space in Hibernian House (from which I also run my Vintage & Retro Sales on the second weekend of every month) and she jumped, played guitar and swung on swings with incredible enthusiasm whilst I followed her around adjusting bows and belts and shooting shots. As would be expected I suppose, she's similarly excitable on stage, dancing and grinning the whole way through her sets. Indeed, you won't find any shoe gazing at her shows. Keep an eye on her Myspace for info about upcoming gigs and such. Anyway, here's the finished product of the shoot. More photos can be seen on my flickr.

This was part of a very small series of shots taken downstairs in my dear friend Olly's space on Level 3. He was in the midst of a project himself, which involved a video camera (you can see the tripod in the background) and very limited time, so we had all of about one minute to hoist Erin onto the swing and take some photos.

These were taken on the Level 4 courtyard, getting onto which involves quite the struggle, particularly when one's wearing a dress/skirt. Luckily, there were no little rats with spray cans and/or junkies hanging around on this occasion (as there so often are).

The blue '50s suitcase on the very bottom of the pile played a significant part in ensuring no vintage pieces I had picked up got left behind in Europe on my return to the great land of Oz.

For these, we used my housemate Grace's mini piano and a vintage jacket my bestest friend Elle lent me. They were taken on the roof of Hibernian House, a roof which must be tip toed upon, lest one fall through.

The bow in Erin's hair is actually a bowtie I found in England. It required quite the significant amount of positioning just so, so as to prevent it from falling off. The belt belonged to my Mother when she was my age.

Erin's wearing her own dress here, a vintage number she picked up from the markets.




As the sun was setting, we had a play around with the light in our hallway, taking photos with no real expected outcome, the perfect conclusion to what was a lovely day.

Those Old Black And White Movies Were True

Berlin was home to the popping of my photobooth cherry. If I didn't know better, I'd be willing to bet my cottage cheese bottom that those strange techno-sound-tracked nights were years ago. In fact, a mere few days have passed. This 'Oh that? That was so fucking long ago now' attitude might very well be simply due to the desaturated images sitting in front of me; black and white media often has that effect on me (yes, I'm really that gullible/stupid.) Or it could just be my bad memory. I do know that it certianly isn't because a world of things have happened since Berlin; in the past two days, I have left the house once, to watch my friend Gary Page play a gig. I drank two pints of Diet Coke. I had to pee in the night. I think I may have gone in a shoe as Bobby woke up to me walking suspiciously around the other end of the room. Who knows? Like I said, my memory's bad.

So, our first attempt at photoboothing was less than perfect (who knew the darn old thing starts flashing away the moment you put the coin in?) Bit of a disaster really. We ran out of money and so had to go back the next day. All the same, it was gritty and a wholesome yesteryear funtage (like montage but not). Yep, it was pretty much the best bit of the entire month/holiday/my life. Also, I'm pretty sure for at least three seconds there I was Layla from Buffalo 66. Just spanning time.

Winner Takes It All

I won! I'm almost certain that, apart from Scratchies, this is the first time I've ever won anything. Unless you count arguments (and that's not at all due to my debating skills, only my absolute stubbornness). So, not only for me to win, but for me to win a beautiful felt hat courtesy of the lovely Audi from Fashion For Nerds, well, it would be an understatement to say that I'm very much excited. I just hope that, when I recieve the hat in the mail, I look as cool as this kid.

Image courtesy of Amanda Keeys Photography.

Brighton Rock

Today was a day spent wandering the streets of Brighton. We strolled up the pier and down the laneways for hours. And the weather, oh the weather! It was so warm in the sun that I was even able to remove my jacket without getting frostbite in my arms (right, might be exaggerating a little, but it has been very cold of late).

Hat: A going away gift from my Mother.
Dress: A few pounds from one of Eastbourne's many charity shops. I adjusted it yesterday without a sewing machine (a feat which took forever).
Blazer, saddle bag: Anglicare
Teddy bear belt: Coburg Trash & Treasure in Melbourne
Stockings: Some department store a long time ago.
Gold Tights underneath stockings: American Apparel.

My only complaint to the city of Brighton (because, clearly, they asked me to fill out a customer response form) was that the charity shops had been sapped drier than Arj Barker's humour by the surrounding vintage stores. The only thing I came close to buying from a charity store was a beautiful pair of dark brown barely heeled low cut granny shoes about half a size too small. I unwillingly said my goodbyes, my better half telling me that they weren't worth the hobbling. A kiss with a couple of (Banksy) policemen softened the blow, after which we browsed more vintage stores and I unwittingly photographed a 'no unauthorised photography' sign. I'm bad.


PS: Apparently Brighton thinks I should rename my blog Owl and the Lion.


UPDATE: Thanks to the lovely ladies at Painfully Hip, I'm featured on their website. Have a squizz over here.