Category Archives: hair

Accessory moment no.5

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This is an other look where the hair plays an important part. I realised I hadn’t posted an accessory moment with my new extensions yet so I used slightly less accessories than usual for this look. I think it’s a good example to show that less is more sometimes and you should just go with what works for your look.

What I used:

1. Layered spike necklace £5, Primark (occasionally this store surprises me)

2. Pheasant claw earrings, Sophie Adamson

3. Deer skull necklace, Eustratia

Bird claw earring.

For those who wanted to know, my septum ring is from bodyjewellershop.com I also get asked about this hair style a lot. The hair extensions I bought were lightest blonde, 22inches. I died them with a selection of Direction colours (lavender, lilac and turquoise) that I painted on and mixed into each other.You should try and get a blonde that matches the colour your hair goes when bleached, this will help the dyed extensions match your hair colour.

I left the hair dye on the extensions a lot longer than I do on my hair. Then rinsed and dried as usual.

The waves were created using a Babyliss Wave envy hair styler. I would suggest having a look on ebay for one of these as they are often cheaper.

Accessory moment no.4

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This look revolves mostly around the bun hair. It’s not a style that I wear out very often so I wanted to see if I could make it look a bit more special.

What I used:

1. leather cuff (used as hair tie) £5 -NO:WEAR camden

2. Clock part necklace -ALL SAINTS (not current season)

3. Studded cross hair clip £18 -Eustratia (www.eustratia.co.uk)

4. Spikey bracelet £18 -River Island (not current season)

5. Bird cage ring £12 -TOPSHOP

6. spike earrings £6.50 -ebay

I think putting the leather cuff around the bun really made a difference and gave it an edge.

 

I get asked about this one a lot. It’s a little pierced cherub creature (wings on back) was a gift a friend brought back for me from Tokyo. I made it into a long necklace because I think it brings a bit of fun to my outfits. I haven’t seen anything like it in the UK and most people react quite strangely to it.

And finally the full outfit.

 

Inspirational photography #2

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Bette Franke by Jeff Bark for Dazed and Confused April ’12. Styled by Kate Shillingford. The editorial captures the special relationship between women and their pets and is a fresh take on the fashion & animals theme.

I love this set and wish I had such beautiful surrounding for the bedroom shoot I did a couple of months ago (which I should hopefully be able to show you soon).

Accessory moment no.2

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I know I’m way overdue with this so I’m going to try and post a second accessory moment at some point this week. I haven’t totally mastered fitting my blogging schedule around my other deadlines yet but I think I’m getting better.

Last weeks accessories were all about the spikes. I needed them to toughen up my otherwise girly and “safe” outfit.

1. Spike headband. I’m sure you’ve seen these all over the place by now but I decided I kind of wanted one so I DIYed it, It was very easy. I used a strip of leather but you could use whatever you want really, I just made some holes along it and stuck some spikes in. Then I bought a plastic hair band from my local fabric store and super glued the leather around it.

2. I’ve been getting really into statement earrings at the moment. Haven’t ever really worn hoops before but I love these spiked ones. I’m sure I could find some quirky boutique that sells similar for £30 but these are just off ebay for £6. The same shop also had some other nice ones which I had to buy while I was finding the link for you guys.

3. Chrome stretchy spike bracelet. This was bought for me a gift and is from NO:WEAR in Camden market but I’ve also seen them around online. I have a black variant which I wear more often but this one is also fun sometimes.

I’ve just noticed that the earrings look like they shine different colours in the light!

I also changed some of my body jewellery this week and found that Body jewellery shop is a great site to get blackline and internally threaded stuff.

Bird’s yard update.

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As some of you already know Bird’s yard is currently my only stockist and I work there once a month so I’m available to answer questions or take people’s measurements for custom orders. I feel privileged to be part of such a unique shop that brings together so many talented designers.

While I’m there I usually work in the boutique room featuring lovely vintage by Bird Shell and dramatic leather accessories by Belles Bejeweled and quirky jewellery by red paper house.

Last week I decided to try on some accessories while it was quiet.

pastel feather earring by belles bejewelled

feather headband!

furry beret that matched my hair colour.

In these photos you can also see me sporting my amazing fake fringe of happiness. I love things that allow me to change my appearance so easily.

My favourite products in the store are probably these necklaces by Belles bejewelled. I haven’t bought one yet as I already own a lot of oversized accessories but I’m sure I will at some point.

I also love Life’s big canvas (where I got my hanging spike earrings from). They always have new quirky pieces in.

I wasn’t really planning on buying anything for myself but I spotted this hairy shrug in the £10 room (yes there is a room full of items for £10 and a lot of them are worth more). This isn’t the sort of item I would usually go for, I picked it up purely because of the colour and tried it on for fun while consulting some customers. After walking around in it for a while and realising it was the perfect addition to my outfit however, I decided I had to have it.

The ground floor has recently been turned into a tea room, adding yet an other great element to the Bird’s yard experience. The downside is that the smell of food can be tempting, even when you’re not hungry.

They do make amazing toasties though!

At the end of the day we had a meeting in the tea room to discuss the future of the store and changes that are being made. The upper floors are all being rearranged and the basement is opening with more art, furniture and boys stuff! We are also planning competitions, parties and a fashion show so keep an eye out for updates!

Marie antoinette inspired hair

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I have always found Marie Antoinette inspiring but I must say that Sophia Coppola’s interpretation has helped me understand how her style can be modernised and become more appropriate to wear today.

I tried a hairstyle inspired by ones in the 2007 film for my party last weekend and was asked to do a tutorial so here it is!

First of all, as most of you know I have thin, bleached hair so it is probably more malleable than most hair. If you have thick hair you might need more product to achieve this look. It also might help if you leave your hair unwashed for a couple of days.

You will need:

  • A comb (suitable for backcombing)
  • a bottle of hairspray (the brand or type is irrelevant but strong is probably good)
  • hair pins
  • curling tongues
  • 2 mirrors

Start with you hair down and your comb in your hand. I know some people use lice combs for backcombing, I think just a standard plastic fine toothed comb is the best. Also please forgive the lack of eyebrows, I draw them on so I actually look a bit like an alien in the morning.

Start on the crown of your head a basically backcomb a large section in the middle of your head, giving as much volume as possible. I advise spraying with hairspray both before and after. If you have soft hair spraying before hand with help you backcomb more effectively and help the section stick together.

This should give you a large backcombed section that looks kind of like this with straight hair all around the outside.

Next, take the remaining hair, a section at a time and backcomb and spray it. In some cases it might be helpful to curl each section first. I did this on my first attempt at this style but then realised it wasn’t necessary for my hair.

The objective is to get your hair to easily form a little curl which you can then pin to the backcombed body of hair.

They should look something like this to start with. If you curl them them might be a bit more wavy.

After you’ve done a few it should look something like this.

To do the back, I moved into the bathroom where I could use two mirrors to see what I was doing properly.

I started sectioning, spraying, curling and pinning the back of my hair.

Take care to pin lightly so the hairstyle still looks light and puffy.

At the end I left two small sections to  curl into ringlets.

Side view

Top view

Back view.

On one side I have a shaved patch so I just put a curl over it.

And this is what it looks like from the front.

I’m particularly pleased with this style because it does resemble hairstyles worn by Marie Antoinette without requiring a hair piece, extensions of a wig. I’ve seen loads of people buy Marie Antoinette inspired wigs that look terrible as soon as you get them home and this is a cheap and more effective alternative.

If you have dark coloured hair it might be a good idea to use some white hairspray for this style. I liked the colour of my hair as it is for this one but I use white hair spray quite a lot. I love the dusty effect it leaves on the hair, which is in fact quite reminiscent of the powdered look of 18th century wigs.

I know my pictures aren’t fantastic but hopefully they still show the process accurately and clearly. If in doubt, use more hair spray and I’d love to see pics if anyone else tries this.

I’ll try and do it for a shoot and get some better pics at some point!

Hair piece tutorial

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After the interest in my horn hair-piece, I decided to do a tutorial for anyone who was inspired to make their own.

The base is made out of chicken wire. I find it a convenient material to make large hair pieces out, it’s easy and quick to shape and can be covered with virtually anything.

I used wire cutters to cut a triangular shape out of the chicken wire and joined it into a horn shape by sculpting it twisting the ends round. (each horn was formed separately)

Then I joined the two horns together in the middle by twisting the wire.

I thought Kanekalon fibre fake hair would be best for this project. I used about three packets for this in two different shades.

Basically, the idea is to wrap the hair around the chicken wire till the whole thing is covered. I found that backcombing the hair first gives better coverage and helps it stay in place. I used a few hair grips to secure the hair in some places.

After the whole hair piece was covered, I poured hot water over the hair piece so the hair set tightly around the base (only kanekalon hair has this property), this also combated the amount of fluffy hairs sticking out that were previously quite evident .

The unicorn hair-pieces I used in the VAU VAU fashion show were also made in a similar way but there I backcombed and twisted the hair into a tube before attaching it in a spiral. The way no need to pour water over these as the desired effect was already achieved and the twisting meant there weren’t that many stray hairs.

Ezra by Arien Specter at VAU VAU.

If anyone has any questions I will be happy to answer them and if making is not for you I am also happy to make hair pieces to order, please contact me for details.

Demons

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I wanted to plan a shoot to better showcase some of the accessories from the Chimera collection and had an idea for a demon series. Though not totally related to the inspiration for the collection, I felt like the concept would work well with specific pieces in mind.

I had a few different ideas about what the demon would look like and a few different types of make up in mind that I thought would be appropriate for the shoot so I decided to do a series showcasing the different styles. This gave me the opportunity to try out most of my styling ideas and create a gradual light to dark effect in the images.

I shot the set with Jennifer Byron as the final part of our accessories project as I thought we needed a set with darker thematology, most of what we have previously shot has been quite light and colourful. All chainmail components were created by Richard Ayres.

With regards to the editing, I wanted to make sure it looked different to the other sets Jenni and I have collaborated on so I thought of making the characters look statue/gargoyle-like with a stone/marble-like texture. I think Jenni did a great job with the editing and the texture in the background really ads to the images.

For the last two images, I used a hair-piece that I made as part of my Halloween outfit for TG. There has been some interest in the hair piece so I’m going to include a brief tutorial for anyone who would like to make something similar. To save making this too long, I’ve decided to put it in a separate post, here.

Personally, I am most pleased with my hair for the first two looks as its an unusual look for me. I have seen similar styles in a few magazines recently and was waiting for the opportunity to try something like that for myself. The look was achived with gel and white hair spray. I have found white hair spray to be very effective at making roots look better during shoots in general.

Featured products:

First image- nutmail cuff, nutmail cross (chainmail chain), organic lace bustier.

Second image- studded cross necklace, O-harness, studded cross gloves, crystal spike pasties.

Third image- inverted cross necklace, nutmail choker, O-harness (back to front), trophy pasties (black latexlace).

Forth image- shield necklace, chimera bra, chain garter (on forehead)

All items can be purchased from http://www.eustratia.co.uk (If you can’t find the item you are looking for please get in touch via the order form and we will do our best to help)

VAU VAU fashion show

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On Friday morning, after a long night of no sleep and a lot of sewing, I set off for Leeds and VAU VAU fashion show.

First stop was Rebel pin-up hair salon where I had to direct as the models got their hair done to fit their character in the show. Then after a quick cup of tea in a cafe we got a lift to the amazing Leftbank Church venue.

After arriving at the venue I realised the majority of my stuff was still locked in my friend’s car so I had to wait to set up the stall. I’m often worried about trading at places where I can’t bring my larger stall props but I think what I had was perfect for this event and I didn’t feel like anything was missing.

I’m particularly in love with this wire and nut tree that Rik made. I had been asking him to make a jewellery stand for a while and it turned out better than anything I had imagined. I’m also designing a jewellery stand for my upcoming homeware range but I haven’t decided on the best material to make it out of yet.

I did three interviews at the show (hopefully to follow shortly), two of which were filmed. I’m making an effort to put my work before my appearance at the moment as running the business on my own is quite hard and I need all the extra time I can get,but at times like these, I’m reminded its important to look good as well.

The models were great and managed to pull off both the walk and outfits, which I could tell some of them weren’t used to. I was please with the way the show turned out and the pictures I have seen so far. Apparently there will also be videos, can’t wait!

Some image selections from the show:

Our wonderful host, Toria Brightside wearing her custom, pink Eustratia antlers!

The images are by Arlen Specter, Danielle Jaques and Richard Ayres.

Was great to see other labels from Bird’s yard at the show, including Sophie Adamson as well as Jay Storey with his custom graffiti canvases.

After the show I managed to fit in a couple of snaps with Stuart from Walnutwax.

For those who weren’t at the show, the giant tea cups that the bunnies were holding were full of star confetti!

So far I’ve seen a review from Wildchild media which you can read here, I’m sure there will be more to follow soon.

A lot of the people who aren’t used to being exposed to it, commented on the amount of latex that I featured in the show. I would like to point out that, as I mainly sell latex on my site at the moment, commenting on the amount of fabric garments that I had in the show may have been more apt. I did end up having slightly less than I originally planned but I still think it broke it up nicely. I’m quite glad to have been able to finally take this step and show a mixed range as it justifies my not choosing a name with “latex” after it, having planned from the start not to be limited to one material.

Finally, I would like to congratulate all those involved on pulling off such a memorable event which raised around £2000 for charity. Special thanks to Toria Brightside and Emma Parry for organising, Fashion pony for sponsoring the event, Dave Abbot for my awesome, character specific music which you can listen to here, Amber for transporting all my stuff in her car, Verity for helping me sort out my technical problems, Rik for minding the stall pretty much on his own all night, Laura for cancelling work to stand in at the last minute and my glass of wine on the train and all my models/hair/MUA team for their great work.

For more images check the Eustratia facebook page.

I’ve had a few people ask about the hair pieces, I made these myself and will be posting a tutorial on how to achieve similar looks when I have time to get some pictures in order. I will also probably be doing a giveaway for one on my model page soon, for anyone who isn’t the DIY type. Commissions are welcome.

I’m already looking forward to my next show and future projects!

Unicorn inspiration

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I’m currently in the process of planning a shoot with Jennifer Byron, featuring a unicorn mask by Tom Banwell. After seeing his black rabbit mask around so much over the past year or so I was quite excited at the idea of a unicorn one.

Tom Banwell unicorn mask, complete with leather eyelashes

I’m not totally sure how much masks suit me so I’m going to make extra effort with the rest of the outfit to make sure it looks good.

When I started analysing the options I realised I didn’t know that much about unicorns and their origin so I decided to read up on them a bit. There is plenty of information online but one of the most interesting things I found was on wikipedia. Though unicorns were fist mentioned by the ancient Greeks, they are not found in Greek mythology but rather in accounts of natural history. Greek writers of natural history were convinced of the reality of the unicorn, which they located in India, a distant and fabulous realm for them. The earliest description is from Ctesias who described them as wild asses, fleet of foot, having a horn, a cubit and a half in length and colored white, red and black. Being from Greece myself I was quite suprised not to have heard this before but then again it isn’t really the kind of this they would bother teaching in school.

unicorn moodboard

I put together a vague board of unicorn-related inspiration but was actually surprised by how little I found that was to my taste. I think this shoot will be a good opportunity to create some unicorn-related imagery and accessories that aren’t overly childish or classic fantasy inspired.

I would like to keep the look with the mask quite close to the original depiction of the unicorn as possible so its going to be all white but I also like the idea of the black unicorn so I may do a second, darker look that I can play around with more.

My favourite items from the moodboard are the origami unicorns, I’d love to be able to make some of these for the shoot (especially a life-size one) but I gave it a try this afternoon and actually found it quite hard. If any origami experts happen to read this, please get in touch!