In the Buff

I've had this recurring obsession with nude palettes since I can remember. It usually centralises around clothing but frequently stems out into other tangents of fashion i.e. bare makeup, nude lips, neutral nail varnish and even that "beige" tone of blonde hair.

Thinking back now, I believe my obsession began when I was fifteen and nothing would occupy my mind more than what my semi-formal and formal dresses would look like. I've still got my old Vogue tear outs and I've now conciously noticed my apparent idée fixe with shades of nude.

Luckily for me the fashion world seems to have similar bouts of nudity, rekinding my love for peach, flesh and beige tones all over again each season.

I love how nude makes a hushed statement without backing off aesthetically. The complexity and detail of a well layered black outfit is equally important when applying nude. You have to be careful to wear the right colour for your skin tone, avoid anything tight so as to not actually look naked and learn when too much is too much.

If you're a nude lover at heart but don't own anything in the pallette, start with a classic trench a la Hermes or Burberry or a simple shift dress inspired by the simplicity of 90s Calvin Klein.

Mentally scanning my wardrobe, I surprisingly and dissapointingly can only locate one such coloured garment: An oversized blazer which much to my delight will be losing its wear-virginity this autumn (or alternatively, the second it's cold enough).

Images: Style.com, 4th and Bleeker, Vanillascented

Kym Ellery Video Blogs Paris Fashion Week

To some it may seem like a cheap stunt to gain publicity, but to me - a dedicated follower of the Ellery label - it's just one stalky-step closer to the behind the scenes life of all that is Kym Ellery. Sure, I may be romanticising the life of a budding and down-right talented designer but the idea of a sneak peak into Paris Fashion Week is a little too good to be true.

Sponsored by Samsung, this video first appeared on Pedestrian and isn't quite what I was expecting, but I'm hoping that with a little more time and a fruitfully delicious Parasian back drop, a painful 16 second monologue will blossom into an Style.com worthy profile. Am I asking too much?

Keep checking back for updates of her Parasian adventure.

On another note, I've had to postpone my French classes untill January due to illness but I got through my first week of intenstive beginner and all I can say is Merci mes fidèles adorateurs. Tu me manques quand je ne suis pas autour Fashion Falsehood.
Avec amour, Miann.

Abbey Lee does the chop?

This picture of Abbey Lee depicts more than her natural nack for style; her lucious sun-bleached brunette locks seem to have been choped off.. But then again with the magic hands of hair stylists we can never be too sure.

Opting for a slicker, "dandy" look, Abbey appears more grown up and even a little more tailored (read: neat), but she still manages to rock her nose ring and rebellious antiestablishmentary attitude.

What do you think of her look?

Source: Fashionising
Picture: Hanneli Mustaparta

Editorial Dressing

Okay, so when the LV bunny ears made the cross continental journey from catwalk to editorial to street I had a little bit of an inward debate and concluded that as far as editorial dressing goes, I could handle and accept this trend.

The term 'editorial dressing' coined (to my knowledge, correct me if I'm wrong) most notably by 4th and Bleeker model-blogger, Alexandra Spencer, is as straight foward as de-coding the ingenious naming behind peanut butter. It's the idea of bringing runway trends straight to the street - however styled as the trend would be in an avant garde editorial. Sometimes it works but sometimes (Read: most of the time) it doesn't, which brings me to the point of this post.

I can safely and confidently say that my most hated trend of 2009 is tarty, tacky and completely innapropriate regardless of your wealth, status or killer pins. I'm talking about the garter trend.

Kym Ellery made it look fabulous in her A Tribute to Doctor Strange collection and Prada epitomised it when heroically teamed with their fly-fishing worthy leather boots. This is all well and good, but when taken to the streets well, you only have to look so far as fad hungry celebrities to see the result.

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Longing For the Gutter

There's certainly nothing original about stressing over what to wear to a festival, afterall, festival attire is in a category entirely of its own. It's not your typical night-time wear and it's certainly not what you'd wear to lunch with the girls but rather it's an eclectic adaptation of fashions tailored precisely to these summer time events.

Festival wear worldwide has it's own unwritten, unspoken codes. It's encapsulated by celebrities at major international festivals and reviewed after Glastonbury and Coachella by the glossies and scrutinised by we in the blogosphere.

One stand out theory I relate most to festival wear is 'Nostalgie de la boue' or rather a longing for the gutter. It's the idea that the fashion concious scribe higher values to people and cultures considered lower than oneself, i.e. the romanticisation of the primitive: Hence fashionistas with enough money to buy expensive gowns opting for ripped denim, tattered hair, and bare skin.

The aim of dressing for a festival is to make sure you are appropriately dressed and prepared to look like hell by the end of the night. No one wants to see the girl who started out the day in gorgette silk with perfect hair and expensive heels only to bump in to her again around 10pm to find she has her Prada heels in hand, broken straps tragically tied together and make up running down her face. She would look ridiculious next to a subsequently wasted girl who was wearing an old band tee, distressed denim shorts and beat-up military boots jumping up and down to The Hives or Crystal Castles. Profound, oui? It's a case of which of the two looks more appropriately wasted.

Images: The Cobrasnake, Facebook

Model Slash Actress

Australian beauty Nicole Trunfio is the latest model to soon add "actress" to her CV. Following in the footsteps of ex supermodel Gemma Ward who starred in The Black Baloon shortly before disappearing off the face of the earth (due to rumoured weight gain) Trunfio signed up for the intensive course at famed NIDA in Sydney.

Given her penchant for looking fabulous in the buff, we can only assume she gets her kit off for the silver screen too.

Source: Pedestrian
Images: Pedestrian, Fashionisingpictures

Summer of Love

The other night I was staring at images of France and coincidentally my bank balance and bought myself a summer semester studying French at the famed Alliance Franciase de Brisbane.

Secondly, I've secured an internship with a fashion based PR firm down in Sydney over the summer right before uni starts up again in Febuary. This ofcourse will mean daily outfit posts of what will no doubtedly be one of the most enriching experiences of future employment I've had thus far.

Lastly, I finally have a job again and thus have removed myself from the unemployed-stastic category for our government to piss and moan about. For those of you in Brisbane, I now work at Ultra Suite so pop in to say hello and try on some amazing gowns. Also, a local nightclub approached me to be the label coordinator for their monthly fashion parades so if you're going to be in Brisbane on the 4th of December make sure you head to GPO for the show and the champagne.

That's all from me for now;

Miann

We Are Handsome

With summer beating down our doors and switching our fans to high, there is one way this season to make the swealteing Christmas heat work for you.

Meet Indhra Chagoury and Jeremy Somers. Two Australian creatives driven to collaborate by the need to make something different. The pair collided when Indhra's tailor made swimwear called for the input of Jeremey's artistic flair and thus their label We Are Handsome was born.

The debut SS09/10 collection features sleek one-piece swimsuits printed with various retro motifs producing that Californian, vintage appeal. With pieces titled The Los Angeles; The Hollywood; The Miami and my personal favourite The Africa, you can sense the global reach these boys are straining for and will no doubtedly achieve.

Retailing for around $AU180 a pop, you can secure your own slice of made-to-order summer this season.

We Are Handsome. Yes, you certainly are.

The Jupiter
And from the heavens she rode; ever present, ever visible
The Los Angeles
And the champagne tasted that much sweeter
The Africa
Release the wildcat into the steel jungle
The Hollywood
Every head turned when he walked into a room. Every single one
The Miami
Footloose and fancy free - enjoy the ride

A Tribute to Doctor Strange

Holy Ellery. That's all I have to say, or rather, that's all I can say. I'm currently on my BlackBerry and coming in and out of range while I'm on holiday at the beach.

I received an email with a preview of her latest Autumn/Winter 2010 collection titled 'A Tribute to Doctor Strange'. I'll post images tomorrow night so prey do keep in touch.

P.S. Patty Huntington if you're reading this, how do I post images from my Berry?
P.P.S. You're my hero

Update:

Download the lookbook here

Houdini was a famous magician

What's better than finding the ultimate thrift piece and altering it into something even more ultimate than what you began with... on top of that (already knowing you payed about $2 for the item) having people plead with you to reveal where it's from?

I'm not sure but if you have an answer, I'd love to know.

On yet another of my recent thrift store rampages I picked up this amazing, old, floor-length nylon skirt with a blue/black shine and narrow knifepleats right to the hem. I could not stop cooing over it in the middle of the store, like some nylon-obsessed freak. Never mind that I was paying more love and attention to my new skirt than the cute-as-a-button toddler running around with the little old ladies behind the counter. No. Not cuter. My skirt was definately cuter.

So anyway desperate for something new and exciting I decided to cut arm holes in it and wear it as an oversized cape. Running around on Saturday night I felt like a magician and if I swiftly pulled up my cloak to my face, I could whisk away under the cover of darkness into the warm summer night.

And a photo of my gorgeous boyfriend and I for good measure...

Wearing: vintage Country Road skirt (made into a cape); Wittner heels; vintage bag; jewelry from Diva, Italy, eBay and some trinkets I made myself.

The Secret Boater

I have a friend who is equally obsessive over buying clothes second hand so yesterday we decided to hijack the car and pull over at every second hand store we saw. We discovered a mountain of new thrift stores; some over priced, some under priced and some stocked up with just plain trash. After about four hours of raping and pillaging every op-shop on the east side of the city we thought hitting the local Lifeline megastore would be a great idea before heading home for a spot of boutique beer, sun and basking in our purchases.

One the way to our thrifter's dream store, I made a wrong turn that would eventuate into the best wrong turn I've ever made. To sum up what we found in a few words: I would have to say it's a thrifter's wet dream.

There was more vintage than you could poke a stick at and soon enough we were sprinting circles around the newly-discovered warehouse with piles of the cheapest authentic vintage pieces I've ever seen. My partner in crime (who writes for my FSU blog) cameaway with the most drool-worthy studded and fringed vintage leather vest with all original buttons and badges. I nearly fell over in the hat section and for those of you who are familiar with my obsession with boater hats, had to decide between one that is identical to two I already own, and one with flowers and a faded old ribbon. The former was so crisp and uniformed yet the latter had so much character and charm. I had to have it.

We never made it to the megastore, but along the way we found one of our own.

Swim with Floaties

I know I said I had no time to post, but I can't help it. You've reeled me in again blog; once more I am torn away from my study. This had better be worth it!

Anyway, today I finally took a mountain of clothes and shoes (I had time to reflect and say goodbye to my Escada heels) to St Vincent de Paul to donate what I couldn't sell on my Facebook store. I promised myself I would just run in, donate the goods and get the hell out of there before anything caught my eye but alas, my op-shopping addiction got the better of me.

So 10 minutes and $10 later I walked away with the most lovely floaty summer dress (among other things). It's actually huge blouse but conventionalism won't stop me from rocking it as a frock. I also picked up a beautiful brown monochrome rose-print scarf, a beige poets blouse and the most amazing leather artist bag which will be fully utalised this summer!

Study Break

So on my study break (which I've allowed myself an hour for) I thought I'd give you all a glimpse of my tattoo. If you were a reader of this old post, you'll be finally pleased to see a photo of my tattoo, but I won't let you see much, just a peek. If you look hard enough, you'll see the little black scar at the bottom of my left hand. I'm still craving a new one though and have been working with a new theme of the Sacred Heart.

Hint: click photo to make it bigger

Coincidentally and remarkably like a sign from above, when I took a sip from my waterbottle last night a large droplet fell on my desk in the shape of, yep, you guessed it... the sacred heart! I just had to take a photo. I've come to decide that it's either a divination from The Big Guy saying "go for it, Miann!" or a warning that I'll be condemned to hell for getting tattoos and swearing a lot. I figure I've got a 50/50 chance.

Fashion Protagonism

I don't have much spare time to write this and I know I've left FASHION FALSEHOOD bare for a whole month, but I thought I'd just give you a quick update on my world and my thoughts.

Currently: Hiding under a mountain of paper work and text books and going crazy abstaining from a) social activities b) being a book worm c) acting like a fashion nazi d) op-shopping.

Further more, I haven't really seen anything in this previous fashion month that I find diffulct to absorb and accept as the current trend. I'm loving the piled up watches (the very reason my collection of broken, yet pretty, watches won't be thrown away just yet) and I'm even learning to love the LV bunny ears. Though, mind you, they do easily look ridiculous the moment they step outside of editorial. Maybe I'm finding it so unproblematic to accept all the current and new trend influxes because I haven't had the time to trawl through Style.com and completely emulsify myself into this season to discover things that I hate. Usually I'm a raging, antagonistic killjoy when I see something I don't deem fashionable, but thankfully for you all this post wont have the "rant" tag attached; instead it has been tagged with "inspiration", referring to the bunch of below images that I'm finding most of my desire encapsulated in.

Images: StockholmStreetStyle, unknown, Lover, unknown, Alexander McQueen