Nina Nesbitt: Underneath the Apple Tree

This week we're chilling out this weekend, as we listen to this. It's been a hectic week, full of work and parties and now it's time for the wind down. This is the perfect song for that in my opinion. Since working for this new magazine I've had less time to update. I've had to sign a confidentiality agreement though so I don't know how much I can say, but we've been kinda busy and we're going to be exceptionally busy.

Have a fab weekend though. :) xx

Defying Gravity: Katerina Bodrunova

Katerina Bodrunova is a Swedish artistic photographer who began her career in 2009. She is self-educated in photography through passion and enthusiasm for the subject. Since 2009 she has featured in many exhibitions and competitions including solo exhibitions in Moscow, Russia. She has also been published in many artistic magazines and received awards from many a prestigious photography competition.

Much of her photography defies the physics of nature, saying a huge fuck you to the law of gravity in particular, suspending people in the air, defying gravity and performing the Tango underwater.

M.O - Wait Your Turn

I heard this song on the radio today, and I loved it. It made me stop and want to dance getting my groove on. They're urban without being rough, and their edginess is sharp like a knife. A pin prick of urbanite chick, these I feel are a piece of me getting to my urban routes in the words of Tulisa.

From Childhood Anime: Iain Macarthur

At the age of 8 Iain Macarthur became engrossed in his art work. Introduced originally to art by cartoons and comic books, he began by drawing fantasy drawings and Anime characters throughout his childhood. As he drew more his skills progressed and he began to divert from Anime to real life drawings aiming he says, to make his drawings "more detailed and photorealistic".

Influenced by a number of artists and illustrators between his inspirations there are a number of different styles at play from Alphonse Mucha to Gustav Klimt and Lucian Freud. He has also gained a lot of his inspirations from cartoon lighting and facial expressions, enjoying to play around with these and see what he can create.

Having graduated from Swindon College with a HND in Illustration he hopes to progress onto a BA in Illustration in the future. He has however had many big clients despite this lack of Bachelors showing that he is definitely a talent worth waiting for. His clients include ASOS, Umbro and Don't Panic.

Summer Lovin': Clover Canyon

Clover Canyon is a celebration of beauty. Each collection aims to celebrate the colourful exoticism and laid back nature of the californian sun, sea and sand lifestyle. Streamlined silhouettes, colourful prints and clashing patterns al make for an eclectic mix of exuberant summery fun. 

Designing in collaboration, the team design original prints and art works for the body in order to frame, enhance and beautify our bodies. Everything is designed in-house with the clothes being manufactured in the USA, alongside the prints being printed in the USA. Everything is homegrown (if you're on the other side of the Atlantic to me). 

Available at soem of the finest stores in the country, including Saks on fifth avenue, Nat-a-Porter and Neiman Marcus. 

Never Let Me Go!

Hi Guys,

So this is the soundtrack to my weekend. I'm feeling a bit run down because of the cold - so this is just nice in the background whilst I chill out and most importantly, stay warm. I've had a fully hectic week this week, hence my lack of posts - of which I am going to try and catch up on now. Firstly, I went out with some friends and had an amazing time, but the following day I had in an interview for a new job - which I got, and now the family are all over too so it's a hectic household for the weekend. With the job interview I got a position made especially for me. She wanted me as a writer but more within the magazine, which will be launching in February. So I'm PA to the Editor and a Features Writer as well. Exciting news. Really exciting news.

I'm going to brainstorm some ideas for some features in a moment, once I've caught up with you guys of course. SO that's exciting, no?

And as if my Saturday couldn't get any better, it is Saturday which means the X Factor baby!

x

I Am An Individual. I Have A Voice: Kelly Shaw

Kelly Shaw is a design brand about fun, passion and being the opposite of boring. The ethos of the brand is to fight the boredom in not only the conservative nature of our fashion and style, but also of our lives.

Inspired by youth movements such as the Occupy London movement, the London Riots and George Orwell, she likes to entice, challenge and captivate her buyer. They are loud and flavoursome as people - unafraid, pro-active and ill behaved in the eyes of our capitalist nature.

Playful in essence, the S/S 13 collection unleashes the freedom of childhood with the rebellion of the youth movements creating a culture clash of fun and mischief. Each piece is loud without shouting, opinionated without being brash and says, in it's own unique way, "I am an individual, and I have a voice."

Style Queen: Lua P

Meet Lua.P 

I think she's pretty cool. I like her style, I like the grunge come girly aspect of how she dresses. She describes herself as having an eclectic style that changes frequently. Inspired by films from the 80s and 90s, she like sto mix 90s garments with bohemian accessories. For more of Lua.P her blog is here. 

Product Review: OBEY Snapback

I bought this cap the other day. I order it off of E-bay, good ol' E-bay and it came before it's first predicted date, which I'm obviously happy about. Estimated delivery was between the 4th december - 24th December, so to receive it in November still was an obvious bonus. Although I am supposed to be receiving this hat as a christmas gift but shhhhhh...

So I love it. It is sturdy, well made, has already survived a rainy night out and it still looks brand spanking new. It's for the tom boy within me, the androgynous side of me that likes to indulge in baggy jeans and sleeveless tops from time to time. The part of me that loves skating as much as I love shoes, the part that loves my Fred Perry's as much as my wedge heels - and I think my hat is super cool.

I love the contrast of the cheetah print to the black and red - I think it compliments one another well. I also like the the snap back is made of plastic which is handy for keeping the rain out of the face on rainy days I realised. This hat I feel can be worn in a girly outfit or a complete dress-ike-the-opposite-sex day. Either or, I think it has scope to work.

So I'm a happy customer. I definitely recommend buying your snapback caps on E-bay because there is a wide selection on there for 1/8th of the price of the high street - and despite coming from China, it came quickly. I'd like to thank the speedy chinese for being efficient.

Best and all, xx

Geometric Kool Kids

Maths was never cool. I liked maths, but it was never cool. It was cool instead to hate the subject, to forget your protractor and to draw without a ruler. Kool Kids with a capital K. Now though, it's trendy to be getting our Geometry on. Angles, shapes and techni-coloured patterns are now cool, in fact they're hotter than cool, they're shit hot. So get out that protractor and start doodling coloured patterns in brights and complimentary colours, and boom you've got yourself a cool new sweater. 

'Lure' by Kate Mccgwire

I went to the Kate Mccgwire's Private View of 'Lure'. As her first major solo exhibition the exhibition explored her sculpture in the face of life and death, beauty and vermin, possibility and impossibility. The exhibition feature smaller works of art mounted upon card where illusions and patterns had been created using feathers, creating uniformity with nature's own, patterns of the impossible, a regular pattern from irregular feathers. It also featured monstrous sculptors which I imagine to be bigger than the boat she lives in even, consuming your entire entity, engulfing your every essence, fleeting the notions of life and death before you - the dead bird's wings of a bird who eats death for survival.

Overall the exhibition was powerful and intriguing in the fine detail used to create the sculptures, the fine detail that aligns the feathers in beautiful succession.

Raise Your Weapon: Soundtrack to the Weekend

So I've had quite the eventful weekend you could say. Some good, some bad. Some fun, some morbid. A bit of everything, from highs to lows, from crazy rave to totally chilled. I think this song epitomises this mood. It's a bit of both, do you dance or do you just relax to it? Is it upbeat or is it morbid?

I also have been obsessed with it since I heard it last week. So this Ladies and Gentlemen is my soundtrack to my weekend, just gone.

Watercolour Me Beautiful: Stina Persson

Stina Persson is a Stockholm based fashion illustrator who uses a variety of mediums throughout her work in order to achieve the characteristic look of her work. Energetic and fast paced, her illustrations have an air of fashion lifestyle about then as well as style, they're representative of a way of life, a beauty in mind and an essence of the unattainable. 

Painting words, collages with paper and beautiful people her pieces are very expressionistic. They are evanescent in nature, and capture the essence of fashion in every aspect. They are stylish, beautiful and suggest an image of our ideals. 

Stina has worked with many big brands during her career including: Elle, Vogue Nippon and Coca-Cola.