On the good ship lollipop...

I think this just about sums me up - tomorrow I'm going to a joint birthday party for three friends, so today I went into town to buy presents for said friends. I came back from town with two DVDs (for me), a brooch (for me), a pair of shoes (for me), a present (for one of the friends) and this postcard of Shirley Temple (for me). To be fair, I'm going halves on the presents with another friend, and it just worked out that she'd sorted the other two out first. But I think it's safe to say that I much prefer buying myself things than buying them for other people. This probably means I'm a bad person, but hey, at least I'm a bad person with lots of cool stuff.

Why Shirley Temple? It's kind of a combination of intrigue, because when I was little, everyone said I looked like her, and vague terror, because I've always found her a bit creepy. There's something about those chubby little arms and shiny, shiny ringlets that just doesn't feel right to me. Ever noticed how in every single Shirley Temple film there's a scene where she does a tap dance routine with an elderly black man? It doesn't matter what kind of film it is - I swear I saw one where her character was on her death bed but, by God, could they stop that plucky little girl from doing a tap dance with an elderly black man? Like Hell they could! She tap danced to her dying heart's content, yes indeedy.

Here's a photo of me as a deranged-looking child for comparison. Note - I may have had the ringlets and chubby arms but I NEVER tap danced.

Back to my purchases - I went back to the wonderful vintage jewellery shop where I bought my owl brooch... I don't actually think all of it is vintage because, well it looks too shiny and new, but regardless, it's still cool. Today I bought an adorable little ballerina -

The detail is lovely on this - she's got a flouncy skirt and is tying up her little ballet shoe! I shall name her Annabel.

I also bought a pair of interesting shoes from Urban Outfitters, they were on sale - £20 reduced from £35 (I pretty much only ever buy from the sale section of Urban Outfitters coz it's so bloody extortionate). I was looking for a pair of black flats and came across these little beauts -

I love that cutout detail! So nifty! They're not really the sort of thing I'd normally buy - I'm more of a ballet pumps kind of gal, but they're so unusual and VERY comfortable so I threw caution to the wind and just bought them. Madness.

"More canapes, guv'nor?"

Did I dream this or was there once a time when Fashion TV was really crappy and featured fashion shows that nobody had heard of and had weird soap operas about models being forced into escort services? I swear I didn't make that up, but lately it's as if it was all some kind of ridiculous hallucination because whenever I've been blankly flicking through the channels, I've stopped on Fashion TV and found something wonderful to watch.

Today they showed some stuff from Milan Fashion Week and featured the Frankie Morello show which was frikkin' AWESOME (any fashion show that ends with a cast of fake wedding guests dancing to Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire gets an A* in my book). I've not come across Morello before so had a little look at his stuff online (weirdly, he's not on style.com but is on elle.com )

Let's just take a moment to enjoy that skirt. It's just...how did they...I wish...oh I love it! I always find it really interesting when designers do crazy things like this with fabric and folding and origami-type shapes because, from what I've seen on Project Catwalk, it's very difficult to execute such a challenging aspect of tailoring, and to do it well.

(Note - Project Catwalk and America's Next Top Model tell me everything I need to know about what's really important in the fashion industry, ie if you can't make a simple baby doll dress...you suck as a designer. If you can't smile with your eyes while balancing a bejewelled cockroach on your face...you suck as a model..).

Therefore, I have come to the (very wise) decision that Frankie Morello is an excellent designer. Frankie, I look forward to seeing more of you!

There's been a lot of clever folding and origami-ing (coz that's a word) of fabrics on the catwalks recently, the latest offerings from Viktor & Rolf were insane;

I can't even fathom how they've put these things together. The coat! It's like an armadillo but if an armadillo decided to be a really, really cool coat. And look at those skirts! I love how they're so demure, in muted tones and heavy fabrics but are so weird and brilliant at the same time.

Here's a few more origami-type pieces;

Gianfranco Ferre Spring/Summer 09, Christian Dior Spring/Summer Couture 07, Gareth Pugh Spring/Summer 09 and Bruno Pieters Fall 09

While all this crazily constructed stuff is FABULOUS, it is a difficult style to actually translate into a real life outfit for when you're just going about you're daily business (unless you live in space or are a very stylish armadillo), so I reckon it's more a case of really thinking about the basics - pleats, geometric shapes, ruffles and folds. The most obvious answer is to focus on more tailored stuff - pleated trousers, shirts with ruffle details and interesting geometric accessories. Although if anyone wants to send me the Frankie Morello skirt, I'd definitely give it a try!

So today, while in a folding frame of mind, I decided to try out some origami. Not just any origami, though, fashion origami! While I knew it would be basically impossible for me to make anything that was actually wearable, I thought that maybe I could create some interesting decorative little trinkets out of pretty pictures.

Figuring it'd be best to start out with some basics, I found an "easy origami for kids" page on the internet, with step by step instructions and lots of pictures, armed myself with a magazine and a pair of scissors and got to it.

First, I made a "pleated box" out of the Louis Vuitton ad with Madonna in it -

It's supposed to be a bit more 3D than this, so that you can actually put stuff in it, but magazine pages are quite flimsy so it didn't really stand up properly. Even so, I was pleased with this as a first attempt and moved on to a basket made from a Dior ad -

Look at it! It's a proper basket!

...Except you can't pick it up by the handle because I couldn't quite figure out how to fold it so that it stayed attached...

I think it's safe to say that Frankie Morello and Viktor & Rolf won't be hiring me anytime soon...

I did however, do rather well with the origami animals - ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce -

The Easter Critters! In case, like my dad, you haven't got a clue what they are, it's a chick and a bunny, but you knew that, right?

...maybe I've found my calling in life...

(photos from elle.com and style.com)

A very good face.

It's night time and I'm sleepy but here are some photos of Kim Noorda from the Fall RTW shows. I'm a sucker for a girl with massive eyebrows.

Jean Paul Gaultier, Bottega Veneta and Roberto Cavalli

Dolce & Gabbana, Louis Vuitton, Jean Paul Gaultier, Moschino Cheap & Chic and Marc Jacobs

How bloomin' brilliant is that profile shot?!

She kind of looks like Alexa Chung...a little bit.