curl-spiration

Cosmopolitan has been my monthly mag of choice for a long time. Sometimes I mix things up a bit and go for Glamour or Elle instead, but most of the time I go for Cosmo. I think, in large part, this is down to the fact that Elle Woods wins her case in Legally Blonde because she knows that Chutney couldn't have gotten in the shower right after getting a perm, which she learnt from reading Cosmo. God, I love that bit - shame on you Chutney! Any magazine that helps you to win a murder case is pretty darn special if you ask me! (yes I know it's fictional, but that is NEVER the point.)
While their editorials are nowhere near as fancy as Vogue's, one of the things that does always stand out to me in Cosmo's fashion stories is that the models always have amazing hair. Seriously, they must use an agency that only ever represents models with excellent hair. Either that or Cosmo has a frighteningly large selection of brilliant wigs, in which case, please point me in the direction of the wigs cupboard please.

Not only is the hair always beautiful, it is also, very often curly! HURRAH! There are not enough curly-haired girls pictured in fashion magazines, so this makes me happy. So happy in fact, I've been saving up said pictures for one big curly-haired post.

Yeah, I went a bit mad with the scanner again...

If my hair was this curly and bouncy, I would happily wear it that short - so so so gorgeous. From the November 2009 issue, fashion story called "COATS" (about coats - crazy right?)

You hardly ever see blonde girls with natural curls, and blonde hair looks beautiful curly. Love the eye makeup on this girl too. From March 2010 issue, hair story called "Battle of the Textures."

I know these aren't 'natural' curls, but still, lovely hair. And I WANT that Antoni and Alison bag. From June 2010 issue, editorial called "Let's Get Happy".

Love everything about this editorial - setting, clothes, makeup, hair (obv). It's from November 2009 and is called "Sweater Girl" (Cosmo aren't particularly creative with their titles, are they?) Also, how insanely beautiful is this model? If I could, I would steal her face.

I'll be honest, I've got several more curly hair photos but I think that's enough for now. I'm tempted to start a tumblr solely to post photos of curls. Would that be mad?

Anyone else seen any good curly hairstyles of late?

Pin me up

Remember how Liv was in the Flashback Boutique fashion show where everyone had their hair styled with faux bangs and victory rolls? Well yesterday I decided I'd give it a go and after several tries and a fair bit of frustration, I managed to achieve this;

I don't know why I decided to pull that face - I think I was trying to go for 'cheeky pin-up girl', but I just look a bit like I'm going to be sick don't I?

If this look wasn't so tricky, I would wear it all the time, because I love it, but it really is very fiddly. I don't have a fringe, so I just used the front section of my hair, and the fact that my hair is quite long probably made it even trickier, as the key is trying to keep all the hair together in one big roll, and obviously, the more hair there is, the more difficult it gets. I used this tutorial, by Iris, whose youtube channel, ilovegerardo features loads of brilliant hair tutorials and lots of variations on pin up hair.

I guess it's one of those things that gets easier the more you do it, so I'll definitely be giving it another go. It definitely helps to curl your hair with a wide barrel tong first, to make it a bit easier to roll, and you need lots of hairspray to tidy any stray hairs.

It stayed in really well, considering it was quite windy yesterday. I did get a few funny looks, which I found quite ironic as it is currently a social norm in Liverpool for girls to happily wander round town on a Saturday afternoon with a head full of velcro rollers (I'm not joking), and nobody bats an eyelid. Seriously, a head full of rolls vs one roll? How am I the one who looks silly in that scenario?

Whiter shade of pale

Bonjour mes petites chatons!

To those of you who don't randomly break into French every now and then just to make yourselves sound a bit more exciting (not that I'd ever do that...), that means "hello my little kittens!"

Lesson over.

Anyway, feeling a bit French tonight as I've just been looking back over the photos from the Dior Couture show. I meant to post this over a week ago but then I got distracted by the colourful hair over at Chanel. Je suis desolee...

Now, don't get me wrong, the clothes over at Dior were stunning, in fact, I pretty much would have eaten some of them because they were just so ridiculously beautiful (and it's not often I consider eating clothing, contrary to popular belief), I mean look at this, THIS was the final piece;

Aaaaaaaaaaargh!!! "You are so beautiful to meeeeeeee"

However, as with the Chanel show, I actually got a bit more excited about the hair and makeup than the clothes, which seems insane considering, well just look at THAT dress!!! But you have to understand, the models just looked so PRETTY and I'm a big fan of pretty. I hold my hands up, I'm not really as edgy as I like to think I am; when it all comes down to it, I do like things to look girlie and pretty and well, sometimes, SOMETIMES (Jesus H Christ it is ALL coming out tonight) I like pastels ok?!

So I think you need to just take a look for yourselves;

Magdalena, this is getting silly. Stop being so damn beautiful!!!

Look at the hair! Will you just LOOK at the hair! Are you looking? I mean REALLY looking? With your eyes?

You see? Pretty right? I literally want to touch their faces. Just touch them a little bit. Gently, so as not to smudge the makeup. Oh and the hair! Even though those coiffs have probably been backcombed and sprayed like crazy, they just look all soft and whispy and well, yeah, I want to touch them too. Basically if we've learnt anything here it's that I want to touch the models at Dior. Now I never really had high hopes of ever actually being invited to a Dior show, but I think I've pretty much ruined my chances now haven't I? Nobody wants to be strutting down a runway, all fabulous and Dior-ified only to be accosted by a curly scouser who proceeds to stroke their face do they? Well they don't do they?

But all I can say to that is that the folks over at Dior shouldn't make their models look so touchable. I'm sure I'm not the only one who wants to touch them. In fact, I'm certain of it.

Actually, the person who was responsible for all this touchability (well the makeup part anyway, I've no idea who did the hair - they should really put show credits somewhere) was makeup artist extraordinaire, Pat McGrath. Now I've only just learned about the existence of this woman, but she is seriously AM-UH-ZING. It appears that she does a hell of a lot of the big fashion shows, and she actually created this look for Dior Fall RTW 2008 which I've been a tad obsessed with ever since I first saw it two years ago;

I like to call this look 60s-drag-queen-o-rama

So yeah, Pat McGrath = very good. Pat, you've got The Little Curly Girl's seal of approval. You'll go far my friend.

While the general styling of the Dior show was leaning more towards Edwardian, those white powdered faces and big bouffant-y hair dos, combined with all the pretty pastels, reminded me of Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette;

I'll be honest, Kirsten, I don't really understand why you're famous because to me you are just very boring, but I did like this film. And I liked Bring It On. And Interview with the Vampire. And Little Women. Ok, so I like a lot of your films, but I do not particularly rate you Kirsten, I'm sorry, but I just don't. And Mona Lisa Smile.

Funnily enough, last Halloween I went to a fancy dress party as Marie Antoinette and I won best costume! It was pretty much the highlight of my year. Fairly easy costume actually - old dress from a ball I went to at uni, bouffanty hair with lots of talc in it, white face powder, a few little accessories etc SORTED.

Looking back, I think I could have afforded to have gone even bigger with the hair. I'll bear that in mind for the next time I dress up as a dead french queen.

Here I am with my award - I was so happy!

Weirdly, I actually really enjoyed having a super white face. Considering I'm usually the queen of bronzer (not literally, that title clearly would go to Donatella Versace), it was quite refreshing to look in the mirror and see a ghostly-white reflection staring back. Maybe it's because white powder actually makes your skin look really good - it kind of covers everything up and gives you a really smooth, even base. Plus, I loved having a beauty spot. Anyway, if that kind of makeup suddenly became a big trend (fingers crossed that it does!!!) I would be very much in support of it!

In the words of Art Attack's Neil Buchanan - "try it yourself" - white powder. It's the past future.

(all images from style.com, except the ones of me, obviously)

Five colours in her hair

Following on from last week's post about the Chanel Couture show and all the lovely, pale blue streaked hair, I thought I'd post a few more images of technicolour tresses and colourful curls;

"MY HAIR IS BLUE!"

Don't worry, Kate, your hair is like, totally in style right now.

All-over neon pink at Comme des Garconnes Fall RTW 2009 & John Galliano Spring RTW 2010 does coral on blonde

Subtle streaks of blue at Giles Spring RTW 2010 while Proenza Schouler Spring RTW 2010 went for washed-out violet

See? Colourful hair is everywhere!!!

While I'm loving the kind of randomly sprayed effect they had going on at Galliano (seriously, coral and golden blonde looks so good together!), the one that seems to really be carrying over from the catwalk shows is the Proenza Schouler-esque 'my-at-home-hair-dye-kit-went-wrong'; I've seen so many street-style photos of girls sporting faded colourful streaks. To get that affect you would definitely have to use dye; I don't think a coloured spray or gel would do the trick because it'd add a bit too much texture to the hair and it's still supposed to look quite natural (well, as natural as purple hair can look...) Like I said in my last post, I'm not willing to dye my hair, but I'm still intrigued by this look. Definitely need to take a trip to Boots and to see what kind of temporary hair colourants are available. I'll keep you posted!

Now a lot of folks are putting the popularity of this colourful hair malarkey down to one Lady in particular;

"Who me? Nah, I'm to busy bluffin' with my muffin to worry about starting hair trends"

However, I noticed a couple of other famous faces who were sporting crazy coloured hair long before Lady Gaga was on the scene (can you even remember a time before Lady Gaga was on the scene? No, me neither. How different life must have been back then...)

Like an 80s version of Hannah Montana, Jerrica Benton had the good fortune of being rendered completely unrecognisable when wearing the pink wig of her alter-ego, Jem. Along with her pals, the Holograms, Jem sang songs, battled the Misfits ("We are the Misfits, our songs are better, we are the Misfits, the Misfits and we're gonna get her!"), ran the Starlight Foundation for Girls and, most importantly, rocked some seriously big, colourful hair. Apart from Kimber, who was allergic to hair dye so was forced to remain a ginger forever. She later shaved all of her hair off and forged a fairly successful career as a Sinead O'Connor tribute act. That last bit is all just speculation, but I'm pretty sure it's based on some truth.

Oh Frenchie, when Vi from the diner told you that your hair looked like an Easter Egg, you pretended it was caused by "a little accident in tinting class", but we all know the truth - you were way ahead of your time with regards to hair colouring and wanted a change from the backcombed curls and bouncy ponytails of the 50s. Ok, the fumes from all that peroxide may have played some part in the demented "Beauty School Dropout" hallucination involving Frankie Avalon and a whole load of tin foil, but still, you were a pioneer, Frenchie, and for that, we thank you.

I don't see what anyone can see, in anyone else but you

Yesterday I had a little look-see at the Chanel Spring 2010 Couture collection, which is an interesting one for Karl Lagerfeld, who is quoted as saying "It's the first time in my whole career I've done a collection without black or navy. There's not one gold button."

Hang on, hang on; not ONE gold button?! The man's clearly a psychopath!

Don't worry, he's onto something, I promise.

Indeed, the collection, which consisted of the usual tailored shorts suits and classic, yet decadent eveningwear, was given an edgy twist with a combination of delicate pastels and punchy silver accessories.

Chan-ELLO!

I think there might be a little bit of self-referencing going on there with the shirt collar and tie, eh Karl?

Loving the mille-feuille, loving the little fingerless gloves, loving the sparkly, sparkly tights. It's a bit space-age, even a bit futuristic (only, don't tell Karl I said that, because apparently, when someone backstage at the show suggested it was futuristic, he snapped "I hate that". And then killed them. Probably).

However, if I had to say what my favourite thing was from this show, it'd have to be... the HAIR!!! Oh my goodness will you just look at it???

I think Magdalena Frackowiak has become one of my favourite models. Her face is exquisite.

Oh, wait, that one's not from the Chanel show, that's Gary Oldman as Dracula. Clearly, vampires are always one step ahead in the fashion stakes...

(hahaha I didn't even notice that pun at first!)

Aaaaaaaaaaaah! Just gorgeous! Also, I know I'm a bit late blogging about this because I've been reading about it for months, but pastel coloured/streaked hair is EVERYWHERE at the moment! I'll do a big post about this later in the week because I have lots of pictures to share, but I'm seriously thinking about buying some kind of coloured hair gel or spray or clip in coloured extensions or something, because the very pale blue in Isabeli Fontana's dark hair (first hair picture) looks fabulous! Obviously I couldn't actually dye my hair because I'd have to bleach it first and I'd clearly destroy it and curly hair is dry enough without adding bleach to the equation...

One final thing, not related to the Chanel show. I've just been online, reading an awful lot of comments and articles about this photo;

So here's the situation; Tavi Gevinson is a 13 year old girl who writes a fashion blog called Style Rookie. She started writing when she was 11 and her blog has been a huge (I mean HUGE) success - people love her, she gets sent all kind of free stuff from designers, she's been featured in magazines, she was even on the cover of Pop, and now, from what I can gather, she also occasionally writes for Pop. Anyway, her knowledge of fashion is incredible, she's clearly very passionate about it (read some of her blog and you'll see straight away) and she expresses this through her crazy way of dressing, which, whether you love it or hate, is completely unique (and I think, very brave, considering she's only 13 and has to deal with constant stupid remarks from kids at her school ). Anyway, this image, from the Dior Couture show, was Tweeted by a reporter for Grazia who was "Not best pleased to be watching couture through 13 year old Tavi's hat". Now, I have to say, common decency and sense do dictate that if you're going to any kind of seated event, fashion show, play, press conference etc, it's probably best not to wear a large hat as you'll be obscuring the views of the people behind you. However, Tavi is under 5 foot tall, so even with the hat, she's probably not much taller than an average person. Also, the hat is hardly a hat, more like an oversized piece of ribbon (let's be honest, in the image above, it's probably obscuring about 8 per cent of the gown). And it was given to her by Dior atelier, Stephen Jones. Of course she's going to wear it to the Dior show - she's a 13 year old kid! Hell, if I was going to the Dior couture show and was then given a piece of Dior couture, I'd definitely wear it and I'd attach a big neon sign to it saying "hey, have you noticed my hat? it's Dior frikkin' couture!"

Also, if the Grazia reporter had such a problem with the hat, she could have asked Tavi to take it off, instead of passive-aggressively Tweeting about it. I can only wonder whether she was more miffed about being seated behind Tavi's hat, or behind Tavi herself, a 13 year old blogger...

The thing is, regardless of whether or not she should have worn the hat, the thing that really got me about this whole incident is how many hateful, nasty comments have since been made about Tavi. The mix of comments included outraged statements about how she should have been in school at the time/she's growing up too fast/she knows nothing about fashion in the first place/a 13 year old has no right to be at a Dior Couture show/her parents have a lot to answer for etc etc moan moan moan blah blah blah. Regardless of what you may think about her, Tavi is a child and a lot of the people who made those comments (some of the worst ones were here) should hang their heads in shame as they are clearly adults. While it may seem a little precocious for a 13 year old to be attending a Paris Couture show, is it any worse than people like Dakota Fanning and Abigail Breslin and all the other zillions of child stars out there, who have pretty much grown up in the spotlight, surrounded by adults, learning God knows what on film sets and generally living a very different life to that of other children their age? From what I can gather from her blog, Tavi seems like a very intelligent, if a little eccentric, down to earth kid, who goes to school and watches cartoons and acts silly, just like other kids her age. She just happens to have an obsession with fashion that has led to a lot of doors being opened to her at a very young age. And quite, frankly, if she's causing such a stir in the fashion world at 13, think what she could do when she's actually old enough to cause some real damage. Tavi, you have the little curly girl's backing all the way! I salute you!

...although, she did meet James Franco at a party which means I have to hate her a little bit...

Bow-l me over...

For a while now I've been intrigued by the Lady Gaga "bow-bun". To be fair, the first person I saw wearing it was actually Paris Hilton, but Lady Gaga has kind of made it her own. Since I'm a little obsessed with bows, the idea of literally making your hair into one just seems too wonderful not to try. I found this video on youtube which shows exactly how to do it - the girl makes it look so easy, although it probably helps that she's got incredibly thick, straight hair.

I decided to try it out and although it is do-able, it's pretty tricky and if you're an impatient person like me, you might end up tearing your hair out in the process. Make sure you've got lots of grips to hand, and some hairspray. The more hair you have, the better, because it's all about making the 'bow' parts really fluffed out so that they stand alone.

My attempt - not bad but it's nowhere near as good as the girl in the video's. This was my second attempt and by this point my arms were hurting so I gave up after taking this photo.

I'll definitely try it again when I've got more time and maybe someone to help me.