Style Tips -- 22nd September 2009
[ 21 September 2009 ]
Start wearing a wrist ribbon.
Buy lingerie which is totally out of character. Doing this is surprisingly fun, & quite hilarious. Yandy.com just sent me a bunch of stuff which makes me so happy — things I would ordinarily never think of wearing, but which I actually love. (I got these: By the way, those links are probably NSFW!)
Go to a bookstore which stocks The Secret Universe of Names, & read up on the people you know. I did this yesterday & it was so eerily accurate it made me laugh out loud. It is amazing, I promise!
Work a paper hat into your ensemble.
Be proud of — & learn to love — your naked body.
Become properly acquainted with Hunter S. Thompson.
Go to a homeopath (they often have little stations hidden at the back of health food stores!) & have them make a custom Bach Flower Remedy blend for you. The homeopath should have a little booklet of the flowers which says what they are used for (like this), so you can choose whatever you need! They are made from spring water infused with wild flowers, & preserved in a little brandy. They come in a glass bottle with an eyedropper, & you just put droplets on your tongue a few times a day. I love them & swear they work!
...Try Alaskan gem essences too. (I have not tried these but want to!)
Print up some badges of your idols & wear a different one each day, depending on your mood. I have one of Yayoi Kusama (I am wearing it in this photo!) which I wear on days I want to be a little more surreal.
Revisit the old clothing at the back of the closet. How could it be re-worked? What else could you wear it with? How can you make it more current?
If you must complain, complain to the RIGHT people — people with the power to make a difference! So often we complain to our spouse about our work, & to our mother about our best friend, & so on. Your time is valuable, don’t waste it with nonsense. Be proactive!
Wear an elaborate headband every day.
Take time for yourself! Have a bath, turn off your phone, do some writing, lie down, whatever it takes — just take a moment to breathe.
Love & love & love,
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Simply magnificent :)
I won’t lie, I like the bandagey-looking wrist ribbon!
I love the idea of wearing completely girly, feminine lingerie under everyday wear, I find that it really peps me up if I’m having a bad day. Thanks for the other style tips, they are fantastic!
Melissa Dominic — I do too!
Wikifashion — Wearing rad lingerie makes me feel SO good. & I especially like all the stuff I just got, it’s even fun to put on. Especially all the strappy things, I have to hold them in front of me & look at them for a while to work it out. Haha. It’s like a test of my spatial intelligence!
In kindergarten, I wore a wrist ribbon every day :)
I’ve decided to make the rest of my week as amazing as possible, and this definitely helps! Muchos gracias, Gala.
Yay paper hats! Theater of Dreams has the fanciest & best!
Complaining: I have a lovely group of friends who are excellent at actually creating strategy to fix a problem, and we tend to approach things as “this is the issue. can you help me work through it?” It is amazing and super supportive!!
this just made my day
Breee — Yay! I hope it is truly magnificent.
verhext — What is Theater of Dreams?! DO TELL! & it is rad that you have a group of friends to work through those things with. I have different people I go to for advice on different things, it is a good thing!
Taz — MWAH.
I really am going to try the ribbon thing. I totally agree with pampering yourself!!! I looovveee Johnson’s Baby Wash… it is always great to take baths with! It leaves your skin nice and soft.. sorta like a baby’s bum.
Making your own gem elixirs is easy. Bach Flower Essences are best bought at the store, but if you already have the right gems it’s simply a matter of using a glass container to steep them in sunlight and clean water.
GALA-
what was the word that you posted awhile ago with the definition of a girl into fashion and culture (or something like that?) i think it started with “qui”. it’s been driving me crazy.
Sybelle — Oh, hmm, clever! Never thought of that…
diana — A QUAINTRELLE! :D en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaintre…
What a great word quaintrelle is, it’s one of those ones that just completely evoke their meaning!
eep! style tips are my favorite part of site! thanks :)
That lingerie is badass. I don’t know if I could take myself seriously in that dark fairy costume, but the others are definetly sexy. Spatial intelligence indeed!!
On a similar note, your style tip about loving one’s naked body – I hope everybody who reads your post tries to take that tip on board. It really does make a huge difference to one’s self esteem if you can love your naked body. If you love the cupcake (your body), the icing (the clothes) is always better.
Bisous xx
Gala, you’re the best.
Go for the last one all day, every day, for the rest of your life.
That ribbon idea is precious and in fact, a friend of mine was wearing a black satin one just the other day and I thought it was the cutest! Also, that lingerie is delicious. Holler.
So funny about the wrist ribbons. I had one in high school that I wore because it came on a gift from my then-boyfriend.
Jaka Merriman is going to be thrilled when she sees you are endorsing HST, too, lol.
Oh, and one more thing: Can you show us the badges of your idols in more details?
I’m SO into bach flower remedies. I’ll do anything my homeopath reccomends – she’s never wrong.
Ah, these posts are just my fave.
Also, thanks for the link page love! You’re a mega doll!
Love & Light!
I have been reading here on and off for a while now thanks to randomly stumbling upon your site (it was like a magical calling)! I never get tired seeing what new things you’ll have up next. I always look forward to it!
Thanks for putting together something so unique and interesting all the time that also helps everyone else feel involved as well!
-xo
www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyl…
Gala, Have you seen this 13 yo fashion blogger?! she is so cute and you would love her!!!
-Tricia
I’ve got that name book! Good stuff :)
Alana Ekerplay — Haha, I very rarely take myself seriously so maybe the costume is a better fit for me! I love it, it’s actually really cute. I haven’t worn it in public yet but as soon as I get back to New York (where it is residing!) I am definitely going to. & amen to your comments about loving your naked body. It can be so difficult but is so worth it.
Autumn — No, YOU!
Luinae — Very true my lovely.
Liz — It’s so funny how things become fashionable. I used to always wear ribbons with antique keys on them as necklaces in high school… & then it became huge in 2006. Weirdest trend ever!
Mary — Haha. I love HST so much! No one compares. I don’t have any close-ups of the Yayoi badge, but I will see what I can do!
Jodie Layne — Yes, I never really knew anything about them but I am a total believer!
Tristen — You are most welcome!
Tricia — Tavi is rad :D
Annie Spandex — Do you think it is as eerily accurate as I do?!
I missed this tips! woo! I LOVE wearing elaborate headbands…though I’m also into wearing tons of rings too :) and colorful tights too! Today I matched my tights with my umbrella, haha
I’m feeling more and more in love with my body as time goes by. I guess when you grow up you get more confidence in your self; it also helps to have a bf who is in love with your body too! That helped my a lot with my lack of self esteem :)
I have had this thing lately with putting my hair in pig-tales and wearing really obnoxious, bright lipstick. It makes me feel happy in so many different ways and I have no idea why…
I like the whole Printing Badges thing. I might make gobs of those and stick them on the head band that I wear all around my supermegafabulous pig-tales.
Thank you Gala.
I always used to tie ribbons around my wrist, they are so cute.. but even if I double-tied them they’d always somehow manage to fall off. I would never even notice for ages!
I was going through the monthly archive yesterday and wondering why you hadn’t done one of these in so long. I love them! It’s been nearly a year since I started reading iCiNG and you just keep amazing me, Gala. I happened upon it with StumbleUpon and truly believe the universe set that up for me during a particularly dark period in my life. You have truly changed my life for the better. I can never thank you enough.
I love surrounding myself with images of idols and icons. Lately I’m obsessed with Henry David Thoreau, Benjamin Franklin, The Mighty Boosh and Robots in Disguise. I guess my current style-phase is “American Revolution” meets “Electro-pop / British Surrealism”?
Great tips. I really dig the wrist ribbon it’s a great way to make anything a little more girly & badass simultaneously!
I could never get into Hunter S. Thompson. It probably makes the lit community look down on me to say this. Maybe I just had a really bad teacher who ruined it for me…I don’t know. I guess I’ll have to give him a fourth look.
Wow, some of those costumes are really cute! I think the Ghostbusters costume is unique and the Princess Leia Slave costume has great details. Some of them make me feel confused though, because they play-up pedophile fantasies…but hopefully only fully-grown women are wearing these!!
Good find! Are you thinking of using the costume you bought for Halloween or just at home? It’s super cool!
I’ve been trying FOREVER for a way to incorporate my to-do lists into a bracelet, and that ribbon idea sounds perfect! I even went so far as to consider getting ticky-box tattoos on my wrist so I could write the actionable items in Sharpie & tick them off… But with ribbon, the possiblities are endless! Pieces of paper tucked inside, or color-coded ribbon slivers strung onto safety pins… A+ style sleuthing, Gala! Thank you!
I missed these Style Tips posts! :D
and Hunter S. Thompson = WIN :)
YES! Hunter S. Thompson! Magnificent, marvelous man.
Some of those lingeries remind me of Aeon Flux!
Ooo I want to read that book on names, sounds interesting. I’m looking for new books to read! What other books do you like? I would be interested to hear :D
Monsieur Cinema — I keep an ongoing list of style tips in a text file, but just forget to post them! I know people love them so I will try to remember! xo
Alzy — Aw, well, no point in forcing yourself. If you don’t like him, you don’t like him! There are lots of authors I theoretically “should” like, but don’t. It’s all about personal taste!
Megan — I’m not sure! Honestly I will probably wear it out to dinner with some fabulous shoes. Haha.
Brittany Louise — Me too! That strappy thing with the o-ring at the throat, for example. It will look so good under a plain tank, really interesting & cool & will add lots of dimension to the outfit.
Rach — I like all kinds of stuff, but you can see my Amazon wishlist for an idea of what I’m eyeing up lately! www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wis…
I happen to adore my naked body! I rather prefer “naked” — I look like Venus de Milo in miniature. Very, very miniature.
Headbands, however, don’t do me any favours, so I substitute silk scarves tied in various ways. Perfect for wet hair that won’t cooperate!
Oh Gala, I kid you not that I thought you intended to keep the dark angel costume strictly for the boudoir! Out in public, I think it would work a treat as a show-stopping outfit (with perhaps a coat and some tights to reduce the kinky-goth aspect) but I rather meant that I could not take myself serious if I strutted into the bedroom wearing THAT. Oh my god, the look on my boyfriend’s face would be priceless !! Haha!!
Bisous xx
Totally missed Style Tips. They should come more often! I always write them down :) Maybe now I will go out and buy some leopard print underwear! Hawt. And headbands abound, just in time for the Melbourne Cup!
I’m re-visiting the old clothing in the back of my wardrobe a lot at the moment, unfortunately I’m supposed to be getting rid of some of it, but instead I’m moving more and more of it to the front to keep wearing! I’ve never been very good at the whole downsizing thing – I’m a natural born hoarder!
Your style tips have got to be some of my favourite posts. They always make me smile.
Stay inspiring! :)
I have a whole box of thrifted + rescued ribbon upstairs – now I know what to do with it! Thankyou thankyou :)
Yay, Style Tips! These are all great, but the one about complaining to the right people is just spot on.
I love the last of it, writing…. that’s why I love to have my penpals to write to on cute stationary and send packages randomly when I find things I know they will love. You should start a Penpal list for Quaintrelle’s! I would be your first in line!
Speaking of Paper Hats..do you know Tina Cassati?!
She is an amazing artist from Berlin
and sometimes I model for her
and once it was for her paper hat collection,
all these hats are just made out of paper!
I just love her work! :)
i39.photobucket.com/albums/e16…
i39.photobucket.com/albums/e16…
I love the bit about wrist ribbons. I’ve been wearing them for 4 years. I love how you can make them match any outfit! :)
Gala! Yesterday I wore a white wrist ribbon to go with my black and white shirt… I loved it. Perfect accessory! Thanks for the idea!