Sunday 18 January 2009

Experimentation

I have a great admiration for people who can make their own clothes and accessories, and dream of the day when I will have levelled up sufficiently to be able to knit my own jumper. My first DIY project was less about putting a personal touch on high street clobber, however -- it was really more about damage control.


The subject: angora blend fingerless gloves from H&M, acquired for £2.

The problem: the care label inside one of the gloves was too long. Left uncut, it was sure to impair comfort.

The worse problem: I was visiting my boyfriend at the time and he is left-handed. This isn't going to be some bigoted screed against left-handed people -- he only had left-handed scissors and I was finding them a bit tricky to manipulate, so I asked him to cut off the care label.

Result: GIANT HOLE in my new gloves.

So I crocheted a lopsided heart to cover it.


I am quite pleased with the result! It almost looks like it was done a-purpose. Just don't ask to look at the sewing. It wouldn't get past quality control even at Primark.

***

Walking this same glove-destroying boyfriend to Victoria Station, I dropped into a Topshop and tried on their sale gear just for the hell of it.

After following several fashion blogs featuring people wearing tight wet-look leggings and looking great in them, I thought I would see how this pair of shiny trousers looked on me.



Verdict: nnnnn. Some day I may conquer my prejudice against leggings and trousers so tight they look like leggings, but today is not that day. I think I'll stick to my non-shiny tights and derriere-covering dresses.

- Zen

Wednesday 14 January 2009

In Response to When The Going Gets Tough

Zen, the outfit screams for tights and boots/oxfords! As seen here.
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Double breasted coats over mini shifts. I love the idea! Forget about the hanging ass. No one's gonna notice.
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Inspired much.

Source

- Sue

Tuesday 13 January 2009

When the going gets tough

... the tough cry and throw things and overdose on caffeine. Then they go shopping.

Acquisition: Jigsaw jacket, £8.

Jacket - Jigsaw via charity shop; ex-dress - H&M; shoes - Charles & Keith

I wouldn't actually wear this ensemble in public. The dress is a deep blue lace mini from H&M, the most beautiful thing, but it is unfortunately an ex-dress, a dress pining for the fjords, as it were. A few heedless rounds in the washing machine (in this allegory, the washing machine stands in for the Wheel of Life) and lo and behold, we have reincarnation. I could still pretend it was a dress if I were the sort of person who approved of going around in public with my ass hanging out, or if I were the sort of person who approved of leggings, but since I am not either sort of person, I am going to have accept its new life as a top.

I suppose it will make a nice top. But it was such a nice dress. I am desolated.

What shall I wear the jacket with? I'm thinking interesting tights and a tiny dress. But perhaps something marginally less tiny than that H&M dress-turned-top. One must consider what one's mom would say ...

- Zen

Pizzicato 5 Inspired Part 2

Presenting Lemms Challenge #1: Lemms – On the Sunny Side of the Street (Pizzicato 5 cover)
Well of course we weren’t thinking of singing, but we did want to recreate the looks we saw in the P5 music video.

Just to recap...last year we watched this on YouTube...




Sue said, “Look at the clothes...!” (Or something to that extent...because it was quite Sue-style no?)

While resisting the urge to stalk and buy more vintage stash, Zen had a brainwave - Create our versions of the outfits worn in the Pizzicato 5 music video “On the sunny side of the street” from what we can scavenge from our wardrobes.

Beg or borrow. No using this as an excuse to buy new clothes!

^_^ I love having an excuse to take photos...

Look #1:


Well we got a trench! Didn't get a beret although Zen was contemplating croqueting one. We managed to get hold of an eyepatch...but it's not in these shots unfortunately. And we have an umbrella, although not as colourful... but I think Sue looks super cute in this and since we got the trench right do we get a 10?....or a 9? haha...

Look #2:
Okay huge deviation now...white shirt, check. Black tights, check. No beret like before, but I threw on a slouchy caddy looking hat. Blazer and skirt have the rough idea i guess...and we have the umbrella!

Look#3:
We got the colours of this set slightly inverted, but plus points for the wig? While we were happy snapping, we learnt that the above-the-knee stockings really lengthens the legs! True for Zen at least. No wonder people in Japan love them. It makes our daikon-ashi (daikon radish-shaped)legs look more slender.

Look #4:





Last look for the Lemms. Simple...yet with attitude! The bf's shirt and jeans combo never fails isn't it?

Under our umbrella, ella, ella eh eh!

Lemms signing off...^__^

Thursday 8 January 2009

Lemms & Hats

I bought a new hat from Urban Outfitters, again from the post-Christmas sale. Wasn't really that much of a discount, about £13? More than what I paid for my shoes (an unfair comparison). It’s dark brown/greyish-purple...and woolly/felty/fuzzy? OK I’m no good at descriptions so take a look instead...





I feel that I’ve lost my frost-proof ability somewhat this year. I’ve started wearing scarves and now I have a hat (although I definitely did not buy it as a winter-warmer)! Or maybe the London temperatures have been ridiculously low (for London that is...)! Still don’t own gloves though>_<

Am I trying to be “poser”?....yea maybe...but hats are still awesome. I might have watched too many mafia movies as a child or I may secretly want to be a detective (Dick Tracy-style – I don’t actually remember much about Dick Tracy from my childhood, apart from a trench, a hat and lot’s of yellow. Pretty much the same description I would give Singing in the Rain).





1) Hats are awesome
2) Hats keep you warm
3) Hats hide your bad-hair day
4) Hats make you look taller (or so I comfort myself...)
5) The hat hunt is not over...
6) ...at the end of it the Lemms will be holding a tea party. Scones!


Can’t wait ^_^

-Sam

Monday 5 January 2009

The Long Awaited All Mighty Awesome Sales Coverage

I've finally finished shopping and decided to cover the Boxing Day Sales 2008 a week after. Not true really, on the shopping part because I hear the sales will go on and on and on until the economy recovers which has potential, because from what I saw on boxing day, shoppers can single-handedly shop the world its way out of this dreary recession.

For those who have not come to discover the mother of all sales, Boxing Day is the day when shops start to slash their prices from 50% and above to get rid of stock. Of course the sale usually lasts for a month but usually the good stuff will finish on the first day because people actually wake up early in the morning to queue outside the store before it opens. I am speaking the truth.

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Okay, I have never really been around for the actual Boxing Day sale itself because I always go back home to the sun. My first winter here in university doesn't really count because I only went for the high street stuff. Sure the clothes are really cheap but unless you don't mind queuing early in the morning to enter with a sea of people stomping on clothes strewn onto the floor and elbowing you to snatch that bag you've just put down then yes, amazing bargains can be found.

This year, oops, last year (it's always weird when you are trying to adjust to a new year don't you think?). Last year though, I tried something different, I decided I would go early at 9am to Selfridges.

Did I make it?

Unfortunately, I woke up late and got around Selfridges around noon. The boy and I were freezing cold when we got out so I was a bit flustered because not only am I late for the sales but it's cold. Then when we finally got on the bus, I heard the bus driver speaking to someone else about Selfridges.

'Have you seen the queue outside Selfridges? Mad, ain't it?'

'Yeahhh, I dunno what's in there.'

A queue into Selfridges?! My heart immediately dropped. Now not only am I cold, late but also missing the sale of the century!

Fast forward into the journey, I was bracing myself for a sea of people on Oxford Street but surprise surprise, it was like any other weekend crowd so that was good. I told the boy that maybe we hit the high street shops again but would see if Selfridges was actually that bad.

So we hopped off the bus and true to the bus driver's word, the queue snaked out of the building but the queue turned out to be a queue to somewhere, just not Selfridges, anyone could enter as they wish.

The doors opened.

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And I was in for a huge shock. The ground floor of Selfridges is the posh home of all the bags in the world that can EACH feed a family of four for a lifetime in third world countries. It was amazing that the bags were strewn everywhere. Marc Jacobs, Balenciaga, Mulberry, ChloƩ, any fashion house that did not have an enclosed shop, had their bags mixed together, picked up, scrutinised and thrown back into a pile of, dare I say it, rejects. Seriously, it was like Primark on a weekend. (Primark sells cheap clothes and people go mad and pick everything they find in their size and it is messy in there, if you've not been to a war zone, Primark is the place to start.)

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Now, on that day, all the bags I saw was 50% off. So if the Balenciaga bag that you bought a month ago was at a retail price of say £1000, on that day it was a mere £500! Hey, that amount still feeds a family of four in a third world country but that is cheap for the middle class!

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Happiness it was for the middle classes, so much so that I saw several women toting 4 bags in one hand and pushing in to find more bargains. The atmosphere was almost euphoric. Long queues were outside Chanel (no sale), Louis Vuitton (no sale), Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, Miu Miu and the longest queue of them all was Gucci. Remember the queue that snaked to the outside of the buidling into the sidewalk? Yup, it was the queue into Gucci. But the sale there looked pretty good. I sneaked a peek and it looked like almost the whole store had up to 50% off.

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Did I mention that the atmosphere was euphoric? Don't blame me but it was the whole mood of it. I grabbed a Michael Kors bag, a Marc by Marc Jacobs wallet (because I was pick pocketed just recently) and stood in the queue into Louis Vuitton. Yes, seriously, the euphoria of luxury brands at 'affordable' prices got me insane in the membrane. It was only when they started playing 'The Final Countdown' that I realised my madness and the psychology Selfridges was using to hype up the sale that I put down the bag and also left Louis Vuitton (but only because there was no sale). In the end, the boy bought me the Marc by Marc Jacobs wallet which was I believe a very sensible buy. (:

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That was not just the only thing I got out of the sale though. Because all the bags were within reach, I could scrutinise a lot of bags which I would never have had the chance to until I retire. One thing that struck me was that luxury prices do not give you high quality goods. I repeat, high price does not equal awesome quality. A little secret between you and I, the large unconventional zips of Marc Jacob bags were absolutely useless. Extremely hard to unzip. While I was trying to unzip and zip one of the bags, one of the zips actually came off. Noboday saw me but the horror at what had happened was more than the fear of getting caught. The lesson here girls is don't be fooled by the sweet talking of your S.A. that you dismiss to do any quality control. Make sure you give that bag of yours a through check before passing them your cheque.

And that was all the shopping I did on the 26th. Because it was so packed and everything was so crazy that you just wanted to pay and run with your goods. In the end, the boy and I went to Carnaby Street to eat £3.50 noddles at Cha Cha Moon but to our dismay, found that Alan Yau has jacked up the prices. Booo.

So that was it. The Boxing Day experience. Not much different with the high street one really but much better because luxury items become slightly affordable I would say. Cheap or expensive, as long as there is 50% off, elbows are always the lead in the story.

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p.s. I did go to Harrods but avoided the crowd on the first day and regretted it thoroughly because I found La Perla tights down from £9.95 to £2.95! But no S sizes were available anymore. Booo. Wolford and Tabio were 50% off too but again no more S. Is there a correlation between the rich and the skinny? hmmm.

p.p.s Some of the pictures I had to scour through 2007 archives so the goods may look very out of season. The goods were actually mostly spring 2008 I presume, from the bags I saw.

- Sue

Saturday 3 January 2009

Shopping ban brogue-ken!

Okay, sorry for the super lame title of this post...but I just couldn’t resist>_<...and I had to share the love for my best post-Christmas buy with all of you.

Here it is...

Finally a pair of brogues!!! I’m sure all 3 Lemms have been eyeing brogues for ages...and I found this pair randomly while holidaying in Berlin, and for only €10 too, even after the drop in the £ it’s still a good buy no? Luckylucky^_^

I should find a better way to tie the laces so they don’t look like I'm walking around with 2 giant daddy long legs.

-Sam