| by Bel | 11.04am NZ time |

Check it out - comfy casual shoes which have been created ethically and sustainably. Simple shoes are stylishly made from natural and recycled products and you can have them delivered to your door thanks to Natureshop.

It was my dear friend Melissa who tipped me off about Natureshop and it's her here modelling the shoes, which they sent me to blog about.

Mel's a big fan of the online store and each year buys a pair of snuggly warm sheepskin boots to wear in the winter months. This New Zealand company has sourced their stock from brands which have a commitment to environmentally sustainability, ranging from Icebreaker clothing to Green Baby organic skincare.

As a vegetarian, I always feel in a dilemma about buying shoes. Wearing leather made from animal skin feels like such hypocrisy! But have you ever walked into a #1 Shoe Warehouse and been overwhelmed by the stink of plasticky evil? Uggggh.

Many synthetic shoes which could be considered vegan and therefore animal-friendly, have been created from an unholy mess of fossil fuels in sweatshop conditions. And you and I both know that as a general rule, cheap shoes fall apart very quickly.

Rather than regularly spending money on new shoes, I'm choosing to buy better quality products which I aim to eventually get repaired and restored (like the Skechers mary-jane shoes I blogged about last month). My winter boots have been resoled twice and are still going strong! The culture of 'fast fashion' where we snap up cheap versions of latest trends is dangerous to our environment - it's estimated that in the UK shoppers are each sending 30kg of clothing and textiles to the landfill each year.

A brand like Simple takes the angst out of the equation. They call themselves "your stereotypical, anti-stereotype brand" and their business has been run sustainably for over 20 years. Simple are inspirational to those us trying to dress green when doing so can often seem like just another fashion trend.

This environmental focus is held by Natureshop too. Their environmental policy shows a commercial attitude which goes beyond just making the big buck.

Natureshop is carboNZero certified, purchasing carbon credits to offset the footprint created by posting things around the world. The items they post out are packaged in 100% biodegradable materials. I know Lou and I have both raged before about the ludicrous wrappings that go into many modern products! This kind of change is such a basic thing, yet has so many benefits.

The shoes photographed here oh-so-artily are Simple's 'Satire' style in a women's size 10 US / Euro 41. I'm guessing that the satire comes from their fastenings, which look like tidy shoelaces but are actually just a front for elasticised slip-ons. How sneaky! And convenient.

The lining is very sweetly floral with the practical dusky blue exterior colour balanced by the cute strip of pink running round the trim. The sole of the shoe is black, made from recycled car tires.

I found them too small for my feet, but there were a perfect fit on Melissa. An open lace style might've been okay, I just found I couldn't squeeze my foot properly in the opening. (Sigh.) I'd suggest going a size up if you're unsure - and Natureshop makes returning items very easy with free shipping and a 365 day returns policy.


Melissa told me that she's worn these Simple shoes all weekend from breakfast til bed and that the "comfort is unsurpassed"!

Comforting as well to know that the shoes are good for our world as well as good looking.

| by Bel | 3.34pm NZ time |

Six hundred million years have passed and I have finally paid off my layby! Whoo! New shoes!

They're the Skechers "Best Girl Posh" mary-jane wedges in black, to be exact. "Best Girl Posh" - that's the official name! I feel like the best posh girl wearing them!

Here is a standard useful photo of the shoe:

And here are some artsy 'lifestyle blog' type photos:

And more! (Oooooh mirrors)

I love mary-jane style shoes and always have. These also have some detailing which makes them on trend with the current brogue fashion. Wedge heels are known far and wide as the most sensible way to get some height - and these are super comfortable as well! My toes wriggle happily and there is nary a blister to be seen.

I got these in what is apparently a Eur 41 / UK 8 / US 11 and they are a great fit. Yay for Skechers! Forgive them for their lack of a "t" in their name and those dumb work-out shoes!

| Posted by Bel | The time is 12.39pm here in Wellington NZ |

For a mere $125, I can look as big a dork as I did in Mr Elgar's class in Form One, hauling around all my durasealled books and the leftover pikelets I cooked poorly in Home Economics.

| Posted by Bel | The time is 9.37am here in Wellington NZ |

Knowing I'm a fan of OPI nail polish, Lou flicked me through a link to their latest Limited Edition offering. But this time I'm a little unsure.

Glitter nail polish. Are we ready to go back there?

 

OPI's Burlesque range

I'm pretty sure my mum's bathroom cupboard is still crammed with crusted-up half full bottles left over from my 90s childhood whence I sauntered about with fingernails looking like tacky mismatched discoballs.

There's been a few recommendations lately for Butter London nail polish, and their Fall 2010 range of polishes not only includes shades with holographic sparkles, but are also named in tribute to fashion designer Alexander McQueen. (This alone would probably be enough to sway me, let's be honest.)

Butter London's All Hail McQueen a "holographic taupe"

Sparkling and shimmering nails have been spotted on the catwalks too. Vogue UK states that glitter is officially a spring/summer 2011 beauty trend, with a fashion journalist breathlessly reporting that "the tips of the nails were dipped in multi-coloured glitter and layered with rhinestones". Apparently something referred to as 3D sculpture is also a rising trend in the world of avant-garde manicure but I think we plebs can safely ignore that.

PS Lou, did you know that your sports heroine Serena Williams is a qualified nail technician??

Assuming you don't have a weird foot thing, you can watch her giving Oprah a pedicure and gossiping about rich black women stuff in a video here!

Posted by Bel. The time is 8.34am here in Wellington NZ.

I do love having the latest fashion news sent directly to my inbox. I don't love when it is filled with body dismorphia, cliched clothing and tacky writing.

The immediate clanger here is the obvious "enhancement" that has gone on with the image of the model on the bottom right.
 
Perhaps it is some snazzy move that I missed the week I skipped America's Next Top Model, but as far as I am aware, Tyra has not yet let us all in on a pose that instantaneously whittles your waist down to the width of your head. Practically miraculous, especially when you have two other photos of normal-sized waist to compare it to!
 
Overall, it was just plain disappointing to get a whole e-newsletter devoted to touting the joys of NAUTICAL. Nautical, you guys! Did you hear? It's in! It's in this summer! And do you remember last summer? Um, yeah - just like then! What's that? The summer before... uhhh... maybe?
 
Pardon? Ever since Jean-Paul Gaultier's debut collection in 1976? Or maybe since Gabrielle Chanel busted out a top she borrowed from the sailors of Brittany back in the 30s? Hmmm... interesting points. Fashion is know for being cyclic, but really, trying to act as if as there is a trend popping up when we've had nothing but blue and white stripes flung at us for season after season seems to be taking it a little far!
 
And it must be said, I love me a good pun [see: above]. This is a trait passed down from my mother, who is also a Scrabble champion and cryptic crossword queen. But "I heart bouys" is weak on so many levels. For one, it just draws my attention again to the fact that they are trying to act as if this whole nautical baloney is new and fun and exciting. 
 
It also taps into a pet peeve of the way mainstream fashion retail stores, which used to cater for women in their 20s with a professional focus, are aiming more and more towards the teenage market.

 

"I heart bouys" is the kind of lame-arse thing you might see mass-produced in Supre, a shop where the sizing alone lets you know that their target audience is people who have not yet developed mature hips and breasts. It's not a good fit with the usual 'wear it from work to the club' stuff that comes out of Portmans, and goodness me, not much upsets me more in the world than inconsistent branding!*

*Things that upset me more in the world than inconsistent branding:

• That funding for evening classes has been cut and Education Minister Anne Tolley has suggested as the option for refugees to New Zealand who were using this as their way to become proficient in English, that they will now be allowed to apply for student loans.
• That the food from Satay Kingdom in Left Bank is cheaper than the food from the Thai place on Cuba, but their portions are smaller and I always feel too stuffed after a Satay Kingdom laksa.
• Murray McCully. I really hate that guy so bad.
• Finally deciding to use a voucher and finding out that it has expired. Gahh!

Posted by Bel. The time is 12.23pm here in Wellington, NZ.

I have to admit that I'm not enough of a woollenwear connoisseur to be familiar with Pringle of Scotland, a label established in 1815. But apparently they originated the much esteemed Argyle pattern, so congratulations to them as they celebrate 195 years in the fashion business. We fans of patterned cardigans salute you!

 

Argyle platforms? Yes please! And Lou will take them as brogues, I bet.

 

US President of Style, rocking an argyle cardie. (Note overwhelmed children in background, embarrassed by their abundance of beige.)

 

My original icon of argyle (and knee socks), Cher Horowitz.

David Shrigley is a Scottish artist whose illustrations manage to at once capture both the most basic and complex matters of life. His crude drawing style makes his pictures immediately accesible and funny, yet so often the comedy comes from a 'sad but true' element. Oh and he uses lots of text as image...  le sigh!!

 

  

  

And now he has turned his attentions to that simple and essential item, the woolly jumper. (Or 'sweater'. Which do you say?)

Posted by Bel. The time is 4.15pm here in Wellington, NZ.

The death of Alexander McQueen, enfant terrible of high fashion, just a month before he was due to show a new collection at Paris Fashion Week, is a loss not just to those who adore spectacular clothes, but to anyone who loves to see imagination played out to its fullest.

McQueen is well known for his collaborations with Isabella Blow, his muse and patron, who kicked started his career by buying his graduate collection in its entirety. After her death in 2007, he dedicated his collection to her, adorning it with creations by milliner Philip Treacy - no one had worn his hats better than her.

McQueen was responsible for one of the great fashion trends of the 1990s: arse-crack revealing jeans. In a 1996 collection, he sent models down the runway in what he called "bumsters", a dramatic swerve away from the nipped-waist silohuette of the 1980s, which were dominated by power suits (epitomised by the elegant tailoring of Yves Saint Laurent).

As a teenage girl of the 90s, for whom Britney Spears was a style icon whether I liked it or not, the trickle down effect of this was undeniable. I even remember cutting the waistbands off jeans to cut them lower. Bumsters, and the extra inches of midriff and groin they exposed, have even been held accountable for the millennial rise in popularity of Brazilian waxes and "tramp stamp" tattoos. My mum was mostly concerned that my kidneys were constantly being exposed to cold drafts.


But let's not hold that against that man. He has also done much to increase the glam factor of many Hollywood events, with celebs scrambling to wear his gowns on the red carpet...

We could even mention the infamous claw shoe things that Lady Gaga has dragged into the spotlight, but I'm not really sure how I feel about those to be honest. We'll probably all be wearing them by next winter.

David LaChapelle's portrait of McQueen and Blow, Burning Down The House (2000).

"This whole situation is such a cliché. The turnover of fashion is just so quick and so throwaway, and I think that is a big part of the problem. There is no longevity."

Posted by Bel. The time is 10:41am here in Wellington, NZ.

Carson McCullers' The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter as a clutch handbag by Olympia Le-Tan

Stylish and somewhat practical, I love these beautifully embroidered handbags made by Parisian Olympia Le-Tan.

Handmade in limited runs, Le-Tan chooses the first edition covers of her favourite classics to recreate. She says, "unfortunately the covers of books nowadays are not as nice as they used to be".

And yes, Christmas is coming up - but don't get too excited. I dug around and found that these puppies cost about $1,500 each. I'm not sure if that's US$, pounds or euros - but either way I think I'll have to stick to just putting books inside my boring old bag, the usual way...

Read more with an interview with Olympia Le-Tan at Dazed Digital.

My review of The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter (including ravings about the gorgeousness of the first edition's cover design) can be read here.

Posted by Bel. The time is 11:26pm here in Wellington, NZ.

My latest internet obsession: polyvore.com

It's kinda like paper dolls meets Project Runway - online. Stardoll but for grown-ups, I desperately tried to convince Mark, who has seen his daughters fall prey to that site (the most popular children's website in the world).

Here are my evening's efforts (I spent, like, 15 minutes, tops - honest. Cough)...

Spring Colours for Leigh's Wedding by BellaHM.

So as you can see, I'm sorted for my sister-in-law's wedding next month. Assuming I can transform myself into Audrey Hepburn that is. Le sigh.

But, seriously it was quite fun and useful for 'mocking up' outfits and the functionality of the site is just mind-blowing. You can search by whatever item you have in mind (e.g. shirt, shoes, etc) or set the colour and it will pull up every possible thing in that corresponding shade. There's a social networking aspect to it as well - let alone the fact that every item on the site links back to the merchant's website: so you can buy that gorgeous hot pink Diane Von Furtenburg dress in real life if you feel so inspired! And so wealthy!

The fact that such a huge proportion of young web users are logging on to Stardoll (the 'higher levels' of which can only be reached through payment) means that a website like this will only grow in popularity - and profits - in coming years.

Addition by Lou. The time is 3.27pm here in London, United Kingdom.

I'm hijacking Bel's post coz thanks to her I've just spent about an hour on the site and bought 2 dresses. I am far too lacking in fashion knowledge to create such an interesting collection, but did challenge myself to put something together where each item costs over £1,000. The handbag is juuuust under £1k but I love it so couldn't resist. Predictably, it is a hot red dress with all black accessories, and what I would wear if Bel took me out for a girl's night in NYC and we were RICH (and I didn't have boobs to ruin the dress (and was able to walk in heels)):

Hot Date by MegatronLou featuring Donna Karan dresses

Posted by Lou. The time is 3:04pm here in London, UK.

Alexandra Shulman, editor of the British edition of Vogue, has sent a letter to top fashion designers demanding they stop the skinnier-than-skinny trend by providing magazines with more ethical sizes for sample garments.

Her statement that they are having to airbrush models to make them look larger is incredibly disturbing when you consider the size of models appearing on their pages.

Frankly, her letter couldn't have come soon enough.