Trendy Wensdy: All There in Black and white

All There in Black and white by chiccheat featuring activewear jackets

Bal-mania!

So, this is my final post before the bi-annual holy grail of all things fabulous that is Fashion Week - or rather, before it's over, and Chic Cheat begins its foray into all the new trends.  Worry not, dear readers, for I'm not too far out to sea to know it's already started...and this time, with a new twist in the tale of fashion's ever-unfolding story.  As The Global Herald...erm... heralded, on Saturday in its Google-search-topping article, the "New Digital Era Spells Trouble for Fashion Bloggers". Now far be it for me -being but a humble fashion blogger, myself - to embark on a debate regarding the finer points of semantics, but read the article and I think you'll agree it's not the bloggers facing said trouble, but the journalists and editors who find themselves competing with them.  Hundreds of them.  Thus, the resounding sentiment felt by all those from the official, printed press, was one of concern.   And with the sheer amount, and pace, of media available, it has every reason to be - though I could only guffaw when the author wrote "quite clearly, we can’t go on running out of Danish pastries as a result of the presence of hundreds of bloggers " as if those are going to be the only pies their new-found competitors will be trying to dip their fingers in!

Needless to say, I can't wait to give LFW's gems (whether or not of the Swarovski variety) the Chic Cheat treatment.  But first, as promised, I must hie with haste to my Chic Cheat ode to Balmain's Spring/Summer '10 collection - on the double!

Difficulty

Medium

Think I'm going to put this one down as so-so, where level of difficulty is concerned.  It's generally straightforward, but has its moments, namely when it comes to assembling and attaching the epaulettes.

Hours

A day or two's work, most of which can involves idle gluing and stitching, and can therefore be done in front of the telly!  Good times!

You will need

The following customising ingredients, available from all good haberdashers.  Here's what I paid for mine, and therefore round about what you should expect to pay for yours.  Prices may vary and could well be significantly more in London:

• Olive green military-style jacket.  I got mine from H&M, at a cost of £25, and struggled to find anything cheaper.  However, I came across black and navy jackets for about £10 at Primark, so it's worth a look to see if your local branch has one in green.


• Bead and fabric glue - £1.75 bottle, Creative Beadcraft (www.creativebeadcraft.co.uk , 1 Marshall Street, London W1F 9BA , Tel: 020 7734 1982)


• Needle and golden brown thread to match gold trims and adornments.


• 1metre of black fringing, with a drop of 10-15cm


• Scissors.


• Sewing machine (optional).

Total Cost

Mine worked out pricey by Chic Cheat standards, owing to how elusive the style of jacket proved to be.  I think it came to about £44, however...

Save It!

...It's better than parting with $9000 (about £5844 if my computer's currency converter is to be believed!) the approximate asking price for one of the originals.  That's a saving of £5800!

And now, to soldier on...

First of all, you need to get the quasi-braided look along the neckline and about 26cm along the middle of each sleeve, starting at the cuff. Glue your gold braided trim to your fabric in the pattern below.  Make your pattern about 4cm wide and copy the following steps:

Now, for the epaulettes.  Cut out two of the following shape in your flat foam wadding and four of the following in gold lamé.

Place your wadding on top of a piece of lamé, in the centre, so that you have 1cm's seam allowance all round.  Then place another piece of lamé on top, mirroring the first, so that the wadding is in the centre.

Stitch the two layers of lamé together, 1cm from the edge, ideally by machine.  You can do it by hand, but make sure it's tight and secure.

Repeat this process with the remaining piece of wadding and two pieces of lamé.

Cut away some of the excess fabric around the edge.

Cut out two sets of 40cm of your fringing and fold them back on each other, so that you have two double-thickness sets of fringe 20cm in length.

Cut out as many 15cm pieces as possible out of your gold and brown leather string. Glue or stitch down at fairly regular intervals along your fringing.

When your glue has dried, stitch the top of your decorated fringing along the wide, round end of each of your epaulettes.

Stitch your gold trim around the edge of each of your epaulettes and over the side of the fringing.

Stitch your epaulettes along the shoulders of your jacket, with the fringing covering the top of the sleeves.

Left-right-left- right- left-and pose-and strut-and exude- and sparkle for the camera, darling- because there's no daily battle you won't be able to face in this simply chic solution!

Charley's Final Thought

Check out Balmain's whole collection, and you'll notice they brought Napoleonic wartime finery into the 21st century with a new take on epaulettes, straying, in some of their catwalk creations, from the confines of bristle and fringe normality to incorporate leather and chains.

Why don't you try....

Leather

No need to spend way into the double digits on a whole skin, rather trawl your local leather and suede-monger for gold, bronze or brown offcuts.  Then, simply, patch the leather pieces around your wadding, to cover it, and dangle some strips from the round part.

If you're lucky enough to call London your stomping ground, good places to look are:

JT Batchelor, 9-10 Culford Mews, London, Tel: 020 7254 2962

Alma Leather, 12-14 Greatorex Street, London E1 5NF,Tel: 020 7377 0762

Borovick Fabrics, 16 Berwick Street, London W1F 0HP, Tel: 020-7437-2180

Walter Reginald, Unit 6, 100 the highway, London E1 W2BX. Tel: 020 7481 2233

Chains

Even more straightforward, this one.  Invest in a pair of shoulder pads from Klein's for £2.50 (www.kleins.co.uk, 5 Noel Street (in London's Soho)  W1F 8GD , Tel 020 7437 6162 ).

Cover your pads in gold lamé, or leather - you can even use fake leather for this one - and simply stitch some chains to the edge.

You can buy chains in gold and silver by the metre at Hobbycraft.  Find your local store at www.hobbycraft.co.uk

Jacket In!

Spring fashion: What’s got my attention… and what’s got my goat

I’m 25, a quarter of a century, and I’ve only six weeks left before my next birthday which I’m not looking forward to.  Quite aside from the pain of reminding myself that it’s a case of one more year wasted, I’m officially a year older and I've still made less progress in my worthless, paltry existence than a monkey sitting a driving test, my main issue is how out of my control it all is.  Rather than the milestone or rite of passage people credit it to be, age just sort of becomes me, and there’s nothing I can do about it – I wasn’t ready to be a 16-year-old when I turned 16, I wasn’t ready to be a 21-year-old when I turned 21 and now the impending shock of hitting 26 is one that can only be equalled by immersing myself in a vat of freezing water as a 6”rusty nail is jammed into my head, coupled with an electric current of 5000 volts whilst enduring a drip-torturous soundtrack of UK Garage.

Further insult was added to injury when I came across an article called What not to Wear Beyond your Teens , which asserts that anyone aged 20 or older has no sartorial rights to skimpy shorts, midriff-baring tops, miniskirts, “loud” hair accessories, oversized handbags, neon or plastic jewellery, low-cut jeans, slogan t-shirts, high stiletto heels, cleavage on show, sequins and glitter or – my favourite sanction – “dramatic” patterns, lest they should look like mutton dressed as lamb.  Yes, that’s right, kids – stop the press immediately, get Anna Wintour for me on line 1 and send out a red alert to the British Fashion Council.  All these years they have, in fact, been quite mistaken in gearing celebrity-tinged directional trends towards the young professional woman… news reaches us that they’re meant only for those on a minimum wage of £3.60 an hour, who barely even qualify for a basic student debit card and only half of whom are over the age of consent… you heard here first.

With the tone of a pre-menstrual authoritarian headmistress, and a choice of words like; “Enough is enough,” and “tone down the sparkle for more demure attire” this article really is a great read for anyone who wants to dress so far down they make Ann Widdecombe look like Lady Gaga!  My personal howler of choice would be: “(Avoid) Message (and) Slogan T-shirts: Let the teens communicate their angst through slogans, phrases and coloured drawings on their t-shirts. Wearing ‘Kiss Me I’m Irish’ or ‘Blondes Have More Fun’ can err on the side of tacky in your twenties.” …Personally, I wouldn’t agree – I’ve seen guys knocking 40 at rock clubs in T-shirts reading “Dead Girls Don’t Say No” and I think it rather gives the place character!  As regards the article, both narrow and contrived in the choice of examples, how I revel in the irony that the author neglected to mention my Tee slogan of choice: “I’m sorry.  You must think I value your opinion!”

I love my wardrobe full of printed hearts, skulls, tattoos, roses and motorbikes, insane heels, studs, rhinestones, miniskirts, costume jewellery, half shirts, hipsters… and steel cap-toed New Rocks just in case I should have the misfortune of meeting that evil writer!  (Honestly, I’m not violent *adjusts straitjacket*)  I’ve still got one remaining issue with its content, though – my lack of winter clothes…

I’m not short of jeans, long-sleeved tops or jackets, yet I always find myself shivering to the point of convulsion from November through to March without fail, and feeling like the darkest, outer-most reaches of Antarctica are small game in comparison to the science-defying lows of my freezing body temperature!  So I have to wear my coat indoors, which always makes my mum stare in disbelief before adding: “Put on something snug – like a fleece!”  I hate fleeces with a passion.  Fleeces are dull, shapeless and add about 3 stone to your shape.  Fleeces are what ramblers wear with cagoules and wellies to trawl the Outer Hebrides in conditions mankind wasn’t evolved to withstand, or what your mum wears to do the gardening in because she doesn’t want to ruin anything nice!  I wouldn’t de seen dead in one, let alone choose to own one…

…But I definitely would like to get my paws on Balmain’s military jacket and Burberry’s new trench coat (Below)

As if by magic, these hot hot houses have come up with designs which are not only suitable for all ages, but for all weather conditions.  I’d even be prepared to compromise and wear a revolting fleece underneath, so I can brave the winter cold and yet still look spring fabulous.  So, coming to an IP address near you, the Chic Cheat solutions for both.  Stay tuned… and stay beautiful.  Ciao, darlings!

Coming Up: A Mac Job - get the look of the new Burberry Trench Coat!

Stud Muffin

Images: Marcia Madeira for Style.com, Tobi Jenkins/ gorunway.com/ Rex, Net-a-porter.com, asos.com, David Giles, oasis-stores.com, bonadrag.com, Vincent Gapaillard for Wallpaper Magazine, Michael Baumgarten and Xavier Young for Style Magazine

What is it with rock music that it has to revolve around snobbery? How fondly I remember, back in my teens, when I leapt upon every opportunity to reel off a name of bands I worshipped, about whom I was prepared to go on ad nauseam, to anyone halfway bothered to listen.

Now, it seems, the hob-nailed Doc Marten is on the other foot, regarding conversations within the rock fan community. Boy, do they ever like to talk about music, but on one condition: That your music taste matches theirs to the letter. Drop a name they disapprove of, and you’re looking at something resembling a lobbyist political rally, or an aggressive debate, victory for which goes out to the most unhealthily stubborn.

Of course, as a humble outsider, I don’t know what goes on in the heads of these allegedly fat cat record industry moguls. What I do know is I’d easily equal them in the wealth stakes if I had a pound for every band name I dropped, only to face a barrage of: “They’re sellouts!”/”I liked them before they sold out!”, “Oh my god, they’ve totally lost it!”, “They’re too commercial!”, “They’re sooo derivative!” and even “They’re not that original, they just ripped off a load of prog rock bands before them, that you haven’t heard of, and took all the credit!” etcetera - plus a host of conspiracy theories that would awe and perturb George Orwell. Never one to take the smile-and-nod doormat stance on the matter, I can’t help thinking of the Soren Kierkegaard quote: “People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid!” Yes, I fully appreciate that this is a free country, and that everyone’s entitled to their own opinion, but that just takes the proverbial!

As for where alleged “plagiarism” is concerned, surely everything’s a little bit derivative, and has been, especially since the latter half of the last century. It’s not for reasons regarding cash, conspiracies and men in suits, either, rather that creativity of any persuasion doesn’t happen in a vacuum, and that influence from what’s gone before is a perfectly natural, rational and inevitable process - certainly more so than some pretentious, half-arsed attempt to reinvent the wheel. Isn’t it how you use said influences and where you go from there that creative flair - or lack thereof - comes into play?

Funnily enough, the same can be said of fashion, especially given it’s knack for pillaging the past, from pre-Raphaelite through to punk. Yet, at the same time it needs to invent new trends worth us putting our hands in our pockets for, season upon season. Hence the birth of postmodernist pastiche, or, less poshly put, it ain’t what you do it’s what you intend to do with it – whether you want to mix your freshly ripped-off influence with another one, stylistically refine it or merely rehash it’s key pieces in expensive, fashion-friendly fabrics – that’s what gets results!

Here’s an example worth mentioning: Punk – subversion, offence, two-fingers backwards at “good taste,” oh and also at consumerism, before edging its way into consumerist spheres and (shock, horror!) selling out. 30 years on and studs and chains are doing the rounds again in fashionista circles, but, this time, looking a world away from punk’s perdition-bound protagonists of old. The studs are all glam and polished, and sit in neat little rows on frocks and accessories alike, cutting a figure that’s decidedly more New Bond Street than Camden High Street. It’s chic, it’s distinctive…and it’s easy-peasy to do.

Difficulty

Medium

…Okay, I know I said easy, it’s certainly simple and, I’d say, fairly self-explanatory just a word of warning, it proved a bit more on the fiddly side than I expected when I, in true Chic Cheat tradition, road-tested the method myself. Don’t let it put you off, though, because it also means I can say, from experience, that the results are definitely worth it.

Hours

Okay, the example I chose to do, which was a geometric pattern in small studs, worked in two stages, the mapping out and drawing of the design (which took about 6ish hours, if my memory serves me) and a few 6 or 7-hour days to put the studs in.

Total Cost

It just depends on what you want to customise and how many studs you want to use. Accessories such as gloves, shoes and bags are generally easy to get directional trends with, using an affordable amount of studs, whereas clothing, especially dresses, can prove a pricier venture, but I think I’ve found a solution which I’ll mention shortly in this entry…

You Will Need

•A garment or accessory to customise – and, for once, I’m gonna leave this option open as the possibilities are endless.
• Studs – while trawling the boundless realms of Ebay, I found a jolly nice punk emporium, www.studsandpunks.co.uk, where studs retail at around 6p each when you buy them in packs of 100. Doesn’t sound like much, I know, but bearing in mind you might be looking within the region of 1000 to cover a whole dress, and that you still have to allow for postage and packing, believe me, it adds up!
BE VERY CLEAR ABOUT HOW MANY STUDS YOU NEED – if it’s less than 200 (say, for accessories, such as shoes, bags and gloves) go for studs, otherwise, try some metal beads. I found some online, at the following web addresses, which reminded me of metal studs and would be far less expensive to buy in bulk:

http://www.prettycreativeathawthornlane.com/details.asp?ID=1379

http://www.prettycreativeathawthornlane.com/details.asp?ID=3369

• Graph paper, before you put your hand in your pocket for a pad of graph paper, the good news is you can print some for free online at the following address:

http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/square.html

• Long-nosed pliers
• Scalpel or unpicker
• Masking tape (optional, but recommended, in my humble opinion)
• Pencil, marker or ruler if you’re drawing your own geometric patterns.

And this is how it goes…

(…The method that is:)

•Choose and/or plan out your design on your graph paper, lay your garment out flat and attach your graph paper, going through one layer, to the right side of your garment.

Graph Paper – You do the Math!

A good way to get perfect grid-like stud patterns is to pin some graph paper to your garment, aligning it with the edge to make sure it’s straight and simply follow the pattern by planting a stud on the corner of each square.

The best bit about printing graph paper from the web is you can program how far apart you want your squares, and therefore studs on your final garment. Don’t put them too close together, even quarter-inch studs need only be a centimetre apart at the closest, otherwise they’ll be on top of each other, you’ll lose the geometric shape and you’ll find yourself using up more studs per area, so it’ll end up costing you a bomb!

You can either follow the grid patterns directly or use them to map out other types of geometric patterns that are hot right now:

Square Grid Style:

Images: As before

Self-explanatory, this one, especially if you print out your grid paper in dot form. Plonk it onto your fabric and plant your studs on the dots/corners.

Alternative Grid Style:

Images: As before, also by Toby Hudson for Sunday Times Style Magazine

Same idea as the grid style above, but alternating the lines on which you put your studs, like so…

Clusters:

Images: as before, also Religion Jacket, wardrobemag.wordpress.com.2009/06/29

Tailor-made for pyramid studs, this one. Plan out your shape with some lines for your triangles or criss-cross shapes, pin on your paper and plonk in your studdies, as before.

Geometric patterns:

Images: As before, also by Toby Hudson for Sunday Times Style Magazine

…And last but not least, my personal favourite, a time-consuming but really fun and ultimately rewarding process, this one requires a little more planning, especially if you’re covering a whole garment, you need to print out your graph paper, draw out your pattern with lines, making sure it’s symmetrical.

Use a marker pen to dot out where to put your studs, on the corner of each of the squares your line pattern covers, pin onto your fabric, then put in and secure your studs.

Secure your studs in place on the inside of your garment by folding the two prongs on either side back on themselves, towards the centre of the stud, one on top of the other, with some long-nosed pliers.

…And, finally, pick your paper off with your unpicker or scalpel, taking extra special care not to damage your garment.