Neon Oasis

By Neslihan

Once upon a lifetime you see a picture that makes life worth living. That inspires you and challenges you to look at things differently. But sometimes you see a whole photoshoot that controls every angle of your brain. It's the colours, the setting, the model and how graceful she poses. When all of those things are in balance you get one hell of a photoshoot. A tableau vivant, with an amazing amount of energy that could become alive any instant. You just have to believe in it. Believe in the bright blue sky, believe it when she stares in the unlimited distance. 

 I had never heard of Kinee Diouf's name before I saw this photoshoot but how beautiful does she look? She looks like a pilar of strength. And her grace just turns this picture in a majestic painting. Also note how strongly she looks like Grace Jones on this picture. And she's rocking the abundance of colours, materials, lengths and light.

She looks like an elegant giant on the picture above but here you see how tiny she is when sitting on the camel. Also loving the floaty pink and orange fabrics. How delightful do they look with the sky?

 

Love how she poses, she really uses her body to bring the message across.

What a royal dress. The queen wears purple. Please do note her gorgeous lipstisck!

(© Issey Miyake)

I've created two little outfits in order to accompany this neon mood:

Outfit 1: Brunch with Charles

 Outfit 2: Cocktail with Barry

Collages: made it myself on polyvore

Pictures: 'Neon Oase' Vogue NL July 2013 -styling: Marije Goekoop

                                               -photograhy: Ishi

Confused girls do it better

By Neslihan

There is actually no clue or consistency in the collage I've created above. It was just a way to share one of the many enchanting Lana Del Rey pics featured in this month's L'Officiel Paris. In that photoshoot we see a furiously sexy Del Rey, who remains mysterious with every taken picture. The setting, the outfits, the make-up, the hair, everything was in balance and the whole story about a certain 'Rosalita' (impersonated by Lana) was just so credible. And even though I would like to go on and on about Lana's pictures this post was meant to be about something else.
Let's talk about confusion. Confusion is when you enter a twilight zone. Confusion is when you know the answer but your lips are too afraid to form the words. Confusion is screaming in your head while everything around you is quiet. Confusion is being in the moment but not daring to use your initiative. Love is confusion. Friendship is confusion. And confusion is either downfall, either enlightenment.

Collage
Editorial picture from L'Officiel Paris, April 2013
Glasses from A-mourir
Oxford creepers from Marc by Marc Jacobs
Flower crown with little 'veil' from etsy
Red bra from Eberjey

To Walden Pond, please

By Neslihan

Hi y'all, you may or may not know that I've got to work on two research competences for school. You can see it as two major projects that have to be ready this May. They include both English and Latin literature. Our subject for the English project is about utopias and dystopias and we decided to read Orwell's '1984' (dystopic) and Thoreau's 'Walden' (utopic). We're planning on comparing the two books and we're going to see whether Thoreau's utopia is realistic but also whether Orwell's dark predictions have come true. Reading 'Walden' isn't exactly the easiest thing I've done so far -it has uncountable references to the antique literature and it's an amazing historical-philosophical work- but I feel like I'm getting there.
It may be ancient in terms of setting (first published in 1854, hellooo) but it's crazy how some aspects I've read about so far are still scarily relevant. And how we are still trying to get back to the essence of things once in awhile. Whether it's by actually going on an adventurous trip or whether it's by daydreaming about the same trip. We're still trying to figure out 'the meaning of life', maybe not as intense as Thoreau did in 1845-1847 but we're still trying to break through the ordinary simplicity daily life offers us. And at the same time we're trying to get back to basics. I like how contradictory people are. And how contradictory my own views are. I try to let them crash and this provides pure inspiration. That's why it happens so frequently in my mind and as a natural result on this blog. Look at the image above: a picture from the 'Double Accountancy' shoot from 'Elle Holland' October 2012. I'm pairing up 'Elle' and 'Walden'. I mean 'Elle' of all the things in the world. We're talking major commerce here, Thoreau's main cause in leaving civilized life and living in his selfmade cabin near Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts. Not only did he generally criticize American society but he also had some opinions about fashion and clothing as a basic.

"Our outside and often thin and fanciful clothes are our epidermis or false skin, which partakes not of our life, and may be stripped off here and there without fatal injury; our thicker garments, constantly worn, are our cellular integument, or cortex, but our shirts are our true bark, which cannot be removed without girdling and so destroying the man." -From 'Walden' (Economy: Clothing)

The following quote is so up to date and accurate, I just cannot explain how much I love this one!

"We worship not the Graces, nor the Parcae, but Fashion. She spins and weaves and cuts with full authority. The head monkey in Paris puts on a traveller's cap, and all the monkeys in America do the same." -From 'Walden' (Economy: Clothing) 

I just love how 'Fashion' is portrayed as this  tyrannical person who doesn't take 'no' for an answer and whom you cannot argue with. You can kind of feel the rhythm as you're reading the words, the speed with which those actions are happening.

And this guy just pictures that conscious free spirit feeling I had in mind. You know that kind of guy that pops a beer and starts to talk about Cuba's crisis in 1962, while he casually strokes his gross but lovely beard. And after his stay at a vague
acquaintance's place, he takes his bagpack, gets in his fancy sneakers and continues his route to the
unknown. But he feels perfectly fine doing so because he's accompanied by a wonderful track.

Sources: Elle Holland, October 2012
               Walden
Pictures found here.

Cool chicks cut their own hair

By Neslihan

Kristen McMenamy

You remember those cool girls in high school? You know the ones that always looked effortless without even trying. The ones who cut their own hair and wore high waist 80's jeans without looking like they had been cut down in two at their middle. Those bad ass chicks who wore ugly trainers and totally rocked them. They started trends without even wanting it. They formed this unaccessible, yet accessible click and they said "You can't sit with us" without even opening their mouths. They could even make chav or homeless look glam. This post is dedicated to those girls. To all the quirky chicks who had the balls to take their destiny into their own hands and cut their own hair without even their hand trembling. 

And I respect that. I do! I've got my straight bangs for almost 5 years now and haven't seen my forehead since 2008 (a little exaggerated but you get the point). I visit my hairdresser once/2 weeks since my hair grows quite fast, or at least my bangs do. I hate that two-weekly visit. I think it's a tremendous waste of time but since I lack the cut-your-own-hair skill, I'm not risking anything. I've once tried it and it's never to be repeated again. My bangs were unequally cut and I had this wave thing going on. That was a hair disaster, say a dark page in my hair history. So NEVER, NEVER, NEVER again.
I can imagine that amazing feeling of freedom or selfconfidence when taking those scissors in your hands though. It's this "I'm the creator of my own disaster" thing but that's not always the case. Because there are a lot of successful stories aswell. Alexa Chung for example cuts her own hair too and always looks fabulously flawless after doing so. Some poeple take the extra mile by giving theirself a pixie haircut, now that is something to admire, I think. And so does Vogue UK in their November issue:

 Call it the ultimate in laid-back chic, call it recession ringlets, call it what you will - but there's a whole new wave of creative women taking hair maintenance into their own hands. "Traditionally cutting your own hair was something not spoken about, a social taboo", says hairstylist Zoe Irwin. "But now it's a sort of throwaway beauty adventure, a new way of embracing the spirit of our times." -From 'Making the cut'

 I love Freja Beha's chaotic straight bangs. Since she has different layers in it, it looks easy to cut it yourself.

GIRL CRUSH #1

Florence - I have awesome hair- Welch

Hair heroine

Hey, I'm Zooey - awkward- Deschanel

Cute pixie

Michelle Williams

Alexa Chung and her homemade haircut

Trashy glam

Belles de Banlieu shoot in Jalouse FR (November 2012)

Or the bad girls from the block

Photography by Timur Celikdag

“It’s about the bad girls I knew at school, the ones I envied”, Miucca Prada on establishing Miu Miu.

Sources: Vogue UK, Jalouse FR, both November 2012

Amour simple

By Neslihan

This one will be a quickie! In my previous post I held a true hommage to simplicity as it is and this post won't be any different. I'm showing you some pictures of an impeccable Vogue UK shoot starring Guinevere Van Seenus photographed by Josh Olins. Together they're exposing some delicious clean cuts and sleekly finished clothing. Calvin Klein, Céline and Jil Sander (by Raf Simons) are some names Van Seenus wore during the shoot. I just love how the rough landscape creates an amazing contradiction with the balanced and smooth clothes. I can not tell you how much I loved this shoot when I first saw it. And I will keep on spreading my fashion motto on this blawg: SIMPLICITY FO' LIFE, BITCHES.

Source: Vogue UK, August 2012

Sensuality versus sex

By Neslihan

We can all agree on the fact that sex, nudity and sensuality are touchy subjects in some countries/ communities. It's not done, perverse or just very obscene and too personal to talk about. It's a hard reality though that sex is pretty much everywhere in the 21st century. The question is, does it bother? If you'd ask me, I'd say 'yes' and 'no'. 'No' because sex and sensuality are natural to me. It's not a must, it's basic. Everybody needs that kind of thrill, or that kind of femininity. You censor sex, well, you censor a huge part of a human being. You censor an existence. 

As long as nudity is being presented in an artsy but not artificial way, I'm fine with breasts and asses. I'm not saying it always has to be functional or relevant. No, it just has to be aesthetically interesting to look at. If you let Rihanna wear a tiny, pink tong and let her dance on my telly with her bottom in a huge close-up, well, that to me is not artistic. It's too much of an in your face thing, you see? We're not talking about sensuality but sex. In your face sex. And that's when all this nudity totally bothers me. 

Sensuality only with the intention of having sex is just incredibly dull and superficial to me. And now you're going to say that it's never Rihanna or Madonna's intention to give their sexy outfits a phylosophical meaning. That's fine by me. I mean sex sells, right? I still think it's a sad, sad world. Audrey Hepburn never had to show her nipples to make her audience fall in love with her but I guess times have changed.

You'd think that we're getting comfortable around naked bodies and sexual subjects but we somehow seem to disclose ourselves from those topics. Simply because we don't know how the other one's going ot react. I don't want to generalise but that's something I've noticed. Luckily for me, my friends are open about those subjects as well. They don't have issues with talking about their personal (sex)  lives and they totally don't give me those "eeew what are you talking about" looks. It all depends on maturity, I guess.

What you find attractive is totally personal. It's about taste and perception. What might be sexy to you, might be totally boring to me and that's fine. That's totally okay. You don't need to justify your taste because who cares? Sensuality also depends on the culture you're being raised in. As for myself, I'm a girl with Turkish roots and when I look at my family it's super rude to talk about sensuality, sex or LGTB communities. It's something that can be changed or suppressed, they think. It's also unnatural, according to them. And that's even sadder.

My mother on the other hand is very comfortable around those subjects and she leaves my sister and me the choice to explore our own sexual identity. She's relaxed when she's talking about sexuality and I think that's very important. She also lets us wear the clothes we want and gives us our own space and I'm so thankful for that. 

Somehow it seems to be impossible ta talk about sensuality without talking about sexuality. The other way around is possible though and that's very striking to me. I sometimes wished that a simple black dress were to be found a lot more sexier than a pair of hotpants showing 2/3 of your butt cheeks. I sometimes wished that Pasolini was more shocking to our generation than Keri Hilson (play it at 1:00). If that's even shocking because you see, it's a psychological fact that the more we see something, the more we get used to it. So, the next time Keri smacks her boobs into your face, you'll be like "whatever". Or that's how your psychological ego should work. 

The reason of this post are Terry Richardson's portaits of Paz de la Huerta. Terry Richardson is a noted fashion photographer (I've always wanted to say this, Tyra) who's known for his sexy and controversial photoshoots. You recognise the Terry stamp immediately: crazy, sexy, playful, a bit shocking are the keywords. The Paz girl is one hell of a sensual chick. I've come across her pictures for the Agent Provacateur Fall/ Winter campaign and I was kind of amazed how natural she exposed herself and how comfortable she looked doing so. Not to mention her gorgeous face and body. And that name is just amazing. See for yourself.

And a quote to end with:  “There is not anything in mind, which hasn't been in feelings.”

All pictures belong to Terry Richardson, make sure you check out his blog.

They can look through you

By Neslihan

Hello there,

It's been a bit quiet around here but this blog post will change that fact. I won't share something fashiony today but it has to do with art. So back in September when Walter van Beirendonck, a Belgian fashion designer, (read) was editor for a day for a Belgian newspaper, I saw a photograph taken by Diane Arbus. And I was thrilled. Looking at this picture made me realise that I wasn't analysing the picture but the picture was analysing me. You get the inevitable impression that it just keeps staring at you. It's so freaky and so incredibly intense but also too beautiful and perfect to be true. It's so loud in all its serenity that it becomes really shocking. And for a certain moment I felt like I couldn't look away, it just holds your attention and makes you look at it every time again. Wikipedia describes Diane's work this way: "Diane Arbus was known for her photographs of outsiders and people on the fringes of society. " And I couldn't have said it better because it's so true. All though her work is about the so said 'outsiders' or weirdos, it's never her intention to ridiculise someone. She just makes you look at her photographs and look back and back and back...

Identical twins, Rossele, New Jersey, 1967 (the picture I'm talking about above)

Teenage couple on Hudson street, NYC, 1963

Girl sitting in bed with her boyfriend, NYC, 1966

Young Brooklyn family going for a Sunday outing, Brooklyn, 1966

Patriotic young man with a flag, NYC, 1967