Links a la Mode - IFB's Weekly Roundup

SUMMER FUN

Edited by Jessie Thorpe of Denimology

"Summer is here and it's very exciting to see the change in everyone's wardrobe and more pop of color. Inspiration roams the streets at every corner! It's hypnotizing. It's hard to keep money in my pocket... I'm sure many of you can relate. Besides what I observe outside, Fashion blogs are a key influence to my style. Bloggers constantly make me smile from ear to ear and from season to season as I watch them transform.

I'm looking forward to flowing dresses, ripped up shorts, hot bright colors, basic tanks, bold accessories, This list might go on forever. Below you'll find a lot of food for thought."

Links à la Mode: June 16th

• 1972 Projects - DEPARTURE: Christophe Lemaire's Hermès Debut
• aNewFoundLove - The Body Shop's New Bronze Collection + campaign to STOP sex trafficking of children and young girls !
• All The Cool Kids - My Little Pony as some colorful fashion inspiration...
• All The Fuss - Power Clashing: We Do It Because We Can.
• Beautifully Invisible - Guest Post: How to Not be a Savage Blogger – “Follow Back” Alternatives for New Bloggers
• Boheme Noir - Retrospective: The medieval warrior women of Dior Couture fall 2006
• Chasing Louboutin - A few minutes with Rachel Roy and Karina Petroni
• Codos on the Window Sills - A historical approach to why skinny=good
• Denimology - JustFabulous Launches Premium Denim Line!
• Dress With Courage - An exploration of the influence of celebrity culture on sartorial choice
• Fashion Bucket - Dressing for your body shape. Featured this week: Petite.
• Fumiko Kawa - Mutli-Purpose Style: Lace Cardigan to Haute Headwrap
• Former Parades - Blogger meeting + outfit: we spreaded the blogging love last Sunday at a Dutch fashion blogger meeting!
• Madeline Quaint - Why buy handmade? Some tips and arguments after a visit to a Design Bazaar
• Made To Travel - Rock the bright stripes trend on your fingertips with this easy mani.
• Midnight Cowgirl - How to do a Photo Shoot on the Cheap
• Out Of Order Design - Cover Me In Rainbows: A beginners guide to the color wheel, color blocking and color combining
• Sugar & Spice - How to... Colour Block: .
• The Fashion Turd - An Decora styled outfit post inspired by all things Japanese on the web
• TheStylishButterfly - How Thor inspired me to discover the science of Christopher Kane fashion

SPONSOR:
New Designers at Shopbop: Temperley London, Tom Binns, Anna Sui, Soo Ihn Kim, Tibi Day Dresses, Mima, Pencey, Thayer dresses, Minnetonka, Sara Berman, Motif 56.

What's This All About?

Every week, Independent Fashion Bloggers submit links to their best posts, and IFB's editors choose twenty links from those submitted. Every chosen blog publishes the whole list of links - and this week, one of my posts is featured! I can't tell you how absolutely delighted I am!

If you haven't tried submitting a post yet, but would like to, check out Vahni's explanation at Grit and Glamour - she even illustrated the steps with screenshots, cannot be easier! The only thing you need is a blogpost you want to share with other Independent Fashion Bloggers. :)

Turquoise Thanks

Oh, girls, it’s one of those days. I'm sure it happened to you before that you weren't happy about your pictures. I still edited some anyway after work then got up and went out to buy an inordinate amount of fruit. I ate a whole melon, then I sat down again, and... I was still unhappy with the pictures. Even after devouring a melon! What an outrageous day!

So I looked at some of your blogs, then dicarded the edited pictures and chose some totally different ones.

It’s inevitable, sometimes I’m just unsure of my choices. But then I look around at your blogs and gather courage to share. What’s more, now I can’t wait to share my pictures with you. Especially the scarf tied as a turban thing, as I loved wearing it today!

Since I started taking my own pictures and share them with you all, my attitude towards my style changed immesurably. I walk around the city with head held much higher. I feel like an ambassador of a worldwide community of people who support each other not only in their choices of clothes, but in many small ways we don’t even realise. Thank you for your encouragement, your flow of lovely comments and continual support – even when my pictures weren’t very brilliant. Exactly three months ago today I started my blog and with it, started a conversation with all of you. It feels like I got to know you a little, I hope you feel the same way too!

The stuff I wore: Blouse and Skirt: Second Hand, Sandals: Tamaris, 

Scarf and Belt: H&M, Earrings: Self made

The best comes at the end - I just checked and my Bazaar Times and Handmade Products blogpost that I submitted to IFB is included in this week's Links a la Mode! I'm over the moon! Time for another melon? :)

Lazing in the Castle

What a lovely Saturday afternoon! We walked up to the Castle with Sophie and Eszter and played tourist, snapped some pictures and as it was really hot, just hang out looking down on the city.

OK, here I'm looking down on my shoes instead.

The castle district is like a journey back in time, most of the buildings have hundreds of years behind them. Some of them are surely haunted, like this one:

Striped walls, I wish they were still in fashion!

This lady matches her surroundings so well, I couldn't resist taking the picture.

Do you remember the stall with the handmade bags from my previous post? Well, check this out:

I swear I didn't have this custom made, still it matches the blog exactly with its dots and grey trim! I'm so happy I have a blog-bag. :)

A close-up with my necklaces (also handmade).

The owl ring Sophie gave me just because she thought I'd like it! Of course I like it! :)
Thank you Sophie, and for taking the pictures of me!

My skirt, Sophie's bag and dress

What I wore: Skirt: H&M, Top: Zara, Shoes: Humanic, 

Hat: Interestingly I have no idea where it's from, Belt: Reserved, 

Bag: Handmade from Gouba, Necklaces: Handmade from Jojó Art Shop

Bazaar Times and Handmade Products

I’m a passionate advocate of buying handmade and buying local. Mostly because it’s so much more fun browsing stalls and talking to the designers and finding things that are truly original. New ideas always inspire me to think differently too.

Gozsdu Bazaar or Gouba, a weekly bazaar for handmade products here in Budapest is held in a string of adjoining courtyards, which I’m not very good at photographing, sorry! Believe me though that the setting is really nice and very atmospheric, calm and happy, while buzzing with creative energy.

Handmade chocolate! Yum!

What I wore: trousers: Zara, Blouse: Second hand, Shoes: Vagabond, You can't see my bag but it's from Clarks, Scarf: H&M, Necklace: Jeans Club, Earrings: DIY, Bracelets: H&M, and from a Lindt chocolate bunny. :)

I could go on and on about why I support buying handmade, so I thought I would get some of the arguments together for those who aren't sure about buying from local designers and artists. 

So let's see, why buy handmade?

Invest in Ethical Produce

Many times when I buy mass-produced jewellery I can't help but wonder who assembled it and how much money they earnt with that painstaking work. If you buy directly from the maker, or from small local shops, you can be sure your money reaches the artist directly, or only one step removed. Phew, you can forget remorse and nightmares of child labour, while the artist gets all of their money, without the interference of big companies. Win-win!

Invest in Your Area

Buying something directly from the designer-maker is the best way of ensuring that only ethical labour went into the product, and that the materials were sourced in your area. What's more, your new possession probably didn't travel very far to get into your hands.

Whether the sellers are the designers themselves or a local shop owner, by buying their bags, dresses, earrings, you support your area to grow financially, as well as artistically.

Invest in Quality

Invest in handmade pieces lovingly assembled by the designer. At a market you can discuss how to care about your new acquisition and make a note of the designer’s details to ask for help if a seam is burst, or half an earring is lost. Building a personal connection with your newest acquisition makes it more valuable – treasuring what you buy, you take care of it better. Try to look at your clothes in a different light, after all, they could all be pieces of art! If half of your earring is lost, you might just throw it out. If it’s a handmade, one-of-a-kind piece, you can contact the maker to work out a way of saving it. Quality over quantity - well-loved, well-made pieces instead of mass-produced, almost worthless stuff. It's easy to choose!

Invest in Talent

Be proud to support young talent and if you like their work, help them making more art by buying their designs. Dare to be original in your purchases, your one-of-a-kind piece might become one of your most treasured possessions. Don’t you wish you could have bought one of Coco Chanel’s early designs? :)

Don’t hold back with praise if you see a design you like. As bloggers you know how much it means to be inspired by a comment, feedback is important for designers too. Even if you don’t buy anything, your opinion and support will matter for a young talent who might emerge as an influential artist – thanks partly to you!

Most importantly: enjoy browsing and shopping, enjoy your acquisitions, enjoy connecting and reconnecting with the designers!

Wearing History

When I touch an object that has a history, my imagination can’t help but run away along the times it must have lived through.

I can’t restrain myself from buying old postcards and imagine someone writing them 100 years ago, the addressee treasuring the card for years and years, displaying, maybe even framing it.

Chipped porcelaine, however ugly, will always make me think of huge family lunches, kids running around the table, accidentally tripping and breaking the still missing piece off. 

Books whose pages were turned by countless people before me, who read the same lines I’m reading and maybe thought similar thoughts.

Objects like these have value that has nothing to with their actual worth as it also depends on your ability to see it. 

Like this belt which used to belong to my grandfather when he was a boy scout before the Second World War. It even has the date stamped on it, and the Budapest address of the scouting shop.

I already see my grandpa as a little boy, walking the streets of a very different Budapest, stepping into the shop while the bell rings to notify the salesman. I can also see him somewhat later, wearing this same belt, proudly frying pancakes in the middle of a forest, on a fireplace constructed in a ditch. (He told me about this when I was very small, and it apparently got stuck in my memory – maybe because the story involved sweets.)

For me, objects that have a past mean much more than a brand new designer piece. Not that I own any designer stuff - I just know that buying one of them wouldn't make me feel the same joy when I find an old, battered but beautiful object, that's seen more of the world than me. It’s truly an amazing feeling to "wear history". I find this piece much more precious than any brand new accessory. 

Belt: Used to belong to my late grandfather, dress: Second hand, Jeans: Takko, 

Sandals: Bata, Earrings: C&A, Ring: Jojó Art Shop

Tablecloth Dress

The monsoon season started or something... I wanted to take some pictures of what I wore yesterday, but you know those rainstorms when it's literally pouring, and from every possible direction? Yep, I was caught up in one of those and was soaked to the skin. Brrr!

Anyway, the great thing about clothes - I can always wear that outfit some other time. 

Once it's all dry. :)

The same kind of rainstorm hit today, but luckily I was still at work and rushed out immediately after to take these photos while the weather cooperated.

It makes me smile to see the huge dots with the tablecloth-like dress. :)

In a recent blogpost Pau over at Titine and Totoche wrote about who women dress for - themselves, other women or men? In this case I hope every weather-beaten pedestrian with a keen eye for pattern was cheered up a little.

See the happy guy? He absolutely has a spring in his step. :)

I don't know what's going on here with the movement, but I like it.

Dress: Second hand, Leggings: Chinese shop, Sandals: Tamaris (worn before here and here), Umbrella: Ikea, Belt: H&M (I turned it around, to show the simpler side), Big ring: Small boutique, Roses: Jojó Art Shop.