reSESSION on

Recession brings out the best in us. Working in retail I have seen the changes recession spending has made in the average consumer. Seen it and experienced it myself. I have never thought about what fabrics were used to make my clothes. I would shop and buy what I liked and didn’t know what the difference between fabrics was or cared. Gone are those days.

It began simply by us caring what made our clothes. We didn’t want the sweat shop made cheap fabrics of easy fashion. Primark was ruining our landscapes and at first we shunned our guilt by buying our 8 euro tops. But not for long. Becoming eco aware was the first step in the change in Irish shopping (and shopping the world over) people could no longer enjoy the thrill of spending cheaply and reaping the benefits of a 2 euro bag. We were killing our own kind. And the enviroment.

Once we became eco aware and demanded economically kind and ethically sourced goods we began a little broker by spending in places we could feel good about.

Ssssstrike one.

The next big hit was the recession. We worked harder for our money. Held on to the last few pennies in the penny jar and we demanded quality. Suddenly we no longer wanted goods that fell apart after two washes. We wanted things built to last. Shoes that actually were water proof and not just fashionable. I first noticed this change when customers started checking labels to see just what their clothing was built with. And I even started it myself.  We needed to know our clothing which we were surprisingly keen to spend a bit more on would last.

Customers dropping €200 on a jacket needed to know it would see them through. And all for the better. Less spending. More saving. I think twice before I buy.  And it must be ethical, well made and classically styled.

But there was one more area to gain from the recession. Creativity.

During the recession years of the 1980’s we saw the new romantics, punks and gothic styles emerge tightly clad in black lace, hair rags and wonderful studded jackets. The recession then gave birth to a style culture not afraid to add a button here and a stud there. You weren’t cool unless customised.

And then the club kids happened. Micheal Ali led a group of kids fed up with the grey of cityscapes with no escapes into a world of glitter, dancing and design. Prehapes inspired by gay performance artist Leigh Bowery. These kids built costumes. Constructed outfits more sculpture then cloth. Painted their faces and became famous for escapisim.

It is with interest I have watched the growing interest in the return of the club kid era. Our pennies and pounds streched to the limit we expect them to work harder so we can play harder once more. Imitation nights out styled around the club kids have sprung up. My friends are now customising leather jackets, ripping sleeves off t-shirts and painting doc martins once more.

Our world is falling apart but our costumes are built to last. Well, at least for saturday night. Check out your style resources such as pony club in London or RI RA in Dublin on a friday night. All of which are your new recession friends.

To me. I started my escape a year ago this summer when from my wardrobe ashes sprung a new creation. Miss Penny dreadful. I painted my face, cut and dyed my hair, wore sequins and platforms. Wigs and weaves, tights and teardrops! It was saturday nights are go! Go ! go!

Now as I watch with bemusement at people who laughed at me a year ago pull on their tranny tights and ask ‘does my arse look big in this?” (answer is always yes) and stut their stuff down the same bars I fell around in this time last year. So my question is this, why does it always take a recession to bring out the monster in everyone?

yes. we. can

Has anyone else noticed trendy foods?

Is it just me?

First it was everyone must drink smoothies. You were no one without your wheatgrass shot or a plastic cup with liquided spinach in one hand. You coffee drinkers got scornful looks from people in the know. Urgh. How dreadfully behind the times. Jump smoothie bars shot up all over Dublin and the rest of Ireland. Every second building.  But then people grew tired once more of pretending to enjoy the bitter taste of a pint of lemon and raspberry (not to mention the crazy prices) so they binned their smoothie maker (well, those things are a bitch to clean) and the next phase to shoot up was, sushi.

Yo! Sushi shot up all over Dublin and sushi became the next big thing. Brought on by a range of celebrity sashmi eaters this craze again had us all pretending to be full after slivers of raw fish. We also pretended not to notice we were paying stupid money for the food in YO! (seriously anyone else noticing that too????) So we moved on from that too.

In recent months the humble bagel became the new thing.  (Ireland does like to bend over  happily for American trends) we became able to knowingly tell our multiseed from our poppy seed and know that bagels are lovely with cream cheese. We could sit outside and pass judgement on those chewing on our untrendy neighbours, the humble sandwhich.

But alas, we were not to be satisified by bagel alone. We needed more. And what better then the newest craze hot off the cold summer of 2009 , the cupcake. We want to regress to our childhood for ten glory filled minutes with our pink sponge, iced cakes with bits of marizpan fruit stuck on top covered in (proberely) non edible glitter. Yeah. We like that. When in cupcake land for those glory five minutes we can pretend to forget that our heatlh system is crap, we have no decent ministers, we can’t even build a working bridge. But hey, for five minutes we can dream right?

Yes.

We.

Can.

 

viva la punk!

I

 hate this time of year. It’s the time of the year where tweed co

mes creeping back into the shops and ladylike glamour is all the range. Where blonde contemplate the eternal question of dying your hair bright rich red and we all favour a pencil skirt. I however cannot pull off ladylike glamour. At all. I am punk rock and glitter all the way. Dita Von Teese I am not. It is only in winter and the xmas collections that I find anything that catches my eye and doesn’t make me look like a little girl dressed in her mother’s chanel.

It is with a heavy heart that I have resigned myself to the fact that as much as I want to, I will never be a lady.  So the designs of alex McQueen or Christian Lacroix will never sit right on me because I just can’t work it. But show me the leather high waisted shorts of chloe or the

 FIERCE! Leathers of  the alexander Wang collection and watch me show them a good time! Leathers, pvc and glitter will always be welcome in my wardrobe because my friends, while the fast years of drunken and drug fulled college nights out might be over and I may be pitched fast into the working wilderness, I am still only 24 and not ready to hang up my face paints and sequinned harem pants just yet.

We shall play on shall we?

ed westwick. the wonder that is

celebs of note from cambridge are kinda hard to find. go on....name one.....

it seems to be the liverpool, manchester and london ladies and gents that people know of.

that is,

until gossip girl unearthed a gem. Ed Westwick. is. from. stevenage. i nearly fell off my chair in delight when i heard the soft tones of an accent (from my neck of the woods) emerge in a short docu about gossip girls stylist.

for those not in the know (how could you) ed plays chuck bass. a complete bass-tard (sorry) and an all around wonderful character. it must be such a relief to play a character with teeth rather then the pretty boy stylings of nate or the nice boy character of Dan. (who by the way is dating the real life serena van der woodsen ) anyway,

with the third series of gossip girl in production and series two out on dvd there is no excuse not be watching this cult series......

spotted : ed westwick and that vanessa one kissing?!?!?! no Fing way. please god tell me this is a joke or a series three plotline gone wrong. but apparently, they kissed off screen as well. my heart may very well be broken. gossip girl is starting to feel a little inbred for my tastes, what with the real serena and dan, and now vanessa and chuck. hhmmmm...... answers or gossip on a postcard

you know you love me

XOXO penny dreadful.

inbreds of the world in mourning......

not quite fashion - in fact far from - but, BIG BROTHER IS TO BE AXED! thank god. sigh of relief. i can hear the screams of protest from every chav/wannabe/glamour model/inbred out there who dreamed of gracing the show with their fake tits/fake hair/fake nails/fake tan/wow, you can fake a lot of stuff can't you?  

lets go back to tv you had to work for. celebs who were famous for talent not tits. instead of real people. i take the luas to work. it doesn't get much more real then teenagers drinking down the back, people holding snot rags over their mouth to avoid imaginary swine flu, pensioners telling unfortunates about the good old days and the swish swish boom of people's annoyingly loud headphones. now that my friends. is reality.

in reality i have never seen the likes of the shitehawks they dig up from under the stones they located them in that appear on big x brother factor. god almighty. can we let the lunatics and inbreds go back to where they belong please?  let them go through what every wannabe hardcore celebrity goes through ? i:e - sleeping with the guys in head office to get your next photoshoot, head shot ( trying not to make a sex head shot joke here - oops i did) or record deal. 

lets go back to the days where budding actors and actresses had to serve coffee for real before playing the person serving coffee in a film. but most of us. let us not make idols (we all know who i am referring to) out of false gods/goddess. no matter how good their surgery is.

boots...the eternal question

well well, what a fecking dull month its been as we wait for the dregs of the summer to escape out of the shops. ROLL ON THE WINTER COLLECTIONS! its almost painful watching shop selling white pants to people who walk out into the pissing rain, or the bright colors of the body cons. it is time for a fierce shouldered body con, a sculptural heel, some chunky jumpers. develing into the wonderful world of tweed as seen in so many new collections. yes please!

but first friends, i bring you. the over the knee boot. 

a tricky trend if your thighs are more thunder then  thin. i have re-christened the boots, pussy boots. (puss in boots....puss....pussy....you get the idea) and have I ever been style stalking the shoe shops of late trying to locate the perfect pair.

now, most of these boots are in the suede material. great, until you remember we live in Ireland where it rains all the fucking time. 

who wants soggy toes, wet smell socks? suede dye running? drying the boots on the rads? any of this sound familiar? of course it does.

every year the shops fill the shelves with bright suede boots and shoes. expecting us to buy buy buy! great. until 2 months in your jamming your feet into a soggy shoe still wet from the night before.

the only shoes i can find in the over the knee leather form have a heel.....what the fuck?!!!!

so my choice is wet socks or prositute on a night out?????? unfair! 

anyway, should you make the choice to strut your stuff in suede, or fall over the heel drunk in leather, here are my picks of the leather v suedes....

my first boot is from topshop (quelle surprise) it's £95 and  flat suede. 

the above boot is from office and its their only contribution to the trend. yawn.

actually, any readers want to send in some pictures of their boots? those who do not bore the shite out of me will get put up on the post. if you have bought nice boots in the wintery sales let us know where you got them!

hinting of a relaunch.....

GUESS WHOSE BACK MO' FO' !!!! after a month of no internet and blogging withdrawal symptoms. this bitch is back! so expect new things and all change in september when we relaunch the site inconjunction with some special guest apperances, reviews and much much more. we will be relaunching with a fab competition and launch party in september!

moving on up!

miss penny