Mediterranean Madness

As soon as the thermometer hits 30 degrees, I switch straight to hippie mode. Suddenly, all my trousers, T-shirts and shoes become too heavy, and the only things I can wear are sandals, hippie skirts and Indian silk blouses from Natura. When summer comes around, I stop caring about looking like an edgy rock star (which, of course, is what I am LOL) and just get teleported back to the 60s – a time when it was OK for edgy rock stars to look like this :P

My biggest problem in summer is that, when the weather gets this hot, I feel like I don’t want to wear any clothes at all. I just want to stay at home in my pyjama shorts and my Jonas Brothers tank top (I truly wear that when I’m at home and no one sees me LOL), pretending the outside world doesn’t exist until autumn comes back to rescue me.

This is exactly what happened this time.

I was feeling terribly uninspired and frustrated. I tried on every piece of summer clothing I had, but nothing seemed to click. You already know how I am with outfits: I can’t just put on a couple of things that look good together and go out – I need to feel that special something that reflects the way I see myself right now… and that can turn the process of dressing up into a really exasperating task sometimes. It was already getting late and all my attempts at finding some new, groundbreaking combination seemed to fail, so I chose to reinvent one of my old outfits instead.

I had only worn this particular outfit once before, and I felt that I could give it another chance. I kept the Indian skirt and the silk blouse, but decided to change the shoes and the accessories. Originally, I wore this outfit with espardille wedges and a straw hat, but I wanted to switch this country approach for something more hippie; so the first thing I did was replacing the espardilles for my beautiful jewelled sandals (you might remember them from my last outfit). I think I love them more and more every day! (LOL)

It’s funny how this emergency purchase turned out to be one of my greatest acquisitions for this season. Sometimes the best things in life come to us in totally unexpected ways! :P

Once I had the basics, it was time to go for the accessories. I still didn’t know what the theme of the outfit was going to be, so I started to randomly browse through my drawers to see what I could find. I came across my giant wooden cross necklace (maybe you remember it from this post), and decided that the time might have come to take it out for a walk.

Of course, it worked perfectly.

This beautiful beaded vintage cross necklace was next, and it turned out to be a real game changer. It instantly reminded me of Dolce & Gabbana’s A/W 12-13 collection, and, all of a sudden, the whole look made sense in my head: it was going to be a D&G-inspired Mediterranean outfit, which, in my twisted mind could only mean one thing: “get more rosaries on”.

[Oh, God… don’t look at my hangover face! How can I get that without even drinking? LOL]

I immediately added my beautiful John XXIII rosary to the mix. It didn’t take me much time to know that this was the one: it’s one of my personal favourites because its beads have the colours of the Vatican flag, and I knew it would blend with the print of my silk blouse straight away! (LOL)

Once again, I completed the outfit with the black hippie backpack you saw in my previous outfit post. And this time I haven’t forgotten to take pics with it!

During the photoshoot, the sun was horrible, as usual, and the fact that I hadn’t gotten much sleep the previous night didn’t help either. Luckily, a kind summer breeze was blowing, so I got hair all over my face the most of the time, preventing you from seeing the huge bags under my eyes (LOL).

[Doing stupid stuff is always required at some point in my photoshoots :P]

The good thing is that these circumstances made the torment expression in this pic much more believable. Don’t I look like I’ve just come out of a Romanesque fresco? LOL

PS. No Kaulitz inspiration this time either. And the rosaries don’t count – I was already collecting them when the twins were still singing Mein kleiner grüner Kaktus in kindergarten ;)

Blouse: Natura

Skirt: unknown

Sandals: You Too

Necklaces: vintage

Wooden cross necklace: LSD

Bracelet: Natura

Bag: Indigo

Liebster Blog Award

Okay – this is not the usual thing around here, but today I’m going to talk about me (LOL).

Around a month ago, I got tagged for the Liebster Blog Award by the lovely CrazyMai. It’s been only a little while since I started following her blog, so I was really happy and surprised when I saw she had chosen me for this, and, even though I don’t usually do this kind of things, I felt I had the moral obligation to post this, no matter how long it took^^

“But WTF are you talking about?” you must be saying to yourself. Let me explain it properly:

• The Liebster Blog Award is given to upcoming bloggers who have less than 200 followers.

• The Meaning: Liebster is German and means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome.

The Rules:

1. Each person must post 11 things about themselves.

2. Answer the questions the tagger has set for you plus create 11 questions for the people you've tagged to answer

3. Choose eleven people and link them in your post.

4. Go to their page and tell them.

5. Remember no tag backs!

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So, now you know what the whole thing is about, let’s go straight to the first step: saying 11 random things about me.

1. I was born in Novosibirsk, Russia, on February 1989 – which makes me a former citizen of the USSR :-)

[...this is not USSR but 2007 Berlin, though :P]

2. I got my name from the Metallica song Don’t Tread On Me, and I like it so much I rarely use my real name anymore :P

3. I listen to music ALL THE TIME. From the moment I wake up till the moment I go to bed, there’s always music playing around me, and I never get tired of it.

4. I sing along to songs a lot. If I know the melody and the lyrics of a song, I’m always going to sing it (unless I’m feeling particularly tired or I’m in a bad mood LOL). That drives some people crazy, but I can’t help it! Plus, singing is my job, so STFU ^^

5. I like listening to all sorts of music (even the music I hate – how do you know you hate it if you’ve never heard it?), but I’m basically an old-school rocker. Many of my favourite albums were recorded in the 70s and I still believe that there has never been a more creative period in rock history. However, most of the other old-school rockers stop talking to me as soon as they find out that I’m a Tokio Hotel fan, so I guess I’m too modern for the old-school, and too old-school for the modern :P

6. I LOVE Metallica’s St. Anger. Not only do I love it, but I also consider it one of the best recordings that have ever been made by anyone. That’s probably another reason why I don’t usually get along with my old-school rocker pals…

7. I did ballet for 13 years, and I developed a strong love/hate relationship with it. However, I’m still satisfied with the results I achieved during that time, and, even though I’ll never be anything close to professional, I can proudly say that I’m not terrible ;)

8. I quit school when I was 16 and the only thing I regret is not having done it earlier – it was illegal! LOL. Teachers and I never got along too well…

9. I have cats – SEVEN CATS –, so you can figure out I’m a huge cat lover… Freddie Mercury level (LOL).

10. I ‘m in love with Germany and all things German (I bet there must be a reason for that… LOL). I’ve been learning German for a couple of years now, all by myself, of course ;)

11. I’m an extremely nocturnal person. I go to bed VERY late (around 5 am, these days LOL) and wake up around what most of the people would consider “lunch time”. I just feel better when it’s dark outside. That’s why I love winter, with its short days and its loooong nights ^^

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Now it’s time for Mai’s questions!

1. If you could be someone else for one day (no matter who, in which time, etc.), who would you want to be and what would you do?

I think I would be Tom Kaulitz. I’d spend the whole day looking at myself in the mirror and taking pictures of my little brother, which I believe is very much what a normal day in his life is like (LOL). Oh, and of course I'd use the chance to find out some super secret stuff I’ve been dying to know for years…

2. Which country/city do you HAVE to visit one time in life?

JAPAN.

3. Do you think you're lucky with your life (family, friends, etc..)? And why?

I suppose I’m lucky in some aspects and not so lucky in others, but I don’t spend much time thinking about that, really. I think life is just what it is, and you have to try and get the best out of it :)

4. What is your favourite movie?

Terminator II: Judgement Day. Yeah, right, I bet you didn’t expect that LOL. Of course, there’s a big pile (well, maybe not SO big) of movies I really love, but this is the one that describes the way I’m feeling in this particular moment of my life better than any other. And, of course, it’s a BIG classic ^^

5. Why did you start blogging?

Because I saw other people blogging and I said to myself: “if they can do it, maybe I can do it too!” :P I liked the idea of having some kind of archive for my outfits (I used to do it on paper before LOL) and sharing my fashion concepts and the things that inspire me with whoever could be interested :)

6. What is your childhood hero?

Edward Scissorhands and Wednesday Addams (I guess that says a couple of things about my childhood LOL).

 

7. How would you describe your fashion style?

“Androgynous and juvenile with a really hard edge” ;)

8. What type of job would you like to have someday?

Musician, but I’m already doing that. I just don’t get paid for it LOL)^^

9. A song that makes you nostalgic?

Only one? Hmmm… The Future Is Now by The Offspring (from their brand new album Days Go By. Buy it now!*PROMO* *PROMO* LOL). And, of course, any song by Tokio Hotel :)

10. If you could dye your hair any colour(s), without having to worry about employability, hair damage, or what people would think of you, what would it be?

I don’t know… I’m so happy with my natural hair colour I’ve never really thought about any other. If I got bored one day, I think I’d just buy a bunch of wigs and wear them on special occasions … or I could go crazy and get dreads (LOL), but I wouldn’t change the colour :P

11. What do you think is your best feature?

My sense of humour and my larger than life personal charisma (LMFAO) B-)

You have to promote yourself ‘cause nobody else is gonna do it for you ;)

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And so I guess we’ve come to the last part. I don’t think I can find 11 people to tag, so I’m afraid I’m going to do a little bit of cheating here. If you read this and you have less than 200 followers, you have officially been tagged by me! (I don’t think more than 11 people will read this anyway…) LOL

And my questions for you are:

1. Is there anything you want for Christmas (or your next birthday – whatever is nearer), but you know you are not going to receive?

2. If you had to describe your life with a music video, what would it be like?

3. What makes you go CRAZY?

4. If you had a huge, indecent amount of money and had to choose one single thing to spend it on, what would it be?

5. Which was the first record you ever bought? …And the last?

6. Do you usually look for a meaning in your dreams, or do you just think they’re random?

7. What’s the best Halloween/Carnival/whatever costume you’ve had?

8. What were you doing before I interrupted you with my impertinent questions? :P

9. Would you like to change your life in any way? If the answer is yes, tell us how!

10. What’s your biggest talent?

11. Who’s your biggest style icon?

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Well, that’s all for today. I hope you’ve enjoyed this little distraction, and I promise I’ll be back soon with some new outfits… and golden jeans – lots of golden jeans –, that’s for sure! ^^

Indian Summer

…and the answer is: No – I can’t live without my golden jeans anymore, I tried! I swear I tried to create an outfit without using them… but when I got this deep red and gold caftan in my hands I just had no choice!

The good news is that, for the first time ever since I started this blog, I’m NOT wearing a hat. That’s already something, isn’t it? LOL

As you can see, this outfit is embarrassingly (just kidding :P) simple. Once I put on the golden jeans, I felt like the look was almost finished, which is something very, very rare for me and my usual “more is much, much more” premise.

However, this is just the way it happened this time, and I feel fine about it. This caftan is so jewelled I felt it didn’t need anything more, so I just completed the look with a bunch of bronzed bracelets.

The big problem, however, came when it was time to pick the shoes.

What kind of shoes can you wear with an India inspired outfit?

The answer might be quite obvious, right, but it wasn’t that simple for me…

As I already told you in my last post, there are certain parts of my body I prefer not to show, and this is always a problem when summer hits the town, because I suddenly run out of presentable shoes.

I struggled with my (stupid?) moral (=aesthetic) dilemma for a while, until I convinced myself that sandals were the only possible solution. Right in that moment, I had some sort of mystical flashback: I suddenly remembered a pair of Pakistani sisters that went to school with me for a little while (for some reason, they didn’t stay there for long). I pictured them wearing their beautifully embroidered deep red (at least, those are the ones that I remember – I bet they also had them in other colours LOL) shalwar kameezes, with long scarves around their shoulders and their shiny black hair tied up in a long thick braid that fell graciously down their backs. I probably have somewhat of a creative memory, but remembering them like that just made me smile.

So I said to myself: “If people in India and Pakistan can do it, maybe I can do it too!”

  

In the end, I chose a pair of beautiful red lacquered Japanese style sandals we had at home from back in the late 90s (ah, the golden days of oriental minimalism…). A dose of metallic red nail polish did the rest.

[You can catsch a glimpse of the red sandals in this old pic from 2000. Obviously, I’m not the one wearing them – I was still a kid –, but you can see some of my genes in there LOL

BTW, were those the matching trousers to my caftan? Because they look pretty compatible…]

[This 1997 photoshoot perfectly reflects the spirit of the time]

With that and my black hippie sack on my shoulder I was ready to go.

[Yeah - I forgot to take pics with my bag, so I had to improvise LOL]

However, the gods of fashion (LOL) didn’t want to make things that easy for me.

I was just about to catch a train when I started to feel like the ground was too soft under me. I had already been through a similar situation before, so I immediately checked out the soles of my sandals, and saw that, just as I had suspected, the (expensive) rubber they were made of was slowly disintegrating with every step I made.

HOLY SH***********T!!!!!

Of course, I had no choice but running to the nearest mall in search of something to replace them, even though I was already late for my appointment.

It took me more than an hour to find a pair of sandals I could consider acceptable. I had never, ever thought it could be THAT hard, but it definitively was. I checked out around four different stores, and all they offered were either gladiator sandals (God, I hate them SO much LOL), orthopedic-looking granny style sandals or just flip-flops that were no way suitable for street wear. I was SO desperate! It all felt like a nightmare x__x

I found these when I had already started my (hopeless) second round. I had doubts about them at first (they were a bit too open for my taste, and the ankle strap didn’t convince me much), but they certainly matched my outfit better than any others (even better than the ones I was wearing, I have to admit) and there was undoubtedly NOTHING more to choose from, so I grabbed them straight away.

Now that I see it in perspective, I think I was very lucky to find them. They are cool, and they look just perfect with this outfit! And the ironic thing is that, if it hadn’t been for my incident with my other pair, I would have never, ever got my hands upon them. That kind of things returns you to the thought that everything happens for a reason.

Or maybe not?

[As you  can see, I was having a hard time dealing with the afternoon sun during this photoshoot LOL]

PS. Haven’t you noticed anything strange in this post? That’s right – I didn’t get ANY inspiration from Bill or Tom Kaulitz for this outfit! (LOL). Should I get scared already?

Caftan: unknown

Jeans: MNG

Sandals: You Too

Bracelets: unknown

Bag: Indigo

Gold Fever

Style magazines always say that if you’re going to try the cowboy/Navajo trend you should only use a couple of pieces, so you don’t end up looking like you’re wearing a Halloween costume. If you share this belief, I strongly encourage you to stop reading right here… unless you want to have a stroke (LOL).

But, come on – you already know me! First of all, I never use the word trends – I prefer to call them themes, and the cowboy theme is one of my all-time favourites (this is kind of turning into a cowboy-themed blog already LOL). And second: I must have said this like a thousand times already, but for me fashion is about commitment. If I’m wearing a cowboy-themed outfit, I don’t mind looking like I’ve just run away from a Cyrus family reunion (LOL), as long as the look’s integrity is preserved ^^

So, no more excuses!

I started this outfit with my beige fringed T-shirt from Bershka (there’s a chance you might remember it from one of my shopping posts). I didn’t have that much time to plan this outfit, so my initial idea was to create an adaptation of my winter cowboy outfit. I wanted to combine the T-shirt with a pair of white jeans, my classic cowboy hat (in case you’re wondering: yes – I sleep with it on LOL) and a couple of cool necklaces, very much like I did in winter.

It surprises me when I realize how I’ve grown to love off-the-shoulder T-shirts in the last couple of years. I didn’t really have anything against them before, but you know my dress code is quite UAE-friendly, when it comes down to my skin-showing policy (LOL), so I just didn’t like the idea very much. It’s not that I hate my body or anything like that, but I just believe that clothes were invented for a reason.

However, when Bill Kaulitz (who else could it be?) started wearing off-the-shoulder T-shirts and sweaters in late 2010 (that brief period before he fully embraced the homeless/trucker aesthetic in 2011 LOL) he made me change my mind in some aspects (he has the ability to do that every once in a while). One more time, I said to myself: “If he can do it, maybe I can do it too!”

…and the truth is I can! :D

The mix looked quite cool. However, I wasn’t that convinced about the white jeans. I felt like they clashed with the T-shirt too much. I decided to replace them for something in the brown/beige/earth colour range… and, of course, my brand new golden jeans were the first thing that came to my mind.

[I think you can consider you are obsessed with a piece of clothing from the moment you’ve used it twice in a row].

Once I was satisfied with the clothes, I went on with the task of picking the accessories, which basically consisted in putting on every necklace I found around the house (LOL). I’m especially happy about having found a use for my vintage wooden cross from Montserrat. It looks so cool in the context of this outfit (well – it always looks cool LOL)! I was positively surprised.

I also added a wooden bracelet to the mix, and I finished the look with my olive trainers (they were exactly the same colour as my nail polish!).

I was extremely happy with my cowboy overload! As I usually do, I grabbed a denim jacket in case it got cold at some point of the day, but I didn’t really get to use it.

The funny thing is there actually is something in this look that makes me think of Miley Cirus (LOL). I’m not a fan of Miley (or her choices in fashion), but I couldn’t help thinking about her and her dreamcatcher tattoo while I was putting this look together. There’s something very L.A. in the way the tribal jewellery interacts with the cowboy elements. I’m not a fan of L.A. either, but when summer comes to Spain, everything starts to feel a lot like California (LOL), so I’m not surprised all these images keep coming to my mind.

 

[Some of these pictures were actually taken in Barcelona, but I’m not telling you which LOL]

Oh, and guess what album I bought that day…

The music doesn’t have a lot to do with California (aside from the fact that some of it was recorded there), but the cover (an iconic photo by Anton Corbjin – who else? LOL) matches my agave plants perfectly :D

Now, the only question is: will I be able to put up an outfit without using my golden jeans and/or some of my cowboy hats any time in the near future? We’ll see…

T-shirt: Bershka

Jeans: MNG

Trainers: Alma en Pena

Cowboy hat: unknown

Necklaces: unknwon/CCC

Wooden cross: souvenir from Montserrat

Bracelet: unknown

Denim jacket: Bershka