MOVING ON (IN THE SAME PLACE)

Now, if you have been following this blog for quite some time you must be used to these unannounced breaks of mine. I striked again with my habit!

A hiatus like this has always been a forecast for big changes - last time I took nearly a month off from the blog I changed the website name, altered the layout, improved the content. A hiatus like this was always a consequence of a kind of dissatisfaction with my work in here. I find it hard to put time and effort in things that don't inspire me enough, because I am eager to grow.
My soul needs to be nourished with the art, music, literature, fashion that it longs for in order to become the creative and passionate person that I want to become. The soul is like a sponge that should never dry up - a soul that lives without passion will become hard and crumbly and will eventually fall apart.

But despite this eagerness to learn, to grow, to live a passionate life, I might have to work on my New Year's resolutions. I need to realize that the things I am not satisfied with in my life can be changed by myself to a certain degree. If you lose your passion for something, you can either give up or look for a possibility for change.

I realized that I didn't take this blog along on my journey towards becoming the person I want to be - in fact, it hasn't really changed that much at all. I put this website in a new crispy clean jacket, but the static formula has stayed the same. And that caused the dissatisfaction. This blog used to be my platform to stimulate my creativity and diversity, and inspire you, my reader. But I have grown. I feel like I have much more to offer to myself - and to you. As mentioned above I am a person of habits, and I feel like this blog has gotten a little bit rusty. My New Year's resolution will be throwing those habits OUT. OF. THE. WINDOW. I don't know how you feel about all this, maybe you love coming here. But I have been envisioning something slightly different, and I think you'll love it as well.

I simply needed the distance from working on my own platform to realize all this. I think that I should be able to pull it off, to create something more unique, something to be proud of.

And last but not least, I wanted to thank you. Thank you for sticking with me, I know a lot of you have been following me for quite some time now and I just can't believe that you keep coming back to this website with your ever so supportive comments. THANK YOU. I am looking forward to seeing you in the next year as well - and maybe a bit sooner!

♥.
Ilse

OUTFIT // Concept of Infinity for Charlotte Kan

  

So excited to show you this series I did in collaboration with Dutch designer Charlotte Kan!
We've come a long way until we could finally do this collab, I'd originally join her Play&Pose project during the summer edition of Amsterdam International Fashion Week but happened to be abroad at the time. So now, 6 months later, I finally got the chance to wear one of her fantastic, refreshing items!

I got to wear one of her most dynamic pieces, a thin jacket you can wear in multiple shapes by buttoning it up in various ways. Love how it's a droopy, chaotic jacket one moment and the next it's some kind of kimono. It might have been too cold for the foggy weather, but it was definitely worth the effort. Would love wearing this in warmer seasons. 

I did an interview for Charlotte Kan's blog as well - people who follow me on twitter or facebook might have noticed. I think it has become a good and honest interview, check it out here if you like!

By the way, today's song is from Gotye and it's not only a joy to listen to, but I really wanted to share the video with you too. Really fits the mood of this post. Check it out here.









Ph. my sister, Sabine 

Wearing Charlotte Kan jacket, vintage blouse, H&M high-waisted trousers, ZARA booties, H&M trend coat w/ leather sleeves, vintage jewellery

INSPIRATION // It's wooly

 Ph. Hanneli Mustaparta, The Sartorialist, Vanillascented, tumblr, Stevie Dance

So I think it's pretty obvious what my demands on the section 'knitwear' are this season.

A knitted piece's colour has got to be either dusty pink, soft mint or yellow mustard.
A knitted piece has to be furry and touchable at all times.

The sheep effect on Lindsey Wixson's dress in the last picture is optional. That's all, Santa.

OUTFIT // Simplicity in a flash.

Ph. Sabrina  

Wearing H&M blazer, vintage blouse, Levi's Curve ID jeans, Topshop pumps, ZARA bag, vintage burgundy belt 

Simple outfit in a short post. Talk to you later, have a fabulous weekend. ♥

RANDOM // Coming up ...

Busy times, ladies, busy times. As we are speaking I have just returned to my home country after a rather short but fabulous weekend in Ghent, Belgium. And now I am going to get my hair cut - which means I will say goodbye to a wowing 2 inches of my hair... Pretty damn daring, no? EDIT: just cut my hair. You will be STUNNED (insert sarcasm tag). No seriously, I really, really should be thinking about a new hairdo! Any ideas? But we're getting off-topic.

This picture shows.. my back. But it's not just my back, it's my back intensely listening to Dutch designer Charlotte Kan. We will be collaborating on her so-called Play and Pose series slash collection, in collab with several Dutch bloggers, and I'm really excited to be playing around with one of her designs.. To be continued.

If time will miraculously quadruple itself by tomorrow, I'll might be able to be posting an outfit post later on this week. Woo!

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OUTFIT // Christmas tree (and giveaway winner)

Experimenting with some colour.. In other words: how not to look like a freshly set up Christmas tree in green and red - by combining it with rich fabrics and earthy tones. I don't know what kind of look I was trying on the top picture btw - it's a bit of je ne sais quoi and a bit of deer in the headlights. We're in the Christmas mood, ladies and gentlemen!

Which brings me to the next topic, it's giveaway time! Here's the winner for the la Petite Plume bracelet giveaway! Congratulations to Nikki from The Ginger Diaries, I will send you an email asap!

Wearing VILA parka, vintage burgundy blazer, H&M trend dress worn as top, vintage leather shorts, River Island boots, vintage jewellery, CASIO watch

Ph. Sabrina

STYLE IN SKETCHES // Iekeliene Stange

Made a new painting last night.. First time in years that I used traditional water colour paint in a sketch! Anyway, it's a portrait of the wonderful Dutch model Iekeliene Stange, wrapped up in a.. Well, it's a sleeping bag. It's the opening picture of an editorial from the Dutch Avant Garde called 'The New Nomad' - featuring puffy sleeping gear as dresses.

I still decided to put this erm, interesting sleeping bag outfit in the Style in Sketches section, because it would be typically Stange for her to dress up in such an original way in real life. Maybe I'll create an inspiration post evolving around her personal style, because her way of dressing would definitely deserve that. I hardly ever see her show up on blogs but she has a unique sense of fashion.


I used regular 4H to 6B graphite pencils for the sketch, outlined it with black POSCA acrylic markers and painted the whole thing with water colour paint. Finished off the highlights with a white POSCA acrylic fine liner.

More Style in Sketches to come!

OUTFIT // The burgundy suit

Wearing vintage burgundy blazer, ZARA blouse, jeans from my boyfriends old closet, Primark flats, ZARA bag, H&M necklace, vintage jewellery, DIY branch bracelets Ph. by zhe boyfriend

Wore this outfit to a dinner night out with zhe boy last month. I was on the hunt for a burgundy coloured pair of jeans/trousers for a while.. It had to match perfectly with the jacket in order to give that ultimate Suit Illusion. But after months of fruitless searching, I suddenly realized that the perfect jeans had been laying under my bloody nose all the time..

I bought this pair of jeans for zhe boyfriend, back in 2008 when it was still really cool for guys to wear coloured skinny jeans.. Don't get me wrong, I have a weak spot for men in coloured trousers, but this stuff is SO. SKIN. TIGHT. I have come to realize why he never wore it (apart from the fact that he thought it was too gay... Which I don't consider to be a bad thing because my all of my gay friends are really stylish. Anyway, couldn't get that into his mind). I think we were still in that early stage of a relationship in which you can only say 'thank you! It's fantastic, it's great, oh my god it's too sweet of you!!!!' when your girlfriend slash boyfriend gives you a present - although you silently think 'damnit am I supposed to wear that?!' Sounds familiar?

Anyway, back to this particular post. Saw a really cute DIY on making yourself a bracelet out of a few twigs at a Pair and a Spare and decided to give it a try. Lovely idea but I think I did something fundamentally wrong on the gold painting job because the paint coming off within a few hours of wearing.. Ah well, I guess that's my fault. Still need to show you my epically failed paint-an-ugly-purple-chandelier-in-a-minimalistic-white-hue project. Erm, on second thought, not gonna show you haha.

Hardcore food porn to come your way, we had the most delicious dinner evahhrrr. But for now I'll need to get back to studying, much love. ♥

LIFE // Soul food

The food I devoured while wearing this. Didn't spoil one bit of the dishes on my white shirt (for a change) - but that's because the restaurant could practically send the empty plates back into the kitchen closet without having to wash them: we left them completely clean.

OUTFIT // Butterflies

Wearing Vila parka, ZARA kimono, Jane Norman top, vintage leather shorts, ZARA bag, H&M necklace, Primark two-finger ring


Ph. Sabrina



These shots were taken at the Artis Zoo in Amsterdam last month, in the butterfly gardens. Shame I didn't bring my own camera, because I think it's a challenge to try and capture wildlife at it's best. I tried telling the butterflies to hold their pose for a while, but that sadly enough works better on humans (most of the time). I didn't last too long in the Zoo though, I always get pretty itchy because most animals are obviously unhappy.

One day I will put on my ninja suit, and free those poor animals Madagascar style. Hiiaaaaaya!

By the way, still some hours left to join my GIVEAWAY!