STYLE BY KLING

I first heard of Elin Kling several years ago.  I cannot for the life of me remember how or when, all I remember is instantly falling in love with her.  At the time I went on a search for as many photos of her that I could get my hands on (some are shown above).  However, my love obviously didn’t last long as I completely forgot of her existence.  Until today! And Elin Kling is not a name I was going to forget forever.  I noticed a link for her site from another blog and naturally clicked through.  What a Swedish beauty!  She is yet another highly successful blogger – made clear with the million of advertisements sprawled across her page.  And this girl still works it like she always has.  With the text being in a different language I am not able to read it (only in my dreams).  But I am still more than happy to browse her site and admire her ever-stylish pictures.  I have noticed her name mentioned on many other blogs, so they way I interpret this is that she is definitely held in high regard in the world of blogs.  I highly recommend to check out Kling’s site for yourself – refer to my links.

SPOTDING: explore, share, experience

Yes! One of my favourites around!  I love love love the photos on this blog.  Spotding.com is one I only got my hands on a few days ago, and I can already tell we are going to be best friends forever.  The first time I looked at it I had only scrolled down five photos and had fallen in love with the clothes and outfits (some of the photos are shown above).  As you can see the photo with the mustard sweater could not be simpler if they tried.  And that is why I love it.  The site contains many a photo as simple as this with many a clothing piece as beautiful as this.  But the best thing about this blog is the amount of different areas it covers.  You’ve got your spotdingsot, designspot, experiencespot, travelspot, identityspot, videospot and inspirationspot.  And most definitely there is a spot for me, looking through all the different spots, taking me to a happy spot.

This blog contains more depth and natural inspiration than many others, and I’m going to put it out there…. This is my favourite.  This is one that takes things from the ordinary and turns them into the extraordinary.  It sources inspiration from so many different parts of life.  You can even travel all over the world on spotding to cities such as; Barcelona, Berlin, Copenhagen, Hamburn, London, New York, Paris and Arhus (my favourite city; if only I knew where the heck it was).  FINALLY I found a blog of high quality and not just one-woman centred.  And just for a pointless little note; after looking at spotding, I have now decided that Gary Pepper Vintage and Fashion Toast (although still wonderful), ain’t got nothin’ on this one.

Now I’m sure you’re all wondering how this blog came about (not).  WELL, it began by a woman who goes by the name of Fiona Jane.  And by the looks of it you should never underestimate her hard work.  This lady has worked in PR, marketing, event planning, interior design, photography, and styling and done a bachelor in design and business.  Oh, and that’s just to name a few.  And now she has her own successful website!  So what’s her blog ultimately about?

QUOTE: ‘Fiona wants to interact authentically with you on her blog by showing her own and other people’s identities through visuals, videos and texts.  People can feel inspired by tuning into Fiona’s blog, and then go ahead and create their own experiences, which they too are welcome to share back with her.  That’s networking.  So spot and spot back on spotding.com’

Hats off to you Fiona.  That is perfectly summarised and is more what a blog should be about.

Spotding.com = 10/10 (every time).

THE KNIGHT’S PRETTY LITTLE CAT.

Meow, yet another of the millions of blogs out there.  Great photography, great clothes etc.

I love the diverse range of photos on this blog showing all things extraordinary.

What I don’t love so much is the quality of photographs.  While the subject matter of the photos hits the mark, the photo quality does not appear as high as Gary Pepper Vintage or Fashion Toast.

I love that all photos aren’t just of one girl taking endless amounts of photos of herself.  They are instead mixed up and combined with magazine clippings, celebrities, models, clothing pieces etc.  This blog seems to cover a wider perspective of life.

What I don’t love so much… while the clothing is still amazing and makes me turn green with envy nine times out of ten, I find it doesn’t have the uniqueness that turns some blogs from the ordinary into the extraordinary.  It seems like any other girls out there.  Bottom line is the inspiration doesn’t quite match the amount I get from other sources. And while I have a major weakness for celebrities, I want to see more of the Knight Cat touch.

Don’t get me wrong, I still find it to be a fantastic blog and I highly recommend checking it out.  It is one I would happy browse from time to time but nothing that I will be adding to my growing lists of addictions.

Ps. Excuse the negativity; long day in the library.

THAT red jacket.

The photo above is of me back in May at the Camberwell markets (something all fun-loving Melbournian’s should get amongst).  A few friends and I were running a stall selling our well worn/much loved clothes.  Naturally I managed to escape several times to stroll around the markets and take in the atmosphere.  That’s when I spotted THAT red, fur collared jacket.  The moment I laid eyes on it I was in love.  But there was one problem, some slightly overweight (still haven’t come to terms with it) and pushy lady.  The so-called jacket owner tried her best to sell me the vintage piece originally.  Of course I was hesitant to fork out the cash I was trying to save from my earnings at my own stall.  So I went along my way to get back to work and think about whether this jacket was for me or not.  And I couldn’t stop thinking about it.  Good sign I wanted it!  After several trips back and forth umming and ahhing, I finally returned to purchase my baby.  Or so I thought.  This ridiculous lady had now changed her mind and was no longer selling the jacket!  With her stall still set up, she had now removed the jacket from the rack – probably knowing that I was on my way back to get it.  When I approached she tried her upmost best to ignore me and put it simply that she didn’t intend to sell it anymore.  She seemed deeply disturbed with the jacket apparently being ‘too big’ for me.  This confused me, this jacket must have been damn tight on her and I personally think she would have made it quite tacky (sorry once again for my brutal honesty, I will always hold this against her).

However, I’m a firm believer in it’s not what you wear but how you wear it. Yes, it was big on me compared to what it may have been on others – no names in particular – but hell girl, I would have worked that jacket like no other.

It basically seemed like this lady simply did not want me to have it.  And with a reason I will never know.  I still think about it to this day, why this lady suddenly changed her mind and refuse to sell the jacket?  What was it that seemed to upset her? Particularly when she first tried her damn hardest to get rid of the thing.  It will always remain a mystery.  The pretty red jacket mystery.

EGGS AND BACON ON TOAST NO MORE.

I have a crazy weakness for Fashiontoast.com and its creator Rumi Neely.  Created in 2007 Rumi combined her blog with an eBay vintage story called ‘Treasure Chest Vintage’.  She has since experienced tremendous success, like so many other bloggers.  On that point, what I have begun to realise more and more that success can be found anywhere, even on the internet.  All you need to do is work hard!  Anyway, back to what I was saying.. By 2009 Fashiontoast was receiving 35,000 hits a day.  It is your typical fashion blog with cool looking gals, wearing cool looking clothes, doing cool looking things (they obviously have a lot of times on their hands after the success of their ‘online businesses’.  Or better more, being cool is just their job?).  Although this girl sure loves photos of herself, I want to see more of her city – the photos above are some of my favourites from her site, and I just had to share the random photo of the dream catcher.  Love it.  Want more like these.

But all in all, I do just love looking at Rumi’s blog entries and photos of her on the streets (particularly New York City).  That girl is living the life so many of us dream, in a world where anything is possible.  She got style.  She got class.  And boy can she take a good photo.  Jealous? Me? No way!

Wasting moments of time getting lost in her life (more importantly, her clothes) is an innocent relief from my boring world.  I definitely don’t mind a bit of toast served fresh with fashion and New York City daily.  Go on, try it.  No harm done.

Check out my links for fashiontoast.com

THE SARTORIALIST STAR.

The Sartorialist; amazing, amazing, amazing blog! The photos above are a few of my favourites that I have collected since I began looking at the site about a year and a half ago.  This isn’t like the millions of other fashion blogs out there in the way that they usually consist of young girls taking countless photos of themselves.  This instead consists of brilliant photography of everyday people who catch the Sartorialist’s, Scott Schuman’s, eye.  His photography includes people both young and old, male and female; which to me is the real point of difference with this blog.  Although defined as a fashion blog, I see the Sartorialist different in the sense that it includes people of all ages and cultures, and they all aren’t you typical ‘pretty’ fashion models.  It’s nice just being able to browse the pictures and appreciate people from all over this world.

Scott started the blog in 2005 when he had taken time off his job to care for his young daughter.  He began by taking pictures of random people on the streets of New York City.  It has since grown immensely in popularity with Scott now jet setting all over the world taking photographs of both celebrities and ordinary people.  His trips even include Australia, how exciting!

Scott has been seen as pioneering fashion photography in blog form.  He so wonderfully demonstrates on the Sartorialist that inspiration can come from anyone.  In 2009 Scott’s favourite shots were put together to form a book The Sartorialist.  Not bad for something starting as something so small and innocent.  Wouldn’t mind myself having a published book as a result of immersing yourself in something you so passionately love.

JUST AN ORDINARY GIRL MAKING HER WAY THROUGH LIFE.

I only discovered Gary Pepper Vintage a few weeks ago through a friend.  But boy do I wish I had come across it earlier.  The site not only offers amazing vintage buys in both clothing and accessories, but you are able to follow the creator Nicole on her journeys through her blog entries.  Some of her recent posts are of her trip to Melbourne.  She has captured some well-loved Melbourne sites through documenting her way through the city streets.  It is nice to be able to view a well-loved, high quality Australian blog.  And it’s even better when it is in your very own city (although very briefly).  Gary Pepper Vintage not only contains amazing vintage clothing and style but photography that creates that extraordinary feeling – or at least the inspiration to get out into your own streets and discover all things extraordinary.

Nicole is an inspirational 21 year-old to say the least.  After launching Gary Pepper Vintage only last year the site has experienced tremendous success and her vintage pieces are in high demand.  She is living proof of what any ordinary person is capable of if they put their mind to it and have the passion and drive – and that includes online businesses.  Nicole does not pretend it is smooth sailing and all glitz and glamour working in fashion and having her office wherever she wishes to take her Mac, instead she believes that ‘there’s no secret or luck when it comes to owning a successful business’.  So go figure, the girl works damn hard and deserves every inch of respect for her efforts.  I love what she has created and love just looking at all her photos for a small distraction in my day.  Head to my links to go through to Nicole’s site.