Well! After this, I shall think nothing of falling down stairs.

Alice in Wonderland was the very first thing I was ever a fan of really, and I hold Lewis Carroll's novel very close to my heart. I bought this dress in Tokyo from Emily Temple Cute. I've always been interested in Tokyo street fashions and you can not travel to Tokyo without taking a gander around the shops, it's a requirement. This dress was released during my visit and it was love at first sight. I own a couple of items from Emily Temple Cute, their pieces are always such a delight, whimsical and girlish with such beautiful prints it's like wearing a piece of art. It's a little different than what I usually wear, but sometimes it's good to embrace that. There's no fun in looking the same everyday after all.

I don't know if you can tell that my necklace is a little book, which I felt suited the story theme of the dress. It's from 1963 and I believe was originally a brooch and would hang from a pin shaped as a gold bow. I think it's just as nice as a necklace though.



The print on this particular dress is literally a piece of art by Yuko Higuchi. I was inspired to look her up when I returned from my trip and her illustrations are delightfully detailed and surreal, quite reminiscent of Tenniel (only better!).


I also thought I'd share some photographs from my visit to Japan, even though it was some time ago now. I was too much in awe to concern myself with good photography practises, but it's good to not get too caught up in that and just enjoy a place sometimes. Not everything has to be polished.

Ringo Starr once said (aren't you impressed at my talent for getting him in to every subject? Years of practise!) “India was the first foreign country I ever went to. I never felt Denmark or Holland or France were foreign, just the language was different, but when you got to India it was very hard to know what the hell was going on." That's exactly how I felt about Japan. I've travelled a lot across various different continents and I'd researched a lot about Japan before I ever went, but nothing can prepare you for how different it is in every single way. I love it there, it's wonderful and an experience I hope I'll get to repeat in my lifetime.




Naturally I had to make a stop at Disneyland! It's something of a personal goal of mine to one day visit them all.

You can learn a lot of things from the flowers

This past week I've been enjoying the simple pleasure of taking a walk through nature as the sun sets. It really is my favourite time of day, it's so peaceful and the golden hue of the light so beautiful, it's the perfect way to slow down and collect your thoughts. I took my camera out with me on one evening, here's what I captured in my lens.

People and flowers are one in the same

Outfit details:

Dress & necklace: 1960s vintage
Shoes: Orla Kiely x Clarks
I just love love love tent dresses, they're my absolute favourite thing to wear! They're just so easy, you can literally just throw one on with a pair of matching flats and you're guaranteed to look girlishly lovely. I know a lot of people are scared of them due to their shapelessness, but you really don't have to have a body like Twiggy to look great in one. I'm as pear shaped as they come and love how these dresses can hide a multitude of sins.

This was one of the very first vintage dresses I ever bought and remains one of my most favourites. I had long admired the '60s aesthetic but was still figuring out which style might suit me when I found this dress in a vintage store. Mia Farrow's style in Rosemary's Baby was what first drew my interest in the fashion of the '60s and I thought this dress looked perfectly Rosemary and so loved it straight away. It's probably the most worn piece in my entire wardrobe.

Lovely Mia

What's your favourite dress shape?

Clutter bug

I've really been thinking alot lately about stuff. Our belongings. Why we have what we do and why it's so hard to let go of.


I've been thinking about this a lot because I want to move, and that might be abroad. Looking around my belongings it induced a panic: how could I travel with it all? But then I instantly felt even sillier at the idea of not achieving something I want to do with my life over things. At what point do the things we own begin to own us? I worried about things like my childhood toys, my trinkets from my travels abroad, photographs, old sketchbooks full of my work. What about my clothes, things I keep because I might decide I want to wear it one day and if I do I'll surely want to match it with that pair of shoes and that handbag that still has the tags attached. But all of these attachments are in my head. I know my artwork has progressed, I don't need to keep a stack of awful sketches I never look through to prove that to myself. I have my memories of the different countries I've visited and getting rid of that snowglobe isn't going to make me forget. Photos can be scanned and stored online where they won't take up any physical space and special ones placed in a scrapbook.

It's definitely easier to get rid of stuff with a goal in mind. Looking at something (even something I'm considering buying) I think to myself "Would I take it to ____?". Obviously I'm not going to get rid of everything, but it's very freeing to not feel so bagged down. And it's been an eye opener as to things I've collected that I genuinely like and things I don't. My record collection for example, there's not a single LP or 45 I want to get rid of because I've always so carefully considered all of my purchases and never bought an album just because (I do however have three different record players that need sorting out!). My vintage music merchandise collection is another: each item makes me smile and feel happy when I look at it, so shall be kept.

My wardrobe is what I'm most enjoying going through with an objective mindset, and also the biggest task. I'm guilty of buying things on a whim and then not knowing how to wear it, and keeping things just in case. I frequently forget what I own because I have no organisation to it all and end up feeling like I have nothing to wear whilst I stand in front of my three overflowing closets. Anna at October Rebel has quite a few posts about remixing items and inventorying clothes. I dug back through her archives and found this post particularly useful.

I will still be buying things (I'm very aware I have a recent haul post planned so I feel the need to stress this!). It's just more about carefully considering things before I make that purchase, something I've been doing already throughout this year because I knew it was good habits to get into. It's more than OK to own things and get pleasure out of material objects, it's just addressing that line of when things begin to hold you back and not becoming a hoarder.

I know this post is very different from the norm and I hope it makes sense and isn't complete word vomit, I just have a lot of feelings I wanted to get down. I'd really love to hear your own thoughts on this subject and any tips you may have (perhaps you've done this sort of thing yourself before) ♥