Win Off The Rails - The Total Experience Tickets

Fancy shmoozing at Off the Rails - The Total Experience? I Blog Fashion has two pairs of tickets to give away for the live fashion extravaganza which runs from Fri, Nov 13th - Sun, Nov 15th @ the RDS. Expect guerilla style makeovers, live fashion shows and top tips from OTR's dapper duo.

To be in with a chance to win, answer the following question:
Q: Who presents Off the Rails?
Ping your answer to iblogfashion (at) gmail (dot) com before 1pm today and good luck!

Tickets for Off the Rails - The Total Experience are available now on ticketmaster.ie and from all good Ticketmaster outlets.

Absolut Rock

It's not everyday someone offers you a drink in a leather studded jacket - and I'm not talking about the waiter. Just look at this bad boy to my left. Absolut Rock is the latest limited edition vodka from those savvy Swedes. Clad in Natalia Brilli-designed hardware, having a Cosmo suddenly isn't so girlie as it looks. So go on fellas, indulge in those frou frou cocktails you've been dying to try. No one will challenge you...

Hot Press presents Absolut Rock at an invite-only bash tonight (Nov. 10th) in the Dublin Sugar Club featuring The Flaws, Talulah Does The Hula & Vengeance And The Panther Queen.

Smells Like Bruno Pieters

I love me a bit of avant-garde fashion - and none moreso than Belgian Bruno Peiters. When I viewed his AW09 collection at PFW, I had trouble mopping the drool from my lip. Models worked a funeral march in a palette of black, copper, brown and grey with nothing but berry slicked lips for contrast. Hoods and capelets were ominpresent - all box-shaped and pleated where possible; while outre 3-D bows on body con dresses and 3-D fur funnel sleeves raised the bar in sophisticated chic. Past meet present to the tune of an electro-opera falsetto.

Alas my size zero bank balance has no room for modernist Little Red Riding Hood tributes. Instead I'll have to resort to the limited edition amber and pepper scent of Pieters' Calming Park candle. If I can't wear it, I shall whiff it. Hey, where there's a will...and all that.

Available from: The Convenience Store - London, Maria Luisa - Paris, 10 Corso Como - Milano, Sien - Antwerp.

Pop 'til You Drop

Londinium gets a new resident - well, for three months anyhow. Check out - Baracuta - one of the latest shops to pop-up on the semi-permanent retail landscape.

F-f-f-freezing!

It is serious 'nad shrinking weather out there folks. From a deceivingly warm September and October, we've been bitchslapped with one nasty November. If this is any indication of the PMS we're due to experience in December and January, I for one am not taking any chances. That's why I've invested in one of these bad boys. Yep - it's trapper chic courtesy of Lucy's Lounge. At only €15, my faux furry little friend will be clapped on my noggin. So if you see me looking as if I've being assaulted by a beaver, it's not a Paul Bunyon tribute. Just me - ridiculous-looking but warm.

Happy Birthday Anna!

It's official. Vogue's Anna Wintour is 60 years young today. One might even say she's vintage. And like a good classic, she's incredibly well preserved with little evidence of time's wayward brushstrokes. Not that the hands of time would have the balls to muss up that forehead. Fair play to Anna - she's seen off that bad boy with a good fringe. Clever lady.

Fashion Roadkill

I'm feeling a bit like fashion roadkill today. Had a fabulous sophomore shoot in Cork yesterday with the Irish Examiner (out Nov 14th) and am prepping for Friday's slot on The Afternoon Show; all the while finishing two articles and starting a third before Thursday a.m. Add in some to-be-touched-up roots, a waning mani/pedi and some unruly brows and hey presto - carnage. Before you know it my blog will file for emancipation and start writing itself. Thank God I'm not wearing heels...

Image: courtesy of Zazzle.com

Handbags and Gladrags

An email from my sister Mags:

You probably don't think of fashion and finance in the same sentence...but let me tell you what's been going on here in Citi Ireland. A Fundraising Day for the Irish Cancer Society (Citi's 2009 Charity of the Year) happened today with the theme "Handbags and Gladrags". The selection would make any fashionista's head swirl with all the rails of designer handbags and clothing donated for a raffle including worn-once eveningwear and a love-me Aideen Bodkin coat. It wasn't just for the ladies as some of the Citi men were treated to a selection of ties and cufflinks (most of them Louis Coupeland). What's more, we raised €2,000 for the Irish Cancer Society!

Irish Cancer Society shops are dotted around the country. Donate or buy - all for a great cause.

Why We Need "Jedward"

Irony. Such a lost art. Derided as a Gen X hipster accessory, the term has become almost obsolete, so much so that its definition has imploded. A bit ironic in itself, dontcha think? Thankfully where Ms. Morrisette failed to point the semantic finger, we have the Irish Xfactor hybrid Jedward. The pointy hair, the loud PVC suits, unwittingly likening their distinct lack of vocal talent to a brakeless bike. In a synthetic pop world filled with PR-styled soundbytes, Jedward are the antidote, the anti-heroes and ironically (albeit packaged by Louis Walsh) anti-manufactured. Let's face it, there's only one of them! Heck, if they bomb in the charts, they've always got a career in fashion - maybe with Jean Charles de Castelbajac? I'm thinking David Bowie 'Let's Dance' circa 1983 meets Vanilla Ice 1991. Us fashionistas love our irony. You've got a home with us Jedward.

eBay Fun!

Interested in buying a vintage dress...or three? I'm flogging some of my prized clobber on eBay - mainly that which I bought in a magpie frenzy. The end result? Clothes that don't quite fit. So very pretty though; like this fab 70s dress. On my six foot frame, the hem hits my ankle bone so sadly its too short with heels. I also need someone to zip me up as I suck inhale like a corseted Scarlett O'Hara. The late night snacking has to stop...seriously.

Biya - Fashion's Fiercest First Lady

The latest Gmail thread from the boys:

Andrew
to Annmarie, Neil
8:04 AM
Read this on a blog;
Last Thursday Vic Mizzy, the songwriter behind The Addams Family theme tune, died at the age of 93.
Obviously the family of the President of Spain were mourning his passing when they recently met the Obamas.


Neil
to Annmarie, Andrew
9:14 AM
Some people have been hitting the patatas bravas in a bad way. And the mother isn't that bad looking, if in a mannish way. Placing her beside the Uber-mannish Michelle was a good move so. Is Michelle wearing a monks cassock? This whole photo has an air of extreme recession asceticism: bring back glam I say!

...Talking of which, can we please compare this with the shot they took with the Cameroon president? This b*tch Chantal Biya knows how to dress for the occasion, I'm sorry, but she looks savage.

...And to prove it, here she is rocking a ecumenical-stylee hat for Pope Pius earlier in the year.

Annmarie
to Neil, Andrew
9:23 AM
In fairness, I'm liking Michelle's frock. The glitzy bow injects a soupcon of 'yes we can' to an otherwise sober dress. And you cannot fault those killer pins.

I'm hoping Chantal was just caught blinking and not taking a cheeky nap. Perhaps she's smug in the knowledge that she's the only one boasting an eco-system in that stacked hair; or maybe a selection of travel size hair products. Handy that....

As for that statement hat, shouldn't there a law to state you can't out-Pope the Papa; much like a bride at a wedding? Speaking of which, imagine if she docked up to the church on your big day? The wedding photos would either bear a hazy shadow from the height of her hair; or a searing flash of light from her blinged out baubles. Still...she's one fierce b*tch. Gotta love her!

Neil
to Annmarie, Andrew
9:48 AM
On mature reflection I too like Michelle's frock. She actually looks fantastic beside Chantal, though am not sure that's saying much. Am surprised there are any weaves left in the western hemisphere with the amount Chantal must get through. I'm sensing an as yet untold news story where entire villages of women are having their hair shaved off just because Chantal has some glitzy reception that evening. And I can't imagine under what circumstances she'd be coming to my wedding (although 3rd world dictators could be an as yet untapped dating pool, having exhausted every other channel), but if she did the only approach would be to out-Biya her; although I'm not sure there is enough gold lamé in existence to manage that feat.