DIY Bleached and Destroyed Jeans + Keith Richards' face on a t-shirt

I now present to you what is perhaps my second DIY success ever (the first being the studded boots in yesterday's post of course). While bleaching a pair of old, cheap jeans is admittedly not the most difficult DIY in the world to complete, I am nonetheless proud of myself for actually doing it without entirely ruining them...then again, the point was for them to be entirely ruined, so perhaps I succeeded in that? I don't know, and moreover don't feel like playing semantics with myself this morning.

These jeans (which I am now madly in love with and want to wear all the time) are the result of spending Saturday night at home with a cheese grater, jug of liquid laundry bleach, bucket and and a sponge. And before you ask: yes, I actually do enjoy Saturday night 'arts and crafts for a 3 year old' as G likes to call it, regardless of the fact that I've reminded him time and time again that a 3 year old shouldn't really be handling a two litre bucket of bleach.

I've had this Keith Richards t-shirt for ages, but unfortunately rarely wear it as a result of it being from what I like to call the Toronto version of Hot Topic...a shop called Black Market, located on Queen Street West. While Black Market does sell a certain amount of proper vintage clothing, the rest of their wares consist of mass-printed 'punk rock' tees which are, by way of their very creation and place of origin, not punk rock at all. So it's kind of a lame t-shirt by all means, but from time to time I certainly cannot resist the appeal of a young Keith Richards' face staring up at me from my t-shirt drawer.

In other news, I've determined that I do not own enough winter-appropriate clothing. I can't keep wearing tank tops and tiny, thin sweaters under wool coats and expect to not freeze. A thirfting trip for a pile of chunky knit sweaters and various sweater dresses and whatnot is definitely in order. Because yes, it's still cold here. And yes, it will continue to be for approximately forever, or rather, until it's not anymore. Getting more specific than that is just depressing for the time being.

Wearing

The jeans are initially from Urban Planet and cost $19, hence the reason I bleached, ripped and generally felt free to destroy them as I did.

The t-shirt is, as already mentioned, from Black Market.

Converse shoes, obviously. I've really been feeling the high-tops lately and am considering buying a pair, but understand that it would be reasonable to hold off on this as their thin rubber soles are the coldest and slipperiest thing imaginable in the winter. Damn you winter and the limitations you impose upon my clothing and footwear choices!!

The black oversized hoodie is G's, and I'm unsure as to where it's from. I don't think he likes that I take his clothes all the time, particularly in consideration of the fact that 90% of our closet space is alreadty taken up by my stuff...

The vintage 70's maxi dress finally finds its way out of my closet...

While I do enjoy wearing all-black (as I did yesterday, and the day before that, and the one before that one as well...you get the point), it's nonetheless really fun to sometimes go in the entirely opposite direction of that and just pile on the colour. This is particularly the case when the days are getting right into the heart of a thoroughly dark, grey and depressing Toronto winter, and a little pick-me-up in the form of an amazing psychedelic print dress is much needed.
This is one of the dresses that I briefly alluded to acquiring last week, and of which the only slightly problematic thing is the length; it skims my ankles but does not quite cover them, making shoe choices, at least in terms of the shoes I own, extremely difficult for the time being. I feel like a pair of brown leather riding boots would work semi well, but since I don't own anything even remotely akin to riding boots as it stands, I merely have my imagination (and potentially really useless and bad sketches of what I'm visualizing) to count on when attempting to make such decisions.

I'm currently reading Patti Boyd's autobiography, which is not only insanely inspiring on the fashion end of things (between her, Anita and Marianne, it's impossible to decide who had the best wardrobe), but it's also the stuff that rock n' roll fantasy is made of and for that reason alone I love it. I will admit that I was not a normal child in the sense of having had posters of boy bands on my bedroom walls...I was far more into cut-out photos of young Eric Clapton from magazines.

This unfortunately did not do wonders for my early social life, but regardless, my long-standing crush on Cream-era Clapton has stood the test of time, and the fact that Patti married both George Harrison and E.C. is a fact that I have always, always been insanely jealous of in a weird, nostalgic kind of way. Naturally I missed the boat on pretty much everything I am jealous of Patti for having...so if I can't live it, I can live through it vicariously, right? And this is the reason this book of hers is perhaps my new favourite thing ever.

Wearing

The dress is vintage, acquired at the St. Lawrence Market a couple of weekends ago and finally worn for the first time last night.

The little gold flats are from Forever 21, and are unfortunately the most uncomfortable shoe in the entire world.

The brown whip-stitched leather purse is vintage.

My lapis lazuli and gold necklace was give to me by my mom, and is without a doubt one of the most beautiful pieces of jewelry I own.

Better off as the fool...than the owner of that kind of heart.

I've been tagged by two of my favourite fashion bloggers out there, Taghrid and Merkovsky, to list 6 unimportant things that make me happy, and consequently pass the tag torch to five other bloggers. Without further adieu, here goes it...

1. Walking home from work and listening to a-wicked-good-song-which-I've-carefully-selected-to-perfectly-encompass-my extremely-specific-mood-in-that-very-moment on my iPod is one of my favourite moments in my day.

2. Yahoo Answers. Whenever I need a pick-me-up I look up something random on Yahoo Answers and am immediately inundated by hilarious/misguided/ignorant/offensive/etc. answers given to questions (n.b. I also found out that sponging a 3 part water + 1 part vinegar mixture onto salt-stained suede shoes will make them look as though they are brand new again, so occasionally I learn something useful there as well....it's almost always by accident though).

3. Marker-like writing utensils. I would hand write with nothing but thin-tipped Sharpies for the rest of my life if it were even remotely possible.

4. Keith Richards' guitar solo in the most epic rock n'roll song of all time - Gimme Shelter. If this song doesn't make you feel like walking into a really cool and sexy dive bar while being cool and sexy and dancing and then getting into a fist fight or something...well, I don't know, but I DO know that I just don't get the way your brain works.
5. There are truly very few feelings as good as finding something absolutely amazing at a thrift shop for little to no money. I know that this is a disgustingly obvious thing to say within the fashion blogosphere but I just can't help it, it's true!!!

6. [I'll preface this one with stating that it doesn't really qualify within the bounds of this tag, as it's not unimportant at all...it nonetheless makes me very, very happy, so I've made the executive decision to include it anyways] Every single time my iPhone beeps and it's a new comment from one of you amazing, amazing people out there in internetland. In all seriousness, no matter how awful of a day I'm having it, all of you with your kind, astonishingly lovely words something which I can guarantee to always immediately brighten my mood! So thank you to each and every one of you.

I tag the following gorgeous people (who, as far as I know, have not yet completed this tag):

Anthea of Clothes Line Finds
Chauss of Je Ne Sais Quoi
Jacquie of Jacquieshambles
Fashion Pariah
Ashleigh of Rantings of a Fashion Addict

Wearing
The wool figure skating sweater is yet another item from my closet which was hand knit by my evil grandmother. I'm aware that the purple and orange colour scheme and completely obvious pattern of it are ever-so-slightly garish, but I nonetheless cannot help but love this sweater. As cliche as it sounds (and IS), this sweater reminds me of a much simpler time when life wasn't messy and complicated and fragile and dependent on anything more than whether or not I landed the majority of my jumps on the rink that day (and apparently I'm feeling grossly sentimentalist today, so try to ignore this diatribe of mine if you may?)
My new favourite jeans. Dark wash denim, wide-legged, J Brand - does it really get any better than this?
Shoes are an old vintage find. They're mega-platforms, so they tend to be the obvious choice with any pants which I haven't bothered to have hemmed yet.

Yesterday's Papers

So I finally caved and bought the ubiquitous black latex leggings this week, though I cleverly saved myself $15 by going the Urban Outfitters route as opposed to American Apparel (which is still strangely pricey in Canada).
Once on, these leggings are perfect and perhaps the most comfortable article of clothing ever, but - and it's a small but - the manufacturer of these did the weirdest thing by making the ankle without an ounce of stretch, meaning that getting them over my feet is, sarcastically speaking, a total barrel of fun. Nonetheless, I do like them on more than I expected I would, and I plan on making good use of them throughout the winter, as inspired by the mindblowingly creative and fashionable Queen Michelle over at Kingdom of Style.
In other news, I've determined that I very much miss my summer tan, and am hence spending my morning coffee-blogging-desk time debating with myself: to fake and bake or to not fake and bake? If there are two 'institutions' I loathe they would be [most] gyms and tanning salons without question, meaning the very notion of stepping foot in such a place is enough to make me content with being perpetually unfit and pale. That being said, am I really being rational about the whole thing? This is a pretty shallow concern to begin with. Moving on...
While I do quite like the outfit I wore yesterday to run about the city in, it's more the fact that G took some brilliantly psychedelic photos that makes it wicked good I think....n.b. for everyone and anyone who has ever asked or wondered: I have barely ever used a self-timer in my life, and G takes every single photo that goes up on here unless otherwise noted. I am so, so continually impressed with his photography, and is it not like the coolest thing ever that he does this fashion blogging business with me? I seriously feel as though I have the best mate/partner/friend in the world.
I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and isn't feeling the Monday-itis I get from time to time too harshly today. And if you are, keep on keeping on and maybe have another coffee (or whatever your vice is for that matter)...

Wearing

Cardigan: vintage

Scarf and bag: thrifted

T-shirt: Darker My Love

Leggings: Silence & Noise

Boots: UP, DIY-ed

Dig Out Your Soul

My self-imposed long weekend is over. As my luck would have it I woke up to the grey Toronto I know and, occasionally, even love: it's raining cats and dogs and my dollar store umbrella ceased functionality on my walk to work this morning (making my hair wet...I hate the feeling of having wet hair) but, lo and behold, I've maintained a cheery disposition. I did have a killer weekend full of more fun than I believe the written word to be capable of expressing, so that could have something to do with my general elation at being alive today.
G and I attended The Clothing Show on Friday which was a half-fantastic, half-disappointing experience. While I am now the proud owner of a inexplicably awesome Anita Pallenberg and/or Gucci FW07-08-esque vintage fur coat and a very amazing orange feathered fascinator headband (for less money than I can easily spend on a coffee run), there were also a lot of vendors which were frankly selling junk, and overpriced junk at that. With the eagle-eye for deals that I have seemingly developed I found everything I wanted to purchase within half an hour of being there, and as such proceeded on home for a cozy evening of homemade nachos and bad television. All in all, Friday night was a win in my books.
The rest of the weekend kind of went by in a blur, but a definite highlight of it was doing Starbucks with Ashleigh of Rantings of a Fashion Addict, who is honestly one of the prettiest, most stylish and genuinely nicest people I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. Furthermore, we now have a little project in the works now, so keep a look out for that in the coming months!
I've been pretty transparent thus far about my adoration of plaid - it's obviously great that it's trendy right now, but I've loved it all along and will undoubtedly continue to long after its proverbial moment in the sun passes. Similarly, I love, love, love black and always will and I wasn't allowed - again, self-imposed - to wear it last week. Unsurprising then that this is one of my favourite outfits ever.

Wearing

Jacket: Danier

Dress: H&M

Tights: The Bay

Shoes: F21

Purse: vintage

Music.

I've made no secret of the fact that music, above all other expressive art forms, is a massive part of and influence upon my life. I could have chosen a billion different types of outfits (okay, that's obviously an exaggeration) to go with this theme, but I wound up in my favourite leopard print dress, leather jacket and bright stockings...why?...
I suppose if I'm to be entirely honest I like to think that this is what I would have worn had I existed in my current capacity in the mid 90's and was going to watch a Jarvis Cocker gig in a really cool, hyper-mod disco in London whilst downing gin martinis. Or something along those lines.

I will admit that I found it somewhat difficult to encapsulate the concept of 'music' into one, singular outfit. As I have mentioned before, I dress for the music I'm listening to virtually every single day of my life, so to sum all of that up with one garment choice was more than slightly daunting for me. That is, until I came to the conclusion that it simply cannot be boiled down so easily, and that whatever I chose would be but a tiny, minuscule slice of my feelings towards the topic in question.
When taking a whiff of 'Music', the Harajuku Lovers scent, I felt as though the fragrance designer of must have faced the exact same dilemma as I did with my outfit choice. 'Love', 'Angel' and 'Baby' are all pretty straightforward briefs to follow - they only have so many connotations and meanings and types, whereas 'Music' has more than I believe anyone on earth is capable of keeping track of. A directional decision had to be made in order to keep the fragrance from becoming a total mess akin to the various LPs scattered about my apartment floor, and I think that they definitely succeeded in doing this while keeping things somewhat open to interpretation.
From my perspective, the scent of 'Music' is what I would refer to as 'modern bohemian' - it's modern and refreshing in the sense that it's clean and not agedly musky, but quite classic in that it's understatedly floral and pretty as well. It would have been very easy for this one to go sloppily downhill, but as it turns out it's one of my favourites of the entire set and something I will undoubtedly continue to wear for many months to come.
Wearing
Jacket: Danier (yes, I know I caved and that it's black...but I am doing two themes at once here so cut me some slack?)
Dress: F21
Tights: Winners
Shoes: F21

Blowing Down The Stylus

What a weekend! First and foremost, Darker My Love absolutely killed it on Saturday night and should officially be far, far more renowned than they currently are. The crowd seemed to really enjoy them though, so perhaps this tour means that they will become so...G and I did, after all, convince and assure a couple of attendees to purchase their latest LP while purchasing me a t-shirt at the concesion stand.
But whatever, I obviously can't really say for sure so what I do know is that I had a wicked good time dancing to their set and that my neck is in a bit of pain today, potentially as a result. Which worries me because such feeling begs the question: am I actually getting properly old? Eugh, changing the subject...
Sunday was spent in the exact lazy manner which I expected and required it to be. Mind you we did go for an super-extra-long long walk to run errands and I'm almost certain that I consequently incurred some type of heat stroke from the awful Toronto humidity (which seems to have finally subsided as of today, thank god), but at least I managed to not purchase anything in the shops for once! This quite possibly has something to do with the limitations which my chequing account is currently imposing on me, but I'd prefer to kid myself and say that it's a matter of self-control and frugality.
Oh, and parking lots are seemingly one of the best photo locations/hanging out spots in the world. The below picture is dare I say my favourite ever.

Wearing

T-shirt: Darker My Love

Skirt: Erin Fetherston for Target

Shoes: Urban Planet

Like there's no tomorrow

Blonde Hair, Blue Jeans has amazing taste, and as such I feel extremely honored that she has made me the recipient of a tag which requires the tagged blogger to post a song which they feel accurately represents their personality and style. Now I'm not sure if all of you know this because I'm generally extraordinarily vague in doing so, but virtually every single post title on Modern Guilt is either the title or lyric of one of my many favourite songs. In fact, my love of music came before my love of fashion, and admittedly inspired my interest in clothing to begin with.
The shoegaze grunge of My Bloody Valentine and Spacemen 3, the decadent exotic bohemia of the Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix, the working-class-with-a-paycheque quirk of Jarvis Cocker and the Verve, the slim, dark, vague Americana gothic of Bob Dylan and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club: the music and style of these artists, amongst countless others, has been an undeniable key force in my development not only of style but of self as well, significantly more so than any fashion designer or stylist. As I have mentioned previously, a tireless personal aesthetic is what I aspire to, and the musicians I admire tend to have this in droves.
And now, on with the show. This was an interesting exercise for me because there are just so many songs to choose from...as Richard Ashcroft prophetically expressed in Bittersweet Symphony, I truly am a million different people from one day to the next. But I digress, because Bittersweet Symphony is not actually the song I'm choosing.
Instead I'm going to go with something a bit obscure - The Stevenson Ranch Davidians, their mouthful of a name aside, are one of the best new bands I've heard in a LONG time and I think that their song 'No Tomorrow' doesn't describe me so much as it accurately presents the precepts by which I tend to live my life. Moreover, I've included a stream of the song so that you can all listen to it as well- trust me, you won't be disappointed!


Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

Walking around, your feet off the ground
Head in the clouds, not coming down.
Don't want to see, don't want to hear, don't want to be
Anywhere near your life.

You've made up your mind, now you don't to want to know.
Stop living your life like there's no tomorrow.

What will you do? Now you know that it's true.
Life will go on with or without you.
Your day has come, comes like a drug
It caught you off guard, you had to start again.
Again. Again. Again and again.

You've made up your mind, now you don't to want to know.
Stop living your life like there's no tomorrow.

And I'm off for the weekend. I hope everyone has a great one, and thank you for all of the support as always!

Wearing
Blouse: vintage
Jeans: Urban Planet
Earrings: vintage
Shoes: Nine West

P.S. I'm tagging Nita-Karolina, Fashion Chalet and The Fashion Maven as the next recipients of this tag, and I'm very much looking forward to seeing what they come up with!

I see the rifles coming over the hill...

I'm growing increasingly excited for the upcoming weekend of nuptials (and more importantly, the open bar at such event) and concert festival goings (where there is not an open bar, but Oasis + Stereophonics + Paul Weller makes up for that), making it horribly difficult to keep myself focused on the current mundane tasks at hand...I'm mostly referring to work here for the record. It doesn't help that this weird and awful allergy sickness is kind of lingering around me. Ugh.
That being said, nothing - and I truly mean nothing - would be able stop me from going to Day 2 of this year's Virgin Festival. I don't really care how lame it is considered by indie music purists to love Oasis. They were my first true music love and will probably remain so until I kick the bucket and, while I'm more than willing to admit that the past couple of albums haven't been up to par, Definitely Maybe and Be Here Now in a sense defined my youth and opened up a whole world to me which, at that point in my little bubble of a suburban life, I hadn't known existed. This will be my fourth time having seen the band in action but my first time seeing them in a festival setting which, if you know anything about the band, is kind of their forte. And, while V-Fest is no Knebworth circa 1996, I certainly still expect it to be entirely mega.
Onwards and upwards. I am currently infatuated with this thrifted pleather skirt. I have a feeling it's only going to become more useful in the autumn and winter months, and am absolutely dying to pair it with opaque black tights and thin knit cashmere sweaters and the like. In the meantime it's still awesome though because really, can you ever really go wrong with black [p]leather garments? It's eternally badass, so personally I think not.

Wearing
Top: Zara
Skirt: thrifted
Shoes: Chanel, vintage (you can't see them very well, but I promise more detailed pictures of them in the future!)
Necklaces: my own creations

Keep it on the ground, keep it on the ground

When the distinct chill and crispness of a faraway but nonetheless upcoming winter hits the air it's not long before I begin to slowly but surely revert back to all of the dark hued, slim-fit items in my wardrobe one at a time and, on some days such as yesterday, all at once.
I'm aware that it's considered poor taste by a good percentage of the fashion-y crowd to be into wearing shaded monochrome all the time (with the exception of Kate Lamphear, who I'm pretty certain may just be my much cooler doppelganger), but I really can't help it: Bob Dylan was an early and extraordinarily significant influence on me, and everything from music to fashion to literature kind of stems from that place in me which still loves the man. Basically, since a very young age I've wanted to achieve both an aesthetic and an intelligence that would impress Monsieur Dylan were I ever to come in to being in his presence and, while that happening is unlikely for sure, I like taking the safe side on most matters - 'tis better to be early than late, safe than sorry, and so on and so forth....
Okay, enough philosophizing about my outfit. Well, maybe a bit more philosophizing....at the core of the matter I just like wearing all-black a lot in the fall and winter seasons and think it to be the opposite of depressing (particularly in consideration of the fact that my hair stands out like a beacon). Wearing what I wore yesterday made me feel comfortable and, more importantly, like myself, which to me is the whole point of style and furthermore how I differentiate it at the end of the day from fashion, which is trend, market and consumer driven. Which there is nothing wrong with, as I love supply and demand as much as the next Parisian Vogue reader! But in all honesty there are also some days of the week that I couldn't give a damn about what's in style and what's not, and yesterday was one of those days...
Another recent self-discovery: hanging out on deserted rooftops in the city can be REALLY fun.

Wearing

Cardigan: H&M (referred to in this post, and suprisingly not shown for the first time until now!)

Tank: Capezio

Jeans: Urban Planet

Boots: Pedro Garcia

Bored at work with a drawer full of magazines.

A mish-mash of images I like from a Hobo Magazine editorial called i love your body and your spirit and your clothes. Clever magazine, clever editorial. There's also an amazing article by Alex Needham, former Deputy Editor of the NME, about ex-Dior Homme genius Hedi Slimane's involvement in the London music scene which I may scan and put up later as well.

On a separate note, outfit du jour pictures will be up later than usual today.

Everybody Knows This is Nowhere.

Not having our record player set up yet in the semi-new apartment is beginning to really irk me, as last night I had to settle for listening to the mp3 version of Neil Young, which to be honest just doesn't have quite the same effect. Consequently, we ended up just thrashing about on the guitars and annoying the neighbours, with me playing electric leads over G's acoustic stuff, so a good evening was had despite the vinyl void. G indulged me in yet another photo shoot at some point past midnight, hence the uncombed, flat hair I'm kind of rocking here; as you may see from the picture below, I attempted to cover it with a headscarf, because I'm clever and subversive like that....yeah, or not.
As for 'outfit inspiration' (that feels like a stupid thing to write down, but I can't think of another way to put it so you, dear readers, are going to have to settle with my unskilled and tacky prose for the time being), you can pretty much bet that nine days out of ten I want to look like a member of Crazy Horse's entourage. This intention/infatuation of mine encompasses pretty much everything from liberty print minidresses to Canadiana plaid coats to the outfit of this post and, furthermore, 90% of the items in my closet.

Wearing:
Jacket: Danier
Shirt: the plaid is from Gap Kids (No PST! Sometimes it's awesome being the size of a tall 11 year old boy), and the tank is from AA
Shorts: Moto (quite possibly best, ridiculously cheap jeans ever?)
Shoes, Suitcase & Scarf: vintage