Chic Little Devil... Spring Fashions with Audrey Kitching...

Check out Audrey Kitching and Chic Little Devil's two part Spring Style guide with Buzznet.com. I LOVE the first dress... but the others? What do YOU think?

Katy In Wonderland...

Ok, I couldn't give a shit that katy Perry and Travis Whats-His-Name form Gym Class Hero's are back together... but what I DO care about is Katy's chic little ensemble... I LOVE that dress... and the neckless... and I WANT that hairband!

LOVE Movement...

I was looking at some tattoos by Kat Von D for my artist study for my "Colour" exam question and I found this guy, and check out his older tattoos! Talk about dedication to a cause... and LOVE TWLOHA tattoo on his wrist! Rock on...

Burning Roses...

Check out the hot new cover and spread in the new issue of INKED Magazine!

I find INKED like the best print magazine ever... I read Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, i-D etc. but I REALLY love INKED... not just because I'm OBSESSED with tattoos, but because the fashion and culture in it is SO good too! 

TWLOHA...

Another one of my shopping picks I'm afraid... but this time its one with a cause!

Lipstick Royalty's Fashion Editor Amy introduced me to To Write Love On Her Arms (TWLOHA) a couple of months ago and we're featuring them in August 1st's edition of Lipstick Royalty!

MISSION STATEMENT:

To Write Love on Her Arms is a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide. TWLOHA exists to encourage, inform, inspire and also to invest directly into treatment and recovery.

VISION:

The vision is that we actually believe these things…

You were created to love and be loved. You were meant to live life in relationship with other people, to know and be known. You need to know that your story is important and that you're part of a bigger story. You need to know that your life matters.

We live in a difficult world, a broken world. My friend Byron is very smart - he says that life is hard for most people most of the time. We believe that everyone can relate to pain, that all of us live with questions, and all of us get stuck in moments. You need to know that you're not alone in the places you feel stuck.

We all wake to the human condition. We wake to mystery and beauty but also to tragedy and loss. Millions of people live with problems of pain. Millions of homes are filled with questions – moments and seasons and cycles that come as thieves and aim to stay. We know that pain is very real. It is our privilege to suggest that hope is real, and that help is real.

You need to know that rescue is possible, that freedom is possible, that God is still in the business of redemption. We're seeing it happen. We're seeing lives change as people get the help they need. People sitting across from a counselor for the first time. People stepping into treatment. In desperate moments, people calling a suicide hotline. We know that the first step to recovery is the hardest to take. We want to say here that it's worth it, that your life is worth fighting for, that it's possible to change.

Beyond treatment, we believe that community is essential, that people need other people, that we were never meant to do life alone.

The vision is that community and hope and help would replace secrets and silence.

The vision is people putting down guns and blades and bottles.

The vision is that we can reduce the suicide rate in America and around the world.

The vision is that we would learn what it means to love our friends, and that we would love ourselves enough to get the help we need.

The vision is better endings. The vision is the restoration of broken families and broken relationships. The vision is people finding life, finding freedom, finding love. The vision is graduation, a Super Bowl, a wedding, a child, a sunrise. The vision is people becoming incredible parents, people breaking cycles, making change.

The vision is the possibility that your best days are ahead.

The vision is the possibility that we're more loved than we'll ever know.

The vision is hope, and hope is real.

You are not alone, and this is not the end of your story.



BEGIN:
This began as an attempt to tell a story and a way to help a friend in Spring 2006. The story and the life it represented were both things of contrast – pain and hope, addiction and sobriety, regret and the possibility of freedom. The story’s title “To Write Love on Her Arms” was also a goal, believing that a better life was possible. We started selling t-shirts as a way to pay for our friend’s treatment, and we made a MySpace page to give the whole thing a home. Our friends in Switchfoot and Anberlin were among the first to wear these shirts. In the days that followed, we learned quickly that the story we were telling represented people everywhere. We began to hear from people in need of help, and others asking what they could do to help their friends. We heard from people who had lost loved ones to suicide. Many said that these were questions they had never asked and parts of their story that they had never shared. Others were honest in a different way, confessing these were issues they knew little or nothing about. It seemed we had stumbled upon a bigger story, and a conversation that needed to be had.

Over the last two and a half years, we’ve responded to 80,000 messages from people in 40 different countries. We’ve had the opportunity to bring this conversation, and a message of hope and help, to concerts, universities, festivals and churches. We’ve learned that these are not American issues, not white issues or “emo” issues. These are issues of humanity, problems of pain that affect millions of people around the world.

We’ve learned that two out of three people who struggle with depression never seek help, and that untreated depression is the leading cause of suicide. In America alone, it’s estimated that 19 million people live with depression, and suicide is the third-leading cause of death among those 18-24 years old.

The good news is that depression is very treatable, that a very real hope exists in the face of these issues. We’ve met people who are getting the help they need, sitting across from a counselor for the first time, stepping into treatment, or reaching out to a suicide hotline in a desperate moment.

TWLOHA Mission statement etc. C/O TWLOHA

Past Praying For...

Check out the brand new, first ever music video by VersaEmerge - Past Praying For

Yet another one...

... thats in my dreams, from All Saints. I kinda love the sort of gothic feel it has to it... girly but with a slightly darker edge to it... very me! 

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I'm in Love...

I WANT one of these... flipping over the pages of my new Vogue I caught the ad and fell in love...
Shame the one I want is £175... dream on girl!

Gaga Incoming...

Come on, she looks like Lady Gaga doesn't she?

Check out Alternative Model Loriel Andre'a 's new Gaga inspired shots with the photographer Nat Von Photography. 

And just a shameless plug now, remember to check out Loriel's column "Fashion Forward" exclusively in Lipstick Royalty Magazine!

The backstage shots are always the best...

Still from Audrey Kitching's Santo Xacti shoot. I still can't get over that fact that when she wore this dress to the "Seventeen Again" premiere she made the magazines in the worst dressed list... I love it! 

A Fashionable Description...

Looking through some of my vintage creative writing...

Its crap really but I like to look that these things to see how far I've come!

Kathryn sank down into the cushions on her bed and bent down to release the ribbons binding her ridiculously high black Jimmy Choo’s to her swollen feet. The shoes fell to the floor with a clatter and she tucked the feet beneath her while she stretched out for the copy of Vogue laying on the sideboard and a tottering flute of champagne. As she sipped and flicked through the glossy pages she cocked her head to listen out for sounds in the apartment but all was silent; well save the usual sounds of people bustling in and out of the shops on the adjacent avenue, the bright yellow New York taxi’s and the clacking of expensive woman’s shoes making a racket on the pavement below. But she was all alone, alone in one of the busiest cities in the world. As the hours crawled buy on the ornate pocket grandfathers clock set over the top of the ornate faux-fireplace on the far side of the room the fraction of the unread magazine became shorter as Kathryn worked her way towards the directory pages. The champagne was long gone. The sky outside had become darker and the city had become brightly lit with twinkling lights as if someone had draped hundreds and thousands of fairy lights across the sky scrapers. She sighed and let her Siamese cat Dolce leap off her feet where she had been curled up just before Kathryn swung her legs over so her feet met the soft pile of her carpet. She padded across to the doors to her closet and pulled them open, flicking the light switch and stepping into the bright white room lined with shelves of shoes set out in pairs on top of their boxes and dress mannequins sporting what looked like the entire woman’s clothing department at Barney’s. She headed for the shoes first, replacing the Jimmy Choo’s she had earlier discarded and had scooped up from the floor before leaving her room. She then walked the length of the closet gazing at the breathtaking collection pondering over the names; Manolo Blahnik, Dolce & Gabanna, Prada and finally her favourite; her Jimmy Choo’s. Most woman picked out her dress first, then pained herself over finding a pair of shoes to match but not Kathryn. She always chose her shoes and then the dress to match what she called the ‘Jewel of her outfit’. Finally she rested on a pair of ruby red Ralph Lauren stilettos with conveniently matching ruby red clutch from the same designer. She was never a one for bright flashy colours so after selecting the shoes she headed for a black Gucci dress; vintage made of rumpled chiffon she had found in a shop in Chicago last year which she had worn more times than any other piece in her wardrobe. She slipped it over her head and slid into the shoes, looking down at her Rolex cursing over the time. She hurried out of the closet, slamming the door and forgetting to turn of the lights. Reaching her dressing table she touched up the makeup she had applied that morning and slicked on a fresh coat of rouge lipstick and worked some magic with the mascara wand. Grabbing a black fur lined cape off the back of the door she grabbed one of her numerous crystal perfume bottles and spritzed herself all over, calmed by the familiarity of her signature scent. When she reached the great glass doors of the lobby the doorman held if open for her and another hurried forward holding open the door of the long sleek black limo which was waiting for her. She journeyed, as usual alone; as true to form she had arranged for her entourage to already be at the benefit awaiting her arrival. She watched people walking down the sidewalk heading for their different Saturday night destinations through the windows wishing she could be one of them. She wondered where they were headed; clubs, restaurants raves all of them probably twice as fun as what the party she was headed for had in store for her. The car pulled up outside a large warehouse, where the great large doors were thrown open so the bright lights streamed through them accompanied by the pounding music. Her driver opened the door for her as she stepped out to flashbulbs going off in her face. The photographers were shouting her name as she stalked up the red carpet that perfectly coordinated with her shoes. She posed at the top by the doors, by the backdrop featuring all the charities and sponsors related to the benefit. After the photographers and reporters that lined the carpet turned away to snap at the latest arrival and Kathryn entered the party, several members of her entourage coming up behind her, one of them passing her yet another flute of the good stuff. And at that moment a tear formed in the corner of Kathryn’s eye, but she brushed it away before anyone could see. She felt more alone than she had ever done, surrounded by all these people; all of them gathered around her basking in her fame and none of them there because they wanted to be there for her. Everyone knew her name; why it was done up in flashing lights above every movie theatre in the city. The media had painted a picture of her; everyone thinks they know me; but they know nothing about me at all.

Umbrella, ella, ella...

Fun Fashion Tip no. 001

Attack your plain old black umbrella with a couple of brightly coloured graffiti cans!

I'm thinking of starting a clothing line along the lines of "graffiti", bright colours etc. Thoughts? 

Flying high...

Ok... just found this picture of Heidi Klum modeling the new Alexander McQueen shoes... Should supermodels be aloud to make themselves EVEN taller? 

Sugar Mafia ft. Callow Lily

One of my favorite interviews I've ever done for Lipstick Royalty Magazine was back when we were called Inside Out Magazine, and that interview was with Callow Lily, the American alternative artist who has rocked my world since I first discovered her... 

...And now I've discovered her new collection for Sugar Mafia jewelry... where's my credit card?!? 

Now thats what you call skills...

Ok I was just checking out my deviation alerts on deviantART and christ... I wish I could draw like these girls... they have skills!

Check out the rest of evilpiratedork's gallery here.

Check out the rest of R-becca's gallery here.

Lipstick Royalty is changing... (Again!?!)

Find out why here. 

Bee Pirate Hooker...

Alternative? Aged between 14 and 20? You are? Then loathe us not for our generalisation, but you're probably on Myspace / Bebo / Buzznet and you probably have at least one famous internet .alt model in your 'friends' list. Audrey Kitching, Hanna Beth, Zui Suicide, Raquel Reed, Brandon Hilton, Jamesson Beane... These alternative gals have all made their fame off the back of the internet, spawning countless admirers and .alt model hopefuls. But what's it like to be a net celebrity? We ask Bebo famestress Bee Pirate Hooker to spill the beans...

Check out my interview with internet celebrity Bee Pirate Hooker in this weeks Mooky Chick! 

Alternative Cover...

The March issue of my magazine, Lipstick Royalty has now been taken down and we had the wonderful Bernie Dexter gracing our cover. 

Now, there is a rather long story with this cover, and for the first time ever there were two covers of the magazine I loved and it killed me to choose one. 

So, I've decided to share the cover I made with you guys, as an alternative to the one made by our Creative Director... What do you think? 

Photo by Levi Dexter 

Music Minute

I'm always one to support independent people and bands are no exception! 

Check out the uber cool unsigned band Kelsey and the Chaos! , billed by Alternative Press as one of the ones to watch  for 2009 - I 101% agree!

Check out their song "Against The Wall" - I'm addicted!