ONLY THE LONELY

I stumbled across Only the Lonely on Facebook and had a quick chat to designer Angela Sterchele. I was not only taken back by the gorgeous, feminine designs but the 

photography was also beautiful, and recently a few pieces from the latest collection were featured in Oyster Magazine.

From Oyster Magazine

Can you give us all a little bit of your background?

My background is based strongly on following my dad around to art galleries and antique shops as a child. He is a freelance artist and that has been my biggest inspiration to follow my passion. I have studied at melbourne school of fashion in design and also business and knew from childhood I wanted to be in fashion and designing was always my passion and now I share my passion between design and styling.

Tell all of us a little about Only the Lonely.

Only the Lonely is named after an amazing and meaningful song by Roy Orbison that I listened to as a child. I wanted to create accessories by hand as I love making things from scratch. I began with my floral pieces before moving onto feathers, crystals, studs etc, which are going to be out in my new High Summer look book soon. I just simply wanted to create beautiful pieces that I would love to wear.

What kind of woman wears Only the Lonely?

The only the lonely girl is feminine, daring and loves a bit of attention and taking fashion risks. She can be a chamelion and wear what ever she feels.

What inspires you when you’re designing?

When I'm designing I try to use beautiful materials in a slightly edgy way to create something fresh. I like to create something dreamy and almost wearable costume pieces.

How would you define your personal style?

My personal style is totally eclectic. I love the crazy pieces that not many people would actually wear but i style them in my own wearable way. I dress for my mood and have to feel right or I will be late due to wardrobe changes. My car is a wardrobe on wheels which is handy.

What is the next step for Only the Lonely?

Only the Lonely is about to shoot it's first campaign which will showcase the Festival Collection '12' and is the first time that all the various styles will be shot together as a collection. I hope to pick up some more stockists this year and continue to stock at one of my favorite stores Hutch. The label is available through it's facebook page and often appears at Melbourne markets also.

You can find more of Only the Lonely here.

 

 

 

DIY FRIENDSHIP BRACELET

It seems that I have fallen off the face of the earth recently. I blame the holidays. Really, I was up at Byron Bay, had little reception where I was staying and so posting was difficult. I wanted to do one DIY post that could be done while holidaying and I decided that road trip time-passer would be really cool. Books, magazines, music, crosswords... So many fun things to do on the way. I decided to make a friendship bracelet on said road trip. It's easy and is an lovely addition to any arm-party. You'll need to prepare beforehand, so buy all of your bits and bobs prior to leaving.


You'll need:
- Several colours of embroidery thread
- Safety pins
- Pillow
- Scissors

How to:
1. This tutorial is for a Chevron pattern friendship bracelet. Cut your threads prior to leaving, then you won't need a measuring tape and your arm won't be in the face of the driver! Cut several of your colours to about 75 cm. I've used 6 colours, but you need two sets of each colour. Combine your threads and tie a knot at one end, leaving about 6 cm of slack.

2. Pin your knot to your cushion on your lap. Separate the two sets of colours in half making sure to arrange the colours in a mirrored pattern, so the outside colours are the same and so on towards the centre.

3. Starting on the left side with the outermost colour (purple in our picture) make a forward knot in the shape of a 4 over the second colour, loop it under and back through the opening. Then pull the thread you just looped up towards the right to tighten it. Repeat this knot twice over each colour. Keep repeating this until the outermost colour has reached the centre.
4. Now do the same on the right hand side with purple, and make a backwards knot, which is done using the same process except mirrored (make a backwards 4). Thread through until it reaches the centre. Then repeat step 3 and 4 with the next colour. Be sure that you're repeating the knot twice each time.

5. When you have about 6 cm left to go knot the end of the bracelet and then braid each end and knot once more. Done!

There are other patterns to make as well. For a straightforward striped bracelet, just cut one set of colors and knot the outermost color all the way through to the right side. For an asymmetrical chevron, mix up the colors when dividing them into 2 sets just make sure you count the number of strands as you knot so you know when to stop in the middle each time. Cute right? Would love to see if anyone else has tried this and any other variations.

CHRISTMAS DAY

What a day. I barely had time to enjoy lunch from running between my family to my boyfriends family and trying to get some sort of outfit together. I think I managed in the end and I did enjoy the day. I hope Santa was good to all of you. It was a very laid back Christmas for The Bearded Lady. Santa was kind enough to bring me these really cute hippie-style brown circular sunglasses by Mink Pink. I also got loads of comments on my DIY Christmas hair wreath. I think the best compliment I received was 'Christmas Fairy'. If you missed the tutorial you can find it here. I was also wearing my DIY fishtail hem skirt and if you haven't yet read that tutorial you can read it here.

Wearing: Christmas Hair Wreath, Mink Pink top & Sunnies, Fishtail Skirt, YSL ring, Xmas present silver bracelet, Orange/brown cork wedge heels

ADDISON ROAD

When I was planning my outfit posts for the week, I glumly looked in my wardrobe, dwelling over the fact that I haven't bought any clothes for myself in ages. However, not one to give up on a bare closet (well, bare in my opinion) I went through everything and took a chance on an outfit I never would have considered before - lace top and lace shorts. Lace and lace. Honestly, I was surprised how much I liked the look.  

My tip for a look like this is to not overdo it. I kept accessories basic, wore bright heels and neon pink on my nails and toes. On a warm, beautiful day all I wanted to do was wear something light and easy, take advantage of the weather considering how gross Sydney was during the week. So I went, broke rules and soaked up the short-lived sunshine.

I heart summer

Neon toe nails and and bright shoes

Neon nails & a cuff

Chanel sunglasses

ANGLE DIAMOND DOT.

A friend of mine owns a shop in Sydney's awesome and quirky fashion suburb of Surry Hills, right on Crown St. Estate of Mind's concept is to launch and support underground Australian (and now international) designers trying to make a break into the competitive and difficult Australian fashion industry. My friend will often send me look book's of new brands she has found and this one in particular caught my eye.

Angle Diamond Dot. The current collection Follow the Sun is a beautiful array of jewellery pieces designed by Courtney Harris. Each piece is an eye-popping feast featuring semi-precious stones in their raw form, meaning that each item is slightly different and unique from the other and set in sterling silver or plated gold. Another thing I love about this brand? Everything is hand-crafted.

Prepare to be delighted. A warning to jewellery lovers: sunglasses may be needed, as you could very well be blinded by their sheer beauty. I placed my order for the earrings in the first picture a few weeks ago as I've been looking for a pair of drop earrings and fell head over heels instantly. Other personal favourites are the sexy 'Linked In' chunky gold necklace and pretty much all of the massive show-stopping rings. The photo shoot alone is enough to fall in love with this beautiful brand.

For more information go to the Angle Diamond Dot website. Enjoy!

Four Corners of the World earrings, RRP $360 - mine in a few days!

'Linked In' chunky necklace

So bright!

Perfect jewels for summer

LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE

Here is the neon necklace I made yesterday. Just me and my necklace. Does it not look so cute?

Necklace: $9.95 from Collette

...and one colour, just so you can see how it stands out on skin.

Just in case you're as blind as a bat, find the tutorial on how to make your own neon necklace here.

DIY NEON NECKLACE

I've noticed neon and bright colours popping up everywhere recently, as I'm sure you all have. With all of this 'colour-blocking' rage your wardrobe will look pretty bare without some form of colour this summer. If you're not brave enough to try the colour-blocking trend, or don't really have a clue how to make it work, re-vamping some of your jewellery might just be the key. I first saw this idea over at the lovely a pair and a spare blog, so thought that I'd give it a try on a metal necklace to see if it works (which it does).

The amazing thing about this idea is not only is it really easy and cheap, but it can breathe new life into cheap jewellery that you may have had sitting in your drawer for a while. It will brighten up any outfit and, let's face it, we can all find a way to incorporate bright jewellery into a winter outfit.

You'll need:
- A necklace, beaded or metal. A patterned necklace like the one I chose creates a lot of interest
- Neon spray paint. I bought yellow White Knight from Bunnings for about $18. (If you're spraying an item that is dark you'll need to do an undercoat of white spray paint)

How you do it:
1. Make sure your jewellery item is nice and clean from grease or anything else yucky, that may not hold the paint.
2. Shake your can of paint for about a minute to really get the paint to mix properly within the can.
3. In a well ventilated area, on newspaper, spray the item very well until it is completely covered. I found that on metal I had to really spray quite a lot of paint onto it.
4. Leave to dry for the amount of time recommended on the can.
5. My item looked a bit blotchy when it dried so I sprayed a second coat on.

After the second coat.

6. Leave it to dry again.

The final product.

And you're done! The only thing that I was worried about was that the spray might scratch off because the metal would have been finished with enamel and therefore wouldn't hold the paint well. I did a test up where the clasp is and tried scratching a little bit off with my nail and it seemed to stay quite well. I guess buying a spray enamel might be an idea but I'll just wait and see what happens as I wear it. After all, this is a seasonal trend item so isn't meant to be 'forever'. And I don't plan on wearing this everyday. On second thought, maybe I should buy another can of paint, just in case.