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Gothic wallpaper – skulls

May 23, 2011 by trashtastika

It is now a done deal – I bought a house!!

Hence my pre-occupation recently with interior style as opposed to fashion. However, the two are often interlinked; we can indeed let our personal style influence our surroundings – especially if we own our place or have a friendly landlord. Today I’d like to bring you some of my favourite gothic wallpapers, in skull patterns.

A Store Called Worth

Canadian fashionistas will already be aware of this store, which is dramatically fitted out with black ceiling with octagon smoked mirrors, a replica 17th Century Baroque chair in black lacquer and vinyl crocodile, a life size alabaster white reindeer, and grey and black damask wallpaper.

Carl Abad is owner and visionary of Worth, one of Canada’s first lifestyle shops specializing in “the next big thing” in art, fashion and design. Abad is well known in fashion circles from Calgary to Chelsea. While living in the UK, he was an assistant for the Terri Tanaka Agency, working under leading UK stylist Tassos. His assisting and styling work appeared in British Vogue, The Face and Wonderland. Worth is the result of Abad’s obsession with fashion and design and his desire to introduce Canadians to a diverse mix of international design.

Let’s get to the amazing wallpaper.

Isn’t it divine?

As Rollout states:

Worth Paper mashes together punk rock, granny, and brothel themes into a beautifully eerie statement on voyeurism and vanity. From a distance, the decorative filigree draws the viewer into the gaze of a wall filled with x-ray human skulls. These “mirror mirrors” reflect the impending decay that will one day wither our beauty and strip away our youth once and for all.

(Crikey!)

Its ominous call challenges us to live, work and party hard.

Erm, quite. For those who may prefer a more restrained, demure colour palette, see the wallpaper in cream:

Can’t you just see this in your granny’s parlour? You’d barely notice that it has skulls on it.

Worth has a facebook page and a blog, or you can follow Worth on twitter!

A few more designs from Rollout show how to incorporate skulls and tattoo motifs into wallpaper, first from Mark Ecko:

And Hell Pizza:

Beware The Moon

From Beware the Moon comes this awesome bronze flocked skull wallpaper. As they describe it: reflective bronze, deep-pile velvet Skull motif on an incredible light-catching, iridescent base which changes colour as you walk past it through reds, greens, blacks and golds – like an oil slick in a dirty puddle.

Close-ups show the various hues reflected under different light conditions:

Definitely one for use in small doses only, methinks. It is available in various different colourways from Beware The Moon.

From Designer Wallcoverings come these skulltastic wallpapers:

What do you think? I’ve seen other skull wallpapers, but not ones that have incorporated the skulls so successfully. Some are just goddang ugly. Have you seen any that you’d like to share here?

Filed Under: Blog entry Tagged With: goth, Gothic, interiors, skeletons, skulls, style

How Do I Look? Is it discriminatory?

May 18, 2011 by trashtastika

I love a good makeover show as much as anyone. Seeing girls or older women who have no clue about fashion and style and who really want to learn, and see them benefit from others’ expertise, is a lovely thing. Sometimes it results in a whole new lease of life and improved self esteem which is a great thing.

But lately something has been irking me that I’d like to get off my chest: some shows, particularly “How Do I Look” decide that alternative culture is not valid and that ladies with alternative/goth/punk/rock fashion senses need a good smack upside the head.

Occasionally this is true. For every well put together rock chick there may well be another girl who just looks, well, trashy. But often I see people who already have a strong sense of self, being pressured to give up their old clothes, hairstyles etc…in order to please well-meaning siblings and friends who want to ‘vanilla’ them down. Know what I mean?

Often it is in the guise of “but this isn’t helping you in your career/finding a boyfriend/meeting other moms”. I do actually applaud it when some hopelessly naff or super slutty-dressing gals are shown how they appear to others. Sometimes their looks are genuinely putting people off from getting to know them.

But I get super annoyed when the host or a friend will say something like: “she was attracting the wrong type,” and inferring that anyone who has tattoos, long hair, piercings, etc must be a loser. (I have actually heard them stereotyping alternative guys this way on a show). Some of these guys are losers, like a percentage in any demographic, but how about finding her a nice guy who happens to already share her worldview, sense of style and taste in music? But NOOOOOO, we have to find her a nice average joe with a neat haircut, who wears chinos and listens to jazz. (And natch, she has to keep her vanilla looks in order to keep the boy). Hell, even the Millionaire Matchmaker goes out of her way to find someone with stuff in common!

It is also generally assumed that to get ahead in their chosen field, or be liked, that they have to dress in a reasonably narrow way. In some professions, and with some people, this is the case. But times have moved on, and now tattoos are becoming more and more common and accepted, as well as coloured hair and various other personal grooming choices. Perhaps it is like people in the 50’s who wanted to keep everything ‘nice’ and couldn’t bear to see the sixties swingers donning very different fashions and hairstyles (for that, of course, just represented the sinful ways of the new decade).

It might surprise Jeannie and the producers of the show to know that there are many of us who dress creatively, be it punk one day, goth the next, vintage another day and high fashion when we feel like it, and that none of our looks particularly slows us down in our enjoyment of life or what we want to achieve. Furthermore, we also have successful, highly paid jobs, scads of variously different, well-adjusted friends, and extremely happy marriages to amazing guys who love us to death, who also have successful careers, and who happen to have long hair, piercings and tattoos!!

Maybe it’s just me. What do YOU think? What really gets up YOUR nose when it comes to these make-over shows who make under gothic and other alternative chicks? Do they make unfair assumptions?

Filed Under: Alternative Fashion, Blog entry, Fashion, gothic fashion Tagged With: Alternative Fashion, style

A Very Modern Terrace

May 17, 2011 by trashtastika

Oh my, has it really been 6 days since I last wrote? I have to confess to a bit of ‘cocooning’ due in no small part to the fact that I am buying a house. Yes! An honest to goodness, actual, with-a-small-courtyard-type of house. As opposed to the apartments I’ve been living in for the last umpteen years. There are still a few kinks to be worked out, but nothing we can’t manage, and so I thought you guys might like to see (well, those who haven’t already through my twitter links).

It is uber modern, with lots of skylights and glass, which will make for amazing outfit shots in great natural light (if I learn to work my DSLR better!) I’m also terribly excited to finally have an entire room just for my walk-in wardrobe and studio. At last I can organise/arrange my considerable collection of garments and accessories, and have proper space for my millinery blocks, hats and DIY materials.

Finally, I’m chuffed to bits that at last we can get a pet, and am currently making enquiries about miniature pinscher puppies. Our current aquarium will also be joined by a marine one…oh so many plans!

Onto the pics though. The first floor is where the living room is located, along with the main bedroom and bathroom, a bar for entertaining, the balcony and a glass-roofed atrium for a mini-greenhouse.

I know some people would be put off by the bar, but as my man does his own brewing, it will come in mighty handy for bottling and storage of the many bottles invariably littering our home. For the past few years he has taken over our ensuite shower as his beer-storing space, complete with shelving, so it will be a relief to have a dedicated space for the grog AND be able to use the second shower. Not to mention, how fab it will be for entertaining!

Downstairs are 2 other bedrooms, another bathroom, and the main kitchen and dining area which opens up onto decking and the back courtyard:

The front has a jet black door and an almost oriental looking black framed window. Perhaps because the seller is Japanese?

The plans show how it all fits together:

So, I have totally been immersed in many interiors magazines, watching home decor shows on foxtel, and making plans to personalise the space (say, how about a black feature wall?)

If you have any particular interiors blogs or posts you think I’d like, feel free to link. I would LOVE especially to see any pics of walk-in wardrobes (or closets, for my US readers), and rooms where clothes/shoes have been stored in well organised and stylish ways. Thoughts?

Filed Under: Blog entry Tagged With: interiors, style

My Interiors part 2

May 10, 2011 by trashtastika

Next up for your viewing pleasure is my bedroom, which is very oriental, and all black and red. We have a four poster balinese teak bed, upon which we’ve draped a black mosquito net – what else would goths sleep under?

At the back we’ve hung a japanese quilt with geisha design, again in red and black, for a quilted headboard type effect. It is juxtaposed against an Indian carved screen, Chinese style doona cover and a presumably french inspired Cancan dancer lampbase – all very eclectic!

Again there is a Cambodian touch with a wooden Bayon face near the wall, near part of my shoe collection:

and generally there is a lot of wood, for a sense of warmth:

Unfortunately my dresser with all my jewellery on top is just too cluttered to show, so I’ll finish with a shot of the bed from a different angle 🙂 Although we’ve loved it, the four poster really makes a room seem smaller, and we will definitely be changing to a new bed when we move.

What’s your bedroom like? How would you like to change it? I think I might have a more restful colour scheme next time 😉

Filed Under: gothic fashion Tagged With: Gothic, gothic bedroom, interiors, Japanese inspired, shoes, style

My Interiors part 1

May 6, 2011 by trashtastika

Since I’m hoping to be moving soon – yes, hopefully buying a house! – I thought it was time to post some pics of my apartment, especially as I’ve been tidying up this week. Today, it’s a few shots of my dining area, buffet and display shelving. We’re mad about South East Asia, Buddhas, and modern asian style generally – which you can easily see in the dark woods we’ve chosen, along with our assorted asian nicknacks.

We honeymooned in Cambodia (yep, just like the Dead Kennedys song – had to do it!), and picked up this lovely rubbing of Angkor Wat. Placed in a dark frame, I think it looks much more expensive than the few riel we paid for it. In our new place, I’l make sure it’s placed dead centre on the wall to look better 🙂

And then there’s the fish sculpture. I first saw this a few years ago when styling a shoot in Melbourne for Fiend magazine; it was in the cafe we breakfasted in before heading out for the day. I was so pleased to see the very same in my local ‘Eastern Flair’ boutique in Newtown, and had to buy it.

The other theme we have going is an aquatic one. We both love the sea, have a huge aquarium, and Dom is a mad diver. In fact he is diving the newest aussie dive site – the ex-HMAS Adelaide wreck – up at Terrigal tomorrow.

The buffet is a reproduction of old chinese style furniture, topped with a collection of old Burmese monk statues and a pair of matching lampshades either side for balance. I think the swoop of the shades echoes a pagoda silhouette, but perhaps I’m inclined to whimsy 🙂