Santa can you hear me?

December is approaching fast and that means two things:

One, we should most certainly not  ignore the coming cold and dress wherever we feel most fabulous in. Even if that means you will be likely to suffer from chronic goose bumps. And two, both Christmas and the Dutch holiday Sinterklaas (which is basically the same as Christmas but then early December. Yes - we get presents two times that month.) are getting closer and we need to start making our wish-lists.

I've always liked the day after Christmas the most. Normally, people get their presents in the morning on the 25th of December. However, as the Dutch also celebrate Christmas Eve on the night of the 24th, my family has always given each other our gifts during dinner that evening. The morning after, I would always order my presents in the most precious way, giving each and one of them the same amount of attention and love. The rest of the day I would simply lie on my belly on the floor and gasp at the precious little things that I had wished for so long and that I could now count as parts of my wardrobe. I would think of combinations with my cool Adidas sneakers, come up with occasions to which I could wear my amazing soft skinned leather jacket, and I would create the coolest looks in my head with a long wished for purple (I know, don't blame me.) pair of jeans. Being thirteen, those were the days.

However, being nearly ten years older today, I don't think things have changed so much. Let me explain.

Although I don't live in my parents house anymore, I share an apartment with three friends in the heart of Amsterdam. We each have our own bedroom and share one big dining/chill out spot and other necessities in the house (such as the kitchen, bathroom, laundry room etc). My bedroom is a mix and match of all things pretty and it is often called 'the treasure palace' by my flatmates or friends. That means, it might look a bit full at first, it's filled with precious little treasures that each have a special story and are placed where they are placed with a reason. My Moschino belt, for instance. It swings on a little hook inside my closet, so that every morning when I open it to pick out my look for the day, I start off with a smile. My vintage Dior purse hangs next to my necklaces, so that when I choose my jewellery in the morning, I get a glimpse of that timeless piece of work. (I've written an entire post ("fashion environment") about the likes and unlikes of my treasure palace a couple months ago, and perhaps it's best you read that in case you've gotten curious to what my room looks like...)

My shoes used to be stored in sight too, although I have a perfectly fine working storage box under my bed. I used to order my shoes in there once in a while, so that when I rolled the box from under the bed, I could take a look at all my lovely boots and sandals, heels and wedges, and all other footwear lined up one by one, smiling and winking at me. You might know this already too, because this was also one of my previous blog posts ("making excushoes").

However, most of the time my shoes are lying somewhere in my room, so that I don't forget to wear certain pairs and that I can take a look at them whenever I feel a little depressed by the winter's cold. It does make my bedroom look rather messy and, well, also quite full. And thus my mum came with the perfect solution, resulting in a deja-vu from that morning-after-Christmas: she bought me a shoe rack.

As soon as I received the rack I was too excited to think of anything else. I immediately placed all my shoes on it, playing with different textures and colours lined next to each other. It showcases my most amazing shoes; varying from mustard suede clog like wedges to insanely high, black leather booties (lovingly called my "porn boots" by friend F.) and my latest crushes: half black snake skin (front) and half black suede (back) ankle wedges with sturdy rubber soles. I switched the shoes around, squeezed a couple more pairs in, and after finding the perfect order, I sank down to the floor, sat in what we Dutch call the "kleermakerszit" (referring to the way tailors used to sit; just google it.), and stared at my shoe rack in utter devotion and admiration. For 45 minutes straight. Without winking one single time. Then my flatmate stormed in, rudely waking me out of my peaceful trance, only to make me realize it wasn't Christmas yet and reminding me more racks would be crucial if Santa would decide to send me some shoebox sized presents this year...

Love it!

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Fashion Environment

This past Monday was the start of a new year at fashion school (AMFI - Amsterdam Fashion Institute). With a semester called 'Fashion Environment', I came to think about my own fashion environment. Basically speaking, you could say that my environment exists of a couple sectors: first there's the school, that's obviously a great fashion environment for me. It fills me with knowledge about important fashion brand strategies, the tales and truths of the industry and it teaches me how to design a smart communicating lay out. Next to that it secures my future as a fashion professional, it also secures my sense of style, in a way that there's not much chance I am completely off with latest trends. Having such wonderfully well dressed boys and girls wandering around the school, even a child could spot trends or see fashion statements that are worth keeping an eye out for, pop up their heads way before they hit the highstreets. You might think morning life in front of your closet picking your outfit for the day has gotten harder ever since I became a Fashion student, the opposite is the case. Since now my inspiration has lead me to believe that everything is possible, I make bold choices and decisions. Perhaps some are a bit over the top, but who's judging? AMFI may seem like a runway to others outside of the fashion environment, to us it's just a place where we can express ourselves and steal some inspiring styling shots from each other. 

Next to school, my job is part of my fashion environment. Being the editor in chief for Fashiolista (God, do I love saying that!), I am asked to go see collection previews, art gallery openings and other fashion related events. I get to meet amazingly interesting and inspiring people in the industry for interviews or other features (read here about our latest cool blogger Suze from fashion blog Hold Your Breath) and I am allowed to go to Fashion Week!

Seeing my friends is another piece of the pie called my fashion environment. My friends inspire me with their wise words and wisdoms about life and love. We can chat for hours about the drama that troubled men have caused in our lives, but we can easily switch to the new knitted and leather A/W collection that has just come in stores at Zara, and then keep this subject on for couple hours or so. The hopes we all have for the future, the shared ambitions, the wish to let our fashion environment expand over the years, fills me with a firm believe that we'll all make it there someday. 

That leaves me with the last fashion environment to discuss, which is also the one that inspired me to write this post. As some of you may know, I live in a student apartment in Amsterdam, with three roomies (or I should say flatmates, as we all have our own room) that make life a little less boring and much more comforting when you find yourself stumbling along those three stairs with a striking pain in your left heel after drinking too much wodka ("with a hint of a fresh squeezed lime, please?") and walking far too long or dancing way too fierce on your new moss-green leather wedged ankle booties (laced up!). They hear my overenthusiastic stories when I come home, sink down to the kitchen floor, only to give a two-hour speech about the blue eyes of a certain famous singer I just stared in the eyes. They also soothe me when this singer is declaring his love for a certain editor - though not an editor for Fashiolista. 

Anyhow, I am wandering off. I wanted to talk about my domain in the house: my bedroom. This is definitely a huge part of my fashion environment, it's where I choose my outfits and where I write my posts, where I can read books and mag's and where I work on school assignments, where I can close the door and be in my very own dreamy world for hours on end. It sometimes feels quite personal when someone enters this world of dreams and hopes that I've created, as they are MY dreams and hopes, and I often feel quite aware of what's to see in my room. It's filled with books, cramped with shoes and packed with little bits and bops.The walls are covered with frames of antique fashion drawings, old black and white photos, a newspaper ad from the 80s from my grandfathers boutique and I think I made clear to anyone who enters my room I'm quite the Chanel fan. My room reflects who I am, organized in my own way, and interested in a broad range of things. It also reflects my way of dressing and I've often heard that my bedroom is an exact replica of who I am as a person. This makes me smile.

Photos by Emilie Sobels

Not completely random I came to think about my bedroom as my largest and most personal fashion environment, as my assignment for the coming five weeks is to design a living room box - or in my case a bedroom box, as my targetgroup is teenagers - in which you can clearly see whose special space it is. That means mini beds and mini desks, but what else? If you're in the age group 13 - 20 years, please inspire me and perhaps you'll find your tribute in my bedroom box...!

Photos by Emilie Sobels

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