Shades of Cool

B&W Crop Top and Jacket: Mr. Price / Animal Print T-Shirt: Cotton On / Pants & Scarf: Gifted / Sunnies: Aldo / Maroon boots: Rage / Black booties: Mom's

Whoooooo! My first weekend after finishing exams... I've literally had moments where I've felt like I should be at my desk studying, and then my heart bubbles over with joy at the realisation that I have no academic worries for a couple of weeks. I'm so happy guys, you have no idea!

This weekend was basically made up of lots of sleep, TV series and fashion show stuff. Every year the Grade 11s of our school have a fashion show which has become a pretty big deal over the years - think Topshop and Zara as past sponsors! Our fashion show is coming up around August, and with exams being over, preparation is fully underway. I had rehearsals for a couple of hours on Saturday which was a bit of drag, considering that there were a thousand other things I could have been doing (eg. sleep). Sunday was spent at the infamous hipster joint in Maboneng, Arts on Main, where we had our photo shoot for the fashion show posters, promotional videos, etc.

We had a photographer take the actual photos for the show, but the behind-the-scenes pictures (side note: how gorg are my friends?) above are courtesy of myself and my NEW CAMERA!!! Fi-na-lly. This was a belated 16th birthday present from my parents, which rounded up my birthday week on a very sweet note. No more trash quality pictures, everyone, and probably more original content. Thank God!

Lovely Links | 23.06.14

(image source: lara jade via  the great discontent)

• New York Magazine's cover story by Benjamin Wallace about Terry Richardson's controversial career path has been all the buzz over the past few days.

• I've been dying over Ed Sheeran's highly anticipated second album, 'x' (pronounced "multiply") which drops in stores worldwide today - Thinking Out Loud, Afire Love and Nina are a few of my favourites tracks so far. You can stream it here or buy it on iTunes. 

• There's been a surge of feminism on social networks in recent times (eg. #YesAllWomen), so I was very intrigued by Charles Aaron's refreshingly honest article on the topic from a male's perspective. What is a Boy? is a particularly great article because he doesn't use up a ton of pages to defend the male species, which is pretty rare.

• Lana Del Rey released the video of her latest single, Shades of Cool, from her new Ultraviolence album. Watch the video, stream the album or buy it on iTunes. Also, read this very open and quite controversial interview Lana did for FADER.

• Sunglass Hut SA is hosting a competition where you vote for your favourite #ShadesOfWinter blogger look and stand a chance to win 1 of 4 Sunglass Hut vouchers worth R1000. Get all the details here. (Vote for Talya from Shades of Gold, she's my fave!)

• During one of my many internet escapades, I came across this lovely online fashion magazine called Material Girl. It's not in English (boooooo), but it has the some really beautiful indie-style editorials (e.g. the one I've used as the cover of this post) well worth taking a look at.

I haven't done a link post in a while, (or any post for that matter) but I will not apologise because (I've been writing exams) it's my sixteenth birthday today and I can be a snotty little brat for a whole 24 hours without anyone saying a word. I'm sorry.

"What are you doing to celebrate?", you might ask - well, I'll be up studying at 3AM, writing not one, but TWO exams during the day, and studying some more until about midnight. Because my life has turned into Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, I could do with some TLC. Mail me a big, fat slice of red velvet or carrot cake so I know it's real (wink, wink).