F-a-a-abulous

photo from here

To understand exactly how fantastic the costumes are from The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert it would be a good idea if you all went out and watched the movie. No time you say? I said DO IT. So go do it. It’s worth it. To get you started (and hopefully hooked) here’s a run-down of some of my favourite outfits in the movie.

The boys hiked up a mountain in these ridiculously fabulous drag get-ups. Apparently it’s some important land feature in Australia, but I have no idea. Whatever. This scene is all about how amazing they look once they reach the top, feathered headdresses and all.

photo from here

At the beginning of the story there’s a funeral. Great way to start a movie right? But then again, Bernadette aka Terence Stamp in drag does the mourning look rather well. I don’t do hats (or veils…), but I rather like the look regardless.

My favourite (and I do mean favourite) part of this film is without a doubt when Adam aka Felicia aka Guy Pearce dresses up in a silver sequined onesie, and lip syncs opera on the giant sparkling shoe on top of their tour bus while driving through the desert. Ridiculous, and extravagant, and incredibly cinematic. Plus it appeals to my addiction to glitter >_>

photo from here

Tick aka Mitzi aka Hugo Weaving (aka Lord Elrond and Agent Smith) loses a game of snap to Felicia, and his punishment is a lap of a main drag, in drag. He does it in a ridiculous pink wig, dragtastic makeup, layered platform heels, and of course the shoe dress. It’s so ridiculous it’s fabulous.

photo from here

Last but not least is the grand finale show for the three travellers. They dress up as desert lizards, ostriches, and the Sydney Opera House, but what makes this scene is the fabulous makeup and abundance of feathers. I love the black and blue combo, and this shot makes me super jealous of Guy Pearce’s makeup artistry. 

photo from here

How to be Fabulous - All the Time

image from here

One of my favourite movies, The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, is the inspiration for this week, and since the three main characters are always fabulous, I thought it would be fitting to share some of my style rules with you dear readers.

1. Sweatpants are to be worn at the gym, when exercising, and at home. Even if they’re Lulu Lemons’ they should not be part of your regular wardrobe. It’s sloppy, and lazy, and tacky.
2. Learn to colour coordinate. Or just wear black all the time. People will either think you’re really artistic, or really depressed, which is still better than looking like a rainbow mess.
3. Keep your clothes on and pull your pants up. This is more for guys than girls, but seriously no one wants to see your underwear or your flab.
4. Plan your outfits the night before. Checking the weather forecast only takes a minute, and then you’ll have plenty of time to figure out if you should wear the little Gucci dress, or the little Gucci dress.
5. Don’t listen to the fashion magazines until you know how to dress yourself. Not everyone can pull of sequined skinny pants, and it’s better to be conservative than look a fool.
6. Buy a full length mirror. They’re only $10 at Wal-mart, so wtf are you waiting for.
7. Keep that razor away from your head. I’m not a fan of asymmetrical outfits, and I am not a fan of a half-shaved head. Bad hipster, bad!
8. If it’s see through, it’s probably not for you.
9. Unless you’re in the military, stay away from the camouflage fatigues. It’s not like camouflage hides you in the city, so it’s not helping you shake those stalkers!
10. Learn how to walk in heels. It’s not that difficult, and it’ll immediately class up your outfit.

I could probably come up with 100 more how to be fabulous style rules, but we’ll leave it at 10 for now. Share yours in the comments!

Warrior Princess Boots

Okay, so maaaaaybe these boots aren't the most practical for galoshmazoning (metallic silver microsuede doesn't stand up to weather issues well), but they sure are fabulous!

boots by Be Wild

Fabulous Feathers

When I saw this polish from Joe Fresh (Peacock), I was in love. It’s the most ridiculously rich sparkly teal and it was only $3. Hell yes. It’s a gorgeous shade on the nail, but it needs a topcoat since the formula isn’t very strong and tends to show flaws terribly. I avoid wearing topcoat as much as possible, but I love the shade of this polish so much that I will make the sacrifice so I can wear it for more than a few hours. Photographing it was kind of a bitch, since the shimmer is super fine, and my camera doesn’t like picking it up very well. Plus it was super shady the day that I was wearing it, which just makes me sad. Thankfully I managed to swing a few decent pictures (seriously I had about 100 to go through to get these few to share). 

Galoshmazoning

During my adventures as a galoshmazining princess of Saerintopia over the years it has become clear to me that there are certain staples to any adventurer’s wardrobes. Hold on a second, you all don’t know what galoshmazoning is. It’s a word that my BFF Li and I came up with when we were out at the lake one year and were hiking through the bracken whilst exploring. It can be defined thus:

galoshmazon, to: (verb) to explore the wilderness whilst wearing galoshes, in the manner of Amazon warriors. Alluding to glamour, this verb can still be applied to men, but is generally applied to exploratory women. (Definition courtesy of the Dictionary of Saerontopia).

Enough about galoshmazoning, we’re here to discuss fashion! I was planning on doing a photo shoot for this week, but the other half of the creative ideal is across the country from me, and Saerin (aka Liz) cannot be replaced by anyone. So instead you get my advice on what an exploring princess should have in her wardrobe!

Tall boots: These are the most integral part of a warrior princess outfit, It doesn’t matter whether they’re brown or black or neon pink, just that they’re epic, and you feel like a badass when you wear them. Bravado and confidence are 75% of the warrior princess attitude, and the boots should be able to pump you up and make you feel like you can take on the world. BTW ankle boots won’t do. They gotta be tall boots or they just won’t give the right impression. My warrior princess boots are knee-high silver metallic snakeskin heels, and I always feel like the most awesome person ever when I wear them. You’ll get to see them on Sunday, don’t worry.

A good pair of jeans: Normally you would assume that warrior princesses would wear short shorts when exploring, but jeans are much more practical. On the most basic level, they protect your legs from getting all scratched up while exploring. Even more importantly: everyone looks good in jeans. I personally go for a darkwash denim since it never goes out of style, and with a high percentage of spandex for increased mobility.

Leather jacket: They’re badass. Do you really need any more reason why you need one?

Cheap tanktops: To contrast the item that I’m putting on the list next, I decided to include this basic wardrobe staple. When they get too dirty for detergent to remedy you can just throw them out instead of being upset about stains. And trust me, adventuring princesses get their hands dirty, and shirts are the first place that dirt accumulates when adventuring.

A fancy dress: It doesn’t have to be a ballgown, but every princess needs something sparkly to wear when she feels like being a girly girl. I have lots of them, and I absolutely love the OMG reaction I get from people when I dress up like a girly girl. If all you ever wear is a leather jacket and jeans, then people are going to eventually become used to it; just switch into a fancy dress and watch their jaws drop! You can always wear your badass boots or jacket for an even bigger contrast.

How to have an Alter-Ego and not Lose your Mind

In high school my best friend Liz and I were a little strange. We were the kids who didn’t really talk to anyone, we were the kids who wore strange outfits (plaid wedges for me, yellow rain jacket for her), we were the kids who nicknamed our group after a dad show (the Possum Posse from the Red Green Show). We were also the kids the wildest imaginations, and who were always busy creating a magic land of make-believe. Sure, most of the kids in our school thought we were nuts (and in retrospect we probably were a bit too much to handle), but we were happy living with dual personalities because it gave us a means of escaping the banalities of petty high school drama and gave us something interesting to do on our lunch hours.

Creating a persona who was the opposite of who we were in reality was a means for us to explore different lifestyles. By creating stories about our characters we could experience adventure, magic, strange creatures, faraway lands, and most of all, love. Our characters were the brave, strong, independent women (who always got the guy) that we both hoped to become someday. Both of us were pretty shy when it came to being social in high school, but seeing our alter-egos do things we were never able to in real life laid the groundwork for becoming the slightly more outgoing people we are today. Neither of us is the most popular girl in school now of course, but Liz has managed to swing herself a pretty awesome boyfriend, and moving across the country didn’t really phase me, so we must be getting somewhere.

The key to having an alter-ego is to know when to turn it off. They may be an inspiration, and they can push us to do things we wouldn’t normally do, but they are essentially a secret part of our lives. Doing things that are crazy all the time can get you into trouble if you indulge too often, but if applied with a careful touch can add a sense of mystery to your personality and lead to some fun adventures. My rule of thumb is always: be crazy and uninhibited with your friends, but not your boss. If it could have repercussions in the wider range of your life think twice, and keep those leather thigh-high boots in the closet. Putting on an alter-ego is much like putting on that crazy outfit that’s hidden in the back of your closet. We all have one, whether it’s that ball gown we picked up at a thrift store “just because,” that pair of ridiculously neon pumps that make any outfit a party, or that fashion forward trench coat that we’re not quite mature enough to wear. Putting on that crazy piece of clothing changes how we see ourselves, and changes how we interact with the world in much the same way that adopting an entire alter-ego can. It can be a fun experience, or we can be left feeling slightly ridiculous.

But what’s the fun in always playing it safe? Go ahead and do something  you wouldn’t this week, and blame it on your “other self.” You never know who you’ll meet, and it might just be me, out doing the exact same crazy thing!

Versace Wishlist

When I went through my plethora of shoes I realized that I didn't have a single pair of shoes that resembled anything by Versace. Considering how strange and original most of the Versace shoes are this isn't surprising since it's hard to duplicate or simplify shoes that are so crazy. But I figured that I would have at least one pair that took some style hints from the designer brand. I researched and researched and researched, but nothing clicked with what I had in my collection. So I have a new goal: find a pair of Versace-esque shoes and buy them! In the meantime, I'm going to keep drooling over a few pairs that I found online and wish I could have from the brand.

image from here

image from here

image from here

image from here

Fallen Leaves

Autumn is almost at a close here in Halifax. Looking out the window at the beginning of last week the trees were a beautiful crisp yellowy green; a day later the green had been replaced by grey, and the trees no longer looked cheerful. Winter is almost here, but I’m not ready to give up Autumn yet. I’ll happily drink my red cupped Starbucks peppermint white chocolate mocha, but I want another few weeks of leaf crunching before the storms of Winter trap me in my apartment.

At first glance this polish looks like a summer shade since it has a hint of yellow in the orange, but on the nail it’s definitely more of an Autumn colour. It reminds me of fallen leaves, end of summer campfires, cinnamon-laced apple cider, the new colours from Burberry, and running through orchards at sunset. 

OPI "Smok'n in Havana"

just a hint of microglitter

you can see the hint of yellow hiding in the bottle. unfortunately the yellow doesn't show up on the nail

Versace Invades H&M

Normally I find Versace’s creations to be a little bit much, but I was still rather excited when H&M announced that they had a collection coming out in collaboration with the designer brand. I like H&M, but their clothes are always a little bit too demure for my style (I like my brights and I like my glitters), so I was counting on Versace’s influence to bring some colour to the store. When I saw the lookbook online I got even more excited, because the collection was full of all of my favourite things: coloured animal prints, studded leather, glamorous bling, and super bright colours!

I’ll have to wait a few more days until I can actually see the clothes in real life (the release date isn’t until the 19^th), but I’m definitely planning on picking up some of the pieces. Not only are they gorgeous pieces, and utterly fabulous, they won’t break my very limited budget!

Here’s a few of my favourite pieces from the collection; for the whole collection click this link or check out the Versace or H&M websites (linked above)!

perfect dress for new years

rawr! this isn't for tame kittens!

just a hint of bling bling

I've always wanted a super furry vest

studded leather dress? heck yes!

Cribs: Riella Edition (Pic heavy!)

Okay mother, will you stop bothering me about posting pictures of my new East Coast apartment now? It’s small but I rather like it. Hopefully I’ll keep liking it, since we’re apparently in for a really gross winter and I don’t like going out in the snow anyways since it messes up my hair…

First up on our tour is the bathroom. It’s teeny tiny, and has minimal storage space, but I love how deep the tub is, and the shelves in the shower are awesome. Note to self: buy more towels.

Moving right along… we’re in the kitchen/office/living room. My favourite parts of this space are my Ikea couch (the one that took over a month to arrive…) since I spend most of my time at home here, and my picture wall, since it’s full of my favourite memories and people. If you enlarge the picture you can kind of see what the pictures are of. The 3-set picture is of my puppy TJ. He’s my favourite <3 You’ll notice that there’s not a lot of colour in this area, but I designed it that way. Everything has to be black, white, grey, or glittery. I call it “glamorous minimalism.”

Clockwise from top: me&Liz, Chelsea, Aina, baby me,
Aina&me hands, me, squished crab, Aubrey Beardsley art,
poker game @ the beach, shoreline in Victoria.
TJ and quote from Peter Pan in the centre. 

A little detour next to show you my shoe storage solution. I have my boots and some sneakers in my big closet, but this is the majority of them. That cupboard is totally supposed to be for food, but obviously my priority is shoes :p

Last stop is my bedroom. This is where everything colourful goes, since the theme is “Andy Warhol pop art.” It’s pretty much a whole lot of random because I have everything from posters of the Beatles (Yellow Submarine and Sgt Pepper), to Absolut bottles, to sock monkey (who’s name is Henry btw). I’m really loving that I have a proper vanity table, since I can store all my nail polish and make-up on it, and I get a giant mirror!

I have a balcony too, but it’s November, so I obviously am not going to bother getting any patio furniture til next year.

We’re done now so it’s time for you to go! Later bitches <3

Nightboots: a Sunday Shoe Story

On a dark street walked two girls, each more different than the other.

Aldo Springston boots

One was small and dark and quiet. 

Covered in leather and lace she reveled in the surrounding darkness and felt no fear. 

Each sound in the night delighted her with mystery and magic, and she longed to disappear into the shadows.

The other was tall and bright and exuberant. 

A riot of colours swirled through the darkness as she twirled between pools of light and skirted the encroaching darkness. 

Head raised to the sky she reached towards the stars, wishing to hold the essence of light in her palms.

The companions journeyed through the night side by side, never thinking of their differences, focusing only on their completion of eachother.

Darkness and light together – contrast brought by the extremes of the other – without the other, each is meaningless. 

Midnight Mission

This China Glaze polish might as well have been named after Neil Gaiman’s fantastic novel Stardust, because it’s the perfect colour of a star-speckled night sky, and the name sums up the plot of the book as well. So obviously I couldn’t pick any other polish than this for Neil Gaiman Appreciation Week. I couldn’t decide which pictures to post, so you get four of them this week (two in the sun and two in the shade). Try not to get overwhelmed by the sparkles.

glitterglitterglitterBOMB

it goes really navy in halflight

In other news: I got bored yesterday while trying to avoid working on school stuff, so I signed up for Twitter. I know. I said I wouldn’t do it because my addictive nature would take over, but it’s done. We’ll see if I actually bother to keep up with it (not many of my important people use it) since it’s already starting to disappoint. But we’ll see. For now I have it, and am trying to use it, so follow me @JaimieRiella!

Happy Birthday to Neil!

It’s officially Neil Gaiman’s birthday today! My normal reaction to it being someone’s birthday (including my own) is to loudly exclaim YOU’RE OLD HAHAHAHAHAHA, but for once I shall refrain. Not because the amazing Neil is not old, because obviously he is in comparison to me, but because Neil’s stories just keep getting better with age. Not that I don’t think his early stuff is amazing (seriously obsessed with Sandman), but I think we can expect nothing but great things from him in the future. With that said: HURRY UP AND PUBLISH SOMETHING ELSE! I’m going to run out of his previously published material (thanks to the library in Halifax which has almost all of it), and I grow weary of having only his (wonderful though they are) blog/tumblr/etc for new material. Please please please publish something new! Or at least tell Borderlands Press to hurry the eff up and send me my copy of The Little Gold Book of Ghastly Stuff that I am very much impatiently waiting for.

The proper topic of today was supposed to be Mirrormask (the Neil Gaiman + Dave McKean film) and the fashion wherein, but I found this little poem that I wrote back in 2006 during a Young Author’s Convention that my BFF Liz dragged me to, and I felt that it fit the theme of the film quite well. It’s a little strange, and a lot surrealist, so don’t be surprised if you get to the end, and go “what the fuck just happened here.” That’s how I always feel at the end, and I wrote the damned thing!

Untitled, or the Mirror

The devil sat on his shoulder

            The angel long fallen

Red face grinning with glee

            Licking bloated lips

            Clean from blood

Stained with sin

            And a lifetime

            Of joyful corruption.

The mirror reflects the duality

            With startling Truth

Like a beam of light

            From clouds broken

            By a hidden sun

Sharing the azure sky

            With wingéd messengers

            Wheeling in a land of Forever.

He’ll never be the same;

            Forever single-sided.

No mental debate

            Ever the same

            Never changed by the outer.

Ever alone,

            Even though it’s not by choice,

            But rather by fate. 

The Little Grey Story

So it's Neil Gaiman's birthday this week, and to celebrate his birthday (and general awesomeness!) my blogposts this week will be all about Neil! YAY! Today you all get to read a bit of a story I wrote while bored one day in class. I feel like it was Neil-inspired, and a little on the strange side, so I felt it would be fitting to post it. I have more of it written (about 2 pages worth), but I'm just not sure where it's going,  so you only get a little bit of the beginning. Hopefully I'll have figured out an ending by the weekend, and I will be confident enough in it to share.

The Little Grey Story

Once upon a time, a little girl wanted to play outside on a rainy grey day. But, her mother and her father told her to stay at home, or she would get pneumonia. Her first challenge had arrisen. To obey her parents, or to choose her own path.

“Hmm,” thought the little girl (whose name was Sloane by the way) thought, “This story is already getting to be too predictable. I don’t want to  live my life in  a pre-formatted storyline with morals and themes and stuff.”

And so she stepped out of the pages of her own story, and put the life neatly back on its Shelf.  It fit right alongside the other discarded lives. 

A Pirate's Life: a Sunday Shoe Story

boots by Aldo

Ohh, a pirate's life is a wonderful life

A-rovin' over the sea

Give me a career

As a buccaneer

It's the life of a pirate for me

Ohh, the life of a pirate for me

Ohh, a pirate's life is a wonderful life

They never bury yer bones

But when it's all over

A jolly sea rover

Drops in on his friend Davy Jones

Ohh, his very good friend Davy Jones.

All You Need is Trust and a little bit of Pixie Dust

This polish (“Last Friday Night” from OPI’s Katy Perry Collection) is one that I was skeptical about. I love glitter polishes, but I wasn’t sure how the sheer blue jelly base would turn out. The first time I swatched it I used it overtop of China Glaze “First Mate” and was not pleased. It looked chunky overtop of another polish, but I was willing to give it a second chance and try it on it’s own, since it fit the Peter Pan theme and reminded me of fairy dust. Thank god it actually looks really nice by itself. Unfortunately I did the swatch of it when my nails were disgustingly short (stupid summer job ugh), so I apologize for how terrible my nails look in this photo! I swear, I will re-swatch it at some point, and re-post it. My nails are wonderfully long now, and I am much more pleased with how my nail photos are coming out as a result!

It’s actually Friday night while I’m writing this (yay for being proactive), but unlike the Katy Perry song that the polish is named after my Friday night is anything but exciting. I’m ridiculously tired from having a really random sleep last night, but since I refuse to go to bed before 9pm on a Friday, I am going to take my bottle of Beck’s and watch a movie. Probably an action flick. Maybe Ocean’s 11. Brad Pitt, George Clooney, and Matt Damon, planning to steal millions and millions of dollars, heck yes. Later!

To Live Will be an Awfully Big Adventure

I will not condone the wearing of clothing like Peter Pan… Green tights are just… bad. So instead, I give you PIRATES! Captain Hook is one of my all-time favourite characters; not only do we share a name (I’m actually named after my Uncle James), have ridiculously long curly hair (not that you can tell from my photos haha), have egos the size of the Jolly Roger, and both refuse to give up grudges (seriously, stubbornness is a talent), we also both have a flair for dramatic fashion style. Now if only I could get my hands on a REAL pirate sword!

Cargo capris by DKR & Company

Blouse by Elite

Studded belt by Mariposa

Scarf from Paris, France

Think of a Wonderful Thought

image from here

This week is dedicated to my all-time favourite children’s book: J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan. I love every single version of it that I’ve seen/read, from the satirical film Hook to the illustrated book by Greg  Hildebrandt. I was planning on having today’s rant be about how we should all hold onto some of our childhood innocence, but then I got distracted by the many beautiful little quotes from the various versions of Peter Pan. So I’m giving you a few of my favourites, and hopefully they’ll inspire you as much as they inspire me. (btw if you follow the link on Peter Pan it gets you to a free version of the text!)

You know that place between sleep and awake,

where you can still remember dreaming?

That’s where I’ll always love you.

Second star to the right, and straight on til morning.

Never say goodbye, because goodbye means going away,

And going away means forgetting.

When the first baby laughed, for the first time, 

and the laugh broke into a thousand pieces, 

and they all went skipping about. 

That was the beginning of Fairies.

All children, but one, grow up.

Never is an awfully long time.

Think of the happiest things, it’s the same as having wings.

Every time a child says “I don’t believe in fairies,” there is a fairy somewhere that falls down dead.

Bangerang Peter!

To live will be an awfully big adventure.