Real-life Barbie newspaper article?

I was reading the Daily Mail online yesterday minding my own business when this article caught me eye, as a girl who is inspired by Japanese fashion and a lover of doll-ish makeup and hair, an alarm bell rung off in my head. 

This is a bit of a heavy issue in comparison to most of the stuff I write about on my blog, but I was compelled to write this.

For any of you that aren't aware of who Dakota Rose and Venus Palermo are, the two are rising inter-net celebrities who are famed for their doll-like appearances. 

Dakota Rose, or Koti, is a girl residing in Florida whose recently came into light when her blog was discovered by the Korean media. Many people might be familiar with Dakota and her older sister, Kiki Kannibal who was one of the queens of the online "Scene" scene in around 2007. 

Regardless of what the article says, Dakota is probably around 18-19

Polyglot and lover of Japanese idol girl bands, Venus Palermo has gained attention on Youtube for her cute Asian inspired hair and makeup tutorials as well as dance covers. 

14 year old Venus

I started out wanting to write this by basically wanting to say "HERP Y DUZ EVRI1 ASSUME DAT PPL HU LIEK JAPANEZE CULCHA LIEK ANIME" but then my brain went into over-drive and I found myself questioning why the author even brought up the issue of sexualization of young girls and our attitude towards childhood. 

The article goes on to talk about the sudden popularity of these girls, which is all well and good but it goes on to talk about issues relating to sex.

"...an increasing amount of Japanese women were aspiring to look like dolls, embracing femininity and obliterating sexuality altogether"

OK so we've established that wanting to look like a doll has no sexual undertones. But then the article goes on to say: 

"Despite her growing success, some commentators have warned 

that she could  encourage the sexualization of children"

So suddenly in our eyes as members of Western society, wanting to look like a doll or looking young carries sexual connotations?

As a girl who has been interested in Japanese pop-culture since she was a child, I can safely say that neither of the girls draw style inspiration from places that should not be interpreted as sexual [Tumblr trends, Gal, Japanese girl groups and street fashion, anime] and all are in innocent fun. Their interests aren't mainstream and are very niche to most of us. 

Young girls can be easily influenced but in the case of these girl, they have chosen to seek influences from other sources that are not our mainstream media, and yes their interests are niche to most of us and we may not understand why they do what they do, but most girls aren't as resistant to the media as these two. 

With this in mind, this raises a questions:

Shouldn't we be more worried about the young girls in our society
who are easily influenced by our mainstream media?

We are completely aware of the amount of sexual imagery that young girls are being bombarded with every day but what's being done about it and it's damaging effects on young girls?

If our society's attitude towards a look that stresses a doll-like appearance, being cute and "obliterates sexuality"is to interpret it as being something sexual, doesn't that tell you something really twisted about our view? 

Somebody commented on the article, and basically summed up my attitude towards the issue:

"Anyone who thinks this is about sexualization of children is saying 

a lot more about themselves than they are about these girls."

So here is a little quiz I made! 

and if you do want to have sex with her, then

and also DAMN MEDIA YOU SLOW

So what are your guys' feeling towards this issue. How do you feel about it? 

and for any of my girls out there who practice doll-like, Gyaru or Ullzang makeup how do you think this article reflects on you?

There are so many more points that I wanted to make but I would be here all day and I can't stress enough that I am kind of terrible at drawing conclusions when I write articles so if there is anything inconsistent about this entry or doesn't really make sense to you, please let me know.

Edit: Sami reminded me to point out that both of these girls photoshopped and video-edited within inches of their lives.

My Spring Style Inspirations [for the moment!]

Hey guys. It's 10:30pm on a Friday and it feels like it's really really late for some reason.

I was looking back through posts from the last year and a bit and I was looking at my Fashion Inspiration post from 2010 and thought that I should make another one for this year

My personal style has gone through a bit of a metamorphosis over the last year so I thought I'd give you a little run down on my favorite fashionistas and inspirations for Spring 2012.

I wish I could spent $500 on my hair every month..

Momoko is the designer of one of my all-time favourite brands, Murua, a "モード系" or "mode style" brand which caters to girls who love the glamorous look of Western high-fashion. 

I love her styling it's just so... CLASSY and in a way, she makes me want to dress more adult and that kind of scares me. I also really love her makeup at the moment. I'm trying to make my makeup a little more natural (as natural as gyaru with its false lashes and contact lenses can get). Momoko is a true inspiration. She's absolutely gorgeous, the face of her own brand, super successful and she's so young. I would love to have the same kind of drive that she does. 

Floaty floaty

I couldn't think of a more suitable name but the pictures kind of speak or themselves. Recently I'e been finding myself more attracted to light colours and anything that looks vaguely ethereal, religious, bridal, royal-like. I've been eyeing up designers like Galliano, Inbar Spector, old-school Thierry Mugler and Givenchy[couture]. I think it stems from my child-hood desire to be a fairy princess. Traditionally, fairy tales have never had happy endings (I still want to be a fairy though) and I've always loved the whole oxymoron thing, and I love the contrast between how pretty they look at first glance but their the underlying themes and inspirations are so dark.  

Trashy glory

I don't know about any of you but sometimes I just have the most over-whelming urge to want to look as tacky as possible. Kuronba is one of the more extreme styles that falls under the Gyaru genre. It's characteristics are giant hair, deep tans, extreme eye makeup, animal print, booty shorts, injury-inducing glittery talons, hoe gold, tacky belts, basically embodying everything stereo-typically tacky.

When I was in Tokyo, Marie, Amelie and I were getting hair sets and this girl right here walks into the salon and her all-denim and leopard fur D.I.A outfit and I was completely in awe. Her clothes were everything that fashion has ever taught me to despise but as a whole look, with the panda makeup and the suji mori hair it actually looked really good.

I still think its weird that someone found this photo from the day we saw this gal.

I feel like with most gals looks, its more polished than what we might see as its European equivalent. I have no idea if this sort of Barbie/glamour model look has a proper name but every country in Europe has its variation, but I've never been a fan of it. Too much boobs.

Stuck in the early 2000s. Worst. fashion period. Ever

On to the boys. I've been starting to pay more attention to what guys are wearing at the moment because I have began to find out that there are some amazing clothes out there for guys, it just takes some hunting.

I'm not really a fan of main stream mens' fashion in England because here, "fashion " for boys is basically looking like One Direction and having hair like Joey Essex or Harry Styles and thinking wearing Jack Wills shit makes them look hot.

It really isn't

I tend to prefer how Asian boys dress because generally think it's a lot more interesting to look at. There doesn't seem to be a "gay" way of dressing unlike here where anything other than jeans, a super dry t-shirt and some espadrilles is really pushing the boundaries so it's a bit freer than Western fashion. Plus with the following guys, I would happily wear everything they own.

Key from SHINee obviously. You cannot talk about Korean mens fashion and not talk about this guy.

"Can you just be my best friend please?"

I absolutely rave about this boy. His bitchy attitude, slutty dancing and killer day-wear just completely captured my heart. I could totally see myself wearing most of the stuff in his wardrobe, mainly because majority of his clothes are from unisex or women's brands that just happen to be my favourites like KTZ, Jeremy Scott, JCDC and Walter Van Bierendonck. I love how much personality he put into his clothes and his accessories are really fun. And weird. Bones, Lady GaGa's face, green mustaches...

When I read this interview that he did with Dazed and Confused Korea a couple of months ago where he talked about fashion and his trip to England where he met Carri Munden from Casette Playa -hyperventilate-I nearly died from excitement because I actually knew everything he was talking about. 

...And I like his unashamed crazy too.

"GD it's me in the flesh, from top to the bottom so freshly dressed"

This guy is responsible for making me fall in love with Korean Pop. The happened to stumble across his video for Heartbreaker and my first thought was "Holy shit, this is amazing, why did I not find out about this guy sooner" and yeah his style is pretty fucking cool. At this point in time, I don't think I can use words to express my feelings towards his clothes, so instead this gif shall sum it up for me.

Yup, pretty much

 And that concludes this post! Despite my horrible descriptions of everything, this post took me like 3 days on and off, pathetic I know and I'm kind of drunk right now...?

So what inspires your style current style?

What's in my makeup bag

I've seen quite a few people do 'what's in my makeup bag' posts add I love seeing them so I thought I would do one of my own This is my every-day makeup back, that I bought from TJK Maxx. You can't really tell but it's star print. 

I've had this baby for about three years now. It doesn't like water very much as the colour has a tendency to run whenever I put it on wet surfaces.

Open it up and viola

Everything basically falls out anyway

As a girl, makeup is a rather important part of my life so I like to make sure my makeup is well looked after

Oops.

You can never have too many blushes. There are certain events in life that call for orange blusher.

1. Barry M in Pink Orchid

2. Nars in Angelika

3. 17 in First Kiss

4. Candy Doll in Carrot orange

5. Mac in Well Dressed ( I think)

6. Farmasi in 593 whatever that is

Eye junk. I warn you now, never rub your eyes when wearing the glam crystals stuff, glitter will blind you.

warning, punny alert

1. Rimmel ScandaEyes mascara
2. Collection 2000 Glam crystals gel liner
3. Revlon Custom Eyes

Complete impulse buy here. The packaging is basically a replica of these eye shadows by makeup brand Jill Stuart and they were like 1/8 of the price so thank you Claire's Accessories and your blatant plagiarism!

From Claires accessories believe it or not!

Lip stuff that isn't lipstick

1. Lipcote for sealing lipstick

2. Too Faced lip injection for plumping lips

3. Clinique lipgloss in Currant

4. Sleek lip tiny in The Afterparty

Brow pencils, essential for allowing your face to show emotion

I frequently forget to pencil in my eyebrows and that scared a few people

1. 17 in dark brown?

2. 2true in dark brown

Eye defining implements

1. MyFace pencil eyeliner in Black

2. K-pallet Real Lasting 24 hour eyeliner pen (true to the name)

3. Maybelline Lasting Drama gel eyeliner in black

Lip sticks

1. Benefit in Flirt Alert

2. Natural collection in Crimson

3. Mac Saint Germain

4. I forget, it was from boots

5. 17 in Bee Hive

6. Mac in Snob

7. Nyx in Fig

Face things

1. Natural collection "translucent face powder"-lies-
2. Sephora Primer
3. Revlon Colorstay in Buff
4. Sleek conture powder in pale

Ananya and I think girls shouldn't go to OTT with makeup and it should just be used it to enhance your natural beauty so here's some simple, natural looks that you can recreate at home.

We get all the boys

A day in the life of //University edition

Hi all! If you've been reading recently, you may know that I am currently running a little survey about you, the lovely readers, opinions on my blog and what you would like so see so over the next few weeks I would like to cover some of the results posted any and discuss any topics that people wanted me to cover.

I am incredibly flattered at some of the comments I have received, so you so much for the input guys, it's being really helpful, I'll take everything that everyone has said into consideration!

I have been asked quite a few times about my life at university and what I get up to. I spend most of my life at university and living away from home but I barely ever talk about it even though it's a really prominent part of my life so maybe this will satisfy come curiosities that you may have about my super unexciting life in Northampton in the form of these terrible drawings. I hope you enjoy what I get up to on a daily basis.

This is how I start every week; full of optimism and intentions of working hard but more often than not, this  happens.

All my lectures start at 9am. That's just not happening.

If once I get out of bed, I decide what to wear. I don't do the whole casual thing. I believe that dressing up shouldn't just exclusive to fancy nights.

Goddess Key inspires me.

I like to think my outfit choices convey an image of a free-thinking, confident young woman with a unique take on style but there's always this niggling feeling in the back of my mind that people might think I'm a bit nuts and try too hard.

Nothing wrong with looking flashy!

As a student you are expected you to go out and party and drink a lot and I like to believe that I do my fair part of this. As much as I like a good night out, I would rather spend my money on a lot of other things, I'm already a bit nuts anyway so I don't really need alcohol to have a good time. I'm ashamed to say but I find myself saying this to a lot of my friends...

I am a disgrace

A lot of my time spent not bumming around my flat in between lectures is spent outside our apartment block waiting. There seem to be some people in halls don't seem to understand how cookers work or don't seem to understand possible repercussions of hot-boxing their kitchens so when the fire alarm goes off (which it inevitably will at least once a week) we are marched outside to sit and wait for a fire engine to arrive in whatever state of dress or soberness we are currently in.

One of these people are possible perpetrators 

Weekends are very boring here. Northampton doesn't have the most amazing city center in the world and the night life isn't that brilliant and as a city girl, it comes as a bit of a shock that it's so quiet. The upside is that it's within an hour of London, Birmingham, Milton keynes, Coventry and a lot of other towns but that involves spending money that you don't have. Weekends are spent sleeping off a hangover, being lazy, catching up on work, or tumblr. At the end of the day, everyone in my flat tends to go a bit mad so we tend to do strange things like dressing up, making forts, playing strange games and getting creative and decorate the flat.

We're so cool.

Here is our rainbow. 

We stuck Nyan cat on it

And the other wall because that one is pretty snazzy too

So that's pretty much what I get up to at University. Sounds fun right? Hope you enjoyed it~

New York trip

At the end of January I got the chance to travel to New York with my university course for a week of "educational stuff" and shopping. 

This entry is in no chronological order because I kind of forgot when I took the photographs.

I'm a bit bummed that I didn't take that many photos. I find that the busier I am, the less I'm likely to take photos but I took a few and tried to jazz them up and make them look pretty for yall.

Firstly when we got off the plane, we all froze because it was snowing like a crazy and us being from England, we do not know how to dress appropriately for any weather conditions, plus we were fashion students so appearance>dying from hypothermia.

This picture was from the first day I was there. My friends insisted I had a photo of myself looking all fancy down Broadway(..?) and I reluctantly agreed. You have no idea how much will-power it took me to not make a hideous face. 

Unkempt hair/crazy boobs/herpderp face CHECK

The main point of the trip was for us to explore several fashion related businesses to get an idea of what they do and in hope of giving us an insight  asto how broad the fashion industry actually is so for two days of our trip, we spent being given tours adn talks around companies like Ralph Lauren, Anthropologie, the Armani exchange head office as well as a few others.

One of my favourite things about NY was the size of the food portions. As a girl who spends 80% of her life trying to satisfy good cravings, this suited me very nicely. Every day I had pancakes dripping in maple syrup, eggs and bacon for breakfast. Eating maple syrup on eggs and bacon was a very novel experience for me.

The waiters here loved us. 

Another thing I loved was the shopping because everything is cheap compared to England, not that I could do much shopping because I spent all my money in Japan. I didn however have enough for these Jeffrey Campbells beauties. $80 reduced from $200. Can you believe that?

These babies kept me alive at a Skrillex gig, though a few spikes has to be sacrificed to do so ):

My favourite place to go shopping was Soho. In fact all SoHos are awesome. I wish I actually took some pictures of it. I was really excited about checking a store called Seven but it was closed! We did however find LF Stores which was pretty magical and full of good things.

We also found this cat in one of the shops. I have no idea what the shop was called but we only went in because we saw him.

He had a security tag round his neck so when he walked out of the shop, the staff would know. Aww <3

Some photos of other things we got up to!

Late afternoon view from the Empire State Building.

Alice in Wonderland statue in Central Park

The ground zero memorial site

We were surprised to see a Topshop! Ah English pride.

There were a few of things that I thought were particularly different to what we would experience if we were back home in the UK.

1) We were constantly complimented on our accents which I thought was really weird., but cool. I didn't

understand what people thought was so interesting about the way we spoke.

2) People were really friendly. I don't know whether its because we were English but wherever we were, people would talk to us; shop staff, people on trains, people in the street. We ended up befriending half a train at one point. 

3) Our clothing caused a lot of stares. The way we dressed is nothing really out of the ordinary by UK standards and nobody would bat an eyelid but for some reason, we were being stared at like we were unicorns or something. I was also told about 5 times a day how cool my hair was. -ego swell-

I absolutely loved New York. It gave me the chance to bond more with the girls on my course, as well as escape my lectures for a week. I've always wanted to go to North America and New York did not disappoint. I really wish I could have stayed longer (and had more spending money)

I WILL GO BACK.

Also on another note, if you hadn't seen my previous blog post about a survey I am currently carrying out to improve my blog, I would really appreciate if you could fill it on about your opinions on my blog.

(~*3*)~ Click for survey ~(*>*~)