The Clash

Exams are over and summer is here! And what better a time to go crazy with your style. 

A big thing in the world of fashion seems to be what 'goes' with what. I reject this and love clashing patterns together. It always kind of works...kind of...

If that's a bit too much, try mixing a really bright or crazily decorated garment with a plainer, neutral piece. Even wearing the same overall colour can look good when you mix up the textures of the separate elements of your look. 

I am off to the Kilkenny Rhythm and Roots festival again this year with Alex and shall have some posts up about it very soon! 

Easter Time

Of course what better time to revive my blog than to start posting again during exam season...

During the last couple of days over the Easter weekend printed trousers have definitely been the highlight of my colourful looks. Sure when else can you get away with flowery pants and a bright yellow blouse other than Easter?

My mother and I braved the shops on Easter Saturday and I picked up a very lovely summer fedora hat. Due to my big head, I got this beauty in the men's section of Penneys. But it can be quite handy getting a bigger size anyway as your hat hair will be minimised and less crushed during the summer months. This shall definitely work during Electric Picnic (woo!) as anything to conceal three days of unwashed hair is a good thing.
My shopping clothes consisted of my shiny patterned pants from Penneys, leather jacket from America, yellow jumper and white shirt, presumably also from Penneys. I'm very predictable when it comes to brands sometimes...
Also got new stronger lenses in my glasses which is the reason for my weird-I'm-slightly-dizzy facial expression.

Easter Sunday. A time of religious festivities and chocolate.

On account of this joyous day, curls were in order for my hair. You know it's going to be a splendid day when you do something with your hair. Trust me, this is coming from this messy mane.
I felt my flowery pants and yellow blouse perfectly went with the cutsie nature of spring time and my Nanny said that I looked 'cute'. Mission accomplished.

Naturally, your household decorations must be in the spirit of your dress sense and these adorable eggs and Milka chocolate bunnies provided a lovely element of colour to our house. Also throw in my chocolate and orange cake and it's fair to say we had a great Easter time.

A Midsummer Night's Costumes

In light of the upcoming summer festival season, I have decided to post this long over-due piece on our 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' costumes from last years Trinity Shakespeare Festival. Directed by Molly O'Cathain and Stage Manged by Sophie Cairns, the festival took place at the start of June, 2013.

All the cutie cast - Conor, Aoife, James, Jack, Colm, Ellie, Colm, Honi, Kate, Alex, Mollie, and Sean

Our costume designer was the excellent Emily Collins, who I had the pleasure of working with also on our recent second year show The Machinewreckers. Among Emily's and the cast's clothes, a colourful collection arose that was the perfect look for our show to tour around primary schools.

The Fairies - Honi, Colm, Mollie, Kate, and Alex

The fairies were especially cool in my mind (not biased at all) as we had wings! Although we look sugary sweet, I loved the funky undertones in our dark dresses like in Queen Titania's (Mollie's) gothic goddess dress.                                                                                                                                                     The Peter Pan-like look of Puck

Puck - Honi 

Fairy Girlos - Alex, Mollie, and Kate

had the sense of taking  a modern look and using the simple but effective idea of the fairy wings to bring this magical world to an audience.

The Lovers - Ellie, Aoife, Conor, and Colm 

The Lovers were typical stereotypes of the awkward teen years. Hermia, The Princess and Helena, The Geek were said to portray Shakespeare's own daughters and they show how appearance was still very much an issue in the Elizabethan times. Let's face it, no girl wants to be 'ugly like a bear' or to be called an acorn! The boys showed the battle of Abercrombie Boy vs. Rocker/TooCoolForSchool Guy, often with explosive consequences.

The Mechanicals were the builders in the bunch so our clothes consisted of lots of high-vis gear and flannel. As Alex and I were double-roling, a lot of hilarious and frantic costume-changing between scenes occurred...it was usually just me who fell over though.

Mechnicals - Jack, James, Alex, Kate, and Sean

James - the beautiful Thisbe

In the tragic play-within-the play 'Pyramus and Thisbe' performed by the Mechanicals at the end of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Jack (Bottom) and James (Flute) performed the two lovers.

This involved the beautiful transformation from worker Flute to terrific Thisbe.
This dress was definitely one of the fashion highlights of our production!

Sealing it with a Kiss - Jack and James

We also put on a production entitled 'Dirrty Midsummers' during the week which was enjoyed by all but found to be a truly harrowing experience...

'Parting is such sweet sorrow'
All in all we had a glorious time generally just having the craic with each other during rehearsals and travelling around bringing our own bit of silly Shakespeare to the masses.

Photos from Du Players