cue the synthesizer

i'd say my fashion design aspirations began at about the age of.. nine? mama bear bought me something called the crayola fashion design studio for christmas, complete with a portable drawing desk with light, stencils, colored pencils, tracing paper, a texture board, fashion templates, and stickers. it was great - you could pair an acid wash denim jacket (scrunched sleeves, of course) with a triple-tier flouncy miniskirt, and top it off with some two-inch pointed toe pumps. then you could choose the face you wanted to trace on.. maybe the girl with the side ponytail secured by a big triple-tier scrunchie, the one with the bright eyes, pouty lips and dangly earrings? and finally, you could stick on some extra accessories and go to town with the colored pencils.

i stayed inside the lines for awhile, but my refined young palate quickly decided that all of the looks were just too passé for me. i mean, we were approaching 1998 here! i simply could not be dealing with this fluffy, frilly, geometric-patterned, shoulder-padded nonsense. i tossed the templates aside and immediately began sketching my very own spice girls-inspired, clueless-infused ensembles. i never looked back.

..or i guess i did. it's no secret that i now revel in the fineries of eras gone by. in fact, topshop's spring09 collection, which is practically every single one of my crayola fashion design studio templates come to life, is one of my season favorites. there's no pretense involved, just pure fun, chock full o' eighties, and so help me, this eternally black-clad, doc-rocking girl wants to get in on this pastel party. toss me my white jeans and pumps, would you? the rompers are already in the suitcase and there's some mirrored shades over there.. if you'll just tear up that old shirt, i'll be able to tie up this rat's nest - you're a doll. i'm off to london, it's going to be a cruel summer.