Velvet Tights!

My plans for the weekend involve going to see Twilight (what is wrong with me...?), Christmas-spirit binges, and drinking Glögg, so I'll probably be a bit scarce.


I don't know where I got this picture from, but velvet tights! This is the most perfect idea I have ever encountered. They probably suffer terribly from saggy-crotch syndrome, though...

Etsy Picks: Watches in Unusual Places

My sister bought me this beautiful watch necklace from Etsy for my last birthday. I always think of Terry Pratchett's Death when I wear it, which really just goes to show that I've read far too much Discworld for my own good. Or is that even possible?

Anyway, I have since been obsessed with trawling Etsy for jewellery with timepieces in unexpected places. Here are three of my favourites from this evening's browsing:

Hairclips from veryvintage.

A Bygone Era from MmeFortuna.

Rustic Leaves brooch from slvrlily.

Daily Outfit: SNOW and a new jumper!

I'll resist the urge to turn this into a gratuitous OMGSNOW!!! post (although... oh my god, snow!), and instead stick to my intended point — the new Edith & Ella jumper that I finally managed to get from the post office this morning! Yup, the one I was lusting after last month. The parcel needed a signature, but I was out every morning last week. Argh.

They left a note on Friday evening and told me where I could pick it up, so I headed out (through the OMGSNOW!!!) first thing this morning. And, err, by 'first thing' I really mean 'at around eleven o'clock', after which I went back to bed until two.

Jumper — Edith & Ella
About five layers of tops underneath that — various places
Skirt — Penney's
Shoes — Clarks
Hat & Gloves — H&M

I've managed to obscure the whole point of the jumper in my own photo. It has a wonderful neckline, held closed with four vintage-style buttons.

If any of you have looked at my profile page lately, you'll probably have noticed that I've been involved in the Edith & Ella blog. I'm having a lot of fun doing it, and not just because I get some gorgeous clothes in return! You should all keep an eye on it, because there's talk of some great competitions happening over there in the not-too-distant future.

Two Daily Outfits and a Christmas Fair

It's been so cold here the last couple of days — my lips are about to break into a thousand different pieces. It is giving the place an atmosphere, though, which we took advantage of by going to a Christmas fair yesterday.

Cardigan — Second-hand
Skirt — Vintage
Top — H&M

The fair was held in the grounds of an old mansion, Tjolöholms Slott, which also had an amazing exhibition of antique clothes inside. I fell in love with this stall of miniature chairs, though I suspect that a single one by itself would be less wonderful.

Skirt & Top — H&M
Shoes — Penney's/Primark
Pearls — Antique

Google's weather forecast needs to stop adding and taking away its promises of snow. It's not fair. I need some childish excitement!

Happiness Tag

I don't often do these things, but I've been randomly bursting into tears all day (that time of the month, don't you know) and it's probably good for me! Lisa tagged me to list six unimportant things that make me happy. It became seven, because I got on to the subject of cats...

1. Filling up a sketchpad. I haven't done this in a while, but it feels so good!
2. Unexpectedly dropping my nail-biting habit. I give up biting my nails a couple of times a year, and it usually takes a lot of effort. A few weeks ago, however, I just stopped out of the blue and didn't even notice until my nails started getting long.
3. Google weather forecasts. I am seriously obsessed with the little weather forecast thing on my iGoogle homepage.
4. Finding something entirely new to read up about. Recently it's been typography, for a few months before that it was feminism. I love finding out about an art movement/historical period/archaeological discovery/anything that I've never heard of before and Googling the hell out of it for a few days (or weeks or months).
5. Chocolate. I would like to say that this is the PMS talking, but that would be a lie. I am completely smitten by chocolatey goods! Hot chocolate with Bailey's cream, truffles, chocolate cookies, punschbollar (creamy, chocolatey rum balls of delicious wonder) and cigars (chocolate- and nut-covered marzipan) from Steinbrenner & Nyberg... you name it, I probably love it.
6. Naps. I am such an old lady, but there is nothing like putting on some Feist (you can tell if I've been napping by looking at my LastFM) and curling up in bed in the middle of the day. Extra points if a cat joins me while I'm napping! I can't wait to go home to my cats.
7. Cat videos. Speaking of cats! I spend ridiculous amounts of time looking at videos of cute cats on youtube. I should probably get a new hobby. These talking cats, this absurd box cat and Toto the baby cheetah (ignore the annoying presenter and watch him cheep!) are my all-time favourites.

I tag all of you reading this! Tell me at least one little thing that cheers you up.

"Say, look at the fluffy one!" — Firefly Fashion

I like my science fiction, particularly in the form of television shows — Doctor Who, Torchwood, Stargate, Battlestar Galactica... not Star Trek, oddly enough, but I digress.

Today I was hit with the urge to watch a couple of episodes of Firefly, a short-lived but really entertaining space cowboy show by Joss Whedon (and you know how much I like Buffy). I haven't seen it in ages, and what struck me this time was the great job done by the wardrobe people — forget Gossip Girl, Firefly's where the style is!






If your interest has been at all piqued, then Amazon and cdwow both have the box set for excellent prices (the former, especially). It comes highly recommended by yours truly!

Daily Outfit: Monochrome

Procrastination! I should be reading a short story by Toni Morrisson right now, but my attention span is rather lacking. I'm trying so hard not to give in to the temptation of making more cookies...

Top, Cardigan, Skirt — H&M
Shoes — Penney's/Primark

H&M has completely become my substitute Penneys — I go there when I'm in need of cheering up with some cheap and cheerful clothes. Pity it's about twice as expensive as Penneys. I recently made plans with a friend of mine to go on a giant spending spree when we get back to Ireland; we're going to go to Penneys and buy an entire outfit each, right down to the shoes and underwear. The best bit is that I know I'll be able to do it for about €50! In H&M I could maybe get a skirt and a top for that price. Maybe.

Now I'm going to go finish my reading and reward myself with some Firefly episodes!

What's a Vulgar Moon?

-BostonBill-

Who cares if coloured tights make your legs look fat? What's the point of shoes you can't walk in? What does it matter what size clothes you're buying? Where can I find the BIGGEST BOW IN THE WORLD? How does anyone survive without carbs? Why don't more clothes have spots on them?

These are the kind of things that go through my head when I think about style, and the kinds of questions that this site aims to answer.

Vulgar Moon is style for people. Real-life people. The blog began as a place to post daily outfits, talk about personal aesthetics, and generally indulge a love of clothes. Since then, however, my views on fashion blogging have changed, and Vulgar Moon has begun to move in a new direction. I've got my academic hat on and developed an interest in body politics, learned a bit about commodity fetishism, and become a lot more cynical about the aspirational nature of fashion in general. But since this hasn't negated my interest in buttons, frills, and bows, I want Vulgar Moon to be a place where fashion is entertaining, but not all-consuming.

'Vulgar Moon' itself is that most dreadfully overused of things; a quote from a song. Specifically, a quote from 'How Fucking Romantic' by The Magnetic Fields. I chose it mainly because I love the sound of the phrase; saying it pleases me a great deal. I'm also completely torn between cynicism and romanticism most of the time — probably why I listen to The Magnetic Fields such an embarrassing amount — and so I thought the song was a good place to take the title for my blog from.

You can listen to 'How Fucking Romantic' with this little thingy here:

How to Fight Boredom... With Deliciousness!

I was in one of those moods where everything seems dreadfully dull and boring earlier. With my attention span reduced to about fifteen seconds, I turned to my faithful remedy: baking. Specifically, cookies!



I won't share the recipe, as they didn't turn out wonderfully. I think my lack of measuring tools might have been to blame, though; I'm using an actual cup to measure out cups, and am eyeballing the rest. Their imperfections have not, however, stopped me from eating about five of them already. Not to mention all the cookie dough I devoured while making them — I'm honestly surprised I've never ended up with food poisoning after baking cookies.

Right as I was about to post this, The Coveted made a delicious post about peanut butter cookies! I must try these next. I've yet to find a peanut butter cookie recipe that doesn't end up tasting like sand.

What's your favourite thing in the entire universe to bake? Mine is unquestionably brownies (closely followed by cookies), I just don't have a pan to make them in here.

Daily Outfit: Pants! And Comme des Garcons for H&M

Right, so apparently Gossip Girl is everyone's favourite way to get through the winter. I've only ever watched two episodes, but I might have to start catching up!

Cardigan, beret & top — H&M
Jeans - Dorothy Perkins
Shoes — Vagabond (second-hand)
Scarf — ??? Probably TK Maxx

I wandered into H&M today because their window proclaimed that they had the new Comme des Garçons range in stock, and I thought I'd take a gander. My general impression was of lots and lots of spots, and I ended up buying a cardigan that I was quite taken with. Was tempted by a red shirt in the same pattern that looked amazing underneath, but I didn't really feel like spending the €35 on it.

November November November

I'm afraid I haven't been keeping up on my daily outfits latelt. There is nothing quite so depressing as November, and it just puts me off taking pictures. The fact that I'm not enjoying the book I'm reading at the moment — The Autobiography of my Mother by Jamacia Kincaid — isn't helping my mood either.

The only thing that's keeping me sane at the moment is painting my nails with cheap, glittery nail polish (and then picking it all off the next day) and borrowing DVDs from the library. I plan to spend the rest of tonight wrapped up in a blanket watching The Court Jester and The Virgin Suicides, and blatantly avoiding doing my reading.

I watched The Court Jester so many times when I was younger; my brother was completely obsessed with it. I wonder if I'll enjoy it this time around? The mere prospect of it is putting me in the mood for other ridiculous old comedies like Arsenic and Old Lace, Kind Hearts and Coronets, or Blithe Spirit.


The Virgin Suicides is, I know, the stereotypical fashion blogger's favourite. I read another book by Jeffrey Euginides (Middlesex) recently, though, loved it so much, and was left with a huge urge to watch this film again. If that wasn't enough, we were talking about Lost in Translation in class today. Sure I've only seen it once, anyway.


How do you all survive the cold, dreary, mucky month of November? Any tips to keep my spirits up? Cheery old British comedies that I might enjoy?

I Aten't Dead!

I went to visit a friend of mine for the weekend and (mostly) kept myself off the internet, which is why I've been so scarce. We did embarassingly girly things involving martini glasses, fruit-flavoured cider, chocolate, Brideshead Revisited and... ahem... The Devil Wears Prada. We balanced it out with James Bond and cheap pizza, though, so it's all okay.


I also fell in love with a red velvet dress and gray woollen cape in Kapp Ahl. Well, we both fell in love with the dress, so we'll have to battle that one out... or form a stage duo of some sort.
I didn't buy either, but I'll probably go back for them when I next have some money. I'm not completely decided on the dress, though — I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with velvet, so I'll have to try and make sure I don't look entirely like a curtain, cushion, or couch before I spend my hard-earned moolah. Opinions?

All That Is Gold Does Not Glitter: H&M Headband

There was a post yesterday over on How she's different is anyone's guess... about magpie-ish tendencies when it comes to sparkly things, and it was instantly what I thought of when I bought this headband from H&M today:


It's not actually sparkly, if you want to nitpick, but it does a lot of gleaming and glinting and makes looking at myself in shop windows–don't laugh, you do it too—a lot more fun. While I was in town, I also coughed up the dough for a pair of warm gloves (necessary for my continued existence, and a lot more sensible than yesterday's outfit) and legwarmers with buttons down the side (not, I will confess, strictly necessary).
More exciting than all of that, however, I also bought tickets for a trip to a Christmas market in a castle on the 21st of this month! Ooh.

How about the rest of you, does your willpower fold in the face of glitter? Or is there something else that you just can't say no to?

Daily Outfit: Lacy Brown

I woke up yesterday to two exciting packages in my letterbox! One from my sister, containing lots of magazine clippings with pictures of Daniel Criag, Sean Connery, Wednesday Addams, AA Gill, Terry Pratchett... the list goes on. The other package was from Looking Glass, who sent me over a dress from their latest collection, and it is beautiful. The fabric is as soft as can be, and it's fully satisfied my craving for a dress with a lacy hem.

Dress - Looking Glass's Lola
Lace Bolero - H&M
Clear skin - Lush's Ultra Bland cleanser. I'm still not over the wonders of this stuff.

It's started to get incredibly cold here. I'm not sure I'll be able to run around the woods in boleros made of holes for much longer! I'm going to have to find a nice, inside spot to start taking outfit photos. Or else just bore you all to death with picture after picture of my green coat.

Some More Drawings

The last drawing I posted here got a pretty good reception, so I thought I'd show off a couple more, even though they're not quite so fashion-blog-related.

I would give practically anything for a scanner right about now. I promise that these look much nicer in real life.

Captain Birdseye-esque:

And a picture based on a Jules et Jim still:

I must try and sell a few more pieces when I get home. The trouble is, I get so attached to them that I don't want to give them up!

Inspiration: Ruche

Argh waistcoat love! I was mucking around on Polyvore, and I just discovered ShopRuche.com. I am smitten! I want to buy everything there, then dress up and go live in the woods somewhere (Sweden would be a good place to put this plan into action).