FLYING SAUCER

oh gothenburg, my new haven

Phew I am so tired! I've had lectures all day long this week but have been so shopping-starved that I did trek to Gothenburg today! This day might have been a different story as I literally made the bus by about 10 seconds. There are only a few around every 2-3 hours and I woke too late to get the morning bus and just made the lunchtime journey after spotting it as my normal bus pulled into the town centre and running across the street to jump on! If not I would have had to wait around for a few hours and probably would have gone tomorrow instead.

So I was counting my lucky stars as the coach set off on the hours trip, while tuning into some crazy Swedish radio on my non-working phone (thanks Orange). To give you an idea of the music, they played Lady Gaga's Disco Stick followed by The Pretender's Stand by you, then, without any hint of irony, the Venga Boys' Boom Boom Boom Boom. Seriously?!

For some odd reason it was actually a really sunny day! Made a difference to my first visit on Friday where it was extremely windy and drizzled all day. For a Thursday, the town was busy and bustling. The atmosphere is more relaxed because there is no traffic and noise pollution; there are trams and buses and very slow cars, but that's really it. The cobbled streets and river form a stark contrast to the large malls.

 

I doodled on a little map in a free Gothenburg guide last night to make sure I hit everywhere, even though last time I discovered where the shops I already knew were. The main attraction is the biggest mall in Sweden which is basically like every other mall... lots of random European shops that aren't too special. I went backwards to the Friday visit and started off by walking through here and into H&M. I think the three stores here in Boras definitely don't stock everything and I had a proper mooch; pretty impressed by the goodies they've got in the trend section, lots of long blazers and tapered trousers and shiny stuff.

I quite like this big woolly coat and am having pangs of longing for my coat all the way at home. The weather here is so different every day that there's not much need for wrapping up yet, although there are some great coats around. Are you one of those people that just can't buy certain things? I never buy tops, cardigans or jackets. Something in my mind just bypasses them, maybe because they feel like smaller purchases that I would wear out more quickly.

I spotted this mock-suede dress way up high in a bright purple/mauve that was love at first sight and an SA reached it down for me; Swedish people are all speak literally perfect English, it's great! I was browsing quite slowly as I had just over three hours to kill and there were so many good things that I tried on a whole bunch and ended up with a stack on my arm. H&M always reaches out to less wearable trends but somehow tones them down into something more understated.

Trying on the above velvet harem pants was kind of an experiment. What is it with velvet and velour at the moment that is SO appealing!? It is the nicest fabric to wear. But I remembered that harem pants and me just don't mix. I had a bit of a dilemma about the dress because the fabric is amazing and the purple is really deep and rich, it's just beyond a high street dress. But I'd have to wear some kind of bra with it or else it would just fall down, and my top half is a bit skinny so I never really wear strapless stuff. It was only about £30 anyway and I have a rule that if I'm umming and ahhing over something, I'll just walk away. But I bought it anyway, I can always return it if I do change my mind! I was conscious that I might come home empty handed, which is always a lethal thought when shopping! In fact I bought quite a few things!

 

Ah I wore the shirt H&M kindly sent me with the huge sleeves with a H&M lace skirt and, for once, plain black tights. I've been looking for some flats everywhere but tbh, EVERYTHING in the shops right now is exactly the same!!! Everything is black, studded, tight, cut-out, one shoulder or sequined. Argh! Every single shop has the same versions or everything, it's really annoying!!

An exception to this is Topshop! At least they have some variety. A few people said the Gothenburg branch was small, but I think it's perfect! It's got two floors and has all the best selling stuff and the whole range of basics. The shoe department is a decent size and they have the Kate Moss stuff too. I doubt they'll have the Christopher Kane range but at £75 for leggings, maybe it's best for me that they don't!

They also have a pretty large Beyond Retro section downstairs! I'm not so much into this kind of vintage anymore, it all feels a bit samey and musty. But it was stocked to the brim with all kinds of dresses and hats and tutus. 

I tried on a few things for fun, and took in the long sleeved, tight black dress with the pointy ruffles on the shoulders that seems to be a signature piece but didn't even try it on in the end. It's no fun when you wear something so blatant and I know a lot of girls have this dress! I tried on this skirt as I haven't bought a skirt in forever, but at £45, I left it. As I said, my top half isn't my best feature so I don't have too many little tops to wear with little skirts. Stick to dresses I say!

 

I thought the mannequin display was pretty crazy too, but they're going for a witchy theme this season right? I wandered into FACE and saw an amazing neon green nail polish but didn't see any eye shadow colours that grabbed me so wandered on!

On the hunt for Weekday, I popped into BikBok. I might be wrong but I think there's one on Oxford Street in London? I wasn't expecting much but this shop is actually pretty good! It's got all the things the other shops have but the prices are more reasonable, and it has a few hidden gems like these great suede skirts that are SO soft. They have velvet leggings for only about £9 too. I actually bought this dress with the leopard print but I'm having second thoughts as the picture isn't so great. In real life the whole dress is black so you only faintly see the leopard print, and the pattern is in a thin velvet. I got the next size up by the way, I don't want a show-cha your chocha moment!

I also bought some legging with cut out plaits up the side, which come in handy when there are so many parties to go to here that I want to dress up for, but don't want to wear an outfit I would wear to a club. Then onto the main dream of the trip: Weekday. Namely for those Weekday boots, but we'll get to that sad, sorry tale in a minute. Weekday is INCREDIBLE! Elisabeth you would love it!

The larger store has this huge, open door with crazy wallpaper either side of the entrance and a few steps...

Then inside it's almost like a gallery. In fact I think there is a gallery in the middle? Anyway the first section of the shop is like a huge gallery. The clothes are laid out clearly but there are a good few sizes of each item and some are hung in a decorative way. It almost has the coolness of a boutique or really expensive store, but with non of the scariness or intimidation because it's big enough to get lost in and browse freely without it being silent and awkward, and you are free to browse through a small rail for your size and carry a few items around to try on. The people in there are so COOL. The people who work there are insanely dressed, they just look amazing. Classic Swedish style, really tall girls with even taller boots. And then the people that shop there dress so well too. The groups of boys shopping in there are divine! But it's not scary because everyone in Sweden minds their own business and are so polite.

As you get to the centre of the shop, there is the gallery-type bit that is all painted white and had some strange newspapers hung in some kind of artistic manner (haha, what do I know?!). Then you come into the larger part of the store at the back, with all these hanging metal structures and loads of clothes. They stock the whole Cheap Monday range and at first I couldn't work out which side was the boys and which was the girls because it's pretty similar!

The clothes are incredible. Really well-cut, well structured clothes in beautiful fabrics. The fuss is in the details rather than obvious embellishments. I never thought to much of it before and wavered towards Monki, but Weekday is a great shop. It's the kind of place that would satisfy your needs and has enough stock to have a really good browse. I was looking for those boots that I showed in the previous post, but in black suede. I didn't even see any in here so I decided to go back to the smaller branch where I had first seen them after. They have loads of the patent kind but they're just not the same! Now I'm kind of swaying towards them but I'm not sure when I'll go back. I loved the lacing on these dark blue boots but thought the white fur was kind of random?!

 

Also thought these cardigans with the draped picture of a fox around the neck were pretty cool, they have it as a jumper too.

 

But most things were typically cool Swedish style; black, plain, and well-cut. I found a floor length skirt!! Sadly it was a crazy £35 and was literally a length of material, so I could probably make one myself even? I can only imagine wearing it with those suede boots anyway, so c'est la vie! The changing rooms were certainly an experience. They're at the back of the shop with white shiny doors, if you could call them that. You know in a wild west movie and the saloon has those doors that are head-height and have a metre of free space at the bottom. Well the double changing room doors are like that. If a slightly tall man walked by, he would be able to look over! And they are a diamond shape, so in one mirror it feels like you have no space, but in the other they feel like a decent size. And everyone can see your legs. Very strange!! I bought some very light suede shorts that are extremely soft and very Chloé. I thought it makes a nice change to skirts all the time, and shorts look great with polka dot tights and wedge boots. Argh I need those boots!!!!!!!!!!

Here's a little pic of Din Sko, black boots as far as the eye can see! I have black boots at home though so am hesitant to buy more but they are such decent prices!

Ah Monki!! Now Swedish fashion seems split down the middle of the above-mentioned tight, studded, cut-out, blackness, or anything folky (the Swedes do love nature!). Monki now seems like an odd little shop because it's quite retro and weird. Check out this girl chaining up her bike before going in to have a look round- so cool!!

The shop has crazy carpets and oddly shaped fittings at strange angles. It's quite different and cool in an almost Urban Outfitters way, but much more fun. I saw some jeans-come-leggings (not leggings with a jean pattern, eek!) that I should have tried on because now I'm pondering them. They weren't stone wash but had a print that almost looked like stormy clouds...? Imagine!

 

They have some fab coats and lots of stock, although it's quite pushed together so it's harder to browse. Nothing really caught my eye even though it was very new and fresh (and not black and tight and studded and cut-out and...). It's not toooo cheap but I'm a bit sick of flared skirts and cute bodies that I'm longing for new things. Bring on the fashion weeks!

I hunted through the second and smaller Weekday store but they only had the suede boots in a 38, and I'm a 39. Nooooo! They are heaven! I asked the SA, who looked amazing in a black sheer top, but she said the boots had sold out in two days and people kept ringing them up to see if they had any sizes left. Hopefully they will re-release them! Please Weekday! They're only about £50 too, and for suede wedge boots, that's pretty damn good!

I've been very curious to go to Acne, but was quite disappointed. The shop is almost like a show room and is very tiny. They have hardly any clothes and I didn't recognise anything, so only spent about two minutes in there!

I'd googled some vintage shops and there are a few here but it's all a bit samey now in vintage boutiques. There's only so many dresses and jumpers I can see!

 

I'd sort of avoided looking at the time all day, because there were very few buses and I thought I'd base my choice on whenever I had finished shopping. There weren't really any more shops I wanted to go to and I'd bought enough! I didn't really understand the coach station so ended up missing it anyway, so  I got the train instead. And as I was checking all the newsagents at the station for bloody British Elle (where are you?!?!?!), I found the holy grail: Look magazine!!!! Sure it was last week's, but who cares! Yesss!

A young girl was waiting for the train too and said something to me in Swedish, which of course I didn't understand. She sat by me for the whole hours train journey and spoke such great English for only being eleven years old! She was so sweet and now I have another Swedish friend, haha!

 

Tomorrow I will show you everything I bought in detail as I will attempt to take some photos of myself! It's been so long it seems! There is a Mexican party tomorrow night and on Saturday we are actually going to a club!! Praise the Lord!! I have no idea what to wear but last week I bought some lilac hair, so it should be good! I will explain later! In the mean time, I must go to the one alcohol shop and spend £20 on a bottle of vodka, boo. In fact no, I must go to bed! My legs are killing me from all the walking! xx

cold shoulder to the trends

I'm not one of those people who ignores trends or is inspired solely by their present desire; I love trends! Mostly to follow and browse the blogs for, but there's always the question in my mind, 'ooo can I pull that off?'. We all know shoulder pads are all over this season like the plague and I was so ecstatic to find an amazing haberdashery shop (be it a very expensive one) that it was the opportune excuse to make my own. This was sparked by a Face Hunter pic of the outfit from Vanilla Scented, who made some amazing shoulder pads from a tutorial by a lady called Elise here at Anywho.

A bit confusing but bare with me! I've tried padding the shoulders of jackets and tops when trying on outfits, but it just doesn't work if there was no room for them in the first place! So on the outside, they must go. I like them and urge you to try this because they're not the most obvious of things. Sure they are right by your head, but shoulders are quite a small part of yourself and when whipping by someone in the streets, it is not immediately noticeable. The whole point is the silhouette, which immediately makes you walk taller and feel generally cooler, powerful and owning your pavement space.

I made these in about half an hour the night before I went to Gothenburg with the Textiles school, because I had the urge all week to wear a lot of black. I only safety pinned them to the shoulders of last year's Topshop blazer and it was such a windy day that our boat tour got canceled and they kept whipping up in the air! So for a lot of the time I had vertical peaks on my shoulders, hmmm. But I found a way to subtly hold them in place, as well as keep my hair and bag under control. Also it might be useful to note the velvet leggings really make dresses ride up!

Since I went around with friends, I didn't really hardcore shop but more took in the city and got a feel for how it is laid out. Sweden is fond of malls it seems. Since the only club here isn't open tomorrow like we thought, in the morning I am taking the hour trip back there to shop myself out! I did take photos last time but tomorrow I'll take more and do a better post about the city.

For now here is how I made the shoulder pads, much like the original tutorials!

I found some very concave (or is it convex?) shoulder pads for 350SEK I think, which is about £3. Then I picked up some wool/felt like lengths of random black pattern and some fringing. I also picked up a mini sewing kit, which was pretty damn handy! All came to around £10 in the end, but I be you could get the equivalent for less than a fiver in the UK.

I just laid a strip across the middle of the pad and pinned it, then cut off the excess. I laid a piece either side, which was enough to cover the whole area, and pinned them too.

 

Then I pinned on the fringing, not sitting it right at the edge of the pad because I wanted it to hang off the very edge at the top of the shoulder, and the pad curves round the shoulder too much.

Then I did a poor, poor sewing job (i.e. a few botched stitches and pricked some fingers) and cut off any excess, and um, that's it!

You can kiiind of see them in this pic which I took in H&M, but I will take some better ones. I found a way to balance my camera on some shelves which is much better than a £50 tripod from here! I think they will look better with even more stuff added, so I'll revisit the sewing shop and raid everything that's black and textured.

I still have this horrible thought constantly that says 'remember, you still have LOADS of clothes at home, why are you buying more???' but it must be ignored! I'm going back for a weekend in October with an empty suitcase and coming back with a full one most definitely! Probably full of alcohol, chocolate and Look magazines but I'm sure there will be some room for more clothes!

 

But it's not like I'll be buying things anything like I already own so my list to look out for tomorrow is a sweeping floor or calf length skirt, some kind of chunky knit to last until I go home and can bring back my coat, any kind of jumpsuit, anything made of white or cream lace, embellished tights, and I need to check out the above Weekday boots again in suede because they were amazing and that shop is incredible!!! I wish I could fly you all to it!

P.S. Still thinking about the shopping service, but it could only be for Gina Tricot and Din Sko anyway. Will keep you posted!

Jag heter Selina

Thank you everyone for reading and commenting on the last post, it really means so much! Like some of you said, changes like this and even normal life has extreme highs and lows, and I had a sudden hit of culture shock and home sickness and sickness in general all at once. This blog is one of the only tastes of normality I can actually access so I am grateful to have readers like you! You have to feel the lows to appreciate the highs right?

But this is normality now and it's only been three weeks so I've gotta like it or lump it! And despite wobbly moments, I'm having an incredible time. I think the day I wrote that post was after my first lecture day, which was strange and tiring. Who has a lecture from 8.30-5?! Well I do! And I don't know how it's possible to get through but it is! In England I'm in snoozeville after an hour but the lectures are cool here because the lecturers are extremely kind and friendly, and are in fact a married couple! The first lecture with the hubby started off by him playing a David Bowie track on youtube while we all sat confused and a little bewildered by all that makeup at 9am. But they are both lovely and it's an environment where even I might raise my hand to contribute...! There are around four breaks in the day, but it's definitely way too long to sit in one room looking at one board.

In lectures I'm hanging out with a group of really cool fashionable girls, almost all German! It makes me feel quite lazy and apologetic that everyone around has to speak English whereas I don't ever need to speak anything but. Well that's changed now since I started Swedish classes! Ah I am terrible at languages but since I'm here, hopefully it will be easier to pick up! Having trouble with sounding out the vowels and the extra vowels; å, ä and ö.

I think the picture was accidentally missed out of the post where I showed what I'd bought so far (apart from extortionate beauty products), but I found some velvet leggings in Lindex which I would live in all Winter if I could! I like wearing them with all black because everything I own in the colour seems to be a different texture. I brought one pair of trousers but they haven't seem daylight still...

As far as parties go, I joined the Warwick girls and some other Italianos and Frenchies for a birthday tea party which had games such as musical chairs and pass the parcel, where I got this dare. This was definitely one of the more modest forfeits, and later someone suggested playing pass the cucumber, which ended up being pass the ice, you know the game you might have played when you were about 15?! Haha am I complaining about exchanging ice with Italians? I think not!

On Friday I went to Gothenburg!! I'll post about this shortly as my new favourite shop is Weekday and I had a Topshop fix. Although I must say it's much like England, in the way that you have your 5ish favourite shops and the rest are just blind to you. There were a lot of filler shops, hopefully I haven't discovered all the malls yet! That night was a party in our block, which I went to for a bit but that's what sparked the post below as I felt a bit out of place. I still don't like rabbiting about myself, but now there is more common ground and things will only improve! The one and ONLY club here also doesn't open for another WEEK! The student pub is fine but there's only so many bottles of Smirnoff or Budweiser you can take! We all got dressed up on Saturday and went for a meal before hitting a bar that we thought was free, but turned out to be about £7 to get in?! I've never paid that for a club before, let alone a bar in the 'most boring town in Sweden' (apparently!). The only club 'X and Y' (hahaha) opens on Thursday and so I am counting down to then! Might bring out the playsuit, still on the hunt for Sven remember. Although Spanish is fast becoming my favourite nationality. I promise next time there is a photo of the guys here that I am in, I will post it here!

 

We finished the weekend with a trip to the Zoo for all new students. I made friends with soft goats and some scratchy piglets, waved to a joint land of elephants, giraffes and zebras, and watched a monkey eat snot. Things are looking up!