Windswept Meadows and Mermaid Vibes

Having fallen fully in love with Topshop's Snake Valley collection, I have been filled lately with the desire to throw on a fringed kimono over a tye-dye tee, add heaps of sparkling turquoise jewels and gold gypsy- style chains, shake down my hair, dance through the pine-scented forests and run in open fields beneath a flaming pink sky. This seems like a perfect plan, apart from a few teeeeny drawbacks. Firstly, the sky here is currently more of a dark, menacing grey or just an open, freezing white than flaming pink, and I don't think there are any pine forests in my neck of the woods, and if there are , the air is not warm and summery and sweetly scented. It's more icy cold and full of those little flecks which you're not quite sure weather are rain, snow, or something in between. Here lies my problem. My head is full of warmth, summer rain, bare feet in the sand and dream catcher earrings. The English weather,on the other hand, calls more for wooly hats, scarves and furs. Oh-and don't forget brollies. If it rains in the summer while you're camping by the sea, you can just stroll through the downpour, (in theory) letting the pretty rain drops fall all around you, adding to the wavy beachy-ness of your tousled do. If it rains in winter, however, you simply freeze.

So, to avoid this problem (sort of), I decided that I could work the look with added layers of knitwear, my fur coat, chunky winter boots and black opaques. Therefore, I decided to treat myself to a new outfit from Topshop's Snake Valley collection, which I can wear in the summer but which can also be styled up for colder weather. Another thing I've been dying to try for a while now is coloured streaks in my hair. I used to wear pink spray-in streaks when I was fifteen and I loved it, and have always secretly hoped I'd be able to rock them again one day without looking like a fifteen-year old circa 2004. Just lately, colourful cartoon-esque wigs have been seen on everyone from Katy Perry to Nikki Minaj, and coloured streaks were worn in the models' hair in the Topshop SS 11 campaign. Not to mention my beautiful friend Bee, who has been working electric blue streaks for as long as I've known her, and has now moved on to shocking purple (you go girl!) Every time I see a new celeb rocking a bright colbolt wig or pastel pink do, I fall in love with the look a hundred times more. I decided that my favourite colour, pink, wouldn't quite work with my red hair (although I will still give it a try!), so I decided on blue as the perfect compliment for my amber locks. Today, I headed straight for boots to buy my 'Azure Blue' coloured hairspray. Yay!     

Just to make me adore this look even more- to me, blue and green ocean hues worn in beachy, mussed- up hair scream 'mermaid'. Ever since I can remember, I have always had a strong fascination with these imaginary beauties of the sea, and have always been enthralled by the ocean. It may have started with Disney's 'A Little Mermaid.' Nothing can inspire me quite the way the ocean can- the sound, the smell, the atmosphere that seems to hang around it, it's hypnotic, compelling, powerful beauty. Being near the sea makes me want to write about it, paint it, draw it, take pictures of it...and basically just become a mermaid. But seriously, I once read a book when I was eleven, called 'Daughter of the Sea', by Berlie Doherty. I found it in the year six book box at school, and fell in love with the first line. It begins: 'My tale is of the sea.' Wow. STILL gives me chills. Anyway, I hungrily devoured the book within a matter of hours and begged my mum to buy it for me, which she did. I still read it every few years. The story is about a little girl who is a Selke- a seal who can shed her silken skin and walk upon the land as a human. However, the sea will always run in her veins. Selke's feel the very ebb and flow of the tide within them, whenever they are on land, they long with all their hearts for the sea. One night, a childless fisherman, caught in a hideous storm, sees a baby in the water, thinking she must have come from a wreaked ship, and that she will surely be dead. The man fishes the child from the sea, finding that she is alive and well, and takes her home to his barren wife.  The wife is overcome with joy, and together they raise the sea-child as if she were their own, always afraid that one day the sea will claim her back. They name her Gioga, after the name of a sea-princess from a folk-tale. The narrative is woven with local myths and stories and tales of the sea in the far North of England, and the language itself seems to imitate the rushing sound of the tide, and whisper to you of shells and ships and Selkes and ship-wreaks. Ever since then, the sea has lived inside my head. The haunting tales and startling imagery of jagged black rocks and ferocious towers of sea spray  have stayed with me, and are called instantly to mind when ever I am near to the ocean. Seriously, EVERYONE should read this book.

Anyway, before I go any more off tangent, I think that blue-streaked, mythical hair really adds a mermaid-y, sea-princess vibe to the snake valley look, and gives it that little touch of under-water magic. Here are some photos which capture the blue hair/mermaid vibe I am SO into right now:

    Katy Perry

STUNNING picture that I found when I googled 'mermaids'.

Amber Rose carries off the trend with a hip-hop edge

 

Serious mermaid vibes. Oh GaGa, how I adore you.

The oh-so-fabulous Nicki Minaj. She amazes me with both her music and her style.

Found this when I googled 'blue hair.' Wow. Words cannot describe...

I cannot tell you how much I LOVE this look. Am I brave enough to try it..? Hm, maybe only in celeb-land!

My gorgeous friend Bee!

So, moving on, here are some pics of me modeling the Snake-Valley/ mermaid look in a local park/woodland area. To my extreme happiness, my boyfriend has just bought an amazing new camera, as I've wanted a really decent camera to take professional pictures for this blog for absolutely forever. Unfortunately, neither of us knows the first thing about photography or how to use this amazing camera at the moment- but we are going to try and find out. We're hoping to take a short photography course, and still need to attack the manual (which is like a textbook) so please forgive the extreme amateur-ness of these photos- I just couldn't wait to give it a go and have an experiment! I hope you like them!

 
Love and kisses, The Porcelain Princess xxx