New Hair and Th'Legendary Shack Shakers!

I finally got a haircut! It only took me a year and three months. I went to my friend Bethany Davies, vintage make up and hair artist extraordinaire, who runs mobile beauty services, pop-up salons and has a gorgeous little salon in her home too. Here I am ready for Th'Legendary Shack Shakers / Dirt Daubers gig on Sunday.

Here's what I wore - my tiki dress and bolero, which I made a couple of months ago after planning it for over a year. It's already a bit too big for me, bah! (But also yay for bodily shrinkage!)

I don't know what that blur is on my mirror, it's been there forever, I can't tell whether it's hairspray which I've managed to miss while cleaning (OK, so I don't clean often), or whether the silvering is starting to deteriorate, it's a pretty old mirror. Also I really need to get a backdrop or something, I'm sure you're all sick of seeing the craphole that is my bedroom.

Even though I saw them a couple of months ago in Liverpool, I just had to go to see Th'Legendary Shack Shakers again, they never fail to put on a great show.



Supporting were the Dirt Daubers, the rather more traditional side project from Shack Shakers singer, raconteur, lowbrow artist and all round mountain music impresario Col. JD Wilkes, his wife Jessica and bassist Mark Robertson. I particularly liked their rendition of the old Appalachian murder ballad Down in the Willow Garden, and of course I can never resist a band with a banjo and a washboard.





They also had girls' t-shirts in different sizes! I almost burst with joy, despite them not having any vinyl records. It really annoys me how on the rare occasion that bands produce ladies' t-shirts, they are almost always 'one size', and that size is TINY. The lovely Shack Shakers had three ladies' designs from s-xl, so I bought two. Admittedly they had run out of xl in one of them, obviously because it is super cool and everybody wants one, so here I am after wriggling into a slightly scandalous large.

Here I am with my darling friend Natalie outside the venue, it was all finished and we were out by 10.45pm! We are old ladies, evidently. Best dressed old ladies in the nursing home, though.

A Fabulous Photoshoot: Vintage, tattoo and pinup photography by Alt.Studio!

I'd seen a lot of buzz amongst local bloggers and members of the North West Vintage Business Network about Alt.Studio, so when I was given the opportunity to book a shoot, I jumped at the chance!

Situated in a cosy, private space within Ridelow (formerly the Home Design Store), one of Manchester's oldest established alternative shops in the city centre's cool and quirky Northern Quarter, Alt.Studio specialises in producing fantastic portraits for an alternative clientele. A pampering makeover service is available where a professional artist can work her magic with hairstyling and makeup to create any vintage look you desire, from 1920s vamp, through to 1950s glamour or 60s siren. The owner, Simon Hunt, also has a passion for tattoo photography, and really gets the best from his illustrated subjects with some beautiful, colourful shots of people from all areas of the 'alternative' spectrum.

Mwah!

I chose a cheesecake pinup theme for my shoot, as I really love the old cheeky, colourful pinups of the 40s and 50s - Bettie Page, Elvgren, Vargas... I felt I would be most comfortable with this as it best reflects my personal style and would allow me to show off a range of my self-made dresses and hats! Every Alt.Studio shoot is built around the client's personal style and vision, and Simon is great at helping to bring this out of his models! I'm by no means an old hand when it comes to being photographed, but I have done quite a few professional photoshoots and bits of modelling for my own and my friends' companies, and Simon was one of the best photographers I have ever worked with. His friendly attitude and infectious energy really put me at ease in front of the camera, and he knew exactly how to direct me to get the most effective, flattering and interesting poses.

I loved my hair and makeup by Nikki Armstrong, and will be trying to recreate this hairstyle at home, as soon as I have some tongs so I can get the lovely defined curls!

New tiki dress! Hair flower by MissTiki Designs

Simon managed to shoot me in four outfits in the space of just a couple of hours! I couldn't wait to see the images once we were finished, and left Alt.Studio feeling really pleased and confident.

Vintage family heirloom parasol... birdie straw hat coming soon to my shop!

New Hawaiian dress by me... really proud to be Alt.Studios' facebook cover girl!

I would really recommend the Alt.Studio experience to anyone looking for an empowering, fun day and to take away some beautiful images! The studio can also be booked for couples or small groups, and don't forget to mention that you were referred by Kalandra when you book! Alt.Studio is offering free makeovers and special price image packages alongside some great competitions for a limited time only, so head over to the studio's facebook page (where I am currently the cover photo!) or www.altstudiouk.com to see more of Simon's beautiful work.

My favourite shot... lovely work by Alt.Studio which will be printed and grace my wall when I'm an old woman!

You can also see more delicious Alt.Studio portrait photography on Dolly Cool Clare's blog, Helen's blog, Kitty Wink Vintage and the fabulous Marry Me Ink - they're all really worth a look, the pictures (and the ladies, of course) are gorgeous!

Current loves

This started off as a post about growing up and accepting the responsibilities of adulthood. I wasn't happy with my inability to articulate myself wittily enough whilst discussing such a tender subject, so have saved that diatribe for another day and decided to just show you all the stuff I am currently obsessed with, most of which are things that make me reflect on the aforementioned situation.

Pastel bubble hair. Having a quarter/third of life crisis as I approach my twenty-sixth birthday has given me a craving to dye my hair again, having been blonde for a few years now. Growing up, I always loved these ladies' hair, even though they are all wigs (and one of them isn't really a lady). In fact now I think about it these three are probably my ultimate style icons.


Tom Waits. Music for grown ups, definitely... a guy I was at uni with used to play his albums in our studio and I just didn't get it, at the time I was listening solely to hardcore European crust punk, willfully closing my ears to everything else - if it didn't have a strong ethical message, I didn't want to know. Here's a song which as well as being great and having a cool video, is apt for the subject at hand and was covered by the Ramones - a band that kind of get maligned by members of the modern punk scene as being too frivolous, which is utter bollocks.



Beat writers - William S. Burroughs, Charles Bukowski, Jack Kerouac. I always loved Hunter S. Thompson and Chuck Palahniuk, and these are the guys they learned their style from, they grew up during the great depression and WWII and made their mark during the cold war years - as such their writing is gritty, uncompromising and chaotic. I'm currently reading 'Post Office' by Bukowski and 'Junky', Burroughs' semi-autobiographical story of heroin addiction and life on the edge of society.

Here's William S. Burroughs doing vocals on a track from Tom Waits' 'Black Rider' conceptual play/LP which they collaborated on, his voice is haunting. He was 79.



Geisha fashion - not really anything to to with the others, I just really like this at the moment. Here's a hat I made recently using Japanese Kanzashi flowers, intricately folded from tiny squares of fabric. I'm currently working on some more styles, for a Harajuku-inspired photoshoot I'm helping to style on Wednesday for Chimp Magazine. Hat by Kalandra Jane Designs, photo by Berni Harris Photography.


Daria! I never got to watch this when it was originally on - I was probably a little young anyway, but my stepdad and I used to watch Beavis and Butthead which was on around the same time (and from which Daria was actually a spinoff), back when MTV was still clinging onto its last shreds of counterculture credibility. It's full of all the sardonic wit a young lady needs, and should be required viewing for every girl who can't (or couldn't) wait for high school to end. You can watch every episode of Daria for free here, apart from the two feature-length episodes.



Perhaps inspired by the grunge soundtrack of Daria - Riot Grrl. I always resisted angry girl music as a teenager, totally rejecting any music made by women and seeing it as aggressive feminism, passé in a world where I surpassed my male classmates academically and always felt equal to my male friends. However, I obsessed constantly about boys I fancied - maybe if I'd listened to a bit of Joan Jett or L7 I would have felt a bit more secure about myself, rather than wallowing in introspection and worrying about how I was seen by my peers.



Micheal Cera films. Superbad, Youth in Revolt, Juno, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist - at first I hated this new brand of awkward alterna-teen angst comedy. I have now come to appreciate them despite the fact I still think they're a bit twee and formulaic, I like the departure from the plasticky teen movies of the late 90s-early 2000s. I'm sure there weren't sweet, goofy boys when I was growing up... they were all little bastards. Maybe I just scared off the nice ones with my forcefield of adolescent rage? Anyway... I like them.