One of the first portraits that I ever even remember seeing and memorising in its entirity was this painting of Queen Elizabeth I at the time of her coronation (annonymous painter). My mother had this Royal portraits phonebook that had this painting in it. I remember flicking through it constantly and picking this one out as my favourite aged seven. Then I stalked it at the National Portrait Gallery as a copy of it hangs there in the Tudor section (incidentally my favourite section because it's the quietest). If I'm going to go back to my seven year old mentality, basically I loved the way her hair hung like an ethereal halo and that she didn't look like she had smeared scary white ceruse paste all over herself. It's the portrait that informed the way I sketched impossibly thin women's waists for the next five years or so, or at least until I got to do life drawing.
Who knew that years on, the portrait would come back and be printed on a crushed velvet skirt and that she would be updated with a pair of jazzy red headphones. Remember Fabitoria, the Taipei-based label that started out with some very enticing photo print mini skirts with patch pockets? Since my initial post they've got themselves set up with an Etsy shop that means that everyone can get their hands on jungle/traffic/stained glass window print. Their new collection sees them take on the slightly trickier midi-length skirt as well as the pork pie hat. That stokes up another youth-related memory from the Brit pop years. They've also chosen a crushed velveteen type texture to use as a foundation so that the print isn't as vibrant and is given a mottled surface. Oh well, there goes young Elizabeth's perfect visage.
I had to grasp the opportunity to have this portrait printed on my thighs, my arse and my bulbous head. Who knew that obsessing with this portrait when I was a child would lead me here? Such is the weirdness of life. You might chortle at that nauseating statement but seriously, there's a strange symmetry of events here that makes me appreciate the ensemble even more.
Oh, and since this outfit is all about indulging in nostalgia of the portrait and the pork pie hat, I thought I'd throw in the bomber jacket as well. I've spoken before about the apparently region micro trend of the bomber jacket that hit my primary school when I was about ten or eleven. We all had to trek to Camden Town to get our bomber jackets or you'd risk exclusion from the cool corner of the playground. I've now got an update on that oversized and lumpy specimen, which I wore to death aged ten. This one is vintage Gaultier Junior. Have I ever mentioned my mild obsession with Gaultier Junior? If I haven't, it's probably because it's tricky to find the stuff. I sometimes stumble upon it once in a while in stores like Bang Bang or Strut. Now though, East London vintage store House of Liza has made all my Gaultier Junior dreams come true as owner Gonçalo also shares my obsession with this bygone diffusion line of Jean Paul Gaultier and has racks and racks of the stuff hidden away in his Dalston location. Many pieces are also on FarFetc, which means you too can share my Gaultier Junior lovin'.
Worn with Emma Cook heels
