We went to Fred Flare and met the awesome girls, Bilgin and Bee – they were aaa-freakin’-mazing!

We’ll tell you all about them, and our fabu FF purchases, when we get back, but in the meantime, you can check Miss Aimee and I out on their site, they took our picture! It’s a Fred Flare/Sassy Minx love in!

Kelsi, when I first came across StyleSmith, to say I am going to be unleashing my inner Blair Waldorf with some of your AMAZING headbands is an understatement! It is going to be so difficult to stop myself buying the headpieces and jewellery on your site, but where and how did it all begin?
You’re adorable…! Basically this was all a complete accident. I’m a trained actress, I have a degree in theatre, I’ve been to some of the best acting schools in the world, I’m fairly talented. Doesn’t matter. In L.A I’m one of thousands. So in order to supplement my minimal earnings through acting I was doing boring, menial work, waitressing, hostessing…this was just about enough for me to want to perform a self inflicted lobotomy so I quit.

In the meantime I had gotten married and become fond of making hats.

So jobless, penniless, but in love with my man and my new hobby I set up a shop on Etsy. Completely unsure of myself. But to my surprise people actually liked my romantic notions in the form of adornments.

So yay. That was May 2008.

Who/what inspires you and why?
Movies, inevitably given my character are one of my biggest influences, when I fall in love with a film I can watch it again and again and draw from it constantly, sometimes, well, most times, subconsciously. Music is a huge passion of mine, there’s nothing like a perfect melody combined with perfect poetry to give me chills and through me into a creative whirlwind.

Obviously I’m inspired by current trends, I follow  fashion religiously, (I have a blog: Dedicated Follower of Fashion – it’s kind of expected of me!) but that doesn’t mean you can expect to see carbon copies of each and every trend popping up in the Stylesmith shop. That isn’t me as a designer or as a stylish person.

What do you love about being a woman in the world?
We rock. Quite plainly. Sometimes I feel quite sorry for the men of the world on that fact alone. But seriously. If I were a man, I couldn’t get away with half the stuff I do!

I truly believe that a woman can do anything a man can do, I also believe women are special for the things they alone can do. The most important movement for women in the past 50 years is the movement of choice. You can be a stay at home Mum, you can be a corporate slave, you can be a wannabe actress making hats in front of the TV. We, as women in the western world have that privilege, and we should never take it for granted.

What has been your proudest moment so far?
Life – Having the metaphorical balls to travel alone. It’s made me the person I am.

Business – Renegade Craft Fair, this past summer… I randomly got a space at the very last minute, spent a solid week day and night working my fingers to the bone to have a collection to sell and to show – and then sold out of many items at the show. It was a good week!

Which five tracks make your day?
The Morning of Our Lives – Jonathan Richmond and the Modern Lovers
Girl From Mars – Ash
Don’t Stop Believin’ - Journey (the ultimate cheese on toast of songs)
No Children – The Mountain Goats
Anything by The Weakerthans (ANYTHING)

What are your must-have, can’t live without fashion and beauty items?
I cannot live without a pair of black ballet flats. Literally cannot live. And they have to be cut just right. Not any ballet flat will suffice. French Sole and Topshop do the best. Though whenever I’m back in the UK I try and grab a couple of pairs of Primark ballet flats – they rock.

Beauty wise…I’m a lipstick girl. I can go without any make-up so long as a have a bright lipstick on – preferably pink or red…I sourced the best lipstick ever awhile back, it’s a lipbalm, officially, but it has the deepest pigments, it stays on all day, and the craziest thing is they come in the craziest colours! Blue, Green, Purple, Apricot..etc, but they all come out on your lips in different shades of pinks and reds. They’re amazing & I can’t live without them – which is madness because I didn’t buy them to wear but to use as props in shoots! I just  managed to find some more and they’ll be going in the shop soon – they’re too amazing not to share.

What makes you jump-in-the-air happy?
Lipstick… no, I’m kidding. My husband. Red wine. My cat Frank. Lots of things. Going home (to the UK). Going home is the best. I actually jump in the air for that one.

Whats your life Motto?
Just do it.
I can rationalise anything and everything. So seriously. Just do it.

What are your favourite three pieces from the current collection and what is next for StyleSmith?
Favourite pieces…. The Hummingbird the colours are so pretty…I love it. I wear the Heart Hat a lot and The F Scott Fitzgerald locket…

Coming soon…tomorrow I’m shooting a new limited edition winter collection that will be available through the end of February. It includes some new feather headbands, including some feather bows!

I’m also doing a small handbag collection that will test preview at Unique Los Angeles in a few weeks.

The Sassy List: What’s your favourite?
Shop: Forever 21 – it’s a dirt cheap, possibly morally bankrupt, awesome US clothing store.
Book: The Little Prince – Antoine du Sant Exupery. I’ve read a lot of books but that one still challenges me everytime.
Website/blog: I have a lot of go-to blogs but one of my faves is the blog of designer Yasmine Surovec, ‘A Print A Day’ she’s so talented and completely adorable. She also runs the awesome Parasol Mags.
Hang-out: The couch? Seriously though… I love The Edison in Dowtown Los Angeles, it’s the old electric plant, I also love Hotel Figueroa in Downtown L.A – it’s how you imagine ‘Hotel California’ to be in your head…. oooh and The Pantry…ancient diner also in Downtown L.A…so basically Downtown L.A in general. I think I forgot this was the quickfire round.
City: I’m am forever torn between London and Los Angeles. They’re so different but I couldn’t live without either of them. I also adore Rome. I like my cities to be a little dirty…
Must-have beauty item: Those lipsticks I waxed lyrical about before….other than that I NEED hair serum….I’m the Queen of frizz.
TV prog: Ah. Can’t choose…. Weeds/Dexter/True Blood. I’m a showtime/HBO gal…. I hope they’re reading. Give me a job…I promise I’ll keep making headwear….
Food: Curry…. tikka masala. I recently joined my husband in the realm of vegetarianism so the chicken has been replaced with paneer, which is quite yummy.

What does the term Sassy Minx mean to you, Kelsi?
Someone with a bit of spice but NOT a spice girl… Feisty and filthy. In a librarian, shock value way.

Sooo, the minxes are in New York – we’re filled-to-the-brim with Thanksgiving turkey cooked by awesome author-girl Lindsey Kelk, have been on a Gossip Girl tour, stalked Chuck Bass and bought far too many books and pretty, pretty make up -  but there are so many things happening in the UK, that I thought I’d better check in and tell you all about them asap!

I’ve been interviewed for LOOK magazine – I know get me, in a fashion magazine! – It’s all about how I learned to love my body, go purchase it now and I will tell you all about the dramarama of the photoshoot as soon as I get back…

But more importantly, the Lola Love t-shirt is now officially available – wooop freakin’ woop!

In case you don’t know, I write books for tween/teen girls – go check ‘em out at www.pink-world.co.uk and we’ve just teamed up with Tammy to launch the first Lola Love t-shirt – I’m SOOOO excited!

AND, if you buy it online right now, you get a free Lola Love book too – Lola is like the gift that keeps giving! It’ll make the perfect present for any tween/teen girl o’ fabulousness in your world!

Go buy it now at www.bhs.co.uk

We will fill you in on all the NY adventures as soon as we’re back – off to Williamsburg, Brooklyn today to go buy vintage and do research for the new Lola book – wohhooo!

So yesterday you read about the fabulous Miss Ruka, creatrix of Sugarlesque, today you can win a pair of these AMAZING Sugarlesque Alice briefs – I know, we’re like the gift that keeps giving, aren’t we?!

All you have to do to win them is leave a comment below, before December 4th 2009, telling us why you want these pair of pretty, pretty briefs…simple, non?!

What you waiting for? Enter now, it’s the perfect-o Christmas treat to self!

So, you know how us Sassy Minxes heart pretty, pretty lingerie? And you know how we dig all things Burlesque too? Well, the gorgeous Miss Ruka, creator-girl of Sugarlesque has combined our two big loves and damn, the result is pretty. Really pretty. So pretty in fact, they make out hearts do a li’l skippy thing – j’adore.

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Now I’ve never taken a trip to Hot Rod’s apartment but I would admire any girl that has, because lets face it, the man has got something. I’m too tall and definitely too young for him – but I could deffo be his love child.

Which is why I’m a huge fan of this t-shirt from Heidi Seeker. The pocket rocket is renowned not only for his snazzy dress sense – tartan drainpipes anyone? – and his medley of tunes, but for his legendary shenanigans with some of the most beautiful women in the world. “Rod Stewart’s Love Child” is perfect for any Rock and Roll royalty, with its vinyl print and cute ‘Dad’ badge. And at only fifteen pounds, its a cheeky all-rounder.

Do Ya Think I’m Sexy? Hell, yeah….

£15.00, www.heidiseeker.com

First Love.

Everyone remembers their first love. The innocuous, the obsessional, the fleeting glances, the endless butterflies, the hours of snogging……insert sigh here.

Miss L and I have just been to a movie that managed to encounter all of that in the most beautiful way – Bright Star. The delightfully enchanting film, directed by Jane Campion made us swoon and cry in a first-love type fashion.

Based on the romance between the 19th Century new romantic poet, John Keats, and the stylish Fanny Brawne, who he nick-named ‘Minxtress’, the story takes us through their burgeoning romance up until his death, and one of the most famous love affairs in literature, unearthed nearly one hundred years later. The visual imagery, music and poetry is vulnerable yet absolutely stunning. Just like some of the items below…Sigh.

“Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced.”

Bright Star by John Keats £4.46 www.Amazon.co.uk

“A thing of beauty is a joy forever. Its loveliness increases so it will never pass into nothingness.”
Believe necklace – Disney Couture £21.75 www.asos.com

“I almost wish we were like butterflies and lived three summer days, three such days with you, I could fill with delight more than fifty common years.”
Butterfly lights £15.40 Laura Ashley

“This is the only gown with a triple-tiered mushroom collar in the whole of Hampstead.”

Maybe not a triple-tiered collar, but this collar, £40.00 from LouLouLovesYou is the next best thing!

“Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night,
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature’s patient sleepless eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors;
No yet still steadfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever or else swoon to death.”

Swoon and Shine in Mimi Holliday lingerie Bra £42.00 French brief £30.00

If, like me, you are a Diva o’ Destiny with an interest in all things spiritual, meet Alice Grist, author-girl of The High Heeled Guide to Enlightenment – a book for Minxsresses who have an interest in spirituality, but don’t know where, when or how to start learning more…

Alice, who I absolutely adore, covers subjects such as Reincarnation, Buddhism, Shamanism and Reiki in a fresh, comical, honest and entertaining way. Not only does it have a pretty cover, I read this book from cover to cover in a day and it’s literally filled to the brim with spiritual  goodness – from Kabbalah to shamans, from psychics to crystals – and combines Alice’s own experiences too – LOVE it.

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I have A LOT of love for the Gok, having had my very own ‘bangers’ groped by the man himself, I am excited to see that he’s launched Gorgeous, his very own range of beauty prodz exclusively for Boots. I’ll leave it to the man himself to do the hard sell but FYI: I am a HUGE fan of the body butter – it smells dee-freakin’-vine.

www.boots.com

Some things you need to know about me: I am obsesso with all things magical and mystical, I like boys and my favourite author girl in the whole wide world is Francesca Lia Block.

So when my favourite author-girl decides to give me dating advice by comparing myself and boykind to various mythological beasties – FYI: she predicts I’m an urban elf/fairy girl – I was more than a li’l bit curious.

Navigating the world of dating can be like wandering an enchanted forest, full of creatures with peculiar habits and baffling behaviour. In Wood Nymph Seeks Centaur, Francesca Lia Block provides a guide to this often-treacherous terrain, classifying all those mystifying men and women into various types of mythical forest fauna—Fauns and Werewolves, Mermaids and Banshees.

After answering questions to determine your own type, you can learn to identify others. By reading up on the various types’ favorite activities, likely professions, sexual preferences, and parenting styles, you’ll gain insight into compatible creatures. If you’re a Wood Nymph (like FLB), you could get your heart broken by a fickle Satyr, but if you can track down the strong, soulful Centaurs of the forest, you just might be on the path to true love…Amazing, non?

Come read what FLB has to say about her mythological dating guide…

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