I am quite embarrassed to say that I only learnt the title of this song by watching 'Don't forget the Lyrics'. I had heard it before however, but I just didn't realize it's name. This is one great song, and the ladies are so fierce and powerful (and somewhat rock n' roll) in the video clip that this was the aura I wanted to capture in my look.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart! I hope everything gets better soon and you had a lovely day for your birthday!

I styled both a tea room and evening look using the same coat. I wanted the first look to be simple and sophisticated, and somewhat reminiscent of how I would normally dress. And the second, a bit more edgy and how I would dress when I go out dancing (badly) but with confidence.

The perfume, the teacups and the jewels are for you!

I have never been to Russia, but I had a friend who went when she was on exchange in Finland, and she told me that you could get your drink bottle filled with vodka for approximately one euro, and that was really all we thought about when we were younger - vodka (clearly, even the unrefined stuff). This slightly obscure story was closely followed by the claim made by my history teacher. He stated that Russia's infrastructure was so poor during the period before Revolution that they would extract crude oil from the ground using blankets, which would then be rung out into buckets. I cannot ascertain the validity of either of these stories, but it does reinforce what I was always reminded in history - that Russia was (emphasis on 'was') a backwards nation.

But this is not all I contemplate when I dream about Russia. I think of the forgotten gulags, the dark masses, one day in the life of ivan denisovich, gorby, gorky park, rasputin, Queen Victoria's hatred for 'those boisterous russians', her granddaughter Alicky becoming Empress, the inexplainable cold weather (a cold more fierce than our own), dr zhivago, the mushroom domed buildings of st petersburg, and then lastly my brother and I, because our names coincide with the last rulers of the Empire: Tsar Nicholas and Tsarina Alexandra of Russia.

This illustration is magnificent, but it is really difficult to find an outfit that can be equally as sophisticated and revealing. So, I decided to style the two looks as predominantly black - with light highlights - and lace accents.