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Nick never understands how I can call shoes pretty. He thinks that they are functional objects that are designed to act as a barrier between your feet and the earth, objects that should be comfortable but rarely ever are. I think shoes can be pretty. They can also be magnificent, ridiculous, fantastic, even drab… but I do agree that they’re rarely as comfortable as they ought to be! Always having had a wide foot, my relationship with shoes is difficult. I love them, they can help you punctuate an outfit and describe exactly how you feel (or want to feel!) but so many wider fitting shoes are rarely fashionable. In recent years I have promised myself that I will only wear properly fitting, comfortable shoes that don’t contribute to grumpy moods and crippling calf aches that wake you up in the middle of the night. But I can look.

Recently I was turned on to Jeffrey Campbell shoes by Christina and Hayley, and I am pretty much so in love that I am willing to jeopardise my foot well-being. I think I will start off with a flatter shoe like the fuchsia Roller 2 or the taupe Warrier but I also adore the 99!

When I have enough dollary-doos saved up, I will contemplate this more seriously, but until then I will gaze at this incredible footwear and daydream.

The Queensland State Library has a flickr account that they constantly update with more and more vintage photographs of life in Queensland. I am fascinated by it, and loved this particular photograph. A commenter pointed out that the photo was entirely staged as none of the fruit are mature enough to pick and the woman is dressed far too fancy to be getting her hands dirty in the red soil!

I’ve just finished watching the last of the Life TV series by David Attenborough, and was taken by the underwater cinematography. Coral is fascinating and wonderful to look at but also a very necessary and living part of the ecosystem along the Great Barrier Reef. It makes me sad that it’s under threat because of bleaching caused by climate change.

Rita Moreno’s character Anita was my favourite in West Side Story. I loved how full of life and strength she was and the scene where she and Maria are singing A Boy Like That/ I Have a Love always makes me tear up!

Gosh I love Anita in this scene!

And to leave you on a less sentimental note… the kick-arse Leslie Hall from Leslie and the Ly’s. Whenever I think about the Genesis of Fance, I have to credit Leslie. I remember seeing her amazing gem sweaters and listening to her hilarious songs on myspace ages ago. I think she is pretty much one of the Godmothers of Fance.

I have been deliberating over the winner of the Ezibuy $50 voucher for about an hour, and decided to make up little collages to help me! Thank you to everyone who entered; I am really delighted that you had a go at creating a fancy outfit for yourself, and Piaochong and Samedog even put together their own collages (which you can see above, along with Katy, Mellie and Zoe’s outfits).

Samedog’s outfit was hilarious and I was very pleased that a male entered because so many people thought Ezibuy only sold women’s clothes!

Miss Mellie’s ensemble involved glitter and layers, incorporating the tank with the skinny jeans in a way I’d never really considered before.

Zoe’s neutral jumpsuit combo perfectly suits her laidback fashion style, and I love those sandals!

Katy’s accessories complimented that gorgeous dress perfectly, pulling purple, red and nude out of the pretty print.

But finally, we have our winner: Piaochong. This outfit made me squeal, it’s so over the top! I have always adored flamenco dancing dresses, but contrasting that military style cardigan against it and the hareem pants really pushed my vote towards this very fancy combination. For details on the pieces in her outfit:

Cardigan: Mcqueen (via polyvore)
Ezi Buy: Sara
Flamenco lady portrait
Hair band: thehoneycomb
Accessories: earrings (via polyvore); bracelet 1 (via polyvore); bracelet stack (via polyvore)
Heels: Oh Deer

Congratulations Piaochong! I’ll be emailing you with your voucher code very soon!

Thanks for entering, I hope I get to do more give-aways in the new year… this was fun.

Today we will be discussing giant hair bows. I know Lady Gaga and Juicy Couture did this last year and at the beginning of this year, but I haven’t seen any giant hair bows in real life until just recently. This morning on Twitter, Marianne expressed fears of regressing back to traumatic childhood giant hair bows, but I feel that the time of the giant hair bow is upon us again and that she (and we!) should break out the huge hair bow once again!

⇒ The Lady Gaga hair bow that launched a million knock offs. I feel I should come out as a huge Lady Gaga fan at this juncture. Don’t hate, you just don’t get it!

⇒ Juicy Couture’s ridiculously huge hair bow. I’m not a fan of the label, but this was one of the first massive bows I saw!

⇒ Loulou Loves You do a more modestly sized bow, I love this one in the small gingham!

⇒ “But Natalie,” I hear you proclaim, “I need my bows to be REALLY REALLY RIDICULOUSLY HUGE.” Nasir Mazhar has catered to your fance-embiggening desires.

⇒ Of course I had to consult lookbook.nu just to see if the hip things were wearing hair bows. They are!

⇒ For more real life inspiration, we should always look to the incredible Stephanie Zwicky!

⇒ Aaaand the fabulous Sonya!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go sew myself up a ridiculous bow to wear tonight so I can represent the huge bow wearing fatshionistas!

I very nearly didn’t submit my report today because I just didn’t feel like it. Instead, I put on some music and squeezed out some fance!

⇒ Incredible needlework by benjibot, asking all the hard questions. Who DID die and make you Mr. Fancy? Hmmm?

⇒ For a while I was completely obsessed with the Large Hadron Collider, so I was glad to see these amazing photos come up in my Google Reader. Shiny. Fancy. Amazing!

⇒ When I grow up I want to be Mrs. T. Charlton Henry and sit for a photo with an incarnation of Diane Arbus. So fancy it hurts!!

⇒ This Anna French wallpaper could have been torn from the pages of The Fancy Wall Fanciers Quarterly. Well, it could have been if such a wondrous publication existed.

⇒ I wish I knew who shot this, but I got it from Luxirare. I think it sums up my mission statement quite well: Science, big hair and fashuns!
*ETA: It’s photographed by Eugenio Recuenco – taker of amazing photographs.

I’m not a huge celebrity watcher, and I don’t require gossip in order to get on with my day but there are a few celebrities I love to look at because they pretty much typify “The Fance” for me. The following People of Fance have been nominated by me and some of my Twitter followers as embodying pure fance.

⇒ Matt Preston is a food journalist and restaurant critic who was propelled into the public eye on MasterChef Australia earlier this year. He has incredible style, and wears the most delicious cravats.

⇒ M.I.A is an incredible graphic artist as well as a film maker and music maker. If OTTness is a prerequisite for fanciness, Maya has it in spades. She also has a very enviable creative career!

⇒ Bianca and Sierra Casady are CocoRosie, a band I have to admit to only listening to and never knowing what they look like until today when Makalita and Kathleen insisted that they were fancy! AND AREN’T THEY JUST?!

⇒ Tom Wolfe is a writer, and was nominated by Ben. I wish I could say I knew more of him than his utterly fabulous style!

⇒ Tilda Swinton, nominated by Mark and Tash, is an obvious choice. Woman is fiercely fancy!

⇒ I’m not really a fan of Emma Watson, but I’m a huge fan of the photos Ellen von Unwerth took of her. This one in particular is my favourite, even though kweenie suggested another one, sorry Tiffany!

⇒ Yes, I know I’ve already nominated Anna Piaggi as a Person of Fance before but when samhain mentioned her there was no leaving her out! So awesome.

⇒ And finally, the ultimate fancy lady: Dame Barbara Cartland. She was fancy when she was a younger lady, and fancy until she died. Most fanciful ever!

Fance is highly subjective, and when I asked for suggestions for this post there were a few celebrities nominated that I couldn’t quite bring myself to agree with. But that’s ok!

Who are your most fancy people?

In my head I’ve been calling these posts “Friday Fance”, and in fact I’ve been using “fance” as a word a whole bunch more lately. I hope my readers know what I’m talking about when I bust out the fance. Someone call Oxford, we have a new word!

Today I want to talk to you about your hair. Truly one’s hair is like the cherry on top of a cupcake: your fancy demeanor is never complete without a truly fanciful coif. Let me show you the way of the fance courtesy of the best selections from my new favourite site Don’t Judge My Hair.

This is why I’m growing my hair long. This woman has truly leveled up her fance!

(I’ve actually been breaking out the side bun with scarf quite a bit lately!)

The crimped fringe reminds me of a beaded door curtain. So mysterious, so fancy.

I am envious of his root lift.

I blame my misspent childhood for thinking this is incredible.

I’m still not dissuaded from shaving the side of my head.

I wonder if it all sounds like crashing waves up in there.

Her stylist was able to give her some fabulous height!

⇒ My friend Pete posted this video on twitter yesterday, it’s just gorgeous!

⇒ I said it on tumblr, and I’ll say it here: So fancy it makes my eyes water. Via Design*Sponge.

⇒ Lady Agnew by John Singer Sargent. I saw a few of Sargent’s paintings last Friday night, in the flesh!

⇒ Now that I have my Nana’s display cabinet here, I can start saving up so I can collect tea cups like this one from Vandelized Vintage! (Gifts of said tea cups always graciously accepted, teehee!)

⇒ This is by Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir… and one day I want to do my hair like this. Incredible.

⇒ I have no information on this photo. All I know is that it’s the fanciest thing on earth.

Gemma Correll started the “What I Wore Today” flickr group for people who love drawing and don’t really like posting photos of themselves to the internet. I think it’s such an awesome idea, even though you know I’m not shy about posting photos of myself!! Today’s Fanciful Friday is all about illustration, and how people interpret themselves through drawing. I think it’s fascinating! Gemma also created a blog to show off her favourite drawings from the group.

⇒ KatieGreenBean’s cello is a beautiful, but heavy accessory!!

⇒ stevesubg does the most incredible illustrations of his outfits, combining his lovely technique with typography.

⇒ I love emma_brown’s shirt!

⇒ The border around mennajenkins is so lovingly made, it makes me happy!

⇒ neithlocay’s outfit is deliciously fancy. It reminds me of Nana Mouskouri!

⇒ Andddd we have me. This was my first attempt at drawing my outfit with my cheap graphics tablet, and it was nothing special… just your typical freelancin’ couture!

This week I’ve been seeing some fantastical floral headpieces, so I wanted to spotlight the fanciful world of flowers-on-people’s-heads! You don’t need to be a bride to plop some flora on your noggin either – every day is an excuse to be fancy.

⇒ I wish I could tell you where this headpiece came from, or who the model and photographer are, but like a lot of posts on tumblr this was uncredited. Still, beautiful!

⇒ I adore Grandiflora’s flowers-as-headwear! This is from a shoot in Vogue Australia.

⇒ This stunning photograph was taken by inverselive.

⇒ My gorgeous friend Zoe sporting a floral headband by my other talented friend Kiki! She’s just opened up a store on madeit.com.au under Elastic Wasteland. I’m waiting for Kiki to put up some of her headpieces so I can buy one!

⇒ Combining two of my favourite things: paper and flowers! Katsuya Kamo styled this headwear for Chanel’s Spring 2009 Couture Collection.

⇒ DIY some fancy: Grosgrain Fabulous graciously posted this tutorial on making felt poppies. I think you could easily turn these into an incredible headpiece. I’m going to attempt it in the next week!