Saint Laurent S/S 2015 psychedelic rock menswear

I normally oppress myself from enjoying high fashion, because of animal cruelty, capitalism and since my blog is too punk for this shit (besides, The Mutant Stomp Friends knows all about high fashion so I always update myself in her blog).

But you see, I cannot be ambiguous towards long haired men with opened button up shirts (-heavy breathing-) and as this collection really speaks to my recent bohemian inspirations I have decided to share it with you.

All pictures taken from Style.com. Here are some of my favorite looks:

I think this style connects very well with different kinds of music and the subcultures among them. This looks will go great with them post punkers, hipsters and hippies. 

I also think that every outfit has a casual and going out potential- take off that jacket and throw on some chains and a scarf and you can go straight from work to sitting at a lake with a beer (gawd I miss our park hangeouts at summer. Wish it would come already).

Like don´t you just want to tie them all together and fuck them?

So of course you can say that this Saint Laurent guy or whoever is it in charge of that sold out corporation has been looking at pictures from Woodstock and copied everything. 

But isn´t is awesome? I mean a lot of things came back in fashion already, and if you are tired of the 80s as much as I am this is a lovely way to spice up your otherwise stereotypical batcave attire (lol nothing against trad goth fashion, you know I am being sarcastic).

You can watch the entire show here:

Also, if you loved the background music you can listen to the entire album by Mystic Braves, in case you want to mingle in the psychedelic rock genre some more but are too modernized to listen to original bands from the 60s.

What do you think? Is this a rip off? Would you wear something like this or combine it with other styles? 

All I know is that Boris has been dressing like this since I´ve known him and I am "finally" catching on. I have plans on updating my wardrobe this year so this definitely triggered consumerism in me.

Have a wonderful week everyone!

N. Finsternis

Home decoration goals

For a change, it seems like we will be living in our 2 room apartment in the student dorms for a while, without having the need to move constantly between flat shares or sharing the place with other people.
Finding an apartment in Berlin without the proper papers (aka conventional income) is a nightmare in itself, and we are lucky to be living in a student dorm since last summer. The apartment and bathroom are ours, kitchen is shared which is no big deal, since it is being taken care of by a clean lady every day - conditions which my parents in their university days during the Soviet Union would have never even dreamed of...

Part of the living room. The shawl is a traditional Ukranian design, and was given to me by my grandmother when I went to Uzbekistan last September. She bought it back in 1973.

Which is why I can allow myself to focus on decorating the place since it feels more or less "ours". We have been filling the walls with posters from gigs in the bed room, being the "goth room" (which is a healthy closure for my issue with not having my own room throughout my teenage years); and hanging shawls as tapestries and maps from different places we´ve been to in the other room, which serves as the living room.

Part of the bedroom wall. Picture is outdated, as there are a LOT more posters now. I love stealing me some posters.
The shawl is also from by grandmother, and amusingly looks like huge underwear when viewed from a distance lol.

But this is not enough for me! I actually love having color around me and would not want to have a black, super gothy interior. I have been inspired by bohemian interior design (throwing fabrics and pillows all around is hardly a design, but alas) and would love to just cover the walls with a bunch of blankets, shawls and psychedelic themed tapestries. Somehow it makes me feels really good and for now is the only kind of decoration I can live with.

The common European Ikea themed room or the ever so wished adolescent velvet-victorian-cabinet of curiosities inspired interior only make me sick.

For now I am into bohemian interior (fabrics, colors etc) mixed with squat elements (posters and flyers on the walls, cheap and random diy stuff).

Here are some home decoration goals:

Source, definitely buying this tapestry soon.

 

Source & Source

 

 Source & Source

A lot of these pictures focus on a huge cosy looking bed, which we don´t have and cannot afford at this state. But what I do like is the messyness being part of the decoration, as well as a lot of room for diy. 

I would love to buy furniture, but the dorms we live in came with furniture that we cannot store anywhere if we want to replace it with our own, which is why our bed is actually 2 single beds brought together. Not the fanciest solution but it´ll do for now.

I am also not a fan of these fabrics hanging above the bed- makes me think of all the dust being stored up there!

Using shelves as a book closet is a cool idea, I´ve seen people doing it in Berlin quite often, especially in stores.

What do you think? What is your dream house decorations?

Have a wonderful rest of the week, hopefully a wild weekend awaits!

N. Finsternis

Valentine´s Day Makeup

Fringe is almost half natural-half orange by now!

Boris has suggested to do something romantic on Valentine´s Day, and so we went to see The Imitation Game starring one of our favorite actors, Benebatch Cumberdict. The movie was beautiful and very touching, talk about homophobia preventing the recognition of war heroes! I recommend you all to see it! 

I have been working all week and wanted to treat myself to some dramatic eye makeup. I did a black smokey eye with the smokey part being purple. 

Lipstick is my Careline P37 mixed with (and in the photo already slightly faded) black lipstick.

As the best second hand dress one could ever find is not captured in the pictures (Boris was tired and couldn´t give a fuck about my hallway outfit pictures, so I cut him some slack), I have decided to show you other random parts of my outfit instead, like earrings and necklaces:

Wearing a tattoo choker. Very missed having those, and was happy to see it yesterday in the mail. The key necklace is made by me. Also my usual safety pin ears with pendulum earrings from H&M.

Concerning not posting for a very long time, it is because I have been busy with the least pleasant mundane activities: working my first week on a new job (yay!) and having feet problems and doing orthopedic checks all week (nay. They even gave me an MRI test just like in those medical TV series, boy was that so loud it felt like being in a speedcore gig). 

I have an inflammation in my left knee, and another inflammation on my right ankle (Achilles thing?). I literally couldn´t walk last weekend and was having terrible pain. In both my fucking legs. It was very saddening, as I´ve never had problems with my feet before. Luckily the pain is now gone and physiotherapy awaits me. 

New job has been hard to learn but fun to do. I am now a hostel receptionist and it´s really nice, nothing like I´ve ever done before so I am happy to work since the semester is over by now.

I still felt fabulously sexy after slipping into house clothes, and couldn´t resist taking another selfie. You can see the makeup here better too.

N. Finsternis

80s Banshee Realness

Last Saturday we went to our favorite 80s party. This is yet another attempt to use our dorm hallway for an outfit location:

Does this setting work? This is an obvious rhetorical question....

I wore Boris´ fishnet shirt and my favorite high waist pants from H&M. I also took Boris´ red gypsy blouse but didn´t wear it in the club much since it was too warm.

As for the face, I am still sticking to this brown eye shadow for the sake of looking more natural. I am in love with this makeup, it fucking suits me and for once in my life I feel that the natural shape of my eyes which normally disappointed me to bits, actually looks badass and I couldn´t ask for different eyes. 

This is what you get suddenly in the middle of your life- boundless self love despite spending the last years trying to use cosmetics to change your natural face features. Lesson learned.

picture taken from mobile phone, excuse the difference in color

I would actually go as far with my newly learned lesson and write the following paragraph using Drag Queen jargon (soo excited that RuPaul´s new Drag Race season starts in March!!):

I am serving you old school goth meets "I look exactly like my mother" realness. I am channeling fierce contemporary post punk, my makeup is on point and I am fucking fabulous, baby! 

When people see me they go: "look at that banshee, bet she got her hair of the dog done right on fascination street!"

Better stop here, since I can communicate like this for hours with no one to appreciate my skills and discuss past Drag Race candidates. But all in good time, I guess.

Have a lovely week beautifuls!

N. Finsternis

The 5 types you´ll meet at your local squat bar

My favorite hang out places are probably the squat bars, or Haus Projekten. Technically the squats in Berlin are legal, under the excuse of the happenings there being held for a social/ politically involved/ "insert a democratic reason that would please authority here"- purpose.

In reality it´s just a very friendly place for alternative people (mainly punks, but not only) to drink some underpriced beers, see (and arrange) a gig for minimum to no money and just enjoy yourself without anyone telling you what to do and how to do it.

Every squat is of course inhabited, and the people living there are those who also either organize stuff or help out with the bar and food. You can also have delicious vegan food in squats almost every day, and it´s ridiculously cheap!

After hanging out mostly in these kind of places (and ditching the whole commercial goth clubs/ parties which we were so stoked about back in Israel) I have noticed a few characters which happen to appear in squat bars quite often. An opportunity for a fun post which an observer like me could never ignore.

Of course there is a difference between visiting squats than living in them, so a more involved punker would state otherwise or mention other types, but these are the ones I have seen in almost every squat in Berlin, bringing the subject of squats from a stranger´s point of view.

1. The nice crusty girl or guy at the bar

source

They are mostly on the other side of the bar giving you drinks to enjoy and feel like home. They are super nice and always smile at you, even when you are stumbling with your German. Maybe they live in the squat, maybe not, but they seem to always have a friend at the bar who just sits there with them to chat. A mohawk of dirty dreads, patched clothes, tattoos, huge flesh tunnels... they have it all.

2. The one homeless guy

He is just a homeless guy, has nothing to do with the scene but nevertheless is always given food for free whenever the kitchen is open. He then just sits there by himself and eats, but if he talks to someone he is always very polite. A fine example of the positive side of the punk scene.

Source
Köpi, where we mostly go to concerts. It was also the first ever squat we´ve been to in Berlin, which at the time also held the first event we´ve visited right after moving. The place is a lot more colorful from the outside at the moment and a lot more interesting on the inside, but taking pictures at squats is prohibited, since the places allegedly serve for society beneficial purposes, and if someone finds out what is really going on there (aka alcohol, parties, and well- drugs) it would be shut down with no trace of "democracy" as an excuse. 

3. The group of tourists

They´ve stumbled in by mistake, and quickly realized what a local treasure they have found. Holding themselves from taking pictures and eyeing every piece of alternativeness they can find, the tourists are slightly annoying, but as long as they don´t use their mobile phones to document the place they are not bothering anyone. Needless to say I was one of them until I got used to the place.

4. The junkie / the drunk

Mostly seen in an event where there´s loud music, the drunk is not as bad as the junkie, since he would stumble here and there with his beer, shout something to no one and probably will pass out somewhere. 

The junkie however is clingy, and if not dancing himself away in his own world he will start talking with you about nonsense only he understands (the term Kopfkino has never been so appropriate). Get away from him, you don´t need his shit right now, unless you came to the squat not for the alcohol... don´t overdo drugs, be careful. Every body live their own lives and make their own choices, and this is perhaps the more stereotypical side of squats.

5. The people who come with numerous dogs

There´s always this group of people who bring 2 other friends and about 5 more dogs. It´s a nice thing to be sitting with a bunch of dogs playing around you, but not so nice if the music is very loud and the dogs must bear it. Some places ask not to bring dogs inside, but a lot of people still bring them in even when there´s a concert, which is not that cool in my opinion.

Sama cafe is our new regular hangeout. No body ever comes there aside from evidently homeless people and the place is always half empty, unlike other squats where usually concerts are held which gets the place packed. Last time at Sama cafe Boris and I sat playing cards while the music went from German folk, neue Deutsche härte, Marilyn Manson and finally darkwave. 

There are a lot more, for example: the group of foreigners who get really drunk and blabber really loudly in their own language; 

or- the one 100 year old person who has been in the scene forever and probably has established the squat himself somewhere in the 80s or something; 

possibly a single black person who doesn´t speak the local language and is maybe a refuge, or just hanging out there and is always very nice and fun; 

or even- the couple of hipsters who evidently have nothing to do with the diy scene and are probably going to an electro party afterwards but who are still occupying the chairs minding nobody, and the list goes on and on...

The nice part is that you don´t have to look a certain way to enjoy these places, no one will raise an eyebrow at you (well, unless you look like a nazi). There are different kinds of people in every squat, but the general impression is always very positive.

That´s about it for now, as a lot can be said about the jem which the diy scene in Berlin really is. I am of course romanticizing things since I could have never written this post while living in Israel, where squats are illegal. At any rate, when I think of Berlin I think of the squats and the diverse layers of the alternative scene which are unlikely to be seen anywhere else in such great number. The squats is what fascinates me, this is Berlin for me.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

N. Finsternis

I tried to take an outfit picture and failed

My daily as well as party outfits are not that exciting. Mainly because it is cold outside which makes wearing comfy clothes a priority, and because you can´t really wear ripped stockings when it´s 1 C. degrees outside.

This is pretty much how my going out outfits in winter look like, the big shapeless black cardigan excluded:

This black basic skirt from H&M serves every outfit. The crop top is from H&M as well (and I cannot say I recommend it, since the velvet is in opposite direction, and the top rolls up slightly when you move). My combat boots make for the day and evening cold. 

I wear thigh highs only in winter with either these thick striped stockings or my plain black ones. 

This is the best location I could find- out hallway. And it´s still incredibly distracting.

So much for updates, meanwhile uni and job searching continues. Take care!

Here is some dub to cheer me up

N. Finsternis

Youthitude Zine fest

This weekend we´ve been to a local zine fest, hosted in a squat which I haven´t visited before called Villa Curiosum. I was really excited to go to this event since:

1. I have never held a zine in my hand.
2. After discovering Copehnagen´s zine fest and reading one of the issues online I got very interested in the idea of making a zine myself. 

Since I haven´t been apart of this community the whole concept of a zine really made me curious. I think that it is a wonderful way to express ones creativity in many different ways. Much like writing a blog, you get to edit your layout, set your themes and share your thoughts with the world.

I love when a zine has an interesting design or idea to it. A lot of the zines featured in the fest were either political or featured photographs or illustrations. 

I bought one which is a collection of artworks from various illustrators. I was really attracted to the dark and occult artwork. It was published by Kunst Kabinet. I recommend checking out the link, they make very lovely cabinet of curiosities inspired art.

the back cover and a patch Boris got himself from one of the stalls

they gave me a paper bag with this beautiful illustration. I decided to cut it and tape it to the wall next to my posters.

The venue itself had the same vibe, which is pretty much a small house with a big garden filled with amusing things and a very art-themed interior. I loved this squat especially since most Berlin squats are either concert venues or bars (aside from living spaces of course) and it was nice to see a place so artistic for a change. 

 A squat bathroom is always intriguing, but this one was just fabulous!

I might share with you that I have been thinking of making a post punk/ DIY scene themed zine, where we could share articles about European events and bands (writing about the bands of our friends as well hehe). This idea was suggested by a friend and I hope to make something of it with him together, offering other people from different countries to write about their local scene. I will let you know how this idea develops, I really hope I will have the time and dedication to it. Meanwhile I want to experiment with collage-article formats myself.

We are going there again today (Sunday) for the closing concert, there should be a post punk/ wave band playing. Hope you all had a nice weekend and will have a lovely week to follow!

N. Finsternis