ALL THE THINGS I'VE DONE

I have a horribly annoying habit of bursting into song mid conversation. The trigger for this often lies in one word. Take for example the conversations I have with my cousin. I think I may have infected her with this habit too because a simple story could take twice as long for her to tell due to all our melodic interjections. Here is a fictitious example:"Somebody-"

"Told me, that you had a boyfriend, who looks like a girlfriend..."

"-kept calling me-"

"Stop calling me, calling me, please stop stalkin' me, stalkin' me".

Most of the time the retelling of the story goes down the drain and we just end up riffing to some bad early noughties song (which more or less shaped our childhood)/ K-pop raps / Ke$ha (ain't we clar-see?).

When I got an email from Alek of Indonesian label All The Things I've Done, my eyes had barely scanned past the subject header before there was a dance party going on in my head, courtesy of Russian 'faux lesbian' band t.A.T.u. Remember their song "All The Things She Said"? Yep, my brain was intent on hitting replay on that one. Funny how a fashion label with a name vaguely similar to a song title can trigger an all out youtubing session and 'where are they now' google searching.

When I finally take a look at the contents of the email, I found a video that very much appealed to my tastes. Almost every fashion label seems to be dabbling in some sort of fashion video and while All The Things I've Done's FW/11 video is not a glossed up 5 minute feature of a wandering model making love to the camera, it's lo fi behind the scenes snippet captures the collection's nomadic essence. The clothing instantly brought to mind the Mori girl aesthetic, a Japanese subculture translating to 'forest' girl. If you want to know more, Mori Girl is a good start. If you're really keen you can even learn how to be a Mori Girl (in only 9 steps!).

Mori girl vibes aside, the 3 year old label focuses on putting an interesting spin on basics. While guys get treated to an array of matching blazers and pants, something of a mix between preppy and safari, girls get butterfly sleeved blouses and quirky jackets. Among my favourites are the pleated collar jacket (a fresh take on a traditional Indonesian item) and the fringed dress. I'm such a sucker for anything dreamy/nomadic. Here's hoping for a webshop (and modest prices) to pop up soon.