Tiara King's Blog: Jewel Divas Style, page 67
July 19, 2015
BOOK STYLE: Closet Confidential: How To Audit Your Wardrobe And Update Your Style
IT’S HERE, IT’S FINALLY HERE!!!
Closet Confidential: How To Audit Your Wardrobe And Update Your Style is a quick and simple guide for men, women and children to help clear out the clutter and become the master of their wardrobes.
Ever wondered what style of clothing suits your personality or lifestyle? Confused as to which colours combine best, where to find the right style of clothing, what storage ideas are most appropriate, or how to start clearing out your closet?
This e-book is broken down into quick and easy to read guides, with quick and easy to read steps, such as: Preparation and Storage Ideas, Magazines, Catalogues and Celebrities, Clothing Personalities, Colour Combining, Audit Time, Organizing Space and Storage, Refill Your Wardrobe, Wardrobe Essentials and Be the Master of Your Wardrobe.
Tiara also gets personal about her style journey through the last four decades and offers helpful tips she has come across and uses everyday such as: When and How I Audit, My Journey: Purifying My Closet and My Life, My Personal Storage Ideas, My Wardrobe and Me: The Glamourisation of My Closet and My Ever Changing Fashion Style.
If you’re passionate about clothes and want quick and easy steps to updating your style then Closet Confidential: How To Audit Your Wardrobe And Update Your Style is the e-book for you.
So get your mitts on it over at
July 16, 2015
STYLE FAILURES: It sucks when expensive designer breaks as easily as chain store jewellery
On many an occasion I used to show the designer jewels I bought off eBay. I tried to buy every piece as cheaply as I could, a – because they were already second hand, and b – the exorbitant prices were out of my budget. So it was as inexpensive as I could find it.
This piece, however, I bought for $76 with shipping, so definitely not on the cheap side. It was one of my favourite pieces, a gorgeous mint chip resin hinged bangle with a gold glued on ornament. There’s a matching black and strawberry sorbet versions as well. I rarely wear it, a – because I have so much jewellery I’m trying to wear everything I own so it will take a while to get back to it, and b – because it cost me $76. Not cheap, and so not worn much. Some things I think are so gorgeous I’d rather look at them than wear them.
And now that’s where this piece will be going back to. Being looked at and not worn.
With only two slim magnets attaching each side to each other all was fine until I got home. It’s a bit of a long story, so settle back and take a ride.
Mum and I had been shopping with my sister. She wanted to buy mum a bunch of flowers but wanted the butterfly bobble thing from another bunch, so what does she do? She takes it out of the bunch it’s in and shoves it into the one she wants to buy. I told her that was stealing but she laughed.
When we got home I unloaded mum and the shopping and then started unpacking. When I got to the flowers I was quickly unwrapping them and had completely forgotten about the butterfly. Well, that little bastard decided to fly out of the paper and up to my face, and me, forgetting what it was, frantically flung my hand up to brush it away, only to then see my bangle, which I didn’t even feel come off my wrist, smash onto the ground. At which point it broke and the piece landed next to the bangle.
Needless to say I was not happy but not overly emotional. A few days later I got out the trusty E6000 glue and spent 24 hours gluing and drying it. I will never wear it again, unless I forget in a few years, but the crack is still noticeable and I don’t want to risk wearing it just for it to break right off my wrist, so back to the cabinet it goes. Of course, this is not the first time this has happened with this particular jewellery designers pieces. I had a bangle a few years ago simply crack and fall in half on my dressing table. It was replaced but there was some shit that went down with that company that resulted in blog posts and their company doing shit that should not be spoken of, so no names have been mentioned.
Have you even bought an expensive, second hand or brand new, piece of jewellery and shit just happened to it and you never wore again?
July 14, 2015
BOOK STYLE: My brand new book, Closet Confidential, launches next week
That’s right, I have written a new book based on the Closet Confidential posts from last year. Now don’t fear, you do get the info I had in them, but I also add in extra info that was not blogged about.
Launching on Monday the 20th of July, Closet Confidential: How to Audit Your Wardrobe And Update Your Style will be available through my Madeit Store, Jewel Divas. For $4.20 you will be sent a pdf of the book to open up and enjoy.
This is my third foray into writing non-fiction books under my name, but my ninth book in total that has been released. I’m also currently writing children’s stories but I will save that post for another day.
I’ll have more details next Monday.
July 12, 2015
MY STYLE: Red Glitter in the air
TOP: Kmart, $5, from 2014
CARDIGAN: Lesley’s Boutique at my local centre, $20, from 2014
JEANS: Kmart, $7, from 2013
BOOTS: Spendless Shoes, $40, from 2014
JEWELLERY: Jewel Divas bracelet stacks, Lovisa necklace and rings, ebay earrings
July 9, 2015
FASHION STYLE: The coat inspired by Miss Phryne Fisher
After three years of watching Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries I got inspired when I found this coat on eBay. It came in three colours, but being a blue lover of course I had to get the blue one. I also managed to find the blue gloves just last week but a turquoise pair may be needed as well.
The coat is velvet and lined with turquoise material, with beaded fringing and glitter. I also dug around in my vast wardrobe and found matching clothes and shoes, and while not 1920s inspired, they are the closest I could get. Thank God for accessories. And thank God for ebay.
July 7, 2015
ACCESSORY STYLE: Welcome home Vonda Dr Marten!
I’ve long been after these Dr Martens, in fact I posted about them way back in 2010. I was after many Docs, as they’re affectionately known, yet these are only my second pair that I’ve managed to buy.
For those who own or have seen Docs, you know they are not cheap. For well made life lasting shoes they are quite expensive. They are made for people with feet issues, well sown, well made and put together to essentially last you a life time. Which is great for me as I find it very hard to find decent shoes for my size 10-11 feet. These are a UK 9 which is a US/AUS 11, and while they have extra length, I also have width for my feet to continue spreading. And considering I have days where my ankles can be quite fat, they will accommodate them nicely.
I love the roses embroidered on the side and while you might want to just wear these with black and red clothes, I will most likely be living in them this winter.
On top of that, older ones are quite rare and very hard to come by. I found these on eBay from the Aus Topshop shop for $185AUD.
Known as Vonda, they come in two lengths but I have not seen the longer ones so these will do just nicely. Welcome to the family, Vonda.
July 5, 2015
MY STYLE: New York…concrete jungles where dreams are made of…
TOP: Miller for $5, current
JEANS: Kmart, $7, from 2013
SHOES: boots from Spendless Shoes for $40, from 2014
JEWELLRY: Jewel Divas (that’s me), bracelet stacks, Lovisa necklaces and left hand rings and Samantha Wills earrings and right hand ring.
July 2, 2015
FASHION STYLE: The Fabulously Glamorous Miss Phryne Fisher, season finale recap 8
Last week was the finale of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries and Dot and Hugh finally got married, thankfully without too much hassle, although the priest needed a right sorting to.
Phryne had two day outfits, topped off with scarves and hats, a flight outfit, although who wore skirts while sitting in a tigermoth plane I don’t know, another gorgeous dressing gown, and her glamorous gold gown for Dot’s wedding.
We’re hoping for a fourth season next year. What was your favourite outfit from the last eight episodes?
June 30, 2015
TODAY’S LIFESTYLE: The Cult of Kate, Celebrities, Bloggers and Brands
Ever since Katherine Middleton became engaged to William Windsor the female population of England took notice of what she wore. Were we happy for William after what he had been through? Sure. Did that mean we should have suddenly started imitating his future wife? No.
I get it, really, I do. She’s essentially taken over Diana’s role in the royal family. We all wanted William and Henry to grow up into the men Diana wanted them to be and find women just like her. And just like with her, the female population of the world took notice.
Ever since the engagement, every dress, skirt, coat, top, shoes, whatever she wore, has sold out. The designers and stores could not keep up and were constantly making new batches of clothes. Now, I’m sure they just get in extras ahead of time. Now, being married for several years and having popped out heir #2, The Cult of Kate is even more frenzied, with baby blankets selling out in 0.0000 seconds flat.
What is it about her that makes other women need to be like her? To look like her? Is she attractive? Sure. Is it because she was a commoner who caught a Prince’s eye? Could be.
Other than that, I really don’t get it. Kate is petite and tiny, squillions of women aren’t. Do women think that by copying Kate, wearing the exact same outfit that they, in some way, will become her? In that case, why does anyone want to look and be someone else? Why is being yourself not good enough?
The same could be said for celebrities in general, whether musicians, actors or reality stars (although I hate calling any reality contestant a star).
Look at how frenzied fans have gotten. They go on YouTube and cry about leaving Britney alone. They get plastic surgery and collagen inserted into places that no crap should be inserted all to look like their favourite celeb such as Michael Jackson, Cher or Kim Kardashian. While this is not new, as many have done it for decades, it seems more rabid and crazy than ever. Clearly social media is to blame as that means we see them 24/7 and have far more access to them and what they wear, look like, act and behave.
Why would anyone want to get so much plastic surgery that they become someone else? Look like someone else? Do they hate the way they look so much that looking and being and acting like someone else is better?
Then we come to Bloggers? The rise of the blogger has certainly changed since I started in 2009. Back then you found others and followed them or people commented on your posts and you commented on theirs. Making money or being an influencer wasn’t happening back then except to encourage or inspire others to set up their own blog.
Now, we have bloggers of all kinds. Food, Fashion, Beauty, Style, Photography, Sex, Life Style, Magazine, you name it; there’s a section of bloggers for it. But now, they not only blog, they sell products to their followers and get paid for it. They promote other businesses on their blogs and get paid for it. They influence their followers to buy products they promote and these, more times than not, are given to them for free, purely for a good review that might send buyers the way of the company. That’s why management companies purely for bloggers are being set up. Purely to manage bloggers and to get them contracts with companies and businesses.
Simply posting an outfit shot could get anywhere from several to hundreds of people heading off to buy one of the products they’re wearing. To have that kind of power over people is quite scary.
And that kind of power is being used by brands as well, brands with a human face behind them. Brands owned by individuals, whose faces are the brand’s ambassadors, the faces that we see on everything. Designers with their own business in particular are quite powerfully influential. Everything they make, wear, buy is then bought by followers to the point of extremes and it’s scary.
I follow several designers and with one of them in particular they constantly post pictures of their home, pictures we’ve seen a million times before, so when I was scrolling through my Instagram feed and saw one more pic I went on past. But something made me stop. I think it was that I saw another name at the top of the pic. I scrolled back and looked at it. I looked at the person’s description and realised this was not the designer I was looking at.
What it was, was a follower so obsessed with the designer that she had not only tracked down the exact coffee tables from the exact shop the designer bought them from, but the exact blue vase, the exact skull ornament, the exact books, all from the exact shops the designer had bought them from. It was so bloody freaky!
Have all of these people and brands become cults? They have so much influence over the people who follow them that they simply go and buy what they are wearing.
Have people lost all individuality that they can only gain inspiration from others? Are people so lacking in confidence that they cannot come up with a style of their own? Are they that lacking in confidence that they are willing to become a disciple of the cult of someone to the point they follow fully and completely? To drink, eat, breathe and die at the altar of celebrity. Buy everything they do. Wear everything they do. Be everything they are.
I’m all for taking inspiration from things and places, not so much from a person themselves. I’m all for seeing something someone has such as a coat or bag and tracking one down, but I’m definitely not for buying everything from the exact place, or even becoming them.
The way I see it there are three types of copycats, which is what these followers are.
1 – You see what the person you follow wears, buys, has etc, and on the odd occasion you absolutely love something and want it yourself.
This is fine. I do it myself. It’s once in a blue moon and you take some sort of inspiration from what they wear or if they have what you were after first. This is not obsessive and not creepy.
2 – You copy the person to the exact point where you have styled your lounge, bedroom, closet to be exactly like theirs.
This is getting close to the line and makes me wonder why you have no individual tastes yourself. Why did you have to copy it to the point of being exactly like theirs instead of styling it your way? I don’t know. Do you?
3 – You’ve gotten into single white female territory and it’s bloody creepy. Why are you so insecure in yourself that you must be someone else? Creepy!
I’m seriously worried about the way the world has become. So many are uneducated in the ways of the world and those who came before them. So many think it’s okay to crap all over people, and now, so many think it’s okay to copy others to extremes and buy everything they do.
It’s like many authors on Amazon. Zombie books are coming out of every orifice it’s so ridiculous. Want a quick easy to read book? It will be about zombies. Want a horror book? It will have zombies. That’s the influence of The Walking Dead, and movies like 28 Days Later that came before it. Everyone thinks because a tv show or movie is popular that their books will be too. So these have become brands too. Tv shows and movies are brands as well.
It looks like in 2015 and beyond we need to be more worried about the cult of Kate, celebrities, bloggers and brands than any religious nut jobs as their influence is rapidly overtaking the world. And it’s creepy!
June 28, 2015
MY STYLE: Aztec Warrior
This is the first time I’ve worn one of my Boohoo capes, bought over xmas last year, and thankfully I had matching boots to go with it. The only problem I have with it is the button is too low and eventually I took it off. Wraps are definitely in this season and I’ll be finding a way to wear my pink one, and a gorgeous multi coloured one I’m yet to show you, next.
TOP: Millers, $1, yes, $1, from 2013
WRAP: Boohoo, $36, from 2014
BOOTS: Bought off mum, 2013
JEWELLERY: Jewel Divas Bracelet stacks, Lovisa earrings and rings, Chic Lemon necklace
