Scrolling through 21 year old Jessica Bialkowski’s blog (or looking at her flickr, for that matter) is like entering a dream world where everything is light and sunny, sparkly and sprinkled with a sort of ethereal cuteness. What stands out for me is her photography. Though her site is more personal diary than self-proclaimed “fashion blog,” there is still an emphasis on fashion and clothing. In Jessica’s photos, she captures clothing on its own, out of context, as well as in complete outfits she wears day-to-day.

What did you dress like in elementary school and how has your wardrobe changed since then?
I’m pretty sure back in primary school I just wore jeans (I think flares were cool back then, right?) and plain tops and that kind of thing. I don’t even really remember it that much because fashion wasn’t a huge focus for me, but obviously I have changed since then! For a large part of my teenage years I pretty much exclusively wore black jeans and band t-shirts, but since then my style has evolved to incorporate a lot of different things that I’m interested in (though I still wear band t-shirts occasionally) and I think it’s still changing and evolving now.

You seem to have a liking for bows, lace, and other little details in clothing now.
I think I always tend to gravitate towards clothing with a little extra detail, or if I’m wearing something plain I will add accessories to spice it up. I really feel like the details are what make or break the outfit and it’s where someone’s personal style really comes through. Floral dresses are a dime a dozen, but if it’s got a pretty lace collar or you match a cute belt and shoes with it, then you’ve created a look instead of just wearing a dress, y’know? Small details here and there make a big difference to an outfit and the overall impression that it gives people, so I always try to include a little something special whenever I get dressed.

What do you think contributes to shaping your style?
I think everything contributes to it. You can find inspiration anywhere - online, in the street, in the media, through music, books, or movies. I think generally my style is influenced by all of these things and by whatever happens to cross my path, but at the end of the day it’s my personal taste that brings individual elements together, and I am the one who shapes what I see into something that truly represents who I am.

We’re so used to seeing bloggers who only write about their outfits and clothing, and it can remove their personal styles from the contexts of their lives. How did you decide to incorporate a personal diary with a style blog?
For me it was more of a question of incorporating fashion into my personal journal because I have always used LiveJournal, so it was more about writing before it was about fashion. Even now I think my journal is still more life-orientated than fashion, but since the way I look and present myself is an important and fun part of my life, naturally it has become more prominent in my journal. At the moment I’m only working part time, but the industry that I want to get into career-wise (the management side of the music industry) tends to be pretty open-minded when it comes to style, so I don’t feel like that would hinder me too much.

You love op-shops (or thrift stores) and buy a lot of second-hand things. What do you like about buying used and vintage items?
There are several things I love about buying second hand items compared to new. Firstly, it’s the thrill of the hunt. You can walk into any chain shop and know exactly what you’re going to see, but when you go to an op-shop you can find just about anything - clothes, shoes, books, records, jewellery, perfume bottles, cute little ornaments, anything. It’s always a surprise and sometimes you walk away empty handed, but sometimes you find a real gem and to me that is much more rewarding than going to your local shopping centre. Secondly, I love that whatever you find is more or less going to be unique. There is probably more than one of it in existence, but chances are you will be the only person you know who has it and you can show your sense of style by picking out something that’s different to what everyone else is wearing. I also love that especially with the older items you find, there is a sense of history behind them and you never know what they have seen in their lifetimes. Op-shopping is also one of the only ways you can track down vintage fashion, even if most of it has to be hemmed! I also love the idea of recyling clothing instead of just buying new ones and throwing everything away - that’s quite important to me given the state of the environment and the impact that factories and large-scale manufacturing have on it. And of course, I love that op-shops are so much cheaper than regular shops. This is the first year of my life that I haven’t been a student, so money has always been tight with me and it goes a lot further when you’re spending it in op-shops!

Jessica’s Top Ten Style Influences (in no particular order)
1. Taylor Momsen: I’m talking about her current style here; there are certain outfits where I think she’s gone wrong, but on the whole I really love her look and how strong it is for someone so young.
2. Carrie: She seems like a really sweet girl and we have a lot of things in common, particularly when it comes to our taste in fashion.
3. Alexa Chung: A cliche response, maybe, but nonetheless justifed.
4. Alix: She is always so elegant and sophisticated.
5. Louise: Very sweet and girly but often with a bit of a dark twist that I love.
6. Blair Waldorf: Again, cliche, but utterly adorable.
7. The TV show Skins: Particularly Effy, Cassie (though there was always something a little off about her), and Emily.
8. The movie Grease: Ever since I was little I have loved the clothing in this movie, and whenever we went to the video shop I always wanted to re-rent it and watch it over and over. Not only do I love the girls’ clothing, but Danny Zuko is a BABE and I’m still in the process of convincing my boyfriend to try greaser hair.
9. Classic film stars who reflected the style of their time, i.e. Audrey Hepburn, Brigitte Bardot, Marilyn Monroe, Anna Karina, etc. I’ve grouped them together because I can’t pick a specific one.
10. Vintage Pin-ups: I just love the femininity of seamed stockings and garter belts.

- Stephanie Fereiro

Gemma Correll is a UK based illustrator and creator of What I Wore Today (Drawings) - a favourite website of many a Wornette. Here, we chat with Gemma about outfit illustrations, zine making and tie-dyed leggings.

How did you dress in high school?
Well, at school itself I didn’t have a lot of choice, since we had to wear a uniform. But outside of school, I was into the “indie” style of tight band T-shirts and flared jeans- although I did also go through a hippy phase (tie-dyed leggings!) which I’d rather forget.

What is a typical workday like for you?
Well, it kind of builds up slowly. I am not a morning person, so I start the day checking my e-mails and guzzling coffee. After that, I run errands, walk my dog, go to the post office… After lunch, I’m ready to work. I’ll usually work from 2pm until 1am, with breaks for food, coffee and pug cuddles.

Shoes I Want / Good Hair

Were there any specific inspirations behind creating What I Wore Today?
I really enjoy looking at things like Lookbook and all of the Flickr groups where people post photos of their outfits, but I’m not so much into posting photos of myself online. So it made sense to draw myself in my outfits instead. It’s a good exercise in regular drawing more than a real desire to show people what I’m wearing (since I don’t have a particularly huge wardrobe or maverick fashion sense).

What do you believe to be unique to fashion illustrations that can’t necessarily be conveyed with an outfit photograph?
I think it’s to do with the style and the sense of self that comes through in a drawing. Photographs can get a little homogeneous whereas drawings show more of the person who drew it, whether they are an “artist” or not.

How do you decide which of your own outfits to draw? What makes an outfit illustration-worthy?
It’s actually more about how much time I have to draw. But I try to avoid drawing the same thing twice so it’s partly about that too. Also, if I have a new (to me anyway, since I buy my clothes mostly from charity shops) outfit I’m more likely to be excited about drawing and posting it.

You’ve also created a few zines – what is your favourite thing about zine-making?
I love zines because they don’t have a specific agenda. There might be a theme or a set size, but I draw them for fun rather than for work, which means I free up my drawing style and I’m more likely to experiment with techniques or media. Sometimes, I just have a lot of ideas that I want to get down onto paper, somehow and somewhere, and a zine is a great way to do this.

Gemma’s Top 10 Zine Makers
Mel Stringer
Craig Atkinson / Café Royal
Pacolli (Patricia Colli)
Ward Zwart
Will Bryant
Lizz Lunney
Kate Bingaman-Burt
Deth P Sun
Pikaland
Tom Gauld

- Hailey Siracky

Designer Josiane Perron recently launched her eponymous label, and has now launched three collections of elegantly constructed vintage-like women’s garments, all made entirely in Montreal.

How and when did you get into making clothes?
At the age of ten, when I would amuse myself tracing Betty & Veronica comics, I decided to make a job of it. I was fascinated by Betty’s ability to make her own clothes and by the scope of Veronica’s closet.

What was your personal style like in high school?
I passed through a classic phase, a vintage phase, and a designer brands phase. In high school my personal style was marked by a transition from grunge style to skater, but there was always a touch of Britpop. My biggest influence at the time was music, especially Elliott Smith and Blur.

What’s your favourite item in your wardrobe?
My Second yoga jeans! The slightly tiedyed wash is superb, and they’re incredibly comfortable. It’s a real addiction, it’s impossible to wear other jeans once you’ve tried yoga jeans. The only thing that beats my yoga jeans is the pleasure and lightness of wearing a dress.

What are your biggest influences when you design?
The 20s and 60s remain by far my biggest influences, but it’s above all ambiances that give direction to creating each of my collections. These ambiances come from places, images, blogs or TV shows like True Blood, Six Feet Under, and Mad Men.

What inspired your last collection?
My spring-summer 2010 collection is inspired by hot summers and the 60s-70s. It has a bit of a folk, western allure in the white, grey, khaki, mustard and red tones. A bit of flowered print, fringe, recovered buttons and flounce give the collection a feeling of lightness.

Josiane’s Favourite Designers…
Wren
Orla Kiely
Marc Jacobs
Paul Smith
A.P.C.

…plus a few of her favourite up and comers
Dace from Vancouver, for their simplicity and dreamy brand image. Their ambient video clips are unforgettable.
Betina Lou in Montreal, for her magnificent and feminine dresses inspired by yesterday’s muses.
Noir Bonbon from Vancouver, for the comfortable materials and a simplicity always underlined by fascinating details.

Interview by Emily Raine
Photos by Karine Perron

Artist Jessica Bartram first showed her watercolour portraits of Notable Victorians (all of whom happened to be animals) at Industrees Gallery (now defunct) last year. She is currently creating portraits of a fresh set of characters and searching for a new gallery, but she kindly contributed a few designs of ascot-wearing lions for WORN’s Pin Party. Whether they are members of high society or the Dickensian fishmongers, chimney sweeps or strumpets of the streets, her characters are always fabulously dressed.

Clothing and props play a significant role in the establishment of character in your work. Do you get as much inspiration from hats, ties and monocles as you do from animals?
Yes, I’m most definitely attracted to the ornate and slightly mad elements of Victorian fashion – the crazy hats adorned with whole taxidermied birds, the mammoth sleeves, bustles. It’s a rich field from which to harvest all kinds of inspiration! I’m always trolling Flickr, Google images, and Tumblr old photos to use as reference, and it’s inevitably the crazier outfits that catch my eye. There’s a printout on my bulletin board of a portrait of a lady wearing a striped silk dress (with a tightly cinched waist sash and enormous mutton-leg sleeves) and a heavily feathered hat – she’s probably my next dress reference.

Why the Victorian era?
I think that element of my work was born when I started drawing animals (mostly bears at first) in clothing - particularly suits. When I searched for reference images, all my favourite suits dated from the 1900’s, and from there I started to look at dresses, and the rest, well, it’s actually history. Once my creatures found themselves in the Victorian era, the stories I’d always made up for the things I drew began to take on an additional dimension. I applied some of the amusing formality of the literature of the time to my characters’ histories, as well as attempting to add in quasi-Wildean wit. Oh! And the project on which I’m currently working has the same atmosphere because I recently began reading about Barnum’s American Museum (historical fiction like Susan Swan’s The Biggest Modern Woman of the World was a rich source of inspiration) and the culture of circuses and freak shows and became completely obsessed with the idea of creating my own history of an imaginary Victorian freak show.

You’ve written life stories for your imaginary subjects. How much do they exist off the paper for you?
I started inventing stories as soon as I was able to form coherent thought – I had an impressive herd of My Little Ponies when I was little, and each one had a name, a profession, and its own family dramas, which progressed each time they emerged from their storage box to continue the pony saga. Some of the adventures they had were quite exciting and involved rescuing silly Barbie dolls, who inevitably got themselves captured by whichever stuffed animal was playing the villain. Though I eventually quit playing with plastic ponies, I continued to invent tales about characters, both written and drawn. With my current creatures, I write their life stories after they’re painted, and their ‘life’ off the page depends on what story gets stirred up when I look at the finished piece. Some animals exude a definite history, or remind me of a character from the era. On the flip side there are the poor critters whose faces fail to spark a story and it’s ever so difficult to get something written for them. My current batch of characters are shaping up to have the most extensive stories yet, and they follow me around everyday life, suggesting new facets of their lives even when I’m not trying to think of them.

What did you wear in high school?
Ugh. For my first two years I dressed in dull jeans-and-shirts combos, often with shirts that were just a little too short in this awkward way, which, judging from all the later episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer I’ve been re-watching, was the trend. But still, unfortunate. Grade 11 was the worst – I decided that wearing skater shorts, striped knee-socks and t-shirts from crappy bands was the best way to dress. Thankfully not all the time, but I wince at my brief pop-punk phase nevertheless. The only highlight of my sad high school fashion was my prom dress – I based it on medieval dress and created the pattern and sewed it by hand, which was pretty damn awesome.

With neither cost nor society’s approval a deterrent, describe your fantasy wardrobe.
Oh goodness. I think a lot of my personal style is influenced by pretty colours or shiny things that catch my eye. I recently purchased a ridiculous pair of lovely, shiny gold shoes, confirming that I’m basically a magpie. But the more I immerse myself in Victorian photos and illustration, the more I want to design a dress with a subtle bustle, wear it everywhere and see how people react. I mean, they’re awesome and they provide padding if you have to sit on uncomfortable plastic airport chairs or something. Beyond that, if I had all the money I wanted to spend on my wardrobe, I’d frequent Anthropologie far more regularly (such pretty things), purchase a few Alexander McQueen pieces (especially the yellow and black dress Drew Barrymore wore at the TIFF premiere of Whip It. That dress haunts my dreams, I love it so). I’d also have a collection of sexy corsets and dresses from various decades – 1900’s all the way to the early 60’s (think Mad Men and Joan Holloway and va-va-voominess). Yeah, vintage clothing would definitely be a focus, as most of the stuff I really love is out of my price range right now.

Jessica’s Top 5 Late Fashion Icons

*Victorian Ladies and their Fantabulous dresses

*Women on beaches in the 20’s and 30’s Alright, some of them could easily be alive, but I stick by my answer nevertheless. Swimsuits then were gorgeous and also sometimes quite jaunty.

*Alexander MacQueen He used antlers as an accessory in a runway show, which is definitely one of the many ways to gain my unending affection.

*Louise Brooks

*This one’s a deadly combination of attitude and style – the indomitable Katharine Hepburn

interview by Max Mosher
photography by Deua Medeiros