Black And Gold

“I looked up into the night sky,
And see a thousand eyes staring back,
And all around these golden beacons
I see nothing but black”

-Sam Sparro

 

Shoes: Pennys 21euro

Trousers: Pennys 15euro

Beaded Kimono: 30euro on sale in River Island

I chose my first theme purely because of my last purchase; an impulse buy that was really too expensive for a student. I bought a beautiful sheer black kimono with elaborate gold beading from River Island. It costs €67 but I believe it’s now on sale for €30. Black and Gold is my first theme. Gold is such an underrated colour and is often dismissed because of its tackiness and overly-regal connotations. I want to banish this perception of gold, particularly for high-class looks. Gold is a beautiful colour and generally goes with anything. My favourite colours to go with Gold are black, green and cream. Black and gold is a beautiful high-fashion combination that is flattering to all skin-tones, even the deathly pale of the Irish. Gold jewellery is also given a bad reputation but I have seen some beautiful Aztec-inspired pieces that go beautifully with simple black pieces to give them a sort of Cleopatra-esque vibe.  A good place to get these key-pieces is online on www.ASOS.com. They have some vintage, gold, Egyptian pieces on sale from €12. 

 Earrings: Pennys 1.50euro

I love this kimono, it's sheer and flowing and really unusual with gorgeous beading. It's sort of the key piece of the outfit so combining it with colours other than black wouldn't work and you can put expensive pieces like this with reasonable pieces from other places, like pennys as I have done! The gold belt and earrings are both from pennys and the under-top is just a plain black string-top.

Dress: Vero Moda 29euro

Kimono: Pennys 15euro

Chain: Wallis 7.95euro

This combination was sort of a fluke, I was trying on clothes and the pieces just seemed to fit. The dress is one of my favourites (I have about 50 dresses). It's plain black and 1960s shift style with a sheer design covering the shoulders and bust. teamed with the kimono and the belt, it's really classy and different. 

Jumpsuit: South @ASOS and Littlewoods 39.99euro

 This is one o my favourite outfits. Using the gold art-deco belt from the previous outfits, the waist is accentuated in this wide-legged jumpsuit. I love how flattering it is and how it make me look twice as tall as I am. This jumpsuit can be teamed with a kimono and some beautiful aztec-inspired

jewellery .

Gold eye-shadow, as worn by myself in many of the photos is extremely flattering to all eye-colours and particularly shows up the blue in eyes to a beautiful effect. For a more extreme look, do a simple smoky eye and bring the gold all the way up to the brow or use a monotone gold colour and draw in some elaborate liquid eyeliner lines to give the makeup an Egyptian look. For everyday gold makeup (as you will always see me wearing), use gold as the base colour and a deeper, complimenting colour for the contouring. Colours which are amazing for this are the Urban Decay colours my favourite gold is “Baked” and I love to team it with the deep brick colour, “Shag”, the beautiful green “Homegrown”, the flattering brown “Twice baked” (amazing for blue eyes) and finally the gorgeous aubergine/pink colour “Last call”. Instead of brightening the eye with white on the inside of the lid, try using a beige or a light-gold colour so as not to offset the gold. A good colour for this is “Midnight Cowboy Rides Again” also by Urban Decay which has a glittery finish which makes the makeup effortlessly dressy. For an extra Goddess effect, slick some gold eyeliner underneath the eye or dust some gold eye-shadow. A good liner for this is Gosh liquid eyeliner in “True Gold”.

Model: Aoibhín Murphy (me)

Photos: Ruth McEvoy