COLOUR! Electric Blue

Tutorial: Friendship bracelets

Friendship bracelets were all the rage when I was at primary school and they seem to have made a comeback lately, being popularised by Leandra Medine, aka The Man Repeller, and her ‘arm parties’ - stacks and stacks of brightly coloured and clashing bracelets heaped up as high as possible. Hugely influential Pinterest boards and Tumblr sites have fuelled this current trend, and with good reason: friendship bracelets are cheap and easy (if a little time consuming) to create, and can be made in a practically infinite number of patterns and colours. 

All you need to make your own friendship bracelets are embroidery thread, tape, and scissors.

1. Cut your embroidery threads into pieces approximately 55 inches long - you can use any colours you like, but if you’re just starting out then I’d suggest using four different colours so you can easily distinguish between the different threads.

2. Gather your threads together, fold them in half, then tie a knot an inch or so from the folded end. Tape the folded end to a stable surface and separate your threads into order, arranging them symmetrically.

3. To make a ‘left’ (or ‘forwards’) knot: take your outermost thread on the left hand side (mine was the yellow one) and make a ‘4’ shape over the next colour along. Loop it under and pull it through, then up and to the left to tighten the knot. Repeat on the same colour.

4. Make another left knot with the same original outermost thread over each colour until you reach the middle - remember that each left knot is made up of two 4-shape knots.

5. Now to make a ‘right’ (or ‘backwards’) knot: take your outermost thread on the right hand side and make a backwards 4 shape over the next colour along. Loop it under and pull it through, then up and to the right to tighten the knot. Repeat on the same colour.

6. Make another right knot with the same original outermost thread over each colour until you reach the middle. As you can tell, right knots are exactly the same as left knots, just in reverse. When both your original outermost threads have reached the middle, tie a simple knot to connect the two halves. Your first chevron is complete!

7. Now continue with the next colour, which will now be the new outermost strand, making sure you remember that each left knot and right knot is comprised of two 4-shape knots. 

8. When you’ve made enough chevrons to almost go right around your wrist, you can now finish off: separate the remaining threads into two sections and plait each section, finishing off with a knot at the end of each one. Tie the two plaits around the loop and your bracelet is finished!

Paris Couture AW 2012-13: Sunday and Monday

Paris couture week kicked off with a bang on Sunday with Donatella Versace's first couture runway show in seven years, and the juxtaposition between the just-finished menswear shows and Versace's full-blown sexual femininity was hard to ignore.

Beautiful corset gowns and bandage dresses were constructed with tiny slivers of super-shiny silk in pastel colours and multi-coloured prints. There were macs worn with waist-accentuating wrestler belts and perforated leather sitting side-by-side with soft flowing silk. The show was classic Versace: cut-out detailing, tight form-fitting dresses and bold colours; Jessica Alba summed up the show perfectly: "sexy, strong, warrior."

Vogue

Versace's theme of utter femininity was carried through into Raf Simons' debut collection for Dior, though here the unabashed sex seen at Versace was replaced with pure elegance. There was a modesty and grace to proceedings, with dresses and coats worn below-the-knee and lower.

Waists and hips were accentuated by architectural styling and large pockets, modernising the classic 50s couture silhouette. There were full-skirted strapless gowns seemingly cut off at the upper thigh and worn with cigarette trousers instead. Heavy embroidery and pastel colours were matched with sharp tailoring: truly modern twists on timeless classics.

Vogue

Simons' modest elegance was embraced by Giambattista Valli too, in what was only his second ever couture show. There was a bucolic fairytale theme floating through this collection: romantic ruffles, watercolour floral prints, and hues of red and green.

But the dream-like whimsy threatened to choke the models, whose dresses at times appeared overly fussy and stuffy; ruffles reached, and indeed surpassed, Elizabethan proportions and veils covered the models' faces. Beneath the ostentatious embellishments were classic silhouettes: knee-length pencil dresses and full-skirted ballgowns in pretty prints with appliquéd embellishments.

Vogue