Hello, hello, baby, you called? I can’t hear a thing I have got no service, in the club, you see, you see.
Wha-Wha-What did you say, huh? You’re breaking up on me.

A fashion blogger’s paradise: LuisaViaRoma let me style and model clothing from their boutique. Here’s what I wore (it’s one of my favorites from my Styling Lab):

Black and white, wool cloth tuxedo jacket: Pierre Balmain (get it here)
Vintage printed crepe de chine skirt and top: Caterina Gatta
Blue belt, satin on leather: Fausto Puglisi (similar to this)
Woven neon bracelet: Carolina Bucci (buy it here)
Retro handset accessory: Pop Phones

My blue lips match my blue crepe-de-chine dress by Vionnet.

Il Duomo (Florence’s famous cathedral) has an eerie glow at night.

Ruffled leather jacket: Alexander McQueen
Neon peep-toe pumps: Casadei (get them here)
Gold nappa clutch: Rochas (they also have a tote)

Seba did a Gothic monk look — appropriate, for the dark cathedral. He’s wearing Rick Owens everything, and necklaces by Andrea Giunti.

Do you prefer my Firenze4Ever photos from this year, or 2011? You can see all my Italy and Europe coverage in this category.

A peek at what goes on behind the scenes. I’m grateful for my assistant Sara, who helped me in and out of high heels.

Thanks to Luisaviaroma, Sebastiano and I stayed in a 5-star hotel, the Savoy. The doorman wore a top hat!

Our window overlooked the antique carousel, near the Piazza della Repubblica. V-fingers to that.

PS: Thanks to We are Hype, a new community site for fashion lovers, for featuring me in an interview and Lookbook. And to Moov Magazine for interviewing me about fashion and business.

Also, major Chinese website Sohu featured me in an article about top fashion bloggers. If you spot me in press, can you kindly let me know? Send me an email or a tweet, thanks!

Do you like the Italian and international clothing brands that I’m wearing? How do they compare to the Japanese / Goth designers I usually feature?

At Luisaviaroma, we fashion bloggers didn’t merely dress up in designer clothing. We also lent our names to a good cause.

Each blogger adopted one of 20 Steiff pug dogs, customized by famous couture designers. These toys will be sold, and all proceeds donated to Unicef to support disadvantaged children.

That’s why we all got a Luisaviaroma t-shirt with a pug puppy, dressed like Marie Antoinette!

Designers such as Balmain, Emilio Pucci, Mary Katrantzou, and David Koma dressed the dogs in high fashion. I adopted the Worth Couture pug. She’s got a Gothic Lolita flair, don’t you think?

This design house is a fitting choice. Charles Frederick Worth is considered the father of haute couture, and his elegant designs were the toast of 19th century Paris. I’d wear his long trailing skirts and corsets in a heartbeat.

Seba chose the Versace dog on the right. Aren’t they a fashionable pair? We’re honored to be part of the “Pug Dogs For Happy Kids” initiative, and glad to continue our charity work.

Here’s a closeup of my look from Day 2 of the Styling Lab. MAC Makeup once again delivered. Silver on the inside corners of my eyes, and bottom eyelashes with extensions for greater length.

And I love my hair by Aveda: tumbling curls, pinned to the side. Soon, I’ll post more photos from our outfits at Luisa.

Have you heard of Worth Couture Paris? Are you inspired by the fashions of previous centuries?

PS: thank you to Vogue India for featuring me in a magazine article (above).

Album of the Day: Children of Bodom – Relentless, Reckless Forever

Luisaviaroma’s Firenze4Ever extravaganza brings together your favorite fashion bloggers: a mix of nationalities, personalities and styles. I suppose I carried the banner for Japanese street / Gothic aesthetics. So I did theatrical, flamboyant makeup: loud and proud!

Each blogger gets to take part in a high-fashion styling lab. Shall I walk you through the steps?

1) Get your face painted by MAC. I showed my makeup artist photos on my iPhone, so he knew what I was going for. And he did a marvelous job.

Fabio put a layer of white under my eyes to enlarge them, then added careful eyeliner definition and top/bottom layers of fake eyelashes. Brown shading added a Sleepy Hollow effect. My blue lips turned me undead, while the bright fuchsia blush raised me back to life.

2) Pick out your three outfits. We got to wear anything we wanted from Luisaviaroma’s latest collections. I picked cute / rock / Goth styles: lace and leather and metal.

I’m wearing a faux leopard fur jacket by Banana Fish, and a t-shirt gifted by Solobuio (the visual factory of Rome-based music video director, Carlo Roberti. We worked on something together… can you guess what it is?)

3) Take part in an interview for Fashion TV. I spoke about my styling choices, and my experiences in Florence thus far.

4) Have your hair styled. Aveda twisted and pinned my hair on top, and added scrunchy bedhead waves.

5) Choose your accessories. An orange clutch, and a cute boy (Sebastiano, of course).

6) Pose, pose, pose. We stormed the streets of Florence with our photographer.

I’m afraid I don’t recall the brands of my clothing (the info was left out of my files by accident). But the boots are unmistakably Camilla Skovgaard – one black, and one white!

A close-up on Seba’s boots. We have many more modeling photos to share: I did SIX looks in total, so stay tuned!

You can preview my styling lab photos on the Luisaviaroma website. Thanks to AOL / My Daily and Style.it for featuring me. More press and TV clips soon.

I leave you with my “Meet the Fashion Bloggers: La Carmina” video, where I talk about Visual Kei bands, and the joys of big eyelashes. Please give it a view and a YouTube Like.

Do you like my first look from Luisaviaroma? What do you think of the MAC makeup? Funny how many found it extreme, but in the subculture, it’s a day in the life…

Album of the Day: The Cure – Disintegration (Remastered)

Fashion blogging is a rather ridiculous phenomenon. But you know what? It’s an amusement park ride that lets you travel the world and meet fascinating people — and hopefully, learn and contribute something meaningful.

Luisaviaroma’s Firenze4Ever flew in the world’s top fashion bloggers for three days of partying and high-fashion styling. On the whole, the bloggers and designers I’ve met are lovely in person.

Here’s a preview image from NSS, taken at the “Pink Party” closing event. A zillion images from Italy to come, so please check back my blog and Facebook.

I’m wearing a dress I got years ago in NYC. The hair flower fascinators and maille chain necklace (worn as a bracelet) are gifted by Angelica Brigade (available on her site and Etsy). Sebastiano is wearing Jury Black, a Japanese brand worn by famous Visual Kei artists.

What do you think of our vampiric looks? Did you ever expect to see Goth / Jrock kids at an Italian haute couture event? Life is nuts, sometimes…

Let’s continue our walk down memory lane, and review the second half of a spectacular 2011.

Sebastiano Serafini and I were guests at Luisaviaroma, an event that brings fashion’s most influential bloggers together. Events included tea with Mulberry, a grand dinner surrounded by animal bones, and haute couture photoshoots in the streets of Florence!

It’s hard not to love Italy. The food, the people, the fashion and architecture… If you missed it, here are all my Europe posts.

A few more milestones… I appeared in Bust Magazine, and on the cover of Alt Noir. I’m on another magazine cover in 2012; can’t wait to spill the beans.

Later that summer, a dream came true: I have a travel TV show on Huffington Post/AOL! In “Coolhunting Wisconsin,” I discover hip, weird, crazy attractions in and around Milwaukee — such as a spy-themed bar and retro love hotel. Watch the videos online.

In July, I jetted back to Tokyo to host and arrange the Japan episode of Fuel TV / Discovery’s Strangers in Danger. The BMX stars got saline donuts in their heads, among other daring tasks. (Are you exhausted from my constant traveling yet?)

The following month, the pretty-boy and I were Guests of Honor at Ani-Jam convention. It was fun to meet all of you who came. I also had a Hello Kitty birthday party at Hollywood club Mr Black, which was featured in LA Weekly.

Back to Tokyo again, to host/arrange episodes of Food Network’s “World’s Weirdest Restaurants,” and appear on NHK Kawaii TV.

I spent Halloween and Day of the Dead in Mazatlan, Mexico – hosting a series about the dark arts and culture. All my Mexican coverage is here, and videos are coming soon.

I haven’t even mentioned the various stops in LA and Vancouver, and my impending return to Italy in January for Firenze4Ever blogger conference…

All in all, it’s been my best year yet! I’m happy with how my work and travels have grown, as well as improvements to the site (loading time, photo quality and styling, etc). And it’s only going to keep getting better. Yarrr.

What are your proudest accomplishments from the past year? Favorite memories? What did you learn, or experience for the first time?

Album of the Day: The Birthday Massacre – Pins and Needles