A VISUAL DELIGHT

I don’t know when I last enjoyed looking at pictures more. I had an idea I would be surprised, but the reality of it is a thousand times lovelier. Many of us love looking through old family photo albums but for my mum it is a genuine celebration of life. Made over the past 34 years, her albums are a poignant symbol of the importance of family and show exceptionally rich displays of fashion since the early seventies. It also provides other evidence of interest (travels, places we’ve lived in, things we loved as children, animals we adored, friends, family in Spain, France and England). A visual delight. I recently spent an afternoon laughing merrily at embarrassing pictures of my sister and myself as kids wearing faintly ridiculous outfits, rediscovering moments of mischief and diabolical tricks we played on each other. So there I was, sitting on the floor with an appetite for a mini retrospective of my life, when I found a box containing an exceptional collection of photos of my mother. My mind at once leapt to fashion comparisons and references and I could not help but think of certain trends in particular. A blend of the new and nostalgia. When I was little I always paid attention to what she was wearing and I remember her closet, filled with Laura Ashley seventies dresses, Céline, DVF, Sonia Rykiel, Kenzo, Nina Ricci and her purple Courrèges mini tunic she wore on her wedding day. She always looked so beautiful, fresh looking and young whether wearing one of her soft, loose flowery dresses or her signature Burberry trench coat with jeans and her fabulous curly hair. The designs she wore then seem to have filtered into the current fashion mainstream, with similar proportions, silhouettes and prints. I also loved the precision of her makeup, always wearing red lipstick and her big bambi eyes emphasised with brown eyeliner. I like to think that she has set fashion standards for my sister and me. Her exquisite taste in jewellery has definitely marked and influenced me (but this is a subtitle and should be the subject of another post). She wore great things then and continues to do so today. An enchanting and modern muse to my sister and me.
I owe a debt of gratitude to her for having spent countless hours working tirelessly to neatly organize the one hundred or so albums she has at home and for having taken so many Polaroids and pictures throughout the years! Hours of fun for me and my family!
I better put the pictures back into their albums before she realizes I "borrowed" them...

Maman

19 comments:

Unknown said...

I love these!

Unknown said...

Oh vous avez exactement le meme regard! J'adore ces photos, je voulais faire la meme chose avec ma grand mere et ma mere, la prochaine fois que je vais a Paris.
Elle doit etre tres fiere ta maman.

Lara said...

These are fantastic. I am forming a similar collage of my mother and grandmother.

Anonymous said...

These are wonderful!

boubou said...

Bonjour ! first time i come across your blog so im gonna visit it now :)
well if you wanna be inspired by one of my collages/Scrapbook or just dream, come and visit my blog :)
a bientot !
Boubouteatime xx

Anonymous said...

oh i absolutely agree with "mademoiselle robot" you do have the same look/gaze as your mum.

great photos and such great style!!

(i have some pictures of my dad when he was a student in paris...i swear they are like stills from a truffaut or godard film..))
nancy

Unknown said...

love it darling~

buttonsandbowsla.com

young-shields said...

i love the glamourous look of old photos such as these, and theres such a natural beauty to family albums that only certain photographers are able to recreate in fashion, i think. lovely! y-s x

Maja said...

I love the one in the left corner! it could be a fashion photo in a mag or something like that.. acctually I think one of the danish mags (yes I'm danish) had a fashion shoot that resempled that picture extraordinarily much!

THE SHOESHINE GIRL said...

She's beautiful and these photos are wonderfully nostalgic... I love looking through old photo's too, I could do it for days!!
xR
theshoeshinegirl.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

your mum is beautiful. i can certainly see the resemblance. courrèges mini tunic she wore on her wedding day? brilliant. xo

Pennerad said...

i love looking at old photos of my mother. it's a different time entirely and seeing that side of her through her own eyes and those who love/loved her is always precious to me. thanks for sharing!

broadcast poulet said...

INCREDIBLE. that's all.

Anonymous said...

Wonderful! You mention your mom affected you and your sister's fashion. I have to say your text and all photographs inspired me! Thanks!

Natalie said...

Je l'adore, ta maman... (mais ca tu le sais bien) - Incredibly beautiful both on the inside and the outside. Vous me manque tous !!! xox

Anonymous said...

she looks amazing! i just did the same with my mothers photos. she too looked amazing. no doubt our daughters will think we looked amazing when we get older.

Laetitia said...

Incroyable cette serie de photos! j'adore,
KISSES

Miranda* said...

i love lookign at my mother's photo albums from the 70s and 80s..to see the evolution of one person's style and the changes in hair and makeup is quite interesting..im still inspired by this one photograph of my mother in turkey wearing this purple bohemian mini dress and huge jackie-o sunglasses..its just perfect!

Jacqueline Cheesy H said...

such beautiful photos x