I’ll end this post with a visual meditation on the beauty of my cat, Quincy. He’s a masterpiece!
Don’t be too baffled by the absence of fashion or photography here today, normal blogging will resume shortly …
Friday, 21 May 2010
Cat lover
It’s almost impossible at present to surf the web or read blogs without coming across articles or websites about cute animals. I’m not going to be shy about it and I’ll confess that the theme gets me overexcited. It’s a thrilling source of entertainment. If you could get hold of my “animal” list you’d probably raise an eyebrow and laugh at my enthusiasm… Tommy and Andrew introduced me to Cute Overload but you’re most likely to find me looking at pictures on the more poetic site Dream Cats or the very individual and humorous Gatopoder. Under the inspiring guidance of I love cat party, which tackles cats and fashion brilliantly, I’ve discovered a myriad of other odd and funny reflections on the cat world. I sometimes also wish that the amazingly talented illustrator Fanny Bostrom would create a blog dedicated to chronicling the life of cats. Her little animal characters are dressed in the best clothes or costumes and always have a very endearing comic quality.
I’ll end this post with a visual meditation on the beauty of my cat, Quincy. He’s a masterpiece!
Don’t be too baffled by the absence of fashion or photography here today, normal blogging will resume shortly …
I’ll end this post with a visual meditation on the beauty of my cat, Quincy. He’s a masterpiece!
Don’t be too baffled by the absence of fashion or photography here today, normal blogging will resume shortly …
Tuesday, 18 May 2010
Assad Mounser
Right now I’m going a little bit jewellery crazy. I’m simultaneously nurturing a passion for Pamela Love, Eddie Borgo, antique Navajo and Moroccan bracelets and a few weeks ago I discovered Assad Mounser. I’m obviously cursed. I’ve just added one more name to my list of infatuations and will need to exercise financial restraint when I walk around the jewellery department of Liberty. Maybe I should simply avoid its immediate vicinity. The last time I immersed myself in the world of this department store I responded emotionally and returned home with a Pamela Love crystal pendant embraced by a snake and a gold peacock ring. For me, this is one shop where the magic definitely takes place. I can never resist. Pleasure and indulgence really grip me and bring me back for more. If you love fashion like I do Liberty is the number one reference in London. I often feel there is an oversaturation of extremely commercial names out there but here I can experiment to my heart’s desire with less known as well as critically acclaimed fashion designers. The entire building is a vast accumulation of distinctive and beautiful style. It gives me something different without feeling confined by trends. The buyers clearly avoid the formulaic and this is one of the most comforting constancies of Liberty. It therefore wasn’t a surprise to find out they would stock the astoundingly talented Assad Mounser. The 32 year old American designer creates rock/punk infused pieces evoking a kind of futuristic Blade Runner era. Pure genius and craftsmanship. I absolutely adore the seamless flow of spikes, cones and hippie stones which give a notion of dramatic unit and style. I’m just longing for a piece and do not know how long I will be able to endure not wearing one of Assad's bracelets or necklaces!
Monday, 17 May 2010
Thursday, 13 May 2010
Pictures
There are few greater pleasures than looking at pictures several weeks after you’ve taken them and rediscovering buildings, objects, faces or settings. I have a soft spot for collecting photographs. I have no method of cataloguing or categorisation. Just thousands and thousands of pictures I’ve taken throughout the years, all on my computer. Here are a few random samples taken on my last trip to Belgium over the Easter break. A cherry tree at night, a church in Bruges, skeleton heads, a Coca-Cola sign and a haunted alleyway.
Wednesday, 12 May 2010
Vagabondiana
In my world of favourite fashion and writing blogs Vagabondiana has emerged as a clear winner. Ellen Burney is very good, bordering on excellent! She has the best lines (her narratives are always such a pleasure to read), wit, infectious zest, is divinely inspiring and poetic and scores extra points for her wonderful sense of style and being so pretty. Her blog is different because she doesn’t need to tease and cajole us to invite us into her little bubble. Her words alone work their magic immediately and you’re lured in a heady mist of interesting ideas, fashion and beautiful aesthetics to her site.
I was reading one of her latest posts this evening and was fascinated by her reaction against today’s technological advances, notably the Internet and the stratagems employed by bloggers to attract readers (Twitter, Facebook being used as soundbites promising far, far more than they can deliver in many cases). She’s taken these elements out of her life and is going back to the ghosts from our past while we remain the victims of modern times. While she investigates her relationship with books, magazines, sending postcards and letters, ink on paper or picking up the telephone instead of instant messaging I instinctively think of the flaws and virtues of the world wide web. I often wonder what it would be like to return to a more traditional place, Internet exile. Knowing that this is a subject that might interest a lot of you I asked her if I could post her text in its entirety here and she very kindly agreed. A word of warning: her blog is a real gem and addictive. Go here ✏ Vagabondiana
A little bit about Ellen. Her journalistic journey started as a London correspondent for W magazine and WWD. She has also written for The Guardian, British Vogue, Sunday Times Style, RUSSH, Harper's Bazaar Australia, Nylon, Cheap Date and STELLA. She’s a contributing editor to Lula and Elle.
Back to my future by Ellen Burney
The internet is the future. They tell us. We, the robots, listen . Well I am not really a fan of the future anymore. Or being involved in it, per se. I like to lick my grubby ink-stained finger to turn the pages of a newspaper and I like the clumsy awkwardness as I hit my neighbours knee with the corners of the pages on public transport, grimacing my silent sorry. Broadsheet-batterers be gone. I've had to make my own internal stand, in what Fleurtini has correctly called my 'digital spring cleanse.' I have left Facebook and Twitter and I feel free. No longer slipping down fake snakes or climbing social ladders I have departed the online boardgame / bored game of 'life.'
I am becoming increasingly drawn to the idea of being old-fashioned. In the long-term, not vintage, sense. I have started phoning friends again (if I haven't called you it's because you're at work.) It's the freelance ones I feel for most, with my 'just calling for a chat,' as my landline number catches them out again ... in restaurants, doing highlights ... 'on the way out.' They should be warned, I fully intend to write letters to them too. Perhaps pushing an itallic pen. Why else did I learn calligraphy at school? I should probably write that book too. On a typewriter. And all those other things that were on my to-do list a decade ago before MySpace intervened.
So here, calls the Pied Piper, follow me if you fancy but who am I to think I should be collecting you? Collecting Followers and Fans. My blog is not my business and so why do I feel I need hits? I don't need hits. None of us need hits. Maybe our egos need hits, but we shouldn't need hits. We are not numbers. We are 'free men'.
I don't read many blogs anymore (although my inimitable favourites remain) though not for lack of trying. Just failed attempts to understand them. How often are blogs today as they were first intended; an outlet for an alternative view on things, without any commerical quid pro quo? What happened to unfettered free expression rather than the commercialisation of imagination; writing what the magazines would not publish. Now the ideas can seem interchageable and as George Orwell once said:
'The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.'
I was reading one of her latest posts this evening and was fascinated by her reaction against today’s technological advances, notably the Internet and the stratagems employed by bloggers to attract readers (Twitter, Facebook being used as soundbites promising far, far more than they can deliver in many cases). She’s taken these elements out of her life and is going back to the ghosts from our past while we remain the victims of modern times. While she investigates her relationship with books, magazines, sending postcards and letters, ink on paper or picking up the telephone instead of instant messaging I instinctively think of the flaws and virtues of the world wide web. I often wonder what it would be like to return to a more traditional place, Internet exile. Knowing that this is a subject that might interest a lot of you I asked her if I could post her text in its entirety here and she very kindly agreed. A word of warning: her blog is a real gem and addictive. Go here ✏ Vagabondiana
A little bit about Ellen. Her journalistic journey started as a London correspondent for W magazine and WWD. She has also written for The Guardian, British Vogue, Sunday Times Style, RUSSH, Harper's Bazaar Australia, Nylon, Cheap Date and STELLA. She’s a contributing editor to Lula and Elle.
Back to my future by Ellen Burney
The internet is the future. They tell us. We, the robots, listen . Well I am not really a fan of the future anymore. Or being involved in it, per se. I like to lick my grubby ink-stained finger to turn the pages of a newspaper and I like the clumsy awkwardness as I hit my neighbours knee with the corners of the pages on public transport, grimacing my silent sorry. Broadsheet-batterers be gone. I've had to make my own internal stand, in what Fleurtini has correctly called my 'digital spring cleanse.' I have left Facebook and Twitter and I feel free. No longer slipping down fake snakes or climbing social ladders I have departed the online boardgame / bored game of 'life.'
I am becoming increasingly drawn to the idea of being old-fashioned. In the long-term, not vintage, sense. I have started phoning friends again (if I haven't called you it's because you're at work.) It's the freelance ones I feel for most, with my 'just calling for a chat,' as my landline number catches them out again ... in restaurants, doing highlights ... 'on the way out.' They should be warned, I fully intend to write letters to them too. Perhaps pushing an itallic pen. Why else did I learn calligraphy at school? I should probably write that book too. On a typewriter. And all those other things that were on my to-do list a decade ago before MySpace intervened.
So here, calls the Pied Piper, follow me if you fancy but who am I to think I should be collecting you? Collecting Followers and Fans. My blog is not my business and so why do I feel I need hits? I don't need hits. None of us need hits. Maybe our egos need hits, but we shouldn't need hits. We are not numbers. We are 'free men'.
I don't read many blogs anymore (although my inimitable favourites remain) though not for lack of trying. Just failed attempts to understand them. How often are blogs today as they were first intended; an outlet for an alternative view on things, without any commerical quid pro quo? What happened to unfettered free expression rather than the commercialisation of imagination; writing what the magazines would not publish. Now the ideas can seem interchageable and as George Orwell once said:
'The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.'
Tuesday, 11 May 2010
iStylista
A few weeks ago I decided to attempt a mild interview exercise. The lovely Sarah-Jane from iStylista contacted me to ask a few questions and I thought I'd say yes in the hope that it would provide explanations and a sense of why I started this blog. It was a genuinely entertaining and pleasurable experience! I hope you'll enjoy reading it ...
Thursday, 6 May 2010
Daily ritual
I never bore of trying new skincare products and treatments. I get easily amused by the manipulated facts glamorously advertised by certain brands but I still love to apply their hideously expensive creams, lotions and potions. What is more exciting than the promise of beautiful skin? And inevitably, out of 10 absolutely useless products, I will find one that delivers. Here are my two current favourites.
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
Ann Demeulemeester
This is the second piece I wrote for I.T Post
London is cheering new and established designers as fashion week reaches its zenith in the pouring rain, flashing lights and dense traffic. A constantly evolving whirlwind of enthusiasm can be felt as editors, journalists, bloggers and streetstyle photographers get to work with undiminished vigour. The latest emerging talents are scrutinised and their credibility challenged. Some names will stay and triumph, some will simply be forgotten as quickly as they appeared and others might come out with an impressive amount of support and publicity to the considerable surprise of a lot of people. There are echoes of this in the Henry Holland sensation (authenticity, genuine talent and quality is not what wins him admirers) and it is easy to dismiss him as a kind of marketing tease! I’m still finding it difficult to understand why we would want to put him on a pedestal. I’ll admit that he does have considerable verve and panache, his Twitter updates are highly entertaining but his clothes will leave no impact on the fashion world. It will be interesting to see if he can find ways to stay afloat and produce strong and well-constructed collections instead of his usual stale attempts. Is he actually anxious to join the ranks of real designers? But never underestimate the mind-shifting power of a quite rubbish designer. It’s what led me to think about Ann Demeulemeester. She’s a symbol of leading contemporary Belgian fashion and her signature style will undoubtedly influence subsequent generations of fashion designers, even in a memoryless era like ours. Her clothes are essentially subtle and unusual in its use of details with monochrome colours as its best-known ingredients. I’m a huge fan of her clothes and own a few pieces that will continue to renew a look in years to come thanks to their unique and individual essence. Demeulemeester made her debut on the international scene in 1986 with a London show and has produced fascinating collections ever since. She is still one of our most interesting designers, constantly open to new ways of making clothes, renewing her vision through the exploration of contrasts. She’s a dab hand at texture and surface variety and designs garments with a sure feeling for shapes. You wear her clothes and a feeling of discreet exaltation will overcome you thanks to their matchless combination of timelessness and subtle differentiations of fabrics and lines. She eschews the sensationalism adopted by so many names today. Super fashion stardom is not what interests her and she would rather focus on beautiful romantic tailoring with hints of edginess. Who else has been consistently offering you wonderful pieces? She’s extraordinary and her influence never goes away.
I’ve recently come back from a trip to Belgium and all I can say is that her Antwerp boutique is well worth a visit!
London is cheering new and established designers as fashion week reaches its zenith in the pouring rain, flashing lights and dense traffic. A constantly evolving whirlwind of enthusiasm can be felt as editors, journalists, bloggers and streetstyle photographers get to work with undiminished vigour. The latest emerging talents are scrutinised and their credibility challenged. Some names will stay and triumph, some will simply be forgotten as quickly as they appeared and others might come out with an impressive amount of support and publicity to the considerable surprise of a lot of people. There are echoes of this in the Henry Holland sensation (authenticity, genuine talent and quality is not what wins him admirers) and it is easy to dismiss him as a kind of marketing tease! I’m still finding it difficult to understand why we would want to put him on a pedestal. I’ll admit that he does have considerable verve and panache, his Twitter updates are highly entertaining but his clothes will leave no impact on the fashion world. It will be interesting to see if he can find ways to stay afloat and produce strong and well-constructed collections instead of his usual stale attempts. Is he actually anxious to join the ranks of real designers? But never underestimate the mind-shifting power of a quite rubbish designer. It’s what led me to think about Ann Demeulemeester. She’s a symbol of leading contemporary Belgian fashion and her signature style will undoubtedly influence subsequent generations of fashion designers, even in a memoryless era like ours. Her clothes are essentially subtle and unusual in its use of details with monochrome colours as its best-known ingredients. I’m a huge fan of her clothes and own a few pieces that will continue to renew a look in years to come thanks to their unique and individual essence. Demeulemeester made her debut on the international scene in 1986 with a London show and has produced fascinating collections ever since. She is still one of our most interesting designers, constantly open to new ways of making clothes, renewing her vision through the exploration of contrasts. She’s a dab hand at texture and surface variety and designs garments with a sure feeling for shapes. You wear her clothes and a feeling of discreet exaltation will overcome you thanks to their matchless combination of timelessness and subtle differentiations of fabrics and lines. She eschews the sensationalism adopted by so many names today. Super fashion stardom is not what interests her and she would rather focus on beautiful romantic tailoring with hints of edginess. Who else has been consistently offering you wonderful pieces? She’s extraordinary and her influence never goes away.
I’ve recently come back from a trip to Belgium and all I can say is that her Antwerp boutique is well worth a visit!
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