The Wild Unknown Revisited

I stumbled across The Wild Unknown last year when searching around the web for Christmas gifts and did a lil post about them. Hello one year later, and I find myself back at their online shop, still enamored with their calendars and prisms and delighted to see they've added new products to their range. And so another post to proclaim my love for the company. They have a new calendar for 2011 with lyrics instead of images, but my favorite product is the collaboration with artist Barbara Reiser, transfering one of her prints onto a candle. I am a candle gal, and this one is about as cosy and warm as a candle can be. I want. But really, I should gift and let others discover the wild unknown.

Holy bleeding breton

(jakandjill)

I'm a simple girl with simple loves. The classic breton top is one them. But it's nice to have a twist on a classic every now and again, yes? A marinière shirt whose perfection has been skewed by blue stripes that bleed into the pristine whiteness? Lovely.

On disappearing

She just finished school and didn't know what to do with herself. She packed a small duffel with jumpers and skirts and went over to grand-mère's, hoping the clutter and eccentricities of the surroundings would clear her mind.

To be honest, I don't know if this webshoot for Another (styled and photographed by my favorites of favorites, Camille Bidault-Waddington) has made the blog rounds in the past month since I have been completely removed from the blogging world for quite some time. I know that the blog has lain quiet before but never for this long and I've always kept up with my Reader. But since I finished exams (at the end of May!) I haven't posted a post or read a blog.

Currently I have 1000+ posts to read. It wasn't particularly purposeful, I just found that I felt no compulsion, no desire to know what was going on. I blame oversaturation perhaps. Seeing the same editorial over and over, seeing the same girl wearing the same thing even though she was a different girl. The internet and the way it has provided for the democratization and globalization of fashion is an interesting thing. Not a bad thing, but sometimes it overwhelms me, especially as an active participant. I get bombarded with images of people and their internet lives and it freaks me out. So I had to step away.

This blog has no purpose. It has no theme, no direction, no particular point of view. Just me and my quite random thoughts and desires. So when I have no thoughts, desire or inspirations it goes quiet. But I think I'll always come back. If anyone happened to stick around, thanks. Sorry for being wishy-washy.

And now to note: this editorial is everything I do love: A timeless simplicity that could similarly yet contrarily be described as a sort of 70s minimalism, all set in a charming haberdashery of a flat. And that is all.

there are no words

My god, refinery29 has just led me to a website that may be the death of me, Ming Makes Cupcakes. It is a website with, yep, a wild variety of cupcake recipes. 31 to be exact. Good thing I lack the time, the baking skill and a cupcake tin ... otherwise, things could get very messy. A few of the ones I would bake if I could...






Oh, and there's also the beginnings of a cookie list. My oh my, this is a dangerous site.

Eye Candy

A stack of fairisle is all that's needed to make my heart skip a beat. Or two.

That is all. Have a lovely (rest of the) weekend!

ps. Those pretty babies are stacked high at the Vintage Showroom in Covent Garden. Discovered via for me, for you

Topshop Unique

It's official - the first show of the season that has left me scheming on ways to make it all mine. Topshop Unique tends to be a little too much for me generally, but this collection, which screams of the wilderness and eccentric rusticity (with a lil' bit of military) is just right. I've mentioned my strange affectation for 'The Country' before, and with all the thick knits over diaphanous dresses, woodland creature prints and furry outerwear...sigh.

It's actually all the coats that have got me counting pennies. All that fur (a bit Opening Ceremony x Where the Wild Things Are collab, no?) and shearling (I'm still pining over my mother's real one) are now permanently inked in my mind. I cannot wait until September to consume unabashedly...

Well, clearly I can and will wait, and hopefully my consumption will be mild and reasonable but a girl can hyperbolize can't she?

A snippet of nyfw: rag & bone

(click to enlarge, if you wish)

I haven't really been paying much attention to New York Fashion Week, mostly because I've attempted to ban myself from superfluous browsing of the internet while writing a hefty slew of papers. This morning, I was feeling a bit ill, and so spent a good part of the morning in bed, checking out New York Magazine and Style.com's coverage to see what's what.

While I enjoyed the ones I usually enjoy (Marc Jacobs, Peter Jensen, Karen Walker, Rachel Comey to name a few), I was particularly taken with rag & bone. They aren't a brand I am really familiar with nor generally interested in, but I was quite intrigued with their show. I'm not sure if it is the clothing themselves or rather the styling that won me over. I liked all the grays, olives, and fairisle knits, but what I really adored was all that layering. The only reason I don't mind winter is that I get to layer clothes upon clothes, which automatically gives me warm feelings of comfort and generally happy fuzziness.

The show was styled by Vanessa Reid, who also styled the Missoni aw09 show and an editorial I'd earmarked in the fall 2009 issue of POP - both were favorites last year precisely because of their layering wonderfulness. I only wish I could be as proficient at piling it on.

Star Bright

One of my favorite things about going home is being away from all the light pollution of the city, and being able to look up and actually see the stars. Sure it's not as dark as it could be, but there is only one street lamp on my cul-de-sac, and the only thing really blocking my view of the sky is all the surrounding trees.

That's why I'm in love with these Astrostar projectors. I want one so to replicate the night sky in my living room, and get a bit dizzy from the overwhelming amounts of twinkle.

Wanted.

I'm currently on a spending embargo after having a particularly frightening discussion with my mother about post-graduation realities. But that doesn't mean I can't covet, right? So it's a little unhealthy to be constantly eyeing and wanting, and yes, I am perfectly happy with all I have. As mumsy always says,"Want what you have, and you will always have what you want."

Bah. I say sometimes it's fun to want what you can't have...

Something like these:Or those...
If you too have the want or the need but unlike me can procure, then please do so right here at one of my favorite independent online boutiques.

Makes me feel all fuzzy inside

(via jak & jil)

The right shape, the right knit, the right colour. Dries Van Noten may have made the perfect fuzzy sweater.

Book Worm

Ok, so this post originally started as me wanting to point out Camille Bidault-Waddington's brilliantly put together outfit. It was gonna be a quickie simply stating that I am smitten with her dress, especially the longer length, long sleeves and generally demure cut. And her hat makes me smile. But then I noticed what she was holding...seemingly Melville's Moby Dick, but...





...Apparently, Camille and other fashionable Paris folk were at a 'book launch' for Olympia Le-Tan's new collection of box clutches. They are hand knit copies of original classics. It kind of reminds me of the magazine clutches of the 70s (they looked like rolled up magazines to thwart purse-snatchers). I have one that I used to tote around obsessively but kind of stopped when I stopped using clutches. I think I'd give up the glory of a purse strap for one of these puppies though.

This may sound stupid, but personally, I love to read and not only that I love to read books. Kindle and other such technology kind of freaks me out...I want the tactile, olfactory and visual delight that accompanies reading a book, especially a secondhand one that is kind of yellow and musty. It frightens me to think that books may one day be relics ("when I was a kid, there was a thing called a book, no screen in sight") and so her collection makes me happy in its celebration of the book.

(Camille Bidault-Waddington photo via style.com, all others via purple diary)

Roar

Holy crap...this $610 Max suit by Opening Ceremony has sent my mind in a tizzy. Random thoughts on it:

• Who on earth would spend that much money for a onesie?
  
• Ok, I would, if I could, merely just to wear it in my apartment to snuggle in on a cold winter's night and pretend like my childhood is now.
  
• I wish I had been Max that one Halloween, but was a scarecrow instead.
  
• You know what everyone will be this Halloween.
• I really hope the movie doesn't suck.
  

take it slow

(found @ tfs)

I spent the weekend trying to resist reading the entire new Lula in one sitting. When it comes to my favorite magazines, especially biannuals like Lula, I like to make them last as long as possible. It's a bit silly, but I like to have a proper sit with a nice cup of tea and slowly go through it, a couple of articles at a time. Normally it will take me a couple months to actually read every article, so that by the time I have finished, the new one is out. This time around though, I couldn't resist looking at all the editorials. It's too good.

fantasy and reality are two simultaneous points of view

The amount of magazine content I consume per month is probably frightening when quantified, but for the amount that I read and gaze over, there are only a select few editorials, and sometimes none at all, that will strike my fancy, lasting in my mind long after closing the page. The ones that stick with me are one of two genres: wardrobe-inspirational or fantastical. I have always looked at fashion simultaneously hoping to be inspired, but also to escape. I don't dress in an incredibly interesting or unconventional way, preferring simplicity over showmanship and so am inspired by those editorials where the styling is more realistically translated. The other type of editorials is completely antithetical. I love them not because they inspire my wardrobe but because they are capable of leaving me in a happy stupor at the visuals and creativity used. For me, it's not about the designers used or the newest trends displayed against a grey backdrop...I like to escape into the drama of the unreal that fashion can create. This editorial celebrating Tim Burton (a favorite since the 1990) is exactly that. I am not so much inspired for real life as I am happy to sit and pour over these images for hours at a time just because they, and the clothes, are so eerily beautiful and full of fantasy.











(Oct 2009 US Harper's Bazaar, found here)