Oh Pendleton...

(images via Frances May)

...I'll always be stuck on you. You got the whole plaid thing going, which I'll never give up. Then you got the whole amazing native american wool blanket thing going on, which keeps me warm at night. And then you do this, the Portland Collection, which sends my heart into a whole new level of tizzy. Nope, ain't never gonna quit you.

Opening Ceremony. Rodarte. 'Nuff said.

Tapestry prints. Intarsia. Beige. Hawaiian Florals. Rodarte x Opening Ceremony. Mulleavy quirkiness. A 50s Western mashup, sorta, kinda. Basically I like it. A lot. At least enough to post it. Which is saying a lot around this tumbleweed blog, eh? See so much more here.

...Also, the lookbook reminds me of a popsicle melting in the sun, and on grey grey days, that's a nice thought.

They Say It Better

Happy Christmas y'all.

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.

Woman Examining Man

Woman Examining Man by Helmut Newton is one of my favorite photographs. The shadows, his back, her legs splayed, the overt sexuality, the role reversal, her gaze objectifying the man in a way that she is normally objectified. It's a picture to be analyzed for hours.

I finally saw it in person, displayed at Tate Modern's Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera exhibition, which is quite an interesting show. For those in London, it is on until October 3rd.

Havin' A Heatwavvve

It's boiling. Everywhere apparently. And while the British media and their meteorological histrionics never fail to amuse (a two day heatwave is not really a wave, is it?), it is bloody hot. But I do love summer. I hate humidity but sun shining, wind breezing - this can never be a bad thing. So rather than join the lot of whingers, who will later complain that we had no summer when the inevitable downpour ensues, I choose to ignore the stickiness and embrace the things I love about this hot hot heat...

* Gin and tonics with crushed up lime. Taking a sip and bursting a bit of lime pulp on your tongue is never more refreshing.

* Sitting on my balcony when the sun is rising and it's not too hot, reading and basking.

* Enjoying watching our little balcony pot of basil, chives and vines grow. Granted all I did was pick the items to be planted as I tend to kill the bepotted, but it's nice to watch the hard effort of others be bountiful...

*Walking everywhere to go nowhere just because we can.

* Cherries from the local grocer. I could eat cherries and cherries alone all summer long. They ARE summer to me.

* The simplicity of getting dressed in the morning: dress, canvas shoes, sunglasses, done.

*Even though we're all miserable, moaning, sweaty, sticky and generally angry at the world, you can walk through any London park, lose the sound of the city and realize it all ain't so bad. Smile! It's fuckin' summer.

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.

A quickie

Exam #2 tomorrow, so this isn't going to be very eloquent. Rather a hurried note to say: Opening Ceremony, your fall collection is wonderful, but your coats are particularly spectacular... somuchso that I am almost okay with coveting a fall collection in the middle of spring (which kind of feels like fall in this weather-schizophrenic country anyway).

See more wonderful clothes, including nubby sweaters, maxi skirts and velvet velvet velvet here.

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?

An Approximation

I've had bag lust ever since seeing these Chloé crocodile bags on the runway and photographed by Tommy Ton outside the show way back when...So when I happened upon this little fella in a vintage shop in East London, despite the fact that I was there for a haircut and was supposed to be spending money on that, it reminded me too much of those beauts not to buy. And at 15 quid, it's not like I was breaking the bank. Course it's not croc, and it's not Chloé, but this little simulacrum is my new best friend.

studying to song

So, in case you haven't noticed, I haven't been around much. Sorry. Life is sometimes difficult to balance - studying, work, play. Apparently third year of law school requires concentration, and while for many that means hours in the library, studying in complete silence, for me, studying means sitting at my kitchen table, surrounded by books, paper, coffee cups and music. I cannot study without having noise around me...libraries are too quiet, everyone is too academic. Plus, my fridge isn't four feet away.

But I can't exactly have blaring music on - I do get distracted - so I have playlists of songs to study to, mostly melodic, 'indie-folk' or 'indie-pop' that can be overtly saccharine but perfect for melding into the background of my typing. On current repeat is Clare and the Reasons. It's perfect calming music that gets me through the stress that is law school, providing a soundtrack to my frenetic studying.

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)

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)