A Short Story

I love shorts. I am hoping the day will not come when I'm too old to wear shorts. I want to be 80 and still wearing them, after all, they are so much more practical than dresses and skirts when the weather is nice. Plus you can always join in any impromptu kickabout / frisbee and not be one of those girls running around the park desperately grabbing onto the hem of her frock.

I'm not keen on the shorts-with-tights winter trend, so I mostly only wear them when the weather hots up, and they're earning their stripes this week, even if I did walk into the end of the bed and end up with nasty bruise yesterday. Why is it you always bash your legs up in summer when they're on show?

Above 

Tee Shirt - Christopher Kane S/S 2010 

Shorts - Charity shop Levi 'mom' jeans made into shorts

Shoes - Topshop loafers

Crazy Hair - Thanks to the weather x

Below 

Tee Shirt - H&M 

Necklace - New Look 

Spike Bracelet - H&M

Silver Stack - Assad Mounser 

Set of Rings - H&M 

Big Ring - YSL 

Shorts - Ksubi 

Shoes - Zara

20ans Emmanuelle Alt Editorial - Cat Woman

This is one of my favourite editorials of old. It's from a French mag called 20ans, that these days looks a bit like Company magazine, but 10 years ago was more like a cross between Dazed & Confused and Cosmopolitan - fashion, lifestyle, friends, street style, sex etc. 

I had a few precious copies of 20ans in the late 1990's that I would go back to over and over again. I loved this editorial and still do - the model, messed up sexiness and the playfulness (I'm a sucker for the image where she's eating the last feather).  What got me was that many of the editorials from 20ans had a slummy student flat as the background, or models rolling around in a bed with McDonald's cartons everywhere. In my late teens these were images that one could relate / aspire to - the thrill of being independent and rebelling against everything your parents drilled into you. 

Magazine - 20ans 

Stylist - Emmanuelle Alt 

Photographer - Terry Richardson

Now you see me... Now you don't...

 

Clothes: customised denim from charity shops & painted white
Shoes (throughout shoot): Christian Louboutin S/S 08

All photos -  Leigh Keily 
Model - Barbara @ ???

My Fantasy Beach Break

London is a sweltering pseudo sauna at the moment. City living and temperatures above 30 degrees really don't work for me. The tube becomes an even more effective torture device than before and shops begin to resemble Native American sweat lodges (I'm talking about you, Topshop Oxford Circus...half the city's female population spend their cash there and you STILL can't have a decent air con system?).

My point is that I want to be on a beach. I don't care if it's the Gower in Wales, Margate, somewhere more chic like St Tropez, or bordering on the exotic. I just need fresh sea air, a chance to swim and some sand that will stubbornly stick to every item of clothing and baggage to remind me of a great summer escape. 

Of course, wherever I go I will be channeling this great editorial in Vogue Paris from July 2007. It's styled by Emmanuelle Alt and photographed by Peter Lindbergh. 

Just Desserts

In Australia earlier this year many of the restaurants we ate at offered a shared dessert plate with some / all of their desserts in mini form for the table to share. They don't do this in the UK (to my knowledge...if you know somewhere give me the heads up please), but they should. It stopped the um-ing and ah-ing over what to choose, and as everyone knows that dessert is the one thing at the end of a meal that everyone tucks into ("can we have spoons all round please") it seems a very sensible option for restaurants to add, plus you can accurately decide which is the dessert for you if you happen to visit again...


This pic was taken at Charcoal Lane on Gertrude Street in Melbourne, a restaurant that tries to use as many native Australian ingredients in their cooking as possible. They also run a training scheme for local aboriginal & disadvantaged young people looking to get into full time employment. So you're eating great food and helping people at the same time. I'd recommend it. 

Assad Mounser @ Liberty

A few weeks ago, armed with a Liberty voucher and an intent to spend, I came across a new to the store jewellery collection by a New Yorker named Assad Mounser. Her work is big, bold and not for the faint hearted. It says something and people hear - I've got more comments about this piece that pretty much any other item of jewellery I own. I love how chunky the metal is and that you can take off the safety pins to wear as brooches and then mix and match the bangles as you see fit, or wear it as a whole piece. This is how multi tasking should be done. 

If you want to take a look at the rest of her stuff then I suggest you visit her site and then her blog ...and if you are in the UK then Liberty is the place to shop for her work (of course). 

Tee Shirt - Topman 

Trousers - Whistles 

Shoes - Topshop 

Bangles - Assad Mounser 

Bag - Charity shop

Fantasy Shoe of The Week - DKNY

I must not buy any shoes. But if I were to, I think right now I would buy these...DKNY open toe boots from Net A Porter. The last pair of DKNY shoes I had were some tragic mid 90's suede platform flip flops (that thankfully someone living next door to me at college 'borrowed' and never gave back), but I think I could reintroduce DKNY to my shoe wardrobe for these. They're only £145 and selling out fast...

Summer's Over, I'm Thinking Winter...

Yesterday I said I was feeling black clumpy shoes. It's ironic that that should be in the case in the depths of British Summer (yes, 4 whole days of it), but fashion is rarely sensible or logical. 

Which is why the two main things I want from the A/W 2010 collections are these objects of extreme beauty - these courts / boots need to be on my feet (or at least in my possession). Hairy shoes! Overly detailed lace ups! I think Rachel Zoe said it best when she uttered the words "I die". 

Left- YSL A/W 2010 

Right - Givenchy A/W 2010

Photos from Style.com 

Clumpy Shoes

Really obsessed with clumpy shoes at the moment. Sadly, if I wore any of these I would need to hire a full time driver. That is seriously an aim in my life. A chauffeur driven car would make so many things better - from ease of silly shoe wearing to not having to catch a bus back home at 11.30 at night with a load of pissed girls smuggling their Bacardi Breezers or WKD onto the bus and thinking no one noticed.

I'm not sure where these photos are from - if you know please tell me and I'll credit them. My image bank is getting out of control. 

Box Fresh Fashion

I know, I know...this is my second editorial post of late, but editorials are taking over my life at the moment, and this is pretty much my favourite one of this year so far. It's Pop S/S 2010 and I love it. I keep on trying to post the whole thing but each time blogger crashes - maybe it's personal? 

Emmanuelle Alt & my Parisian Dreams

I love Emmanuelle Alt's work for Paris Vogue. This is one of my favourite editorials ever and was blu tacked to my kitchen cupboards of my old flat for 4 years ('Toute Allure' from 2005 I think photographed by Terry Richardson) - how badly does this make you want to be in Paris? The next time I hop onto the Eurostar I'm making sure these are the kind of looks that have inspired my packing.

Recently for the fashion styling course I'm doing I looked back through all the old editorials I've ripped out over the years and realised that I'd been obsessed with Emmanuelle for ages without joining the dots. In the late 90's she worked for 20ans a French magazine that I always bought when I crossed the Channel, and lo and behold, it was her work even then that I was cutting and keeping for inspiration - I'll post those later...

Thank You Poste Mistress

After a stern talking to myself last night I paid no attention and ended up buying a pair of Acne Atacoma wedges in the Poste Mistress sale. I know the time for them has 'passed', but I couldn't resist them. As a result expect some linked ebay selling very soon - I'll be needing some Summer cash quick smart. My social life until then will be gym based...about the only place in the world that a) I've already paid for and b) it's almost impossible to spend money in with the added bonus of c) making me feel better now the weather is hotting up. 


But back to the shoes...Not only are they totally badass to look at, but because they're wedges they're quite easy to walk in. It's so funny that about 5 years ago the idea of wedges made me a bit ill (really, the reaction to a pair was borderline physical, like how I feel when I see the trailer for that shit new film with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz in it), but now they are my total obsession - I love how clumpy and encased they make your feet look, plus they are the only style of high heel that I can really wear for any length of time without almost dying or breaking my ankle. I can go out and dance in wedges. And walk home in them...a miracle! 

Top - H&M

Jeans - Jamie jeans by Topshop

Shoes - Acne Atacoma's

Snaps of the snake shoot

If you've read this blog before you'll know I was shattered on Saturday because I'd been on my first ever fashion shoot - part of a course I'm doing in Beginner's Fashion Styling at Central St Martins. I signed up for the course on a whim (I'm well into adult education at the moment, it's soooo great!) because it was a side of the industry that I'd love to know more about - the processes, the theory and the actual flexing of one's fashion muscles. I couldn't have hoped for more as the whole 5 weeks have been brilliant. I've learnt so much, been pushed to be much more aware of my presentation and I get to talk fashion for a whole day a week. 

These are some snaps that I took on the day of the shoot, the professional photos are truly amazing, but these give you a taste of what we were doing without revealing the final story before our course tutor gives us his opinion (scary). This wasn't a nice commercial fashion shoot, but a chance to try out something much more editorial. My group made all our clothes from charity shop finds painted to make them into a suitable canvas for our projected images. I am so happy with the final results and very proud of all our hard work...I hope you like it too x

Does anyone want to buy me a Judith Leiber bird bag? No? Anyone?

My stock phrase to excuse the spending of money to my Mother in recent weeks has become "But I only bought a tee shirt". This works better than "It's really old" - she doesn't buy that one any more. 


I don't know why I feel the need to have my purchases validated by my Mum (after all it is my money) but that's just the way it is, and she does to me too (albeit usually fabric or book related). 


I've just bought a tee shirt on Net A Porter, which I know I shouldn't, but there you go, it is the sale. The other thing I came across that I totally fell in love with was this wonderful bag. Sadly it cost waaaayyyy more than a simple top. 


One day I will have a Judith Leiber handbag. I know they're naff, and pricey and OTT, but I want one. So there. It's for that bit of my life when I live in New York, go to the opera, have a big fat husband and a nanny and a nutritionist. Or at least pretend to myself I do.

My Saturday Night

I was absolutely pooped on Saturday night, so I stayed in with a Randall & Aubin takeaway (lobster, chips, tomato & red onion salad...heaven), read Paris Vogue, watched Law & Order SVU reruns and a had a mini shoe wearing session whilst lying in bed. Left to my own devices, this is pretty much how I would live 24/7.


Shoes in top pic - Vintage Stuart Weitzman from charity shop in Australia 
Shoes in bottom pic - Marni A/W 2009?

Fashion Shoot

I am too tired to write about it now, but I've just got back from my first fashion shoot! It was for my course in fashion styling for beginners at Central St Martins. I will post images from the day later in the week, and maybe the professional photos too if the photographer lets me. This is one of our prep snaphots from Friday night - chic non? Our poor model today was utterly drop dead gorgeous and we put a box on her head. She was very nice about it. 

The Japanese and their love of stuff

I love stuff. More is good. Hence my blog title. I think liking stuff is one of the reasons why I like Japan so much - there is loads of stuff, and much of it is stuff we haven't even thought of in the UK yet (phone dangles, plastic food, boob shaped eye masks, toilets that make sounds, reindeer suits)...regardless, it floats my boat.