christmas 2010

A few top notch quality pictures from camera phone snapped over Christmas in Manchester, Brighton and back home in Bristol. Just as the holidays should be spent, with snow and friends and family and board games and meal after meal.

a few

benetton jumper/ verdant flats/ elizabeth of move slightly 's anorak/ a standard, current snowy sight (ph. india doyle)/ my fern print blanket/ low boots on eBay/ favourite paris vogue cover: carolyn and andre/ shameless pottery/ chunky socks from toast.

chloe

image: chloe sevigny in purple magazine

There's a brilliant interview with Chloe Sevigny in the January Playboy which I've been meaning to post about as it's very interesting indeed and worth a peruse. Lots of frank talk about how she views her style status, how strong lumberjackish men will always beat arty hipster types (amen), and familiar tales of boys not texting back. Girl after my own heart. It's pretty much the best possible result you could hope for from a game of 20 Questions and refreshingly not watered down by PR spiel, it's all thoroughly Chloe- honest and witty and sharp.

Read the article here

merry christmas!

Merry Christmas all! Here's to a day of (bread) saucy gluttony and cosiness.

On this perfectly crisp and quiet Christmas Day here is a quote from Rose in I Capture The Castle which I always associate with the festive season, dreaming about living in a cold, crumbling English castle from the comfort of a blanket on the sofa and the simple enjoyment to be had from a new lipstick and a roast. Our Christmasses are pretty modest since I've got older, we'll exchange a book or two and something to eat and drink and after this routine over the past few years a brand new lippie rather appeals.

"I'd sell my soul to the devil...

...for a roast-beef dinner and a Tangee lipstick."

Hope you're all having a cracking Christmas (oh no I didn't..) yourselves. What did you get?

oh dear

It's probably worth pointing out that my posts will be sporadic over the next week or so. I very stupidly left my laptop charger in Manchester (up there with the Top 5 Blogger Nightmares, I'd say) and unless I fancy forking out £60 for a new one (the answer is no) then I'll have to beg, steal or borrow computers where I can..

pammy

Simon Hattenstone's article in yesterdays Guardian has reaffirmed my absolute love for Pamela Anderson. And in turn my absolute love for this series of photographs taken by Juergen Teller for the Vivienne Westwood SS09 advertisements. You can imagine the fun that Vivienne, Pammy, Juergen and Andreas (Mr Westwood) must have had messing about at Anderson's trailer park home and creating photographs. My favourite from the series (which sadly I can't find on the internet..) is of Pammy deep in concentration with her nose in the pages of Plato, her nipples just in sight at the bottom of the shot under some sheer knitwear. Apparently Viv's husband had a copy and she insisted on being photographed with it. Girl knows exactly how to control her image-she also stood behind photographer Perou on the Guardian shoot and made him delete the shots she didn't like.



I suppose Pammy has been on my brain over the last week after reading Chuck Klostermann's appalling chapter in his 'low culture manifesto' Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Pops which was deeply offensive and punctuated the whole way through with statements about how lots of intellectual men love that Pamela Anderson is a slut because it means they can fantasise about her 'lecherously and ironically.' Except that Klostermann misses the point entirely because Pamela Anderson is an intellectual match to any of the men who pine after her because it helps them to feel more clever. Either way, before this turns into some pop culture Pammy essay, I think she's great. Mostly because she is a true representation of human beings and as much as people judge her or make perceptions about her personality, she will always slip out of the way and avoid being pigeonholed. She proves that you can never make assumptions about other human beings, and that really you don't need to. Easier said than done but it's an important one to remember.
God Bless Pammy and God bless America.

resignation for the nation

Weep, Dasha Zhukova and now Carine Roitfeld have within the space of a month each resigned from their roles as Editor in Chief at Pop Magazine and Paris Vogue respectively. My, oh, my. I'm never great with change, maybe this should be seen as an opportunity for each to go on and indulge in some new and exciting projects. Roitfeld, who has been at the helm of Vogue Paris for a decade I can understand slightly more (itchy feet and all that..) but Zhukova has been at Pop for less than two years and as a die hard of Pop Magazine under the leadership of Katie Grand before her, Zhukova's Pop actually surpassed my love for Grand's and I was really enjoying the different direction the publication was taking. Dang. Will be interesting to see what 2011 has in store for these two magazines. In honour of two of my favourite fashion publications and their Editors, here are two of my favourite editorials from each. 'Jasper and Zippora Seven + King and Justine Crawford are Brothers and Sisters' from Paris Vogue November 2007. And 'The Channels' from Pop Magazine Fall/Winter 2009.

monday

Bought this little knitted flannel vest in the Northern Quarter last weekend. It reminds me of the sort of vests that would have been styled into ELLEgirl editorials back in the day with Mary Jane heels and metallic socks and a young Alexa Chung wearing an army hat. Ps, do you like my ultra lovely university bathroom? Manchester University is alll about the public toilet aesthetic. And for your Monday evening listening pleasure, my favourite LCD Soundsystem track.

fern print

I found this fabric during the Summer in a charity shop just down the road from my Granny's house. It's about 1x2 metres, not big enough to do much with besides lay at the end of my bed over my grey lambswool blanket. Which is fine because the lush greens look lovely against the grey and I like having it somewhere I can always see it. I just wish I had more of it as the cheese plant and fern print is perfect; I'd love to make a collection of matchy matchy go-to pieces for myself. A cheese plant print mini dress, a pair of slacks, or some shorts to have as a summer core uniform to be alternated each day and worn with straw hats and leather sandals or orange lippie and grey trainers for a winning tangerine/jungle/schoolgirl grey colour combo. Henry Holland's Summer 2011 collection has done absolutely nothing to quell my general desire for all things cheese plant related, in fact he has invigorated it fully with gorgeous little shirts, bags, flares (you name it!) in an uncannily similar print. I'm now wondering if there is someway of copying and reproducing my fabric in mass in time for the Spring.. Thinking cap on.

yesterday

What I wore yesterday: simple black vest, suede trousers, beige cardigan, espadrilles.

This week has been pretty busy as the first semester winds down before Christmas. Not before a smattering of deadlines though; earlier in the week I submitted an essay about Holden Caulfield and Archetypal American Adolescents (think Ferris Bueller, Benjamin Braddock, Huck Finn..) and now I'm scurrying around to meet the deadline for my study abroad applicatiom, reading through all of the amazing sounding modules available across the pond. 

I went to see Somewhere yesterday and (I say this with a heavy heart because I'm a huge Coppola fan) found it quite disappointing. Visually it's brilliant and very true to the Sofia Coppola aesthetic; especially with the shots of Chataeu Marmont and it's white body peeking out from the Hollywood greenery and Elle Fanning gliding around an empty ice rink in a lilac costume. But the lacking dialogue couldn't be justified though in my eyes and the characters were nowhere near as developed or interesting as they could have been. There were lots of touching moments between the Father and Daughter characters but when it finished I felt like there was so much more that could have been explored and that the film only touched the surface of it's own potential.  Chris Pontius (yes, Jackass's Party Boy-you have to give Sofia credit for brilliantly bizarre casting) was hilarious as Johnny's best friend. To me he was the perfect incarnation of the type of cool friend of your Dad who would tell naughty stories and swear in front of you or maybe give you a brilliant album or really crappy food to eat and be the kind of adult company that seemed ultra cool and delightfully irresponsible compared to the array of sensible teachers and figures of authority otherwise surrounding you. Equally the repeated scenes with the embarrassingly bad twin strippers were very entertaining but all in all I want to shake Coppola by the shoulders because lacking in development and that's bearing in mind that convential 'Hollywood development' doesn't at all apply to her style of direction.
I'm curious to know what you all think of Somewhere, especially as the blogosphere is awash with Coppola and Lost In Translation lovers.

inspiration on a wednesday

the mood in the air and the things on my mind: student protesters/ashley smith/simon jessica in the shower, paris by nan goldin/socks and sandals.

in the fold

Have you seen what Susie Bubble's ultra pretty snakeskin Carin Wester wedges can do? They can ruddy well fold in the middle! More shoes need to have this as a function. And may I reiterate how marvelous a pair of shoes they are? The wedge sort of reminds me of the texture of an egg box, how pleasing..