anywho x H&M

We don't need any more conclusive evidence of the coolness of the Anywho girls. But incase anybody was in doubt here are three minutes of pure beauty, courtesy of a collaboration with H&M. Florist browsing, city cycling, adidas wearing, jumper changing, front step jumping, boutique snooping, Ingrid, Elise and Stephanie know how to while away a gloriously sunny day in Copenhagen.

ps, heads up! I'm listing more items on eBay throughout the week. suede trousers, a backpack, camel coloured top, cycling shorts and maxi skirts a-go-go, here.

style notes for the guys: adam

Meet Adam who was walking along the same cobbled stretch as me the other day, just by the Arnolfini looking like he meant business with a stride, handful of papers and brilliant Huf jumper and trainer combo. What do you do? I asked Work long and hard, he said. But of course.

The McCartneys

I don't think I'll ever tire of looking through photographs of Linda and Paul McCartney from the late 1960s and early 1970s. I remember picking up a McCartney record in Oxfam on my birthday a couple of years ago and I've regretted not buying it ever since purely because the album art inside was so nice with personal family photos, presumably many taken by Linda decorating the inside of the sleeve. In every picture they always look so in love, and Linda's little dresses and leather sandals don't hurt either..

A short clip of Paul McCartney playing 'Blackbird, which 'fyi' (I only just learnt this) is about the struggles of African Americans in the 1960s rather than an actual bird. Flying into the light. Of a dark black night..

Spring Cleaning: eBay

If straw bags, dungarees, a polaroid camera or maxi skirts sound like your cup of tea, then have a look at the items I'm selling on eBay this week. I'm having a big clear out and getting rid of clothes, some much loved and some barely worn. Everything is cheaply priced and in good condition and the first few are up now..

View here on eBay

Wimbledon

Pumps, APC x Vans; Bobble Water Bottle, Rain Hat, Zara; Tortoiseshell Cat Eye sunglasses and frilly socks, both Topshop; Lacoste tennis skirt and Slazenger sweatshirt, both Etsy.

I love everything that comes with Wimbledon. The preppy traditions; plump strawberries, little tennis skirts, perfect lawns and imagining that Paul 'Tennis Champion' Bettany really exists. But most of all I love that Wimbledon is the true firing shot for the start of British summertime and the inevitable yo yo-ing opening and closing of umbrellas as the British population holds out in the hope of scorching sunshine. Beyond this I don't usually follow the tennis itself, I'll get emotionally involved with an important match mostly out of the fondness towards Wimbledon institutions but then likely get preoccupied half way through. Every year I tell myself I'll learn the rules 'for real' rather than being a spectator when it suits me or being seduced by the little skirts and a fleeting patriotism. I wonder if this year will be any different..

mood

1. Unknown source. 2. Henrik Vibskov heels, Mohawk General Store. 3. One of my all-time favourite outfits worn by Chloe Sevigny, that playsuit and high-top combination. 4. Translucent coat by Makin Jan Ma at Topshop. 5. High rises in Shanghai. 6. Birkenstocks sandals.

mum's shoes

Can we please take a moment to admire my Mum's utterly perfect leather sandal and ankle grazer combination? Her feet were one of the first things I noticed when she hopped out of the van to collect my melancholy self and a room worth of possessions from Manchester this week.  To the extent that I felt my overenthusiastic attention to detail sort of hijacked our reunion moment. 'Did you buy the Swear sandals?' were I think my exact words about two seconds after we had greeted each other as I mistook them for these. Two proverbial bombshells dropped as she told me they were from Next (a shop I never consider visiting) and around the £30 mark. Quite a feat to find reasonably priced shoes on a high street that relentlessly prices shoes with a shelf life of a year at the £60+ mark. This is a subject that converts me into 'elder lady in M&S' style rages defined by tuts when I look at price tags on the shoes in Topshop, for example. 'Chh! £68 for this? This flimpsy sole won't even make it through the summer!' etc etc). I spent the rest of the day watching my Mum's feet, not dissimilar to the way I might have followed them around a supermarket back in the day, but this time not for navigational purposes but out of pure lust.

HK

Chloe Sevigny having her palm read in Hong Kong, via the Opening Ceremony Blog.

greystones

Sweet little short film with Melanie Laurent in Greystones, Ireland talking about how the sea plays a part in her morning routine all the while looking laid back in a big North Face anorak and a tempting stubby platinum ponytail. The film is part of a collaboration between Creme de la Mer and World Oceans Day to encourage preservation of the world's oceans. The perpetually cool Rinko Kikuchi also stars in one of the videos and leaves me craving the chilly kind of sea swim that refreshes you-but only after knocking the wind out of you until you must swim like a maniac to counteract the cold. Then again a less sadistic splash on the warm Ibiza coast like Rinko wouldn't go a miss either..

what I wore

What I've been wearing, eating and sniffing for the past week:

1. Second hand Hawaiian shirt, suede skirt and new straw market bag I finally found this week after a year of looking, all worn for tonight's 'farewell curry' with friends at Islamabad Grill before we all return home for the summer.
2. 'Window Shopping' at American Apparel. Peach striped top and cord shorts.
3. The most deliciously succulent Mango, enthusiastically demolished in a couple of minutes.
4. Pineapple sunglasses, gold rollneck top (which impressively and deceptively adds 2 stone extra when worn) which I wore to Parklife Festival.
5. Peonies!
6. ..And unwrapped and on the desk.
7+8. Topshop sunglasses, second hand button down skirt and backpack and old shirt from All Saints.

looks to warm the heart

 

Looks I like: 1. Drinking milk in the city via Turned Out 2. Kate Foley via Refinery 29 3. Nike Felldin's floppy hat 4. Veneda's outfit snapped by the Anywho girls 5. Socks and sandals look reminiscent of Meadham Kirchoff via Mr Newton 6. Kirsten Dunst in Stella McCartney button down dress, 7. Woven Mexican belts 8. Miriam's Korkease sandals.

bleak summer

1. 'A Life Less Ordinary' by Paolo Roversi, Vogue UK May 2010. Styling by Lucinda Chambers.

2. 'Ultraviolet Garden' by Craig McDean, Another Magazine Fall 2007. Styling by Marie Amelie Sauve.

A couple of images to represent the mellow and slightly dazed 'what now?' feeling that is hanging in the air now that exams have finished. Cars are pulling up outside, cardboard boxes are being loaded in and the summer holidays are officially starting for those leaving now. I've been wandering around the flat in leggings and sandals, doing the laundry, buying peonies and sitting outside on the grass (rather than an old car seat) but with an equally vacant expression. 

On a side note, I bought the new issue of Apartamento Magazine (the price has hoiked up the £12-ouch!- but it's still worth it, I think) and recommend the piece 'Loss of Appetite' by Chiara Merino which describes an old love affair, the food they shared-the walnut pancakes, the grilled fish, the cuba coffee and dirty martinis, and the way her ex-girlfriend's body smelled of anise and bread.

the weekend

 

Some pictures from this weekend. My fantasies of lying in the sunshine and reading were slightly scarpered by chilly weather most of the weekend but the sun came back out yesterday just in time for a walk along the River Tyne between Prudhoe and Wynam before going on to Newcastle. Beware of awkwardly overenthusiastic 'I'm going to take a picture of myself now' photos. Also note the backpack which I picked up for £2 from the Hexham car boot sale from a man who described himself as an 'ex-teacher, holistic masseuse, cross-continent cyclist, woodworker, recovery driver and husband of 40 years' and looked just like Jeremy Beadle. I kid you not.

Occasion-appropriate clothing came in the form of an h and m dress, sunglasses from topshop, new balance trainers, margaret howell cardigan, second hand army coat and rucksack.

weekend away

Picture, Kate Moss, Harper’s Bazaar November 1994 by Peter Lindbergh. Via Florence.

Freedom! Exams are over and I've decided to take a train East to pay a visit to my Gran who I only get to see very occasionally. We'll spend a couple of nights at her caravan and I'll probably spend a day pottering around Newcastle (where I lived until I was two) and maybe pop into the Baltic before returning to Manchester. Packed into my lesportsac are a couple of pairs of high waisted cotton shorts, some airy tops (breezy armpits are important in this hot weather!) and my trainers as well as some reading material. I'm really looking forward to taking a couple of days to chill out in the glorious sunshine and finally read something for pleasure rather than for university (I'm finally going to start Teenage: The Creation of Youth by Jon Savage -which I posted about a while ago in relation to it's adaption into a film)

What will you all be doing/reading/watching/wearing this weekend? 

june wishlist

A few items on my current wishlist. Note wishlist contains both attainable and unattainable items. Sigh..

House of Holland leaf print dress, Kanken Classic in 'Brick', Adidas Originals Gazelle OG.

Also on my mind, latest issues of The Gentlewoman and Apartamento magazines, (still) the perfect polka dot dress, teva sandals, some pottery crockery for my new house in September, Linda McCartney photography book, Koss Porta Pro headphones.

style icon: lobster men

Just 24 hours left to crawl through and I can be done with these tiresome exams and gallop around singing Alice Cooper's 'Schools Out'. Woo. Even though the knowledge that in a couple of weeks I'll have to box up my little room and schlep back home for the summer is quite bittersweet; I can't believe my first year of University has wrapped up already.

So to bide time, a collage of lobster men, the true purveyors or maritime style. The matching yellow trousers that came along with my fisherman mac are still stowed under my bed as I haven't really known what to do with them. But to be a true lobster fisherman it's the amber overalls that are the ubiquitous uniform- a guy who lives upstairs in my block actually wears cotton fabric overalls like these and looks brilliant. 

It was Alison who inspired me to post this, as after going through my archives and finding this old Q+A post (which I'm going to recreate soon as it is alwas interesting to hear what everybody is wearing, watching, reading, crushing on) and her definition of her style icons as 'lobstermen and pioneers, with the spirit of Michelle Phillips and James Dean' was probably the most perfect sentence I've set eyes on all week..

Here's to baseball caps, waterproofs in a thousand shades of tangerine and style on the seven seas..