moodboard

Things I've been crushing on: Men's Sunspel jumper, perfect worn baggy over a cord skirt/ Turned Out/ Isabel's awesome snakeskin blouse/ I'm really hung up on Zoe and Morgan's Love Lasso ring/Navy lace bra bought from Topshop last week/ Abby's sweater top/ Me with Kate's triumphant Red Velvet cake last week in Stroud.

And on repeat is Lost and Found by Steve Mason..

Remembering Corinne Day

A couple of dates that are firmly penciled, nay prominently biro-ed into my diary this month. Tomorrow sees the launch of the Corinne Day The Face exhibition at Gimpel Fils Gallery which runs for a month, marking the 1st anniversary of Corinne's death and looking at her early work for magazine The Face in the early 1990s. The exhibition will feature her infamous 'Third Summer of Love' fashion story with the young Kate Moss (yes, 'young Kate Moss tumblr post' fans) as well as two other The Face editorials 'Heaven is Real' and 'Borneo'. 

It's also worth making a trip to the Whitechapel Gallery on September 25th where they will be celebrating the life and work of Corinne Day by with a talk and screening of Corinne Day: Diary, 2002,  the documentary directed by her husband Mark Szaszy with interviews with Day, Rosemary Ferguson, Kate Moss and Vincent Gallo. 

In the mean time, have a look at some of the photographs from the wonderful 'England's Dreaming' spread published in The Face in August 1993 scanned by Dazed or Something for lots of fantastic metallic cigarette trousers and Adidas trainer combination styled by Melanie Ward. These photos (as well as some previously unpublished) are featured in Heaven Is Real which I'm already tempted by, just so that I can lie on my bed in a pair of knickers, smoothing my fingers over the pages in some vague attempt at a Corinne Day parody. 

crap dancing is cool!

We have all experienced that moment first thing in the morning, of brushing your teeth and realising that the dance moves you so confidently showcased the night before maybe weren't quite up to scratch. That maybe they truly didn't match the unabashed sense of 'I look like Beyonce right now!' There is solace for that moment of realisation and it comes in the form of this Lanvin video. My fellow shit dancers rejoice, crap dancing is cool!

vogue and fashion's night out

Some pictures taken last week at Vogue House. (I feel that I cannot continue without stating that the man in the photograph just above is innocently waiting for a lift rather than 'taking a slash' behind the Conde Nast screens. Even though it would arguably be better if it was the latter.) I was invited to a small breakfast to hear about Vogue's plans for this years Fashion's Night Out on September 8th. Everyone politely ignored the granola and yogurt and salmon canapes and little piles of shiny strawberries (I didn't) while being filled in on the various in-store events that will be taking place across central London next week. Because the British love any excuse to have a Street Party (we even feigned monarchical patriotism back in April just so we could string up some bunting in the street) this year the whole of Bond Street will be pedestrianised with live music, Vogue information 'sheds' which will house photobooths and customization points as well as lots of party over spill from the stores participating in the late night shopping knees up.

While digesting all of this information Alexandra Shulman popped into the room and quietly worked her way around talking to people and although I feared that upon meeting her I may do something inappropriate like spontaneously curtsy, as soon as myself and Navaz started chatting to her any nervousness was dispelled. I ended up feeling like I was talking to the parent of a friend as she asked how I balance blogging with univeristy and I just about resisted the urge to casually begin my answers with 'Well Alex..' She was wearing a long-sleeved vintage dress with small tropical patterns in greens and oranges and a pair of kitten heels which were suddenly very appealing; an overall get-up that could have equally suited a Mad Men-era Summer party or a glamorous Ibiza dinner in the 1970s. 

My personal favourites of the planned in-store events are the Hawaiian-themed do at Liberty, complete with a Rum Shack, DJs and Lulu Kennedy and her Fashion East friends and family Richard Nicoll, Jonathan Saunders, Simone Rocha, Michael Van der Ham and Bella Freud who will all be around for a fashion show-and-tell, talking customers through their collections. Beyond Retro are hosting an evening of presentations from top stylists on how to 'survive' the fashion industry with the chance for Q+As and complimentary drinks (a challenge in itself if you're quaffing free drinks while trying to impress your idols.) Endless brownie points go to Mulberry for their genius idea of serving mini toad-in-the-holes and laying on fortune tellers, manicurists and the prize draws every half an hour. In a double-nod to all things Seventies revival Tiffany and Co's Bond St store is being turned into a Warhol-era disco with body paint artists, photobooths and hairstyling salons while in his Mayfair store Rupert Sanderson will pay homage to the glamour of a good old fashioned Roller Disco.

last week

My friend Nanon took these pictures last week when she came to visit me in Bristol. I proudly showed her the sights and took her to Magic Roll for the famous O'Piratha wrap -lamb patties, haloumi, spinach, mushrooms and hot chilli sauce which culminated in a silent 5 minutes of mutual awe and respect for the perfect taste sensation we were both experiencing. We also went up to Stroud to go to a 'surprise party' (would have been surprise if Nanon hadn't accidentally texted the 'suprisee' the night before giving a blow by blow list of the plans, duh) But it was still lovely and consisted of catching up with friends, saying goodbye to those leaving us to study in faraway lands, face warming beside a bonfire and in my case eating so much pate that I was forced to retire early to bed to sleep off the livery nausea. Nice!

pop autumn/winter 2011

How apt that after yesterday's discussion of Dasha Zhukova's post-Pop magazine Garage, the first post-Zhukova Pop has also been released onto newsstands. Seeing Georgia May Jagger looking demure with a brunette bob and no 'tits and gap teeth' angles is a small truimph in itself. Instead she poses like the subject in an oil painting on the cover of an issue dedicated 'towards a redefinition of the lady.'

garage magazine

Although these pretty polaroids could easily be mistaken for a new Band of Outsiders campaign, they are in fact Dasha Zhukova and Shala Monroque proudly presenting their soon to be launched magazine 'Garage'. I'm very exciting to see what comes next in the fashion-meets-art magazine saga as Dasha builds on the same concept she championed as Editor in Chief of Pop Magazine. The shoots in Pop Magazine were always a beautiful feast for the eyes and flicking through the fashion pages you felt you could easily have been wandering around a Ryan McGinley exhibition. The first issue comes out on September 5th to coincide with Fashion Week (and indication The New York Times suggest of the magazine's fashion-meets-art, rather than art-meets-fashion stance.) It features a collaborative shoot between Nick Knight and Dinos Chapman as well as a cheeky 'peel and see' butterfly sticker placed atop a naked model's crotch on one of the 3 covers. (That one is designed by Damien 'Butterfly' Hirst, naturally. He also designed the butterfly covered Tavi covers for Dasha's first Pop back in 2009.) 

While I could do without fashion fannies just for the sake of being provocative (so can WH Smith who have banned the first issue from their shelves), I'm looking forward to taking a snoop at the shoot featuring an Alexander McQueen dress made from a lettuce, a Prada dress of orange and Moncler coat of anchovies masterminded by Giovanna Battaglia. I will always be appeased by the collision of clothes and larders. 

JW Anderson's 'Craft Goes Machine'

Sometimes there are odd and unexplainable combinations that crop up in life. Sometimes baffling and sometimes plain perfect. Mel B and Eddie Murphy or Chilli Jam and Houmous sandwiches. And rather than questioning why they work (or don't) you tend to wonder how they happened. I always like the idea of manatees in a tank as a way of explaining unusual concepts after that episode of South Park which revealed the Family Guy scriptwriters as manatees dictating the episode plots though a simple selection of 'idea balls' each containing a verb, noun and a pop culture reference. This is surely a beautiful and organic way of crafting a fine, fine story concept. Paul the Octopus had the same allure during the 2010 World Cup when he predicted the results and well, it's a tenuous link but I like to think that the brains at J.W Anderson belong also to aquamarine creatures given a random assortment of themes and images to create a lookbook video each season. This time for the Spring/Summer 2012 video 'Craft Goes Machine' the tentacles delved in and scooped out airport corridors, tetris blocks, a man carrying a box and Da Vinci's The Lady with an Ermine. Collated together with some trusty Mozart for two minutes and you have a sparkling finished product, just another days work for a manatee.

outfit

Today I'm wearing: Top from Cos, Second hand jeans and dalmatian print nails.

moodboard

A young Jurassic Park reading Alexa Chung/ 1940s Chinatown, New York by Charles Cushman/ I don't want a kiss, I don't want a Krispee Kreme, all I want in the world is this Faux Fur Faun (say that three times fast) top by Perks + Mini. Sorry Bambi! / in the Cos changing rooms wearing the t-shirt that I bought/ Girls Say Yes to Boys Who Say No! Baez Sisters Vietnam draft resistance poster/ Hailee Steinfeld chowing down on some especially appealing pizza (still has nothing on the Deer top in the lust stakes, though..) in the current Miu Miu campaign.

puppy love

Anywho, Marc Jacobs Fall 11, Dalmatian loafers bought from Etsy, Unique Fall 11.

I like to tell myself that when it comes to new seasonal trends I can be cool. I can nonchalantly lick my finger and turn the pages of Vogue and be unaffected when it comes to the arrays of all things novel and shiny before me. I can continue deciding what to wear each morning without referencing the runway images that may or may not be floating around my head. But the fact is, I would be kidding myself with a bare faced lie because each season, and usually in winter, one little trend will always gets me big time. It gets me right under it's thumb and I'm like a jelly-legged fool hankering after any item that will owe itself as a little nod to said trend. And I like to think that because I'm not someone who usually goes out of their way to follow catwalk trends, I'm allowed this one little yearly heart pang. I wallow in the desire like the keeper of unrequited love and search with appropriate keywords on eBay or scour charity shops. Last year the crushing centred on Brown and after the camel coats nudged their way into a mass of collections, anything of a Werthers Original hue found its way onto my hit list. There was my winter with dungarees and also the long (and continued) flirtation with leopard print. But during the Topshop Unique show back in February I caught a whiff of my next conquest just as the apt background soundtrack of 'And they call it Puppy Love' blared. 

Dalmatian is in the eyes of Cruella De Vil "cosy, cuddly classic and less trashy" than leopard print and though I'm not really down with the leopard dissing, dalmatian does indeed seem fresher. It's also a pattern that acts as a much needed alternative to the universal reliance on stripes and polka dots which, yes are lovely and faithful but sometimes just bloody well over-done. I'm all for classics but there are only so many times that you can meet similarly striped friends for drinks and realise you could pass for the Annual Mime Artist Meet Up before you start to look for other options. Dalmatian it is.

school

On this glum, rainy day. John Martyn's 'Small Hours' covered by Robert Smith. And Gisele in i-D Pre-Fall 2011 looking awesome and Back-to-School flavoured while staying just on the right line of those sexy school girl connotations which always make me think 'Yawn.'

that september feeling

 Jil Sander Fall 2011/ Ampersand Jumper, Topshop/ Chloe Sevigny by Patrick O'Dell, Self Service Magazine/ Beth Gibbons/ Stripe Guernsey Jumper, Topshop/ David Bowie via Church of Man Love.

August. Back to School season at Marks and Spencer, the heavy clunk of the Vogue September issue onto a kitchen table and terribly premature knitwear lust. As with every year Topshop is really at it's best in the Autumn when their jeans turn the colours of mulled wine and dense forest and their knitwear outdoes itself with each new delivery of stock. The Ampersand symbol jumper is I think quite sufficient in proving this theory and it just so happens to be taking up about 20% of my functioning brain space. I need it in my life, there are no two ways about it. Also adding fuel to the fire of knitwear lusting; Jil Sander's Fall 2011 swirly, spacey jumpers, personalised knits in the form of Chloe Sevigny's 'Chloe' cardigan or Portishead's Beth Gibbon's 'P' jumper (even if neither 'Beth' or 'Gibbons' begins with 'P', maybe she just really likes parking signs.) and David Bowie with a charming grin and block striped sleeves. One of the pleasures that comes with the transition between Summer and Autumn are the crisp days that allow a combination of bare legs and and jumper, when it is starting to cool enough to slip into something sweatery without seeming ungrateful towards the last of the sunshine.

interview: cheapskate chic

I love to interview fellow bloggers because it means that you can ask really nosey questions that borderline on the freaky like 'what's on your bedside table?' and it's completely appropriate and under the guise of 'an interview'. Michelle Wu of Cheapskate Chic is one of my favouritest of bloggers. She live in Brighton, has a fantastic eye for old school and forgotten about editorials, chunky shoes and an insane ability to find personal style blogs that are absolute gems yet have remained under everyone else's radars. Besides this, she's been blogging for about as long as I have, so I always have a bit of a soft spot for 'fellow dinosaurs' who have also had to get to grips with modern stuff like 'Twitter' and 'Wireless'. I gest, I gest. Kind of. It's taken me a while to get round to publishing, but as follows is my interview with Michelle from back in May. Her cat may or may not still be hanging out on her bedside table.

What's on your bedside table?

My cat.

Some pieces of clothing you have on current rotation?

Baby blue cashmere jumper that I won from a tug of war with a desperate housewife in Oxfam.  Rusty orange corduroy skirt from Topshop. Navy Fjallraven Kanken Backpack and taupe ankle boots from Isabel Marant.

Which are your go-to blogs?

There are many but I really like:

Cool and Beauty, Through a Glass Darkly, Love Ship, Young Shields, Seaweed Tea, Two Breads Please, Phantom and Hipsters Musings.

What would you like to be ‘when you’re a grown up’?

Since I am technically a ‘grown up’, I want to be a teenager.

How do you start your average day?

I have croissant and coffee followed by quick dash to the train station (with another coffee) to go to university. I stack German Language books in the library and make more coffee for my colleagues. If there are still time at the end of the day I might even do a bit of research for my degree! And drink more coffee.   

Tell us a joke.

Have you heard the joke about the bed? It hasn’t been made yet! Hur hur hur.

If you were creating a moodboard to sum up your own style and your favourite references, what would feature in it?

The English countryside. ‘Vintage’ Kate Moss. Turned Out. 60s meet 90s. Chloe Sevigny’s casual style. Leather. Alasdair McLellan. Cigarettes.

What are your guilty pleasures?

Internet memes and Charlie Sheen. My sense of humor is not exactly, ah, refined.

Is it accurate to say you have a frugal approach to clothes? Where do you buy clothes and how much would you say you spend on clothes?

The majority of my clothes are either from H+M or charity shops. I scout vintage/second hand clothes on Etsy and occasionally I will splurge on a designer item during sales time. I probably spend way too much of my income on clothes though these days I rather buy one nice thing than a plethora of shitty things.  

A couple of songs you’re listening to at the moment?

On Battleship Hill by PJ Harvey and She Was Surprised by Psychic TV.

How do you like to spend your weekends?

I see my friends and go on adventures till the mornings, followed by Sunday lunch with my mum. Though most of the time I like to stay in bed trying to read three books at once and browse Tumblr.

What is your approach to beauty? And whether high or low maintenance, what is your routine?

I cleanse, moisturize and tone religiously. I have sensitive skin so I try not to wear too much make up, but I do like lipsticks and eyeliner. I also wear perfume everyday, Stella’s Absolute Rose is my favorite.  

Your favourite films to stimulate the sartorial senses?

Anna Karina’s wardrobe in Une Femme Est Femme gives me palpitations every time. I also like the punk girls in Vera Chytilova’s Daisies and Derek Jarman’s Jubilee. Margot Tenenbaum is of course an icon, forever and always.  

Aside from direct style references, what are your other interests. People that you find interesting, other ways you like to spend your time etc..

I read a lot of Science Fiction and listen to ‘banging’ Italo Disco, alone.

outfit

This is an outfit I've been wearing a lot over the past week. Something simple for the summer which is easy to throw on in the mornings with little thought process yet without the slumminess that early morning outfit nonchalance can sometimes lead to. The top is secondhand Marimekko and has little poppers leading up to the neckline that remind me of when I used to absolutely love clasping together the poppers on my little sister's babygrow with the same enthusiasm reserved for bursting bubble wrap. The skirt is from Colours in Berlin and doesn't come with any kind of gimmick but I can live with that. 

mood

Anouke Lepere's cheeky smile in this old Prada advert/ Herbert Terry Anglepoise lamps, just bought myself a different model from eBay for my new place in Manchester and I can't stop smiling and switching it on and off/ Kylie from Nice and Shiny's amazing new hair. See also her Keith Haring 'Free South Africa' poster/ James Dean, best known for this lifelong dedication to standing in really nicely decorated rooms/ can't stop hankering after these tops designed by Anywho's Ingrid Munch in collaboration with Copenhagen label Nørgaard Paa Strøget. They're inspired by Mondrian and the fantastic 80s aerobics mash-up video for 'Round and Round' by Ariel Pink. Boo, shall have to keep dreaming as they are only available instore in Copenhagen/ vintage Vivienne Westwood Gold Label jumper which has distinct Missoni vibes about it.

tati

Tati Cotliar in Paris, photographed by Shawn Dogimont for Hobo Magazine.

Tati Cotliar-all round awesome model and perhaps one of the best advocates for going make-up-less.

love

Love Magazine fw11, Models.com

Despite my feeling that having eight different covers for the new issue of Love magazine is teetering at the top of the decadence barometer, Katie Grand and co can do as they damn well please when they look this good. It's all about Chloe Moritz's little glittery devil horns just poking from her auburn hair. I like the casual 'yeah, I'm wearing devil horns' stare she's giving, like 'and maybe they're always there, they're part of me, because I am the devil.' Makes me think of Vivienne Westwood's goatish white horns and all of a sudden a 'devil horn as fashion accessory' rabbit hole has swallowed me up. Also loving the perfect thickness of her brows, my love for a girl with a strong brow will never cease.

mood

Some things on my mind: Mismatched nails in the style of Chloe Dennis (one of the subjects on Anne Bernecker's blog). Which on closer inspection is actually a bit of a red herring as instead of having painted one hand set of nails baby blue and the other a gentle peach as I had first thought, one of the hands has been completely chipped with a few tell-tale flakes left on the nails. Girl after my own heart! Only because this is a refreshing sign of laziness that I recognise in myself. Still, I digress because painting my nails baby blue and peach is exactly what I will do.

Maja Casablancas' feast of mussels, king prawns and white wine. If one day I woke up as Maja Casablancas, after the initial confusion I think I'd be able to live with the Freaky Friday turn of events because this girl seems to have it so right with her nice little apartment in Oslo, natural handsome-ness and regular delicious dinners with friends. My 20 year love affair with food continues to blossom as I just booked myself onto a bread-making workshop next month which I am very excited about. I spent part of today sneakily reading The River Cottage Handbook dedicated to Bread in a bookshop and learning about the pros and cons of dried vs fresh yeast and the possibility of using mineral instead of tap water.

Orange lipstick is an ongoing interest but after returning from traveling with much blonder hair (thanks to the sunshine..and John Freida's Sheer Blonde Lightening shampoo and spray) and a nice tan it seems the most suitable and un-barbieish lipstick option for the Summer. I may just have to put my money where my mouth is and buy MAC's famous Morange shade but for now the quest for something cheaper and just as satisfying continues.

The fantastic Bauhaus Archiv in Berlin. (thank you to Jess for the suggestion)

Old computers in a shop window on Kastanienallee in Berlin.

The all-white poloneck and shorts outfit from a nice spread in the July issue of French Elle.

Chloe Sevigny's change of colour. Although I will always regard her as a true blonde at heart, I think this is a good look. She is so associated with her blonde hair, and whether or not it was for a film role I think it's healthy to push yourself out of your comfort zone when it comes to hair. In my experience you're usually glad after a change, it's rare I've regretted doing something different. It is also interesting to note how people respond differently when you have a different hair colour. I remember reading a silly little feature in US Ellegirl that surveyed the different reactions a journalist got from men when she went from blonde to brunette to redhead, and although (crucially!) I can't remember what the results were I certainly think there is some weight to the theory of different initial behaviour towards the different hair colours. It's quite possible I'm overanalysing or projecting but since going blonde I feel like strangers find me more approachable. I shall continue to observe for the sake of this theory.

colours

Some of my purchases from Colours in Berlin where you can buy a kilo of clothes for €14.99 (or if you're around on a Thursday, 30% off during their Happy Hour from 11am-3pm.) I must admit when I walked into the huge loft room I was very excited by the vast quantity of clothes before me but in reality the selection wasn't quite as great as I'd hoped. But I did manage to find some goodies and left with shorts, a skirt, a dress, a jumper, a tee shirt, a coat and a pair of cute gold heels. Which actually in hindsight is a new addition to just about every corner of my wardrobe. Despite the horror of having to pack this new loot into my bag while evading Easyjet baggage regulations it feels so good to finally have some new clothes after what has felt like a bit of a sparse year purchase-wise. Also looking forward to cooler weather when I can wear my new gingham shorts and striped jumper in homage to ALL Knitwear.

how to spend your sunday

1. Visit Sublime Images and scroll your way into sensory overload of the best variety. If you like haw-lin.com and intelligent-----clashing.com this is will be just your sort of thing.

2. Listen to the fantastic Toe Jam by Shadow and pretend you're lying on a beach surrounded by people dancing to Calypso. Da da da..

home

I have freshly landed back at home from my month spent inter railing in Europe. You know fresh as in 5 minutes in through the door. As in plane journey weathered face. Otherwise I am happily tanned, marginally wiser after meeting some great people and very much rounder after 'soaking up the culture' quite literally in the form of horse burgers, bratwurst, calzone, and the delight that is Berlin's 60¢ beer. Ho ho ho.

I also come with new loot from of Colours Vintage in Kreuzberg and a mountaineering shop in Prenzlauer Berg which was my lifeline with a generous and colourful supply of Fjallraven backpacks. (On a rather comical sidenote, I just caught up with my favourite blogs and realise that over the space of about two months we have all aquired new Fjallravens to match our New Balance-d toes in a sort of blogger meets schoolgirlish playground fad. (Ally, Michelle, Elisabeth and Mel, I'll meet you at the tuck shop at break.) 

I anticipate over-enthusiastic blogging over the next week 'to make up for lost time.' And possibly also to compensate for the absence of bratwurst..