Tuesday 30 June 2009

Eau de Cologne

I went on a one-day school trip to Cologne way back when I was 12. As a souvenir we were all given a miniature bottle of the classic Eau de Cologne 4711, which I never used as I thought it was too old-ladyish. Then over the ridiculously hot weekend I was looking for a perfume which was slightly more refreshing than my normal spray, and I came up with this. It was a bit tricky to apply (how do you get a very strong eau de toilette onto the back of your neck without spilling it all over you?) but it was perfect for the weather and I will definitely be using it more often. Plus the bottle's an incredibly handy size-even the smallest clutch would have room for this baby.

Sunday 28 June 2009

Butterfly, Fly Fly Away

I've probably worn each of these about twice in all. I should really start upping that tally. Both of these are so beautiful yet they languish in my 'random jewellery' box under my bed-not good.

Saturday 27 June 2009

Bangles

I've been wearing these a lot recently. I always pile them all onto one arm, and every time my dad makes a really un-funny joke, like, "Are you finding it difficult to stand upright with all those manacles on one wrist?" Er, good one, dad.

Monday 22 June 2009

Keyboard

I spend so much time using it I thought it deserved a picture all of its own :)

Sunday 21 June 2009

Roland Mouret A/W '09

These rather cool shoes are from the Roland Mouret Fall 2009 collection. I've been slowly but surely working my way through all the Fall '09 runway shows adding things I like to my lookbook, but as I don't have much free time I've made slow progress and I've only just finished the Rs! These shoes were the best thing about his collection-something about them is just really aesthetically pleasing. And they look comfy (though they're probably not-but you never know!).

Saturday 20 June 2009

London

I don't go up to Central London enough. This is a photo I unearthed while sorting through our very untidy photo files on the computer-it made me think how many fantastic photo opportunities there are in this city which I should totally be exploiting. I think I'm spending a few weeks here in the summer-no big holiday plans this year-so perhaps I should use that time constructively...

Tuesday 16 June 2009

Summer is A-Coming

This is what I wore over the weekend to combat the sudden heat and my total lack of shorts. This skirt was the staple item of any teenage girl's wardrobe a year ago-it has lost its status since but is still a really versatile thing to own.

Skirt-American Apparel

Vest-Topshop

Heels (my only pair-I know, it's sad!)-John Lewis (even sadder-but they're pretty)

Monday 15 June 2009

Tortoiseshell

My collection! The middle two are from Mallorca, no idea where the other two come from.

Little Bow Peep

I found this in my dressing up box the other day. I have a root through every now and again-each time I manage to find something that I can wear. This seems like a good way to wear the current sequin trend for a person like me who just doesn't go for sparkly jackets or sequinned harem pants. Would look best in dark hair (silver would probably be best for blonde) but it's still cool. Good hunting skills.

Nutritional Value

After a night out on Saturday (my mum decided to let me go to a party, for once) and a hard rowing session, this was how I replenished my energy. Yummy and high in simple sugars-i.e. just the way I like it.

What Goes Around Comes Around

Proof that fashion is languishing in the doldrums. It was evident in the msot recent collections when the biggest trends were barely-modified references to the '80s and '50s, and now these two photoshoots prove it. The first three photos are from a British Vogue shoot in 2008 by Patrick Demarchelier (which incidentally is one of my favourite shoots ever). The last three are from a short story in the Sunday Telegraph magazine, published one or two weeks ago. I immediately thought of the Vogue story, and it depressed me so much. Is there nothing new in fashion any more?

Vogue 2008

Vogue 2008

Vogue 2008

Sunday Telegraph 2009

Sunday Telegraph 2009

Sunday Telegraph 2009

Thursday 11 June 2009

Emma Watson for Burberry

So, Emma Watson is the new face of Burberry. She's certainly come a long way from her bushy-haired beginnings in the first Harry Potter film! Personally, I think she's a really good face for the brand-she's always seemed to me to be a very English girl (just like Burberry is an English brand) and now she's also a very stylish young lady too, what with all her Chanel connections etc. I think that increasingly celebrity endorsements, especially of high fashion labels, are becoming too commonplace, but many young actresses like Miss Watson are often as commented about for their fashion choices as for their career. Plus she really does look modelesque in these photos-I love all 3 of her coats. As soon as I possible can I'm buying a Burberry trench. There's no other place to get them!



Snail Mail

Today something happened that made my week, if not my month. I came home from rowing to find a letter addressed to me on the table, in a big A4 envelope, in handwriting which looked rather like my sister's. Oh God, what's she got for me now? I thought inwardly. I then noticed that the envelope was stamped with an air mail sign and the return address was Upper West Side, New York. OH MY GOD IT WAS FROM MY NEW YORK EXCHANGE!!

Words cannot express how this made me feel. I actually ripped open the envelope in my excitement. C had sent me a few photos she had taken in London and developed herself, as well as 2 of New York to help 'ease some of my separation anxiety'. Her letter-which was almost 3 sides of typed A4-made me laugh out loud at least 4 times and also moved me close to tears as I realised how much I miss her. Although we were only together for 2 weeks over a 3-week period, I feel like we became so close: we were so similar, and we got on so well-regular, essay-length emails help, but don't cure, the fact that I miss her so much and am unlikely to see her for another year minimum, unless an exciting opportunity turns up soon.

Anyway, just receiving a letter has completely brightened my whole week. It's so sad that no-one sends letters any more (apart from my amazing exchange, of course!)-opening an email just doesn't have that same frisson as opening a real solid letter.

Exams finish tomorrow-after two weeks! I can hardly remember what normal school is like!-and then it's back to the daily grind. Once I'm back on a normal schedule I'll be able to start putting normal posts up :)

Monday 8 June 2009

Study Leave

After a weekend of very, very minimal revision (for minimal see 'a half-hearted attempt to make some music notes in the last half an hour of babysitting when I realised I'd spent four hours watching tv) I was then blessed with almost the whole day off today, bar an hour when I had to go into school for a French oral (inconvenient, but what can you do, eh?). Granted, I spent the morning inwardly panicking because I suddenly realised that, instead of easily bluffing my way through the practice questions, I was in fact finding it difficult to switch my mind to French and overcome the urge to say everything in German.

Literally, in the B role play I was practising (simple role play where you're given prompts in order to answer the examiner's questions):
'Say what type of job you would like', followed by a picture of either a football, an ice skater or a guy sitting at a desk.
Hm, well I'm guessing the football means I want to work at a sports centre. Not sure what the other two pictures are but never mind, I'll go with the sports centre.
'Je...' hang on, how do you say 'I would like' in French again? 'Ich mochte...no no, that's German! Shit, I would like! Aaah!! Oh yes, 'je voudrais'.
'Je voudrais ins Sport-' no no, French! No confusing word order here, just keep it niice and simple. And it's 'dans', not 'ins'.
'Je voudrais travailler dans un centre sportif''.
Finally, I managed to form a correct sentence in 30 seconds when it should have taken me 3. great work!

You get the idea. Anyway in the end the oral went fine. She asked me more than a couple of questions I had no idea how to answer ('Why did you start rowing?'. Search me, I don't even know how to answer that in English) but at the end she said it was very good. Well look at that, what skills!

Anyway I have tomorrow off too because the art exams take up two days (haha, I knew choosing music was the best idea ever) and then I have Wednesday morning off too because of Russian exams. And even after I finally return to school, the exams (Maths II-which, after getting 87% in Maths I I'm not too worried about-music performance, music listening, Chemistry, and Physics and Biology practical papers) aren't even that difficult. Ah, I feel so happy. I love study leave!

Sunday 7 June 2009

Horst P. Horst (featuring Tim Walker)

Horst P. Horst is another photographer whose work I've seen before but was only given a name when I read the Vogue book. His picture of the girl with the white corset on a bench is genuinely one of my all-time favourite photographs. It just evokes feelings I can't even explain.

However I came across the photo second from the bottom (by Horst) and it immediately reminded me of another photo by Tim Walker (bottom). Just the wall to the right, the monochrome, the two silhouettes, the gauzy clothes, make them very similar (I'm not accusing Tim Walker of copying Horst or anything, it's just funny how two photographers from different centuries can produce such similar photos!).



Irving Penn

The history of Vogue which I was given for my birthday has brought several new photographers to my attention. Some of them are completely new, as the book only features American Vogue and its favoured photographers; others are artists whose photos I have seen before without knowing their names.

Irving Penn is one of those men. He played a huge role in developing photography in the 20th Century, not just for Vogue but for the whole world. I forget whether he's still alive or not, but nevertheless his impact on American Vogue has been enormous. Here are a few photos of his I could find on the internet-there are many more in the book and hopefully I will be able to get some of them up soon.



Saturday 6 June 2009

DKNY Summer Dress

I'm still in need of a summer dress. Browsing Net-a-Porter (for enjoyment only-I could never afford anything off there) I came across this delicious DKNY dress. It's perhaps a little smarter than what I have in mind, but it could be dressed down or up so easily with a blazer and flats (like in the runway show) or with heels and some awesome jewellery. I love it (Donna Karan evidently likes it too, because as well as using it to open her show she also featured it in the advertisments). Ah, I can but dream.
DKNY Spring '09

Revision

History revision was a nightmare. I spent such a long time making great notes which will be really helpful next year-unfortunately I didn't really leave much time to learn them! In the end the exam went OK but I was up revising late into the night (well, 11, but I always go to bed really early or I'm exhausted by the end of the week). In times of extreme panic I turned to my camera as a momentary distraction:



As one of my friends said: if Hitler hadn't been born, History revision would have been so much easier!

Wall Art

After my last post I thought I should put up a picture of my whole wall. Apart from the doors of my cupboard and my room, all my posters etc. are concentrated onto the wall above my bed. Some of the things, like the Victory Harvest poster and my Tim Walker calendar, I keep the same; others, like the magazine pages and postcards, I alternate when I remember. Now and again I reshuffle the whole thing completely-the last time I did so was when I brought back a bunch of things from New York I wanted to put up. I usually manage to make everything fit without too much hassle, and it brings a bit of variety and interest to my room. Plus it's cheaper than repainting or continually buying new pictures/objects.

Friday 5 June 2009

Up-do

Sadly I don't own any hairspray so I couldn't wear this out of the house. I love the messy look, and it's seldom that I manage to recreate it successfully. (In the background you can see the back of my door which is my shrine to Robert Pattinson/Daniel Craig. I've been meaning to make it into a fully-blown buff wall for quite some time but I've never got round to it. Maybe something to do over the next few days while the art exams are running and therefore I don't have to go to school).

Audrey Tautou

This is why I want to be French. She wears her short haircut so well it's unreal. I can't wait to see her as Coco Chanel!

Chloe Comparisons

I found this blazer in my mum's cupboard the other day. It's part of an office suit and on her it's actually rather tight around the middle but it hangs really nicely on my, er, smaller frame. It's a little big perhaps, but wearing micro shorts makes up for that. When I put them on together I was reminded a bit of Chloe's beautiful S/S '09 collection (only a dark version instead of Chloe's lovely palette of neutrals).
Yours truly


Chloe S/S '09

First Photos!

My best cliche 'back garden' photos. The light was so great on Tuesday afternoon-it was Mediterranean-hot (I couldn't sit in the sun for more than five minutes at a time) and all the bushes and trees were just giving off this amazing colour. But the best time of year for that has already gone-there's a time around March/April where cycling to rowing there are tunnels of greenery from where the trees and grass have grown so much. Everything just seems to radiate this rich green colour. Now, cycling to rowing on Tuesday, all the plants are already a little shrivelled and dry, as if they've lost that natural radiance and only get it when the sun shines on them like a spotlight.








Thursday 4 June 2009

Belated Birthday Wishes

Finally, I've found some time to write about this week. Granted that time has been created by me missing rowing, but that doesn't happen often and tomorrow I have history and French, neither of which I know anything about. So. I deserve an evening off.

My birthday was as good as could have been expected. English Lit went fine, German listening was horrible and maths somewhere in the middle. My piano lesson was the worst of the lot (I hadn't practised for two weeks due to rowing/revision-actually I never really practise, but whatever). Sadly practically none of my friends even remembered it was my birthday (I got 2 Facebook posts. TWO. How s*** is that?!) although one of my friends from rowing, who also goes to my school, came into my classroom and gave me a card which turned out to contain a £20 Topshop voucher! I was touched, especially as I hadn't considered her a really close friend.

Present-wise, I opened some in the morning and some in the evening over my birthday tea of pizza. Yay.
Morning-subscription of British Vogue, box to hold said Vogues in, spanner from my brother for rigging boats, amazing book called 'In Vogue' which chronicles the history of American Vogue along with some fantastic photos.
Evening-money to buy a few clothes with, iPod earphones which sadly are too big for my left ear and are actually quite painful when I try to force them in, NIKON CAMERA!!

I knew I would be getting a camera-it was practically the only big thing I asked for-but even so it was mega exciting to open the box and unpack it! Not sure what make it is off the top of my head, but it's really good-there's about a gazillion different settings/functions which I'm sure I will eventually figure out from reading the thick tome that came with it as well as through trial and error. Along with the Vogue book, it's been such a distraction-sadly I've been rather limited to cheesy flower photos in my garden, because of having to stay at home for revision, but it's still so exciting to finally have a proper camera that focuses and is basically amazingly cool! I haven't uploaded the computer software yet but as soon as I do (probably tomorrow evening) I'll post my first photos up.

Revision beckons-how can I resist. Au revoir.

Tuesday 2 June 2009

Christian Louboutin Fall '09 Campaign




Saw this on Design Scene and had to share it-Peter Lippmann, who apparently is a well-known still life photographer, should clearly stick to fashion from now on. I'd love to see how he'd go about doing a couture shoot, for example. These photographs are magnificent.
Birthday yesterday was a mixed affair but no time to put it all down now-I've got Biology and a German oral to revise for tomorrow, joy of joys.