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.

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.

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.

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.

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.