--ZARA DOES IT AGAIN--

Dear Zara,

Why is your stuff so perfect? Please transfer your minimalist magic from your clothing to me and I will have to make an effort in life ever again. Cheers. Also, I need that leather skirt. And the black trousers. Aaand the brown coat. And theparkathejeanstheshortsthetshirtthedresses. See, only four things! I'm so undemanding.

(zara.com)

--COUTURE SPRING 2011: ELIE SAAB--

What can I say; words fail me.

Well, not really-how uncharacteristic would that be? But it has been a long, long time since a fashion show captured my imagination and gave me butterflies like this. (I just deleted a whole section because honestly my thoughts are not yet calm enough to make coherent sense. I'm not sure that sentence even made sense).

I'm sure everyone has seen the standard face-on style.com shots already (why do they not take photos from behind? Seeing a dress from the front only allows you to see half of its total worth; even the measly torso shots below add a wealth of extra detail and dimension to the already-amazing front-on view), but the ones below are rather mysterious with the black background and the enigmatic back view, so I thought they were worth a repost.

Apologies for this drivel-I wanted to write something while my reactions to this show were still fresh. I know I haven't posted much recently (I lost a follower-awkward...)-partly because of work, but I also don't think it's worth posting random photos for the sake of it, rather than because they're things I'm interested in and want to share. And then something like Elie Saab's genius comes along and reminds you all over again why we all love fashion.

(style.com)

--CLEMENCE POESY--

This is the first time in my life that I've blogged photos more than once (the Kai Z Feng ones from Vogue UK April 2010) but if anyone deserves it it's Clemence. I think you are either a Chloe Sevigny or a Clemence Poesy kind of person, and I fall firmly in the latter category. The word insousiance might have been invented for her-nobody is meant to have hair that looks so good tousled; it's just not fair. Yet she also looks amazing in a sexy secretary outfit. Gah, why do I not share her genes...yeah basics why am I not her full stop.

Happy weekend y'all!

(imagebam.com; knighttcat.com; thefashionspot.com; fashiongonerogue.com; styleexchange.wordpress.com; isuggestyoutryvichy.tumblr; thefashionspot.com)

--OCEANS--

I should apologise for my sporadic posting this past fortnight; my grandfather passed away recently, and yesterday was his funeral. While I wasn't especially close to him, any death affects the family to a certain extent and so I've had other things to think about than blogging. I doubt he even knew what the internet was, let alone blogging, but nevertheless I would like to briefly mention him here, for I loved him in the way everyone loves their grandparents, even if now after his death I feel there was so much more I should have asked him.

Philosophical musings are perhaps not what people read this here blog for; but of course there are certain events which make you stop and take stock now and again. For me, the sea is emblematic of such periods. Not only do I find water fascinating (not in a scientific way-in a 'whenever we went to a park I would always spend the whole time by the water features' way!) but to me its depth, mystery-we know more about space than we do about some parts of our oceans-and limitless possibilites are awe inspiring and comforting in their wildness. I take solace in the sea, even if it's just by looking at photos, and whenever I'm on the coast I can spend hours wandering around beaches, no matter what the conditions are.

I sometimes think that to have lived in a Pirates of the Caribbean era, when you never knew what you might find over the next horizon, must have been one of the most exciting times in human history. There's a scene in the second one when Tom Hollander's character (I wrote that because I couldn't bring myself to write 'Lord Cutler Beckett' while still retaining a shred of self-esteem...but then again I'm already talking about a pirate film sooo...) is having a mural of the world painted on his wall, and he remarks that the world is growing smaller and smaller; soon there will be no unknowns to explore. I have an almost constant nostalgia for sort of Lord of the Rings/Arthurian quests, and it saddens me that we live in a world where any remote place can be explored by Google Maps. Perhaps the ocean holds such an allure because it is one place yet unexplored; where anything we care to imagine might really happen.

(fashiontoast.com; hardtoexplain79.blogspot.com; unknown; photodiarist.typepad.com; ren-rox.com; sandmer.se; souvenirsofagirl.blogspot.com)

--TRAIN OF THOUGHT #2--

Whilst perusing various blogs in a spate of internet-induced procrastination, I came across the first photo below, taken by an enterprising blogger using a stool and photoshop. And thus my encyclopaedic (real word? You decide.) mind was off and away on a pleasant ramble...

First stop: this photo which was part of a campaign for flmbljmbl, the well-known clothes retailer...

...which looked like someone floating on the surface of a swimming pool...

...and again...

...which reminded me of Keira Knightley's death scene in Atonement where the tube station floods and she floats away into the darkness (Google would only yield a behind-the-scenes photo I'm afraid...on the upside, it's an amusingly extreme version of photobombing)...

...which looks like these spectacular underwater shots I found on Google aeons ago when I was searching for photos of mermaids. Caj...

...which looks like the rather enigmatic trailer for the new series of Skins! (There is a more conventional (it took me about 30 seconds to think of that word, for some reason) one up now...things aren't looking good. Come back series 1 cast!).

I think you'll agree that these photos prove I am a pretty cool person.

(thyaudaciousness.blogspot.com; fashiongonerogue.com; inafractionofasecond.blogspot.com; tobaccoandleather.blogspot.com; dailymail.co.uk; google.com; e4.com)

-WINTER GLOOM--

With the wind howling outside and the sky cast in a perpetual 5pm gloom, with Black Swan haunting my dreams (I can't wait to see it: ballet+thriller=literally my dream film), mysteriously ambiguous black-and-white photos seem very appropriate for the weekend ahead. Each of these photos seems to pose a question, to leave hanging in the air some vital untold part of their story to entrance and compel us. We can only imagine the answers-if indeed they exist.

(carlesrodrigo.es; chelseashirley.blogspot.com; coldam.com; seaofshoes.typepad.com; photodiarist.com; ren-rox.com; sandmer.se)

--RAWR TALENT--

Have you ever noticed how all titles are puns? Like, literally all of them?

Apologies for such a long gap between posts-I had to hit the ground running with coursework and whatnot, but the last thing's due on Monday so hopefully I'll be back to normal after that. My quest for the perfect sheer blouse with a pocket still continues, any help would be much appreciated. Well done for reaching the end of the week-baby steps, as they say.

It's accidental that so many of the photos below are from more clement seasons than the current one-I think the rise in temperatures (I was outside today in only a t-shirt-for about 2 minutes, but still) has rekindled my yearning for the summer months-although I think this is the first year that I've really appreciated winter, clothing-wise. I'm still not a huge fan of having to wear 7 layers everywhere, but having a nice winter coat/boots/jeans has made a difference. Still, I can't wait for spring.

(alltheprettybirds.blogspot.com; fashiontoast.com; style.com; mrnewton.net; nast-magazine.fr; songofstyle.blogspot.com; carolinesmode.com; streetfsn.blogspot.com; studdedhearts.blogspot.com; style.com; stylescrapbook.com; vanessajackman.blogspot.com)