a little bird told me

"Karlie is like my little sister. We share the same birthday and love the same things-especially food! She recently came over to London and stayed with me. I took her to Nando's and she loved it." Jourdan Dunn on Karlie Kloss.

"It's amazing how she goes on influencing every generation" Barbara Hulanicki on Audrey Hepburn.

"This is more than a capsule collection. It's proper: with bags, shoes, knitwear and dresses. It's nothing like any other work I've done in the past. Everything is a bit "wow"." Christopher Kane on his highly, highly anticipated Topshop collection.

"As a heterosexual man, I was always a bit embarrassed of being a fashion photographer and didn't have the confidence to describe myself that way. Now I do have the confidence. It's a weird thing to do, I know, but I just kind of got into it and I think I do it very well." Juergen Teller.

"I think it's super-important for kids to have an imagination, to create their own world as opposed to just being surrounded by televisions and toys." Daria Werbowy's parenting approach.

sources; vogue, elle, topshop, fashionologie

inspiration on a wednesday

this week's 'inspiration on a wednesday post' is a lovely collage that my gorgeous abby made for me. i know, i know, it's kind of cheating, using somebody else's work. but it's the coolest collage packed indeed with many things that both inspire me and make me blush in that best way possible. and besides, abby isn't just somebody else.

so here you are. now away you go, and do some potting of plants, arrange perfectly drooping flowers into glasses or jars, brew yourself a cuppa and sit dangling your legs over the side of the counter like lesley arfin while you drink it. and when you're done with that, reorganise your shoes!

if lux lisbon had lived past fourteen

images, dan martensen

to me, these images have lux lisbon written all over them. right down to the crooked family teeth.

"We managed to see the pockmarked moon steaming silently across space, then blue venus, but when we turned the telescope on Lux's window it brought us so close we couldn't see a thing. What at first appeared the xylophone of her spine, curled in bed, turned out to be decorative molding. A stringy peach pit, left on her bedside table from a time of fresh food, gave rise to a number of lurid conjectures. Any time we caught sight of her, or of something moving, the piece was too small to put the puzzle together, and in the end we gave up, retracting the telescope and relying on our eyes."
- The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

i love you more than being seventeen

it's one minute until I turn eighteen. here is what being seventeen has meant to me.

seventeen is the thrill of strolling past the bouncers and into a bar without getting IDed.
it's being interested in politics and reading about elections and knowing that you're this close to being able to vote for yourself.
it's the third from last year. which means staying up late feeling passionate about song lyrics, feeling like you have slight license to be that little bit more self indulgent than "real" adults.
it's smiling when you hear julian casablancas singing "i love you more than being seventeen" and knowing how strong that love must be.
it's borrowing a friend's passport and learning off by heart their signature contact details in case of emergency.
it's looking back at your friend's 14 year old sibling, marveling at those last three years and everything that has changed.
it's knowing that you can drive if you really want (in the uk at least) but moaning about the cost of road tax and petrol.
it's leaving school, leaving behind people that you know, cutting ties even when you don't want to, looking forward and taking with you all the snippets of information and words of advice from special teachers.

goodbye seventeen, it was a good year. one of the best!

the blogger files

two sites to add to that ever growing catalogue of must-check blogs...

VIVA VENA CAVA

URL: vivavenacava.blogspot.com
TWO REASONS TO HEART VIVA VENA CAVA: 1. The Brooklyn based designers share what is currently making their hearts flutter as opposed to using the page as a medium to shove Vena Cava brand down our throats (though in any case, I think I'd open my mouth quite happily). 2. The content is pleasingly meaty; a review for a cult film here, a behind the scenes look at business trips/birthday parties, and lots of mouthwatering textiles.
YOU'LL BE INSPIRED TO: buy alternative lifestyle interiors books from the 1970s and do whatever you can do to secure a job working in as lovely an environment with people as interesting and cool as the Vena Cava girls.
ANYTHING ELSE? Designers Sophie and Lisa have included their own playlists in the sidebar so you too can listen to the very music that plays in their office as the latest VC pieces come into fruition.

STYLELIKEU

URL: stylelikeu.com
TWO REASONS TO HEART STYLEULIKE: 1. Just as our thirst for nosey The Selby-esque sites increases, luckily so do the amount of wardrobe raiding, apartment trespassing hoodlum bloggers. Elisa and Lily's StyleLikeU is a perfect example. 2 the two have the ever so tiresome job of hanging out in closets with various New Yorkers going through the owner's favourite pieces. Not only do they give us photos to gawp over- the whole thing is filmed too!
YOU'LL BE INSPIRED TO: reorganise your wardrobe, go vintage shopping or generally replicate the entire look of your favourite style case studies.
ANYTHING ELSE? I really like Alexa Winner and Sophie Flinder, so you might want to start looking at the style of those guys.

and on we go

sorry about the break in posting!
have just come back from my second festival of the season.
still reeling after that indescribable experience of a post-festival shower.
now playing catch up and starting on some new posts.
what have you all been up to?
tell me something that is making your heart flutter at the moment.
a pair of shoes, a book, a song lyric, a cake recipe, a lady or lad?

and ps, for those who feel the need to know, or care, it's my birthday in 2 days!
I have reverted back to my 7 year old self with pre-anniversary anticipation and spasms of excitement.

isabel marant's studio

If you were lucky enough to find yourself wandering around Isabel Marant's Paris studio, thumbing through her jersey dress samples or cooing over the Fall 08 collection thigh high boots, these are some of the other delights you would see.

Photographs by Nora Baldenweg, Via Russh Blog.

rachel bilson

I doff my hat to you, Rachel Bilson.
Rb in a Philip Lim shorts suit at the Vogue and Philip Lim party in LA last night.

pic, just jared

inspiration on a wednesday

feeling inspired by what the boys wear.

tim walker talks

You can watch a fantastic interview with photographer Tim Walker over at Showstudio.com. Walker speaks of his work experience at Vogue in the early 90s and the time he spent in the magazine's "dungeon" archiving old Cecil Beaton negatives.

He also talks about his disinterest in the technical side of a camera and his preference instead of the visuals; how set design and styling have influenced the trademark scenery of his photographs.

During the course of the 15 minute interview, Tim Walker also shares the postcards and images of renaissance art that inspired his editorial "A Private World" for Vogue Italia back in November 2008.

I really recommend you watch the video, even if it's only the first five minutes, he makes some very interesting points and it's fascinating to hear him talking about his work and process in so much depth.

You can watch the video here.

heads up

Anyone with size 37 feet (that's UK size 5, US size 7 if we're going to get international about it..) should know that 1) they're blessed and 2) they should be quick and send an email to Alma H who is selling a load of clothes, and not just any old clothes, namely her old ACNE shoes.

I briefly contemplated the possibility of cramming my size 40s into her old white lace up Niara sandals just because I've wanted to for ages, but hey, I don't go a bundle on the "ugly step sister shoe squeezing look."

She's selling them for a beautiful £70 ($115) so, if the shoe fits..

make believe

have a peek at the make believe collection of accessories here

miss stone

images, lara stone thread the fashion spot

conde nast chic

Vogue UK is the latest addition to the gloriously growing list of brand blogs out there. They may not have office bunnies or drunken snaps from their staff parties like they do over at Love (but hey, they're Vogue, they don't do naughty), but they're just as willing to show us the fashion cupboard and model casting mood board. Hallelujah!

Now let the behind the scenes, what-they-wear-to-work posts begin. They've already whet my appetite for Conde Nast Chic with a couple of in-the-office DIYed trouser close ups. Splendid.

Click here for a read of the Vogue UK blog

back in blighty

yesterday, after an early morning swim in the warm sea and a final perfect breakfast spread, I dragged myself away from the little village of benitses in corfu and returned home.

as much as I miss the beautiful landscape and the crazy characters that my friends and I met, it feels good to be back. my inbox is overflowing and there is much catching up to be done, but that is the best part.
quite how it is possible that the fashion world has decided within the space of a week that thigh high boots are compulsory for winter and that isabel luca is the it girl of the moment, I don't know (but hey, so far I'm not objecting.)

chloe skateboarding

Chloe going back to her Kids roots, messing around on the streets of New York with a skateboard and a super8 in the video for 'any fun' by Coconut Records. Dossing about in a grungy jumper and jeans, she could be one of the film's wild teenagers all grown up.

jen brill

"i can't quit you!"

emily

because we may be in corfu and you may be back home but we love you very much sillyhead. here's to some late nights with good chat at "the woods" when we get back.

ps, we'll bring you back a straw donkey and some shell toe rings. (ha!)

now here is some courtney love because i know you love her.
and a list of things to do:

1. check out the charity shop under that red brick arcade by asda. it's the best one in bedminster.
2. take a book and go to the new "don peppes" ice cream parlor which is next to bottelinos.
3. go to the train station, buy a ticket for somewhere completely random and spend the day there.

or if all else fails, sneak into my house, grab your copy of twilight and have a duvet day.

going on a summer holiday

there is nothing like a festival and a summer holiday within the space of a fortnight to play havoc with your blogging pattern. i'm off to corfu for a week with three college friends. my first holiday sans-parents, i'm hoping for some down time, including plenty of reading on the beach and nibbling of baklava and bread and olives.

i've set the timer so that there'll be some spooky, phantom posts doing my blogging job for me in my absense.
here's hoping that all goes according to plan.

and because everything loves being a little self indulgent every now and then..
I want you all to leave a little description of your ideal summer outfits. something you're enjoying kicking back in at the moment and can't take off, or the capsule collection you're dreaming of taking on holiday with you. just a few lines with maybe things that inspire you, the colour you'll be painting your finger nails, the perfume you'll be wearing, the shoes on your feet etc etc.

who knows, I might bring back a straw donkey for the winner!

inspiration on a wednesday

festival

what a fantastic past few days. drinking chai tea in our favourite moroccan cafe, goosebumps as 100,000 sang "loves the greatest thing" together during blur, seeing lizzy jagger and theodora richards strolling around, attempting and failing to master the "she-pee" weeing method, alex kapranos' on-stage flirting during the franz set, watching paper lanterns being released into the night sky in the stone circle field

6 days of dancing and lovely-ness. until next year..