Elle and Venetia

 

Elle Fanning shot by Venetia Scott, styled by Beth Fenton for Self Service Magazine No 36.  (Via Through A Glass Darkly) 

You had me at "full bamboo bar set". Seriously, I spent a good long time the other day searching online for bamboo furniture. And this one, on which Elle Fanning is stool-lounging is the best I've seen yet. I want to bring some cool West Coast bungalow vibes to the small flat I will soon be living in...above a shop...in Manchester. Not quite the recipe for 'cool West Coast bungalow vibes' but hey, if bamboo furniture is good enough for Elle Fanning and The Dude..

I really love this shoot and I really love Elle Fanning. I wish there were more girls like Elle Fanning and Tavi Gevinson visible. They're so smart and awesome and I like that they're cool without having used growing up too quickly as a currency to get there. 

outfit

The WEB Dubois library at UMass has 26 floors (it's the tallest University Library in the world, fact friends) and although I'm not keen on the building itself I do love the murals that cover the walls of the two never-ending claustrophobic concrete staircases that plunge through the centre of the building. This one is my favourite and makes for a nice background to a 'library outfit' (I'm in the midst of paper writing).

Moodboard

Cool things: 1. Julia Robert's armpit hair (and on the subject of her armhair, loved this short piece over at The Guardian) 2. I've been thinking about Marabou for a while (see these vintage slippers from Etsy or Cary Grant in Bringing Up Baby) and craving wearing some fluffy shoes with some slim blue jeans and a big ole jumper. 3. The women over at Cooler. I hadn't realised what a little goldmine the website for the womens surfing magazine is until Michelle from Cheapskate Chic mentioned it. 4. Portrait of Wolfgang Tillmans from Fantastic Man, June 2010. 5. Brigitte Bardot parachuting in this video.

Football 'Ead

 

 

"Hey, Football Head!" (In the words of Helga from Hey Arnold.) How's this for an editorial? I'm a sucker for sports themes editorials (which definitely has no correlation whatsoever to the fact that I'm not a very sporty person but deep down I wish I was.) 'Playing The Field' from the Spring 2012 issue V Magazine is an absolute gem, shot by Alasdair McLellan, with Bambi Northwood Blyth as a stout-drinking pitch-side spectator (and very possibly half-time goalpost flirter.) Basically she's a solid Northern lass with solid allegiances to Doncaster Rovers, a solid centre-parting and presumably a pretty solid portion of her wardrobe dedicated to some pretty solid jackets.

Bay Garnett on Cheap Date

"..It was about thrifting and independence. I found fashion magazines so elitist. Cheap Date was really just a part of who I was; there was nothing really contrived about it."

Photograph via Shardette.

Great interview with Bay Garnett over at Oyster Mag. It has me holding my breath for a possible future relaunch of Cheap Date (especially frothing at the mouth at the idea of a website launch.) The Cheap Date Guide to Style (co-authored by Kira Jolliffe) was my style bible in my teens. And it still pulls me faithfully through style funks and the ever-so-occasional blip moments of "but does is all really matter?" when on a Monday morning I might stand cluelessly in front of my wardrobe and wonder whether 'good style' is all some hideous conspiracy. (A quick flick through Cheap Date would act as the equivalent of a girlfriend leaning in a doorway saying "Chill out, man. Just have fun. Look, wear this, it'll make you look like the sexiest, most carefree broad out there.") 

And one of my favourite parts of the interview: What is the essence of Cheap Date? "Independence, imagination, spirit, anarchy, wit, and kindness." Aka, the six components of a brilliant and everlasting friendship rolled into an awesome and dependable style zine.

Anais World

There's something about Anais Pouliot. Really love this editorial from the latest issue of Tank Magazine.

Shot by Viktor Vauthier with styling from Pandora Lennard. 

Pink Things

1. This is one of the corridors in the Student Union. It's lined with offices with big open windows and painted a brilliant salmon pink, and there are tables for working. So not only is it great for voyeurism and people-watching purposes, it is also "colourfully" pleasing. May just repaint my bedroom in salmon..

2. I bought this nail varnish a few days ago and I can honestly say, hand on heart, it is the best glitter nail varnish of all time. (It's Milani nail varnish in "Disco Lights", I've never heard of Milani before, so it may just be an American brand. Very possibly a Barry M equivalent, i.e., loved by teenage girls and shoplifters alike.) The glitter spreads on really liberally, so it looks like you've just tipped your nails into a pot of it. I always wanted to give using 'real' glitter a go, going over the top of it in clear polish, but the faffy-sounding process always put me off a little bit. This nail varnish has pretty much the same effect though, and it's bordering on silly how happy it's been making me since I first put it on. "Dude, it's nail varnish." "..I can't help it."

3. You know the deal, I often rattle on about something that's on my 'wishlist' for a good while before actually buying it. This isn't something I necessarily like about myself as it's probably a long-term side effect of all those Alvin Hall money programmes I used to watch with my Mum when I was little. But as my last set of headphone have just given up the ghost, I finally bought a pair of Koss Porta Pro Stereo Headphones after I saw a girl last year wearing a pair on the bus in Manchester and looking all Natalie Portman and 'deep in thought'. It's like a revelation wearing these headphones! I hadn't realised I'd been previously subjecting myself to shoddy quality music listening. "Have you heard of this new band? I've been listening to them all week. They're just so unique and, and..tinny.." Alas, no more tinny music, no more..

Bob your hair and play Basketball.

Beautiful shots from the April issue of British Vogue, shot by Bruce Weber and Joe McKenna. Especially love the Arizona Muse-esque bobbed hair, the perfect white rollneck from Pringle and the sporty presence of basketballs and neoprene surfing gear. I've been completely cut off from British magazines since I've been out in America so I'm looking forward to catching up on Vogue when I come home in a month. The Gentlewoman, Husk and Tank are all top of my list.

Ps, you guys have seen this old video of Joe McKenna singing Cha Cha at the Opera, right? 

Opening Ceremony x London

Photographs of the new Opening Ceremony commuter shop at Tokyo's Shinjuku train station.

Man, this is such exciting news. Opening Ceremony are to open a pop-up shop on Covent Garden's King Street this July as a savvy celebration of the London Olympics and a permanent store with follow in the Autumn. Who doesn't love Opening Ceremony? A trip to New York is never quite complete without a visit to their Howard Street outpost for a peek at their constantly awesome and innovative collaborations and a wander around their deliciously designed floors. I can't wait to have a UK-based Opening Ceremony to call our own. I'm particularly excited about being able to go in a coo over endless pairs of chunky Marques Almeida shoes (Opening Ceremony are one of only 3 stockists), 'Radarte' Rodarte tees, the Chloe Sevigny x Opening Ceremony collection (duh) and having a peruse of the collaborations with both Adidas and Topshop which will launch along with the pop-up store. 

Fingers crossed also for some awesome Kenzo decor in the same style as the SS12 displays seen at Harvey Nichols (see Susie's post here..) and the possibility of some sort of accompanying eatery. It is a 3,000 square foot store after all.. 

Kicking in Cortez in China

Really love these two videos which are a collaboration between Nike China and Tank Magazine to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the classic Nike Cortez running trainer.

The first follows Liu Xiao ("a makeup artist who usually doesn't wear makeup herself"-intriguing.) while the second features designer Richie Chan and actress and writer Tian Yuan. Styling comes from Isabelle Sawyer (who has also styled a really awesome Year Book Portrait editorial in the latest issue of Hot and Cool Magazine) and a flawless soundtrack from London-based Slime (whose EP Increases is definitely worth a listen to.) 

These videos definitely put drizzly days into an appealing light. Drizzly days that involve walking around the Jinhua architecture park in China from under the protection of a nice cosy mac, and atop huge geometric paving slabs, naturally.