ma belle

I heard this Beatles B-side for the first time the other week and have listened to it many a time since, swooning over the romantic lyrics and melodies that leave you wanting to sway in that self indulgent love sick teenage sort of way. I recommend you listen to it, personally I find it quite unlike their other music. Though this is according to my knowledge of The Beatles which is neither vast nor meagre.

I also leave you with those photograph by Kafa Rusalka that I'm very fond of. Last night I had a smoking dream. I don't think I've had a smoking dream since I was about 15. But in my perfectly relaxed sleepy state this cigarette and the process of inhaling and exhaling proved the most soothing action, completely devoid of that tobacco taste I am so unswayed by. There really is little point in this anecdote because I awoke to the knowledge that I could never (thankfully) hack smoking and this brings us back to the beginning, to the photo. Perhaps it could be a little tribute. A photograph to look at and think 'let us live our smoking dreams (as unhealthy as they are) vicariously through this mysterious and anonymous girl who is enjoying a fag with her coffee and staring ahead immersed in her own little world of contemplations and memories.'

versailles in chilly january

Joanna finally got her many rolls of film developed. As well as the photographs from our 'just gone' trip across the States there are some from our jaunt to Paris back in January. Here I am on one particularly overcast day bracing myself against the biting cold in the gardens of Versailles. Brrr. See in the background the surreal yet beautiful Hameau de la Reine.

broken heal

Sheer plasticy, stretchy, clunky, corrugated, brilliance from Manami Saito. Designed for Central Saint Martins graduate Josefina Larsson's debut collection. Just look at the slant of that heel... makes me think of the legs of a little black lamb wobbling to and fro as it learns to walk.

three blogs

I felt it was only right to share the three blogs that have been occupying both the windows of my internet browser and large chunks of my brain over the past week. three very different girls from three corners of the world all encouraging hundreds of minutes worth of procrastination. these reads are perfect for a rainy weekend under the duvet.



name: shi
location: australia
up your street if: • travel, drawings, the outdoors and candid personal style feature on your likes list.
•you enjoy living life vicariously through photographs of other people's meals and bedrooms
blog: http://www.buffaloparade.blogspot.com

name: megg
location: southern california

up your street if: • you rarely leave the house without a hat on your head
• you're a vintage enthusiast (who isn't?).
blog: http://www.anotherdaytodressup.blogspot.com

name: daniella
location: east london
up your street if: • you're a sucker for a blogger with long blonde tresses
• peg legs/long skirt and parka/floor length coat combos make you happy.

blog: http://www.thefblog.com

franklins

Thanks to the lovely jessica of january I am now madly and deeply in love with these 'franklin' cork platforms from jeffrey campbell. i'm pretty tall and don't tend to wear super duper heels as much as I used to (purely because I don't like my BFG-esque skill of looking down on the rest of the room when I go out in heels-that's how it feels at least..) I feel that these may be the shoes to break the habit for a while at least. Only problem is, where on earth can I get my mitts on them?

topshop make up

Topshop's long awaited Make Up range launches today! It's hot on the heels of an apparent 'nail painting boom' (or at least according to me) thanks to swathes of talon obsessed bloggers who dream of WAH Nails and the American Apparel colour spectrum as they sleep.

Lizzie Dawson and her design team have really hit the nail on the head with this one; a core line of essentials (and I find the word essential really is the most successful weapon in a marketing team's vocab-it always appeals to that side of me in want of capsule closet or beauty collection) and then a new line introduced each season to suit the current mood. 'What's the mood right now?' You may ask? The answer according to Topshop is Festival orientated with Natasha Khan style pots of glitter in ethereal blues and folky golds. I myself am head over heels with the Parma Violet nail shade after daydreaming of lilac nails for the past week. And the lippie in Wine has me truly excited to try a blackberry lipped look for nights out.

The price point of the range is thankfully reasonable with nail polishes at £5, mascaras and lipsticks at £8 and nothing over the price of £10. I know there's nothing like this kind of pricing to have me mindlessly adding items into my basket with dangerous consequences. Oh lord..

the hilariousness of individual style

One of the things that I love about individual style is that you can have so much admiration and respect for a way in which somebody dresses while knowing that never in a million years would you have the desire or even the ability to dress like them. And this is truly say without any prejudice, I think it comes more from multiple occasions of fawning over a real person's style (say a friend or a neighbour) and wishing to replicate it on some level only to realise that you don't need to in order to appreciate. Understanding that while experimentation is great and fun there are some styles that you'll be able to love more when they're viewed from afar.

It is with this in mind that I post a video from stylelikeu.com of Natasha Ghosn. I got so much pleasure from hearing Natasha talk about her approach to style; she goes beyond seeing things as being 'fun'. Not fun as in declaring a love of niche trinkets or detailing and rolling out statements like "so when I see something with feathers, I know I have to buy it, because it's so fun and it's so me." she actually talks about the hilariousness of age inappropriate outfits. She sits nonchalantly in the company of a cheeky smile and a cigarette in her hand and describes the pink trouser suit she is wearing. "This is really not appropriate for a 23 year old girl with my lifestyle. There is no reason I would ever need to wear a pantsuit. But that's whats so funny about it. It's hilarious. It's like I almost want my own talk show, just so I can wear my suit all the time."

She works in retail and deals with clothes everyday so it's not as simple as saying 'oh how refreshing, this person doesn't really care about style they just like to have fun' because that would be doing Natasha a dishonour. But there is something that certainly makes me smile upon seeing her patch emblazoned denim jacket and hearing her stories of fishing through junkyard bathtubs for new additions. It's like she applies a history to her clothes without a need to weight it down with intellectual worthiness. Sure, she took classes in the History of Dress but I think at the end of the day it's the difference between our styles that really fascinates me. Fuzzy jackets reminiscent of bumblebees and old tape measure necklaces, it's like she's saying 'these are things that would have pleased me as an 8 year old and they still please me now. Isn't the inappropriateness hilarious?"

in the pipeline

This is me and Ellis about an hour ago at hers. I spent the day there taking photographs of her and the contents of her wardrobe for a feature which will be up soon. Think lots of Monki and Weekday mixed with chunky knitwear and sturdy leather shoes. Sigh. (I might add that Britain's three weeks of Summer seem to have ended. The Sun kind of muttered "Yeah mate, that's all you'll be getting til 2011" before retreating behind the clouds and pushing out a cold spell.) So Ellis's knitwear is really a must despite the fact it's now May. Um, Thanks?

first of may

And in May Day spirit, why not watch some Morris Dancing? But mashed up with 'Acid Rain' by The Growlers for something a little different:

moodboard

1. bill owens 2. dries van noten 3. hollie fernando 4. own photo 5. american apparel
6. ali macgraw in 'love story' 7. faye dunaway in 'the eyes of laura mars' 8. jane birkin and serge gainsbourg 9. carmen kass by lina scheynius
10. julie delpy and ethan hawke in 'before sunrise'.

wear camel colours, carry a basket, consider thin summer knits, have julie delpy as your style model in all things philosophy, love and intellect related, wear high socks just below the knee, have a bill owens photograph framed for your room.