Dumdumdeeedum... Skipping Along to Another LFW Show!!!

Short post this evening... Might be something to do with the huge lack of sleep I've been living on lately ( - I'm a massive insomniac - ) and also work being really quite hectic at the mo. Oh, and the lovely, and slightly expensive, very merry evening out I've had. Sigh.

Anyhoo... As you may have noticed if you read the lovely Claire's blog, The View From Here, we went to another fashion show on Monday evening.

Claire - Glam as ever...

Moi straight from work... I look like a small child hehe. (Take note of the velvet hair scrunchie... I am newly obsessed!!!) Wearing: vintage Escada wine silk shirt, Luella bag, Cheap Monday self-studded jeans, M&S sandals, Boots bordeaux velvet hair scrunchy.

It was the Maaike Mekking show at CAMP near Old Street - very East London, very too-cool-fash-un... Claire and I had a great time commenting incessantly on everyone's ensembles, and yumyumyumming at the red velvet cakes that were on offer. (Not so much at the wine though...)

The show, which annoyingly started almost an hour late, did present some rather cool clothes, the stand-out ones of which I attempted to get good photos of in poorly lit conditions on a poor camera. Like Claire, I felt that a lot of the clothes were let down by some rather shoddy modelling. If you're going to have non-professional models, then at least brief them on how to walk, the speed at which they should go, and that they should STOP at the end of the runway. I missed some photo ops on my favourite pieces because a couple of the girls moved far too fast and didn't even pause for breath at the end of the white carpet... Sigh.

However, I did appreciate several elements of this collection. Aside from the cupcakes, I rather liked the oriental details, the cut outs and the subtle definition of the girls' silhouettes behind both structured and loose clothes. The show was simple, but by having them walk against a wall, the shadows emphasised the free-flowing movement which made several of the pieces rather interesting. Saying that, one of my favourite pieces was a rather stiff white dress, so maybe I should just shush! ;-D

This floaty pleated trouser and white top with bra-as-outerwear thing going on was rather special and I was sad not to get a better shot... I think the collection, with it's muted but striking pallette and hints of lovely pattern-creativity was overall good. I'm not sure I enjoyed it as much as Saturday as the crowd was a bit too hip for little ol' me, and the lighting and models - annoying, niggling details - really put me off.

Adore this dress... Great brocade-esque details.

Scary China Doll look... Love the shirt though!

But maybe the cupcakes and the white dress, cute white shirt and pleated trousers may have been worth the adventure into East-London-Land for me...

Night All!

Xxxc

Going round on the windmills in my mind...

Mishmash of street syle (The Sart, Style Slicker and Copenhagen Street Style), the makeup and colourway from the Kinder Aggugini show and the Richard Nicoll for Topshop stuff from Dazed Digital...

Feast:

I regularly think I prefer street style photos to runway... There's just so much more personality.

Though I did have several mini heart attacks at the TopShop unique show... Lots of my favourite 'colour' - grey grey grey - yum yum yum - aren't I wierd? Cyberspace meets 80s meets circus. Yum. I'm feeling more black and shiny these days. plus I've always loved metallic. ;-D

sequin wings? off the shoulder? me likey!

FIT purple sequinned pants... Probably akin to my ASHISH rarely worn sequinned rugby top, but so so so perfect for Planet Angel...

OMG!!! HAVE TO HAVE THAT TUNIC!!! SERIOUSLY!!!

Jewellery-crush...

I so have this as a DIY project... Neon fabric paint, black body con dress... Numnumnum.

Grey layers... All slouchy... Yay.

Xxxc

Love for Literary Feeling

Jumping on the Clothes Horse's beautiful bandwagon... I love bookshelves. When I go to a lecturer's office for a supervision, nothing fascinates me more than taking a gander at their bookshelves. One thing in this place that makes us lucky (in my view) is all the lovely lovely space for books. I have 11 good sized book shelves in my room... Far more than I could fill with the books my parents allow me to lug back and forth, but I do my best!

So... Up first we have my two 'down time' shelves... Top Shelf: One half filled with dvds (a strange and mildly embarrassing selection of Studio Ghibli cartoons, Buster Keaton silent loveliness, Star Trek films, chick flicks of an extremely unintellectual nature, and lots of French films), the other half, with juice (and alcohol out of the picture... Such a student eh ;-D)

Bottom shelf: Holst - The Planets score, psychology books, bibliophilia and fashion interviews, my Ghana guide, a bit of (soc and bio) anthropology and some 'classics' - I believe we can see Tolstoy's War and Peace...

 

Now we have a little further along the same bookshelf, missing out Mitford, Golding, Dante and Rillke, we come to my depressing Russian novel, Kapuscinski and Tenessee Williams obsessions, part of my Cambridge Pocket Shakespeare collection, Henry James spine chillers, the obvious Austin, the Bride of Lammermoor and Wuthering Heights... The stripy spine is a book of ghost stories. The rest of this shelf contains marshmallows and a lot of books on sewing and costume, a book on Mikhail Baryshnikov and my college's 500 anniversary book.

Next up, we have my 'everyday' bookshelf... The one with academic books; my own and library ones. They're made up of lots of archaeology, a few tomes of theology, a bit of art history and a few biographies and historical accounts. We also have my BRIGHT folders, some of my birthday cards, my Fresh Horses DVD for a moment when I can justify the procrastination, pictures of my cats, my Greek orthodox rosary, lots of post-its, some NARS and paul and joe make up, my CdG perfume, rescue remedy and my notebook stash. No particular order to that. FIT huh! ;-D

My room mate and I really are different in too many ways to count... One of these ways is in our bookshelves. Firstly, my room has quite a bit more book space... Secondly, we have completely different book-taste! Lookie-see...

See! Lots of scary science and management... Though some of those management tomes might work their way onto my shelves next year since I'm (*crossed fingers*) taking it for part III... What a strange thought!

Lots of DVDs, a few art materials... And the Badger-Pooh! I got these (Squirrel, Deer, Beaver and Badger) for myself and my closest friends a little while back... Mine will probably be shown in my next room post...

Bookshelf organising aside, I really am a bibliophile... I love spending hours in book shops... Independent, new booksellers or Dusty old booksellers. Just no high street chain, thank you very much! My favourite places have to be Daunt Books on Marylebone High Street and John Sandoe Books off the King's Road, both in London. The former is an amazing building, filled with travel writing and fiction mostly, but they have a gorgeous 2nd hand gallery above the Western Europe room. John Sandoe is probably where my heart lies... I've been going there since, well, I was pushed around in a pushchair! We used to live in Chelsea, on the KR itself, and it still feels like home to me. I try to make a trip to John Sandoe about once a fortnight when I'm home, as the people in there are so amazingly knowledgeable, and I've known several of them since I was teeny-tiny... They can find anything, from anywhere too!

I also love to read books about books. If you ever want a quick and uplifting read, Anne Fadiman's 'Ex Libris' is a beautiful little collection of essays. And looks cute too!

Finally... If you're ever in a bookstore with me, get out of the way... I'm a fiend when it comes to buying the things. Always have been, always will be. 

At least I don't buy Mills and Boon by the bucketload anymore!!! (Yes, that was a middle school phase...) Hehe ;-D

Xxxc

Why a Monaco's Royals better dressed than anyone elses?!?!?!

Okay, so first they had Grace Kelly, now they have Charlotte Casiraghi...
I'm not a big celeb / royal watcher - but on style.com this week, they had a feature, and I just had to comment.
This girl has been born into vast amounts of money and privelige, and therefore has no excuse not to be stylish and beautiful... but I still can't help my jaw drop in awe at her presence and beautiful (-y put together) wardrobe.



She even carries off my favourite make-up 'thing' - red lips - and a skin-tight red dress with panache... Go her! These may not seem the kind of statement fit for a royal, but this girl is unafraid to take risks, and be imaginitive while still remaining proper and a bit of an ice queen ;-D





and to make it even better, she doesn't look as if she starves herself! and still can pull of chanel couture and body-con stuff (okay, so she's no way above a 10, and is probably an 8, but at least she doesn't look anorexic!!!)

I shall watch, and learn... She isn't too 'put-together' - and for that I salute her. I'll certainly be taking notice of any mention of her in future!