The winter winds litter London

with lonely hearts.

mumford & sons

Paris Review, Philip Larkin (Summer 1982)

My vintage postcards

Oh and who could resist that lurking wanderlust.

Fortnum and Mason

It feels like Tiffany's to me; nothing bad can ever happen there. The mix of colours and perfumes and delicacies in the store is pure loveliness beyond words. Oh and they do wonderful sundaes in the parlour.

181 Piccadilly
London W1J 9

Les chaussures rouges

*here

'A pretty foot is one of the greatest gifts of nature... please send me your last pair of shoes, already worn out in dancing... so I can have something of yours to press against my heart.'

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Girl of my Dreams II

Francoise Sagan (1935 - 2004)

She took her nom de plume from the Princesse de Sagan of Marcel Proust. She was eighteen years old when she wrote Bonjour Tristesse.

Girl of my Dreams I

Alexa Chung. In six words: edgy young beautiful lady on tv

'Photographing a cake can be art.'

*Truman Capote (Author of Breakfast at Tiffany's), New York, 1948

*Duchess of Windsor, New York, 1948

*Alfred Hitchcock, New York, 1947

The 'Irving Penn Portraits' exhibition at National Portrait Gallery (London) now is absolutely lustrous, stunning and breathtakingly beautiful. It shed a light on how photography can transcend to such an art form that no one has imagined before.

Irving Penn (1917–2009) was one of the great photographers of our time. Focusing specifically on his portraits of major cultural figures of the last seven decades, Irving Penn Portraits is a glorious celebration of his work in this genre.

The exhibition is brought together from major international collections and includes over 120 silver and platinum prints, many vintage, ranging from his portraits for Vogue magazine in the 1940s to some of his last work. Penn photographed an extraordinary range of sitters from the worlds of literature, music and the visual and performing arts. Among those featured in the exhibition are Truman Capote, Salvador Dali, Christian Dior, T.S. Eliot, Duke Ellington, Grace Kelly, Rudolf Nureyev, Al Pacino, Edith Piaf, Pablo Picasso and Harold Pinter.

This fascinating survey brings to light the significance of Penn's visual language and provides a rare opportunity to explore his innovative use of composition, light and printing techniques.

I especially enjoyed a rare portrait of Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly and Yves Saint Laurent when he was twenty-one - still hunting down these wonderful images from the internet.

The exhibition will run until 6 June 2010.

Mad men, mad mad mad men.

Oh so voluptuous and lush and exquisite that it is like boarding on a time machine to the sixties. Mad Men means advertising executives working in ad agencies, and cited as the title of this wonderful drama about 'one of New York's most prestigious ad agencies at the beginning of the 1960s, focusing on one of the firm's most mysterious but extremely talented ad executives, Don Draper.' The plot, the acting and casting is excellent, every character evolves and reveals themselves as the series progresses (there are 3 seasons, I am aching to see season 4 comes out this summer!) The set and props they use are also meticulously beautiful and nostalgic, reminiscent of Manhattan in the golden 60's.

I especially like the office, the way they dress (tea dress, office dress, different cuts and styles in different season, ahhh!), witty comments and most of all, typewriters and big hasselbald cameras and all little details of the art/media department of the agency, Sterling Cooper.

To know more about the cultural/literary/historical context when the story is set, go read the intelligent blogs Mad Men Footnote and What's Alan Watching after each episode!

Ah did I mention the props team of Mad Men also works on the props and sets in the Tom Ford/Colin Firth (who won the Bafta best actor award! <3) A Single Man?

A fraction of eternity;

My favourite set on flickr - Paris 1962, with 'Images from Paris cafés and nightlife in 1962, the same week Yves St. Laurent's runway show vaulted Dior to new heights.' Looking at these photos is like glimpsing through a narrow keyhole to such a beautiful era, with white fume from that cigarette still suffusing the air.

What's Alexa Chung wearing today?

22 February: 'All of this is Miu Miu... Beige cat skirt, black cardi and black cage shoes.'

Alexa Chung (model, TV presenter, British fashion icon and this month's Vogue cover girl) is doing a collaboration with Vogue.co.uk in putting together what she has been wearing every day in February.

*here

Catnapping

*the chap by Clare Owen

*by aforapril

i've always, always, always wanted a cat. cat that rolls on the carpet, hides in his little secret place, watches the street, feasts on its favourite plant in the balcony, sits quietly in the sun, gazes at his own shadow.

Hello, hello

What sort of diary should I like mine to be? Something looseknit and

yet not slovenly, so elastic that it will embrace anything, solemn,

slight or beautiful that comes into my mind. I should like it to

resemble some deep old desk, or capacious hold-all, in which one

flings a mass of odds and ends without looking them through.

- Virginia Woolf

Anna Inghardt

*her photostream