Lately

*Days with my Father by Phillip Toledano: the most poignant story about living with his Father in search of fragments of things past.

Every time I revisit this story it gives me the strength to carry on. Lately, my granduncle passed away last week back home, work hasn't been going so well and I just had the most horrible bout of food poisoning that left me feeling violently ill. Nevertheless, no matter how disastrous things seem, the only thing we can control is our own strength, faith and perspective. My granduncle is one of the most gentle and bohemian spirits I have ever known - and he would probably have given me a big squeeze on the shoulder and quietly passed me the sweetest strawberries from his little food store to freshen me up from this rather awful state.

I wish all things are well up there, and you are enjoying all the richness that the world above has to offer.

x

*New York, New York

Vehement silhouettes of Manhattan - that vertical city with unimaginable diamonds.

Le Corbusier

I have begun planning my 8-day trip to New York City - The plan so far:

• MoMA, Guggenheim, The Met, Whitney Museum (for my beloved Edward Hopper!)
• Das Rheingold at Met Opera (30 Mar) - It is already sold out so would need to get there at 10am to get student tickets, eek
• Smalls Jazz Club at Greenwich Village for the late night swings
• Have cocktail at Dutch Kills, Queens
• Watch Bill Cunningham New York!
• Get some vintage-inspired, beautifully crafted Warby Parker eyeglasses in Union Square
• The legendary Brooklyn Flea as blogged by Garance Doré

I am stocking on 35mm film already and spend every day watching Breakfast at Tiffany's and Manhattan and feverishly waiting for the 24th of March to come. (And of course, sorting out the US visa is the top priority in order to materialise this American dream, ahhh)

If any of you has been to NYC and know of lovely places to go, please do tell me!

x

Lesson from the Boyfriend

*Paris, Spring 2009

Through the previous years of repeated sartorial blunder, I finally realise guys actually have a much better idea of how to dress well and maximise utility of their wardrobe, without burning a hole in their wallets. That's how my bf does it - so effortlessly yet so effective!

1. Stick to your Power Palette

It is important to wear colours that you are comfortable with - yellow top and orange maxi dress may look pretty awesome on that asos model, but might make you feel like a display board for exotic fruits festival when walking in town. Boyfriend loves his blue jumpers, oxford shirts and striped tops and wear them all year long with jeans. For me, I love neutral - and tend to mix my black and white basics with either shades of blue, navy, camel, brown or gray, or a few of those colours together. My odd lipstick red jumper and jade green top are for those spring/autumn/seasonal transition times.

2. Buy if You Truly Love It - and get the most out of it

Boyfriend only has one bag, one pair of shoes and two coats (one for very cold winter days and one for other times) - but he looks good in them, relies on them and wears them to death. The blazer he is wearing in picture was bought when we were wandering in Tokyo in 2008 summer. When we went into the shop, he fell in love with this vintage, brown and subtly velvety blazer and bought it right away. I was it was rather impulsive at first, but soon I realised how much he adored this jacket - by the fact that he wears it every day and it goes with everything that he owns. 3+ years on and he still gets tons of compliments whenever he wears it, while I hardly wear anything that I bought less than 3 years ago!

3. Shopping is not Fun, Often it is a Chore

The truth is, I never go shopping with Boyfriend, because he moans and groans whenever he goes near Oxford Street/Topshop/any shops with loud pop music blasting in the background. For him, shopping is a rather meaningless activity in weekend when the last thing you want to do is to go near anywhere crowded with people bumping around with giant shopping bags when you squeeze yourself between the aisles and queue up endlessly for the fitting room only to come out with more debt and clothes that you barely wear. And does it, really genuinely make you happy, this shopping activity?

4. Try Buying Less Online

Guys rarely buy clothes online. Online shopping is no better than buying in stores in a sense that you do not get to see the piece of real life to feel the texture or cutting of it. Clothes often look pretty on the hanger but look silly on self and with ebay, I have had numerous faux pas since I often got things that looked rather nice in picture but really did not suit me - £4 for a topshop dress might seem like a bargain but if it is not something that you will be wearing, it is £4 going straight to the bin.

But of course, sometimes when you get exclusive online discount on some sites - they can be pretty good deals and help you save money on the skirt that you have had your eye on for ages in store. But do think twice before you key in the discount code!

5. Inspiration Sites

We love going onto Nerd Boyfriend for occasional inspiration and mostly a good laugh. And this is my all-times favourite.

:)

p.s. I am going into the country for the weekend and will be back soon!

Fashion is Danger

I resist the idea of being labelled as a 'fashion blog' in any ways - mainly because although I am interested in the idea of maintaining a clean, sleek style that is suitable for work and play while flattering my petite physique (I seek inspiration from Dead Fleurette and Out of the Bag, and also other blogs from the blogroll), the almost cyclic consumerist habits that accompany the idea of 'following fashion trend'/'fashion week'/'sale'/'final reduction' are something that I would not like to fall into. There is no way we can endlessly buy and consume without sacrificing our earth's limited resources, no matter how 'organic' or 'recycled' the materials are. Fashion is meant to be pretty to look at and ephemeral, but I do not want my clothes to entirely be like that.

I am very comfortable in my jumpers and pea coat, thank you very much. And no, I do not want that varsity outfit, nor that pair of neon pants. I want something that I would not regret wearing in the future, something that puts me at ease, something that makes me fall in love with it again every time as it faithfully hugs my frame.

Cinematic Writing II

'It was a warm evening, nearly summer, and she wore a slim cool black dress, black sandals, a pearl choker. For all her chic thinness, she had an almost breakfast-cereal air of health, a soap and lemon cleanness, a rough pink darkening in the cheeks.'

'...Guided by a compact mirror, she powdered, painted every vestige of twelve-year-old out of her face. She shaped her lips with one tube, coloured her cheeks from another. She pencilled the rims of her eyes, blued the lids, sprinkled her neck with 4711; attached pearls to her ears and donnered her dark glasses; thus armoured, and after a displeased appraisal of her manicure's shabby condition, she ripped open the letter and let her eyes race through it while her stony small smile grew smaller and harder.'

- Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany's

breaking the morning fast

*by Jennifer Causey at Simply Breakfast.

A certain morning routine is certainly good for the morale. Now that spring is slowly approaching but is nowhere to be seen (when all you do is jumping up from your bed and opening your blinds early morning only to welcome yet another day covered with a blanket of cloud) it is important to have a good breakfast/things-to-do in the morning. I wish my morning routines are as beautiful as Jennifer's but now they mostly consist of filling up the bowl with crunchy nut cereals, turning on the kettle for tea (and forgetting to make the tea at the end! Garrr) and catching up on the news/blogs/happenings - then I rush to the library, sit there for hours facing a blank page on the word processor. Often the thoughts are buzzing in my head but all I have in front of me is the silence - because of the lack of coherent utterance, failure to materialise my thoughts.

This really has to stop.

The only distraction only comes from within ourrselves.

Now I need to depend on cooking good, slow dinners at night and writing on Ommwriter.

Reminder to Self

Coming up

... And I am having my breakfast in bed, planning for the coming week. Schoolwork and deadlines are creeping up all over the place, and it is nice to finally gain some motivation and momentum back on tackling those unfathomable essays. If I finish all the things I need to by thursday, I hope to write about:

• the list of things-to-do and places-to-go in New York City (I am going there to visit in late March!)
• why this is not a fashion blog
• the etymology of 'miss little lime'
• continue with my London places series (here)

And finally, an anonymous person offers a word of wisdom in that spirit:

If everything does not go right, turn left!

Closet Confidential: Garance Dore

Elle UK March 2011 - Click to enlarge!

Thinking ahead...

For a late summer wedding. Thanks to H&M Conscious Collection I now have much larger array of white/cream coloured dresses to choose from! (You can check the collection more through here or here. The collection will be on sale from 14 April onwards in all stores)

The first dress is made with recycled polyester while the second dress is of organic cotton. Would you say oui or non? To which? (Nevertheless, what do they mean by 'conscious' here? Do they mean 'conscientious'? Hmm.)

Cinematic Writing

'Pain, that was not yet the pain of love, fretted his heart. Silently, in a dream she had come to him after her death, her wasted body within its loose brown graveclothes giving off an odour of wax and rosewood, her breath, that had bent upon him, mute, reproachful, a faint odour of wetted ashes.'

De Vivre La Langue

Advertising campaign for a language school. I love good typography (:

z z z

My energy is slowly dwindling in the face of work and mental exhaustion. I am struggling with coming up with a clear, concise thesis statement for the ten-thousand-word essay, but then my tutor says,

'If it is not hard, it is not really worth doing isn't?'

He is damn right! I might as well just hang in there. Meanwhile, without the consolation of a beautiful blind-fold, Givenchy black dress or the company of a stray cat à la Hepburn I seek comfort in bottomless cups of Darjeeling tea, the ephemeral February sunshine and wishing for signs of an early spring.

serendipity

sept.

After a whole year of frantic hunt I am now finally wearing the dream black scallop shorts (with concealed buttons and pockets, high waisted) - and believe it or not, they are from this season's asos!

My Favourite Feline

This must sound rather silly - but I was filled with sheer joy when Kitty made it to the tumblr of dreamcats! (:

Kitty is a bit more than two years old and moved from France to Ireland two winters ago. She is a truly amazing cat - she spends her idle days climbing trees, catching mice, cuddling with you and going meow meow meow all day long.

An Ideal Dwelling

*sources: Freunde von Freunden

My idea of the dream house - it will be flooded with light and small plants and jazz music and bird songs and aroma of fresh cut flowers. There will be books, old and new, all scattered around the place. My parents will come for tea on weekends and we will walk around the market; then we will prepare a full-blown dinner for family friends. I will cook, and my boyfriend will pick the wine.

But location of the house? Yet to be known.