Weekend Away: Paris August 26, 2009

I have always dreamed of being in a band. And when I was in Paris at the weekend, we spotted this on the ground, outside my favourite shop in Montmatre.

I’ve been to Paris a few times now, but have never seen any of the cemetries there. We went to Cimitiere Montparnasse because I wanted to see Jean Seberg’s tombstone. It was very sunny that day. And she was nowhere in sight.

I found Serge Gainsbourg’s instead.  His was filled  with cigarettes, metro tickets other curiousities like this Bob charm.

It was a funny coincidence as only two days ago, my friend Siobhan was telling us how she liked the name Bob. We decided that the Bob in Twin Peaks was one Bob we didn’t like.

The best thing about being away is having the time to walk about. I remember when I lived in Edinburgh thinking that it was lacking a river. Having a river = having bridges. Bridges make a city very pretty.

Walking around a city is the best way to discover hidden gems. Nothing is better than stumbling upon a spot of beauty.

Or spotting the prettiest petits fours. When travelling, breakfast can be long and leisurely. Not unlike a weekend brunch. We had a breakfast of freshly baked breads. We were served a selection of yummy jams and nutella. Mmm..

I like revisiting cities that I love. You end up with a list of favourite places. Almost like you lived in that city.  In Paris, a favourite gallery is the Fondation Cartier.

The exhibition we saw was Grafitti- Born on the Streets. On the way out, we spotted a bunch of grafitti artists tagging a wall propped up in front of the building. It was a nice touch by the curators.

It’s in the Cards March 23, 2009

One of my bestfriends is having her birthday party soon. The theme she has chosen is off Alice in Wonderland. She’ll be having a Madhatter’s Tea Party in Callooh Callay, a bar in Shoreditch so named as a nod to a Lewis Carroll poem. Naturally the design aspects of such a theme has been on the cards of late. I ffffound this Russian prison deck which led me to look for more in this direction. Playing cards have always fascinated. And for a long time they were the first thing to spring to mind when you heard the words “inflight entertainment”.  They provide the perfect canvas for designers to play around with and magicians love this easy-to-carry prop for demonstrating magic tricks. I wondered about playing cards in fashion…

I thought of Topshop’s AW08 Alice in Wonderland inspired collection which I thought was better on paper than in execution. I only came away with some heart print underwear which are cute but nothing out of the ordinary. I am surprised that although the suits make really easy prints for design, I’ve not actually seen much out there. Apart from hearts, the other suits have not really made it as a design for print. It is a bit of a shame really as you can see above clubs make quite a nice little alternative to flowers as a print. I met Elizabeth Lau in Paris a couple of years ago and was really pleased to see her name pop up in quite a few places recently. The amicable designer has a lovely approach with her use of love hearts in her quirky designs. This dress is a nice little example of what I was hoping to find when researching playing cards.

Accessories are the finishing touches, so I was pleased to find the handmade jewellery from Joolz found via this blog. The multi-strand pearl necklace is accented with butterlies made out of  vintage playing cards.

Tache-tastic February 11, 2009

The moustache has been a big source of amusement and entertainment for me. It all started with Dali and his moustache. From the day when Tyler and I went around the supermarket  with fake moustaches looking for treacle to make gingerbreadmen to the night at The Egg where I danced quite seriously with a moustache above my lip.

And so the obsession continued, one work Christmas do we were given fake moustaches to wear over lunch, much to everyone’s delight.  Although I would have been equally happy with the moustache pencils.

One of Guy’s first presents to me was a serious fat man’s tache which I hang by my door like it’s for sale. And then came the Moustache Envy badges Sarah bought for me. This year for my birthday, my lovely friends found a moustache ring for me from Tatty Devine.  It’s a beautiful ring and great for instant fancydress occasions.

I am delighted to see the number of moustache products out there. Clearly, moustaches make people happy. Here’s a blog with many a hairy post and if you wanted to go out dancing in London, there’s the Moustache Bar in Dalston or in Paris, here’s a club for moustachioed boys and girls.

Let’s start from the very beginning… December 9, 2008

About a year ago, on my regular browse on day-lab, I fell in love with these vintage jumbo initial pins. This time last year, day-lab still shipped internationally, but there were no “A”s or “Q”s or even “K”s. I continued to check, almost obsessively to see if perhaps one day, Amy would find more of these dead stock and upload them on her site. Instead of finding the correct letters in this style, the site was updated with more varieties of initial jewellery. And still to no avail. There was nothing in these letters. It suddenly felt like I was playing a very bad game of scrabble. Speaking of which I did buy some scrabble tile earrings from Brick Lane ages ago and was pleased that “A” and “Q” made up 11 points on their own.

I remember my mum buying my dad embroidered hankies with the letter “Q” in the corner. They were just so classy and made a special gift for the gentleman, that is my dad.

I guess those hankies had something to do with my need to get my hands on something similar.  I had a flash of genius. I was going to save a search on Ebay for initial. So for awhile now, I have been getting daily results for initials. Unfortunately this has resulted in some pretty ugly pieces of jewellery, and mostly in the letters that I wanted.

In October, I was in Paris for work. The apartment in Montmartre is next to the best junk shop in the world. Outside the window display is filled with heads of dolls, leather partridge pins in French colours. This shop as my friends had predicted had my name all over it. I spent a good hour and more in this teeny-tiny shop, the size of a medium bathroom. I found some gifts for everyone and myself! I walked out with wooden blocks of letters in beautiful fonts, a plastic red sailboat brooch (which I have unfortunately lost- boo) and a vintage thin gold leather belt (which is already falling apart 2 months on).  I spent much of that hour looking through a tiny box that was filled with vintage initial brooches. And again, no chance pour moi.  A feeling of stubborness came over me and I decided to buy a “Y”. I was going to tell people that it is not always about the initial, but also the end. My name ends with “Y”, so this brooch is mine.  I convinced myself that I was more than qualified to be wearing a “Y”.

I stopped looking.

And on Saturday, we went to Broadway Market to get some brunch. It was a gorgeous day with a clear blue sky. And something caught my eye. And there amongst the beautiful bird hairbands and pearl brooches that were being sold by Jessie Chorley and Buddug lay some pretty decent-sized initials. A quick scan and I found them. Quite easily my new favourite earrings.

I went to bed yesterday satisfied with my weekend find and listened to Serge Gainsbourg’s Initiales B.B.

Nature’s Confetti For The Pink Sky October 19, 2008

Autumn has captured my attention big time this year. It started early in October, in Paris at the Tuileries the trees that line the park looked like fireworks with leaves glowing yellow and golden.  The weekend after, in Edinburgh I walked all over the city, captured by the strong colours of falling and fallen leaves. I stopped under many trees, and looked through the leaves hoping to catch the sunbeams. It reminded me of the Size + Matter pavillion in South Bank that was part of the London Design Festival.

Back in London, I was happy to see the leaves carpet the tar roads like nature has been celebrating the golden autumnal sun. Shades of red, orange and yellow fall off the trees and are crisp under each step like nature had been showering us with confetti. In America Fall is so spectacular that people go leaf peeping.

The sunset during this season is breathtaking. I was on the bus on Thursday and it stopped on Chelsea Bridge for a good few minutes, in time for me to witness a sunset that left streaks of pink in the sky. I didn’t think I would be so lucky to see another beautiful sunset again so soon. But tonight on the rooftop of Tower House, we saw one. It provided quite the backdrop for an amazing view of the Gherkin and created a skyline that made London almost magical.

I thought of Nathan Fake’s The Sky Was Pink and kissed the boy.