Easy Rider

Considering I conjured up a top 5 "Best Leather Jacket Wearing/Purchasing/Caring Rules" list (try saying that after 3 French Martinis) I figured it only appropriate I adhere to them.

This evening for dinner with the boyfriend (Tapas, Sangria and Spanish Lessons) I coordinated my beige, thrifted leather jacket over a very pretty, black, cotton, lace dress. Leather counteracting Lace - I think it worked. Let me know what your thoughts.

Feliz fin de semana!!!

You're The One That I Want

The leather jacket can be tricky. The “what’s hot” trend, cut & style changes almost monthly and don’t even get me started on colour; Black too biker? Brown too common? Blue/Pink/Green too 1982?

It’s a tough look to pull off and needs to always be balanced appropriately or one runs the risk of giving out the “I just arrived on the back of my dirty, bearded, foul mouthed boyfriends Harley”. Unless this is the look you are after (each to their own) I’ve put together a kind of “How to.......” list:

Mud Rules For Successful Leather Jacket Wearing

1) Try to limit other leather items to shoes (less is more) and handbags only – not sure the Oliver Newton John leather trousers from her Sandra Dee days will work with your new leather jacket, oversized leather clutch and knee high leather boots. Screams OTT!

2) If purchasing a brand new and therefore pricy leather jacket be sure to choose carefully – go for a classic (some may say safe or even boring) style and colour (i.e. Chocolate Brown Blazer) rather than splashing half your pay packet on the cut and shade of the moment. On the other hand If you find the perfect ‘bomber’ for a £10er at Portobello Road go for it, if bombers are out next week you can easily recover.

3) If you must have a black biker leather, balance the look with a soft dress underneath. Choose frills, lace, pastels or florals to counteract the toughness a biker brings to an outfit.

4) If possible purchase leather abroad – some of the best leather comes out of South America especially Argentina. My recommendation is to never skimp on the manufacturing cost, this means buy in a cheap country but go for the most expensive one there. If you are traveling on the pound all the better.

5) Always spray your jacket with leather protector – people tend to think protector spray is for footwear only, I use it on all leather handbags and jackets. Especially here in London with the emotional weather we seem to have to deal with daily.

Happy Leather Jacket Wearing.

Neighbours

Prior to moving to the fashion capital I lived in one of those ridiculously cool converted flats that once hailed as some type of factory, a cannery factory in fact – my flat mate and I would joke about hearing asparagus screaming through out the night (bad, bad joke). You may be asking how on earth tortured vegetables are at all related to the recurrent theme of fashion you find scrawled across these digital pages daily?

Well… back in 2005/6 my neighbour at this cannery place was a funny little eclectic, some what odd maybe even charming Malaysian lady. I would visit her weekly, show her my recent purchases, drink cups of tea, talk about her 2 daughters, the trials and tribulations of her single motherhood and the love we all seemed to share for fashion and design. One ordinary day, In the middle of one of these weekly drop ins, from a bedroom toward the back of her flat appeared a very tall, very slim beautiful young lady circa 19 years maybe 20 at a stretch. We began to chat and once again the common thread of fashion became a topic. Little did I know at that point that for the next 2 years I would live next door to a young Australian girl known as Gail Reid who would one day become the ‘Gail Force’ (oh the play on words is too much) behind the ever emerging label Gail Sorronda.

Soon enough the Gail Sorronda Brand began to feature in free(maga)zines all over Brisbane and before we knew it she was showing at G’day LA and stocking all over the country including big movers and shakers in the Queensland/Australian fashion world like Blonde Venus, Natalie Denning and The Cornershop (Belinda Seper actually claiming to have founded this great new talent).

SS06

I much prefer her earlier work over the collections she has launched of late - SS06 (which may have been her graduate collection – stab in the dark here) was very pretty with lots of wrapping and bow details and I of course love a good ruffle on the behind. Move foreword to AW08 and we find some type of goth inspired, all black, simple not so 'wow' range of jersey and lycra. Could there be a too much too soon, not enough time spent at the desk theme here? I also heard a rumour Gail managed to fit in a designer collaborative gig with Target at some point also. No Comment.

AW08

With limbs not so model like I unfortunately was not built to wear a Gail Sorronda creation. I find her work not so easy or even close to the literal meaning ready to wear, however, I do appreciate her mish mash of hard structure and soft draping all on a tricky, stark pallet of black and white. I can most certainly see her appeal to Seper and co. and although I won’t be a consumer I am always very proud of Aussies who make their mark in the ever difficult and guerrilla market that is fashion. Well Done You.

Alliteration At Its Best

SS08 brought us frilly, floral, fabulous fabrics across the board and although my Brit readers may see this post as yesterdays news considering the story springs from last months Vogue (UK) my many loyal Australian readers (see Fleur Wood for some home grown accessible fabric treats) will enjoy for the first time these beautiful, soft images of the ever lovely Michelle Williams.

The April issue gave us this whimsical special on one of America’s most beautiful chameleons. She is simply lovely and emulates the most gorgeous elfin like feel in this story. The soft pastels and slightly fuzzy/smoky images seem to bring the story out of some type of dream sequence and onto the pages of our favourite glossy.

The tap shoes, ballet tights and pearls are my favourite combination here - this pic has inspired me to ask my Mum to get herself up into our attic and dust off my old dancing shoes, I’m sure she could find these exact shoes up there. Coloured ribbons as laces could be a nice touch also. I’m thinking navy grosgrain.

I get a child like spirit from these images but not that dirty Lolita type spirit but more the inner child fighting against her real, grown up, serious spirit. Innocence is such a rare and special gift; its such a shame we only have it for a small amount of time in our lives before the world selfishly steals it back again. Let’s hope her little girl keeps hers for a few more years just until her mother learns to jump on beds, smile and wear pretty hair decorations again.

Boot About Town

Unfortunately I didn’t head anywhere ‘special’ enough to flirt with the fake eyelashes this weekend, however, my feet had the most fabulous time prancing around London town in my new granny shoe/ boots (as featured last week in the Market Mayhem post).

I wore them Friday through Sunday (may have verged on over doing it a little); however, they enjoyed 3 different styles of leg attire and were lucky enough to be commented on all over the city.

Friday saw the shoe/boot wearing a nice pair of brown Metalicus argyle printed tights – very cute however my pins were bloody freezing all day.

On Saturday they thoroughly enjoyed a day out at both Portobello and Kings Road Markets, I took a brave step and wore a very cute pair of cream ribbed tights, I was a little worried when I spied an 8 year old girl wearing pretty much the same pair but convinced myself that I was pulling it off with that cute, little girl at ballet class look. Not quite sure if this one was a success. Your thoughts?

Sunday the shoe/boot went a little crazy and pulled off (well I think so anyway) a pair of green and black, stripped over the knee sock numbers. The boyfriend was a little unsure about this move and made quite a few pirate related comments, I didn’t really mind as I backed myself up with some type of “Pirates were years ahead of themselves with those puffy, linen shirts and funny, pointed hats” retaliation.

Come to think of it I was also convinced that Marc Jacobs was channelling some type of Pirate theme with those hats from his Ready To Wear Fall 08 collection – The Pirate may become my unlikely April fashion inspiration, watch this space.

Memoirs of a Geisha

I don’t know what to say about this lady/girl/geish like creature – her slightly clownesque but strangely beautiful features have had me staring at flickr for the past hour. She has inspired me to do 2 things this weekend:

1) Wear False Lashes
2) Cut My Fringe Back In

Both dramatic and somewhat brave fashion statements – I will report on the results.

Have A Seat

I get a strange pain in my chest when I shop for items that I either can’t afford or are logistically impossible to import back to the motherland therefore my question lies within: are other foreigners affected by this rather odd chest pain?

I wrote of my recent mirror purchase earlier in the week and after the joy of the actual purchasing process was over I have since become overwhelmed with a feeling of both sadness and stress. I now recognize this pain as a direct result of the realization that I may not have this beautiful, reflective piece of history by my side forever.

With European cities a £20 Ryan Air flight away I find myself aching with an unpleasant physical discomfort I like to call “why cant I have it all?” pain. I would go so far as to say this pain has caused me semi severe emotional and mental distress at times. I am so grateful to have access to some of the most amazing and unique flea markets in London, Europe, The World, The Universe, however, this access also drives me crazy and is completely unfair and down right mean. It’s the double edge sword my friends.

Porte de Clignancourt - "Le marché aux puces de Saint-Ouen"

Paris Anxiety

It seems that my current obsession lies with the very practical piece of furniture commonly used for sitting and known to us simply as The Chair, the more distressed and used the fabric is the more I seem to like it. I’m not fussy on style and can often obsess over many different types as long as they appeal to me from a design and aesthetic point of view i.e. I can find the sofa, settee, loveseat, chaise, rocking, club, daybed and even the bench all appealing in some way or another. They do, however, all seem to have a common thread, these ‘chairs’ were all born and have made their home in the European part of our world. They are more often than not made by European furniture makers(?), sat in by ridiculously stylish European people and sadly, never meant to leave these beautiful European cities – alas they will never be mine because let’s be frank I’m not European damn it!

Antwerp Trauma

In Italy last year I accidentally meandered down this tiny alley off the main "more commercial" drag and low and behold the most extraordinary antique furniture market appeared out of no where like a wonderful wonderland of Italian pre loved home furnishings and so the pain began………………. and so the pain continues.

"Marge, there's an empty spot I've always had inside me. I tried to fill it with family, religion, community service, but those were dead ends! I think this chair is the answer.” Dan Castellaneta/H. Simpson

I believe the only cure for my ‘chair chest pain’ is to spend a little more time considering those less fortunate than I – those who will never have the opportunity to purchase, let alone view these particular beauties. I’m blessed that life’s biggest problem at the moment seems to be that I can’t have that “divine French Louis XV cream and navy stripped chair with the most charming cabriole legs”. As my Mum once said “be glad you’re who you are Francis – just imagine all the people you could have been” she seems terribly wise on this “I can’t have all the chairs” problem, but then again she has lots of nice chairs.

I Do

A friend of mine recently married – I guess some may call it “shot gun” others “visa issues” some may even refer to it as “anything for love” which ever way you look at it the important part is that the couple in question are truly in love, that beautiful serious type of love, deep ‘we work really well together’ kind of love.

Due to the ‘hastiness' of this event the bride was logistically challenged to say the least and therefore unable to have “everything she had once dreamed of” there was no time to search for the perfect dress/s, the ideal venue, the choice of champagne and style of bite sized small foods (canapé I think they call them?) – I got to thinking if I had to be married in a fortnight how would I cope? could I keep it together? This particular bride coped with a ridiculous amount of grace and dignity; she looked simply beautiful and not once seemed at all fazed by her ‘perfectly flawed’, oxymoronic wedding day.

The more I thought about this the more I began to sweat, wriggle in my seat and kind of panic, I then, of course realised I wasn’t actually getting married at all, I was simply writing about this scary situation for other peoples reading pleasure. Phew.

I figured the only thing I was 100% sure of was that I would/will not be wearing any type of veil. You see I find this veil thing a little bit silly and I don’t fully understand the tradition or purpose of it – lets be honest ladies the majority of us have had a slumber party of sorts with our handsome fiancé at some point prior to the big day??? However keeping in mind weddings are a very personal thing and for those who have gone before and pulled off the veil – I salute you.

In conclusion, if I was lucky enough to have one of those 'wedding planner fairy god mother ladies' I’d ask her to magically bring all the people I love together in some type of lovely garden party arrangement, there would be no fancy fabric hanging over my face, I would have a major, once in a life time crush on the groom and I would wear this pretty, mint coloured Valentino gown rumoured to have been made to measure for the late Jacquelyn Kennedy Onassis back in 1967 and brought back to the forefront by Miss Lopez for the 75th Annual Academy Awards.

Sounds like a nice day doesn’t it?

Snow White In Market Mayhem...

With snow falling in Spring this year us Londoners have no choice but to venture out in it – if not we would all simply stay home eat Jaffa Cakes and watch bad, pirated versions of ‘27 Dresses’ in fear of frizzy hair and stained leather goods.

My handsome boyfriend (I love the word boyfriend) Gael* spent the weekend with me fighting against the elements of wind, hail, rain, snow and sleet whilst wandering aimlessly around the famous Camden Market. It proved very fruitful, picking up some great vintage buys, drinking 2-4-1 cocktails called “Banana Banshes” and waiting for the sun to go down so we could take advantage of the £1 sweet and sour pork specials that come out just before the market closes – it’s definitely worth the wait.

We also dropped by Anita’s Vintage Fashion Fair on Sunday morning and I managed to pick myself up a lovely floor length pale green evening dress in the theme of ‘Atonement’ (possibly a 2008 significant birthday party outfit – this outfit is still up for tender). I also purchased a lovely, oversized, snake skin clutch in the style of a “Zagliani” bag I saw at Matches last week. Its perfect for all the London “stuff” you need to carry around in this crazy city. Since I moved here almost 2 years ago I have found it very difficult to actually leave the house with only a clutch as you require so many life admin contents such as wallet, keys, ballet flats, makeup, A-Z, work documents, and often cleanser, moisturizer, spare singlet’s, undies and tights if I end up staying at the boyfriends house – so imagine my excitement at finding a clutch large enough to handle of this. It was 'huge' in every sense of the word.

I have been chasing a pair of brown granny boots for a while now and bargained this uber stylish Asian man wearing a flat cap and checked capri pants down from £30 to £27 and I still thought they were a steal – I’m so naive. They are super cute and I plan to wear them with cream, printed tights (my housemate’s idea) or over the knee socks if this bonkers weather carries on like this.

I also purchased a 1950’s mirror from The Stables Market (my new favourite haunt) it was £8!! I spotted it on Saturday and until we went back to get it on Sunday it consumed my every thought. Gael carried it on 3 buses to get it home for me. How one expects to get it back to Australia one day one doesn’t know.......

* Gael is my boyfriend's Clark Kent style alter ego. In the honour of Gael Garcia Bernal - my latest movie star crush