Sunday Nap post

Adorable video from the band Keston Cobblers’ Club. I love the fact that they’ve gone against the Michael Stipe rule of bandname punctuation, and what a cute bunch of friends they seem to have.

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Sunday Nap post

I’m off this week to moon around the excellent WH Smiths in Selfridges to hopefully get my hands on some of the foreign and niche magazines I’ve been missing. They won’t have this new magazine, Anthology, though because apparently it’s out in October and seems to be gettable only by post. It’s about interiors and sustainable living and it comes with an adorable, colourful video trailer.

The music is by a band/person called Snoozer.

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Back to school

It’s September and that means new stationary and things for “turning over a new leaf” (I wasn’t a model student at actual school and got asked to do this a lot). There is so much I would buy this season if only I had the money, so I’ll have to look at these bits and pieces and dream. Cos seriously needs to start doing a student discount AMIRITE.

For work and uni:

For chilling at home, minus the jacket and shoes and plus a blanket and a laptop (like right now):

I have a skirt a bit like this and it gets a lot of wear despite having a really small waistband - I got it from a charity shop. If I had a version that actually fit me I would probably wear it every day.

Or I could go for something a bit different like this high-waisted bow skirt.  I do adore a colourful, prim look but always fall at the last hurdle of scruffbagness. I would need a blouse to go with this as I am dyed in the wool t-shirt person.

Between scruffbagness and Topshop’s student discount, this looking like a favourite to enter my wardrobe. It’s grey jumper CHECK. It has French writing on it CHECK. If I lose my voice while visiting my boyfriend’s family I can just point at my jumper instead.

I’m pretty miffed to discover the shoes I was planning to save up for at F-troupe are already sold out. And that they are a bit more expensive than I thought, at £99.00. So I’m actually wavering over the issue of loafers, a place I never thought I would go. I need flat shoes and the grandmother chic going around looks really tempting to me. I wouldn’t even be wearing them ironically, it would be as a testament to grandmas, a category of person loved by all, especially me. Sometime I wish I could skip being a parent and go straight to being a grandma.

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Tie a bow on it

Tying a bow on it makes it better.

Usually.

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Sweater girl

I’ve been cautious about elevating Leighton Meester to my stable of favourite starlets, but I think she’s drawn the line between herself and Blair Waldorf in bold enough ink now. It’s not that I don’t enjoy Gossip Girl, but it’s one thing to like a character and another to like the actor. This week I’ve seen two whole images of Leighton out at events wearing jumpers.

I love this micro-trend for being deceptively impractical. You might think, oh a jumper, nice and cosy. And I have seen a lady at the corner shop this week wearing just a jumper with no top underneath (believe me, the situation was clear). But I wouldn’t like to be stuck in a bar with no under-layer to retreat to. I also love it for being incongruously non-sexy. These are great outfits.

I love jumpers in most contexts, and was excited about the potential for my daily look to transition to in vogue when I saw these looks from Marc Jacobs A/W 2010:

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p.s. This looks like the combo of so many things I strangely love: country music and Gwyneth Paltrow. Add Leighton and I’m now so watching this on DVD next year.

Total betty: Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn is so iconic she’s sort of become part of the cultural furniture and it’s easy to forget, or to not feel moved by, her beauty. Looking through her threads on tfs, it quickly becomes clear she was incredibly mercurial: sometimes she’s beyond brassy, in a sequinned mesh dress; sometimes she’s girlish and angelic; this last picture shows her when she was very young and she look so different. A lot of what Marilyn was looks-wise was artificial, but she had a really characterful face and her acting ability has been overlooked because of her sex appeal.

Sex appeal isn’t just about how you look either. Audrey Hepburn is often cited as the “opposite type” to Marilyn and she was undoubtedly gorgeous (inside and out) but because she’s dainty and graceful rather than voluptuous and sensual, she is never referred to as a sex kitten.

Marilyn was a bombshell, no doubt about it. I think the way she looks is coming back into Vogue actually. When I looked at these pictures of her face and body the part of my brain that decides whether something fits into my view of what looks right in 2010 just clicked. The plump face and slim but curvy figure echo the current waves of popularity building for actors like Christina Hendricks and Gemma Arterton. I love the look where Marilyn wears a suit belted with a tasselled rope. That is definitely hiding one’s light under a bushel but I suppose if it’s obvious what’s underneath is AMAZING it only gives the look more impact.

Finding a decent Youtub hair tutorial for Marilyn’s curly set hairdo has proved quite hard, partly I think because most hair tutorial ladies have long hair and Marilyn’s was short. The ones I found looked nice but were more along the lines of a Megan Fox premiere look, not quite what I was after. If you know how to do the look or of a good video tutorial, please let me know in the comments!

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These two things are not the same

Lindsay Lohan’s “Grace Kelly-themed” photoshoot for Vanity Fair:

And the most similar picture of Grace Kelly I could find:

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Strike a pose

I used to be a devoted Vogue buyer but around a year ago I broke the habit and this year I have given away quite a bit of my archive, which I have lugged around various different flats. I felt it was time to stop scrapbooking and live a more minimalist, and less dusty, life.

I get quite frustrated with repetitive covers as well and really am not tempted by a Kate Moss Vogue cover. She is a fantastic model but there are other models; I loved the Freja cover for example. And no, I doubt I will ever stop reposting this cover everytime I mention her:

It might be my favourite cover of all time.

This month’s upcoming Cheryl Cole cover has a similar happy vibe to the Freja one and I will definitely be buying it. Vogue is the fashionista’s fashion magazine if I can utilise a cliche, and I disagree with Anna Wintour that celebrities are the best hangers for clothes on every issue but Cheryl is so influential and so defines the mainstream beauty paradigm of 2010 that it makes sense for her to go on. She is also the opposite type in every way from a Freja.

This cover is a big improvement from Cheryl’s previous one as well. That was a cover churned out by the Tweedy PR machine, with signature mask of makeup and Matthew Williamson dresses. This October 2010 issue looks more fun and a small step away from her super-done image. I am a sucker for colour and love anything pastel-toned.

I think a New School Year splurge on magazine subscriptions may be in order when my ship comes in next week.

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Sunday Nap post

My dear A is today at the Skyride, so above I share my dream bike, the Pashley Poppy in blue. I am destroyed after a week of work, more work and weddings, so I am spending today tucked up at home. In time-honoured fashion, I am spending Sunday reading Elle, watching Mad Men and drinking green tea. Later I will probably have some cake. On the stereo, First Aid Kit:

I can no longer even lift my hands to type, farewell sdoifdfjdmee’wfl’.

S duwyufftfgeb

Trsers

I am severe need of a pair of those drapey Whistles trousers quick/rich girls of style snapped up a few months ago. Do you know to what I refer? The closest I have seen tonally are these from Swedish shoppe Weekday. But we have no Weekday in the UK so any possible purchase will have to wait a few weeks til I go to Finland, where they now have one yay.

Trousers are the new statement item apparently. I did not see this coming.