Inspiration Friday: Je ne sais quoi.

I thought it was high time I brought back "Inspiration Friday", because it has been far too long, and hey, I'm feeling inspired. 

With my new hair (which is even shorter now), everyone keeps telling me that I look French. I take this as a big compliment; everyone wants to look French. When I say "French", I mean the good kind of French. I have been to rural France enough times to know that not everyone wears sleek black roll necks and block heeled ankle boots, and has the skin of a baby angel. But you know what I mean. 

And now that I think about it, I have been wearing an awful lot of stripy t shirts lately... 

So here is an homage to my hair, to stripy t shirts, and to what I think will be a lifelong dream of turning into Marion Cotillard or Audrey Tatou overnight. 

Sources; weheartit.com, A.P.C., the Chanel apartment in Paris, Audrey Tatou in Coco Avant Chanel, Parisian street style from The Sartorialist.

Inspiration Friday: Searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn't there.

Sources; weheartit.com, google.co.uk

Today is Friday the Thirteenth, so the theme for today's Inspiration Friday is all things superstitious.

Superstition has always fascinated me, the idea that a tiny action or charm could change a person's luck for better or worse. In a world that is obsessed proving things through scientific evidence, it's amazing that millions upon millions of people still believe in these traditions that we have no logical explanation for. But although I admit it's probably silly, there will always be something that stops we walking under a ladder or opening an umbrella indoors. Just in case.

Inspiration Friday: I love you more than being seventeen, in the evening sun.

Sources: Foam Magazine, Numéro, 10 Magazine, Amica, Pop, weheartit.com

My Inspiration Friday is very simple this week - sunshine.
There was so much of it today and it just put me in such a unceasingly brilliant mood. It wasn't uncomfortably hot, but just the right temperature to drink iced coffee and wear sun glasses and lie on the grass on Wimbledon common. There isn't much else to say on the matter, except that it has got me looking for the ultimate giant, floppy sunhat.

All I can think about is summer, and I hate summer. I conclude that this will be a short-lived phase, so I will enjoy it whilst it lasts.

P.s. I do realise that it will probably rain tomorrow, such is England.

Inspiration Friday: Those who tell the stories, rule the people (Navajo proverb)

Sources; google.com, beemanjewelrydesign.com, flickr.com, medicinemangallery.com


My inspiration this week are the Navajo people, the second largest Native American tribe of North America. As well their rich and interesting culture and history, the area I find most fascinating are their two main forms of art - silverwork and weaving.

The Navajo people have been creating silver jewellery since the 1800s. I love the chunky designs which often incorporate turquoise, and I think the pieces show such incredible craftsmanship and talent. Navajo weaving traditions go even further back, to the eighteenth century. They weave on upright looms and the blankets and fabrics show brightly coloured triangular designs. I'm very rarely one for bold colours, but I think they're stunning. I also love the thinking behind them - that the common four-fold symmetry represents traditional ideas of harmony.

And despite supposedly giving up shopping for a while, I'm very much tempted by this backpack.

Inspiration Friday (Well, Monday): A realist, in Venice, would become a romantic by mere faithfulness to what he saw before him

Arthur Symons puts it perfectly - although I am far from a realist, Venice certainly captivated me.

Although I do feel that it is cheating a little to call this an Inspiration Friday, not only because it is in fact a Monday (sorry about that), but because this is more me telling you about my trip. However I couldn't call it anything else because I WAS inspired.

Most of the pictures speak for themselves, but a couple need a little explanation. Firstly, it was leading up to the beginning of the carnival whilst we were there and so I thought it was only appropriate, if a little bit tourist-y, to buy a Venetian mask. There are hundreds and hundreds of shops selling these around Venice and I could honestly stare at them forever. This is of course a simple version, but the most fascinating are the giant golden creations with stars and moons and butterflies. The design and craftsmanship that must be involved is stunning.

The last five shots are of what my mum initially assumed to be a gay porn shop, but was actually a little gallery/shop entitled Fiorella Gallery and run by an eccentric designer named Fiorella Mancini. It sold contemporary art and dazzling, crushed velvet smoking jackets covered in parrot prints, beaded crucifixes or Fiorella's trademark - rats. The shop is like being on the inside of a crazy dressing up box, and although the clothes are priced at hundreds of euros, I was hospitably accosted with jackets and skull-shaped goblets to "take pictures". It was amazing fun and I would have bought everything in there if I could.

Other highlights include...

-Walking through the city at night eating chestnut ice cream in the rain.

- Riding the water bus and considering about the logistics of running a city like Venice, the absolute strangeness of having no roads or cars. All food deliveries are done by boats. Hearses are boats. We even saw some cement mixers on a boat. Incredible.

- Visiting the palace which was so beautifully constructed, with such interesting history.

- The bizarre sight of the most opulent designer shops squeezed into the tiny, narrow streets.

But my favourite part of all was just walking. Venice isn't a big city, but I could just walk and walk and walk. Without the interruption of roads and fast food chains, only tiny bridges and cobbled streets, it is delightful to just explore and discover details you didn't see the first time. It was charming in every sense of the word and I hope it stays unspoiled for as long as possible.

P.s. I really encourage you to check out the Fiorella Gallery website, Mancini's story is beyond cool.

P.p.s Also, all of these photos are digital and I took a ton with my film camera, so expect a second update at some point in the distant future when they are developed.

Inspiration Friday: I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want.

Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington in Vogue Italia, March 1994 (Picture 1); Kate Moss in Vogue UK, January 1993 (Picture 3); Clueless, 1995 (Picture 4) ; Naomi Campbell in American Harper's Bazaar, February 1997 (Picture 5). All others from Weheartit.com or general googling. 


A recent urge I have had to wear brown eyeshadow, neutrals and crop tops all the time, and an afternoon of dancing around my bedroom listening to still fabulous Spice Girls songs are responsible for my nineties themed Inspiration Friday.
The nineties are my favourite decade in fashion history, the age of grunge, straighteners and too much denim. They were a fun, albeit sometimes cringe-worthy, time in fashion and saw the rise of the supermodel. I have, of course, included Kate, Naomi, Christy and Linda, all looking nostalgically smooth-skined and fresh-faced.
I also have a lot of personal memories of being a little kid in the nineties, from stick-on earrings which I wore religiously, to my favourite special edition barbie which I was given as a present. I chopped off her tiara with scissors because I couldn't understand why it would be attached. And last, but certainly not least, the Spice Girls. Spice World was my first ever cassette and those five girls became my very first definition of the word "cool". They played a big part in my developing interest in fashion as I was girlishly in awe of their confidence in what they wore, despite the fact that, looking back, they fairly closely resembled strippers. They were mind-blowing and melodramatic and I loved them with all my 5-year-old heart.


P.s. I know I skipped last friday, but I have since come to the conclusion that two Inspiration Fridays per month is more realistic and far less dull.

Inspiration Friday: We are the dancers, we create the dreams.

Amber Hunt ballet photography; weheartit.com; me, by whichever ballet photographer took my picture when I was 5. 

My very first inspiration friday, a concept that will hopefully force me to post more often as I have been very neglectful ONCE AGAIN.
I've always had a fascination with ballet. I think it is such a beautiful art form. I started ballet classes when I was about four and was inevitably always the clumsiest little aspiring ballerina in the class, the one with the perpetually messy hair, as is evident in the last photo. I stuck at it for a few years, but gave up when I finally realised it wasn't exactly my calling. Recently I've gotten back into it, starting a class which isn't exam oriented that I can just have fun with, and perhaps this post is a withdrawal symptom considering that I can't take part right now because of my neck.
Maybe the lure of ballet is a product of my secret longing to be graceful and floaty and actually have some balance or co-ordination, or maybe I'm just still that messy little girl.

P.s. Don't expect me to say how relevant this ballet focus is, coinciding with the release of Black Swan, like every other magazine and blog on the entire planet. Because I won't.

P.p.s. I loved that movie though.