11/24/2012

christmas is fashion time




Sometimes I wonder what Christmas and fashion have in common. But as I am far from home and I will be going back for vacation to my hometown by plane, with just  one luggage of a limited weight, I discover Christmas can be like a fashion show.

I can’t stand the magazines offering perfect Christmas Eve’s garments, starting from conservative white shirts and black fitted jackets that should be ‘paying respects’ , finishing on sequin dresses tight as hell to accentuate the oncoming New Year’s Eve. I believe this is the time clothes should not be just an appropriate choice for the reverent occasion. They should be what we want them to be.

So when I will be doing packing in three weeks’ time, I will look for vintage sweaters, tartan skirts and turtlenecks. No formality, no glittering (apart from a golden nail polish!) just crimson-dark red and bottle green which will perfectly look with a rural-styled Christmas tree. And woolen socks of course. Hopefully, I should also find some space for the plain, black, loose and short Topshop dress.

But this is not a check list of my wardrobe. This is me looking for the fashion’s place during this time of celebration. Christmas is a perfect moment for dressing-up, as the ambience around  is very often so epic, with Frank Sinatra’s songs , Nigella’s programme on the TV and smell of gingerbread,  that we can appreciate things we’re wearing twice as strong.

I love this feeling,  so let’s be honest, my Christmas outfits are thought over. No bigger pleasure that watching Chevy Chase in ‘Christmas Vacation’ dressed in the checked pyjamas  pants, grey sweatshirt and cosy socks. Truly recommend. X

11/17/2012

i'd love to make




I wish I had manual skills. They may be trained I guess but I don’t have patience. But if I possessed one, I would design. Collections some people may not want to buy and probably my low livelihood would force me to swap jobs, but just for a while I’d love to feel I create something.

What designers claim is that making things with hands is indispensable. That you start from scratch with total freedom and some ideas. You decide first, then people who may deem your finest work shitty. Then you lose your spirit and regain it with a hunch you have something to show. Well, it can be hard. And cool.

I used to scoff at the concept of ‘inspiration’. But the more I write, the more I understand it. Something can spot your attention and really engross you. And writing is a way of creating as well, but designing gives a tangible, vivid evidence  you can cherish, sell, save, exhibit. If it is successful, it can become a massive, life-changing project. An imprint on the fashion world people may forget, but they will refer to it later, as they do now with vintage clothing.

So I envy all these people sitting in their bright studios with tall windows and wooden floors, surrounded with pens, scissors and materials. I envy satisfaction from creativity and bringing some innovation. All I can do now is write about it. In a way it’s equal sense of complacency. But not an equal achievement.X

11/12/2012

london




Hi London. Basically, I think we’re both a little tired of ourselves . Now I am on my way home but I know I am gonna miss you anyway.

Well, I just need all these landmarks. I am a in the middle between an avid tourist and posh citizen, but I keep learning. So when I go down the Embankment I still feel like it is too epic.  And when I take a bus via Piccadilly I always stare at these neon screens.

I just detest the tube now, honestly. But don’t mind. It’s not your fault people between 8 and 10 am in the morning cram into every train with Metro in hand which they later leave everywhere around the city because they cannot reconcile carrying it with a Starbucks coffee.

But then I like the variety. Going to Shoreditch or Camden to be cocky and eccentric, then to City to be business-like, eventually ending up in Green Park in front of the Buckingham palace to be more patriotic.

And food. I do not mean scrambled eggs or any other English stuff, even if it is cooked by your beloved Jamie Oliver. I mean all these Italian and oriental food I can get literary everywhere. One thing about  London is I never get hungry there. I just can’t decide what to eat. And end up in Mac.

The weather is not a perk for me, sorry. I don’t mind cold, I mind humid. But I guess there’s nothing to do about  so I won’t make a fuss.

Eventually, I like quite a lot about You . You were a good choice. So either I am smart and you are cool. Let’s flatter ourselves. Cheers ! X

11/02/2012

my perfect era





If I could be born in any other era I would get stuck with my choice.  I think living sometime in the past would be cool itself, but to make it cooler I would opt for two decades. Well, the 40’s. The fashion back then was something exquisite then, real vintage now with this attention to detail, intertwining elegance with casualness. Dresses were a  bit shiny with sequins or smooth materials, but never too obtrusive or tacky. I can see these women sitting in saloons with long cigarettes, quite dependent on men but not that much anymore. I would settle down in New York and go to cafes in the evenings to listen to young Frank Sinatra or Ella Fitzgerald. At weekend I would travel to Hamptons with my posh friends, who would probably be not so sincere.

And straight from there I will travel to the 60’s. The Beatles may be the reason, but I would be more obsessed with The Yardbirds, The Sonics and Tony Clarke. I may look a little bit like Jane Birkin, straight hair with a fringe , checked skirt  and a turtleneck. I would stroll down the swinging King’s Road in London, popping in some underground clubs to get sweaty while making an idiot of myself, shouting for the The Kinks to get out on the stage.  

But I am here in the 2012 with fashion copying all these styles, people listening to oldies or bands trying to elicit the same effect, clubs making us deaf with house music and cigarettes being expensive as hell (I do not smoke, but what bothers my friends, bothers me too!). No surprise I dream of the past and I bet I am not the only one out there. X