“It’s not about rules; it’s about soul”, says Alina Preciado, proud owner of this fabulous loft in Brooklyn. A former textile warehouse, this abode is now littered with trinkets, art and sculpture from around the world, creating a perfect artistic fusion between the loft’s industrial past and it’s bohemian present.
But…how do you choose between a song which seems to consume your whole body or one that has Primal Scream written all over it? Well thank you Paolo Nutini, you have presented a dilemma? Loving the hair btw!
Love this photo shoot by Tom Craig for Porter Magazine. Very reminiscent of the photographs Patrick Lichfield took of Talitha Getty, the queen of Marrakesh kool in the early 70s:
It was here where he [Yves Saint Laurent] met one of his muses, the ill-fated and impossibly beautiful Talitha Getty (supposedly the only woman Rudolf Nureyev was ever attracted to). Her opulent Moroccan palace, which she shared with her oil heir husband was the setting for some of the decade’s most raucous parties – the likes of Marianne Faithfull and Mick Jagger would flock to them, charmed by the couple’s bohemian lifestyle. Getty was a style icon who came to be the blueprint for what we consider hippy luxe – to the inner fashion world if not the general public (a lot of whom would incorrectly cite Sienna Miller, who was at least thirty years behind Getty in popularising the look). The most famous image of her, shot by Patrick Lichfield, shows her as an enigmatic but alluring figure crouched on her roof in Marrakech, clad in white pantaloons and decadent, colourful kaftan, her husband casually looming in the background, and is considered culturally significant to the point that it resides in London’s National Gallery. (Pinch Magazine)Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.
I’ve been feeling so guilty of late from my lack of posting, so I was delighted when I found Ivy Jacobsen’s paintings on Pinterest, they are so beautiful they just have to be shared.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.There’s a real sense of underwater tranquility - totally mesmerising! For some reason, perhaps due to the murky backdrops, “The Waterbabies” comes to mind. I’m just waiting for a little mermaid to pop out out of a giant Allium.
I went to see the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibition at the Barbican yesterday and it was incredible. Funnily enough, my friend Jo and I had both been to see the Bond exhibition in the same exhibition space, and both of us said how off-putting the mannequins were. Just faceless black moulds of, what looked like, sponge. It was Bond for God’s sake – the great champion of glamazons. Well these mannequins were something else – they blinked, they talked and could quite easily scare the bejesus out of any unsuspecting visitor! How perfect for Monsieur Gaultier?
And the clothes? They need no explanation – perfect for any wannabe showgirl!
P.S. Watch the Dita Von Teese video till the end otherwise you’ll miss out on the money shot!
I’ve been dying to post this video of my fellow pushettes and I fire dancing at my friend Annia’s party, but the file refuses to download (grrr but weirdly happy to play on Facebook, what’s that about??) However Hedi Slimane’s recent Spring menswear collection has given me the perfect excuse to at least mention it. (And in the meantime I’ll be researching how to get this damn video thing going!)
The brief for the party was “vintage festival. Us ladies revelled in the various options that opened up, see below, but there was a decidedly quizzical look on the men’s faces!
What does a man wear to a vintage festival party – well evidence suggested a straw hat and floral shirt? Enter the Saint Laurent collection – here’s how it’s really done (btw I fancy the collection for myself – sorry boys!)
Nobody did glamour like Anita Ekberg. Like a slinky silver fox she sashayed her way across the screen. Never will a sweetheart bust-line ever look so good!
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.OMG..it’s not often I blog about something unrelated to design, dance or style but I was recently treated to a Ka Huna massage by my friend Esme Adams and it was just something that I have never experienced before…..and this is coming from someone who once trained in massage.
The aim of Ka Huna massage is to allow energy to flow freely throughout the body, facilitating relaxation and deep muscular and emotional release. This is performed through rhythmic long flowing motions, using not just the fingers but the palms, wrists and forearms, working sometimes both on top of the body and underneath, at the same time. I now realise why Esme is so fit – the massage is a work out in itself, its almost a dance. And the sensation it creates..well.. I can tell you it just feels like your whole body is connected, and treated as a whole, rather than one limb at a time. The effect is also incredibly nurturing and comforting – the essence of “aloha” no doubt? Brilliant if your in need of a little TLC.
I left walking on air, one chilled mama! Christ knows where a two manned massage, as demonstrated below, would take you? Out into the stratosphere perhaps??
So, if you happen to be sitting there, in South east London, thinking that’s just what you need, give Esme a shout. She’s running an offer at Barry Road Clinic East this month: Saturdays, £15 off 1 hr 1/2 treatments, £10 off 1 hr treatments. Treatments are also available at Canvas and Cream, Forest Hill, throughout the week.
Judging by this autumn’s editorials, hosiery is back! Overjoyed! – what a great way to update the wardrobe without disturbing the bank balance. You could take the Harper’s Bazaar route and opt for all sizes of fishnet from whale net to ringo hole (are we still talking about hosiery??) or even a risqué fishnet body stocking. Or you could take the more demure Vogue option of open work cable. The choice is yours!
The book, published by Rizzoli, features cut offs, boyfriends to bell-bottoms, dungarees to skinnies – it’s denim heaven! And if your a retro queen, never fear, there are some fabulous images of James Dean, Marilyn, Jane Birkin and Brigitte Bardot. The only thing missing is Nick Kamen in his boxers! (David Gandy take note, less is definitely more ;-) )
Totally in love with Massimo Dutti’s apres ski collection. But with the weather almost balmy in the UK, it might require a real visit to the slopes – what a shame!
I’m not entirely sure where these images originate from but I got them from interior junkie. However since it’s written in dutch I’m still none the wiser.
The graphic prints and practical living all spells Scandinavian living but I could be wrong. Either way…love it!Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.
This weekend is always a weird one – with one foot still clinging on to the over-indulgence of the past month and the other desperate to move onto a new chapter – you generally don’t know what to do with yourself. But what better way to start the New Year than with an injection of culture? If you’re in London there is only one weekend left to see the Horst exhibition at the V&A and it’s absolutely beautiful – so much so that I’ve been twice!
If you do get the chance you will no doubt be rather intrigued by one of Horst’s favourite muses , the cat-like “Lud”.
It says under one of her portraits that she cut off parts of her breasts and thighs to make her figure the perfect silhouette! I managed to track down her life story in “Beauty in Exile’ by Alexandre Vassiliev – but sadly there’s no mention of how or where this occurred – it’s an interesting read though……….
“Born in St Petersburg in 1913 to a vice-governor of Vladimir province, Lud escaped with her family to the Crimea after the Bolshevik revolution, thence to Constantinople, Greece and France. In exile, Lud proved to be more than just a pretty face. While her widowed mother struggled to make ends meet, Lud took high grades at a French lycée and planned to enter university to study philology.
Fate determined a different course for Lud when the famed photographer Horst espied her delivering dresses to Vogue’s Paris studio. Thus at age eighteen, Lud began what was to be a fabulous modeling career, first with the house of Countess Vera Borea, then Patou, then Chanel. She married a French marquis, and knew the delicious experience of having rivals Elsa Schiaparelli and Coco Chanel vie graspingly for her services. In 1937, wearing a draped white gown from Alix and posed like some lethally beautiful Medea between fluted columns, Lud was photographed by Horst in what Vassiliev describes as “one of the immortal images of twentieth century fashion.”
We all know beauty and wealth do not guarantee happiness, but the gods sought to use Lud to press the point home. First her marriage to the marquis failed; she married again, to a naval engineer, and began to appear in films. She left France for a time, living first in Argentina and later in the United States, and her second marriage broke up. By the time she returned to France in the early 50’s and began working for Balenciaga, she sensed that somehow her sun had set. There were financial woes, brought on by her unflagging addiction to high living. She ended up taking a job at the Slenderella beauty institute, earning some cash on the side by singing in the chorus of the Paris Opéra. In 1959, the once glorious Lud was living in the resort town of Le Touquet, where the only work she could find was as an airport clerk. When that job ended, she found a new position, as head of curriculum at a private school, and when that job ended, Lud was hired as director of a home for aged Russians, where among the charges she oversaw was another faded Russian model, Princess Maria Eristova. Still, there was a little happiness for Lud at the end: in 1982, she married a childhood friend, Pierre de la Grandière, and lived with him in the French Alps until her death from cancer in 1990.
In describing her mother, Lud’s daughter also gives a fair account of most of the other artistic Russian émigrés. Lud feared nothing and no one, remembered her daughter, never hesitating to sail a boat out onto a stormy lake or take a stroll through a crime-ridden Paris purlieu. Lud was in love with living: “She was the daughter of Epicurus.”
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Harpers & Queen 1976, Richard Avedon Vogue 1968, unknown, Angelique Houtkamp, Stephanie Farrow for Biba, unknown, David Bailey Vogue 1968
Image may be NSFW.
