Birthday Girl

Today is the day I popped into this world wearing a very fashionable one-of-a-kind birthday suit !!!

And there's nothing like a bunch of lovely flowers, wonderful undies, perfume and of course the bag every girl dreams of in my possession. Next up tomorrow London Fashion Week !

A series of strange events

top. Zara skirt. Urban Outfitters. shoes. Prada

So this is not how I expected the day to turn out. I have been busy preparing for London Fashion Week and my friend texts "McQueen is dead". This coming at what is a busy week for models and designers running around preparing for next week. But I think we should celebrate a person's life and not dwell on their death.

And can someone tell me when this hellish, freezing weather will end?! I am dying to go bike riding in teeny shorts and skirts. In fact I just don't want to look like the Michelin man every time I leave my apartment!Well, anyway, I am off to a gallery and then to one of those house parties where people invite a billion friends through Facebook to come and trash their parents' mansion.

R.I.P Alexander McQueen

Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings ...

jacket &purse. AMON+MONICA. body. Topshop. skirt. Urban Outfitters shoes. Fendi
book. The Polaroid Book. cameras. 6 out of 7 I own
bra. H&M. shoes. Cesare Paciotti
laptop. MacBook Pro. dvd. Broken Embraces by Pedro Almodovar
blouse & pants. Zara

... these are a few of my favorite things!

I apologize for the lack of posts. I have been busy but in a good way: New agency. Participating in an ad campaign (photo coming soon) and London Fashion Week castings. And my friend and I just finished working on AMON + MONICA. And my birthday is two weeks away, practically the day before London Fashion Week 2010! And I am studying super hard on my Russian language course. And I got a little tattoo. And I just realized I threw away some important paper that my driver's license was attached to, so in order to get the seal of approval to get on a motorbike I had to pay £20 for a new one seeing as the instructor won't acknowledge my presence unless I have it. This is the part where in Kanye's words I go "ape shit".

And that's about it for now. I'll stop with the ranting.

How Stella got her groove back

blouse & pants. Zara shoes. Valentino

I am a big fan of Chloe and Stella McCartney designs and before I was, as they say, "became aware of fashion", I used to think they were one and the same. Granted Stella designed for Chloe for a while but I still see a continued resemblance between the two. That being said I was over the moon when Zara decided to channel a bit of Chloe (or was it Stella?) in their new collection. I must say I now have quite the collection of blouses and shirts that are silk / crepe with an open collar. I would love to pair this blouse up in the spring with my leather skirt (seeing as there is a trend for leather this spring) seen here.

Little Red Riding Hood

photography by Iconogenic. makeup by Georgina Hoppen

I thought I'd do my first ever makeup post by showing you one of my favorite makeup looks, modeled by yours truly. This is from a photo shoot I did in Holland before the Christmas holidays, shot by a good friend named Katja. Being nice enough to let me experiment, I wanted to do a minimal look with a touch of red on the lips. I was inspired by Hilary Rhoda in one of the Estee Lauder ads for the holiday season. As someone who hates caked-on makeup and with very little patience to blend eye shadows to create some tropical look, I tend to stick to the nude look with some color on the lips. So here is a sample of my favorite products that I would use:

Pardon my french

ring. YSL. location. Paris !

There is nothing like the expression 'home sweet home' even after spending four glorious nights in Paris. I missed my bed, cars driving on the left and grab 'n' go food. But I am happy to have caught up with friends and made new ones. Even better was coming back to London to a relatively quiet Liberty, seeing as it was the last day of their sale. I was happy to see the YSL rings I wanted were back in stock and I also scored a wonderful Dries Van Noten blouse which I promise to show you in my next post !

So here are my favorite snap shots of randoms like my hotel room, Parisian apartments at night, the metro, and of course the best Louis Vuitton store on the planet. I used a Minolta AF Riva Mini, which happens to be a purchase from a previous trip to Paris :-)

Let it out so it can breathe

boots.Dune faux fur coat.vintage

Happy New Year! I am still in Paris, enjoying the new decade in the city known for its impeccable fashion, romantic atmosphere and entertaining customer service at restaurants. New Years was a blast, minus the part where french cabs after midnight are pretty much non-existent so my best friend Amelie and I walked / occasionally took off our heels / fought over a cab with 250 people in front of Hôtel de Crillon / took turns carrying our precious 1L bottle of Smirnoff all the way from Place Vendôme to my hotel off Champs-Élysées. But it was an experience I will never forget as we marched up the brightly lit Champs-Élysées looking straight at the Arc de Triomphe.

I have two more days left to catch up with old friends. I'm letting my she wolf out of the closet this year and so should all of you ... he wolfs included ! I decided to go old school and use a point and shoot camera for my Paris pictures, so I hope they come out okay and I'll post them up !

photos by Fabrice Mabillot

Going in for the kill

shoes. Givenchy

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Halleeeeelujah !

.. is the song that was playing in my head when my eyes caught sight of these babies. In the midst of all the chaos at Selfridges I raised it up in the air like a triumphant athlete and a little *bling* of light glistened across it. Then I quickly tucked the shoe close to me and with my friend acting as my bodyguard against the mass of psychotic women, I dashed to the nearest sales assistant to ask him for the other shoe.

So that was my little boxing day adventure and on the 30th I am off to Paris for New Years !

Choo Choo train

dress. Topshop. purse. Miu Miu

Who would have thought a few blocks down from my apartment I would get invited to a house party and end up being face to face with Jimmy Choo ! Finally I was having a conversation with the man himself instead of the shoe, as tends to be the case when I pass through the Jimmy Choo at Harvey Nichols. It was a lovely night, thanks to the lovely hostess, who was wearing a signed pair (sigh). I caught a cold walking back but it was worth sneezing "a Choo! " all the way home.

Strike a pose

British Vogue. April 1989 & January 2010

I spent a rather chilly morning at Portobello Market today with a friend. Browsing through vintage shops, I came across one that sold old Vogue magazines from the late 80's / early 90's. Funny, seeing as one of my "new years resolutions" is to collect Vogue magazines. I was lucky to get the 1989 Vogue as a gift , with a then 35 year old Kim Basinger gracing the cover just 2 months before the release of Tim Burton's successful Batman film and might I add a year before meeting Alec Baldwin [ ongoing custody battle ..blah blah... who gives a shit, eh? ]. And oh, the other chick is Rachel Weisz for those of you, who like me, were too busy drooling over Ralph Fiennes in The Constant Gardner to notice anything or anyone around him.

So I thought let me browse through the two and see what has happened in what is pretty much a decade between the two covers. So here are a few things I noticed:

1. There is shit loads of text on the cover seeing as we live in a world were advertisers and "10 ways to blow his mind" are needed to sell a magazine
2. Beauty giants are using younger people to sell products ... no brainer
3. Folks are still holding on to a "safe" and rather repetitive look with their ads. Look at the Coco Chanel ads
4. Models are skinnier (gasp!) and look more pissed off. Makes sense if no one fed you on set. Ha ha
5. MALE MODELS used to have a few editorial pages! But now they are pushed into the background, used merely as sexual props, and can no longer put their vogueing to practice like they did back in the day ... moment of silence
6. ... and the size of the magazine is smaller, with less pages. I guess we started caring about trees more at some point between 1989 and 2009