Fur Coat, No Knickers

There’s nothing I like more than weird photos from the past, so here are some more. USA Shopping Malls, Summer 1990 by Michael Galinsky (via How To Be A Retronaut)

I get seriously nostalgic about 90s fashion, but even I’m not dumb enough to comment on that hair.

When I was in New York last week, I spotted the one and only blogger extraordinaire Gala Darling getting her hair did. It wasn’t some kind of blogger magnetodynamics which caused my head to spin around at the precise moment I passed the salon, nor was it my overriding work obsession with salon interiors: nope, it was Gala’s reeeedic neon pink bag which stopped me in my tracks in the middle of the street.

Slung over a coatstand in the window, I immediately recognised the bag as being part of the new Cambridge Satchel neon series. Cor! It’s every bit as bright as it looks on screen, and every bit as handsome as the company’s other creations.

Available in pink, lime, yellow and orange, the dazzling bags are available now in the UK exclusively at Dover Street Market.

I bought Andy a Cambridge Satchel in a more sedate brown last year, and it’s probably the most popular accessory I’ve ever witnessed. People stop in the street and ask about it all the time, so I can only imagine the level of giddiness that the neons will cause. The bags are also extremely durable – Andy’s goes to work, gigs and holidays and certainly doesn’t get treated with the level of preciousness I afford to my handbags, and his still looks pristine.

Prices start at £110 for a 13″ bag.

Everyone likes a Breton stripe, perhaps no one more so than les Frenchies. Along with a baguette and a beret, a striped item is actually legally required to be held by all dwellers of Gallic lands. In fact, the French like blue and white Breton so much that their football team’s new Nike-designed away kit features a fine array of said stripes.

To celebrate the unveiling of the new kit, Colette has teamed up with 11 designers (that’s 11 like a football team, sport fans – I’m something of a pro) for the Away project. This latest creative collaboration sees a series of designers reinventing their iconic designs in simple blue and white stripes.  The all-star line-up comprises Chanel, Colorware, Comme des Garçons, Hermès, Ladurée, Longchamp, MontBlanc, Swatch, Trousselier and Yves Saint Laurent while the bits and pieces designed range from pens to limited editions handbags. Swit swoo!

The range is available from 28 March to 9 April, with a special stripy pop-up area in store at Colette and will be available online at www.colette.fr afterwards.

There’s nothing I like more than interesting crockery – true fact! I’m the kind of mug (lol) that spaffs their wages on Nathalie Lete’s stuff for Anthropologie only to go batshit when anyone tries to eat off it.

Ceramics designer Emma Bridgewater has always been a little sophisticated for my tastes, but I really like the new limited edition ‘Splatter’ series of plates, bowls and serving bits she’s created for Liberty.

Using a traditional earthenware palette of blue and white but laying it on willy nilly makes for a fun twist on a classic. You can buy (what’s left of the) limited edition range online and instore at Liberty.

I’ve been back from New York for just a few short hours and already I’m planning for a black tie work function tomorrow and a fleeting visit to Hamburg at the end of the week.

More on NYC at a later date – for now, bask in the wonder of this illustration from your friend and mine, the mighty talent that is Kris Atomic. Judging by the Twitter feedback, I’m not alone in recognising every single day of my life in this… ”I saw you walking down the high street at lunchtime, you looked so angry.”

Kris says there’s a print of it coming soon! For now, you can see what other goodies she has on offer in her store.

P.S. If anyone has any ideas for vintage shopping in Hamburg, hit me up. German vintage is always so fucking good.

BYE!

These are a few of my favourite rings*:

These vintage zodiac sign rings are my faves.

Weird moonstone ring from Toppers. Looks a bit like a globule of something unpleasant.

Armour ring from Toppers with big pink gem. A poor man’s Arty.

New Look pearl monstrosity and ASOS cross.

*Chortle!

PACKIN’ FOR NYC! All a gal needs is her two trusty belts, loads of dresses, THE WHISTLES SKIRT and some New Look creepers.

Sláinte!

“Who is for opal hush?” she cried, and all, except the American girl and the picture dealer, who preferred whisky, declared their throats were dry for nothing else. Wondering what the strange-named drink might be, I too asked for opal hush, and she read the puzzlement on my face. “You make it like this,” she said, and squirted lemonade from a siphon into a glass of red claret, so that a beautiful amethystine foam rose shimmering to the brim. “The Irish poets over in Dublin called it so; and once, so they say, they went all round the town, and asked at every public-house for two tall cymbals and an opal hush. They did not get what they wanted very easily, and I do not know what a tall cymbal may be. But this is the opal hush.” It was very good, and as I drank I thought of those Irish poets, whose verses had meant much to me, and sipped the stuff with reverence as if it had been nectar from Olympus. – Arthur Ransome, Bohemia in London, 1907

Really enjoyed the crunchy crimplene textures and fuzzy fun fur at Bottega Veneta. So much nice vintage crimplene, but it does make you stink.

Style // Dazed // Flickr i. ii. iii