mon coeur a lieu a 1940

autumn 2003 miu miu campaign

possibly all the ebaying i do has awarded me with the best bid yet. the search for the perfect winter 

coat has been years long. i dreamt of finding this oversized houndstooth number at beacons closet. 

(pictured on left, above) someone once said, all the things i love will come back to me, if i really love 

them enough. case proven!

le futur prada

thanks to the prada friends and family sale, i have fantastic additions to the

art collection. dress from spring 2008 and sweater from fall 2007.

i'm in awe of them hanging on my rack.

i'm in love with Ferrán Adrià

i can never resist a food dude, especially not this one...

this spanish one... 

i dream of this journey.

leading a calm evolution

the ease of dries.

while not the obviously in your face fashion we have become accustomed to

this past few weeks, dries van noten offers the pared down.

in shape, colour and simplified geometrics.

its of his usual vocabulary and its welcome. so many women can wear this

because its easy and displays his respect for his greatest muse, the woman.

the look, the total look of dries is effortless and he does it with such beauty and ease.

a look, an aura that so many try to replicate-but fail.

dries is never revolution but i think its about a quiet evolution. his collections

undulate into the next, its never about out doing the previous or completely turning

his own ideas on their heads. he is respectful to his own history as its so well thought

out-everything he has done, from the very start.

this, is a lost idea in the fashions we are seeing-it sets him into a class of his own.

much of this fashion season has been overwhelming to the wearer-and us the viewers.

the thought that there is someone in the clothes seems to have escaped so many-the thought

that your personality can bring something to what you wear.

i think this collection gives the upper hand to the individual.

while not my favourite dries show ever, but its beautiful and in its whispering way its

bringing fashion forward leaps and bounds.

i'll forever be a fan.

and a word borrowed from my mum, jude-a dries lover of sorts

'i love dries van noten. or should i say i love what he creates for me.

choosing a great style is an emotional thing and dries somehow touches that among

a broad range of people. why? few designers can articulate their intuition so effectively

without getting lost in the process. it is very difficult to achieve.

so, why does this guy appeal to you...and your mother?

that's huge.

my feeling is this: dries van noten adores women, all women. he embraces the idea

of 'womanhood' and he does it with excitement and kindness. dries is unfailingly and

sincerely kind to women. wearing a dries is like having an artist paint your best portrait

and as you gaze at the picture, you see all in yourself that is good.

dries was made to do what he does. and it doesn't get better than that.'

clear as day

claudio colucci's carafe un verre, 2001

inside out champagne glasses, alissia melka teichroew, 2004

full to the brim

today, i felt brief nostalgia for this proenza schouler spring 2007 collection

and the take on the zorro hat, consider this foreshadowing.

costa azul

surprising coming from me, this philip lim leather bag for autumn is a real looker.

i feel GG had a hand in designing it.

magic eye

houdini magic eye prints-rachel comey autumn 2008

leaves fall

humunoid fall winter 2008

the age of antiquity

miu miu spring summer 2009

to me, it feels like ancient columns. structures of grandeur and function in ancient rome.

the pantheon. the forum.

pillars of history, marble and alabaster. with the chips of time and ages past.

the rips and the tearing on the silk and what looks like burlap.

tiered apron shapes, pleats and simple drapery.

the prints are fantastic. from walls and tiles. ageless icons. 

it has a grotesque and raw element to it, made beautiful.

its almost daunting in its amazing fucked up way, similar to roman history-i love it.

of the last time i was in rome, i remember watching the city pass through the bus window,

thinking how its always in a state of falling down and apart and it will always be this way-

somehow this makes it the eternal city?

but also that everywhere there is street art and scribbles of graffiti and what a wild combination

this shocking paint out of spray cans and these age old buildings makes.

with the squiggles of neon pink and blood red orange, it reminds me of rome.

so i feel the ages and i feel rome embodied in this show.

and its wonderful and so italian, something i am happy to see miu miu be at this moment.

viva zucchero!

for chocolate sauce:

1 cup heavy creme

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

1 tablespoon butter at room temperature

1 teaspoon bourbon

for churros:

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1.5 cups sugar

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 cup whole milk

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup flour

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

2 quarts peanut oil

1. make chocolate sauce, in medium pan, heat cream until small bubbles form. remove from heat.

pour chocolate into hot cream, sit for 5 minutes, stir until smooth. stir in butter and then bourbon.

keep warm.

2. prepare churros: in shallow pan, combine cinnamon and sugar; set aside. in small saucepan,

melt butter with the milk and salt over medium heat and bring to a boil, add flour and cook, stir constantly

until a dough forms and pulls away from the sides of pan, about 30 seconds. remove from heat and cool for

3 minutes. stir eggs into the batter until smooth. fill a pastry bag filled with large star tip.

3. in medium pot, heat about 3 inches of oil to 350 degrees, squeeze out batter and snip when it reaches 4 inches

long. fry in batches, turning once, until deep golden brown. about 4 minutes. drain on paper towels. 

while still hot, roll in cinnamon sugar. serve with chocolate sauce, makes about 16.

 

bruise mouth

the perfect purple lip. on the desperate search.

vpl primavera 2009.

mate for life

i've got an attraction to these arthropods at the moment. in shape and colour. 

wild weird watercolour

little beach williamsburg. 

far rockaway beach.

erotica for the feet

prada primavera 2009

mon marni

oh she is slippery and tres sexy

prada primavera 2009

i have to say...and this is no surprise for those that know my tastes, i love it.

i love the bras and washed fabrics, the red, the prints. there is such an ease about 

this collection-it is reminiscent of about three springs back, remember with the 

socks and hot pink shoes-

but also of early 2000s prada, but the feeling now is updated and quicker than current.

this is significant, where everyone (nyc!!) is just throwing up malibu colours on every

jacket and legging in sight-this is balanced. of course cafe and espresso and cherry

are the ideal summer vacation hues, it seems perfectly obvious now its in front of us.

the pulled together and tied together, but really the 'untie me, darling'

its miuccia and sex at one of her best.

the fabrics have a lovely lived in appeal. she looks rummaged but oh so good, fresh

and clean. 1950s shape of the halter combined with the off shoulder sleeve-

why don't we see more of this? its so beautifully complementary to a woman.

this fish print is a dream. i love it when she takes on the animals.

its the humor in it all, its childlike and combined with the roughed up washed up

1950s beach house secret sex goddess-its brilliant!

pour moi, prada seems to be of the next moment and this i would say makes

it difficult to compare collections past and to come.

autumns lace is a stand alone in its vision and innovation.

spring 08 always holds a dear place in my heart-yes i still want to look like a hendrix

tripping fairly lady, but maybe not in this moment.

but this is all of what appeals to you and your senses.

so fuck yeah, oil my collarbones, dress me in latte shades and fuck me shoes and 

send me to portofino, i'm ready for low tide.

love pie

blueberry lavender pie

for crust, 2 cups unbleached flour, 3/4 cup cold vegetable shortening

1 tsp salt, about 2 cups of water

using knives, cut up flour and shortening, sprinkle water and gather to a ball and chill one hour

grease nine inch pie plate, roll out bottom crust, coat with egg white, chill another 1/2 hour

1 cup sugar

(i prefer to grind up about 1 tsp of fresh/dry lavender with sugar)

3 tbs corn starch

1/8 tsp salt

2 tbs lemon juice

1 tsp lemon zest

pinch of cinnamon

2 pints fresh blueberries

mix sugar, corn starch, salt, cinnamon and zest add blueberries and lemon juice, toss and chill

roll out top crust (cut hearts), add about 1/4 cup crushed graham crackers to bottom crust

spoon in fruit, throw on a couple more lavender buds and add top, trim edges poke steam vents

15 minutes at 425 and then 30-40 minutes at 350

cool and eat with ice cream 

(also can use raspberries or a combination of blueberries and raspberries)

lomo a la playa

exquisite jam for nice poets

last august i became wildly nostalgic for my italian mum, emilias' fig jam

so i searched and researched and came up with my perfect fig jam for nice poets.

2 pounds of fresh juicy figs (i like black mission)

about 2 cups of water

1 pound superfine (caster) sugar

juice and zest of 1 lemon

large pinch of cinnamon

clean and boil ball jars

clean, trim and chop figs

boil water, add sugar, stir til dissolved

add figs, lemon and cinnamon and cook down, stirring quite often

i prefer to cook it down to about a quarter of its mass

fill jars, put lids on and boil again

enjoy with fancy butter and fresh bread

she eats colours.

i quite love this image of singer st. vincent.

ojos de los gatos

the perfect eyeglasses. marni. i just want to look like my mum 

when she was eight and had cat eyes.

hot rocks

i watched brideshead revisited monday evening, kinda just for the costumes.

all the lovely rhinestone costume jewelry in the film was brilliant.

my ebay finds include rhinestones and lead to amber and butterscotch amber.

le tomate

another pastis cocktail avec a splash of grenadine. 

oh, how i used to adore shirley temples.

friends of a feather

the other day, i met spiro. i was sure he was a french sailor, in his stripe shirt,

holding his parrot coloured drink. in from port, thinking of his only love, la mer.

he reminisced about marseille and told me that certain locale informed his

drink choice of the evening.

le perroquet (the parrot)

one ounce pastis

one splash of creme de menthe

four ounces of cool water

stir and serve, its a sin to add ice cubes, they would say in marseille.

your love is right in front of my eyes.

i'm amazed it took this long to occur to me i could be seeing through hearts.

considering my love and fascination with the human heart. and hearts of all sorts.

the search begins for the perfect pair and i see lanvin and karl jumping on this for spring oh nine.

it becomes more clear to me.

after three years

paul verlaine

pushing the narrow sagging gate aside,

i walked into the little garden-bower

which the sun, that morning, softly glorified,

bespangling with wet sparks the smallest flower.

nothing had changed. i saw it all: the humble

trellis of wild vine, the rattan chairs...

the fountain murmuring its silver air,

the old aspen everlasting atremble.

just as they used to be: the quivering rose,

the haughty lily on the wind-swayed stalk.

i still know every lark that comes and goes.

i found the Veleda standing even yet,

her plaster scaling, at the end of the walk

-gracile, in the dull scent of mignonette.

petit jaune.

my drink of choice on bastille day. vive la france!

le rouge du maroc

back in april, when my mum visited, we dined at wd-50 and 

enjoyed this brilliant syrah from morocco.

never pass up a layer cake.

my roommate jacked a bottle of this from a party he worked a few weeks back.

its splendid.

polka dot.

marni resort 2009.

consuelo always gets me in the heart. without fail.

dark decades avec anouck

i've had an affection for model, anouck lepere since i met her a few years back and she

had me laughing hysterically. here she is in french playboy. i love this and find it

world wild and inspiring and anouck is an absolute stunner on the page.