which wellies

And I am absolutely paralysed with indecision.

While friends in NY are reporting that it is a heatwave (98 and sunny) the skies have opened here in London: pitch black, the mews quaking with thunder and lightening and pouring rain. I was just about to go out, and I have the right rain gear for my head and torso (beige all weather hooded jacket) but no wellies (that's Wellington boots, rubber rain boots, to those who reside outside the UK, or who have recently arrived from another planet).

Here's my dilemma:

A while back, you might recall, I was invited to a party at Selfridges, to launch the new Havaianas Wellies line. As a thank you, I was to be gifted a pair, and these really nice girls took my shoe size and my order. I chose a nice fun brown paisley, but then, in the cold light of day I realised, I really can't do patterns. Not on Wellies.

That was even before I read that Daisy Lowe, when asked for festival style essentials, said wellies but only black or green, NO PATTERNS. I got in touch with Russell, who invited me, and asked to be switched to black. There's a lot more to the story which I won't bore you with the details - poor sweet Roxanne, at Yellow Door, has been up to her eyeballs with complaints with delayed deliveries, running out of colours (talk about beggars being choosers) and I was delivered the pair in the middle, which, while fine for some people, will simply not do for a woman of my age:



Now, what I'd really like are the shiny black pair, but that's not part of the new line (don't they look great, worn in, on the girl at Hay in the red jacket?)



These are my choices:



Interesting about the word, dilemma, by the way. (Well, interesting to me, as I sit it out with the cat inside while waiting for this torrential rain storm to stop). According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilemma, A dilemma (Greek: δί-λημμα "double proposition") is a problem offering at least two possibilities, neither of which is practically acceptable. One in this position has been traditionally described as "being on the horns of a dilemma", neither horn being comfortable, "between Scylla and Charybdis"; or "being between a rock and a hard place", since both objects or metaphorical choices are rough.

Now, while I like the brown paisley, I can't get Daisy's words out of my head. And I don't know if hot pink or bright blue are too.. bright. So I'm kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place.

The black isn't really black - Roxanne said it's a dark grey. And while I love shiny black with hot pink, I'm not sure about grey. I am spending WAAAAAY too much time on this decision - and I really need to be writing - so I am posing it to you, Reader. Please. Help. Sway. My. Vote.

hay, sophie!

When I first met Sophie, at the Hay Festival, we were both rushing to or from events (I was actually rushing to the loo queue) so I snapped her quickly on the green walkway between tents, told her my name, and rushed to the loos wishing I'd had more time to ask her questions.



Then when I got to the loos - and I love the serendipity of this, because either of us could have gone to the ones in the other direction - I heard a voice say 'I love what you're wearing, too.' It was Sophie! 'I guess you have to dress stylish' (i.e., my blog). Actually, I forget what I was wearing that day, but she was really kind to say I had nice style. And she's just really lovely - and I truly felt she was the star of the festival! I wish I could have seen her another day - she was visiting her mom (she's American, but her mom lives in England) so maybe she was just there the one day.



I then tried to shoot her near the loos, against the white background of a tent, but the light was so harsh. She was being really patient, posing calmly, and said her boyfriend, Tor, is a photographer, so she's used, I guess, to being his muse. She's a nutritionist, and we got into a little chat about how we are what we eat, and I wish we could have talked longer, because she's absolutely lovely. I think she's back home now, in Portland, Oregon, but she's definitely someone I want to stay in touch with. Isn't she such a star?

crown of thorns

Such a shame I can't show you the countless shots of these gorgeous children, many who were wearing wreaths of willow that they'd made at the Wiggly something tent at the Hay Festival (I gather it's some kind of Druid thing: protects one from evil spirits, and so on). But I've got a rule, which I only break when the parents are really on board about it, and often, not even then: no kids on my blog. Hopefully since we can't see her face, this one will be okay.

Met Naomi (top shot) and loved the simplicity and elegance of how she was dressed: a long black maxi, sandals, sequin jacket, and flowers in her hair. I can't think of a better accessory this Festival Season than a wreath of flowers, or willow leaves: real, or imagined.

If you're wondering about the title, it's from Dylan's song, Shelter from the Storm. It's hard these days to embed his music - must be a copyright thing - but I found this live version:

a rose by any other name

For those of you who have just woken up (as opposed to the people who are still sleeping), late last night I posted a shot of a girl @ ASOS in a dress the colour of which I could not quite describe. The six or seven comments that came in in the next few hours were utterly delicious, and I thank you. The majority went with 'coral', with 'watermelon' running a close second.

On Sunday, when I saw the flash of this girl's pink top, I ran after her, only to realise: it's Betsan! My new friend! With her cute boyfriend Tom! And her top - by freak coincidence - Topshop, like her skirt from Saturday. I couldn't find hers exactly, but isn't this tunic amazing! They call it raspberry, but it is so not: it's really more coral, don't you think?



I love the effortless chic that they both display (besides being really cool as human beings). Tom's plaid on plaid action, for example. I love seeing people on the weekend in two consecutive days: you can almost see their overnight bag, the way, for example, Betsan wore the same green necklace both days, same bag..



Ironically, her particular colour isn't even coral! If you look at the left, in a colour exercise, I increased the yellow: that's more light coral, to me. (Yesterday's dress is probably deeper coral). I think you'd simply call this top PINK.



It's such a simple word: pink. My favourite Aunt Paula sent me a shot of my niece, Aili, in Seattle, drinking pink lemonade and dressed top to toe in pink, including her shades. We all - universally - seem to go thru a distinct pink phase as little girls, and then, tho we seem to grow out of it, we never do entirely. So, curious, I started using my favourite new toy, google translate, to explore the word in other tongues.

I discovered that it's قرنفل in Arabic. In the land of my grandmother's roots, Belarus, it's: ружовы

In Chinese, the 'simplified' version has four nouns (the first is 粉红色), two verbs, and three adjectives (God knows how many the traditional version has). Croatian is karanfil for the noun, but the adjective is actually ROZE. Catalan is ROSA, Basque ARROSA, Czech růžový, Danish lyserød, Dutch, OMG, has TWELVE nouns, ELEVEN verbs (what exactly is the English verb for pink? Does one pink? Have any of you been pinked?), and five adjectives, starting with ROZE, ROSE, ROZIG, ROOSKLEURIG, and - I love this - the fifth is CHIC.

The Estonians have ROOSA, but also KAHVATUPUNANE (that's easy for you to say!), the Filipinos have four adjectives, including ROSA, but also nasa mabuting kalagayan. So far the first variation of 'pink' I've found is from the Finns, God bless them, who have PINKKI, but also VAALEANPUNAINEN, and PUNAINEN TAKKI. Which brings us to the French, who of course have ROSE, but also INCARNAT and GAUCHISSANT.

I could go on (I'm only at the F's), but I really must go. So I leave you with one word: ροζ , which, while being pink, is still Greek to me.

all stars

Last Friday, Shini and I met at the V&A (and yes, for those of you who have asked if I live there: I do. I've got a small room on the third floor with a hot plate and a cot), and Jen, the Style Crusader, bounded in from a grueling exam, all colt like with bare legs, floral dress (from.. H&M? I must ask!) and the same navy Keds Converse All Stars I've got. Mine were vintage when I bought them, and that was ages ago, in NY.



It's such a simple, quintessential summer look. (Her bag btw is her gorgeous genuine Alexander McQueen). Oh and she's wearing my Ray Bans - also vintage, as in, I've had them forever. I've just sent her a bunch of shots and we're going to do an experiment and not tell each other which we're choosing, or what we're posting about. Just a little blog-game. I'm not even sure I've chosen her best shots here: just randomly picked two that I liked. She's oh so photogenic, our Jenny Jen!



Betsan, who you might have seen in a previous post ('lit chic') @ the Hay Festival, also wore her Keds with bare legs and flowered skirt: hers from Topshop. My other pair are a few years old, from Office, and also in cream. Sorry, nude! ALSO, come to think of it, her sunglasses are Ray Bans. Such American classics.

More about Betsan later, and her fabulous boyfriend Tom. They've got such great style.

got your back

The first time I remember hearing the phrase - or seeing it in print - was in an article on Angelina Jolie, possibly Vanity Fair. She was being all coy about how she and Brad were 'just good friends' but how, on the set of of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, they 'had each others' backs.' (And, as we soon discovered but really knew all along: they had more than just each others' backs.)



It's a great expression, tho. It means more than loyalty, or not betraying one's partner - or friend, or colleague. It's about actually looking out for one another. Being MINDFUL of one another. Or, to use a more quaint phrase: beholdent. That word doesn't pass spell check, and I also see it as 'beholden', but I could swear I heard Martin Sheen as President Bartlett use that phrase in West Wing several times in an episode.

Anyway: this dress. This look. I love it. Ran after the girl but lost her. It's funny, the Hay Festival is a lot like fashion week with respect there's this mad dash to queue for events, same as with catwalks, but the rest is oh so chilled.

Anyone know who made that dress? I want one!!!

faded hazy lazy country state of mind

It's Monday in London Town, and - big surprise - it's overcast and grey. We were Whitstable this weekend which was fabulous, the light was gorgeous there, just the kind of faded palette I'm loving this summer, and I'm still in a kind of faded hazy lazy country state of mind. I'm going thru recent shots to find a colour scheme and look to match my mood, and came up with this great girl (who actually lives in London, and is pretty cool) who I met in Hay-on-Wye on the Welsh border, during the festival. I can't find my notes! I forgot her name! And can't send her an email! So, mystery polka dot girl, I hope you find this virtual message in a bottle.



I didn't realise til after I got the film developed that I had already shot her, earlier, on the grounds. A double polka dot sighting.

off the cuff

Two very different looks, variations on the same theme. Top, an English mother with her husband and whole pack of very young, very robust and adorable little kids, rolling on the floor with them to tire them out at Miami airport before the flight back to Heathrow. Now THIS is traveling in style, she's comfortable, looks great, has that fabulous black & blue thing going on that I'm so into this season.. the ruffled shirt looks feminine & I bet, given her lifestyle, totally machine washable.

The second look was shot at the Hay Festival, as we were running in to see Alain de Boton give a fabulous talk. Didn't even get a chance to ask her name. But she looks gorgeous, don't you think? I read that Gwynnie is tired of gladiator sandals, but as long as there are so many ways to wear them well, as she's done here, I'm still a fan.