karma

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Hard to imagine that it was only ten months ago, to the day, that I visited Roz and her family where she was recovering from surgery for scoliosis at a family member's home in London. It was a cold day, and we had just had the most delicious lunch - and her dad had made the most excellent coffee (the secret, besides strong, freshly ground, good quality beans, and hot milk, is a bit of thick rich cream) and as she lay on a day bed, to rest her back, we chatted with her mum and ate heavenly pastries. Then went out into the garden, in the cold, to do this shoot. I'd say it was under a week since she'd had the surgery.



As those of you who know her, and as she's recounted her blog, Clothes, Cameras and Coffee, the procedure, and the process of recovery, hasn't been easy, for her, or her family. While she's been honest with her readers, she's also been - as is her nature - quite humble, and modest, about her courage.

What I've always admired about Roz is how she consistently focuses on the positive. When I've gone through my own challenges this year, she's always inspired me to keep 'rising above.' I feel I can always learn, and benefit, by someone's shining example, and age has nothing to do with that. I often learn my best lessons from young children. (I just realised: it was one of these shots, from this day, that ended up in ElleGate! It was a paid staff employee in Spain, named Carmen, who pretended she took this picture - and then mocked Roz for looking like a 'cold' woman! And even then - when we were offered compensation by their lawyers, and ultimately, didn't get it, even THEN, Roz and her family still rose above: we all agreed, it was better karmically to just let it go. But Carmen Bejerano, and her boss, Sibila Freijo Fernandez are the reasons I have to take the time to put my logo on each photo - even though that didn't stop them from publishing my photos as their own, the first time round.)



It is the grace - the dignity and the elegance - with which Roz responds to any negativity in her life which is EXACTLY why I'm so happy for her that she's won the Vogue Talent Contest for writing, 2011. I can't wait to see it: it's out now. But I'm also touched that, when she told me, in confidence, a week or two back, that she'd won, she was as excited, if not more, at the discovery, the same day, of her excellent grade results. In school.

Because Roz, after all, is still only 16.

Karma, alas, isn't always instant. Some people can go a whole lifetime with one bad break after another, and they don't get the rewards til the next lifetime, when they get to come back as, say, a cat. Get to sleep all day long, take endless baths, and, if they're cute enough, eat tuna fish.



Other people - for example, the 'obnoxious bloggers', as Imogen so bravely posted about in EIGHT recently, chasing some idea of fame or success, no matter the cost to others, seem to get what they fight so viciously for. For a while, at least. And the irony of the first two bloggers who rushed to comment on that post isn't lost on me, or those who know the truth.

They say Karma's a Bitch, and I believe that to be true. I've been around a while, in this life, and it does seem the case that no matter what 'success' those kind of people achieve, there's always a cost, karmically. I'd, personally, still rather be able to sleep at night.



Yes, Karma can be a Bitch, but She can also - sometime, like in the case of Roz's winning the VOGUE UK contest - be Fair, and Just, and True.

Have you had any instances of Karma you'd like to share with the group? How instant was yours?

Okay, enough chit chat for one day. And so, like boats against the current, we all continue, I hope, to shine on. Like the moon, and the stars, and the sun.

buy a tee shirt, save japan

Mr. Dot took the day off - I cancelled the first part of a dental situation that had me in agony for months (root canal - now I need a new crown) - which means I'll be on holiday with the temporary crown - so that we could swim, outside, in Surrey today.

I love the saying, if you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.

As I write this, there is a huge thunderstorm rumbling outside. I can't even do my little photo shoot with my new tee shirt from Uniqlo, so I'll just post these shots and tell you about it, instead. Because, while I'm being, in the scheme of things, only very mildly inconvenienced, I am no less aware - or grateful - for all I do have. When the rain threatened to come in the window next to me and the sleeping cat, I simply closed it.

For other people, that day the tsunami hit, it wasn't that easy.

And for many people, right now, in Japan, their lives will never be the same. But we can do something to help.

There is a campaign going on, right now, at Uniqlo: the Uniqlo UT Save Japan tee shirt collection: working with Conde Nast Japan, and Vogue, they've produced a limited edition set of tee shirts, designed by ten celebrities: Alber Elbaz, Charlize Theron, Cindi Lauper, Victoria Beckham, Lady Gaga, Karl Lagerfeld, Blake Lively, Gwyneth Paltrow, Orlando Bloom, and Nicole Kidman.

It's ironic that they chose, for me, Charlize Theron, out of the ten. I love what she wrote. It is the core of my beliefs.



This also has a very personal connection- which makes it all the more uncanny, how random it was that I got her shirt. At the most difficult time in my life, just as I was at that 'jumping off' moment, I was in a Cafe Nero, and just happened to be reading an interview with her. She had been through an unbelievable ordeal, and when asked how she did it, she modestly said something quite similar to what she wrote for the shirt. That day, Charlize Theron saved me.



Not to mention, Mr. Dot, when he saw it, remarked that it is 'very high quality.' I'm wearing it, as we speak. Warm and cosy and comfortable and safe from harm's way.

Click here: WWW.UNIQLO.COM, or go to any of the Uniqlo shops. I'll do a self style shoot with it - if it ever stops raining.

(Thank you also to Savoir Flair for inadvertently letting me steal their photo of Charlize Theron).

girls just wanna have fun

During one of the days of London Fashion Week, while I was taking photos of my friends, I realised I was in the middle of a fun little shoot so started snapping them, too. I know that the taller girl in the gorgeous grey and nude leather dress is Poppy Delevingne, but I was busy shooting my friends and didn't ask who the other girl was. And now I can't get that Cyndi Lauper song out of my head. The Killers did a cover of it, but call me old fashioned: I feel the original is the best.

p.s. Well what do you know! My 'anonymous' source came thru in a matter of hours. First Almina tipped me off that she's done some modelling for ASOS. Then Anonymous filled in the missing puzzle piece: they are, indeed, sisters! I just think it's so cute to see a sister, who model, shooting her younger sister, who also models (both for Storm btw) at fashion week. Just being normal girls. Read all about it here on Vogue.com: Sister Act. Which is what, had I known, I've have called this post..

feeling blue

Was walking home after meeting my fabulous & fun friend Isabel for coffee at our latest favourite hangout & trend-spotting spot, Jaks, on Walton Street. Shot all these shots in the order seen, and didn't even realise til now that I was shooting a consistent colour scheme. Even when I saw the bird, it was more like 'ooh, what a cool bird.'



The shoes are from Zanotti, of course, and right across the street, at Joseph on the corner of Brompton Cross, was this intriguing window. I went inside & spoke with a nice sales guy and asked who made those knitted creations and he said 'Rodarte'. I asked him to spell it and he started to write it down but then said 'actually it's in the window' (sure enough, it is: along with a cute little bunny rabbit). I could so see wearing the black & blue dress on the left with a pair of 80s inspired sheer black tights with little dots, and those blue patent Zanotti booties. Can't you?



I assumed Rodarte for some reason was a man, but they're two sisters, based in LA. And I like their sensibility: they were quoted as saying 'If we could dig a ditch and bury our drresses and dig them out ten years later that would be the ideal of how we'd want them to look.'



How do I know this? Because everything is connected, and I just happened to buy the November issue of Vogue, where there's a whole piece on STREET STYLE. It's really cool, if you can get Vogue UK, they chose Christopher Kane in London, Philip Lim (another designer I only just discovered - DUH - via Joseph, as a matter of fact), in NY, and Rodarte in LA. In the Vogue issue, each of the three went street style hunting for the day, with photographers, and picked out people whose style they liked. Note to Chris: next time you want to go street style shooting in London, ask me!! ; )

turkish delights

Two of the many lovely women that I've met @ LFW so far are Mary Fellowes and someone I thought was 'AJ', or at least, that's what I thought she said. Turns out her real name is Ece Sükan, which I discovered because Craig @ Altamira happened to post a similar shot to one of mine.




She's become one of my muses this week - she's just so sweet & easy to shoot. And Mary is so warm and fun. They're a great duo, and are working together at Turkish Vogue. How exotic!



Ece's Day Two outfit is almost all vintage: Fendi bag, Guy Laroche top, skirt by Azzedine Alaia, and orange shoes, Chanel.

girls' night out (topshop tip: tonight!!)

Was having tea and cake and coffee with my friend Carmel, sitting outside Paul on Gloucester Road (my 'local') when next to me, these... LEGS, sat down. I swear, the first thing I saw was these long boots on Georgie. Then I noticed Gala's hat (a friend brought it back from Russia). They are the sweetest girls, but soon as I started shooting them, before my eyes, they transformed into something so... worldly. They literally grew up before my eyes. It was so hard to narrow this down to three shots.



It's not surprising that they've already started doing a bit of modeling (Gala's just done the Doc Martin campaign, and Georgie, I gather, has signed with an agency: something different than just going to India like everyone else for her gap year.)



Both their tops are Topshop, of course (Gala's is Kate Moss, and Georgie's plaid is this season: everyone's wearing plaid this week!) They're the ones who told me about the Topshop event TONIGHT, at the Oxford Street shop, called FASHION'S NIGHT OUT, in conjunction with Vogue. G&G were saying it's the biggest event of London Fashion Week and they should know: they're invited to all the best shows, like Vivienne Westwood, etc.

If you're in NY, there's great stuff going on there, too. This is a global event, apparently, that's happening today (the 10th), simultaneously. Read all about it on Topshop's blog, or Vogue's site. Thanks to that little bit of serendipity, I'm planning on going tonight, and if I get any good shots, you'll be the first to know! Thanks, girls!

xoxo