too much style

Every once in a while all the planets seem to converge and I find myself surrounded by too much style. It's a bit like sampling chocolate: you just get dizzy & can't think straight. That's what was happening to me on Sunday when, jet lagged, Mr. Dot & I stopped into the V&A to relax & see some Renaissance sculpture, stop by the tea room & eat cakes. That's when we met Renaissance Man, Erina with her Bob, and several others I haven't even shown you yet.

As a result, I didn't bother to stop this girl, just took a quick shot. It's only now, on closer inspection, I'm noticing she's got this suede helmet with primary coloured insets, a matching quilted bag, a fur gilet which she might have customized herself with that belt (if so: brilliant! That's the thing I tend to hate about gilets: how they can make one so boxy in the mid section). And THEN, she put it over a matching taupe chunky jumper, then added a black pencil skirt, tights, boots.. this girl is interesting. If anyone knows who she is, please ask her if it's okay to post this. Frankly, I'd just like to see what else she's got up her sleeve, style wise.



Just having myself a little fun here.. I liked this girl's simple style and her sleep pony tail. Shot @ the same place, the entrance hall to the V&A: but embellished with photography from my night fishing with my man series (from my other blog, eternal summer). Okay, night night, chickadees!

knit knack: veronika

Sometimes it seems my life is just one amazing coincidence after another. I will hear about something out of the blue and then just keep hearing it. Mark Fast, the knitwear designer, for example: the coincidences started rolling in about 24 hours BEFORE all the hoo-hah about his recent LFW week catwalk show. Even the Sunday Style section in the Times did a piece on him yesterday. (I truly applaud his courage, by the way, and feel the issue of the three 'plus sized', i.e., normally shaped models, is the least fascinating thing about him: if you look at the show as a whole, shown here, you'll see: his clothes are just gorgeous, and would look great women of any size, shape, colour, or, for that matter, age).

But I'm also just really into knitwear, now, more than ever. I could happily live purely in knitted items. If someone just put soles on socks, I'd be pleased as punch.



So: Veronika. I had just walked back from lunch at Jaks with Isabel (we're practically making it a Monday ritual), and we passed Joseph, and the one shot I took all day was another shot at Joseph of the Rodarte window (below). Then, a few minutes later, I saw this amazing girl, Veronika, kind of running down the street near the construction at South Ken tube station. Of course I just had to ask where she got that gorgeous grey open knit top.



Well, of course: she knitted it herself. It figures: I shoot one person today, and she's a future knitwear designer.

Veronika is currently a fashion student, from Hungary, and had just come back from a trip home two hours earlier. She's selling some of her work at the open markets, like Camden (where she got her fabulous belt, by the way. Her perfectly on trend Cuban heel boots are River Island. When you consider that her leggings are knitted, then the only non-knit items are her belt, boots, and ring). She doesn't have a website address but if you get in touch with me, I'll put you in touch with her.



Her name, Veronika, reminded me vaguely of an old Elvis Costello song. Then I thought, no, Jill, you silly cow, it's Alison. But he did songs for both names! Which I've sourced for your viewing pleasure, below. And on that note, I'll shut up.

isa

Met Isa, from Sweden, on the way to the park, on Gloucester Road. She'd done eight catwalk shows and was just coming from Toni & Guy, because the junk they put in her hair for the shows had made it turn colour. She showed me: while her hair is natural blonde, it did have a slight.. neon green tint. They gave her some treatments at Toni & Guy, assured her it was just temporary. Occupational hazard. At least no one made her dye it black. Even Alexa Chung has jumped on the black hair bandwagon, following her pals Agyness, Lily, and Daisy. Those girls!!



Isa has gone back to Sweden now, and back to school. But she's such a lovely girl, and I'm sure we'll be seeing more of her. I just hope her hair goes back to it's proper colour. She was trying to be brave, but I could have sworn I saw the hint of a tear. Perhaps it was simply exhaustion. Get some rest, Isa, and come visit us again.

UPDDATE: Hats off to the wisdom of Pearl, @ Fashion Pearls of Wisdom, who sent this comment shortly after I posted last night: "Ah that happended to me when I was blond many years ago, chlorine in the pool gave my very blond hair a green tint, tomato ketchup is bizzarly the key to neutralise the colour back! So dont worry Isa your lovely locks will be just fine!"

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!! ; )

case in point: leopard louboutin booties

While watching my favourite series, Professional Master Chef, I found my mind drifting back to the previous post, on the booty phenomenon, which I had quickly typed seconds before it started. And so I pondered: what's different now than in 1999? Why did I not wear my little black booties with stiletto heels, not once, or the beige suede version? Why did I give them away to charity without even a scuff mark on their little soles?

And the answer hit me somewhere between the time they were boning the pig's trotter, and slicing the venison carpaccio: it's the silhouette. At the end of the 20th century, skirts were cut on the bias and dipped below the knee, everything was triangular shaped, even the boot leg trousers... yuk. So not my style that I had to find a dressmaker in deepest Herefordshire to make me little stretchy fabric Jackie O dresses. Now, in hindsight, had I worn those dresses with bare legs & those type of booties, I'd be one happy camper. Because that's what makes it work this season: the simple miniskirts, the plain black with a few chunky gold embellishments... it's the silhouette, stupid. Of course. That's what's different about this time round: the clothes we wear with the booties!



I knew if I just opened one of my folders from Somerset House, I'd find an example of what I mean in a heartbeat. Which I did. And I'm missing the double bill of Master Chef to post this, but I think this gorgeous blonde in the stiletto heeled leopard Louboutin booties illustrates my point exactly. Am I right? I mean, I'm no expert, this is just one woman's opinion. Am I making any sense?

I had wanted to accompany this post with Prince's song 'party like it's 1999' (granted, it's a stretch, but now I can't get it out of my head) but youtube doesn't seem to have it. Hmm. Well, if you know the words, just sing along in your head!