star bright

More from my Oxford Street Christmas lights series: Juxtaposition with Corrie Nielsen's September show, as before. And just to remind you: this weekend is going to be amazing on Oxford/Regent Street. I just hope I"m well enough to go - before flying to Miami on Sunday!!

So inspired by the Degas show: Picturing Movement, that my darling friend Maralee brought me to yesterday. So inspired, I can't even talk about it. But I do know what I want, for the moment, with my blog: you don't come here to see the latest trends, and you know I rarely do street style anymore - I mean, I might again at some point, but once everyone's doing something, creatively, I need to move on. And what Degas was doing so brings me back to what my art was, before moving to London, and that's what I want to do now. And to show you. So, stay tuned... hope you like it.

sweet silver bells

Okay: first of all, do you have any idea how hard it was to find this song on youtube? Try typing in 'merry merry merry Christmas,' which was the only part of the lyrics I remembered at first, and then 'Christmas is here'. I'll save you the trouble: you'll just have to trust me, you can come up with a hell of a lot.

Thursday night, I ventured out with the bug I had been trying to nip in the bud, via bus then on foot, in the rain, because my friend Veronika, who is a knitwear designer, was part of a catwalk show at the London College of Fashion. I was walking down Oxford Street and finally admitted to her by phone that I just couldn't do it. She was totally understanding, because she's lovely, and gave me her blessing to go back home, and as I turned to do the reverse journey home and pick up noodle soup at Wasabi along the way, suddenly I was hit with a flash of memory: the lights on Oxford Street, the taxis in the rain, and, suddenly, my heart swelled with something absolutely MAGIC, deep, mystical memory, and my head started playing this song:



Hark how the bells, sweet silver bells, all seem to say, throw cares away, Christmas is here, bringing good cheer, to young and old, meek and the bold, Oh how they pound, raising the sound, o'er hill and dale, telling their tale, Gaily they ring, while people sing songs of good cheer, Christmas is here, Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas, Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas, On on they send , on without end, their joyful tone to every home Dong Ding dong ding, dong Bong

Weirdly, on the comments, someone wrote this: "This is the song that plays in my head when I'm epic-ly shopping for Christmas presents."

So sick as I was feeling, I pulled out my camera and started shooting, in a trance.

Sartorically, what I'm craving now - what I feel like wearing, all of a sudden - is dark, black, navy, midnight, shiny shiny shiny sparkles, velvet and sequins and for the day, denim and black jumpers and gold and silvery jewelry.

This is the first of my new series of juxtapositions: instead of giving you two separate shots, I'm mixing images together now. The catwalk shot is from Corrie Nielsen's show last February: her A/W 2011 show, ('corrie, corrie'), the show that had intrigued me because she was from Florida, studied at Central Saint Martin, was influenced by Vivienne Westwood, and, having never seen her work before, she had said her inspiration came from the both the Elizabethan period, and 1940s and 1950s French haute couture. THAT juxtaposition caught my curiosity.

I will continue this series - mixing Corrie's and other designers' work with Oxford Street Christmas lights, and want to remind you about next weekend's VIP weekend: Oxford/Regent Streets, traffic closed to the public, really magic Old English themes going on, for kids, adults, carols: I really hope I"m well enough to go. Oh and anything you spend in the West End, American Express will donate £1 to Kids Company, so bring your AmEx card!

and while the Pope owns 51% of General Motors

My gift to you on this autumnal Monday morning: a juxtaposition of a different kind. Sound and image that seem, at first, in contrast (catwalk shots, George Harrison) but.. well, what can I say. Click below, turn up the volume, even if you're in the office, and let me know if it works.



Let's just say: I've been up to here with the dark side of the fashion blogging world, and it's time for me to go into the light. And both this show, and this song.. I'm all about the spiritual for me, these days.



I have not been able to get this song out of my head for over a week, ever since I saw Scorcese's BRILLIANT film. I love how, in the film, he described writing this song: he was friggin' BRUSHING HIS TEETH and humming the melody, and thinking 'you don't need no bedpan, you don't need no blah blah'.. and I keep picturing my first, and favourite show, Corrie Neilsen's, this September. And I'm sorry I'm not linking her, or telling you more about her - she's amazing - but I'll be showing you more photos, I promise, and I can tell you about her then.

In the meantime, check out these lyrics.










I've been invited to something today that I'm really excited about: and it has nothing to do with selling stuff. This time of year especially, I am turning my focus to what really matters.

Have a nice day, dear friends. And Hari Krishna!

in memory: steve jobs, 1955-2011

Like my friend Toni, of the Fashion Cloud, 'for reasons I don’t know how to explain', I am holding off on what I had planned to post today, because, like her, I am saddened and affected by the death of someone I have never met.




When my husband told me this morning that Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, has died, of cancer, at the age of 56.. I don't know how to say what I want to say. My father was first diagnosed with prostate cancer before he was 60. While he went on to live another 15 years, I know how hard it was, at times, for him, for my family, for me, to come to terms with the helpless feeling of how cruel, how unfair, life could be.



We all have such a short time in this life, in this world. The question is, what we do with our time. Each minute that I squander - that I occupy my mind with anger, or resentment, or feeling victimised - each minute that I am not creating either something beautiful, of use to others, or spreading some sense of hope, love, or joy - is a minute that I am wasting on this earth.

Without Steve Jobs' vision, I would not have the means for my voice to be heard. So, from the moment that I click 'publish post', I will rise, take my beautiful MacBook Pro with me, out into the sunshine. And I will write. And I will do it with gratitude to a man I've never met, who has changed my world, for the better.



Rest in Peace, Steve Jobs. But I have a feeling you won't be resting at all: you'll continue to have the vision, and the spirit, to keep on creating for us mortals, here on Earth.

just one look

Is all I dare: off in a few minutes to Somerset House to see Ashish. This is from backstage before Corrie Nielsen - my first show, first day, London Fashion Week, and it was FABULOUS. I love Corrie Nielsen.

Must dash: have a lovely Saturday everyone! xoxo

corrie corrie

At fashion week, there are two kinds of shows going on, and both are an equally important part of the creative energy and magic that makes up the fashion industry. There is the show outside, where the photographers and bloggers seem to outnumber the subjects they're shooting, and then there is the reason we're all here: the shows themselves.



For me, Corrie Nielsen, who was born in Florida and moved to London in 2000, three years after me, and worked for Vivienne Westwood before branching out on her own, is the star designer of fashion week. I can't imagine a show I will love as much as hers. The music, the hair and make-up... it was haunting, spiritual, beautiful, incredibly emotional... everything that any work of art should do to the human soul.



Corrie won the Fashion Fringe award at Covent Garden in 2010, and deservedly so. I knew when I read that her influences were 'The Elizabethan period, French Haute Courte from the 1950s, and New Romance' that I'd be in for a treat, but this surpassed even my expectations.