the pistachio god

We had an expression in our family: to pray to the pistachio god. It's a long story, and it took place in a Chinese restaurant, before my brother was born - so I had to be less than eight years old. I was driving my parents crazy with all these theological questions ('I don't understand, if Catholics and Protestants are both Christians, why would they fight with each other?' 'It's hard to explain.') Finally my father - from what I can remember - started saying that he didn't believe we can just pray for things - that he felt that what worked better for him - and I'm paraphrasing now - was to basically just be a good person and hope for the best.

I must have felt someone needed to step up to support the Organised Religion side, because I stood by prayer. We had reached the end of the meal (and, no doubt, the end of my parents' tether) and it was time - having successfully agreed on the communal main courses, the requisite numbers from Column A and Column B - to go for the group dessert. Each person chose a scoop of ice cream, served up in one big silver metal bowl, so icy cold it would have beads of condensation running down the side, with lots of exotic fresh and tinned fruits, like kumquats and pineapple. And fortune cookies.

We knew what my sister would want: chocolate. Of course. I was a vanilla girl, but that night, I announced I wanted pistachio. 'It's not Baskin Robbins,' my dad laughed. 'They don't have 27 flavours. It will be vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry.' Then, with that charming Beatles Lads impish grin and a twinkle in his eye, he laid down the gauntlet: 'I know, why don't you PRAY for it.'

So I did. I turned around in the booth with the leather seats, shaped like pews, and I prayed. I prayed and I prayed and I prayed, WITH INTENSITY, and when the waiter arrived, and my sweet little cherub blonde sister asked for chocolate, they had run out. All they had left was vanilla, strawberry, and pistachio.

These days - and it was a post by the Foolish Aesthete that sparked off these shots - I'm really into colours like tangerine, with pistachio and lime. I don't normally wear orange or reds, but maybe it's the obstinate side coming out: this English 'spring' and 'summer' - I use the words ironically - is making everyone want to wear dark, dull, wintry tones, but I'm wearing everything I'd have packed for Italy. Bright tones of aqua, lime, hot pink, tangerine, and lashings of vanilla, especially in the form of my gorgeous new ankle length white jeans by DL1961, from the Raw Denim Bar. And then layering it with scarves, gloves, and for good measure, a sturdy raincoat.

And then I pray to the Pistachio God that the sun will come out.

I basically treat getting dressed the way I treat packing, or cooking: just throw together whatever I'm most in the mood for this minute, then hit the road, Jack. Here's my recipe for Jill's Pistachio God Salad:

Slice juicy orange pieces into the bowl you'll be serving it into, to save all the juice. Add wild rocket leaves, or any nice green you're into at the moment, squirt on some apricot flavoured balsamic syrup, or just balsamic vinegar if you don't have any, good olive oil, chopped pistachios, and - if you'd like, fresh lime juice. Tropical holiday on a plate.

habitual

So: I don't expect you to remember - we all have busy lives - but way back on 9th November, I posted my dilemma about which jeans from the Raw Denim Bar to keep: I had narrowed it down to two, the pair with the zippers and the 70s style pair from Habitual ('blue jean baby', 9.11). And I was lamenting my indecisive self.

Well, reader, I kept both.



As shown here, worn on Flora, she is shaped quite differently than me, and I'm amazed that these jeans are so well cut that they flatter both our shapes. I'd love to do a self style post in them - actually, that day, I asked my husband to shoot me in this same outfit - but I can't show you them. I just look terrible in the shots. Not because of the jeans: it's just the way I look, I can't explain: they're just really crap shots.

Also - I don't know about you, but I'm kind of going thru a phase where I'm off the idea of posting photos of myself online. I don't know if it's a phase, cause I'm actually quite happy with the way I'm looking these days - and dressing. That's not the problem. I'm just kind of off the whole concept. Even the Times Style section - I can't get the piece for you, but it was last Sunday -they even quoted my lovely friend Carrie of WishWishWish - who is WAAAAAY younger than me, and it was along the lines of 'everyone's doing a self style blog these days' and that was never my intention.. I only started out behind the camera, shooting street style.. anyway, you're going to have to just trust me: for an old lady, I look really hot in these jeans.



But here's the best part: the RAW DENIM BAR, where I got these, are taking part in this week's first VOGUE Online Fashion Week, which you all know about, because you are a) quicker than me b) more fashion savvy and c) already know that it's halfway thru: running from 5-9 December.

For this week only, 30% of all The Raw Denim Bar sales will go to their charity (Give as you Live) and will have exclusive denim style edits, gift ideas, designer blog posts, and special OFW offers, including a competition to win a £300 gift certificate, just by subscribing to the newsletter.



But if you're gonna shop there, can you do me a small favour please? You know I never run ads. But I've decided to run one with them, because I love them so much. And I've got my ad!! It's the icon above. Please click on it and if you shop there, I might actually get a commission. Which would mean that I'd be bringing some income in thru my blog. Which would make my husband get off my back about how I spend so much time on my blog. So, if you think about it - in the spirit of Christmas - it's kind of your way of donating to a worthy charity. i.e., yours truly.

Flora is wearing jeans by Habitual, via the Raw Denim Bar (click on icon to buy, babes!) and blouse from my late, darling, very stylish Great Aunt Ruth. Head scarf and rose ring from Lucie, of the Vagabond Van, shot at their lovely flat in Notting Hill.

How's your December going so far, btw? Hope all is feeling, for you, merry, and bright.

xoxo

blue jeans, baby

Music to accompany this post, for your listening pleasure:





Got the volume up? Good. Okay, here's my problem, perhaps you could help.

Last summer, Jodie, of the blog 'it's rude to stare', who I've become friends with, contacted me while on holiday, to ask if I wanted to try out the RAW DENIM BAR concierge experience. She was working there for the summer. Once she went back to Uni, I started talking with Natascha about trying it out. It's a brilliant concept: you take a few minute to fill out a really fun questionaire, and based on that, they send you five pair of jeans, in what their stylists feel is best for you. You can tell them what you like, but also decide how much you want to let them choose for you, too.

Now, I'm someone who a)is pretty indecisive, b)is also, by contradiction, pretty stuck in my ways, stylistically, and c)never really got it about expensive jeans.



I mean, the last pair of jeans I bought was from Uniqlo, for £9.90! And before that, I was pretty much living in Gap skinnies. But the Raw Denim Bar focus on more of the cool, mostly American brands - the ones the celebrities wear. They're not cheap. But MAN OH MAN OH MAN: when the six pair (they threw in an extra one, with a note, that they couldn't choose just five) arrived, in these beautifully packaged white boxes with denim-like tissue paper, and I've been trying them on, and trying to make plans to meet my various stylish modelly friends, and sometimes it would rain, or we'd have to change the dates, or dental emergencies, and then some of my model friends are actually bigger sizes than me (who knew??) and now, it's time to decide. And I can't!

I've pretty much narrowed it down to the HABITUAL ASCOT TROUSER in EVANTIDE, as shown on Flora, in the top shot. They are the most fabulous, Seventies Charlie Angels type jeans (more in the next post - I can't fit it all in one). I mean, look at the detail work:



BUT.. I also felt that, for my one pair, I should try this season's bright colour trend - and I don't do red (I told them that, they listened). But I do, do blue, and they sent me these:



But then again, I could live forever in the DENIM OF VIRTUE eloquence skinnies, which fit like a glove - I mean, they feel like lounging around in a five star hotel in cashmere tights - with little zippers on the bottom, to get in and out of easier.



And - oh GOD, I think these really are the softest, the most luxurious: the RICH AND SKINNY LEGACY IN SALT AND SEA. They sent me the medium blue, and that is me to a tee: simple. Soft. Comfortable. This was my first, obvious choice.



But then.. something really weird happened. And this is why I think this concept is so unusual, so perfect. You might shop online, yeah, but usually - because you don't want to get it wrong - you go for what you know, what is safe, familiar.

I mean, I'd never have gone for the WORK CUSTOM MAMBA, in WORKBLUE. I'd normally not think that's my style: it's too.. rock and roll. But here's what's happening: that's the ones I'm most drawn to! I even wore it to the shoot at Lucie's, on Sunday.

As a result of this process, I have a feeling that's the one my heart is drawn to the most: and it's the least likely one I'd have chosen.






Which kind of knocks the equally wonderful, kind of black and blue, RESIN CATALYST IN COBALT PHOENIX, clear out of the ballpark.





Call me old fashioned, but they just don't make lyrics like this anymore: 'Jesus freaks, out in the street, handing tickets out for God. Turning back, she just laughs. The boulevard is not that bad... looking on, she sings the songs. The words she knows, the tunes she hums.'

It's not just Elton John's musical genius: I love the creative collaboration with Bernie Taupin, who has been writing his lyrics for over 30 years. In separate parts of the world, they work together, and create something quite magical. I've been playing this song, in my head and on YOuTube, in all my weeks of blue jeans indecision.

So I appeal to you know: HELP ME, please. I can't decide. Which pair of jeans should I keep? Because while Natascha has been really patient so far, it's like WEEKS now, and it was originally going to be days, and enough is enough.



Thank you to the lovely, wonderful Natascha and the rest of the team at RAW DENIM BAR for the most wonderful concierge experience. I don't want it to end. I don't want to give them back. But it's time. Please help me, if anyone is out there, listening.

I can't decide. But I can only choose one, and it's time to let go.