Café, design et autres digressions

Oui, ce post est en français et ça devient un peu l’anarchie sur ce blog, un coup en anglais, un coup en français et parfois les deux mon capitaine ! Sans compter qu’il pourrait fort bien se voir agrémenté sous peu de petits croquis.

Vous ai-je déjà dit que j’étais un poil flemmarde, particulièrement le dimanche soir ? Si ce n’était pas le cas, voilà c’est fait… D’où l’anarchie et d’où les probables croquis.

Bref, revenons à nos moutons… Ce week-end avait lieu à Shoreditch le East London Design Show, avec un peu plus de 100 designers, les talents locaux côtoyant leurs homologues australiens ou américains. Mode, arts du verre, bijoux, sacs, meubles, imprimes, une vraie caverne d’Ali Baba ! Alors comment moi, incarnation dans la vie réelle de Becky Bloomwood, aka l’accro du shopping, aurais-je pu résister ??? Tout était si joli, si mignon, chaque pièce m’implorant des yeux « je suis la, je suis la, emmène-moi chez toi ». Tout ça pour dire qu’au final j’ai été plutôt raisonnable. En plus d’un cadeau de Noël dégoté sur place (un ravissant kit pour fabriquer soi-même son accessoire de cheveux-http://www.janielawson.com/), je suis tombée en pamoison devant cet ensemble tasse-soucoupe-petite assiette de Let Them Eat Cake.

L’idée c’est de réunir des pièces de porcelaine vintage qui ne sont pas censées aller ensemble au départ… et pourtant, à l’arrivée le résultat est spectaculaire. Du coup, depuis ce matin, j’en suis environ à ma vingtième tasse de café, pour le seul plaisir de le déguster dans ma jolie tasse.

J’ai aussi trouvé cette carte, qui résume si simplement le fond de ma pensée. If only there were shoe trees... Je suis même étonnée de ne pas l’avoir formulé moi-même plus tôt...

Et sinon pour le compte rendu de l’East London Design Show en anglais et les sites de mes créateurs chouchous, c’est sur Luxsure et c’est là !

Bonne semaine !

Top Image : Ben’s Sister Handbags – http://www.benssister.co.uk/

Foale and Tuffin - Made in England

Ok, I've been very lazy lately and haven't posted anything for days but the good news is that in the meantime I've secured a new job and I'm back into publishing, yayyyyyy!!!

To redeem myself, I'll talk to you about a fantastic exhibition I went to last weekend, Foale and Tuffin - Made in England. As I had to write an article for Luxsure, I peeled myself off the couch and braved the storm to walk to the Fashion and Textile Museum, based in Bermondsey.

Just a short digression about Bermondsey, I was quite amazed about how it's changed. Last time I went there, more than a year ago, it was to view a flat... Within 5 minutes, while I was waiting for the estate agent, a car crash and a spectacular arrest involving a dozen of police vans - those two events not being related - occurred. Right there, just before my eyes. After a little real estate humour moment, thanks to the agent - "well, at least, you can't say the place is not lively!" - I texted a friend who replied straightaway "What the hell are you doing in Bermondsey?? Run away for your life!". No need for him to say it twice! Well, I must say that Bermondsey street, where the museum is based, with its trendy shops and restaurants is now a place I definitely could see myself living in.

Anyway, back to the exhibition. The FTM is holding a retrospective of the work of Marion Foale and Sally Tuffin, two key British designers in the sixties. They graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1961, when the winds of change started to blow across the fashion industry. For ten years, they were it! Their shop on Malborough Court, just off Carnaby Street, the heart of the 'Swinging London', sold the full range of their line, colourful, pop inspired mini dresses, corduroy trousers suits, lace garments, etc. and established them as the 'Queens of Carnaby'.

The exhibition not only recreates the shop, but also Foale and Tuffin's showroom and workroom, with the original cutting tables, sewing machines and sample books. The whole experience is a very pleasant ballade down memory lane, surrounded by great tunes from the sixties.

Sixties nostalgics, Austin Powers' fans or simply fashion lovers, you don't want to miss this exhibition!

For the article on Luxsure, it's here.
Otherwise, for more information about the Fashion and Textile Museum and the exhibition, it's there.

CREDIT image reproduced from Foale & Tuffin - The Sixties. A Decade in Fashion published by ACC Publishing Group.

Sunday afternoons

How good is it sometimes to spend a whole afternoon at home like if you were 6 again and it's raining/cold outside? Well, the answer is definitely VERY good. My agenda yesterday involved a couch and a woolen plaid, The Wizard of Oz, The Aristocats and some delicious little pink things, marshmallows with a chocolate heart, coated with rose sugar, mmmmhhhh...

C'est si bon parfois de passer un après-midi entier à la maison, quand il fait gris et froid dehors et faire comme si on avait 6 ans de nouveau! A l'ordre du jour hier : mon canapé et un plaid tout chaud, Le Magicien d'Oz, Les Aristochats et de délicieuses petites choses roses, sortes de marshmallows avec un cœur de chocolat, délicatement saupoudrés de sucre rose, mmmmhhhh...

L' objet du délit

At the end of the day...
A la fin de la journée...

Love at first sight

Dear reader, I am very pleased to introduce you to THE necklace, bought with Valerie a few days ago on an antiques stall in Camden. Instant love.

Bien-aimé lecteur, permets-moi de te présenter LE collier, acheté avec Valérie il y a quelques jours (bon OK 10 jours, mais je suis un poil feignasse) à Camden. Un vrai coup de foudre.

And the amazing - and so cute - detail...
Et le détail qui le rend encore plus beau… (et oui, c'est du premier degré, j'ADORE ce collier)

Taxi Driver

Do you remember this episode of SATC, when they are all having a chat in the bathroom after Trey gave Charlotte a Cartier watch?

Miranda has a theory according to which men are like cabs. At some point in their life, they decide they want to settle, turn their light on and the next girl they meet is the One. Nothing to do with love at first sight or whatever crap about soul mates.

I used to think it was pure cynicism... And then, yesterday, I saw on Facebook pictures of the new born of a guy who chased me with assiduity exactly one year ago, telling me that he wanted a real relationship, not just to come and see me here in London and then to vanish. It was weird at the time because we hadn't seen each other for years and it just didn't make sense to know you want a relationship with someone without seeing them back.

And bam, it struck me when I saw him with his baby boy! His light was on, that's all.

You think I'm being cynical?

Another example then. Months ago, I fell in love with a guy who is a commitment phobic - well, who didn't these days, you would say... The worst is that I think he genuinely wanted to try the long-term-relationship thing. But for the wrong reasons. He was seeing people around him, his closest friends included, getting married and having babies, and he just wanted the same. With quite whomever he would have come across then. As simple as that!

Obviously, love happens. Thank God. My point is that women in their thirties are always pictured as hysterically obsessed with babies and marriage, where men are supposed to run away from all this and only dream of being eternal bachelors. Would we all, at the end, want the same thing - or rather, do we all eventually feel the same pressure from society, even when we pretend we don't?

OMG!!! Just realised that this post is so awfully SATC................. Won't happen again, I promise. Will write 100 lines... Be gone, Carry Bradshaw!

All my life, I’ve dreamt of being single and unemployed...

How many times have I dreamt of this situation when I lived in Paris...

Being in a relationship for years, I would more than envy my single friends who could do absolutely whatever they liked without having to give any account to anybody, read in a row Cosmo-Vogue-Glamour-Elle on the couch without facing the Loved One's reproachful look, get back home at 3am after a party, bumbling on your heels that, this being said, have bravely gotten your arse back home, with no need to pass the home-made alcohol-test – i.e. the sniffing around and analysing your breath to get an estimate of how many drinks you had – to name but a few...

Regarding the job situation, I remember drooling about my friend B’s timetable. She was unemployed back then and it seemed to me she had earned total freedom and the capability to spend time and energy on what she truly enjoyed. Well, of course, there was the money issue and therefore serious limitations on her ability to shop... Also, in real life, her daily routine was more about the 20th re-run of The Little House on the Prairie, followed by the German adaptation of Ugly Betty in order to avoid Derrick, than expressions of unbridled creativity. But all in all, it looked like heaven to me.

And there I am!!! Lucky me, I’ve managed to combine both situations at the same time!

A real single woman, no husband, no boyfriend – and I’m even thinking of adopting a cat, that says how seriously I’m taking this!

And no job for almost 2 months. I’ve become a real resignation expert... I quit two jobs in less than a year and a half, yayyyyyyyyyy – now, can you beat that?


Toute ma vie j'ai rêvé d'être célibataire et chômeuse...

Combien de fois ai-je rêvé de cette situation quand je vivais a Paris ...

En couple depuis des lustres, je regardais d'un œil plus qu'envieux les cops célibataires qui pouvaient faire absolument tout ce qu'elles voulaient sans rendre de compte à personne, enchainer Cosmo-Vogue-Glamour-Elle sur leur canapé sans risquer le regard réprobateur de l'Etre Aimé, rentrer à pas d'heure d'une soirée en titubant sur ses talons qui cela dit, nous ont courageusement (miraculeusement ?) ramenée à la maison sans avoir à passer l'alcooltest maison - i.e. reniflage de l'haleine indubitablement chargée - et j'en passe.

Quant au boulot, je me rappelle avoir bave des journées entières sur l'emploi du temps de ma copine B., chômeuse donc, et qui pour moi avait donc gagne une totale liberté d'action et la possibilité de consacrer du temps a ce qui lui plaisait vraiment. Bon bien sur, il y avait l'inconvénient thunes et en conséquence directe, la misère côté shopping... Et dans la réalité, l'emploi du temps c'était plus la 20e rediff de la Petite Maison dans La Prairie, suivie de la version allemande de Ugly Betty pour échapper à Derrick que l'expression d'une créativité débridée. Mais bon, l'un dans l'autre, ca me faisait rêver.

Et voila, ca y est, nous y voici !!! J'ai réussi à combiner les deux en même temps, mon Capitaine !

Une vraie célibataire, ni mari, ni jules - et je suis même en train de réfléchir très sérieusement à adopter un chat, alors c'est dire à quel point je ne fais pas semblant.

Et pas de boulot depuis bientôt 2 mois. Une pro des démissions je suis devenue... Deux en moins d'un an et demi, yeahhhhhhhh qui dit mieux ??

Collages

Du coup, j'ai du temps...