moderne

'Her manner is shy, but casual and friendly, and her gamine face crinkles easily into an attractive, rather secret smile. She wore a simple black sweater and gray skirt; if she is a vain girl the only indication of it was her high-heeled shoes, which were of elegantly worked light gray leather... She is sincere and helpful, but questions that are pompous or elaborate, or about personal life, or that might be interpreted as challenging her work, are liable to elicit only a simple “oui” or “non,” or “je ne sais pas—je ne sais pas du tout”—and then an amused, disconcerting smile.' 

On Francoise Sagan's style, The Paris Review Art of Fiction No. 15

la garconne

La Garconne Moderne is the epitome of how I wished I dressed. Therein lies the slight - and yes, slightly upsetting - distinction, in that even though in my head I look like this as I go about my daily chores it all ends up a bit scruffier due to my general inability to look put together. Such is life. As it is the quarterly look books that are posited unceremoniously into my inbox provide me with endless sartorial inspiration. A pair of straight leg jeans and a turtleneck here, a tunic and a barette there, there's something about the way these ensembles - inspired by thoughtful, understated icons like Joan Didion - speak for themselves, just loud enough to be noticed by those who are truly looking for them. Style that is secretive in its elegance and distinction, that conceals much - the body, the insecurities, the price tags - but that still has that certain something the French like to call je ne sais quoi. Every season La Garconne Moderne has it, and I want it, oh so badly.

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that girl

source // screencaps from the superga x garance video

And just like that, I want long hair again.

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cinematic style - Renee Zellweger in Jerry Maguire

screencaps

There always was something about Tom Cruise. Back in the day, you know, maybe not now (although, really, has he aged at all?). Those boyish looks, that floppy, devil maycare hair, that suave, golden boy charm. He was like that guy in high school that knew he was good-looking and would always give you that smile, the perfect smile, the one that melted knees. I don't know, I guess... I get it. I get the whole Tom Cruise in the 90s thing. And Jerry Maguire is like that typical charming Tom Cruise movie where Tom Cruise plays that typical charming Tom Cruise character. As great as his wardrobe was - sportsjackets and white tee shirts and ray bans - I want to talk about Renee Zellweger's wardrobe instead (the prevalence of Tom in all these pictures is because I got these from a Tom Cruise fan site, my first and last visit, I promise!).

I feel like I'm being drawn to this type of dressing more and more. My hair has been cut again, and it's grazing the top of my shoulders now instead of hanging down over them like before. It's an easy cut, and it goes with easy clothing. Dorothy's clothing is easy because her life is hard - she's got a young child and an overbearing sister and, from pretty much the start of the film, she's relatively unemployed. As such, her daily wardrobe is comfortable, simple clothing; denim jeans with cropped sweaters, fitted tee shirts and capri pants, sneakers and cardigans. I miss this kind of Renee Zellweger (I'm not the only one, Christa D'Souza rhapsodised about Jennifer Lawrence's pillowy Renee Zellweger-esque cheeks in the November issue of Vogue UK) curvy and young and vulnerable, she's quite fantastic in this movie, if a little weepy. I love that classic Rachel way she piles her hair at the top of her head with a scrunchy or a clip. It's easy and simple and without thought, but also, in the same breath, effortlessly sexy. 

That's what is so great about Dorothy's wardrobe. Even in sweatshirts and baggy slacks, even without money or contacts, even with a three year old son, Dorothy manages to get the guy. She has stars in her eyes and she's hopelessly naive - you can sort of see that in her too long pants, or her daggy sweaters - but she still gets the guy. Maybe it's down to the way she always believed in Jerry, or because she stands up for herself when push comes to shove, or because, at the end of the day she's Renee Zellweger. But I like to think that it's because of her simple, easy clothing that never complicates things. Even her wedding dress with that gorgeous high cut on the shoulder, was totally unfussy. You had me at hello.

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cinematic style - Kirsten Dunst in How To Lose Friends and Alienate People

screencaps

I loved this film when it first came out. I loved Simon Pegg, who even though seemed slightly Americanised, was so silly and British I couldn't help but smile, I loved New York, the city I had only just left for the first time at the start of the year and who held a particular hold on my imagination, I loved the depictions of the fickle world of magazine publishing, I loved the banter and the wit and the cocktail drinking. But most of all, most of all, I loved Kirsten Dunst's adorable wardrobe. 

As I mused in a (much) earlier blog post (how things change and how they stay the same!) her style in this movie was such an extension of her off-duty personal style it was almost as if she had styled herself. Of course, in the four years since this movie came out Kiki has changed - she broke up with Jake, she went to rehab, she got a bit of a potty mouth, she started smoking - and her style has gone a bit rough around the edges. Less Lula, more Self Service. But there's something about her - I think it's that coltish grace, that blonde, blonder hair, her particular mixture of froideur and sensuality - that makes her immensely watchable on film and the perfect clothes horse. She wears clothes really well. Always has. I remember adoring her on the pages of my old Teen Vogues, in chucks and bretons with her off-kilter toothy grin. I loved her in Wimbledon in blazers and pretty shirts. I still love her now in trench coats and sofia coppola bags in awful, awful movies.

This movie was all about the shirt. Dunst's character Alison is rarely seen out of one, and her collection runs the gamut of Peter Pan collars, boatnecks, button downs and florals. It was working wear, but with a slightly casual lilt. I think what I like most about Alison's wardrobe was that she never looked dressed up. That was kind of the point, as her character was only at the magazine to pay the bills while she was writing her novel (of course I loved her!). You could tell that from her wardrobe. Her heart wasn't really in it. She paired skirt suits with tee shirts (I tried that one the day after I saw the movie), she wore vintage dresses to fancy events, wore very little makeup and left her cropped blonde mane to its own devices. The result was charming, as Dunst herself is charming - in this movie, in life. It was the look of a New York City Girl who didn't want to subscribe to the New York City regime (yet still reap all of its benefits). It's the kind of career look that I always dreamt of, never corporate, never stuffy, as casual as physically possible. Although the offices of Sharps Magazine was hardly a relaxed office, it seemed like Alison, in her milkmaid braids and baggy silk tee shirts, was just wandering in from the weekend constantly. It was like a whole working week of casual fridays. That has always been my future office attire dream.

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chop

one // two // three

It took a little while, but I've gotten used to my short hair. Most of my friends have seen it and gasped and commented and commiserated and now I've gotten so comfortable with it that I can't really remember what it was like to have long hair. I don't really remember the sensation of tieing it back and twisting it up and plaiting it down. For me, now, life is so much simpler. I wash it, it dries. That's it. I sleep with it out or in a bun, and in the morning I pull it down and head out the door. When I had long hair I had to throw all sorts of deep, leave-in conditioners at it just to make it behave. It was dry. The colour was starting to fade. Now it's back to my natural colour, which is dark dark dark, and that was a shock at first, but I don't really miss the blonde at all. I don't miss the dry ends and the coarseness of dyed hair. I don't even really miss the length - except when I see girls with luscious long locks flick them around. But, as with all things you lose, the longer you live without it the less it hurts. There's something so easy and simple and totally uncomplicated about this slightly too-long bob that's all one length. I tuck a strand or two behind my ear and that's all. It's so healthy now that I don't need to do anything else, which I think is the way hair really ought to be. And because the bottom line of my style was, is, and always will be comfort and ease, I couldn't think of a better hairstyle to match it.

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ps. no-one makes Carven look as good as MNZ

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toasty mach 7 billion

Same same but different. Well, just with a different scarf. Keeping warm, keeping dry and all that. I love having a shearling collar poking out from under an oversized parka jacket with elbow patches (more clothes should have elbow patches!), I love having a massive cashmere scarf that you can wrap around your neck like maybe 3 times for extra warmth (this one is the perfect shade of Olive Green Benah), I love being able to wear track pants in the day time with the cuffs rolled up with anklets and ballet flats, I love being ridiculously warm and feeling smug as I see people struggling with bags with their big coats (with pockets like these who needs bags?). Oh, and I got my hair cut. Short. Well, short-ER. I'm not sure that I love it yet, but it's growing on me. After I faffed about for ages and ages and ages I finally did it. It's a long-ish bob that's longer on one side and pretty choppy and it's just so easy. My hair feels super healthy, which it hasn't in a long time, and all of the colour has gone, which was a shock, but I'm getting more and more used to it as it goes on. Some of my friends had quite spectacular reactions - I've gone from quite long to quite short with very little warning - but I think it's good! I think?? I don't know?? ahhh.. If only all things in life were as easy as layering shearling and jackets and scarves in winter.

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ps. Speaking of Benah, I made them a little guide to Hong Kong, which they put up on their blog. If you like outlet shopping, muesli and ramen (who doesn't, am I right?) then check it out!

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Negarin NYFW

Some of the things that I liked about the Negarin London show during New York Fashion Week - the bright colours, the geometric prints, the belts that buckled at the back, the boxy swing coats with oversized collars in purple tweed or colour-blocked navy and blue and, of course, the hair; it's surprising how much you can say with a slick centre part and a long-as-you-like low ponytail. 

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only god, my dear

park and cube, jeanasohn

One of my favourite lines from a poem - ever - is a phrase from a little known Yeats number called "For Anne Gregory". There's nothing remarkable about it. Like all good poetry it's small but perfectly formed. I don't know much about its context, but I think I can assume that it was written for a young woman - Anne, perhaps? - and she has beautiful "honey-coloured rampants at her ears". The poem is basically an ode to her blonde locks. At the very end of the poem he says, "only God, my dear, could love you for yourself alone and not your yellow hair". How wonderful. I used to love that bit in A.S Byatt's novel Possession when we first meet Maud and learn that she keeps her beautiful golden hair wrapped up in the turban because her ex-lover used to say to her "who could love you for yourself alone and not your yellow hair?". I almost like it more as a question. Who could? I am constantly stunned by blonde hair and how truly lovely it is. The first boy I ever kissed had blonde-hair, it was too-long and it hung down, honey-coloured rampants at his ears, and when he would get out of the water or come up from the beach he would shake it loose in a way I have since heard described as the unconsciously virile way of teenage boys, which is kind of perfect, don't you think? There is something sun-drenched and youthful and full of life about yellow hair. I hate to reduce people to the sum of their parts, but a good head of yellow hair will always be the trump card for me.

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