sunkissed

glassons lookbooks - Petra Collins and Staz Lindes

One of my friends just returned from a trip to the America sunkissed and ebullient and permanently smiling. She couldn't stop talking about the people she met and the things she saw and the donuts and ice creams and cookies that she ate. She was like a walking, talking Glassons lookbook, where the girls grin always in their denim playsuits and anoraks. Girls who just want to have fun. How could you have anything but in their whimsical, don't-take-it-too-seriously clothes? I'm wearing my glassons overalls as I write this and, let's be honest, have rarely worn anything else this winter. There's something about the simplicity and ease of their clothes that makes them instantly wearable and instantly indispensable.  I loved the last Glassons campaign and I love this one just as much. It's a different kind of look - more cali girl babe than rugged winter gal - but it's just what I need in the middle of this cold snap. It's got me dreaming of America again, where everything is bigger and brighter and bolder and where nobody, not even the cities, sleep.

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polished

I'm getting just that much closer to my dream of owning every colour from the & Other Stories nail polish range. I have a friend travelling to Europe in a few weeks and I've already put her on notice that she will be on courier duty. Who needs online shopping when you have jet-setting mates?

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&otherstories

Predictably, I'm really excited for the launch of H&M's new high-end range & other stories (read Natalie talk about the publicity campaign, which is half the reason why I'm excited to be honest), the thrill of COS-esque creative direction and oversized sweaters is enough to leave me in raptures, but, somewhat unpredictably, it seems I'm mostly really excited by the make up. It's weird because I actually don't wear that much make up (read: any make up at all) and I don't really know anything about it but recently I've become obsessed with reading about it, with shopping for it, with knowing interesting tidbits about products to share with people I meet on the street (I told my neighbour the other day that Gwyneth Paltrow thinks you should use Avibon and she was like "um... OK" and now avoids me in the garden). It's like ever since I came back from Paris I can't stop thinking about products. It's a particularly Parisian thing - they love their creams and oils and gels and masks and they love to talk about what all these creams and oils and gels and masks do for their skin - and I got hit with a massive case of it after not one but two lengthy trips to City Pharma to pick up bits and pieces of Bioderma Crealine and Embryolisse and Avene and Caudalie for friends, family and - ultimately - myself. Who am I? I am not a make up girl. But, it would seem, I might be a beauty girl. 

Looking at pictures of the & other stories beauty range has me excited and inspired in the same way that Topshop's make up range first got me interested in beauty (all comments aside, I love the way that Topshop markets fun, affordable and playful make up). What I love about this is the focus on simple packaging and evocative marketing. The fig body cream has a big fat quote in lovely minimalistic font on it saying "musky green fig leaves swaying in the warm, evening air" which is too perfect, and make me hope that all the other products have similar branding concepts too. Who writes these? And where can I get this job? The nail polish colours are perfect. "Etam Lavender", "Jacomet Daffodil" and "Paisley Sky" are just too wonderful for words, really. And, the bottom line, really, is that it all looks great. The packaging is only half the battle. The products have to work. And from those photoshoots and look book images leaking onto screens as we speak, it definitely does. (Those hot pinks nails! Those peach-stained lips!). I want one of every nail polish and I'm going to put them in a vase in the centre of my desk and just look at them all day and never use them, ever. I blame Into the Gloss.

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what's that jacket?

five inch and up

I keep seeing it on blogs and the gram, on my desktop and on my mind. This would be one for the ages - or at least one for Vienna - the perfect last thing to top of my packing list. I'm keeping crossed that one of these makes its way to me, or I find one hanging on a half-off rack in some lonely corner of a European H&M!

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biggie

source

The first thing I do when I get to Europe is head straight to an H&M store in search of these two things. I've never been the biggest Margiela fan - directional and me are two things that don't really go together - but an oversized pea coat and a turtleneck with sleeves down to your knees? - well that I can get behind (and into, posthaste). 

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box

columbine smile

What I want always seems just beyond my fingertips. For ages now I've wanted a really, really, really oversized coat; boxy yet with a clean line from shoulder to hem, big enough to wear your chunkiest sweater under yet still with some semblance of structure. The kind of shape that you want in a trench coat, but in a slightly thicker material to combat the chill of Europe in January (I'm coming for you, I'm coming for you!). Columbine has one, and she looks great in it. As always there's something about the way she pairs cropped, fitted pants with boxy uppers that works so well. She's got layering down to a tee - sweater with jacket under coat and scarf - and I love her masculine, no-nonsense approach to style. This coat would be the perfect partner in crime to my Amy Kaehne tweedy number in Europe. As always, the search continues.

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just becos

wow. 721 euros. and this is only what I could fit into the screenshot...

 

COS, that wonderful store, that dream-fulfill-er, that stealer of lazy sunday afternoons, that superior high street retailer, that purveyor of swedish goodness, has an online store. Hark! Rejoice! There is a God and He is most certainly smiling upon you. Farewell sweet boredom, I knew you well. I have something else to fill my time now, and it shall henceforth be called Online Window Shopping. Hello the excited rush of an almost-purchase! Hello feverishly clicking on every. single. item and opening all the images and seeing all the colour ways and adding it to your imaginary cart because, well, you know, why not? Hello excitedly pairing items together in your head in anticipation of your fantasy wardrobe.  Except... it's different somehow. Gone is that rush of adrenalin. In its place is a sinking, sickening feeling in your gut. Because with net-a-porter or la garconne when you window shopped you never really thought you would buy half that shit. Celine box bag? Sure. Stella Mac shearling lined coat? Yep. But with COS it's that much harder because everything is damn well under 100 euros. Online window shopping is not so much an exercise in wishlists, but rather a prospectus of what you will spend your money on once that paycheck rolls in. Damn you COS! Damn you! I'm supposed to be not spending! But if I owned those relaxed jeans, and that wide navy blue knit, and those lace bras, and that drapey tee shirt, and that boxy black jacket, and that oatmeal sweater dress I know my life would be better, it really would. Damn you! (but not really. not really at all. I made some polyvores to apologise).

 COS collarless blazer, COS round neck tunic, COS extra long brass chain, COS lace bra, COS lace knickers, repossi ring, celine classic box bag, COS relaxed fit jeans, e.porselli for apc khaki ballet flats.

 COS mohair vest, COS salt and pepper top, COS lace bra, COS lace knickers, repossi ring, the row alligator backpack, COS pleat-front trousers, COS disk necklace, ileana makri bracelets x 2, APC black sandals

 COS wide neck sweater, COS drape front dress, COS extra long chain necklace, COS lace bra, celine cuff, COS lace knickers, Celine cuff, prism glasses, COS double pocket clutch, sigerson morrison ballet flats, jordy askill heart ring with december birth stone

 Isabel Marant Etoile coat, COS wide neck sweater, COS hinge bangle x3, COS lace bra, COS lace knickers, COS relaxed fit jeans, prism glasses, repetto suede ballet flats, celine bag

COS folded panel coat, COS oversized sweater dress, COS disk necklace, COS lace bra, COS lace knickers, prism glasses, repossi ring, the row alligator backpack, satomi kawakita black diamond ring, k.jacques sandals

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ps i really love cos

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MM

streetpeeper

My burning desire for a hat has led me every which way in sydney - from vintage to the chain stores, to thrift via my grandfather's closet. But alas, to no avail, the hat that I really really want, and the shape that I truly truly desire evades me. So all that's left is to accept the fact that I'm going to have to go straight to the source. It was the Maison Michel hats that first caught my eye these past couple of months - models Irina Lazareanu and Elena Permikova both have that gorgeous mossy green with red gros-grain tie one, and street style photographer Candice Lake owns a few (including this tangerine beauty that anouk has) and shoots even more. What makes them so good? It's that stiff, wide brim - not floppy like a broad brim and not shot like a bowler hat. This brim is the stuff of legends, the kind that you can hide behind, that would really give you sun coverage like your mum wanted, and that creates a hat that makes everyone want to look at you. Which is okay, because that's kind of what a hat's all about, right?

Recently I've been finding that my "searches" for the perfect X have resulted with me back at square one at the designer item I wanted to find replicated on the high street. I'm not even the biggest high street shopper - with the exception of country road and smatterings of zara - because I find the quality to be very bad and the fit to be even worse. But more recently I've been left completely cold by high street renditions of international trends, or have been disappointed at not being able to find what I want in their stores. I guess I am one shopper out of many, and catering to my tastes is not on any big business's minds. But I think I am slowly coming to the realisation that spending a little more to get something that I will love is worth the effort and the wait. I found this out during RAFW. When I was planning my outfits I had everything worked out in my head, maxi skirts belted with jumpers, loose tee shirts and my shearling vest, etc etc. But I actually ended up in my failsafe, old faithful outfit from around this time last year, my opening ceremony coat belted over a black skirt with my chanel ballet flats. The black skirt is a high street purchase I will grant you, but it's country road and therefore great quality and a good fit (I'm yet to find the perfect fitted maxi like this one from country road, should have bought it in all the different colours like I wanted to!). This is not to say that I want to own only designer for the rest of my life - that would be a perfect world indeed. But I'm starting to see that the clothes that make me the most happy when I wear them are the ones that I spent a little bit of money on. If only because on the whole it means that I really, really wanted them rather than that I just purchased them because I had cash at hand. 

I think this hat would be a great addition to my (very short) list of designer purchases. Perhaps not in peach - I'm not sure how it will mix with my myriads of reds - but in fail safe black or brown or even a green. I'm going to have a good search for them when I'm in Paris in July, a hat is definitely something that you have to try and on and feel before you buy, but I'm already getting that excited feeling in my stomach that always precludes a great purchase. From now on I'm going to seek out clothes that bring me that feeling. Because it can only mean good things.

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