can can

le fur coat

Just yesterday I was moaning about how I never wanted to see another picture of Cannes again - all this from an avid Vanity Fair reader, I know, I know - but then I saw these images on Leslie's blog. Aside from the fact that I am incredibly, ridiculously, uncontrollably jealous that she got to go to Cannes and photograph the festival for Vogue.com, she just captured all that glamour and all that sun and all those long skirts and sandals and blood-red manicures so damn well. What am I saying? I want to look at pictures of Cannes every day for the rest of my life until that moment happens when I actually get to go to Cannes myself and wear long skirts and sandals and drive around in a convertible with the top down and drink mimosas at 11 in the morning and not have to apologise for anything.

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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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the grounds

photo: Rachel Kara // sweet bird of youth

Rachel and I went to The Grounds last week and we had a pretty great time, chatting about food and snapping pictures and dreaming up ways we can keep bringing you our take on sydney's food culture through the internet. For more images, check out Rachel's post, and here is my review, and leave a comment to let us know what you think about these reviews and whether you'd like to see more. Bon apetit!

Some places (and people, and things) really are overwhelming. You finally make it there after an epic 30 minute walk during which you are sure you went around in at least two circles and you barely get a moment to stop and take in the place around you before you are thrust right into the madness. Servers rushing around with plates of steaming egg-and-bacon rolls, hoardes - and I really mean hoardes, there was an hours wait for a table at 10.30 in the morning and a good 20 or so people lining up for takeaway - of people peering into the windows of pastries lined up for purchase, from danishes with sour cherries and rich, oozing custard to a distinctly un-breakfast like carrot cake with a potent hit of ginger, and then there are the children. What can you expect with a jumping castle and a wide outdoor "grounds" area with herb bushes and home-made sheds just begging to made into a hide-and-seek battleground. Everywhere you looked something was happening: those beautiful green cups, those doubled-up coffee counters, that open kitchen with the wide granite benches and the coffee roaster and that tantalising view onto your future breakfast, lunch, tea. There simply was too much to see.

I'm saying this not to deter you from going. You should go. Often and regularly and with us, preferably. The madness of The Grounds is all part of the experience. It's the flavour of the month - and rightly so, rightly so - and that means that everything that makes it good (delicious food at incredibly reasonable prices, an impeccably well-designed interior, open spaces, fantastic coffee) also makes it very, very popular. And it should be popular, because it's bloody good. Any place that can render us completely speechless, despite being very hungry and very cold has got to be doing something right. And trust me, between that bacon and egg roll ($7.50 and pretty damn good) and a buzzing atmosphere that is one part coffee, two parts children, three parts unadulterated brilliance, there's not a lot that The Grounds are doing wrong.

The Grounds, 2A Huntley Street, Alexandria

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trio

source unknown

One day, when I live in New York, I'm going to have lunch with my two best friends and her new baby and we're going to wrap up against the chill in big cashmere camel coats and baggy slacks and polished knee high boots and we'll drink soy capuccinos and eat chilli avocado on toast (because we're at Cafe Gitane, natch) and talk about how happy we are because we will be, and it won't just be because we have the perfect coat, or the perfect bag, or the perfect pair of boots (or even the perfect baby!) but because for once - for now! - everything will be just as it should be.

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cinematic style: Alexis Bledel in Sin City

screencaps

This one is pretty much just for those earrings. Man, I had a whole double page spread in my notebook for those earrings back in the day. I dreamt up ways to recreate them, scoured the local diva for a pair that I could pass off as the ones, but they were never as good. Never as long, never as dangly, never as heavy, never as bedecked out in crosses and stars and peace signs and all things kind of kitsch and over the top. Back then I had a beaten up leather jacket that I used to wear with ratty band tee shirts and stove pipe jeans. I knew those earrings would be the best finish to that outfit. Jingle jangle perfection, tacky enough to make a plain outfit super cool.

You can see them to best effect in this scene. Little Lorelai Gilmore, so full of sass. I know that Becky is kind of the bad guy, or at least one of them, but she was always one of my favourite characters in Sin City (well, her and Hartigan. Dish). Something about that wide, blue-eyed earnestness and small-town charm. Gotta love a country girl trying to find her feet in the big bad city. Those earrings were all part of the general effect. Even more so than that corset, and the lace up boots, and that leather jacket - probably because, when shot in that pulp fiction black-and-white, metal stands right out. Oh those earrings! I think the search might be back on...

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under the wing

Al photos mine, other than 3 and 6, taken from the Thursday Sunday and Dress Up S/S 12-13 lookbooks

It's always fun going to Under the Wing. Last season Talisa and I got a sneak peek of what some of our favourite brands were thinking for autumn/winter. We tried on sweaters and shearling vests and hand-knitted sweaters and oversized coats and dreamed of weather so cold we could layer it all up. Well, this season we did the opposite. We walked through the new collections whilst rugged up against the morning chill and rifled through racks and racks of breezy blouses, pleat-front linen pants and long-line oatmeal-hued blazers. Once again, Under the Wing's fantastic range of brands has done it again. From Thursday Sunday's eco-conscious washed-out minimalism to Dress Up's slightly retro but easy-going style and Carly Hunter's sporty utilitarianism (as well as those funky Deadly Ponies accessories), it's all there, and it's all amazing.

Some things that we picked up on: There was a lot of yellow. Mustard-y and orange, burnt-out like ochre. Amidst all those delicious neutrals - sepia, stone, oatmeal and grey - it stuck out like the bright sun on a winter's day. Another big trend in the Under the Wing showroom? Bright prints. Next season is going to be an eye-catching one, and this was reflected on the MBFWA runways as well. I like the way that Dress Up and Thursday Sunday approached prints, though. Dress Up's palm-fern fronds were splashed graphically across a-line skirts and dresses, cast in bright pink or white against navy blue. Thursday Sunday also took a botanical approach, with a wacky leaf print forming the piping down a tailored shirt or even just the collar. But my favourite pieces would have to be the elastic-waist pleated pants and matching crop top by Carly Hunter. Wide-cut in a rich, murky navy blue, they would be perfect for those still summer days spent lying down under a tree and doing not much else.

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sneak peek: the perfect pair

Look how bright that sunshine is. Deceptive, isn't it? It looks warm and friendly and inviting you to spend hours drinking coffee and eating muesli on stoops. Don't be fooled! Baby it's cold outside. So I wrapped Katrina (thanks for be a great model!!) up in the warmest sweaters, cosiest scarves and snuggly cashmere beanies in the whole world just so I could get her to stand outside to take these pictures. It was actually kind of fun - winter woollies are the best variety of clothes to play with - and we added some bags from a new label Catherine Tran for a pop of bright colour. This is my last post for the Corner Shop! It made sense to do it at the Paddington store - where it all started - and with cold-weather separates - my one true love. Thanks for having me!

You can see the whole post on The Corner Shop blog here.

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so fine

harper's bazaar

I've always loved Kym Ellery's jewellery collection, and these shots are just driving it home. Handfuls of fine gold rings, simple flaxen circles notched up on the finger, a lick of my favourite polish du jour, and a simple cord band across one wrist. It's no-nonsense and yet it's also totally feminine. It reminds me of something Caroline from BRVTVS said to me when I interviewed her in New York. She remarked that her love of fine jewellery probably stemmed from the desire to create a contrast to her masculine personal style. I've always thought the same. Dainty, delicate, slip-of-a-thing rings and bracelets and necklaces and all that work best when paired with slouchy, oversized silhouettes, masculine shapes and sturdy boots. It's almost a shock to see hands full of such tiny little rings do any work at all. Shouldn't they be the hands of ladies who lunch? Shouldn't they be grasping a china tea cup or a cucumber sandwich or something? No. As my forays into the world of delicate jewellery have proved, you should wear your fine pieces everyday. Only then do they become part of your routine and only then do they take on the kind of utilitarian simplicity that all the best jewellery has.

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bloom

life of boheme

Peonies really are the most beautiful flower. They are the single-handed best thing about Spring and make the months from October through December bearable, despite summer heat and end-of-university stress. Those waxy leaves, those blushing petals, the way they unfurl slowly over the week, suspended in a vase perched somewhere full of light. What I love most is that, unlike some other flowers, you only need a couple of stems and suddenly everything seems so much better. Some flowers have to be multiplied to be enjoyed - a sea of lavender, oceans of daisies, endless, endless stems of ruby red poppies. But peonies are different. Just one single peony is enough, it really is. One plain stem stuck in an old milk bottle or tall vase is enough to spread a honeyed smile thick across your face. Although, having said that, they're also living proof that there really can't be too much of a good thing.

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bon apetit

"Food as a therapeutic offering between strangers has never been satisfactorily explained. Here is an ordinary-looking action which goes far deeper than mere hospitality. By producing food and presenting in full view a portion to a stranger, a woman is offering an extension of herself; it can be enjoyed, but it is not flesh. All he, the stranger, is allowed is a morsel representing the woman. A fragment is all. She remains the giver, but at one removed."

Murray Bail, Eucalyptus

Sandwich boxes and instagram with Amy and Talisa at Bread and Circus // The best fish fingers and chips, coconuts and creaming soda at The Fish Shop // A make-shift feast of bacon and egg roll, three cheese toasty, sour cherry danish and carrot cake (I did say feast, right?) with Rachel at The Grounds // A fantastic lunch with two of the oldest and best friends in the world at a private and secretive location in the heart of the eastern suburbs; her house.

If you say you want to meet up for coffee, that's fine. But ask me out for breakfast, lunch or dinner, pastry and sympathy, noodles and gossip, ice-cream and laughter, or even just say "come over here right now because I've got a fresh loaf of bread and a whole lotta butter and we can watch The Voice and eat toast and laugh at Keith's beautiful little faces as he grooves along to every song", and I am 100 percent, totally, utterly, unashamedly, unabashedly, completely and forever-and-always yours. Just tell me where to meet you.

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cinematic style - Julia Roberts in Notting Hill

screencaps

You know I can probably trace my affinity for 90s minimalism back to the fact that a) I grew up in the 90s with an Aunt who was so chic she used to spray her scarfs with Chanel no.5 before she wore them and only painted her nails red and dyed her hair a different colour every week depending on her mood. And b) because I watched a hell of a lot of 90s movies set in the rough and tumble of urban life and they all had fantastic, minimal 90s wardrobes. Like You've Got Mail. And Patriot Games (am I cutting the definition of 90s here a little fine? Whatever. It's my blog, I'll do what I want). I loved those movies, and I loved those wardrobes. I loved the little tee shirts with the cropped cardigans, the flippy hair cuts, the straight leg jeans and the square-toed boots. 

Julia Roberts had a good wardrobe in Notting Hill. It was a little plain, in the way that 90s clothes were plain, simple tee shirts, no-nonsense skirts, but she made it all her own with that beautiful, knock-out smile and that little squint in her eye and the way she would shrug her shoulders as she walked. Who could forget her entrance on the stairs, after changing at Hugh Grant's house because he spilt orange juice all over her plain white tee shirt and leather jacket (a great outfit), in that black crop top and pencil skirt? (I could not for the life of me find a picture of this, but you can see it in motion here). Or what about her bohemian chinese silk jacket and jeans combo at dinner? Or Grace Kelly esque suit at the press conference? Naturally, my favourite outifts are the clothes of Will's that she dons when she stays at his house after the photographs are leaked to the press. The dorky tee shirt, the oversized sweater and leggings, the stripey dress shirt worn as pyjamas. The ease of it all went perfectly with how easy she seemed to fit into Will's life, eating toast, watering house plants, reading lines on his dilapidated rooftop. Back in the day when rent in Notting Hill wasn't sky high and people could still feel a kind of romantic fondness for Hugh Grant and not overwhelming sleaze. But there you go. 

Part of it is definitely Julia Roberts' inherent charm. Put most of this on a normal person and it's not going to look as good. But what I liked about the wardrobe in the film is how it constantly straddled that boundary between "movie star" and "real life". It deconstructed this idea of what a celebrity or actress or famous person was and fused it with normality. That movie stars, also, wear jeans and tee shirts and thongs and ratty sweaters and birkenstocks with matching anklets. That they spill things on themselves and climb fences and they fall in love with real people. It's romantic and it's idealised and it's a conceit. I know this. But, I think, even better than some aspects of the film, the wardrobe showed on many occasions how Anna really was just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her. 

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5 MBFWA minutes with... Lucinda Burtt

Lucinda is a graphic designer, blogger and an incredible writer who I worked with at On The Streets of Sydney a couple of years ago. She was on my team of writers and it was so fun to work with someone who had a real sense of writing style - everyone has their own voice, and you can often pick that voice a mile away. Yes, my writing voice is loads of adjectives, sentences with 4 million conjunctions in them and a complete disregard for normal rules of grammar. Lucinda's writing voice, and her personal style, are so different to my own. Minimal, clean and straight to the point, she never minces her words and she always says what she means. That is a rare but so, so, so important quality in a writer, and also in personal style. I love how darkly minimalist her style is. She can pull of such severe look without ever losing a sense of her femininity which is a rare feat. Basically she's a top girl, and it was so much fun to get to see her at MBFWA again because I really do not see her enough. I caught up with her in the break between shows to chat about what her highlights of the week have been. The last of my MBFWA interview series!!

What are your fashion week essentials? Lots of lip balm, water and camera if you can be bothered carrying it. 

What's been your favourite outfit of the week? That I've worn or that other people have worn? 

How about one of each? Okay. I really like what I'm wearing today, because it is a Dion Lee dress from the Eyes lie collection. I'm actually wearing it backwards because it fits me better that way, but it means that you can see all the details and the cutout bits best, which I like. And I really like what Nadia is wearing today. She has these little rabbit ears on. The rest of her outfit is all Zara. She's wearing a floral skirt and leather pants and she's got the D'orsay heels on as well.

I like the D'orsay heels. Me too, but they're really really painful to wear. They don't have any support at the side where you really need it. I can't wear them. But they look so good!

What's been the highlight of the week? I'm really looking forward to Christopher Esber tonight. I loved An Ode To No-One last night, because a lot of people are doing these stream-lined shift shapes and prints but his were very layered and architectural. Lots of blues and pastel colours. I thought it was a really strong collection considering that it's the first time he has shown at fashion week. I was also really surprised at By Johnny. There's been so many florals everywhere and he did these white, puffy paint florals and scribbly stripes and put them over the boxy, Josh Goot neoprene shape. Really strong. I liked that a lot. But I think Christopher Esber is going to be the real highlight tonight.

Any shows that you haven't been to that you wished you could have gone to? I really wished I could have seen Kahlo this morning in New Gen 1 because I heard that was the standout.

For me it's Gary, I wished I could have seen Gary. I loved Gary, I'm really glad I made it to that. You know, I'm really really sad that I missed the menswear show because I feel like it's worth supporting this venture to show more menswear. It's really cool, but it was just too late for me. I think it's really hard to get to the late shows. Also Michael Lo Sordo. I wanted to go to that but I couldn't get in but it looked really cool. It was a tiny venue and I heard it was packed. But yesterday one of the girls at Maybelline was wearing one the dresses so I actually got to go up and see the print up close. It was another layered print over that stiff, boxy neoprene material but the print itself was quite interesting. Bugs and organic, natural things, mirrored across. No-one is really saying that it's a trend but it's definitely a trend.

So are there any trends you've seen that you want to try next season? I never do florals, but now I think I actually want to. Not the far out stuff but there was some pretty blue stuff at Sara Phillips and I'm interested in chasing up the Michael Lo Sordo collection and having a look at those prints because they were really cool.

What are you going to do next week when it's all over to relax? I'm going to go back to work which won't be relaxing at all.

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the ones that got away

Some photos that have slipped through the cracks the past few weeks.

Bananas so ripe they were just begging to be made banana cake of // I had so many fresh flowers in my room the other day I felt like Lorelai Gilmore // The best part about drinking fresh coconuts is cracking open the top and scooping up the flesh, at  Bread and Circus // Cakes at the Potts Point markets // trying on a Benah pistachio Kodi cuff for size. Not bad with my current bangles, ey? 

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the other baguette

fendi

I'm probably going to regret this. I kind of already do. But I think I might like this new Fendi Baguette reissue? In a humorous, ironic, tongue-in-chic kind of way? Not this yellow colour specifically, but maybe a nice simple black one, or even an out-there shade of green or red or pink or blue... I don't know what it is exactly about it - it's flashy and it's over the top and it's ridiculously... it. And that's so not me. But there's something kind of compelling about how the Baguette is coming back in style, as if it was never 'it' to begin with, as if it was just laying the grounds to become a true classic. 

I wouldn't - and couldn't - wear it the way Plum Sykes used to. "A Fendi purse in an ever more luxurious or decadent yarn was a compulsory part of a strict Friday-night dress code of skintight Stella McCartney jeans, agonisingly high Gucci heels and a beaded top by Chanel or Dolce & Gabbana." How Carrie Bradshaw. "The bag that went on a thousand dates," Sykes adds, and I like that. It's funny to look back on trends with the benefit of hindsight. How are we going to look back on our time now? Are we going to laugh at Philo-mania, are we going to have a burning desire to bring back the Isabel Marant Flana jacket? Are we going to reminisce about all those dates that we went on in Dicker boots and Acne jeans and cute little Equipment shirts? I'd like to think that when I'm in my 30s or 40s I'll still be in love with the things that I'm wearing now, not necessarily because they are classics, but because I have sentimental value attached to the very way that I wore them back then. How can you ever fall out of love with an item of clothing? I don't think I can. I'm gonna love my stuff forever and ever and always.

If I had a Baguette I would probably try and dress it down, to let its flashiness speak for itself. A heavy-lidded wink on a fresh face. I'd wear a pair of tapered pants and a big sweater (here I am with the oversized knitwear thing again, but man is it a good look), boyfriend jeans and a blue shirt, a trench coat over a midi skirt. A little Baguette might be just the thing to complete the outfit with a smile. Not taking fashion too seriously, and all that. Something over-embellished like the bags that you would buy from a street-market or a tourist stall. Something kind of crazy, almost too crazy, something that no-one would ever think I'd want. No, it's not minimal, its got wild-branding, it's even just a little bit trashy. But I think that's why I like it. You can get caught up in your own style sometimes to the point where everything starts to look the same. You can predict exactly what you want, you know your wardrobe inside out and you can reel off your favourite designers like they were your own family members. When you get to that point that's when you start to crave something a little out of the ordinary. Like flatform laceups, or a peplumed-top. Or a bright yellow Fendi Baguette.

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all white

celebcity

I've got Melissa to thank for this one. Since I've been so out of touch with the internet because of work and uni recently, I might never have seen this fantastic outfit if she hadn't tweeted me. And oh, how good is it? I'm repeatedly struck by how great Ashley Olsen's sense of proportion and texture is. She is a small girl - smaller than me! - and yet she manages to wear these great swathes of fabric without letting them overcome her completely. It has something to do with the way she plays off heavy knits with lighter linen skirts, flat sandals with flashy anklets, a spectacular exotic-skinned bag (or backpack, natch) and some heavy jewellery. We must be on the same wave length (I am Ashley Olsen after all) because I've started to wear my chunky gold bangles again. There's something about that click clack as you move your hand - I find the noise that jewellery makes really beautiful for some reason. Maybe it's because my mum used to wear heaps of bangles when I was a kid. I don't know.  

I was talking with a friend the other day about style duality - how there are always two sides (or more!) to your style personality. I think my two are French classics and 90s minimalism. I love that Ashley Olsen look, that Carolyn Bessette Kennedy relaxing in Nantucket in sweatshirt and trousers look, that New York simplicity of a cotton shirt and denim (nothing comes between me and my calvins). At the moment I've been leaning towards the latter. I've been wearing a lot of denim and big sweaters, a lot of long skirts and big sweater, a lot of tapered trousers and, well, big sweaters. There's nothing new about any of this, but I think this winter I'm going to try and play with proportion even more. Massive massive massive coats. Ballooning skirts and thick, long-line sleeveless sweaters. Same same but different, you know?

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In the studio: Amy Kaehne

Just like her relaxed and laid-back style, influenced by everything from the late 1960s to international travel and rare books, Amy Kaehne's studio is a lived-in, easy-going ode to her ability to create. I caught up with Amy a little while ago for an article that I was writing about her - I'll tell you more about that later! - but something she said about knitwear struck me. And as Autumn rolls along into Winter, I've got to share it. I'll be reaching for my Amy Kaehne knits this weekend if there's a chill bite in the air, even more excited to wear them now that I know the story behind them! Thanks for being such a fantastic interview subject, Amy, and for welcoming me into your studio with Sonoma toasted sandwiches early one Friday morning...

On knitwear:

"It’s coming from New Zealand. Seriously. I know that sounds kind of silly but in New Zealand you wear knitwear. You have to. It’s cold. Where I’m cold it’s not freezing freezing cold, but there wasn’t a day in winter that didn’t go by when I wasn’t wearing thermals under my clothes. I used to wear these long-sleeved thermals under everything. I feel like it was a part of my life there. My mum has always loved knitwear and she has always bought the best quality knitwear and she taught me how to take care of it – hand washing it, putting it to dry on her car in the garage, knowing that the motor will dry it as the heat rose up through the metal. All of that type of stuff. I’ve always remembered it. 

 I think that I wanted some pieces that were very much hand made, with a love that has gone back into them, rather than a generic machine creating them. Even though I do love machine knits. I wanted the personalized feeling to a knit. They’re not perfect, they’re made by one person and there is an attention to detail, but they won’t be perfectly accurate. So I started making them in cotton, and then I did a silk version. People just loved them. I suppose they can see that personal aspect and they connect with it. Again, fashion is coming back to an element of organic, hands-on, craftwork. People feel special, as if it was made just for them." 

As told to me

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