bluestocking chic

An Education // source

I am in the throes of my 'mountain lockdown' as Stephanie from I Love Mr Mittens termed it, and I've been thinking about study style. Sure, I've been doing some actual study around all this thinking, but in my downtime (mostly as I lay in bed and dread having to get out of the warmth into the cold, cold kitchen where the table is) I've been musing on matters of what I have decided to term 'bluestocking chic'. You know, intellectual style. That distinctly retro, 1960s university gal look that brands like A.P.C and Thomsen have made their own. It's all Carey Mulligan in An Education - cropped cigarette trousers, fuzzy angora sweaters and white shoes before labour day. It's Anna Karina with the bouffed up hair and a tartan coat. It's Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face, the most beautiful book-seller in the world, resplendent in frumpy tweed and turtleneck sweaters. It's not really suited to my body type - the reed thin girls with long legs and straight hair work this look like it's nobody's business - but I admire it anyway. I tweak it so that it fits better on me. Maybe the sweaters aren't so slim cut, maybe I take my jeans with a side of distress. But I think that as a university student with my nose stuck in the books in the middle of the cold, cold country I'm pretty much the definition of bluestocking chic, whichever way you want to look at it. 

Bluestocking chic three ways

one

 The Row backpack // Serge Lutens FIve O'Clock Au Gingembre // Van Rycke necklace // Organic by John Patrick shirt // Prism glasses // Sylvain le Hen barette // Dieppa Restrepo loafers // Organic by John patrick sweater // A.P.C jeans

two

Peter Jensen cardigan // La Garconne Moderne blouse // Sylvain Le Hen pin // Cutler & Gross glasses // Porselli ballet flats // Diptyque 34 // Daniel Wellington watch // VPL trousers

three

3.1 Philip Lim coat // A.P.C sweater // Uniform Wares watch // Byredo Rose Noir // Prism glasses // A.P.C skirt // Mulberry bag // Porselli ballet flats

X

ps. I did a little q&a with Kate from Modette blog, see it here!

You have read this article 3.1 phillip lim / clothes / clothing / cold / films / movies / polyvore / style / the row / university / want / weather / work with the title the row. You can bookmark this page URL https://startthefire-cafagesta.blogspot.com/2013/07/bluestocking-chic.html. Thanks!

the OG

olsens anonymous 

Ashley Olsen, making looking good her job since 2005.
 

X

You have read this article ashley olsen / celebrity / coats / cold / fashion style / fur / inspiration / style / the row / winter with the title the row. You can bookmark this page URL https://startthefire-cafagesta.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-og.html. Thanks!

work

This is the ultimate work outfit. Some fitted trousers, an oversize, tunic sweater, hair pulled back and a long necklace with a pendant you can fiddle with absent-mindedly as you make serious decisions about important stuff. Still searching for the kind of perfect pendants that Ashley has.

X

You have read this article ashley olsen / clothes / clothing / jewelry / necklaces / the row / work with the title the row. You can bookmark this page URL https://startthefire-cafagesta.blogspot.com/2012/11/work.html. Thanks!

the one

just jared

Just when I need it the most, inspiration strikes in the form of Ashley Olsen, resplendent in The Row and straight leg jeans. How she does it - make things that are kind of wrong, like stripey fur jackets or camouflage totes all scrunched up in the hand - seem so right I'll never know. I want to be her.

X

ps. don't forget to enter my Shopbop giveaway! 

You have read this article ashley olsen / chanel / denim / fashion / inspiration / new york fashion week / style / the row with the title the row. You can bookmark this page URL https://startthefire-cafagesta.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-one.html. Thanks!

the first

purple diary

The first thing that I thought when I saw this collection was: drape. The second, was silk and the third was the shoes, but they kind of tie into the first idea, really. What a collection for Phoebe Philo to showcase just how much of a master she is over proportion. Not everyone is going to like it, but Philo has really modernised that commes des garcons/junya avant garde take on outsized fashion, and rendered it completely wearable for today. I think some of it comes from her just having had a baby. The shapes are forgiving and the fabrics skim. The shoes are flat - strappy, pool sliders, occasionally embellished with some funky bling - and remind me a lot of that first The Row collection, when Mary-Kate and Ashley sent out a barrage of perfectly tailored trousers and frock coats with thick-strapped leather sandals. I don't mind them, and I like the tension between them and the clothes. It's like Philo has captured that moment when a woman gets through the front door, kicks off her heels and slides into some slippers, wandering into the kitchen for a cup of tea still in her evening clothes.

The thing is that not everyone gets Phoebe Philo. Everyone gets Celine, that is, they get the bags and the jewellery and the sunglasses and the shoes. But the clothes? The clothes with those thousand-dollar price tags and their slouchy fit and their outsized gambit? Not so much. They'd rather have a luggage bag and call it a day. But there is SO much more to Celine than accessories. In fact, as much as I love the bags (and I live for the bags), I would give them all up in a heartbeat for a wardrobe of Phoebe Philo Celine clothes. And this collection is no exception. It's so in-tune with exactly how I want to dress when I'm grown up and fabulous, it's so in-tune with that MK&A way of wearing big things on little people and turning it into a business at The Row, and it's always consistently outside of a fashion mold, even when it's setting that mold, that you have to admire it. There are so many things that Philo has done in this collection that show the growth at Celine since the start. This is the collection with the least amount of leather in it and even the least amount of cotton, linen and canvas. The focus is on that beautiful, drapey silk, molten liquid falling across the body in one fluid line. This collection has hardly any runway bags, just a few scrunchy leather clutches - enlarged versions of her famous tri pochette - like some sort of glamourised paper bag. This collection takes what is essentially a winter colour palette and makes it summer, first through those sandals, then through the silk, and lastly through shapes of such ease and breeze that you wouldn't be mad to wear their them poolside at cabo. In fact, the whole crux of Philo's design method is how she takes staid ideas and renders them so modern they are quite shocking. This collection is, actually, very sporty, probably the sportiest she has ever done. It's got mesh vents and side splits and cropped sweaters and sleeveless cuts. But it's sporty like you've never seen before, which of course is the point.

And, unsurprisingly, I love it. I love it because, from a personal point of view, Celine has become one of the few brands - alongside The Row and occasionally Stella McCartney - that actually present clothes that adhere to my own standard of dress. I live for that oversized cut, that slouchy swagger, that silhouette of a girl in a drapey top with her hands shoved in the pockets of her silky track pants. I love it because every one of those lithe, long-limbed models had a face that was scrubbed free of makeup. I know they probably weren't scrubbed free, and that someone backstage was spending hours liberally applying radiance cream, but god Julia Nobis looked tired, which I kind of like. If, as one critic once posed, every Celine girl is actually crafted in the image of Philo herself (think Daria in last season's campaign!), then why not give the girls a centre part and bags under their eyes? And we end up back at the fact that Philo has just given birth... People often muse that the problem with male designers is that they never understand the female form. They either design for a sexual ideal, a motherly ideal, or a friendly ideal. In many ways this is true. I think that a key strength of a female designer, which Philo has proved in her collection, is not only to understand the female form but the female mind. You've just given birth, what would be the ultimate thing to wear? Some silken lounge pants and a drapey sweater. People may not like this collection, they may not even understand it, but I'll put some money down right now that this is going to sell like mad.

X

You have read this article ashley olsen / celine / fashion / fashion show / fashion shows / mary-kate olsen / models / paris fashion week / phoebe philo / photos / pictures / the row with the title the row. You can bookmark this page URL https://startthefire-cafagesta.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-first.html. Thanks!

good evening

The Row S/S 2013

If I had anywhere to go - I don't, but let's imagine for a second - I would want to wear something that looks just like this. Long-line silk with an even longer-line something draped over the top and a thin bit of something else to tie around the middle. All three of these looks have something rather exciting about them. The first is the colour; that dusky pink at evening time is so suggestive, but that pyjama-style cut is languid without being louche. The second it's all about that tuxedo jacket; it hints at some kind of man-style cross-dressing but a fitted skirt with a bit of a slit puts those dreams to rest. The third is actually a pantsuit, but it's more about those little tassels; what a curious, and curiously appealing touch. It's weird - The Row's customer is obviously older and obviously well-off - you'd be likely to see this on the wife of a president (if she had the figure of CBK) or at the opening of the Metropolitan Opera on the lithe body of some JP Morgan exec's wife. But I really like it. I like all of it. I like the staidness and the restrained, almost austerity-chic, and the totally unforced simplicity. But what I like most of all is the kick of subversiveness - like the 'twist' in a vodka martini - that seems to hit you only as the model is walking away. Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, you've definitely done it again.

X

You have read this article ashley olsen / fashion / fashion show / fashion shows / mary-kate olsen / New York / new york fashion week / style / the row with the title the row. You can bookmark this page URL https://startthefire-cafagesta.blogspot.com/2012/09/good-evening.html. Thanks!

chic

celebutopia

Ashley Olsen is the last word in chic. I'm sick of reading about people who think her style is boring. It really isn't. It's effortless and inspiring and endlessly exciting, full of luxurious fabrics, interesting extras (that little split on the side of her jeans, a shirt with a hem that slightly longer at the back than the front) and it's the only way I want to dress. I think what I love most is how she dresses for summer. No denim cut offs and tiny singlets for her, oh no. She's all about the diaphanous shirt, the tapered slacks and the casually wrapped shawl (all The Row, of course). I love how she combats heat with clothes that give her skin room to breathe. I've always felt that you shouldn't wear things that are tight or constricting in summer - all that heat trapped up against your body can only be a bad thing. In warm weather you have to give yourself room to move. This summer I'll be wearing my shirts extra wide over long pants, with loafers and sandals and ballet flats. Replicating even further my summer wardrobe planning wish - a closet full of la garconne moderne, of painters smocks and big trench coats and wide brimmed hats to shade me from the heat and sun.

X

You have read this article ashley olsen / celebrity / sandals / shirts / summer / the row / weather with the title the row. You can bookmark this page URL https://startthefire-cafagesta.blogspot.com/2012/09/chic.html. Thanks!

summer wardrobe planning - 2013

It's that time of year again! To prepare for this I had a look at the list I put together around this time last year, and I can't believe how nothing has changed. I'm ashamed to say that a hat is still on the list, despite me actually buying what I thought was the perfect one in New York, but it's just not quite there (it's mostly just a little bit small, so if I succeed in my experiment in stretching it a little then all this might be in the past!). Like love, I'll know it when I see it, and it will make all that have come before it so desperately, desperately wrong. And re: those loose trousers and the delicate jewellery, more of those always. I think my pant to skirt ratio is on an upward, never-ending trajectory, especially during summer. Don't ask why. Maybe it has to do with pockets! And I'll always want more pieces of delicate jewellery, you really cannot have enough (and I always, always, always lose them. It's actually quite devastating). But other than last year's list that apparently I'm still working on, what have I got planned for next summer? Let's see, shall we? 

1. A massive, so-big-you-look-kind-of-homeless, wrap-around-you-three-times trench coat in the perfect shade of tobacco brown.

La Garconne Moderne trench coat // Meg Ryan in You've Got Mail

I quite like this coat but in actual fact this season I'm going to get the TOME one. It's in the first image of this post and my goodness it's beautiful. I love those contrast pockets, that upturned collar, that oversized swagger.  I love how it's almost like a 1980s take on the classic trench, the kind of thing Madonna might wear in Desperately Seeking Susan, all curly hair and leg warmers. But, that's not to say that if the right classic number passes me by that I won't settle for it, either. I've always been a sucker for a good trench, and although I actually have one at the moment, it's definitely not perfect. It'll do for now, but in the long term I want something that is going to last. There are a few things wrong with my trench - it's not big enough (it fits me, but I want it to swamp me), it's got this weird stripey lining and odd zippers everywhere. I like it a lot, but I can do better. I want something that's going to stick it out for me through thick and thin, be a transeasonal coverup and a cold-weather friend. TOME, do you think you can do that?

2. A plain black swimsuit with thin straps, low scoop back and a high leg. 

 Prism Chateau one piece // Garance Dore

So that's kind of specific. But it's swimwear after all, you're practically naked so you want to look good. I'm not sure I need to justify this, it's summer and I need a swimming costume and since the one I have currently is a) brown, b) ugly, c) about 8 years old (I'm not even joking, I bought it in year 9 and never replaced it) I think it's about time, don't you? Just something plain, black and flattering, if at all possible!

3. A leather backpack 

 The Row leather backpack, Theory leather backpack, Theory leather backpack // The Row in real life

The time to fulfill all those cool-girl fantasies of swinging a backpack off one shoulder wearing an oversized blue shirt and blue jeans and funky suede birkenstocks and a heap of blinging anklets is now! The time to relive high school and effortless amounts of teenage nonchalance with just one swing of a leather backpack is now! This one is another total stab in the dark, since I won't be able to afford The Row one. Ever. And I think the Theory ones are still just out of my league. The search continues, but, just like with most things, I'll know when I know. 

4. The perfect hat.

Citizen couture

Like seriously, I know these exist, so where are they? She has one! She's wearing one right there! I want it big enough that it can slid over my head and not give me a headache, big enough that if I'm wearing a low pony it's not going to stick, but not too big that a slight breeze will knock it right off. I want something that's going to be the full stop to my summer outfits. I want something that is really stiff, that isn't going to bend around or blow in the wind. Just a little something to perch on my head with a loose sweater and some tapered trousers and some double strap sandals for a day out. The search continues, as ever.

5. An oversized smock dress, long-ish, like maybe calf length, with pockets and a boat neck in a nice neutral brown colour. 

 

joan didion // la garconne moderne painter smock

I've got one quite similar to this - not calf length, resting on the knees - from Acne, and it's a life saver in Summer. I can wear it tucked into trousers and work and it's easy breezy, or I can belt it over a long skirt and it acts like some kind of chic tunic, or I can get a safety pin, hitch it up and across to my shoulder to give it a bit of a grecian drape. That little garment has saved my life on so many occasions - it manages to be both dressy and casual at the same time - and I think that it's time to get another one, this time in a different colour, to add to the collection. This La Garconne Moderne number is pretty great (and I do have a thing for la garconne moderne). It doesn't have to be silk, but I think you get the best drape out of silk. If it wasn't silk it would have to be some kind of silk-cotton-jersey mix, like what Gary Bigeni uses in his beautiful garments, because I want it to have a bit of weight too it. It couldn't be plain cotton, because then it would feel like a tee shirt, and I have enough of those. This needs to be something a little... extra. 

This list has more abstracts than ever - if anyone remembers last season they'll remember that almost every item had an exact designer and style name to it. This season I only know one thing - that I'm gonna get my hands on that TOME trench. Oh, and I know one other thing, I guess. That I'll know perfection when I see it. We'll see how I go, considering that last season I got everything crossed off pretty earlier and then had to limit my purchasing a bit (that went pretty much as planned, but it wasn't easy. I am guilty of a few sale purchases though). This season is going to be more of a search, which is probably going to be much more exciting. I really hope I can lock down some of these things, once and for all! Summer, here we come.

X

You have read this article anklets / ashley olsen / bags / clothes / clothing / hats / jackets / jewelry / money / shopping / the row with the title the row. You can bookmark this page URL https://startthefire-cafagesta.blogspot.com/2012/07/summer-wardrobe-planning-2013.html. Thanks!