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Drowning not waving
2008-04-30 17:13:00
Please forgive the lack of posts. I have two features commissions, one due imminently, two project outlines to deliver like yesterday, plus all my visa paperwork to complete and all the other thousand and one things that I've had eight years of freelance life to complete, and now have two weeks to sort out. I am categorically not complaining, just wish my body hadn't chosen Monday & Tuesday for being sick as a parrot.Squawk
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Recommendation
2008-04-30 01:16:00
I came across this blog today. I think she writes beautifully. Her copy seems effortless, although I suspect, like all good writers', it probably isn't.
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oops
2008-04-29 23:24:00
I am busier than a bee with ADD. And then I got sick. Fainted yesterday, and knocked myself out. Clever. So please forgive the lack of posting yesterday & today. I promise to be back up to speed by tomorrow. Tonight I plan to self-medicate with guacamole & a massage. No, not together. And then write like the furies are behind me.Oh & I got the BIG job. Eek.

Blonde = stupid. OBVIOUSLY
2008-04-28 03:39:00
There are two ill thought out stereotypes that annoy me greatly. The first is that women with blonde hair are ditzy idiots and the second that people involved in the fashion industry are morons too dumb to work in a 'proper' field.As a natural blonde who frequently works as a fashion editor & writer, the usual assumption by strangers is that I am as thick as two short planks. I have become quite exercised by this crass conclusion, but try not to rise to provocation. (I spent my twenties being rather earnest at parties to try to prove there I was more than the sum of my physical parts before realising that I wasn't doing myself any favours. Now I just chuckle quietly to myself.) Fashion is a multi-millon dollar industry and, although clothing more advanced than a toga or a sarong may be perceived as unnecessary, it's no more unnecessary than any product that is 'designed' to be attractive beyond its essential usage, be it a car, door knob, book or house, so why people persist i...
More About: Stupid , Blonde

Mantra
2008-04-26 06:28:00
Love is possible. Anything is possible. This is New York.
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If you ever need a florist in Australia...
2008-04-26 04:07:00
I love sending people flowers. I love receiving them too, so I've always figured if sending them gives even half the joy I get from an unsolicited bunch of flowers, then it's money well spent. My mother is an extremely talented amateur gardener & professional floral designer, (she does lots of super stylish weddings and sweeps the board at the local garden show with her flowers too), so I grew up learning to appreciate the glory of a good florist.One of my best friends from school lives in Sydney now with her new husband. When they married last year I couldn't attend as I had already been asked to read at A's wedding in London over the same weekend and, lacking a tardis, would have been hard set to get from New York to Australia to London and back to New York in the space of five days.So back to flowers. I spent hours on the old interweb looking for a florist in Australia that could do a bunch of flowers gorgeous enough for my beautiful friend. She also happens to work at Pacifi...
More About: Florist

Boeing Boeing
2008-04-25 17:36:00
Funny how things can change. I was in the slough of despond yesterday, and today things seem much perkier. (Thank you all for your kind comments & emails). Prescient Dressed & Pressed is so right: cake is always the answer. Or, in my case, a roll of pre-made Tollhouse cookie dough.I managed to sleep before 3am, and consequently am awake bright & early today without feeling that my half my day has been wasted. It’s a beautiful day, not as hot as yesterday (knocking 80F) but clear & fresh. I’m revelling in the humidity-free sunshine. It won’t be many weeks before what equates now to a perfect English summer’s day turns in to an urban sweat bath.Just when I was at my grumpiest yesterday afternoon, wonderful, uplifting O rang to get a number and then,, on the spur of the moment invited me to take the place of her husband (away on business) at the theatre that night. We convened at Joe Allen with her two urbane & beyond charming GBFs at 7 for pre-theatre supper. I love going out ...
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All's well that ends well...
2008-04-25 17:35:00
The big freelance fashion editor contract that I was worried would slip through my fingers with all the job dithering has turned out well. They rang this morning to say they want me on board no matter what, so I am just going to start working on it now and if I have to stop when the other job kicks off then so be it. Otherwise I will continue to consult for them. Genius. Until it was resolved this morning, I hadn’t realised just how much it was worrying me.And, most importantly, the babydog is on the road to recovery, and apparently wriggling about in ecstasy in London.
More About: Ends

Gah
2008-04-24 21:01:00
God I’m in a staggeringly bad mood today. I wasn’t going to bother blogging, but then I thought, I know some people think I live a charmed life: New York, fashion, etc, etc and they would be right to a certain extent that my life here is pretty damn good, but that doesn’t mean everything works out all of the time, & maybe I should blog when I am hot, cross & bothered.I KNOW, and count my blessings every day, that I lead a life that is not what many people consider to be the norm. Most of all, my life and my work are interchangeable. I don’t work to live. But that doesn’t mean that I am Pollyanna, all hoppity, skippity, beaming rays of sunshine. I’ve got PMS, my dog is still ill, & my new job is still so caught up in a mire of paperwork and other people’s schedules that I am starting to despair of it ever actually happening. I’ve been hanging in limbo for nearly a month now, waiting for it all to kick off, and if I wait much longer other, not quite so exciting, but de...

Dating option number three. Round two
2008-04-24 06:06:00
I’ve complained before that online dating in America is a minefield. America may be the land of the free, but it’s also the land of the free to lie about your height, weight, looks, career. Most people I meet, with just one exception so far, are fatter, older, shorter, less shiny, less sparkly versions of their on-line personas. I never had this problem in London. I mainly used a site called loveandfriends.com, and every person I met was exactly what I expecting. I made some great friends and always enjoyed the experiences.My theory is that it's much, much easier to meet people in person when you're out & about in New York than it is in London, where asking random people out is still not the norm. Therefore the people on-line dating in London are more normal, whereas the ones on-line here in Manhattan are often the ones who really find it a challenge to meet dates in the real world. (Plus, of course, out of towners, and shy people.)The only person I’ve met in New York who d...
More About: Dating , Round , Number Three , Number

Target needs to re-think its eco strategy
2008-04-22 22:19:00
More Earth Day thoughts.Eco bandwagon-jumping makes me all hot, cross & bothered. Either do it properly or don’t do it all. I’d like Target to explain, please, why they think that ordering a job lot of oil by-product nylon shopping bags is helping to create a greener planet?My own bag arrived folded in a thick cardboard envelope marked ‘A gift for you and the environment’ in my subscriber copy of Vanity Fair. When I opened it there was a stink of chemicals from the bag itself. The sleeve asks shoppers to carry it for’ an easy way to reduce waste in your community’.Are they on crack? Not only has the bag been shipped from China, it's made from extremely dubious chemicals that I don’t want my fruit & veg kicking around in, & they’ve just created a wholly unrecyclable shopping bag, and cardboard envelope which will be thrown out. (And it’s irrelevant that the envelope is made from 100% post-consumer waste.)I am extremely unimpressed.
More About: Strategy

Francoise Olivas designs: A way to mark Earth Day
2008-04-22 17:32:00
Ethical clothing is now a serious option for those who love fashion. I suggest celebrating Earth Day by checking out the beautiful collection from new designer Francoise Olivas who, as she puts it, strives for ethical beauty. I particularly love her Stravinsky's Stripe Dress (look no 12/13 & Three of Cups (look 16/17).I'm going to lift straight from her copy as she describes her motivation better than I could:It's hard to feel beautiful in an exquisite dress knowing that people halfway across the globe toiled long hours for mere pennies a day to create it. The richness of Francoise Olivas designs comes from our fair trade practices and alliances with traditional artisans from around the world. We rely on our global partners not only to assist us with producing our garments, but to inspire and collaborate in the design of our pieces as well. Additionally, we respect and marvel at the grace and charm of the environment. We aim to use only environmentally friendly fabrics and yarns...
More About: Earth Day , Mark , Designs

My London to-do list
2008-04-21 19:07:00
I’ve been making a list of the things I’m going to do when I get back to London . Leaving aside the issue of my carbon footprint, I’m thrilled at the prospect of a couple of months in both cities.Eating Vietnamese on the Kingsland Road with Miss P is at the top of the list. I think about the food there more than is good for me. I once briefly dated an older banker who lived in Chelsea. When he asked my favourite places to eat in London and I said the Hackney Vietnamese restaurants, he thought I was joking. (He had expected a Hakkasan or Wolseley type of answer). He found it inexplicable that I could choose a genre of restaurant whose dining accoutrements included plastic chairs & paper napkins. But it’s all about the food, I tried to explain. We didn’t last.That’s not to say an indulgent power breakfast at The Wolseley or Cecconi's won’t be on my list. I am sure one of the kindly London fashion PRs will oblige.There will be some light shopping. COS for sure and maybe ...
More About: List

My version of a quiet week...
2008-04-21 06:03:00
After my rampant socialising of the past two weeks, I took it down a whole octave this past week. I wrote a lot, had some great work-related things going on (the Grazia mention, two big fat commissions and an excellent protracted conversation with the lawyers regarding my work visa) and confined my socialising to a couple of strawberry vodka lemonades on the roof at Soho House in the wonderful 25C sunshine, a brief foray into the Diesel party with Sexy S & Ginger on Friday (full of twenty-something children in hipster outfits), & some quiet meals with girlfriends.Mexican at Rosa Mexicano on Monday with lovely L & her son, in town for a long weekend to vist his dad who is shooting a movie with Kirsten Dunst in the city, and then an early supper, blood orange margaritas & more guacamole at Mexican Mama on Tuesday with BA & N for a catch up & wedding dress consult. (I am going to turn green if I eat any more avocados.)We ate burgers & fries & drank cheap red wine at the counter at Flor...
More About: Week , Version , Quiet

My new hat
2008-04-21 03:51:00
Speaking of vintage hats (see below), this is my latest find:It was $24 at the Brooklyn Flea and is in absolutely mint condition. I bought it from a stand of excellently sourced vintage accessories, run by Marie & Ian, the charming couple who run this vintage site. I am flying back in July for a wedding on an estate in Scotland, and I think this may fit the bill perfectly.Although goodness knows what I'll be wearing then. I'm on a be healthy regimen right now (I refuse to use the word 'diet') as my summer clothes are somewhat tight. It also doesn't help that my new job is looming and I really do not want to have to invest in a whole new working wardrobe when I have so many beautiful pieces stashed away both here & in the attics at my parents' place in England. So, healthy regimen it is then. Certainly no take aways - & that's not as easy as it sounds. Every restaurant in Manhattan from the dodgy Chinese round the corner to Le Bernadin will package you up supper if you ask ni...

Meme-tastic
2008-04-21 03:28:00
We haven't had a blogosphere meme on here for a while, (my all time favourite was this one) so thank you my friend The Glam Guide who has tagged me to name six unimportant things about myself:1) My first cat was called Sylvie Pilchard Jubilee2) I’m often mistaken for a man on the telephone 3) I’m addicted to Crème Eggs4) I collect vintage hats5) I won the school General Knowledge Prize three years in a row at Junior School6) I can’t wink my right eyeI tag: Wee Birdy, Stylist Stuff, Nonsense on Stilettos, Tales From The Runway, Suzanna at Le Style Sauvage and Jenny at Slaves to Fashion
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Nuptial dressing
2008-04-20 07:04:00
I thought finding the perfect dress for BA was going to be a long haul. We've been surfing bridal websites all week, (Amanda Wakeley was looking good), and had next weekend pencilled in for some preliminary trying on sessions at Bergdorfs & various salons uptown.The wedding date isn't fixed yet (maybe October) but, given that BA is returning to England in the near future and her bridesmaids are in NYC, and the long lead times for ordering bridal dresses and the length of time it usually takes to make appointments and try on frocks, we thought there was no harm in getting started.Then on Wednesday, as I barrelled along East 9th on my bike on my way to Soho House for drinks on the roof, I caught sight of a dress that looked similar to the shapes BA likes in the window of a store. I pulled a drastic braking manouevre (not so easy in four inch wedges I'll have you know), and pressed my nose up against what turned out to be the window of Selia Yang, a tiny one room bridal salon in th...
More About: Dressing

I am not radioactive, just lightly tanned
2008-04-18 18:31:00
Well I am now furnished & burnished by EzeTan’s sun. Spray tans can be somewhat disconcerting if you haven’t had one before. The spray contains an immediate bronzer so you walk out looking all California golden then, during the course of the evening, you become progressively more tanned as the colour underneath develops.By morning you look like Cat Deeley. Of course the bronzer washes off in the shower leaving a lovely golden base. (Although I would never leave the apartment in my mahogany state, I do love it as my eyes go a piercing bright blue and my hair looks incredibly blonde in contrast. I’ve never had a tan that deep in the real world so I rather like the fantasy aspect of it all.)It doesn’t leave your sheets orange, but I do bleach them in the summer as some colour definitely rubs off. I also keep a separate towelling dressing gown for when I am tanned. And I certainly wouldn’t advise sharing your bed with a boy the night you have a spray. You will smell odd and y...

Give me sunshine
2008-04-17 17:46:00
There are an awful lot of helicopters buzzing around, so I presume they must be Secret Service and news crews getting ready to cover the hoo ha of the Pope’s visit. I can’t say it’s making much of a material or spiritual difference to my life right now, apart from ensuring I stay below 14th Street as I reckon it’ll be chocka in the skyscraper-y part of town tomorrow.I hate to rub it in, as I know London is grey, but it’s progressively getting warmer here: 21C today, with a scorching 25 planned for tomorrow. Altho, given the utterly schizophrenic nature of NYC weather, no doubt it’ll be freezing and pouring with rain by Sunday when I’ll want to be by the pool on the roof deck at Soho House.I’m off for my first spray tan of the season this afternoon. I bought a mega package at EZ-Tanning on Fifth last summer, so they worked out at $10 a throw, a steal compared to £20 a pop in London, & I still have some left. Several girlfriends have been trying to convince me that my...
More About: Sunshine , Give

Posetta Babydog
2008-04-17 15:20:00
The absolutely worst thing about being away from England is when there is a crisis back home. When I woke very early this morning and saw that there was a voicemail from my mother I knew something waa wrong. My sister & I are besotted with Posy, our miniature wire-haired dachshund. She looks like someone did a scribble on a page and added stumpy legs. She's contrary & naughty and came from Dachsie Rescue so she's always a little unpredictable. Lots of my friends referred to her as Kujo when she arrived, as she was a very damaged little dog and used to fly at strangers in a frankly terrifying manner, especially for something so little. (She'd already been re-homed as uncontrollable three times, & we were her absolute last chance.)We've bombarded her with love & affection over the last three years and she is a different dog now, although we never allow her around children as we suspect she was tortured by toddlers in her formative years, given her reaction to small people. She al...

APC bag
2008-04-16 22:46:00
I really, really want this APC bag. It's not horrifically expensive, although more than I usually pay for a bag. It fits my criteria of not being an It bag, and will not be instantly recognisable when I wear it. I'm planning on wearing a lot of navy blue & grey this summer and it would look perfect as a "color accent" as my American chums would have it. iT'S $345, about £180.

Topshop New York
2008-04-16 18:43:00
American fashionistas have October 10th inked and highlighted in their diaries: Why? That’s the day that Topshop will open on Broadway in SoHo. That means that the New York fashion editors who usually spend most of London Fashion Week in September shopping in ToSho Oxford Circus have only a scant month in Europe to wear their bargains. After all, the show season ends in Paris on October 6th, so they’ve got four days to wear their new purchases in New York, before consigning them to their assistants. It’s one thing wearing Topshop when you can only buy it in Europe, but which fashion maven wants to be seen in the same dress as the bridge & tunnel crowd, darling?
More About: New-York

Leaving on a jet plane...
2008-04-16 16:24:00
It's looking increasingly likely that I am about to be spending waaayyy too much time commuting across the Atlantic. Which is why I bought myself this glorious necklace in gold by Erica Weiner at the Brooklyn Flea on Sunday. It seems kind of appropriate for a new stage in my life. It comes in brass $35, silver or gold plated ($75).My grandfather was an aircraft designer at De Havilland's both during and after the War, where he was awarded an OBE for his work as part of the small crack team that designed the Mosquito, which played a vital role in winning the War, and the Comet, the first jet airliner. I don't really remember him much as he died when I was a child, but my mother has the gold Comet suspended on a chain that the wives of the designers were given in commemoration. I rather like the idea that I can wear a 'plane too in honour of my grandfather.For a fashion editor, I'm not very good at spending money on my wardrobe. As I complained before, I don't have a fashionable...
More About: Plane , Leaving

Grazia: I love you
2008-04-16 15:03:00
Well goodness gracious me. I've been so utterly gobsmacked by the news from London yesterday that Grazia have written about my blog in this week's issue. I was woken up super early by the trash trucks on St Marks, so I extracted my Blackberry from under my pillow (in the manner of a fully functioning addict) to find that Susie Bubble had emailed to tell me that LLG was in the What's Up section. (That girl is seriously quick off the mark - thanks love!)The kindness of strangers never ceases to amaze me: I had emails all day from people who thought I may have missed it, & then a lovely girl just emailed me out of the blue with these scans, which saves me from scouring Manhattan for a copy. And thank you Grazia: you didn't just make my day, but my mother's too!
More About: Love , I Love You

Celia Birtwell for Express
2008-04-16 05:41:00
As it looks increasingly likely that I may be returning to the world of full-time work in the next month or so, I am taking advantage of the beautiful spring weather (same temp as London, but strong sunshine), to ping around Manhattan on my bike, shopping during the day and being a lady who lunches.Composing an outfit of sundress, tights & sunglasses (I hate this inter-seasonal hot/cold dressing nightmare), I whizzed over to Meatpacking from the East Village (I do not recommend cycling over cobblestones) to meet super stylish ex-Voguette O and adorable baby Oscar at Zampa for lunch. Afterwards, as we were across the road, I gave O a guided tour of Soho House - I'm proposing her for membership - & we looked longingly at the pool and roof deck in the bright sunshine. I walked her home, and she gave me a pair of her Alaia boots that she's no longer wearing in her baby looking after mode. Very welcome.Then off to Express to check out the Celia Birtwell line. I'm a bit slow off the m...

Taking the dating plunge
2008-03-12 04:28:00
New York may be the dating capital of America, but it tends to pass me by as I am truly useless at flirting with random men and making eye contact is not an art I've ever mastered. Generally I just look scary and unapproachable when I'm out & about, or so I've been told one too many times for my liking, (actually I'm just shy & embarrassed), so at the weekend I signed up for an on-line dating site here in New York. I figure that at the worst I'll get good copy, at best - well, watch this space...The drawback: I'm paranoid about being recognised. This is not a faint possibility. Through looking at male profiles I have already discovered why my mate X always seem to be going on dates ("I met this smashing bird on the subway". Yeah right. That'll be the on-line subway then), and been emailed today by a man I last saw wearing lederhosen & trying to proposition my girlfriend in a legendarily slimy manner at the Soho House Hallowe'en party. I can't work out if I am offended or re...
More About: Dating , Taking

Greenwich Village Sunday lunch
2008-03-12 04:14:00
There’s nothing more English than a proper roast meat & two veg Sunday lunch. And, unsurprisingly, they are thin on the ground in New York. Sure, ex-pat Village hangout Tea & Sympathy serves a roast for the outrageous price of $28, but it’s seriously sub-Wetherspoons*, and pretty much everywhere else does brunch on Sundays. Even the couscous joint, Café Mogador, across the road from me serves up plate upon plate of congealed looking eggs Benedict come the weekend. (Why, why do grown-ups insist on queuing to eat $12 plates of brunch eggs in restaurants that have nothing to with breakfast cookery?)I’m not a big fan of people who move countries and then spend their time yearning for the comforts of home, but I do miss the companionable ritual of Sunday lunch. So I cycled over to a Greenwich Village apartment for my first ever Manhattan Sunday lunch, unsurprisingly hosted by an English friend, but happily furnished with Americans.I did not cover myself in glory by rocking up an h...
More About: Lunch

NW officially folds
2008-03-12 02:48:00
It's not exactly a massive surprise to discover that Bauer have announced the closure of NW (formerly New Woman) and First, after a month's consultation following on from their purchase from Emap. The womens' market in the UK seems to shrink by the month. And people wonder why I moved to New York?

Happy blogday to me!
2008-03-10 20:29:00
Utterly bloody hell. I missed my first blogday. I knew it was somewhere in March, but have been so busy & wrapped up in work that I simply forgot to check. Anyway it was 08 March that I made my first New York entry here. Intended just as a record of my time in New York, (I also had a plan to log what I wore every day, in addition to my activities here in Manhattan, but I only kept this up for a few weeks, before I got bored with my wardrobe), it's led to so much more, and I have had a fabulous year discovering the blogosphere. For several months I just wrote away, gaining a modest amount of traffic, generated mostly by my friends back in London. And then I started to click through comments, a few people tagged me, JSL introduced me to Statcounter in May so I could track who was reading me and, almost overnight, it felt like I had joined the fashion blog community. I've made some fabulous virtual friends, with whom I correspond regularly. As one of my oldest friends lives in Sydne...
More About: Happy

Cycle heaven
2008-03-07 19:36:00
I love my bicycle with a deep and desperate passion, and am rarely happier than when I am bowling along the streets of Manhattan on a fresh spring day. As I work from home, a bike meshes perfectly with my lifestyle, & it's only occasionally that there is a sartorial problem. (I'm pretty good at cycling in heels now, but have to admit that not only do I fear helmet hair, I hate my boy-racer helmet too.)Yesterday morning I was doing errands on Free Spirit (I didn't choose the name, it's emblazoned on the crossbar). First to Union Square for a spot of brand consultancy, and then down to Soho to pull some shoes for a lookbook I was styling in the afternoon. As I was departing the shoe store with two big bags of shoes, I mentioned that I was on my bike. The store manager raised a metaphorical eyebrow, and in a voice tinged with patronage said, "A bicycle? How...cute." I am starting to realise that, unlike London, where it is seen as positively cool to rock up on a bike, here it's se...
More About: Heaven , Cycle