Paris Men's Fashion Week Spring 2012....Emily

Beautiful Australian actress (Sleeping Beauty, Sucker Punch), Emily Browning, in Dior outside of the Dior Homme show.

Paris Fashion Week AW 2011

Paris Fashion Week AW 2011...Alana

Alana Zimmer after Zac Posen.

Paris Men's Fashion Week Spring 2012

After Yohji Yamamoto

Hypno-Toad

This guy was hanging out on the fence outside my office this morning when I came in this morning. It was still dark, so I grabbed him and brought him inside for a quick photoshoot. Of course, it wasn't much lighter in my office, so that explains the really narrow depth of field you see here (and the reflection of the fluorescent lights overhead). But for the most part, that big gold eye is in focus. Gotta love that macro lens!  For a sense of scale, here, I doubt if that eyeball is more than an eighth of an inch in diameter.

Half Past Christmas (A Bit More)

I guess my share of a small red 7" for Christmas-And-A-Half was a little bit chintzy.  I mean, there must be hundreds, if not thousands, of small blogs like this one, sharing out all sorts of great Christmas music on this halfway point between one Christmas and the next.  So I wanted to bring you a little something more.  How about a slightly larger red 10" record?  Problem is, this one is a bit of a mystery.  I found it in a small church-run thrift shop in Gibsonton, a small circus town maybe 45 minutes north of my house.  All I found was the vinyl.  There was no sleeve, no artist name, no tracklisting, nothing but a piece of red vinyl.  But it turned out to be some nicely performed, well-recorded, acapella Christmas songs.  (Well, I think there's piano on one of them, but most are unaccompanied.)  Thirteen of the fifteen tracks are the usual suspects, but there were two songs on here I'd not heard before.  One of them appears to be a round that dates back a few years but isn't usually related to Christmas.  The other one, I have no idea, but it's nice.  If anybody can put a name to these artists, I'd appreciate it.  I'm sure you'll enjoy it.  This is Voices Of Christmas (No Number, 10" 33RPM Red Vinyl, Mono).

1. Adeste Fidelis
2. I Wonder As I Wander
3. Thou Little Tiny Child
4. We Three Kings
5. Christmas Is A-Comin'
6. It's Christmas Time Again
7. Hi Ho Anybody Home
8. O Holy Night
9. Good King Wenceslas
10. Jingle Bells
11. Carol Of The Bells
12. White Christmas
13. In Excelsis Deo
14. Silent Night
15. The Twelve Days Of Christmas

RapidShare
MegaUpload
MediaFire
Uploading.com

Enjoy!

Half Past Christmas

Well, here we are, half past last Christmas and half way to next Christmas.  Some people like to call it Christmas and a half, but I just call it my birthday.  I've been neglecting the poor old blog a bit lately, but I'm trying to get back into it.  In that spirit, here's a little share get me in the posting spirit and to get you into the Christmas spirit.  It's a little red 7" single I found a while back.  Nothing special, but perhaps it will fit the bill if you're looking for a bit of Christmas spirit.  Please help yourself to a copy of The Royale Orchestra And Singers-Songs For Christmas (Royale EP 701, 7" 45 RPM Red Vinyl, Mono).

1. Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer
2. Frosty The Snow Man
3. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
4. Here Comes Santa Claus

RapidShare
MegaUpload
MediaFire
Uploading.com

From the info on the back of this sleeve, there are several other 7" EPs in this Christmas series.  I'll have to seek those out and maybe give you the whole set someday.  Or I'm sure there's a 12" LP out there someday with all the same tunes on it.

Paris Fashion Week AW 2011....Anne-Catherine

Anne-Catherine. After Hermès.
Love this girl!
Find her blog here.

London Fashion Week AW 2011...Before Christopher Kane

Love those brogues!

Paris Fashion Week AW 2011....Before Miu Miu

Clara for Grazia.it

Miss Clara Gomez, Fashion Illustrator, for Grazia.it.
You can read Clara's interview with Grazia.it here. Find out where she finds inspiration for her illustrations and her favourite shopping address in London.
I first met Clara way back in 2009. I was wandering around Notting Hill on a Saturday trying to find people to photograph for the blog when I came across a girl sitting in the window of the Diane von Furstenberg store surrounded by coloured pencils, pretty trays of paint and brushes. Like a bowerbird attracted to all those bright, shiny things, I stood for a little while watching her.....she was illustrating customers in the outfits they had just purchased. Fascinated, I asked the manager if I could take some quick photographs of Clara while she worked on her beautiful drawings. He (I think it was a he!) said yes, and that was how I came to know Clara :)
Clara is one of those people who has so much good energy (I think being Spanish helps!) and is such a pleasure to be around. And she is a talented fashion illustrator as well. You can find her work here and on her website here. Clara was commissioned to illustrate the booklet that went with the Spanish edition of "The September Issue" dvd as well as the costume that Robbie Williams wore in the video You Know Me.
And Clara's style? Vintage all the way baby! When I walked into her room it was like walking into a well curated vintage store. Long dresses and 70's style trousers hanging from a rail suspended from the ceiling; necklaces, bracelets and rings spilling prettily out of her dressing table; vintage handbags nestled next to winter coats. And of course on the walls were framed prints of Clara's illustrations.
Clara's dress in the first photographs is vintage from Paper Dress Vintage in Shoreditch, teamed with Office heels, American Apparel hat and jewellery from Spitalfields market.
Her tank top is from Topshop, the denim skirt is a vintage one procured from her mum (she used to wear it in the 80's!) and her shoes are from Urban Outfitters.
How crazy good is her hair?! And her smile :)
Dress she picked up at a vintage store in Amsterdam while she was there for a music festival last year.
p.s. you can click on the collages to make them slightly bigger.

Paris Fashion Week AW 2011....Karolina

Karolina Kurkova after Emanuel Ungaro (above) and Isabel Marant (below).

New York Fashion Week AW 2011

New York City, February 2011

New York City, February 2011.

Look away now if*:

a) you don't want to see an indulgently long post of NYC travel photos (I'm sneaking this post in on a Sunday to give me more of an excuse-weekends are for self-indulgence;);

b) you are sweltering in NYC and don't want to be reminded of the slightly cooler weather in Feb.

If not, read on!

I was over in NYC for fashion week in February and snuck in a little bit of time for some sightseeing. Highlights from this trip?

Crunching through the snow in central park on a very cold afternoon followed by drinks at the beautiful Oak Bar in the Plaza Hotel. (Weirdest, most "I don't want to look but I can't look away" moment was when we were in Central Park and a red-tailed hawk nabbed a squirrel for supper.eep!);

Watching the Super Bowl at Oliver's Bar&Grill in the West Village (boo to jet-lag);

Awesome coffee at Stumptown Coffee Roasters in the Ace hotel. Thanks to the guy (who will probably never see this!) who let me take his photo with the coffee cup. I first came across Stumptown roasters when they had a pop-up coffee bar in Amsterdam last year so it was nice to experience the full Stumptown experience in NYC.

Wandering through Mario Batali's Eataly and picking up provisions for dinner;

Lunch at Momofuku Ssam Bar in the East Village. The steamed pork buns and bbq rib sandwich were incredible;

Brooklyn Farmacy&Soda Fountain (see the retro photos above) in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. Wish we had something like this in London. Followed by a brisk stroll along the Brooklyn Heights Promenade to take in the view of lower Manhattan;

Coffee at Tom's Restaurant (had to do the Seinfeld experience at least once ;)

Watching the ice-skating at The Rockefeller Centre;

Chocolate chip cookies from Levain bakery on the Upper West Side; Warm, gooey goodness;

Breakfast at Bubby's in Tribeca followed by a wander around Tribeca (is Robert De Niro in Tribeca the equivalent of Rick Stein in Padstow?!);

Walking from the East Village to Columbus circle- best way to experience a city is to walk it

*I realised when I was typing this that if you have got this far, you will have seen the whole post anyway ;)