My mother never owned a car so when I was a child all the holidays we made involved a train journey. Even if trains were slower than now - and believe me, where I live now trains are actually still very slow... - I rembember how much I enjoyed those trips.
I still love trains. Planes are faster, practical but trains have a familiar dimension I like. Of course, there are certain trains I like more...the ones where the familiar dimension is replaced by the luxurious (and pricey) experience.
One of these is certainly The Orient Express, expecially the Venice Simplon one, which criss cross European frontiers with its historic carriages and over the top restaurant. The extended route ran from Paris - or even London - to Istanbul, but I would be ok just (!) with a Venice to Istanbul decadent journey. Murder-less, s'il vous plait ;-)
When I first heard the new Chanel N°5 commercial (a short film, indeed) would have been set on this train, shot by Jean Pierre Jeunet and played by Audrey Tautou and with Billie Holiday as soundtrack, I was pretty excited and now it's a relieff to say that I adore the whole thing. Except the perfum, which I've always disliked, but that's just a side note!
Here's the making of...
...and here's the long version of the commercial, called Train de Nuit
Note to self: save enough money for an Orient Express ticket before...2039?!
Finally it's May, my favorite month. Hoping in a month of warm temperatures (yesterday was 22/24 °C here) and sun, happy mood and fun. I also hope to be able to post more often from today on :-)
Yesterday I went for a little tour at the local market and I unexpectly found a lot of nice things. I ended buying a pair of nice tops and now, looking at my closets, I must say I don't really need anything else. Except a pair of pants, but that's another story...!
I also bought a new wonderful vintage 50s dress last week trought Etsy; I'm still waiting for it but I already virtually added it to the wardrobe and I can't wait to receive it. It's killing me that I can't post "homemade" pictures of my outfits, buys, etc...as I wrote before my pc is dead at 50% and don't recognize any hardware connected to it (today I discovered I can't even update my Ipod!!). By the way you can see the dress in the pic below, which come directly from the Etsy listing. My hair looks quite the same at the moment, so it can give you an idea too!
And just in case I'm gonna hit the jackpot this week, this is what's currently in my shopping wish list
A pair of bright colored relaxed or peg leg pants like these . A striped t-shirt, black and white with thick stripes. A grey pencil skirt, here . These earrings. This top or similar juicy frilly blouses. A straw hat, really ladylike, classic or in an unusual shade. A black oversized "rock" bag to pair with my sweet outfits. This one my favorite.
these two gorgeous vintage dresses ( here and here , click the pics to see the amazing embroidery) which are slightly beyond my budget...but maybe they're ok for yours, so please: go and buy them!!!
Last but not least, I really want a 50s/60s black handbag . They're so chic and they make me immediately think at Vertigo and almost all the Hitchcock movies...
I discovered Fashion Tale magazine some months ago and I suddenly felt it is not like any other.
This Swedish (once again Swedish stands for cool...) publication is all about fashion...without words. Yes, you don't need to speak Swedish, English, French or any other language cause is all about pictures here!
The first issue was full of beautiful photos and nice styled fashion editorials but what really captured me was the second issue, entirely dedicated to fashion illustration. It's like playing with paper dolls: real outfits presented on paper made models! Something à la Fifi Lapin , with a scandinavian touch ;-)
The illustrations are almost all pretty cool; my favorites the ones by Annelie Carlstrom (you probably remind her work was also featured on an H&M Divides tees collection last year)
and by Liselotte Watkins. Her girls always make think of Egon Schiele...
Save the date: the Spring/Summer issue will be released worlwide on mid May. The whole issue will also be available on line then. I'm really curious to know what this new issue will be about!
I bet a lot of you are excited for the upcoming HBO Grey Gardens that will be aired tonight in the US.
I'm excited, for sure. But once again, as the first time I saw the original documentary from 1976, I'm a bit sad and melancholic. The whole story of Grey Gardens makes me feel melancholic indeed.
For the two or three of you who don't know what I'm talking about, the documentary called Grey Gardens is a "non fiction-features" by the Maysles brothers.
Shot in six week in the mid seventies, it depicts the everyday life of Edith "Big Edie" Ewing Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edith "Little Edie" Bouvier Beale, respectively the aunt and first cousin of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. As high society drops out, the two women chose to live together at Grey Gardens, their now decadent, almost decrepit mansion of East Hampton (the home had been purchased for Big Edie in 1923, when it still had one of the finest gardens on the East Coast), in total squalor and almost total isolation.
The Maysles movie became a cult and during the 70s, when the inspectors from Health Department raided the house and discovered that it violated every known regulation, saying they would evict the women unless the house was cleaned, the whole story of Jackie O's relatives became a national scandal. This "forced" Jackie herself to came to the rescue, saving the Edies from the eviction order and the whole family from any further embarassment...
Big Edie died in 1977 and the house was sold by Little Edie in 1979. She moved to Florida and lived there since 2002, when she too died, alone.
The story of Big and Little Edie became a musical and now, in 2009, a - judging by trailers - really glamorous tv movie featuring Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore.
Grey Gardens has been completely restored by the new owners.
What was once a grand summer residence has been reduced to a fortress of fleas, feral cats, and filth, the gardens long gone to seed and Big Edie and Little Edie confined to just a few of the twenty-eight rooms.
Together they invent a world with their house as a stage where life’s disappointments and pleasures are recycled into riveting performances.
Certain stories are fascinating, appealing yet disturbing and this is surely one of them. Looking at the movie(s), the pictures and all the Grey Gardens paraphernalia, I really feel like an intruder. There's something "wrong" in watching them, something "immoral" in declaring your appreciation. Maybe it's only me and it is due to the fact that I grew up in an ancient mansion which in a certain way reminds me of Grey Gardens: full of history, stories and disappointed expectations. But for me it's a really strong feeling!
Below are the trailers of the Maysles brothers documentary and of HBO movie. This last one use the documentry as a framework, focusing on the lives of the Edies long before their late days at Grey Gradens. A new point of view on the story.
Hope to hear your comments about this new version soon...
EDIT: you may also take a look at the revamped Grey Gardens Online website :-)
In my last post I wrote about a stylish 8 years old boy, so today I decided to write about a slightly older lady. Last year I told you about the magnificent Iris Apfel and in the past months, thanks to Advanced Style too, a lot of bloggers have posted photos of super stylish elderly ladies.
Is well known that style has not an age and in the same way is well known that Zelda Kaplan is an amazing style icon.
Maybe is not to polite to reveal her age, but I can't help, cause she's 92 years old and she has surely more energy than the 28 Y.O. me...!
Miss Kaplan is a New York night life queen who wakes up in the afternoon and several times per week parties all night long, till dawn, wearing her statement self made outfits that always involves beehive style hats, big round sunglasses and a mix of african printed patterns. But there's more than this, cause Zelda Kaplan is not only a notorious party girl, an artist's muse and a licensed ballroom dance instructor, she's also a wise gal with a social conscience who more than twenty years ago, inspired by the anthropologist Margaret Mead, founded her own one member (!) organization - the World Culture Society - and since that has travelled continuosly to Africa, visiting the smallest villages of Ghana, Ethiopia and Nigeria to raise African women about their rights, birth control and about the danger of sexual mutilations.
There's a nice video about Zelda Kaplan here (sorry I've tried to embed it directly, but it seems not to work here).
"I want to be an example for young people so they aren't afraid of growing old and a lesson to old people that you can be productive. You don't have to sit around and wait for death" she said.
So, ok, I definitely have to change my plans of going to bed at 10 pm today and manage to be A LOT more productive...
And once again every thing which is connected with this show fascinate me, expecially when fashion and style are involved. So it was a real pleasure to read this interview to Janie Bryant, Mad Men costume designer, discovering she's a pretty young lady who loves high waisted skinny jeans and Lycra leggings and that she will probably launches her own line anytime soon...
But what, or better "who", totally won me over is this 8 years old boy
His name's Arlo Weiner and he's the son of Matt Weiner, creator of Mad Men and - wow - he has a weirdly impeccable style! And if skinny pants are a must for Bryant, he declares jeans are definitely "not his thing".
I think I have a crush ;-)
Read more of Arlo Wiener here and here , on L'armadio del delitto, a wonderful, smart and thought provoking blog wrote in French and Italian.
Oh my, a two weeks hiatus is never a good thing! I'm really sorry...I had a family emergency and a dead pc to deal with: not a really great time indeed and I missed so much my blog and you(rs)! I hope to be definitely back on a regular basis from now on, even if my pc is still almost dead (i.e. I still can't connect anything but my Ipod to it..).
Oh, and I had to put my comments under moderation for a while due to a crazy spammer...I know a lot of you are having the same problem with this person. I reported the thing to Blogger and I really hope they will be able to stop him.
