This Is an Emergency Call!

This is officially an obsession, so I think I'll share it with my faithful readers too...!

Two years ago, when I was in New York, I bought a small bottle of White Tea Body Mist from The Healing Garden and I fell in love with this fresh and flowery fragrance.


Sadly it was a really short love story, cause when I came back to Italy and looked for more White Tea I suddendly discovered that this line from The Healing Garden is not available anywhere: neither in stores, nor online. Apparently at today it is discontinued or something even in US...
I searched on American websites and from international Ebay sellers, and I saw some stores still carry this item, but again none of them ship to Italy :-( (Maybe...could someone here buy it for me...?!)

I'm really desperate: it's not a diamond I'm looking for, it's just a stupid cheap small bottle of White Tea Body Mist and this is really painful!

The Healing Garden calls it "comforting body mist". Well, I need to be comforted...

Places/Non-Places

Sorry for the absence...I've been away visiting family and friends and I was so lucky these days looked like late Spring. I've been visiting again the place where I lived for five years, during University and it was so heartbreaking in a certain way! I mean, same places, same people but oh so many different things and, most of all I knew I had to come back to where is my (small) place now...so painful! I so want to come back living in a city...I so want want to take some holiday weekend at least...

I took pictures, but unfortunately when I came back home and tried to connect my camera to my old pc something went wrong and now I can't connect anything (camera, scanner, etc.) to it! I definitely need a new computer, but it surely takes me a while to save up the money, and this means no photos from me for now.

All this made me think at a photographic series I found some time ago on Flickr. (Life With) Maggie is still (I suppose) a work in progress from Ofer Wolberger, New York based photographer.


I suddenly fell in love with the pictures of this masked girl, often alone, photographed during what looks like an "intimate road trip" through places and non-places .



From (Life With) Maggie Flickr page:

"Within today's predominantly visual culture, photography is a powerful vehicle with which to examine complex notions of beauty and identity as well as conflicts of self-perception and individuality.
Maggie has a unique style and personality. She travels around the contemporary world, but is attracted to sites with a slippery sense of time. Like the typical tourist, Maggie poses in front of objects and environments that suit her temperament, befriends the local people and visits iconic historical sites. Throughout her journey, Maggie collects memorable snapshots for her archive, in a sense constructing an
identity through the photographs. At a time when so many people are obsessed with constructing online identities through social networks like MySpace and Facebook, Maggie is out in the physical world attempting to understand how and where she fits in."



Someone commented that Maggie looks like she's from another era and she's traveling in time, trying to fit or at least to find her place in spaces there are not hers.


Ok, this is how I feel right now...

Gothic Empresses

While dreaming of the marvellous collar necklaces of Marni Fall 2009 (DIY! DIY! DIY!), I found Katherine Woodropper's website and whoa...her work is amazing!



Her creations are truly unique, she has a sculptural approch to fabric and her jewelry creations made of silk ribbons, Swarowski cristals and beads are not flat 2D pieces but there are movement and life in her patterns!




Her inspiration come from fairytales and costume design, from wedding cakes, Victorian Lace and bejewelled snowflakes and her wonderfully dramatic collars clearly remind of Elizabethan ruffs but in a timeless and ethereal way.



I want them all!

Make Up Follies

As per usual the makeup presented during the fashion weeks is so various there's always something for everyone! Though my everyday makeup consists on eyeliner only (sometimes is eyeliner+lipstick, red or purple preferably) I admit sometimes I'd like to try different things, so today I was looking again at the beauty details from the Spring 2009 catwalks searching for inspiration.

Aquascutum, John Galliano, Blugirl


Of course some looks are a bit "too much" for a day at work or even for a night out (or at least my nights out!), but mixing and matching there are lil details I would gladly give a try, like the geisha lips à la Galliano, the ultra pink cheeks seen on Blugirl models, the porcelain skin with glossy red lips at Vuitton...

Miu Miu, Viktor&Rolf, Louis Vuitton


I really like Diane Von Furstenberg modern-hippie-with-strong-eyes girl


and I'm a bit skeptical about the eyebrows choices Marc Jacobs and Marni did(God, one thing I don't like from Marni, finally!)...interesting on a catwalk, but probably not so fascinating on real women!



Then, my favorites: the ethereal makeup/messy hair/feather fascinators combo at the Kenzo show


and the amazing, wonderful, literally eyecatching teal/turquoise smocky eyes by Pat McGrath for Gucci.


Holiday skin is required for this look, so I probably shouldn't try to reproduce it on me, but just in case I found this useful video tutorial on YouTube :-)



All images are from Style.com and Elle. Click on them to enlarge :-)

Glamorous Heads

If you're a regular reader here, you should know how much I love hats, expecially the vintage ones, so I was very sad when I heard one of my favorite Etsy stores, Hat Vantage , was closing down...


Specialized in wonderful glamourous hats from past decades, all in great conditions and at a very reasonable price, Hat Vantage is a dream!




During the last days I visited several times the store, trying to choose my favorite hat and today in the shop announcements I read a good news: Hat Vantage will not close down but it will just be reorganized under a new management.



Yay! This means there will be more eye candies (head candies...?!) to come in the future!!

Keiko Morimoto

I love the work of Keiko Morimoto , japanese-London based illustrator.






How beautiful are these dolls? They're made of papier maché and are Keiko's hobby. "She makes them whenever she feels inspired": cool!

The Queen Of The Bias Cut

Last week came the news that Matteo Marzotto, former president of Valentino, and Gianni Castiglioni, CEO of Marni, have acquired the label of Vionnet planning to relaunch it with a preview in Milan, next June and a real start up during the Paris Fashion Week in October. The collection will be designed by Rodolfo Paglialunga, former designer of Prada.


Madeleine Vionnet was born into a poor family in Chilleurs-aux-Bois in 1876. She became a dressmaker's apprentice at the age of 11 and after a marriage and a divorce, at the age of 18 she moved to London. She soon came back to Paris, worked for Doucet and open her own house in 1918 in Rue de Rivoli, moving in the 20s to Avenue Montaigne.




Influenced by the Greek art and the Dance of Isadora Duncan, she knew that a draw on paper cannot simulate the feeling of fabric on skin. The keyword was simplicity: she started from classic shapes (circle, rectangle, triangle), transforming them into fluid structures held together by a single seam, without buttons or fastenings. Her dresses flowed on the body accentuating the natural shapes instead of molding them, perfectly representing the fluidity of motion.
She used unusual fabrics for 20s/30s such gabardine, satin and her favorite, silk crepe Romain, accomodating them to creat luxurious yet simple draping.

She dominated the haute couture scene of the 30s and was also a pioneer in the fashion industry beiing the first to export ready-to-wear to the United States. Her fashion maison was also impeccably run: there were over 1000 seamstresses and 10 models, nurses and doctors for the workgirls. She was the first to introduce paid holidays and maternity leave too.




She died at the age of 99, on March 2, 1975.
At today she's still known as one of the most influential fashion designers of the 20th century, yet she disliked the fashion world, considering it too frivolous and superficial. Her point of view on female beauty was truly personal and she never betrayed her own ideas.


The parisian historical maison, closed down in 1939, at the beginning of the World War II and had a first brief revival in 2006, with a collection designed by Sophia Kokosalaki first and by an in-house team then, with less than favorable reviews...

"With Vionnet I would like to bring back to life an idea of fashion that is contemporary without forgetting its history" Marzotto said . Will see!

Spring Vibe

So, this ed by Steven Meisel for Vogue US (Feb 09) represents exactly my idea of Spring...fresh, fun, colored...need I say more?!







Look below! ...it's "my" Dries Van Noten sequined/encrusted dress!


From Foto Decadent.