if life went the way it was played out in my head, about this time i would have had the absolutely horrid task of deciding just which new years eve parties i would attend tonight, out of the stack of invites that have been pilling up next to all those art books ive been meaning to look through.
but i am a complete fantasist & will instead be at home tonight, watching old french films & drinking champagne with my loon mother. [really shes not so loony, it just sounds more tragic that way] and if i was to go to all those fabulous, fabulous parties i would very well be donning either one of these gorgeous, todiefor outfits;
shopping list two; dress : mui mui : net-a-porter knee socks : sparkle & fade ruffle : urban outfitters nail varnish : OPI russian collection in siberian nights : opi.com shoes : ASOS Premium : asos.com hat : bird on the wire : urban outfitters purse : birdy num num : asos.com
on a side note; that roland mouret opera coat is my favourite piece shown here. so divine. i just love it. reminds me very much of the one róisín murphy wore in her elle uk spread a few months back. i may have to break down & purchase it for myself. a little new years gift never hurt.
recently i have become OBSESSED with all things swedish; swedish street style, swedish fashion blogs, swedish popstars [robyn & lykke li, anyone?! - more to come from them later] ikea, h&m, cheapmonday, etc. etc. i've even added stockholm to my (very) long list of places i must visit before i die.
and after days of obsessively scrolling through many of their fabulous blogs i have spotted a recurring trend among the most fashionable of swedish girls - they all seem to favour the ballet bun, worn high atop their heads. its tres chic, effortless, & looks gorgeous paired with those gigantic scarfs they love wrapping multiple times around their necks.
now all i need is that plane ticket & a long overdue major shopping spree at h&m. oh, & longer hair...
ps. my hair appointment - ala alexa chung - has been scheduled for this wednesday! i'm excited. guess that longer hair thing isnt really going to work out.
the cobrasnake hasnt been this fab [or inspiring] in months! alexa chung, the like, aggy & that one girl whom im thinking is the gorgeous valentine fillol cordier? [please, correct me if i am wrong] but really it doesnt get much more hipster chic than this.
ps. new haircut ala alexa chung. what do you think?
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presents, presents, presents!
clockwise from left; american apparel melange mustard skirt*, oxford laceup booties*, mini daisy perfume, opi nail lacquer in 'need sunglasses?'*, mini fresh sugar lip gloss in sugar fairy, rosebud salve brambleberry lip balm*, marc jacobs daisy gift set & train case*, nine west envelope bag*, cheetah ballet flats, 'the beautiful fall' by alicia drake**, 'secrets of the model dorm' by amanda kerlin, dolce & gabbana 'the one' roll on perfume, almost famous dvd**, erin fetherston cosmic bunny print tee*, black & yellow tights
*my favourites **two of my favourites received from my lovely mate, patrice
early christmas presents;
chocolates, martin margiela MM6 tote (!), knit pompom hat [from my brother, the artist, who also painted a canvas for me], francais vogue with calendar & H&M magazine.
after a long & disappointing week, with no money to buy gifts & my holiday trip being cancelled, these two holiday videos from goldfrapp could not have come at a better time;
a little strange? yes. crazy, weird, & sometimes also a bit confusing, but it's what we've come to expect (& love) from the two. they really know just how to make me feel better. thank you alison & will. frappy holidays everyone ;]
will be back soon, after chirstmas, with a list of all the fabulous presents i receive.
dont drink too much champagne or eat too many chocolates!
you can pause the main music by scrolling to the very bottom of the page
I live in London most of the time, but sometimes I live in Ireland. If I'm in the countryside, down in Wicklow, I might not get up until 11am. It's absolutely quiet there and it's pitch black because we've got these blackout blinds; it's almost womb-like. But on a normal day I get up at 9.30am. I live with my boyfriend, Simon Henwood. I'll roll on down and go into his library. He's an artist and his library is full of art books. He has 25,000 books. On a good day, he'll make me coffee and on a really good day, I'll get a coffee and I'll get the lectern put in front of me with a book on top of it and I get to look at paintings.
I always thought I would study art. A year before I met Mark Brydon -- he was the one I used to make all the music with in Moloko -- I was living in Sheffield with a guy who was studying architecture. I used to go to his college and crash the lectures there. I had enrolled to do a fine art course, but then I met Mark and we signed a record deal instead.
With Moloko, we tried to be the opposite of what was out there at the time. I like to be different. In the mid Nineties, music was quite dour and serious and everything was dressed down. So we went the other way. Our first record was about not wanting to do four-to-the-floor dance music. If I had gone to art college and everybody was being a conceptual artist, I probably would have wanted to be a portrait or landscape painter.
Right now, my average day is waking up on the tour bus, going straight in, doing some interviews, a sound check and then the gig.
There's nothing glamorous about touring -- the art work is where the glamour is. Touring is about going into this impossibly mundane situation. When we walk into the venue for the gig to do the sound check during the day and all the lights are on, you see that the place is filthy. But then, in those hours between the sound check and the gig, everything begins to transform itself through lights and music and atmosphere, and through the gathering together of people -- then it does become impossibly glamorous.
It's weird, because you can be really tired and you can still do a better gig than you might have done if you were really fresh. You almost have to be tired. It's a mixture of adrenalin and programming which goes on throughout a tour. You have to do it every night for it to really happen. I love performance, but I'm quite happy making videos as well, and I'm inordinately happy writing songs.
Years ago, a day in my life would have been waking up in the band straight away because I was right beside the guy who was in the band, Mark, my then boyfriend. Back then, there wasn't any sense of careerism and there was no emphasis on me being the star. There was only the natural exuberance of what I did. We had an extremely open-minded and experimental approach to making music. It wasn't all about me and now it kind of is. In some ways, I enjoy being on my own more because I have more control and I can tailor it to what my strengths are. Moloko was about a relationship and experimenting musically. We put everything into a melting pot to see what would come out. But now I'm on my own. The most important things have stayed the same -- my mentality, my moral outlook, my sense of individualism and my own expression of creativity. But when I start talking about this, I sound like I'm talking shit.
In Arklow, we used to have sing-songs at home at the drop of a hat. When I was nine I sang Don't Cry for Me Argentina for my family and then I was sorry that I ever did. They used to run after me in the middle of the night, asking me to sing it. I'd hide but they'd say things like, 'Ah, sing it. Your grandmother might die.' They'd put all this guilt on me and I was really embarrassed. Uncle Jim, my Auntie Linda's husband, was a real musician and a massive inspiration. He played in several bands and the whole family would go to see him play in his jazz band in Wicklow every Sunday. Nobody in my family realised I had that much talent in music. I didn't even get picked for the choir in school. I hope my teacher is reading this. She knows who she is.
We all loved Madonna. When I think back on it now, as a gang of girls in Arklow, we used to roll around the streets singing Like a Virgin. The ironic part was that we weren't like virgins, we were virgins.
One day I went up town and used my pocket money to get my hair cut. I had lovely, long blonde hair and I got a flat-top like a marine. My father cried his eyes out when he saw it. I was nine.
Music has always been huge in my life. When I was 14 I found my own niche. I went to a Sonic Youth gig with some friends and I became obsessed by music -- buying records, going to gigs and hanging around with people who had similar interests. It helped me form strong bonds with people who got me through the next few years of my parents splitting up and my mum going back to Ireland and me staying in Manchester. I wouldn't have had those friends without that music.
An hour before I go on stage, I put on my make-up and tong my hair while listening to philosophy lectures by this guy called Daniel Robinson, who is the head of philosophy at Georgetown University, in the US. It's the history of philosophy and of human folk. Some might be about Newton or Aristotle or Plato.
When I'm on stage, it's about being the best person you could possibly be. You're as open as you can be and you're probably as beautiful as you can be, because you're accepting yourself for what you are. I could never say I don't like attention because I'm obviously up there getting attention. It's what I do. It's my vocation. As a performer, you are there to give and receive.
After a gig, I'll have a glass of champagne, relax, clean up and then get on the tour bus. There are 14 of us on the bus. It doesn't have a shower, but it has a toilet that stinks to high heaven. Then I always watch Star Trek before going to my bunk.
The only place you can be alone is your bunk -- it has a curtain around it and is surprisingly comforting. I do dream when I'm on tour. I tend to have more sexy dreams. You're moving so maybe there's something going on with all that friction.
-- róisín murphy
oh, ms. murphy! how i adore you! i seriously, seriously, am in love with this woman.
un. my ipod never ever leaves my side. i take it with me everywhere. it's with me from the moment i wake up until the moment i go to sleep. obviously, i love music. music is my boyfriend. music is my hot hot sex. i don't know what i would do without it. my tastes vary from jazz to house to disco to opera to (european) pop to indie. music sets the mood for everything - a little jazz for a bubble bath, some house for dinner parties & some deep trance for a late night drive with friends. it's one of the the best feelings in the world. current musical obsession : róisín murphy. but i'm sure most all of you are already very much aware of that.
deux. i love the smell of bookshops. the mix of new books, just printed glossy magazines, coffee & cigarettes from the people smoking outside is my favourite. even better, if it's winter & the wonderful cold air is blowing about.
trois. i am addicted to vintage clothes. i love that when you buy a vintage piece you are almost always certain that no one else will have something just exactly like it. & i am all for originality. plus the joy of finding a great vintage designer piece is almost more rewarding than splurging on this seasons must have. too bad, though, that we have hardly any vintage shops worthy speaking of here. but i have had quite a few amazing finds downtown at the flea markets on weekend mornings. if only i lived closer to portobello road. flatmates, anyone?
quatre. i love the nighttime, the night life, clubs, late night parties, late night drives. [see number one] late night room service, late night anything really. i love it. everything is better at night. i am always, always up late - it's 3 in the morning now, even as i write this. as for mornings, well that's a totally different story...
cinq. i don't drive. i always get weird looks when i tell someone i am 18 & still don't own a car & still have never even taken a drivers ed class. but as i plan to move to nyc next year, i really wont be needing one & arent bikes so much chic-er, anyways? i think so. getting a brand new BMW sweet 16 style is so overrated. when i turned 16 i got a trip to paris. you decide.
six. if music & vintage clothes are my first addictions, fashion magazines cannot be far behind. if i had the choice between spending my lunch money on food or the newest issue of V, i would most definitely choose V. there's no question. i have stacks & stacks, bookshelf upon bookshelf filled with them. i can never seem to throw away any, for fear i'll lose something amazing that i might have looked over, the millionth time i'd scanned through it. every month i get so excited to see the new ones & what gorgeous photographs, products & tips will be inside. theres nothing like arriving home after a hard day to find a shimmering new issue placed in your post box.
sept. i religiously check photography blogs. obvious party favourites being the the cobrasnake- i even have my very own collection of cobra tees- & lastnightsparty. because theres nothing like seeing all those fabulous photos from all the fabulous parties you've been missing. they do offer somewhat of fashion inspiration every now & then. which brings me to my other adoration - street style blogs. ie. the face hunter & the sartorialist. talk about some fabulous style inspiration there! ♥ new favourites include : dirtydirtydancing & streetpeeper.
love, A.
if you want to see what i keep stored in my bag - check out mash from le book's latest post. i'm being featured!
& also a merci grand to deak for his help with my gorgeous collage
i've been tagged! & who knew it would be so hard to come up with 7 interesting facts about yourself. while im self-reflecting & working on that [hopefully it will be up within the next day or so] have a look at this fab, slightly older, book i found online while on hintmag.com. i thought it would tie in perfectly with the poloroid camera i'm asking for on my christmas list.
What is it about Polaroids that makes them so enduringly endearing? How do those white-bordered, air-dried little squares endow the fuzzy faces inside with such glammy glow? Is it the intimacy, the immediacy, the DIY vibe? Any way you blow on it, Ezra Petronio taps into the magic with Bold & Beautiful, a new book of Polaroid portraits of the creatives who've entered the sphere of his Self Service magazine.
as i was taking my routine bubblebath the other night, listening to my mix of jazz classics & house dance anthems, charlotte gainsbourg's 5:55 suddenly filled the room & i couldnt help but get all excited about her much anticipated guest edited edition of parisian vogue,
ive seen quite a few scans floating around on thefashionspot & as each new one pops up, i am amazed at how much better it is than the last. seriously, each editorial is amazing & i am only sharing with you a few [repeat that - few] of my very favourites. because there is so much more, you might just have to spend all the last of your change -from that certain shoe splurge at saks- to get your own copy.
& if that isnt enough, the issue also comes along with a calendar (!) so you can have the beauty of parisian vogue hanging on your wall all year long.
now, if only american vogue could put out something like this. new years resolution, anna? perhaps you should have brunch with carine more often. it might do more good than you would think.
& an adorable present for a certain mate of mine. i would post a picture but i'm afraid she might see ;] oh & it's so cute too! i want to keep it for myself.
every few months, i find myself infatuated with a new editorial. lately these seem to have been delivered by the always avant-garde W magazine. gotta love those big pages. the last to catch my innate attention was Mert & Marcus''Into The Woods' styled by Alex White [August 2007], which featured a gorgeous Doutzen Kroes lost in the woods, wearing only gigantic bows & extravagant furs. in one word, it was amour. i immediately ripped out every page & posted them on my wall.
which is exactly what i am plan to do with my latest infatuation. Craig McDean's 'Topsy-Turvy'. styled yet again by Alex White. i seem to have a thing for this Alex White. but, really, the photos speak for themselves.
models: Raquel Zimmermann & Suvi Koponen. December 2007 issue.
the colour scheme is perfection. i'm loving all the comme des garcons, the prada, the black & white viktor & rolf heels...i could go on & on.
