I'm just a sentimental girl, that's all

Boo, it's super drippy today! Yet whilst it's apocolypse now out of the windows, it's adorably content in the hibernation station. The satsuma feline fluffball has been fondling fake acorns & cat napping infront of the fire all hours of the day, poached egg on wholemeal toast has made me chirpy and the christmas twinkles are giving me epileptic fits, which is possibly the whole point of tacky christmas o'clock, so why not. I was planning on getting some breeze in my cheeks today, perhaps take clementine the bicycle for a jaunt and take a few outfit post photographs and if I fancied Mary Poppins blowing down the road chic I would have.

So aside from being best friends with my duvet, stroking cat's and devouring after eights (such a hard life) I've been on a crusade to watch as much tacky, tasteless and marshmallowy television as possible (here's looking at you BBC Three). Mingled with caffeine induced starbucks runs & public hallomi consumption I decided that some thought-proking dvd investment was needed to prise me out of my "laughing at how mental Spencer Pratt got" black hole. Armed with my intent of films that would make people think im clever or something with butch Bruce Willis to make me crazy badass, I chelsea booted my lady parts out into the snow. I returned with ribbons for my hair, a tartan pinafore dress, sushi and cheap lady friendly films. Oh dear, Bruce Willis would shame on me.

In a similar way to how street style tends to inspire me and I perhaps find the street fashion and FROW outfits during fashion week just as enthralling as the shows, I think television and film can heavily influence outfit choices and can make trends more accessible to little ladies like myself. Fashion is all about playing a character sometimes, one day I might want to be a swedish food market prying granny on the lookout for the perfect artichoke, another I might want to be a pom-pom basking schoolgirl cyber punk hiding from teachers whilst having a fag behind the science block. With so much creativity and choice I find it difficult to stick to a trend niche & get a new penchants from unlikely sources, especially with my unfortunate times watching poor daytime schedules of late.

It will become apparant over time how much I am in blood-curdling, head-over-heels adoration for the work of smoothie and general dapper fellow Jean-Luc Godard, the liberator of flawless french 60's suave and esteemed move and shaker of the nouvalle vague movement. Through freeing cinema of previous touchy shackles and introducing the world to the captivating Jean Seberg, Brigitte Bardot, Chantal Goya and personal favourite, Anna Karina, he carved his name into the list of most influential postwar film makers. Steam training straight into cliche-ville, there genuinally is a je ne sais quoi to his beautifully crafted cinematic offerings, even down to the avant garde film posters. Swoon.

 

No matter upon which season I find myself dizzy in, I cannot seem to escape my desires for my uniformed Karina inspired self cut hair, 60's winged eyeliner flicks, dashing lingerie lounging, effortless Parisian Breton stripes, tartan army blazers and cool gang lung cancer acquiring. Nouvelle Vague, translating into "new wave" in English, is exactly what it was, an exhilarating, heart-pounding, dramatic gush of whimsical cigar smoking, pinned beehives, laced peter pan collars, tile print cravats, monochrome seduction, stone shaded turtle necks, plaid pinafores, geometric bold knit dresses, spherical black spectacles, sheer sugary peach bullet bras, blood red hoisery, girly t-bar flats and massive collars. But with this cult swanky fashion tsunami was left ripple marks on the sand of the fashion world and society as a whole, inspiring the future decades to aid new influential trends and movements. With my already sloppy love affair for Smelly-Cheese-Ville and my crippling weakness for dark innocence, when Karina charms in Godard's first colour film "Une Femme Est Une Femme" I couldn't help but attempt to crochet elements of every outfit and the angelic yet provocative theme into my own personal style. Larking around with the contrasts of risque cream sheet adorned love making scenes, nautical inspired racy corsets teamed with pom-pom sailor hat and messy reckless hair under majestic red hues mixes in with splashes of girly ringlets, cheeky schoolgirl plaits, gingham flashes and many a bow.

Multitudes of vampish corals, sexual curiousity, deep narrative and turquoise eyelids erupts together like a fruity fashion crumble to evoke emotion and fancy free dreaming. That's why I got some serious flutters when Peter Jensen's AW 2011 collection was heavily inspired with droplets of Anna Karina, proving that trickles of nouvelle vague have a cemented place in recent trends and collections, luckily enough for a 60's outfit dreamer like myself.

This and my candy-cane addiction to bold coloured preppy at favourite french house Carven, Karina bows at Luella and bold hoisery & collared dresses at Marni shows the scale of influence the delightful era had on the bow ribbon adorning folk like myself. Gaggles of egg-yolk pinafore dresses, camel shaded a-line skirts and innocent tailored collars dazzle the runways and have and forever will capture the understated elegance of the dapper age of rebellion.

 

Luella

Carven

Marni

I've always been moonstruck over the hotel scene in arguably one of Godard's most well known pictures "Breathless" or "A Bout De Souffle" starring dainty, cat eye sunglasses parading Jean Seberg and sophisticated male figurehead for the era Jean-Paul Belmondo. Pixie cropped hair, playful teasing, effortless cool bedroom lounging, cigarette flouncing and incredible sexual tension, the perfect scenario to pursue.
The adorable running theme in Godard's films in the touching vunerability of characters and the ability to be able to sympathise with them when relating back to your own life, he had a real understanding of the beauty of daily life. So to conclude I will leave you lovely beings with a few of my favourite darling quotes from Godards finest. Enjoy your deviant joy in small measures children!

 

"People in the metro always look so sad and lonely" - Bande A Part

"We are unique, dreadfully unique" - Alphaville

"Do as elephants do when they're unhappy, they just disappear" - Breathless

"Can I put my hand there?" - Masculin Feminin

"In love? What's that?" - Alphaville

"I love you, dummy" - Masculin Feminin

"Je t'adore" - Vivre Sa Vie

"You're my splendid bitch, you know that" - Weekend

"I'm shutting my eyes tight so everything goes black, but I can't do it, it's never entirely black" - Breathless

"Away, away says hate, closer, closer says love" - Alphaville

"Anyway, I'm fed up, I want to die" - Vivre Sa Vie

"Women who don't cry should be outlawed" - Une Femme Est Une Femme

"Nothing left but a woman and a man and an ocean of spilled blood" - Masculin Feminin

"Shall I get on my knees?" - Contempt

"She's in a world of her own" - Masculin Feminin

"I love you totally tenderly, tragically"- Contempt

"Life may be sad, but it's always beautiful" - Pierrot Le Fou

"Down with the republic of rat finks" - Masculin Feminin

"Who are you mister, Bob Dylan?" - Masculin Feminin

 

 

"Anyway, I don't think cinema influences youth, we should instead let youth influence cinema" - Jean-Luc Godard

 

And to the man who has inspired me to start smoking a pipe, praise be had.
See you crazy cats in the new year!

 

 

 

 

 

 

jingle all the... nay



Decembrrrrr. It's a chilly one out there guys. There's mitten's in the air, t-bar flat adorning schoolgirls treading on black ice with too heavy a foot, gingerbread houses being flaunted on every gram of social networking and 20-year-old bloggers having to sport 4 pairs of 80 dernier tights to even attempt at touching the sides of slighty thawed (ahem). A/W is like the Jane Lane to my Daria Morgendorffer, the Antoni to my Alison or the pesto to my everything (current food crush agiven). I wouldn't say I have a love hate relationship with A/W's slighty more tanned fluro cousin S/S but I would say that I treat A/W like it's my dirty little secret. Ever since my loving mother dressed me like Vivienne Westwood & Johnny Rotton's sordid love child as a nipper each chilly year and convinced me that cider & blackcurrant was a goth drink, A/W each season has taken my childlike hands and led me up an adorable path of Burberry trenches, tweed capes, aubergine hues and Kate Moss smoking on the catwalk (she's Kate Moss!). Years of being such an advocate of A/W collections i'm practically Santa Clause & having many a uncontrollable swoon during fashion weeks around the globe in March, particularly the ice maidens Karl Lagerfeld usually turns out in PFW, this winter has taken a perculiar & unexpected twist ladies & gentleman. I've done something which could only be described as "minxish" & started to feel more of a excited flutter for the "the light side".

 

I've heard rumours of this so-called "summerism" amongst other bloggers and for many a moon have prayed it wouldn't spread to me. I wasn't ready to give up my excessive layering & pinafore dresses just yet! Some blame it on the continuation of the damp experiences Great Britain has seemed to be throwing up of late, craving spring print cigarette trousers or whimsical head garments to pull them out of the drippy Monday mornings. Some blame it on how trends are expanding or how moved they were by recent shows & collections for S/S 2013. Some don't have a reasoning at all, (why me!) My reasonings have been a little harder to stomach. Everyone goes through rough times, which I seem to be in the midst of recently, which is never easy, granted. But when said rough times occur during the time of year you've been fantacising over before it was even appropriate to take off last year's bavarian tuba player inspired fur hat, it's not just the weather that turns you numb and a silly shade of cobalt. After keenly spying on fashion week proceedings in September and my current uncontrollable need to focus on & analyse the future, my usual adoration for basking in a yeti state & challenging my christmas tree to a twinkle-off has dwindled before I even got a chance to grasp it! Although my living room currently smells of rich pine, mulled wine has been instantly more accessible in bars and the chances of getting, as my gran would call it, "a smooch" with the tonnes of mistletoe lingering around as ceiling decor has increased too-many-to-mention-a-fold, it would seem not even a pair of Van Der Ham's could lull me out of this icy funk (if Santa is reading that's such a lie, Van Der Ham's, yes please). So whilst every other blogger will have been penning winter wishlists for months, putting pictures of their dogs dressed as elves on instagram or snuggling up in cable knit jumpers with antler based animals on I have been waiting for my favourite time of year to melt away like the ice on my path outside. Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying being able to wear my cosy miltary biker coat to the pub and something eerie inside me loves wearing multiple pairs of tights, but for the first time in my life, my fashion focus is purely on how decadent, floaty and happy i'm going to make my S/S 2013.

 

So with such in mind and my noggin firmly wired into the early 2013 matrix, looking back at some of the stand out shows from S/S 2013 is keeping me from going into complete fashion hibernation. Hey, maybe a more forward thinking Melissa will become a positive. Working a full-time job in media press analysis and being around publications tends to feed the monster in my stomach who's forever hungry for blog cooing and pawing over fashion publications, for a short period of time at least. But when show season commenced in September, especially around LFW, it became a cat and mouse debarcle of how many live shows can I fit around my work without being caught. From FROW to FNO to catwalk to timetables, squeezing every bit of detail possible into my show notes whilst still having the mundane task of working out how to brand fartless underwear at work was daunting but successful in the end.

 

I've always been a firm believer in fashion influencing how you feel as an individual and also knowing that how you feel will also affect how you want to dress and when I think about how I want to eventually feel once spring starts to rear it's fresh head, I couldn't pinpoint a more enchanting or spine tingling show than when watching the Bora Aksu S/S 13 show at LFW (See above Youtube attachment). The turkish designer has become a regular face at London Fashion Week of late, flaunting his contrasting nature of romance but with a deeper & darker twist which has always caught my cooing eye. He has always kept a semblence of regality in his collections, parading grey & rose tones at A/A 2012. Being a sucker for a structured collar and elaborate patterns (HELLO KATRANTZOU) being partaken with the pieces in the collection wasn't difficult. Seriously didn't see it being possible to expand each season but by gum, they've done it. A miriad of regal jewel tone knitted crowns, whimsical fly-away braided beehives and floaty pastels fluttered down the catwalk like elegant wood nymphs and fairy queens alike. "Youth" by Daughter used as show music was a perfect and pure choice, an emotional favourite of mine that I drank in like hot musical miso. Lyrics like "We are the reckless, We are the wild youth, Chasing visions of our futures, One day we'll reveal the truth" silkily enhanced the mood of the show and the inspirational warmth of carefree femininity displayed.

 





Previously, Aksu has gone into detail about where his inspiration has evolved. From the regality that shines through and links his collections together tells a story of how he came to be. Inspired by Queen Marie of Romania (and who wouldn't want to look like a Romanian queen!) and in particular this season by her botanical gardens, was quoted as saying of her "The way she embraced traditional Romanian culture without losing her Englishness led to a lot of beautiful references"

After my over the top swoon session at Carven's SS 12, use of bold primary colours, the palate used bowled me over, with draped honey yellows, oceanic blue pastels & deep silky reds. The botanical element was paramount with sheer tights resembling roots & weeds gathering pace up the legs towards the sunlight and neo-preen organic blue capes adding more movement when sacheting, floating like dainty winged insects. The contrasting elements of silk and organza clean lines mixed with sheer jewelled coloured draping created a natural yet wearable illusion of unconcious delicacy.

 

With minimal accessories used, emphasis was well and truly focussed on the dreamy dresses and statement head wear. With underskirts resembling the glisten in water and deeper blues appearing like damp water lillies layered on top, joined with the strong collars and structured shoulder is what I find most alluring. In much Shakespeare tales, the fairy-like characters have an innocent yet seductive nature which I have linked to the kind of lady likely to indulge in these delicious dresses and the kind of lady I would like to portray in S/S 13. I always think you can tell that a collection is going to make you fuzzy inside when you are able to visualise a moodboard during show and I got adorable imagery of pressed pastel flowers & petals.

 

Some may say im jumping too quick of a warmer weather gun but looking forward is the only way I can live at this moment in time. In 2013 I want to be able to learn how to relax, feel passionate and be able to fall in love again. Bora Aksu SS 13 made me instantly feel at ease & i'm able to visualise the feeling of relaxation, like floating in water with pastel draping and flowers, through this collection. In search of delicate fashion for a delicate head.

 

 

 

une bouteille de vin rouge et un sandwich roquefort s'il vous plaît

After some heavy musing, I thought it would be somewhat therapeutic to first share some photographs of when I was lucky enough to waltz the streets of my long loved soft cheese filled, Louboutin crammed, red wine swirled favourite haunt. I've forever had a love affair with this unforgettable city and will forever be able to heavenly drown in these beautiful pictures taken whilst there. Paris streets will meet my small toes again, I swear to it. Bon Appetite mon cheries and cherents! And remember in France smoking is always big and clever.

Je Suis Avec YSL tartan blazer, AA black disco pants, vintage brogues and Urban Outfitters Bag