Old Lady Book Club Sundays - Soiree Deux

Cat Eye Shaped, Turtle Shell Peepers Are Go! It's that sleepy day again where it's okay to adorn silky pyjamas at three in the afternoon, crochet blankets, wonder without care through museums, stroke soft kittens, play scrabble, sup from china cups, visit food markets & doodle pictures of macaroons (maca-swoons). A excuse for all us Early Grannies to escape the throws of crumbs on public transport, cold toes & loud leggings.
With Wish Magazine getting a fondle this afternoon, Carrie's piece on early grannies unashamedly felt like putting on an literary old velvet jacket. Put as followed-

Early Granny
noun (pl. -nies) informal. shortened to EG

a young person with premature preferences, pastimes and tendencies similar to those commonly found in an older individual who is actively at leisure in retirement with grandchildren. An Early Granny usually does not have any children, may be in education, and leads - at times - an almost unidentifiable life from their more mature counterparts.

ORIGIN circa 2010: from Old English (as an adverb), influenced by Old Norse arliga and grannam (representing a colloquial pronunciation of grandam) + -y 2.

Lula is always a delight for a flick for an Old Lady Book Club. It's my papery crush, and I'm a smitten kitten.

Another example of how adorably magical Leith Clark is. Lula is said to be "The kind of girl you'd have a crush on. Or be intimidated by. Her style is all old-fashioned cameras, 70's dresses, patterned stockings, heavy mascara. She'd live in an apartment where the wallpaper is peeling off but it would be held lovingly by a litter of poems and polaroids. Her CDs would be all over the floor, but she'd know the name of every one". A saucepot goosey gander that has some serious TLC and love etched into it's oodles of fairytale celebrations of femininity. Lovingly constructed for the girly wirly's of the land who buy pretty underwear just to be able to lounge in it alone listening to The Four Tops, enjoys high fashion but get's giddy over whimsical 50's dresses & not only appreciates fashion but finds the stories behind the garments part of the journey.

It's became my biannual bunting laced companion. Part of it's allure is it's precious nature, with a new issue every 6 months and the exciting frenzy of cat ladies punching fellow curled calligraphy & contemporary art appreciators in the kidneys in a bid to get the marshmellow gooeyness you get when you embrace it, accompanied by a glass of red wine. Sprinkled amongst the witty interviews with folk you need to listen to are shoots with garments like an Orla Kiely monochrome dress, violet 50's Peter Jensen coat, checked Margaret Howell mid-length 40's skirt, bug-eyed Louis Vuitton sunglasses, pretty ringlets in their fawn like hair, creamy collared APC coat and a princess like rosy, frothy flowers Chanel dress to make any grown up inner princess feel like she has the ability to back-flip over the moon. One of the best pieces of styling in the issue came in the form of the navy and purple checked Miu Miu jacket with 60's lapels shown above, my favourite of the three available front covers.

But apart from it's stylist approach, what does Lula give that other magazines don't?
It treats the reader like the delicate individual they are. They give the reader the gratitude in knowing how wonderfully imaginative and intelligent their readership are, which is the best gift a publication can give. It's expansive, thinks outside the box and indulges every bit of the fluffy, cushion filled corners of the soul. There's nothing better than the good side of strange and bewildering. Moonrise Kingdom cutie pie Kara Hayward who plays sock wearing, Francoise Hardy loving Suzie Bishop appears in interview in sky blue Marc Jacobs ankle socks and matching hair bows & chit chat with director of a favourite film of mine, The Virgin Suicides. When in Paris I visited a breathtaking book shop named Shakespeare & Company, upon which I would thoroughly recommend a cute visit to. I didn't know that the lovely Clemence Poesy's father is the owner of the bookshop until reading the article about it in Lula. I got a little few hairs raised on my arms remembering how lovely it was.

Whether it's scribbles of quotes with men who've photographed Twiggy in pop socks, interviews with ballet dancers, theatrical fairytale tales of Alice In Wonderland based plays, perving on & learning how to make origami, it has everything for the girl who cares about deeper elements and inspirations other than just pure high fashion or trend prediction. Everyone's current "Ooh have you seen that programme everyone is talking about" girly & Golden Globe rapist Lena Dunham's interview was my favourite Old Lady Book Club Sunday Book moment today. Being a Girl's fan, I found some her remarks very poignant.

What inspires you?
"I feel like I need to read Proust because what inspires me are the memories that spring up from the feel of an old itchy sweater or the taste of some specific canned soup or the smell of an elevator in summer. Really emo sense-memory stuff. And also New York, my parents, music coming out of other people's cars."

What books do you love?
"I love books by and about women. Not exclusively, but mostly. Lolita. Poems by Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath. Eloise. How Should A Person Be by Sheila Heti. Cavedweller."

In other flabbergasting news my ASOS pointed pumps arrived my doorway and I've spent a silly amount online at Beyond Retro. Hoping they hurry their little bums up and deliver my egg yolk yellow 70's blouses.

I've just also bought the Grace Coddington - A Memoir book this week, so watch this space for future Old Lady Book Club Soiree's! excited to wrap my eyeballs around it.

Old Lady Book Club Sundays

Ode to the Sabbath. I'm writing this blog post from the fireside in the riveting company of cable knit socks, Sunday lentil soup, tea filled crockery and The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart 

Sunday, you are constantly underrated, mostly due to usual fragile alcohol fuelled noggins or uninspiring lulls of dreading the Monday blues. This isn't just a blog post, this is a intervention. It's time to change the opinions of the Sunday smackers and inspire the none believers to embrace Sundays like a soft kitten. Being Saturdays hairy mole is never an easy feat but with some imagination, reading material and perhaps a poached egg, my very own cosy old lady book club Sunday has grown into Saturdays Chanel SS hula hoop inspired bag (hello quarter life crisis). 

My current hibernation venue is around the size of a matchbox, is a gawdy shade of brother's choice of blue and has the storage space enough for Polly Pocket but aside from this I'm putting my cosy interior arranging fedora on and attempting at making it pretty with my tea rooms worthy crockery, car boot sale trawled house shaped teapots and porcelain cats (hello quarter life crisis x2). 

I hope I can look back at the end of 2013 and see how adorably organised I got this year with the help of my newly acquired Frankie Diary via the beautiful people behind the adorable must-read Frankie Magazine 

I can't stop flicking through the purdy illustrations

Definitely just made acquaintances with my daily diary. Howdy papery companion!

A journalistic Victoria Sandwich of organisational fun, overflowing with cutie pie illustrational whipped cream and strawberry jam worthy lists and secret pockets. If anything is going to inspire me to be organised its 

jottings of charming hand drawn cakes, powder blue floral backdrops and lots of space for rambling. It's the simple things that keep simple heads smiling on an old lady book club Sunday.

During the head weary weekdays and confessions of a moody looking commuter there's nothing I enjoy burying myself into more than lurking around other fashion blogs, reading the rambles of the chic witty folk of the online world and pigging out on the outfit posts of the casually coiffed, but my old lady book club Sundays were made for a mini technology hiatus and warm paper publication simplicity. Over time there's been many a discussion and a underlying hoo-haa as to whether fashion blogs are killing the fashion publication industry but in my opinion it's merely enhanced it. Any blogger and garment appreciator worth their bread and butter know the gentle, hair raising art of getting lost in a physical paper bewitching. A subtle stroking of the glossy corners, the vivid bolt of the co-ordinated colours piercing your retina and the rewarding clarity your get with each turn of the page makes girls like me fall back in love with every aspect of my favourite publications each issue. It's just started snowing outside and the icy nature of this house is making my fingertips a nasty shade of cerulean but there's not a thing like the literary hot porridge heat of reading the newest issue of Vogue on a Sunday evening running down your throat. For me, it's a lovely cycle of treasuring, discussing, storing and re-remembering which I'm far to fond of to let go to swap for my need for constant internet quick fix fixating. The delicate and enjoyable merge between street style, designers and blogging has been flaunted by British regular Company Magazine and has totally changed the dynamic and the readership of the publication for the better, especially with last months superbloggers special which I thought was one of the best issues by an off the shelf publication for many a moon.

As you sassy cats may have seen from my last instagram update posts Santa was kind enough to accommodate my book club fetish with this Susie Bubble creation I've been cooing my eye upon for book club Sunday. I'm an unashamed Style Bubble fangirl and have been prying on her blogging outputs from a wee age. This book club flicker recounts the tales of the headstrong and realistic stories of how fashion blogging came to be with a mezze of the stand out posts from the influential big hitters like Vanessa Jackman, Anna Dello Russo, Style Rookie, Garance Dore  & Hanneli over the industries short lifespan. A fond read.

Interesting how the fashion industry found it difficult to understand in the early years, feeling like a growing unexplainable skin tag on the face of the industry in comparison to around 7 years later becoming the quirky and fully embraced beautiful and expressive beauty spot.

I've blogged since the age of 16 and being the annoying perfectionist that I am have been in a dizzy cycle of being underwhelmed with my creative output, getting hot under the collar about it, deleting everything and starting a fresh which is a filthy habit. This hardback goddess really plays on the factor that being able to do this and enjoy it gives the under resourced creative souls of this world a voice, even if it is a sheepish murmur.