Yesterday I had a little whizz round the East End. Here’s what I saw and what I wanted to buy (but didn’t due to stains and missing buttons and not being able to move).
Category Archives: fashion
lively up yourself and don’t be no drag
I must say, the new year has a tendency to make me feel nervous. I don’t mean about looking forward, but looking back. Nostalgia that powerful is nerve-inducing, don’t you think? Or maybe I’m misreading my feelings. Looking at my phone photos from the last year is one thing that inspires such nostalgia. I have always loved phone photos. When I was at university I used to ask all my friends to send me the photos they had taken on their phones; I always thought they captured the best moments and I was desperate not to lose those. They’re uncontrived, spontaneous, sometimes hilarious, sometimes sad, or even mundane; but I love that. If ever I worry that my memory might fail me, I look through my phone photos and get comfort from the fact that they can remind me of the trivial and everyday and unexpected things I’ve seen and the moments of laughter that I might otherwise have forgotten. It’s my therapy. So, here’s my 2010 in a selection of fabulous phone photos (oh, and apologies if this is the longest post, like ever)…
January: snow and records.
February: an emerging sunshine and trof.
March: the exceptionally blue skies must’ve made me feel pensive and arty. March was a busy one.
April and May: apparently I lost my spring-spark – this is all I’ve got.
June: shopping for that somerset thing and hoping we’d win.
July: oooh, a new photography app. And clouds and tights and recipes.
August: BIRTHDAY. MUSIC. PHIL SPECTOR.
September: buttons and berries. Strangeways, here we come.
October: after work drinks and my doodle of the boy. Amazing.
November: freezing cold football, new shoes, big hands, protests.
December: christmas trees, cold feet and tba.
New Years Eve: I went out by mistake. Here’s the only evidence I could find.
So, there you have it. Apologies for the massively self-indulgent post. Though I must say, there’s lots of weather going on in those. Something for everyone! As for 31st December, let’s just say I’m lucky to have come home with a phone at all. See you soon, folks! x
got a tv set and a radio for seven shillings a week, shangri-la
Sunday. My favourite. Woke up slightly groggy, but a bacon buttie sorted me right out. Gonna head out soon to get the paper and other essential supplies, then come home and set up camp for the afternoon. Lahvely.
But first, as promised, I’m going to give you a sneaky look into another of my bookshelf gems. And in the spirit of continuity it’s going to be another Vogue one. This time it’s called ‘Vogue Fashion’ and is basically just a chronological look at all the designers who’ve been significant in Vogue since the 1900s. It’s a rather brilliant book, the passing of time it chronicles is endlessly fascinating (plus I can’t believe how 90s the the 90s look, if you know what I mean). It’s bit of a bible really. Enjoy!
when the morning comes and the battle is won
I have decided it’s about bloody time I shared some of my bookshelf with you. Mostly because I’ve stopped being lazy and have actually set up the scanner on the desk (as opposed to sitting idly on the shelf under a pile of unopened letters – I dont like to move it for fear of unearthing the gathering dust) but also just because it’s packed with some of my favourite images and photographers and fashions. I’m sorry it’s taken so long to get this hard-copy onto my blog, but here it is – the first instalment for your viewing pleasure.
I shall start with ‘Unseen Vogue’, a little treat that found its way into my Christmas stocking this year (thanks to my boy!). It’s an insight into Vogue’s unpublished archives; the photographs that didn’t quite make it for one reason or another, but, as you will see, could quite easily have made it and could feasibly make up the catalogue of iconic images we refer to all the time in our blogs. They are, after all, Vogue shoots and Vogue photographers, Vogue stylists and Vogue models, and in that respect deserve our attention. Some of the images are nostalgic and poignant, catching models when they weren’t doing what they were supposed to – you know, yawning or with their arm in a funny position or just speaking or not looking as picture-perfect as the pages of Vogue dictate.
Alexandra Shulman says in the foreword: Unseen Vogue is a pictorial history of the magazine, bound together by many of these untold tales. The images it includes are not simply images from Vogue shoots, but pictures that testify to the labyrinth of labour that must be negotiated from conception to publication. In every contact sheet there are 100 decisions; in every crop there is concerned debate……. The question that returns again and again is, what would I have done had I been faced with those pictures on my desk? In this collection there are some images that I fervently hope I would have had the foresight to publish – even though at the time they would have seem unsettlingly avant-garde. There are, too, variations of a published image that I’m not sure I would have published at all.
Like Shulman, I have to say I do wish some of these images had made it (and you will see why) but I’m glad that this book has enabled me to see them, despite their original fate.
Barbara Goalen by John Deakin, 1951
Coat by Dior from the Paris collections, attributed to Henry Clarke, 1950
‘The contemporary look’ by Anthony Denney, 1955
Jean Shrimpton by David Bailey, 1962
‘Shophound’ by Michael Cooper, 1965
Jean Shrimpton by David Bailey, 1965
Ursula Andress by Brian Duffy, 1966
Twiggy (an unpublished cover shot) by Just Jaeckin, 1967
I’m getting a bit scan-happy here, aren’t I. I’m going to stop now. I’m sure that’s enough of a taster, although I’d love to share the whole book with you for each page carries its own merit. I really love it because it teaches you to constantly look behind an image; I can’t read Vogue these days without wishing I could see the hundreds of beautiful mistakes.
I promise to share something else from my bookshelf with you very soon. Ta-ta for now.
i gave you my onlyness, give me your tomorrow
I have lost my voice. Yes, physically and metaphorically. What a tragic fate – there’s only one thing for it! Copious amounts of ice-cream and my favourite Vogues. (This cover is by Patrick Demarchelier who, incidentally, I love.)
rings on her fingers, bells on her toes
Up and out. Boom. It would be fine if I wasn’t having a bad face day. I need a miracle cure. Or just one of these – a rather fancy (and useful on days like these) headpiece, I’m sure you’ll agree:
