Icons of style

Iris Apfel
Meandering through some web site or other I tripped over some images from the CFDA awards. I confess I have never seen or heard of Iris but I am obviously late to the party, my loss. What an Icon of style. image from Peabody Essex Museum

This image via The Guardian

and this one from Style.com both showing the stunning jacket (Balenciaga) she was wearing. Conclusive proof that age is and never will be a barrier to looking stunning on any occasion.

I have in my scrapbook another image of someone whose name I had forgotten, when I saw these images I thought it was Iris Apfel, but further trawling the web revealed her name was Fleur Cowles.

Again stunning to the very end.

Images from here and Vanity Fair

Sally Mann

One of my all time favourite photographers is coming to town, truly if you are near the Photographers Gallery this is a must see, and it's free. Go now....

Half term wardrobe watch

An eclectic week, not least because I ate out twice. You will notice immediately the predominance of trousers which is my default setting when on half term, sprinkled amongst all of this will a have been numerous outings wearing jeans.

Tuesday Night 10/10

My sister got tickets to see a warm up gig with Michael Mcintyre, so we met for a quick bite to eat at cafe Uno clutching a voucher, the money we saved on food we of course blew on a bottle of Prosecco. I am wearing a lovely floppy cardie from Zara over a very fine viscose Jigsaw tunic. Trousers from Zara too, they are new and I love them. They are jeans style but made of a thick cotton jersey, so comfortable

Wednesday 10/10

off to york, it is difficult to see by the photograph but the tunic is an old cotton one from GAP over really old jeans from Miss Selfridge. The cardie is a very light navy linen from Muji.

Saturday* 8/10

back home to London the heavy cotton long grey cardie is great for travelling, from Muji

Thursday 9/10

Stripy top, not sure what make but it is made of Hemp and is very light I bought it in a garage shop in Walberswick. I love the shape of it, worn over a pair of light linen trousers from New Look.

Friday 10/10

Mother wanted a long but lightweight dressing gown. The only shop I could think of was Next, I would never try and clothes shop in York but walking through Next I spied these trousers. I LOVED them, maybe not hugely flattering around my chunky calves but soo comfortable. I was wearing the loose viscose top from Jigsaw, I tied the belt that came with the trousers around my waist and Voila, Leyla decreed I looked great, an outfit fit to go out for a delicious Italian meal in.

* not sure how I got these in the wrong order!

The view from here.... On the train to York

The journey to York I only lived in York for two years. There is a 10cc song "One Night In Paris is like a year in any other place" Well 2 years in York and truly if I had the time I could fill a book such were the adventures.
The men, the nightlife, the laughs, despite the shock of moving there (especially as I had always partied in Leeds) It was an amazing place to be.
I had (if you have read the blog for more than a year you will know this) lived in a small Yorkshire village, not too bad and I certainly loved the countryside but the trek into Leeds every time I wanted a night out was a pain. But I was settled, friends? I had a few, two lucrative jobs and I was half way through A Levels. I was using my wages to pay for driving lessons, I was crap and really not that into them.
One day Mother quite out of the blue insisted I drove her mini with her to Leeds. I was wearing clogs and the pedals on an old mini cooper are beyond vile. I nearly killed us both and instead of a patient sigh I got a full scale rant listing AGAIN the inadequacies of my shortcomings., of which she could now add an inability to drive to.
I was puzzled at the outburst. I was paying, it was my choice, what was the problem? Out of the blue she announced "we were moving to York", 12+ miles from my school, it was a done deal, father was moving out AGAIN and they were buying a house next to where Mother worked. At this point I guessed you suck it up and deal with it. Now as a mother I am appalled that they could have been so self absorbed and selfish, but they were both very good at that.
So I shrugged said "No problem" went to school and blagged a lift from a teacher. Many teachers lived in York, probably because it was nice and cheap. I knew a pretty tasty specimen lived there but quelle surprise his car was full. I had to then pray the teacher recommended to me as having a space did not recognise me as the nosey, bone idle idiot who interrupted his lessons in the next room with my incessant laughing. He did not and the rest is history.
I got my lift and for a year walked right across town to meet him and another teacher. I gleaned lots of gossip, was told off for spreading said gossip! and developed a HUGE crush on him. luckily it was reciprocated and the following year having blagged my way into art college without an art A Level! We dated and had lots of fun. Lots of tears too, but as I say there is a book in there somewhere.
After 2 years I moved to London for good. My parents reconciled then moved to Nottingham, then moved back to York opened a restaurant then split up for good. Don't EVER open a restaurant if you in any way cherish someone.
They both left York again but now Mother has retired she has moved back and once again I find myself on the train to York.

Aging with Style

So once again my arse is glued to my seat whilst I tap away at the keyboard. Not the most relaxing of half terms, but as I always seem to say "it was nice to get out of London", and I am lucky that I get out and go to York which is only 3 hours door to door to where I live and is one of the most amazing cities to visit even if it was with a HUGE number of other tourists. I have a few images to share once edited so as not to bore the pants off you.

Meanwhile I was struck by how popular the whole 'age' thing is at the moment. Much editorial space was dedicated to it in Vogue this month and the weekend supplements had chunks on it too. maybe retailers will start to see that this is an un-yet untapped and sometimes unfulfilled market. Although if your like me and love to shop you will have a wardrobe replete with much that is good from the high street. I am very lucky my high street is Regent street and Long Acre but there is mail order and some of my best finds have been from local boutiques in small towns. It can be done but I wish we had more that is similar to the myriad of shops I saw in Sweden. I hope you can read the text, I really relate to much of what has been written above, being an art student does allow us a huge amount of experimentation so that when we have to pare it down we can do so building on successes of the past.

Funny how much black appears at this age, I guess women would rather appear slimmer than look younger, although I am not sure that black if broken up by jewellery is that aging. I love the outfit above and envy her cropped hair. I am currently applying a LOT of John Freida product in an effort to smooth the frizz!

It is still slightly galling to read features about normal sized women only to be treated to uber skinny models in the fashion editorial. I forgive this image from Stella magazine because it is sublime and I really would LOVE to at least try it.

Cycle style

I just love what she is wearing and that I even managed to pan the camera to get her in shot given the speed she was going!

Sarah Burton

What struck me when I saw this photograph in the Guardian was what a gorgeous, gorgeous jacket. Le sigh.

I am away until 7th june