I've got the bug

I am watching two potential purchases on eBay - some fab 60s metal garden chairs and a black and black and white 60s cocoon chair for the bedroom. To finance these purchases I am, with heavy heart, flogging my Vivienne Westwood and Rupert Sanderson heels*.

(*Who would have thought the day would come I flog my shoes for garden chairs?)

dare I say it.... Springtime?

This week feels like I've turned a corner and winter is nearly behind us. The crocuses are up on the bit of green is bordered by the busy roads around here and although my garden is still in hibernation there is signs of things stirring beneath the soil. I am going to rest from toil in the garden and allotment for only a couple more weeks will they will start to require my attention and labour. For now I can stand on the bald lawn and plot my harvest and the plants to give colour.

Being the fashion victim I can also start to think about what has been in storage and what will be put away, and ponder whether my heavy coats will get just a bit more wear - we could still have some snow. What shapes and colours will I cast my savings to (yes, savings not plastic, how original!). As I've posted I'll be avoiding the acid wash and neon but some things are of interest. I am pondering platforms and extreme shoes - they have been around for a few seasons now so is it better to get more wear from my existing ones and keep an eye out for some new shapes? Pegs and harem trousers will be big this year but I already have some from last year. Same with the jacket shapes for this season too. I don't really need any more tees, but a great blouse in a soft colour would work well from late autumn to summer. With the 80s revival I expect over sized paisley ones with broaches at the neck to make appearances any day now. The one thing I am keen to experiment with is shoulder pads - I was too young last time they were in the shops and I like the idea of playing with proportions. As such I have gone out to John Lewis and bought some to put in some of the tees. I'll post if they work - if no post you'll know the score.

it's official, too old for topshop

I visited Topshop for a wee browse and came away feeling somewhat nostalgic, and of the view I may finally be too old to continue to shop there. Despite years spent dressing inappropriately for my age and any situation.

I was greeted by neon, aztec prints, double belts, bat wing tops, tube skirts, floral prints, strapless dresses, pastels, acid wash (even and acid wash full length play suit) and the ultimate mistake of my teens: white fringed, studded cowboy boots! I could harp on about the laziness of it all really. Isn't this supposed to be one of the cutting edge hip design meccas of the earth? Designers? Pah! What do they know these days? After all it is not a reference to the 80s, but a facsimile of it. They even play the sound track of my youth while flogging me the fashions.

But halt all cynicism. New is new if it hasn't been seen or done by the individual before and to this crop of tweens it is all the first time. And perhaps in this era of technology and credit crunch the 80s represent a time when things seemed to be more fun, clashing, colourful and experimental. They most certainly were for me. It is hard to imagine that as a teenager I had no internet, SKY, mobile phones (we wrote letters and used phone boxes!!!) and that fashion didn't move at speed the speed it does now. Although maybe the crunch will slow things down a bit? And when all is said and done, in the 80s, in small town NZ I wanted to be nowhere other than London. So this retrospection allows me two things: the wisdom of knowing that much of this stuff looks terrible and worse with hindsight - weren't the 80s the "decade that taste forgot" until very recently? And secondly, now I can be in London listening to the Cure in my pixie boots and double belt... they're playing next week.

Perhaps more somber times will bring on the 90s - utility, minimalism and black. Then I could flog my wardrobe on eBay.

Elle's belles?

Here is a Elle's February fitness girl. Fit? Those thighs?! Bad Elle! You should know better. I'll not rant about magazines, bad examples and hypocrisy.

But I'm thinking it.

let it snow

We had a fabulous snow fall on Monday, apparently the heaviest in 18 years. Today was lovely and sunny - warmish even. Two days later it still lies heavy on the ground in the parks, on cars, roof tops etc. Beautiful. It reflects the light on dull days and makes everything look bright, clean, fresh and new - even in North London. The spit, gum and grime are obliterated. And in many places it is compacted leaving a layer of ice over an inch thick on roads and footpaths - absolving me of any moral (read: getting fit) obligation to cycle and giving me a good laugh seeing people slip, slither and slide. Just tempted fate. It will be me next.

These pictures taken on my way to work (in our road, central London) and in our allotment that afternoon)

I'll get around to it

I have been meaning to keep this a current project for ages, and have a stack of images to upload. But the time to edit them and come up with some accompanying text eludes me, I'll try to get around to it soon.

Two things friends abroad ask me the most about are: what are people wearing in London these days? Entirely understandable given that so many trends, especially street style start here. And what are you doing in the exciting epicentre of excitement these days?

To the first question, well I'll post some images of the fashions and my thoughts about it soon. To be honest, while as absorbed by clothes and style as ever it is much more from a spectator perspective these days. Why? One: credit crunch. Although as when I was a student and afterwards when skint this really just being more creative and individual. Which I now have less time to do.

Two: age and motherhood. This week I threw together an outfit, none of which was new, but composed of some fashion forward elements I have had for a while - grey peg trousers; navy boy-fit blazer with rolled sleeves; high peep toe brogues with orange heel; block print tee. Each one of these items individually will be huge this coming season and although I have had most of them for over a year put together into one outfit I looked too trendy. Like I had just gone out and bought a fashionable look instead of reflecting what I like or feel comfortable in. In short although each piece was unique when I bought them and I liked them all, I felt self conscious and try hard in them when they amalgamated. I needed to deconstruct and put something old and out of date with it. When you get a bit older - though I don't consider my self to be old - you can keep an interest in fashion but you can adhere too closely to it as (perversely) it ages you. Think Edina from Ab Fab.

As to what I am doing? Other than working and being a mum? I guess the question is more about what is London like and what do people do here? There's so much I couldn't cover it all so I will, again, post some pictures and things that I think may interest people in the next few weeks or months. Most Londoners have been somewhat reclusive - recovering from New Year, cold and that credit crunch again!