Shopping as Experience

Art, design, fashion, music and food all in one cool small environment. There are only a handful of shops that include all of these elements and they are so special, Colette in Paris and Dover Street Market in London are some of these types of shops and they just ooze cool. I was just in Milan for work and this is the first time I had some time off and able to wander a bit. Even though Milan is the fashion capital of Italy, it is not the most beautiful city. I was excited to be taken through a small hedged opening in the street through a gorgeous private garden cafe and into an amazing shop and gallery called 10 Corso Como. My heart started to beat just a little bit faster and I will forever be inspired by these types of unique shops that add a little more fun and culture to shopping.

Worldwide Fashion Night Out

Free Champagne, mini cupcakes, discounts, Hermes scarf tying sessions and photoshoots in Liberty. Free beer, mini cheeseburgers, exclusive t-shirts, and free manicures. This all happened one night when I told my friends that I could show them a good time without spending a dime. Cities all over the world including London, Paris and New York held Vogue's Fashion Night Out to enliven the consumer spirit. Most shops in London were serving free drinks and other goodies to get us a little tipsy to buy things.




The icing on the mini cupcake of the evening was walking into The Gap on Kingly Court and viewing Garance Dore's illustrations drawn larger than life on the walls downstairs along with her photos and an inspiration wall. The Gap let her do three t-shirt designs and they produced only 69 pieces (to coincide with The Gap's new denim line and establishment year 1969), and I was lucky enough to buy the design with the red frames! I was only sad to find out that Garance had left that morning to New York and so I will have to wait to speak to her again.

DIY Sonia Rykiel

Last week I did some shopping at one of my fav boutiques in London called Diverse. They had a really cute Sonia Rykiel striped top with mini Eiffel Towers attached for £169. That weekend I went to Paris and I saw the exact same mini Eiffel towers being sold on every corner! I had a definate lightbulb moment and bought 5 mini towers for 2 Euros. Today, I walked over to the Gap and bought a £10 striped top and added the mini towers, et Voila! DIY Sonia Rykiel!

Sailor Boys and Girls!

How adorable are these little models, or do you think they have been styled too much to look cute? These photos are from Vogue Enfants, it was a mini issue that came with this months Paris Vogue.
Whatever your opinion, I wish I was this stylish when I was young.

Love at First Sight

I was lucky enough to be in Paris when Scott Schuman aka The Sartorialist happened to be at Colette for a signing of his new book. I felt like a giddy little girl as I waited in the queue with a mob of very cool Parisians to catch the first glimpse of Mr. Schuman. I was so excited to see that he was with the love of his life and equally inspiring blogger Garance Dore!! I couldn't believe my luck.
I babbled on to them and they both are very charmingly sweet and very in love. Scott told me there was a photo in the book of Garance taken in the Tuileries which was the day he fell in love with her, how romantic. I walked directly to the Tuileries afterwards and sat with a glass of wine to flip through the pages of my new book. Even though I am very much in love, I dreamed of someone coming by and sweeping me off my feet. I ended up receiving a proposal from my sleezy french waiter, funny how your dreams come true in not quite the same way you imagined.

Fashion Doc of the Century

I went to see the preview of The September Issue tonight and these are the highlights: the inspirational Grace Coddington (creative director) gets pissed off by Anna Wintour who keeps cutting out her photos, Andre Leon Talley (Editor at Large) going to play tennis drenched in LV monogram EVERYTHING, including a towel which he wears around his neck while swinging a racket, and Bob the cameraman who gets included in the September issue and Anna telling him he needs to go on a diet.
The Director and Bob the cameraman sat with us to answer some questions and I really liked the fact that the director knew nothing of the fashion industry when he started filming. He brought the film to life just telling the simple but compelling story of what goes on behind the walls of Vogue. Very much recommended.