The olive-coloured, gravy-scented 1940s and 50s fashion nostalgia moment has proved to be more than a transient backlash to Sienna’s Boho Summer of Shame 2005; this season it’s as strong as ever. If you ain’t knitting your own gargantuan Gilesian scarf to match this Hermes Land Girls suit (perfect for the allotment; your jam must [...]
Archive for August, 2007
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Posted in Art, Fashion, tagged balenciaga, fashion illustration, Giles, hermes, limerick, sienna miller on August 30, 2007 | No Comments »
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Posted in Architecture, Fashion, Music, tagged castle, limerick, ralph lauren, the velvet underground on August 29, 2007 | No Comments »
With castles, unlike life, less is more (in life, more is more, and you should know that by now). What you lose in solidity, you gain in imagination; the larger the proportion of crumble to crenellation, breach to bulwark and rubble to rampart, the more ancient and alien a citadel seems.
King John’s Castle in Limerick [...]
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Posted in Literature, tagged Dylan Thomas, hotels, moleskine, sully saint-germain, The Chelsea hotel, TS Eliot on August 28, 2007 | No Comments »
Den of the debauched gin hag, refuge of the hunted heriess, one of the greatest joys of travel is a solo sojourn in an anonymous hotel.
From Dylan Thomas prostrate in his puke in the Chelsea to TS Eliot measuring out his life in teaspoons at the Pont Royal, hotel life is so steeped in the [...]
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Posted in Literature, tagged blogging, cartoon crumpets, search engine terms, voyeur fuck on August 27, 2007 | No Comments »
You know that your blogging career and indeed the internet as a whole have been thoroughly vindicated when you find that two of the search engine terms driving traffic to your site are ‘voyeur fuck’ and ‘cartoon crumpets’.
Happy sigh.
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Posted in Art, Dance, tagged cigar, cuba, fuseli, gothic nightmares, learn how to draw animals on August 23, 2007 | No Comments »
Through a haze of Hoyo de Monterrey Double Corona smoke, passionate polemic and ribald humour ring out to the rhythm of tin mugs of rum slamming the scored wooden table and worn-heeled boots drumming the sawdust-strewn floor. As wan dawn waxes, the band of ragged strangers dissolve into the light, unlikely to meet again yet [...]
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Posted in Fashion, Literature, tagged bill oddie, birds, bleak house, hitchcock, th white, the conjurer's bird on August 22, 2007 | No Comments »
The beautiful Tippi Hedren would be the first to forewarn that feathers suit no-one. Despite this season’s collections peddling them as bold, bohemian and ferally exotic, any raiment en plumage actually makes you look like the deranged lovechild of Pocahontas and Papagena. Just say no.
Hitch’s brilliant film was obviously tapping into some primal and potent [...]
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Posted in Film, Literature, TV, tagged cuir de lancome, jonathan rhys meyers, perfume, the sheik on August 21, 2007 | 1 Comment »
So much unctuous idiocy is written about perfume that I hesitate to add to it, but then unctious idiocy is my speciality.
Choosing a signature scent is a masterclass in blending the sweet essences of idealised self-projection (I am really a hardbodied rock bitch whose M&S elasticated skirt suit masks a dark sexual pioneer) and quivering [...]
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Posted in Literature, tagged aa gill, hyde park on August 20, 2007 | No Comments »
Parks, like sharks, are better encountered in my head than in reality.
Actually faced with parklife, the perky pastoral promise of my imagination swiftly segues into the damp-squibbery of anticlimax, and the self-consciousness of the surrounding city routs any attempt at Gaian contemplation or creativity. By the time I have selected the perfect Lucy Honeychurch via [...]
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Posted in Music, tagged big ben, bongs, radio 4, sound of summer on August 14, 2007 | No Comments »
There are few more emotive sounds in life than the 6pm Big Ben bongs ringing out on Radio 4.
Like the stentorian laugh of a kindly, debauched uncle who is strong and steady yet knows the pleasure to be had from deep, dark vibration, those resonant notes beckon weary workers to snuggle into the velvet folds [...]
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Posted in TV, Theatre, tagged brideshead revisited, historical drama, poldark on August 13, 2007 | No Comments »
After spending the weekend drinking tepid whisky before fountains in eveningwear, I decided it was finally time to accept that Brideshead is over, and have moved on to Poldark.
Wonderfully, hammily, lip-quiveringly bad, it looks like it’s filmed in a theatre, and from their emotionally and syllabically resounding delivery, it seems the actors [...]
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