15 August, 2009

The red shoes

Tea in town. Where does one go for a quiet cup of tea in town, free from prams (sorry mums) and tourists? Well I found the perfect place yesterday when I went to get a look at the Wizard of Oz exhibition in Great Marlborough Street. On display on the first floor of the Swarovski Crystallized shop (opposite Liberty) is a dozen or so pairs of ruby slippers reimagined by the likes of Giuseppe Zanotti, Betsey Johnson and Jimmy Choo. My favourites were the Giuseppe Zanotti flats (not what I’d expect from the king of statement heels) and Alberta Ferretti’s crystal-covered platforms (very Dorothy does disco). But I was most taken with the Crystallized Lounge, a quiet haven of tables where you can watch the giddy goings-on in Argyll Street below while sipping a nice cup of English Breakfast or a glass of something chilled and alcoholic if you prefer. Post-refreshment, don’t forget to have a browse downstairs. Like a posh version of The Bead Shop, Swarovski Crystallized sells all manner of beads, charms and stick-on crystals for you to make your own trinkets. I couldn’t help going into stationery-shop mode, wanting to snatch up every little clasp, pendant and waxed-cotton cord on sale for the make-my-own-necklace project that I know will never come to fruition. Ahhhh, one day…

A. Testoni

Alberta Ferretti

Betsey Johnson

Giuseppe Zanotti

Disneyrollergirl 13 Comments Design

12 August, 2009

Lanvin colour palette

Barclays-bank blue

[Pic:The Selby]

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Disneyrollergirl 5 Comments Design, Menswear

30 May, 2009

Inspiration board: Andree Putman

Disneyrollergirl 6 Comments Design

1 May, 2009

At home with Margiela, Diesel and Nicola Formichetti

I’m not sure what to make of the news that Maison Martin Margiela has launched a home collection. Is it selling out? I do love Margiela’s all-whitewashed utilitarian house style but ready-made and boxed up for people to buy off the rack? I thought I wanted it, but now I’m having second thoughts. (Fickle, moi?)

Even more confusingly, I find myself strangely drawn to the Diesel furniture shown at Salone in Milan last week – it’s just so un-Diesel! In fact, it’s more Margiela than Margiela!*
All this interiors talk brings me neatly to a new book I browsed through in Topshop yesterday on my way to the Mywardrobe press day.

A compilation of creatives’ live-work spaces in London, Paris, Barcelona, New York, Berlin and Tokyo, it comprises the dwellings of Nicola Formichetti, Julie Verhoeven and Gary Card among many others. Conclusion? A creative is not a creative without a higgledy piggledy mound of magazines and/or books taller than Trellick Tower (guilty!), an Hermes box or ten for storage and display (I have that too!), an abundance of cheeky retro toys (yup) and a carefully considered hotch-potch of found-in-skip furniture (check!). Hang about, why the hell aren’t I in this book???