CONFESSION...

For someone who invested in a big arse fancypants camera a few months ago, I seem to be taking an awful lot of pictures with my iPhone and er, practically none with said camera. The reasons: too big, heavy, cumbersome, obtrusive, can't be bothered to carry it, get it out, put it away, change settings, don't know how to use it, don't like perfect looking digital images, clearly need to rely on effects of fake Holgarising apps.

Something like that. Oh, but the guilt...Below, April/May's iPhone pictures.

I WANT TO…

Run around barefoot on soft green grass, laugh and jump and whoop, run through laundry hanging on a washing line in the sunshine, build a fort, flop down giggling and exhausted in a heap. Eat candyfloss, make a daisy chain, do a cartwheel, backflip into a swimming pool, sing along loudly while driving, run into the sea really fast, make up a ridiculous choreographed dance routine, eat hotdogs with loads of mustard and ketchup, freewheel an old bicycle down a hill and not have to go back up it, order a takeaway and sit on the floor watching silly films, invent insane cocktails, say something funny, hear something funny and laugh so much I can’t even stand up anymore.

You know?

WHY THE INTERNET IS AMAZING...

Do you remember the coolest thing that ever happened to me? Thanks to Flickr I now know that the exact car still exists, and who the kind man in the photo it belonged to was. (The barrette sporting passenger attempting a Royal wave is moi.)

A comment on the photo, which I posted on Flickr:

"Yes, that particular car still exists in the UK but is off the road at the moment. The driver is Mr Les Frampton who lived just west of London. He bought the car new in 1966 and used it a lot right up to his death in the early 1990s. Les spent a lot of time in Jersey as well as along the South Coast so the picture could have been taken anywhere, although title hints Dorset. He was one of the few Amphicar owners brave enough to use the car in salt water (although that is also the reason it is now off the road !) Looking at some of the detail on the car I would guess the picture was taken around 1971, but could be a few years earlier, he did tell me, but I can't remember, when he changed the whitewall tyres for black wall !"

David Chapman
www.amphicars.com

{N.B. It was taken in 1982 when we were on holiday in Swanage.}

I'll be raising a glass or two to Mr. Frampton today (and Mr. Chapman) - I wonder if he would ever have guessed what a lasting impression driving around in the sea in that beautiful car had on six year old me. (And don't ask, yes I am tempted but lucky for me, I already have pretty much the car of my dreams. It doesn't float as far as I know, but it does speak to me in Japanese.)

{photo credit: my dad}

I'M BIG IN JAPAN...

The best thing about my flat being in the new book from Japanese publishers Editions de Paris: A Girly Interior in London, was that I got to meet the lovely Emma Cassi and her husband Bertrand, who worked on the book together. And I didn't even have to leave home! I've been a fan of Emma's work for ages so I was more than happy for them to come round one dark winter's day and take pictures. The book features 12 girly homes and there are a few other likely blogging suspects you'll recognise in there.

Below are a couple of the pages on my flat. You may notice the absence of any felines. Lola spent the entire time hiding under chairs glaring and skulking around the backs of sofas. Only when everything was packed away did she decide to sit on the table, giving her best Lara Stone pose. Timing is everything Lola.

{Apologies, my scanner is useless. Kind of it to have Lomo-fied my scans of the book though...}

YOU DON'T KNOW HOW HAPPY THIS MAKES ME...

*I feel the need to listen to Phoenix's Love Like a Sunset Parts I & II at least twelve times a day, so when I heard that Sofia Coppola was going to direct a short film to it (it's 10 minutes 40 seconds long) I was practically hopping up and down with excitement. You can't help listening without mentally directing one anyway - so the thought of Sofia making one, though hardly surprising, was welcome news. Now it emerges that Phoenix has in fact used it heavily for the soundtrack of Sofia's upcoming film, Somewhere, which I was already hopping up and down excited about. More about it here. I am doing a little jig.

*What The Fuck Should I Make For Dinner? I clearly respond well to aggression, because I really feel like trying the lamb with carrots and pureed chickpeas, having not cooked a proper meal in months. {via Vain & Vapid}.

*Paperless Post is like Smythson stationery for your computer.

*The brand spankin' new (not quite fully opened) East London Line. I can get to Shoreditch and Dalston in minutes! My flat just doubled in value! Orange doors!

HOW DO YOU SEE?..

This is the first in a new series of five question interviews with female photographers whose work I admire.

Alexandra Chalaud kindly agreed to be my first victim interviewee. I first became a fan of her dreamy fashion photographs of alluring girls. I also love the way she captures natural moments so well, such as in her pictures of teenagers below. I asked her about how she sees with her camera.

L.I.B. - Do you prefer to find a moment to capture, or to create one (using styling, location etc)?

A.C. - In both of them you have to find a moment to capture.
But the intentions are different and the result too. For myself I prefer shooting without make up, location, etc...I feel more free!



L.I.B. - When you look through your lens, what are you looking for that makes you take the picture?

A.C. - For Fashion I already have some visual intentions...but I like "accidents". Often the result is great. But for my other works I’m driven by what I feel, what I see and what I discover in the moment through my lens.



L.I.B. - Do your surroundings and everyday life influence your photography?

A.C. - I think for all artists, your personal life influences your work.


L.I.B. - Could you tell me about this photograph?



A.C. - It was on a Sunday one year ago, in summer, in Place des Vosges: lots of people, lots of sunshine. I was just looking around me with my camera.

L.I.B. - Who or what is your favourite subject to photograph?

A.C. - It depends. My favourite is always the last subject I worked on.


{All photos (c) Alexandra Chalaud}

PROFIT AND LOSS...

Ohhh, I want to stamp my feet and fling myself into a ball on the sofa. Because I saw these RetroSuperFuture Lucia Havana sunglasses in Liberty but couldn't justify the £90 price. And now they've put the price up to £130. Why is life so desperately cruel and unfair, I ask you.

I'm over it now.

AWKWARD IN AVALON...

A bit of awkward photoboothing on a Thursday morning, wearing my Toujours Toi & Family Affairs Avalon dress for Nina, Queen of the Awkward Photobooth (TM).

 Below is the press text I wrote for the spring/summer 10 collection, Coup de Foudre, which the dress is from:

Coup de Foudre is the name of the spring summer 2010 collection from Toujours Toi & Family Affairs. Coup de Foudre means a sudden, intense feeling of love or quite literally, a bolt of lightning. The feeling of being struck down by love, everything is heightened and colors are saturated in the heat of a hazy summer’s day. Evoking the decadence of the late seventies, Roxy Music, louche elegance. Mia Farrow as Daisy Buchanan at Gatsby’s garden party – everyone dressed in linen on a golden afternoon. The bold colors of Godard’s Pierrot le Fou and Une Femme est Une Femme translate into the fevered hothouse flower colors cut in simple, unfussy shapes. Inspired by vacation in the long, hot days of high summer.

The Avalon dress – a black cotton voile maxi sundress, evokes the thirties via the seventies. The easy elegance of the Guinevere jumpsuit in leopard or blue rose printed silk. Feminine button down dresses paired with the masculine linen Northfork jacket. The yellow woven cube cotton gives the otherwise sweet Cecilia and Crimson and Clover dresses a graphic element. Natural fabrics – linen takes on more character as you wear it; and the lightest weight silk, poplin and voile for wafting around in the heat.

SUBWAY...

I almost forgot to mention that Bruce Davidson's incredible, no - stunning Subway series of photographs is on display at Tate Modern. I didn't know about it beforehand (in fact, there's barely a mention of it on the Tate site), but seeing these up close was well worth an afternoon of being surrounded by hoards of extremely irritating French schoolchildren brandishing clipboards all over the place. Taken between 1980 and 1985, the photographs show a motley selection of dodgy looking characters, working girls, graffiti and grime - taking some of the shots caused Bruce Davidson to almost get shot in the process; talk about being in the moment. It's like stepping back in time to when the Subway was something you were advised to avoid - the pictures almost pulse with danger - but the results have a real beauty. The closest to danger on the NY subway I ever got was that one time I took the G train and began to wish I wasn't laden down with Barneys shopping bags. Danger is my middle name. There's also a book of this series of photographs - and the foreword is only written by Fab 5 Freddy. It's going to be really hard not to buy it now that I know that.

You must go and see these photos if you're in London - the colours and depth of the prints is absolutely amazing - not that I'm any kind of print connoisseur, but even I can see that. They're also showing Maya Deren's Meshes of the Afternoon (Level 3, Poetry and Dream, room 2). The Tate seems to have dozed off at publicizing the smaller works being shown, so there - I've done it for them/it. Don't bother with the other rooms, they'll only be full of belligerent Euro teens.

{Photos - Bruce Davidson - at Tate Modern, Level 5, States of Flux, room 8}

90s VIDEO SUNDAY...

I can't stop watching this video (but it gives me unfortunate visualisations of Damon Albarn being drunk and unable to, um perform). In any case, I miss Justine - why isn't there anyone as cool as her?

PURSUITS OF SPRING...

There are certain things I do every spring, that I don't do during the winter. I start to buy flowers and plants. I leave the house willingly, often with camera in hand.

I go for cream teas, afternoon teas and every other kind of teas. And this, thank you iphoto, solves the long standing mystery of why I always gain 10 pounds by the beginning of every summer.

{photos from Aprils 07, 08 and 09}

SIMPLE PLEASURES...

I can't actually stop putting this Liberty/Merci tape (sold out now I think) on pretty much everything I own.

BEIGE...

This morning I found myself thinking about the traditional fashion press vs. Tavi as blogger target practice debate. I've read a lot of guff from affronted journalists and actually not much from fashion bloggers. Maybe I just haven't been looking in the right places, or maybe it doesn't matter much - the affronted wailing of journalists could be considered death throes, as they topple off their front row seats. Apparently some fashion journalists believe that a blogger can't report on clothes as well as them, because bloggers don't know about fashion, the history of fashion and they aren't trained in it. Well, what if they do and are? I've met people who had fantastic jobs at magazines and been stunned to discover that they've only been interested in fashion for a couple of years, or that they're really into 18th century literature and only took that job at Vogue because their mum/aunt/sister got them in. Equally, I know people who didn't have the right connections, confidence or luck (edit: or private income, thank you Rose) but who are a font of knowledge - and blogging is the perfect medium for them if they have a strong point of view. The thing about magazines is that all the personality is removed from the writing to fit the voice of the magazine. Then you end up with an article that tells you there were a lot of beige coats shown in Paris, with little enthusiasm or insight into why.

So I really don't buy the notion that all the people sitting at shows and writing about them are experts. What I do understand is the access they have and the relationships they're able to build with designers which might allow them to give a different spin. Cathy Horyn (unarguably an expert!) does this brilliantly when she writes of sitting down to lunch at Alaia's studio, for example. But often the old guarded elitism stops that from happening - or the fear of giving too much away and spoiling the mystery (a less cynical way of putting it.) I think it can be done in a way that enhances, and it will be. Garance Dore's recent videos from fashion week were great at giving you a window seat into the world of fashion month and I'm hoping - since she now has the access, that she'll continue in a way that lets us see more about the clothes as well.

ON A SIMILAR THEME...

Hello Lover.

THOMSEN...

To be filed under why on earth did I not know about Thomsen before? Must be losing my touch. I hate to post stuff people will see on other blogs so you'll do that thing of momentarily not realising which blog you're looking at, but...

...come on! Parisian label making perfectly cut shirts (oh, and shirtdresses) + Liberty prints + Caroline de Maigret in the campaign = major swooning attack on a Saturday morning and frenzied perusing of the Eurostar timetable. (They have a shop in rue de Turenne, which I probably walked straight past the last time I was in Paris.)

SO EASILY SWAYED...

All the things the internet has made my brain think I want during the past month or so:

Hair like Anouck's in the Aubin & Wills catalogue:

An Amanda Wachob tattoo - I mean, I'm in the market for a new tattoo, but those are insane, in the best way.

Japan! I must cross the threshold of always saying next year, next year. Everyone's tempting me with cherry blossoms and prison themed restaurants.

Estelle & Thild Ecorganic skin cream. (It's both ecological and organic you see.) And er, it has really nice packaging and contains things one would think are really nourishing and good for knackered old bags like me, who eat entire chocolate Easter bunnies in one day instead of meals. I want the eye balm but there's no picture of it on their website. These are pretty though.

THE GENTLEWOMAN...

Thoughtful, intelligent, calm, rational, focused, refreshing; you want to plonk it in the hands of people who think you're a silly airhead for being interested in fashion and go, "There. That's why. OKAY?" Those are the notes I wrote after first reading The Gentlewoman. It's been hanging around in my flat for a week or so and I've found myself picking it up to read again and again. Yes, to read, not flick through aimlessly as more brain cells wither.

No hyperbole, no fawning, no socialites for the sake of it, nothing wacky, it's not trying to be aspirational or whip you up into a frenzy about jumpsuits.

I'd be interested to know if someone of 20 appreciates it as much as I do, seeing women featured that have been getting on with doing good things in fashion and the arts, and still are, for as long as I've been in it: Phoebe Philo, Julie Verhoeven, Alice Rawsthorn, Jenny Holzer, hey, even Princess Julia.

And another thing - I now need a buttercup yellow Citroen 2CV so if someone could sort that out for me. Oh, and a vineyard or two and all the clothes Sara Perez wears in the feature on her. {Gracias}.

{photos not scans, but at least I didn't take them with my phone.}

WHO'S THE BOY YOU LIKE THE MOST...

And the award for most good natured crowd surfing goes to Mr Thomas Mars of Phoenix. An over exuberant teenage boy next to me yelled out, "Oh my God, I got a piece of his hair!" I've never really got the concept of desperately trying to touch the artist engaged in surfing, but I guess it's the done thing and Thomas was right next to me a couple of times so I gave him a pat on the back because he seems like such a nice chap. Phoenix were excellent - full energy, great mix of songs with a few unexpected ones thrown in, such as an acoustic version of Everything is Everything with everyone singing quietly along and Air's Playground Love. I was slightly concerned at how they were going to keep Love Like a Sunset from veering into conceptual space out territory, but they did it - and brilliantly (like this).

They looked so happy, and they made us happy and then we were all happy. It was sort of like that.
{My photos}

LINA...

I know you don't need me to tell you about Lina Scheynius. If this was the kind of blog that relied solely on other people's pictures for content, it might be hard not to illustrate every post with one of her pictures and this is a fine excuse to do just that. Visiting her exhibition at Viktor Wynd Fine Art in Mare St on Saturday to see her photos in physical reality felt like meeting internet friends for the first time: familiar and intimate, yet strange.



I think I can safely say she's my favourite photographer working currently. I love the personal diary element of her work and her non techy any camera + any film + available light approach.

{The exhibition runs until 25 April.}

SCRAPS...

*The Impossible Project starts selling Polaroid film again today - and a medium is saved.

*My cousin in Barcelona played me her friend Samantha de Siena's album and I like it. She sounds a bit like PJ Harvey channeling Amelie Poulain - no, the other way around.

*With minutes to spare before taking the train from Passeig de Gracia, I ducked into Oysho and was so overcome by the cute Liberty prints and ticking stripes in thin cotton underwear and homewear that I couldn't choose anything. And of course they have shops in Montenegro, Kuwait and a variety of other random locations but not in the UK. (I think I may have been to their shop in Venice with Anna once?)

Guess what? Their spring collection is inspired by David Hamilton's Demoiselles. If I had a penny for every collection inspired by those photos I could buy one.

IPHONE MARCH...

Clearly, having an iPhone is severely affecting the quality of photos I post here, but hey, there are more of them and it's so bloody convenient. And I don't even need to remember where I've been now.

{Kent countryside, Richard Wilson's 20:50 at Saatchi, Ajit Chauhan ReRecord at Saatchi, A heart, Barcelona}