His new found orchid

Vintage coat // Charity shop

Vintage scarf // Charity shop

Silk blouse // Charity shop

Blue boatneck sweater // Topshop

Velvet skirt // Primark

Tights // Primark

Patent t-bars // Topshop

Vintage camera bag // Given to me by my Dad

Jian Wei came to stay this weekend and we spent Friday pottering around the Northern Quarter, drinking Oreo milkshakes in Oklahoma Cafe and I found a handful of treasures in my favourite secondhand shop including some mint condition duck egg blue sixties knickers which, alas, do not fit me and so will be making their way into the shop when I have my next, albeit long overdue, listing frenzy.

We had made grand plans for a day trip to York, but we woke on Saturday feeling lazy and so we popped next door to take in the Mary Kelly exhibition at The Whitworth Art Gallery which was very text heavy and so assuredly deserves another visit. We then wandered down to The Cornerhouse and ate aubergine and goats cheese salad with flatbreads before watching Howl which we both thoroughly enjoyed. There really seems no end to James Franco's abilities as he head on tackles the roles of actor, writer and scholar - one can't help but marvel at his motivation skills.

Sunday was (another) lazy day spent submitting my postgraduate application forms - wish me luck! - followed by Dominoes' pizza and some frantic reading in time for this morning's 9am seminar on Ezra Pound's Hugh Selwyn Mauberley (of which the title of this post is taken.)

In the pictures you can see the cotton sweater I got with my most recent uniform allowance and my most adored black patent t-bars. They are identical to the sort of shoes I used to wear to school when I was seven except they had a little window in the heel and a tiny key you could insert and turn to reveal a secret image! I have memories of my mum pulling me by the hand as I threw a tantrum in the middle of the highstreet when she, initially, refused to buy them for me. I'd like to say I'm less of a brat these days but...

Jian Wei got the train back to London this morning but I have him to thank for the beautiful pictures he took on a Pentax K100 he borrowed from his flatmate. You can see more of his pictures over on his own blog.

Charles Anastase AW11

Hats off to Charles Anastase for compiling my ultimate fantasy Autumn/Winter wardrobe. (As if need an excuse to spend even more time already trawling Etsy for vintage velvet.) It may be sadistic to be poring over AW11 trends before the daffoldils have opened but the weather today in Manchester is so nihilistic, so bleak and so grim that I am far more inclined towards heavy fabrics and damp English colours than I am to any ironic notion of Spring!






Who else thinks Alexa Chung will be the first one to get her hands on this velveteen jumpsuit? Isn't the colour just gorgeous?




I now desperately want some skinny wool trousers in earthy shades.



I can imagine there'll be a fair few high-street spin offs of this but none will be as heartbreakingly delicate. If I had to pick one piece though, in a parallel fantasy universe, it's have to be the very first dress. The high neck, slightly cropped long sleeves, swingy skirt and gold embellishment details tick ALL my boxes.

All pictures from Style.com.

Fun and games

Some pictures from the end of the summer featuring my adorable neice Freya and gorgeous baby nephew Oliver.

Hopefully we'll be seeing some of these soon.

Do you like my new blog layout? I've been playing about with it and it still needs some work but it's so lovely to have a layout that really does your photos justice. I shall certainly have a greater incentive now to scan in my prints and let you see them. These were taken last spring at my home in Norfolk. I don't think I'll be able to go back this year for the whole Easter holiday, what with a dissertation to write and money to earn, but hopefully I'll be able to get back for at least three or four days. If only for the photographic potential of my mum's beautiful garden.

Etsy Update - Tangled up in blues

~SOLD~

New items all available to buy now in the shop. It'll be pink's turn next week.

Lazy cat ring by Aprimiao

Just how unbelievably cute is this?! I desperately want one...

Each one is handmade and available from Hong Kong firm Aprimiao.

New Topshop uniform for spring 2011

Today I went into town with a mission to purchase sensible, versatile uniform pieces that will have as much longevity as is possible for Topshop clothes. I set myself the challenge of not being led astray by prints, as they are easily identifiable and thus date quickly, and not wasting money on anything too 'precious' to actually wear to work. This has happened so many times before and I regularly find myself listing the said items on eBay in a desperate attempt to claim back some of the money I flushed down the loo. So, today I was a very good girl and stuck to all my rules, bar one - the 'no prints' constraint - and only spent £47. (I'm entitled to three pieces at 60% off every three months.) I'm really excited to try out the midi-length skirt trend this spring/summer and so I'd had my eye on the skirt for a while. It's made from a really beautiful fabric actually and feels really buttery between your fingers. It was the priciest item at £50 full price and so would have been a far too risky piece to buy if it hadn't have been full price.

On my way to Topshop I popped into one of my favourite second hand shops and found a delightful 1960s pink babydoll dress hanging from the ceiling. Upon closer inspection it revealed itself to be a type of dressing gown/ elaborate bed jacket but it's absolutely adorable and reminds me of something Hannah would wear. It's in need of a good soaking to remove the stench of death but then it'll make its dreamy way into the shop. So long as it doesn't grow on me...

Of a grey silent world.

Tweed trench // Topshop
Blouse // Vintage from charity shop
Velveteen skirt // Vintage from charity shop
Tights // Primark
Ballet pumps // Topshop

On Wednesday I returned home to Norfolk to attend a trial in which I was a witness. Luckily, as all three witnesses turned up, the defendent changed his plea to 'not guilty' and so was charged without us having to enter the courtroom. I can now walk the streets of my home town without fear of reprisal!

Whilst back, I took the opportunity to rampage through the ever-bountiful charity shops that, pretty much, outnumber high street stores and which, as per usual, didn't fail to provide. This blouse was originally intended to make its way into the shop but, after trying it on, decided that it was truly mine. It was a little pricey, ha! at £2.45 but this was because it included a skirt, which, as I instantly knew I'd never be able to wear or sell, I donated back to them. This particular charity shop had a sale on and so many items were a pound that I temporarily lost the plot but, in the end, whittled my purchases down to about five items including a cream silk blouse for 99p (!!), a lovely wool blazer for the shop and a periwinkle blue rayon blouse with exactly the same shaped Peter Pan collar they sell at American Apparel. This will also be heading to the shop with a medley of other blue toned items I desperately need to get photographed and listed. The other charity shops also yielded and I shall photograph my other purchases once I've got my MA applications finalised. I feel slightly overwhelmed at the moment with how much I have to get done...

I spent from Thursday to Sunday in London with Jian Wei and he bought me Vivienne Westwood perfume as a surprise for Valentine's day. Feeling really guilty I treated him to a cotton sweater in Cos, a fantastic store I'm currently raving about. I'm sure I'll dedicate an entire post to it some point soon, don't get me started on the chambray dungarees they do. They're adorable. We spent most of the time being lazy, occasionally milling about Regent Street and Liberty and eating aubergine flatbreads at Flat Planet which has amazing sixties decor. I wish my life could be this nice all the time.

Happy Valentines Day to you all. I appreciate all my readers so much and think everyone should spend the day doing something indulgent. xx

Love Baby Grand

I just stumbled across Love Baby Grand on Etsy and couldn't restrain myself from sharing images of their beautiful bespoke undies with you straight away! Each of these designs will be hand tailored in your size and posted to you within two weeks of ordering from their base in London. I love their combination of Liberty prints, silk ribbon fastenings and intricate florals. In fact, I'd happily own everything on their site in exchange of my own scrambled drawer of threadbare Primark cheapies and knotted tights.

There are also plenty of playful, yet tasteful, Valentines Day suppliments on their pretty website including black heart tassled MADE TO ORDER (!!) pasties and silk and lace eye masks which I can guarantee you are more stylish than anything you'll pay through the nose for in, the increasingly tawdry, Ann Summers.



Another thing about this company I so admire is their just how their mission statement is to produce lingerie that can be 'enjoyed by women all over the world'. How refreshing to see a company, that errs towards the erotic accessories market, stressing the importance of the female customer's enjoyment of the product. Satisfying the male partner by recreating the sort of costumes encountered in pornography is not the priority of Love Baby Grand, their 'number one rule is that [they] don't sell anything that they wouldn't desire for themselves'. The majority of the erotic lingerie mainstream, including the Ann Summers chain, prefer to use pornography as their sole inspiration and thus, heaving bosoms, faux-bronzed limbs and gaping, glossy mouths have become the template for their advertisements in an imitation of the images we encounter on the front covers of lad's mags.

Just compare the use of a non-caucasian model, with a petite frame and minimal make-up, depicted in a series of relatable backdrops - as is the case with Love Baby Grand - with this image from Ann Summers lingerie collection.



The model's gaze is turned away, there is no eye contact with the potential customer and her back is arched, displaying her body to its full potential. The heaving bosom is ostensibly surgically enhanced, the hair is dyed, the eye make up heavy and that choker? Gah! She is surrounded by studio lights in a heavy suggestion of performance: presumably either stripping or pornography. The underwear itself is frankly grotesque and, as far as I can comprehend, the only reason a woman would want to wear it would be to satisfy a very masculine imagining of female sexuality somewhat tantamount to this:



Again we see the same averted eye, proud presentation of the breasts and even similarities in the appearances of the two models: almost identical bodily proportions, hair style and make-up. This picture, however was taken from Nuts magazine and not from a website with a principal clientele of women and with a mission statement to 'make women feel good about themselves and their sexuality' (Jaqueline Gold, Chief Executive). But how exactly? By selling them products to assist their transformation into the contemporary ideal of 'hot' which, from the images we overwhelmingly encounter in the male-orientated media, is very young, very slim, very busty, very caucasian and very much in need of male approval. And how exactly do these images, which acknowledge pornography as their key reference point, 'make women feel good about their sexuality'? For starters, pornography has nothing to do with female sexuality, it is about female performance and, essentially, male masturbation!

I think it's time to drive capitalism out of our sex lives and rediscover the aspects that simply cannot be commodified or redefined for commercial purposes. Sex is essentially something very organic, immaterial and therefore concerned with human interaction over monetary transaction. No one should feel as though they have to conform to a minute criterion of what is considered 'sexy' by the commercial sex industry in order to justify being desired. If you intend to buy lingerie to make yourself feel special then you should choose something you are genuinely attracted towards, something that will enhance your own confidence, reflect your individual personality and, ultimately, something that reflects your own definition of alluring and sensual.

In my case, Love Baby Grand floral knickers easily out do crotchless polyester. How about you?

Spring is for Heidi braids

Photo by Jian Wei