31

And on the topic of turning 31, this is a great post and I say Aye!

Blue Velvet and Green Nails

Over the weekend...

I got a haircut (trying out a fringe for the first time since my mum stopped cutting my hair, eek!)

(this is sortof what my hair looks like now, no really....actually it's sortof what I wished my hair looked like, with the fringe and the tendrils but minus the cool, for now, until I figure it out, or so I hope, err....)

(picture from here)

A great mint green manicure (I love Jade but the best part of Chanel's F/W2009 collection was to me the nail polish, rest of the jade inspired renditions was a little bit mehh)

(picture from style)

Went for a baby shower where my new favourite vintage hairpiece made its debut

(from this great etsy seller)

Had dim sum with champagne (absolutely divine combination)

and turned 31.

(picture from here)

Growing up, I always thought I was a bit of an old soul and liked to tell people my head and heart were actually in their 30s although I was then 1_/2_. But now that I am 31, it just seems precocious and a little laughable.

I acknowledge that I still do not have all the answers and there are many more unfulfilled longings and dreams. But the beauty of being 31, to me at least, is that now I feel it's fine to try, to fail, to fall flat and still laugh out loud. And fashion should be all about having fun. So blunt fringe, green nails and blue velvet in my hair? Bring it on :)

(picture from here)

Lovely Liv

To be anyone's muse connotes that one must have a certain quality; be it a look, a style, an eye. To be crowned as Ingmar Bergman's muse is a heavy title to wear. But how gracefully Liv Ullmann seems to play that role.

While together, Liv and Ingmar lived together with their daughter on the Swedish island of Faro where in a tiny little house Ingmar conceived and filmed many of his masterpieces. Apparently Ingmar had this habit of scribbling all over the furniture and walls his reminders and numbers. And on his workroom door, Liv and him would make daily drawings about their feelings for each other. When Liv left Ingmar finally, she drew a heart and wrote the words, "Liv leaves". And despite subsequent marriages on both sides, Ingmar kept that door and its markings till the day he died and even took pains to freshen it so that the elements would not bleach and fade it down.

When the stuff of movies and real lives collide.

But if you too had lived and loved beautiful lovely Liv with those eyes, maybe you'll never let that door fade too.

(Liv in Scenes from a Marriage, must find round geeky specs!)

(Liv today, photo from W Magazine)

And for all you lucky new yorkers, Liv is now directing Cate Blanchett in a production of A Streetcar Named Desire. Ah, Blanche DuBois. One of the best roles ever written for actresses past 30. Being staged by 2 thespians whose writeups invariably include the words, grace and strength. Run, don't walk. Meantime, I'll just sulk here in my corner. More on that here.

One More Try

The Hollywood marketing machinery is creaking up the works and has proclaimed that Crazy Heart will be the dark horse for the races this year. The trailer looks promising enough, who doesn't love a well shot well told tale of redemption and second chances but the winner, at this point at least, is that song! Listen here.

Oh Coen, When will Thou be Here?

Another year another Coen Brothers movie. I'm a happy gal, can't wait.

Catch the trailer here.

On the Cusp of a Moment

(All pictures from Eugenio Recueno porfolio)

the intellectual

She has been called one of fashion's great intellectual. And without a doubt, there is no one quite as intimidating and awe-inspiring working in fashion today. In recent times, the lustre seems to have faded a bit from Prada, certainly a far cry from the ubiquitous black nylon bags of the early 90s. I mean Spring 2009 Ready to Wear was most notable for falling models which inspired a thousand blog posts and fashion editorial to boot, a great addition to urban lore, not too sure about sales.

But Prada continues to engage and fascinate me. The sheer diversity of her collections, the evident intellectual rigor and childlike curiousity shines through and the items are works of modern art.

And ironically, while the rest of the fashion world swoons over Balmain and Wang and the now omnipresent Louboutins, I find myself building up quite a sizable wish list of Prada items instead.

1) The Book

"Just to do a few ultra-sophisticated things for the connoisseurs, as they are called – for me, that's completely boring. You want to be understood by the sophisticated few but you also have to be more loud somehow, otherwise your message doesn't go through."

-- Miuccia Prada

Read more about it here.

2) Resort Bag

3) Prada thinks it's time for a revival of the nylon bags. The sheen and slouch certainly seems a nice counterpoint to the structured jackets and oversized tees populating the stores now. But more importantly, they are so "out", they definitely seem due to come back in...like shoulderpads :p

(Picture of Miuccia from here, Prada runway photos all from Style and Prada bags from Stylecaster)

Majestic Hawkes

Kylie Hawkes describes her clothes as "new modern staples". Fluid jersey, sharp tailoring, with a side of frou frou thrown in. My kind of staples :)

(All pictures from kylie hawkes)

CHARACTER

This man is character with a capital "C".

"The only purpose of life is to avoid boredom," he says. "Madness is the greatest thing. Sane, ordinary people, God bless them, [theatrical pause] bollocks. Bollocks to them."

(Read the rest of the interview here)

Rainy Day

Into each life some rain must fall

some days must be dark and dreary

-- henry wadsworth longfellow

(Picture from here)

there's a secret squirrel in my garden

Or so i wish. Lovely designs from Australian label Secret Squirrel Clothing. Sequins, check. Fluorescent colour, check. Loose cropped pants, check. Yet it all seems so effortless and not trend-driven. Definitely making my heart a flutter.

(all pictures from secret squirrel clothing)

Too Nasty!

Nasty Gal Vintage's holiday collection is wayyyy nassty! Mesh on a sweater, how cool is that? Sadly missed out on the above. Will now be furiously searching for a mesh sweater doppelganger. Help!

Frou Frou-licking

In the mood for white, frills, lace and tulle.

(Pictures from Turned Out and Cocorosa)

Mary and Max

Adam Elliot's Oscar winning animated short film, Harvey Krumpet, opened with the following lines:

Some are born great
Some achieve greatness
And some have greatness thrust upon them
And then there are others……

In his new stop motion claymation feature film, Elliot revisits the themes touched on in Krumpet; outsiders grappling with social isolation, dysfunctional families, loneliness, uncertainty, death and yet always, a glimmer of hope in the affirming quality of a connection with someone.

Mary and Max chronicles the 18 years of friendship between 2 unlikely pen-pals; Mary Dinkle, a short chubby and lonely 8 year old girl living in the Australian suburbs and Max Horowitz, a severely obese middle age Jewish man in New York who suffers from Asperger's syndrome and for whom the phrase "full of quirks" does not quite encapsulate the complexity of this character.

Mary and Max click over a love of chocolate, unabashed curiosity with this world and its strange workings and the ability, as with the best kinds of friendship, to express whatever one desires whenever the thought strikes.

This is not a movie with any great revelation or epiphany nor is there the obligatory happy ending where the world realizes how adorable each of these characters are and they walk off into a sunset of smiling faces and social acceptance. Mary and Max both fumble through the act of living and experience their fair share of joys and sadness as with anybody else and at the end of 18 years, remain essentially the same people as at the beginning of the film; people who will never fit properly into mainstream society and are destined for a fair share of loneliness in the walk through life.

Of the 2, Max is a much better realized character whose thoughts and meltdowns, accompanied by the superb voice of Philip Seymour Hoffman, captivates. In comparison, Mary, especially post childhood, never really engages save for one magnificent scene which will likely forever change the song Que Sera Sera for you.



The movie is inspired in part by Elliot's real life pen friend who's an atheist of Jewish descent living in New York and has Asperger's and by Elliot's own childhood growing up in Mount Waverley in Melbourne. As often seems the case with real life inspirations, an objective clarity allows Max the creation to fully bloom while the muddy brown tinged world occupied by Mary often seems undefined and unsettled, perhaps an indication that a critical eye on one's own setting and motivations is often the trickiest form of inspiration to get just right.

A write up of the movie states that it is a film that explores friendship, autism, taxidermy, psychiatry, alcoholism, where babies come from, obesity, kleptomania, trust, copulating dogs, sexual and religious differences, agoraphobia and more. A movie that aspires to portray the above all in one continuous 90 minute reel might fall prey to its own idiosyncrasy and certainly parts of it seem gimmicky and calculated for effect. But in its portrayal of life's randomness, the truths contained within linger long after the amusement has faded.

Not clear whether Mary and Max would be widely distributed, which is certainly a pity.

However, you can catch Harvey Krumpet here, make sense of the picture below and celebrate life!

Of Smoke and Mirrors

"Love is the only thing that matters. Everything else is smoke and mirrors." So, is fashion smoke and mirrors, too? "That's the best smoke and the best mirror. You've gotta go out, so you should go out in style."

-- Daphne Guinness, heiress and goddess (the cut)

Well spoken, well lived.

My mirror.

(photo courtesy of foto decadent)