My Liberty coins

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One of the Christmas presents I received from my husband was a little velvet pouch full of Liberty coins. It’s basically a gift voucher for Liberty, one of my favourite shops in London (maybe in the world?), but in a much more appealing format. Heavy, realistic-looking coins printed by Liberty’s Central Bank. How delightful!

(In fact, one of Liberty’s employees told me the coins are printed in the Bank of England printing facility…which I find hard to believe, but well, it kind of sounds amusing.)

I had hoped for a very rational management of my Liberty coin stack during 2013. I’d estimated that the amount would be enough to last until June. Besides, I am attending a weddings this summer and I thought I could use a good share of my coins to buy a lovely dress for the occasion. Ahah… I was fooling myself, obviously. It’s the 2nd of March today and I’ve got only one-third of my initial stack of coins left.

So, ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce my 2 investment pieces:

Isabel Marant Etoile Sandrine skirt

A.P.C. blue, silver & white collarless shirt (the photo doesn’t do it justice. The fabric is really lovely)

I couldn’t resist to these two pieces. Haven’t worn them yet (it’s been TOO COLD here in London), but have already figured out several possible looks (do you this when you buy new clothes or shoes? I always do it. I mean, I try to estimate how many nice looks I can create with the item I’m considering buying. The more looks, the higher the probability of buying). I’ve photographed a few of the ways I’m planing to wear these pieces – see below…

♥ with simple black shirt & tights + my Zara booties ♥ with my husband’s XL green jumper ♥ with my Whistles cream top & bare legs(?) (Well, this one is good in theory but in practice I’ve got some doubts. I’ve to accept that cream/beige/nudes are hostile territory for me. Because I’m already too beige myself, these colours don’t do my any favour. I’ll need wear some crazy makeup or jewellery, in order to bring some life to my face) ♥

♥ 70s style with high-waisted corduroy trousers from Anthropologie ♥ A.P.C. good-girl style with shirt & skirt by the french brand and Ash camel boots ♥ relaxed style with H&M boyfriend jeans (hated by my husband. Whatever) and brown brogues from Dune ♥

The allocation of the remaining coins is now under deliberation. I had my heart on a spring jacket by Sessun that I know Liberty is going to stock (this one), but possibly due to the fashion-weeks-effect (i.e. the effect of seeing too many wonderfully dressed women wearing colors, prints, taking risks and being fashionable and happy – see post below), I’m now leaning towards something less sensible and a lot more fashionista from Kenzo (e.g. a nice colourful silk scarf) or Carven (e.g. a wonderful pleated skirt).

I will let you know of the outcome.

FW 2013

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Street style shots are half of the fun of fashion weeks. At least for someone who’s not part of the industry.

These are some of my style crushes this season…

(click on photos to be directed to sources)

Ohhh… all so amazing.
Every fashion week I’m reminded that I need to start being more adventurous with my sartorial choices…

Oysho

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A few months ago I was talking with a Twitter friend about sleepwear and I said that I always get mine from either from Gap or, if I want something a bit more feminine, Princesse Tam Tam. Underwear also comes invariably from these two same places or from Calvin Klein (definitely, it has the best bras for my body type). Last Christmas, however, I realised that there’s another brand that plays a major role in my underwear/sleepwear drawers: Oysho.

I’ve bought / been gifted so many pieces from this brand for the past few years that I thought it was time to rectify my words and give it a special mention in this blog.

Oysho is part of the Inditex empire and offers a great range of good quality, good design pieces at reasonable prices. It is the equivalent to Massimo Dutti or Zara in the loungewear/sleepwear/underwear department. (Yeah, I know, I’m pushing it by saying that MD offers reasonable prices or that Zara offers good quality… while it certainly doesn’t apply to all the stuff they sell, I do think that if you search & choose wisely you can get great deals, price-quality wise, in these two brands.)

Here’s some items from Oysho I’ve received…

… or bought for the past months…

I was very much convinced until very recently that this brand was an exclusive of Spain and Portugal, but I’ve found out that they not only have stores in several other countries across the globe (Mexico, China, Egypt, Italy, Netherlands..), but also sell online in the UK (even though they haven’t got any physical store here yet). In fact, the UK online shop is full of nice things from the new collection.

Just have a look at some of my favourites…

Definitely worth having a look: Oysho

New in

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Arrived in my closet last month:

Sandro linen shirt

I’d seen and liked this shirt earlier in the season, but found it too expensive, as it often happens with Sandro. Luckily, I ended up finding it with 50% off a couple of weeks ago in Selfridges. (A picture of me wearing it here.)

A.P.C. mohair jumper

Similar story to the one above. Saw this jumper in store a few months ago, loved it but didn’t want to pay full price for it. One day, in January, while checking My-Wardrobe end of sale I see that there’s 1 last jumper left in my size for £48. That is, less than 25% of the original price. Done. It was fate.

Vanessa Bruno Lune Clutch

This had been on my wishlist for ages. There was no magical ending to the story, though – I did pay full price on this occasion. But I’m happy in the same way. This is a great little bag that, once again, reminds me why I love Vanessa Bruno so much. Good quality products, classic designs with a little twist. Easy to blend in and match with the rest of my wardrobe. The kind of stuff I will happily wear over and over again. (I know, this sounds predictable and boring. But, well, I don’t like disposable. I want my love for my clothes & accessories to last for more than a season or two.)

I got my Lune clutch in pink (a sort of dark, old pink), from Monnier Freres.

The Nostalgist

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Even though I’m not at all involved in filmmaking myself (I work in education / research), in the past few weeks my life was totally sucked up by the production & shooting of a short film. My husband’s short film. And, let me tell you, it was at the same time a very exhausting and extremely addictive experience. I certainly don’t get the sort of adrenaline + creativity rushes I’ve seen on the movie set in my profession very often. I want more of it!!!

So, without further delay, let me show you a few (mostly unofficial) stills of The Nostalgist, a short film directed by my husband, Giacomo, and produced by my good friends Tommaso and Pietro.

 

 

It’s going to be an awesome short!

Today

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I don’t wear eyeshadow very often. My daily eye makeup routine usually consists of a black or bronze eyeliner, eyelash curler and, if I’m feeling adventurous, a layer or two of mascara.

Every now and then I’ll take a step further and wear a bit of eyeshadow. Bronze/kakhi hues are my favourite and Bobbi Brown’s long-wear cream shadow in Beach Bronze is a winner.

 Beautiful colour. Highly pigmented. Long lasting.*

* I always apply MAC’s Prep+Prime eye base under any eye shadow. I found it makes all the difference for me – it’s the only way make up can last for more than a couple of hours on my oily skin.

Worth every penny.

(There’s a couple of interesting discussions about the merits of primers recently on Into the Gloss (here) and Garance Dore (here), by the way.)

Do you wear eye makeup regularly? If so, what type of products?

And now for something completely different, this is what I (also) wore today…

My beloved Flavie blouse.

I’m so glad I bought this blouse. It’s exactly what I feel like wearing right now (under several layers of cardigans, coats and scarves).

Wearing

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Squirrels and rabbits seersucker dress from APC Madras…

I love wearing dresses (you already knew this because I keep repeating it :) and, for me & my lifestyle, nobody does day dresses better than APC.

Cheap treat

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Let me share a secret with you…

Garnier Ultimate Beauty Oil

Non-greasy, ultra moisturizing, easy and quick to apply, less than £8 a (long-lasting 150 ml) bottle.
Don’t be put off if you don’t love the scent (I confess I didn’t like it much at first), because it goes away very quickly.

If you’re looking for a body oil, I think you may want to give this one a try…

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