NyLon – Nights Out On Both Sides Of The Atlantic

The idea of a jet-setting lifestyle may be completely out of reach for most of us, but that isn’t to say that you can’t plan ahead and make a superbly ace night out on both sides of the Atlantic! Raid that wardrobe, pack your bags, and see what’s cool to do in New York and London on a Saturday night!

Bembe. Brooklyn, New York – Underneath the Williamsburg Bridge is a little hideaway that’s pulsating with Latin beats and candle lit dancers swaying away to sexy sounds. For those that may find it a touch too hot, have a chill at the bar and get some tequila shots down you. The locals swear by dipping their lime in sugar AND coffee! Strange, but somehow it kinda really works! Try it and see if that’s not how you’ll have your tequila from now on!

Raffles. Chelsea, London – It’s a members club and membership is only by invitation, but you can get yourself on the guest list and get yourself a Raffles table booking. The intimate surroundings combined with the VIP service will make you feel a feel preeeetty spesh, and, there’s an abundance of cocktails to choose from, yummies! And there are usually a few celebs to keep an eye out for, having been featured heavily in Made In Chelsea, or if music’s more your thing, The Rolling Stones have been caught partying there too! So if you have the stamina to go until the club closes at 6 in the morning, get yerself down there!

House Of Yes. Brooklyn, New York – This spot opened in 2016 and has quickly become a way for party goers to wear insane costumes and go all out on the weekend! They hold parties like the exhibitionist “House of Love” as well as the immersive “Little Cinema” film tribute nights. Let’s not forget the aerialists, dancers, and magicians that are flying all around you! As an experience like no other, House of Yes is not just a place to go and have drinks, but it’s a place that will have you yelling “yes” in wonderment at every turn.

The Electric Ballroom. Camden, London – At the heart of the hippest part of London, The Electric Ballroom hosts every music night you can think of, but the highlight has got to be the Ultimate Power club night. It’s 80’s anthems, all night! If you think that the best way to enjoy a night is to yell along to Bon Jovi’s “Living On A Prayer” and playing inflatable guitars, this is gonna to be one of your best nights out eveeeer! A lot of people think the 80’s went out of fashion quicker than disco, but judging by the crowds at these nights, it’s never been damn cooler.

London and New York have been two cities separated by a common ocean, and if you’ve got the money for a jet-hopping life, then you can’t do better than these places, they are totally my two favourite cities on earth. You’ve gotta try to get out and see the nightlife in both cities, go on, wear some NyLon!

The Perfect 1930’s Fashion of Woody Allen’s Cafe Society

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If movies were beverages, Woody Allen’s Cafe Society would be a cool glass of smooth Champagne; sparkling and decadent. A beautifully enchanting and bittersweet film, set in 1930’s Hollywood and New York. This latest Allen offering has his usual perfectly paced wit and charm, with Jesse Eisenberg captivating in his lead role, particularly personifying a younger Allen, a modern embodiment of the man himself with his faultless delivery of the dialogue and eager awkwardness. The film has a gorgeous, subtle and easy pace alongside the scintillating quickness of the script. Blake Lively and Kristen Stewart are the fashion in this film, gah, what era is more cinematically superb than the 1930’s? This is a feast of fashion indeed.

Floaty, feminine fabrics, dainty and fragile details, the 30’s clothes in this movie are so expertly selected, with pastels and ditzy florals in abundance for day wear and jaw dropping glamour when it comes to the evening wear. We’re watching the Bette Davis era, the elegance and sophistication is magnified and each outfit creates heart-shaped eyes for the viewer. Frilled cape sleeves, floppy neck ties, slim lines and below the knee hemlines conjure up a time when fashion was neat and beautifully effeminate. On a fashion note alone, this stunning film is worth watching just for the red silk gown worn by Lively, which in my opinion easily rivals that green dress worn by Keira Knightley in the film Atonement. Oh my.

You’ll come away from this movie with the 30’s on your mind, eager to add some of that look to your wardrobe, trust me, you really will. You’ll want sherbet colours, delicate details and prim gloves, you’ll be inspired to add a bias cut to your repertoire – which is flattering for every shape – you’ll want a neat short curled bob in your hair and a beaded bag on your arm. The day wear is cute and accessible and the evening wear is pure luxury on your skin, be it crepe or silk, no gal can feel unnoticed in a 30’s gown. Scour sites like Etsy for originals and replicas, or seek out online vintage fashion stores like mine which have done the hard work for you and have found the best pieces. To wear authentic items can be a pricey affair, but these pieces are a true investment with their value constantly on the rise, they’re an excellent addition to any collection, plus if you take the time to search you can find amazing items at fair prices or you can simply invest in some accessories of the era to add to your modern look, giving a discreet nod to this perfect period.

Cafe Society is available to own on DVD, Blu-Ray and digital download from 26th December 2016, courtesy of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, and I defy you to watch it and not be inspired to dress and dream as though you are living in the utter delight of the decade. Swoon.

 

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An American Adventure

I’m back! Back from a holiday that was brilliant beyond words! Having had our shop in Norwich for so long, James and I had to always take separate, if any, holidays and so finally we got to take one together; and my goodness it was good! We decided we were gonna take a holiday to celebrate James’ big birthday and then when our beautiful friends who live in NYC announced that they were getting hitched in the middle of Moab Desert in Utah, we decided that a road trip through USA was the only way to go! We flew to San Francisco and spent a few days staying with my long time bestie Kristin, and then picked up our hire car, a Jeep and headed out to the desert! Going via Big Sur, Santa Barbara, Las Vegas and Escalante before hitting Utah for the wedding! Then a few more days of exploring, through Beaver and back to Vegas before flying home!

I was brought up, very fortunately, with lots of emphasis on travel and so I’ve spent much time visiting USA before as well as having spent time there studying for my Degree, I ADORE America, that place truly has my heart and this trip was a pure delight! My eyes saw things they couldn’t quite believe, the scenery in Utah was other-worldly and the heat was insane…45 degrees in the desert!! Wooosh! The trip was mind-blowing and then the wedding of our brilliant friends made it even more special! A beautiful glamping weekend wedding with the heat and the backdrop of the desert, it was so very magical I cannot even try to describe it. Simply luminous with love.

The trip cost us money we don’t have and I feared James and I would drive each other crazy in a car for two weeks, but, it was worth every cent and squabble, what a wonderful adventure we had, a perfect start to our new non-shop chapter of life! I’m pretty snap-happy with my iPhone when travelling and seeing new things, so I documented the whole trip on my Instagram; lots of you appeared to enjoy sharing my journey with me, such fun! These are just a few highlights, if you wanna, you can see all my holiday snaps here!

What a ride! Now back to reality and pretty dresses! xx

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Prim girl goes Punk; Chaos to Couture in NYC

METBeing a girl who adores fashion exhibitions, and being a girl who was just recently in New York City, it must come as no surprise that, whilst in Manhattan, I headed straight off to The Metropolitan Museum of Art to take a look at the current Costume Institute exhibition; Punk: Chaos to Couture. Concieved and curated by the British Andrew Bolton and designed by Sam Gainsburg, this exhibition was a real delight. Having had some critiscm for not representing the gritty, agressive, druggy and anti-establisment culture of punk, Bolton has instead curated an exhibition of fashion through the years which pays tribute to and embraces the ethos of punk and its visual language. He deliberately didn’t want to do a nostalgic retrospective on punk,  “I don’t want this to be a trip down memory lane”, I think by making that choice he has provided us with a really fresh take on the genre and its enduring influence on high fashion. The exhibition has done exactly what it set out to do, it is a fashion exhibition and not a look at music, politics or the subculture of punk itself.

This exhibition is a feast for the eyes, no glass boxes, no stuffy layout, all the clothes were in the open and perfectly grouped in each gallery, some gallerys were light and modern with a clean monotone pallette while others were dark and loud and multicoloured. Each gallery was totally different from the last and each was stunning. The exhibition looked at the origins of Punk in the 70’s, covering both London and NYC, with cute mock-ups of seedy club toilets and the Vivienne Westwwood Sex shop. It then covered all aesthetic influences of punk with galleries each dedicated to a theme; DIY Hardware, Bricolage, Graffiti & Agitpop, and Destroy. Some of the clothes were beautiful, some were a little experimental, but stunning in their creations none the less. It was great that there was really recent fashion there as well as some older pieces, original Westwood items from the era alongside a 2010 Punk inspired Moschino dress. The clash between the creaftmanship of couture and the ameturism of real DIY punk clothing was both subtle but deliberate, as Bolton himself said, both stem from spontaniety and individuality, therefore embracing the punk ideal. The styling of the mannequins was great, very strong with matching wigs of exaggerated spiked and coloured hair. The lighting in each space was theatrical perfection. I loved this exhibition, I saw fashions that I adored and I saw styling that was humourous and well thought out, the fact it was in my favourite museum in my favourite city on a balmy hot day made it all the more super. I’d recommend this to people who love fashion, if you were an original punk and looking for a representation of the era and all its anarchy then you won’t find it here, this is about fashion and the influence punk has on it; its a pretty kind of punk. Pretty cool.

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  1. Christopher Bailey for Burberry S/S 2013
  2. Original Westwood/McLaren Seditionaries T-shirts
  3. amazing studded skirt from Too fast To Live, Too Young To Die, 1972
  4. general exhibition view
  5. black dress on the left by Versace S/S 1994 (famously worn by Liz Hurley)
  6. black bin bag dress by House of Moschino S/S 1994
  7. outfit of pearls by Maison Martin Margiela  S/S 2006
  8. plastic bag dress on far right by House of Moschino S/S 1994
  9. general view including Katherine Hamnett slogan T-shirts
  10. spray painted Alexander McQueen S/S 1999
  11. general exhibition view
  12. dress by Miguel Androver 2000
  13. the final mannequin gives the finger

Punk: Chaos to Couture is at The Met until 14th August 2013

A sunny Brooklyn flea market

fleaOn my first saturday in Brooklyn, Kristin and I headed up the street to my favourite flea market, it was suuuuuper sunny and so was a perfect morning to mooch around and look at the wares. This flea market is a great size, big but not too big, lots of clothes, furniture and crafty bits; more craft and less vintage than when I was last here and more pricey than my last visit, but, good vintage dresses are becoming harder to find so I totally understood the higher prices. Some stalls did have great prices though as I did find an amaaazing pair of pink and gold 80’s Bally shoes for $20 though which made me squeal out loud on first glance. I also bought a cute cat softy for my nephew and the coooolest handmade card for James.

It was so sunny, I was crazy hot and then…. ta-daaah!… I saw People’s Pops among the stalls….whoop…I haven’t ever seen this cute brand before and I LOVED IT! The branding, the simplicity, the concept and on a hot day, their pure fruit lollies or cups of shaved ice are perfection! The guys were really popular, with a huge slab of ice they shave off enough to fill a cup and add a shot of fruit syrup on top, or you can have a lolly laden with fruity goodness….mmmmmmm!

A good day indeed.

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