Trench – Uniqlo, Wool shawl – Regent street cashmere store, Pants shoes bag – Gmarket, Sheer tunic – Zara, Satin Suspenders – Sonia Rykiel for H&M, Bracelet – COS | Photos by Susan Falkenas

A few hours ago I was feeling incredibly light-headed and feverish so I did what everyone, including doctors nurses and dentists, does in the 21st century and googled my symptoms down to the my left eye is smaller than my right and got such a polite result: Panic attack and denial brought on by imminent deadline, or Did you mean: Go Back To Work Lazy Cow? I tell you, Google will replace parents in the next century. OK so goodbye, going back to work.

All Images from Gmarket Halumaybe
Rabbit/Fax-leather Gilet $57, 2-Button wool-mix coat $53, Coat-like wool-mix vest $52, Slouch pocket shirt $9 (but out of stock?), Hoodie coat $26, Peterpan collar dress $26, Slouch pocket vest $9 (also out of stock?)

Dictionary.com tweeted yesterday that we still have 6 weeks of winter left; hot dang, I love your words and nouns and verbs and all that but you’re such a partypoop! According to my prognostication, this rapacious gelid winter was meant to skedaddle soon so we can finally sing our aubade of springtime but I now see interpreting all the mondegreen signs was a big fat jauk on my part! (There, I used all the Word of the Day from the last week, are you proud or what.)

So my butterflies went back into their caterpillar trenchcoats, bistro chairs back indoors and twitters are still only to be heard through a digital blue bird. Actually, I don’t even know why we’re expecting spring already. It barely turned February! My mother still informs me it’s -20°C in Warsaw which I think is a little far from flower budding temperature, just a smidge. But this is all just so confusing, Vogue UK March just arrived on my doorstep yesterday bursting at the seams with spring stories, and London is preparing for a Fashion Week season that comes after the one we’re waiting for now.

Well, I headed over to Gmarket for the first time in ages (yeah who’s to believe that), which was ironically pacifying despite the epileptic gif storm… and I thought I’d share a new favourite seller since it’s still winter for who knows how long and it’s supposedly the best time to embrace black? Halu Maybe has a great trendless collection of silent drapes and clean cuts, a recommended break away from the rest of the flickering hypertrend items screaming for attention.

All photos from Angels, the Costumiers | (First photo a view of facility, not of sale)

The Angels have decided that 25,000 pieces of clothing and accessories was getting a bit too much for playing the harps on big white clouds so they’ve decided (again) to have a garage sale for us mortals. I’d first read about the Vintage sale in December 2008 when Susie showed off her grabs, and since then I’ve been curious about how, when again and WHY NOT ME. Well, this Saturday 6th of February me will definitely happen, and here’s a shoutout for you too.

The Angels Retro sale will be buy-the-bag, where a medium (quite a generous size, I hear) sized bag will cost £20 and a large £50, with an entrance fee of £5. This means you can stuff a military overcoat and a handful of 1950 blouses and walk out having lost just one pink paper with the Queen’s face (obviously depending on stuffing talent), what vintage store in London can offer that? They’re informing that the sale will feature pieces from the 1950s to the 1990s, including an extra room with high-quality military and civilian uniforms. Now imagine how a military geek like myself might’ve reacted to that last bit.

For those not familiar with Angels, they are the hands behind the pastel corsets of Marie Antoinette (2006), the threads of the silk kimonos for The Memoirs of A Geisha (2005) and so many many more. Read more on their history and details of the sale here.

So, see you near the helmets?

Sweater Jacket, Dress, Leggings – Zara, Jacket – Vintage Escada (MilanVintage Etsy), Bracelet & Necklace – F21, Bag – River Island Man, Shoes – Gmarket | Photos by Susan Falkenas

During the year and a teaspoon of blogging I’ve encountered numerous occasions when I’d receive emails reading along the lines of which camera & lens model do you use exactly? and would buying it help my blog’s popularity? Hm now, I’m not out to bash those who were genuinely interested in photography and simply wanted to know the tools; I’m not out to bash anyone really, but something inside me breaks when that question appears from behind the legs like a devil child just waiting to possess a dog. It’s a huge misunderstanding if you think good camera equipment makes a good blog, or even a good photograph; it’s like telling an Olympic athlete that you like his running records, what brand is his running shoes.

I feel that boiling down the quality of a blog to the equipment is also an gross under-appreciation to those who take the photos. Sure, I might abuse them and call them names such as homo podians but they are the ones behind all this outfit-photo magic. I’ve been incredibly blessed to have talented and willing people around me to take outfit photos, albeit some being closer to a tripod than a human (sorry mum), I really can’t thank them enough. As many of you know by now, Ellen has been taking majority of my London photos, you must check out her blog to see the glory of her illustration talent. Thank you Ellen, for slaving away at extra photos on a bad face day, for avoiding angles that make it seem like the streetlamp is growing out of my head, and for forgiving me when I put up 3 photos when we took about 300.

So you see, good blog photos are not what the super camera can manage to capture when aimed, it’s how much you and people around you toil to produce; and what makes a great blog photo is all the fun you have and the relationship you build while producing it.
The exact model and make of my camera & lens is in the Q&A/FAQ page, feel free to purchase the exact same thing.

p.s This outfit shoot was done by Susan, a new crew member. Everyone, meet Susan; Susan, meet everyone. She’s a whole other post.