Château de Fontainebleu

Neoprene Jacket, H&M trend. Jeans, Levi’s. Scarf, Alice & Olivia. Sunnies, Jeepers Peepers. Oxford Shirt, hubby’s Ralph Lauren. Chelsea Boots, Topshop

So… remember that giggle-and-titter trip to Disneyland from a few moons past with Jen, Fred & hubby? Believe it or not, there was quite a journey before we reached happily ever after in the land of dreams – no I’m not referring to the Eurostar ride. I’m talking about the shuffle into van and drive down towards the gleaming castle and towards a distant, yet still squeaky-clear, melody of ‘it’s a small world afterall’ and everyone hoots – even the boys – then driver takes sharp left and continues down 45 minutes through French countryside and passengers sulk silently type of journey. Later we found out the Vienna International Hotels team had so gracefully planned an extensive itinerary, which involved of touching four corners of the Disney experience, where three don’t sell princess dresses. Disneyland was first corner, naturally; second was Paris – an hour van-ride from the Dream Castle Hotel, where we got tipsy and watched boobies jiggle on stage. La Vallée Village was third, the outlet shopping village (think Bicester Village) two minutes from the hotel where I was denied purchasing a certain pair of Céline sandals marked £190 by hubby who pulled the leash (mostly expressing disgruntle over unfulfilled one-in-one-out policy). Fourth and last was Château de Fontainebleu, home of many, MANY Kings, Queens, Emperors and Empresses’ over the past eight centuries. Let me first apologize for the amount of photos you’ve had to scroll through and here’s a Gatorade for your fingers. (Olympic spirit!) By the third chamber I gave up with the tourguide and lagged behind, it felt a crime to simply brush by the breathtaking details of each room – the brilliant colours, intricate patterns and rich textures… Heck, I know this sounds oddly grown-up and therefore incredibly unlike moi but I’d actually like to visit Disneyland again and dedicate one whole day checking out the 9/10th of the palace we missed. Dibs on the palace if I ever become King of France.

As seen in H&M Magazine Summer 2012 feature

Worn with: Blazer, Maarten van der Horst for Topshop. Sheer tunic, Zara. Fringed bag, Barbara Boner. Shoes, Patrizia Pepe. Belt, Louis Vuitton via Vestiaire Collective

I highly recommend watching this video before you even contemplate raiding the scarf drawer for a victim, because I personally made a mistake of not consulting the mighty internet (one does not simply walk into DIY without an appointment with Dr Google) and ended up with – I kid you not – three disfigured DIY ‘silk’ trousers with half-crotch/inside-out-seams/uneven legs*. Thank goodness the scarves were about £7 each from H&M, I’m filing that as ‘sewing-and-general-logic’ lesson fee.

• If available, it’s best to use a pattern (for lounge pants or PJ bottoms) since then you can’t go wrong with fitting, but you can also be a renegade and go freehand of fashion dummy like moi (and possibly pay 3 scarves worth in lesson fee)
• The length of the trousers really depend on the size of scarf you can find – even with a small-ish scarf you could use to make a pair of silk summer shorts (or cellu-lightning-frightening butt shorts, I like to call)
• Taking a fine material as silk through the sewing machine might prove to be quite difficult in the beginning, so do few practice rounds with the left-over scarf bits after cutting out the pattern. Although I guess by then it’s too late to turn back and you might as well butcher the poor scarf

Good luck!

H&M Magazine: Summer 2012

Shoes, Patrizia Pepe. Trousers, DIY

Thank you hubby for helping with the shots

Next time you’re out shopping for a pair of scarf-print trousers, you know, with dodgy stitching and a waistband scrimped out of an old pair of jeggings, I recommend you pop into H&M and pick up a copy of the summer issue magazine. Then come home, dig out an big old scarf, and give your sewing machine (or mum) a good rattle. I personally was like this through the entire procedure but I promise it was a lot of fun. Best bit? Use the leftover fabric to do Erica’s (of the emporium that is Honestly…WTF) satchel DIY that’s on the other side of the spread. I’ll pop the full DIY up live next week, so go dig up a big scarf in the meantime!

(Left-to-Right)1 Leather Coat – Gift from mummy (Massimo Dutti), Stripe Top –Uniqlo, Jeans – Replay, Khaki heels – Primark, Necklace –DanniJo, Cross-body Bag– ASOS
2 Black neoprene jacket – H&M, Parachute Dress – All Saints, Stripe Top – Uniqlo, Bag – Barbara Boner, Necklace – Brook & Lyn, Booties – Missoni
3 Leather shorts – Vintage, Shoes – secondhand Alexander Wang via Vestiaire Collective, Trench – Uniqlo, Bag – Marc Jacobs via Monnier Freres, Stripe Top – Uniqlo

Boys, look away, go play with the lawn sprinkler please. Girls, should I be afraid the Uniqlooks monthly

recap is synchronizing with my release-the-Kraken time of the month? Like clockwork! I hate you! I love you. Nowadays this seems to be the only thing that helps keep track of time… this and an evil pile of bills that clog up the mailbox but never-mind that because I don’t believe they exist, realllllllly, it’s just a fantasy. (Hubby says he’s got it, such a man) Anyhow, just a quick one for today – the classic striped top that just about goes with anything, done up in three ways. Mind, I might’ve butchered the fail-safe classic with the parachute-dress, but right now that floats my hormonal boat so please let’s just call it an outfit.

1    Cotton Shirt – Uniqlo Men, Jeans – Zara, Shoes – Friis & Company (via Zalando), Bag – Marc Jacobs via Monnier Freres, Boyfriend Watch – ASOS
2    Black trench – Calvin Klein (gift from mummy!), Cotton Shirt – Uniqlo Men, Trousers – Uniqlo, Shoes – secondhand Alexander Wang via Vestiare Collective, Diary – Filofax Enigma
3    Leather Cap – Ebay, Cotton Shirt – Uniqlo Men, Dress – ASOS, Jacket – H&M, Leather trousers -ASOS, Shoes – Chloe Sevigny x Opening Ceremony

The irregular geography of the warehouse conversion that is our flat lends a lifestyle not unlike a 11-year-old’s birthday party held in one of those kiddy indoor-playgrounds with rubber obstacles and plastic-ball pools that generally smell of feet and pee. OK, the latter probably not so much – on most days, at least – unless I once again decide to be clever with the pantry arrangement and place a melon on the top shelf and then 5 weeks later find out it’s leaked pee-like substance throughout the entire shelving unit. Rotten melon reeks of sweaty feet, why naturally! Anyhoo, from the mezzanine level I have a sweeping view of the entire flat, so by default anything that needs to be taken down to the lounge, or the general direction of the exit, is simply thrown down over the rails. With an accompanying ‘weeeeeeeeee’ noise at that. Said items either land on the bicycles or squarely on the couch, which is in fact where a haphazard pile of junk now lives – aka my new closet. Consisting of this Uniqlo Men’s pink cotton shirt, a few crumpled ‘silk’ tops, two pairs of jeans, a jersey dress, four jackets for the daily season-change and of course socks of unknown cleanliness sprinkled in between… these are things I’ve been pulling out for the past how many months I’ve had the day-job. If I’d known growing up was to be this messy I think I’d have followed the boy out the window when I had the chance, but then again looking at the state of the flat I’ve clearly convinced him to marry me and sign Neverland over in a prenup. From time to time I slide down the stairs’ handrail fireman-style and wail siren-noises to alert the hubby that I’m hungry.

Please do check out Uniqlooks to see what I’ve been up to and join in on the Uniqlo dress-up fun! Thank you Kit for helping with the first outfit and hubby for the rest!