Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama @ Selfridges, London

24 windows based on her poem ‘Love Forever’

Selfridges Wonder Room concept store

After closing hours: the coming together of the Selfridges installation

And your own little Kusama keepsake: Easy-peasy dotty DIY

Many thanks to Anna for the tour around LV x Kusama concept store in Selfridges Wonder Room, and Michelle for helping with photo no 16.

So word on the street was that Louis Vuitton erected a 6-metre-tall Kusama to guard the Selfridges main entrance clock, and seeing that Dr Google wasn’t answering my ‘why am I seeing spots everywhere’ questions (‘It’s just worms in your eyes’ is not helping, dude) I decided to pay Dotty-san a visit. There she was, five whole metres of that red dress (she was born in it, I swear) and a pair of door-sized black loafers casting shadows above my head. It was all too large for a simple Q&A session so I decided to take it up with the

more adequate version in window #23 of total 24 dotty windows. I enquired about her plans of world domination (starting with Instagram) and she stood solemnly answering with blinks (strict orders not to move during daytime apparently, all very Toy Story) – one blink for YES world domination, two for NO world domination – and just that one blink it was.

Make sure to pay her a visit at the LV x Kusama concept store in the Selfridges Wonder Room before the 19th October.

Some tips with the nail-do:

• The Kusama polkadot pattern doesn’t actually have a grid-based pattern, the dots are positioned quite randomly in varying sizes. Best if you start with the biggest size and go for a Marc Jacobs-y dot-spacing then fill the surroundings with smaller dots.
• Red-white is the classic combo, but the LV x Kusama collection features yellow-black, green-black and blue-black. The yellow-black skirt is one of my favourite pieces so I thought I’d put that as an accent (ring finger, right hand).
• When doing the dots, it’s best to get as little varnish on your brush as possible to avoid having a blob and waiting for it to never dry.

That’s all! Easy peasy, dot butt squeasy!

Tokyo, last day

Stella McCartney Falabella pouch

Rose-gold watch, GUESS.

Shoes, Alexander Wang via Vestiaire Collective. Watch, GUESS.

Floral top – Zara. Belt – LV via Vestiaire Collective. Shorts – DIY cropped black jeans from Zara. Sheer balloon skirt – ASOS. Shoes – Alexander Wang via Vestiaire Collective. Bag- Bottega Veneta.

Last day of Tokyo: 9,000 windows and berries for breakfast; ¥8,150 left in my pocket to buy presents for hubby, ¥500 left after a trip to Comme des Garcons, 20 minutes to meet a Japanese friend for coffee at the BVLGARI cafe in Shinjuku, 15 minutes to shop in a twelve-storey Uniqlo (impossibru), 5 new types of sushi tasted at lunch, 4 new favourite types of sushi, 2 minutes fitting the Prada flagship store designed by Herzog and de Meuron into sight while passing by in mini-bus, 1.5 cats seen in total (0.5 = tail and a spotted leg), 1 minute pondering what the Japanese word is for ‘STOP’  as the airport car passes by a Issey Miyake Pleats Please, 0% eagerness to enter homebound plane.

That about sums it up! Thank you Perrier-Jouët once again for a wonderful experience.

Collecting goods at Vestiaire Collective

Bikerjacket style raincoat, H&M Trend. Dress, Casson London. Python-print Bag, Marc by Marc Jacobs. Shoes, Alexander Wang. Belt, Louis Vuitton; both via Vestiaire Collective

So we’ve established that I don’t even wake up for the fire alarm nowadays, but there was a time – before the dentures – when I’d jolt up a the sound of DOINK from an auction page at dead-hour and basically I’d have about 18 minutes to scramble out of bed and judge whether I’m willing to bid over £11 on a glitchy Playboy Colour. Fast forward a few years later and I’d have all kinds of tricks up my sleeves (i.e search for ‘Channel’ for neglected ‘Chanel’ mis-spells, or bidding on a pair of Chloé pumps in the last 3 seconds and hearing YOU A-HOLE‘s from bidders across the globe), nobody called me a bucktooth loser back then. YUH. But from a certain point it got really tiresome to constantly dig into the double-digit pages and then the keeping on track of items of questionable quality, so I stopped shopping secondhand clothes/accessories online… until I heard about the peer to peer resale platform Vestiaire Collective. What bought me over initially was the fact that all items are made sure of its genuineness and quality by being sent to Paris where they are checked by a team of experts, but their edits are quite clever too especially for squirrels as indecisive as me. So here’s a few I scored: Alexander Wang Abbey heels from forever seasons ago which now happen to be my favourite go-to black heels (the seller of which happened to be one of my lovely readers!), the LV black classic belt and a Jessica Barensfield hammered initials bangle which is part of one of their mini-series. And of course, that designer heels you’ve been saving only for ‘special occasions’ – those impossible-to-walk-in ones, you sure ain’t profiting from cost-per-wear by letting it gather dust on the DVD shelf so you might as well sign up and sell that one off for a piece that’ll be worn more than that one time it came out of the packaging. (yes I’m looking at you, self)