Monthly Archives: March 2011
Evening light
| March 28, 2011 | Posted by Lizzy under An outfit or two |
I love it when the clocks go forward for spring. Yes, an hour of weekend sleeping vanishes, but the consolation is lovely light evenings! So in celebration of daylight and sunshine (and the fact that Chris has bought a new tripod that I am stealing!) I present a few ‘start of spring’ photographs. The first evening daylight photoshoot of 2011. Sadly the photographs aren’t that great – my photographer is in Brisbane, which makes for a few technical issues! He did leave behind a tripod, which I tried to use, but it needed assembly and there my technical skills failed me. Hence dodgy focus and slightly skewed images. Never mind, the point is that I can now take photographs in the daylight after work. Yay!
I couldn’t resist some silk and chiffon today, with a bit of a Breton twist. I foraged these pink pumps out of the back of my wardrobe, and the always make me feel super girly. I think the pink watering can adds to the girly factor. The necklace has a bit of a French edge – a poodle and a postcard of the Eiffel Tower!
After a long day of data analysis and paper reviewing, I am now off to indulge a rather girly passion for Jane Austen by watching the 1995 BBC adaptation of Persuasion. Ciaran Hinds’ Captain Wentworth can lead to serious weak knees! Accompanied by a bowl of spicy spanish chorizo stew, and a glass of vino tinto. Yum.
First light… Chiffon dress – H&M, Breton top – New Look, silk scarf – unknown, pumps – M&S
Terrible temptations
| March 27, 2011 | Posted by Lizzy under Clothing and accessories |
I’ve not had a whole lot of time for blogging this past week; I’ve been overseeing the final stages of a third year undergraduate project, and last Friday was the deadline – major stress! All over now though, so normal blogging service will now be resumed.
The whole no buying clothes for Lent thing is getting very trying now. Why didn’t I just give up chocolate like everyone else? Every day is fraught with temptations. 18 days down and my resolve is being sorely tested by these delectable “sugar” courts from ASOS. I want. A lot! And I couldn’t resist making a quick and silly sugary collage to show them off. Maybe they will be in the sale once Lent is over…
Further temptation came on Saturday morning whilst I was toddling around in Urban Outfitters buying presents for a friend. Foolishly, I couldn’t resist a little peek into Zara. Of all the high street stores I find that Zara repeatedly nail the styles that I am looking for, and very often I find their clothes almost irresistible. I could quite happily own any and every item from their current range; here is a rogues gallery of the worst tormentors!
The gold toe-capped pumps are too pretty. I love the ‘ballet chic’ look that is everywhere at the moment; soft floating fabrics and pale neutral colours completely epitomise spring-like elegance. Add a cute butterfly print t-shirt!
The silver lining (of sorts) to my self-imposed clothes shopping ban is that I am focussing a lot more on my dressmaking. I have tonnes of sketches now, and most of them are a bit wacky I’ll be honest! I have an old pink lace camisole that I want to turn into a summery dress by attaching a silk skirt; I bought a few lengths of silk in Singapore last year, and so far haven’t used it for anything. I’m not sure about the colour combination though, the lace is quite a girly pink and the silk is a sort of creamy champagne colour. Any thoughts? I hope all your Lenten privations are going well!
Exhibitionist
| March 21, 2011 | Posted by Lizzy under Adventures, An outfit or two, Fun times, Science (very occasionally) |
This Saturday involved two very different museum trips; the first to my spiritual home the Natural History Museum for the “Sexual Nature” exhibition, and secondly to the V&A to marvel at the various Yohji Yamamoto garments currently being displayed.
Rather bizarrely, an exhibition about the weird and wonderful sex-lives of animals is right up my street. A few people now have asked me what my PhD is about, and the simplest answers are evolution and sex. I work with stalk-eyed flies, examining how the sexual signaling that occurs between males and females evolved. So I spend my days watching flies having sex. A lot. Sometimes I get to go to Malaysia, to sit in a river in the jungle at night (long story) watching flies having sex. Oh, the glamour…
Anyway, I digress. Upon entering the NHM exhibition you are greeted by this huge, unambiguous sign that pretty much set the tone for the whole display! Sadly it was too dark inside to take too many pictures.
Different sections of the exhibition covered the different aspects of sexual behaviour, accompanied by taxidermical models of animals and video displays. These included footage from various wildlife documentaries, and episodes from Isabella Rosselini’s mini series entitles Green Porno. Essentially she uses paper cutouts and puppets, along with lots of sexy gasping, to recreate the sexual behaviours of snails, bedbugs, angler fish and many more. A little disturbing! The exhibition culminates with a section on human sexuality, which included a wall of notes where visitors could recount their own experiences of love and sex. My personal favourite was ‘Love is letting me see the dinosaurs after this’. Genius.
Sadly I was not permitted to take photographs in the Yohji Yamamoto exhibtion. I had my camera slung over one shoulder, and it drew some serious frowns from the attendants! The exhibition was wonderful though; the space echoed the minimalism and structure of Yamamoto’s designs through plain white walls and a large amount of scaffolding. The part I loved especially, more even than the clothes, was the chronology of Yamamoto’s work and collaborations arranged along one wall, complete with videos from many of his runway shows and in-house lookbooks. I had no idea, for example, that he had once made costumes for a production of Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde at the Bayreuth Festival. But then you move onto the garment displays (which are located beyond the exhibition space throughout the museum), and that drama and sense of theatricality is abundantly obvious. Oh, to have some pictures to show!
I treated myself to a copy of the gorgeous book Pattern Magic by Tomoko Nakamichi in the V&A giftshop, and spent many happy hours on Sunday cutting up old t-shirts in an attempt to make crazy patterns of my own. The notebook peeking into the corner of the image came from the Sexual Nature exhibition; I’m a biologist who specialises in sex, there was no way I was going to say no to a notebook with animals in compromising positions on the cover!
It was a fashion exhibition, I had to get dressed up! And we were going out for dinner in Shoreditch in the evening. With hindsight a maxi-dress may not have been the wisest choice for all the stairs in the museums, but the weather was gorgeous and I enjoyed feeling summery and floaty!
Lots of tripping up… maxi-dress, brogues and bag – Topshop, coat – H&M, scarf – great grandmother’s
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