All Dressed Up....

If you want to go all out glam, there are not that many places left to get down and do it.  You can tip up to the smartest restaurants in town (Dabbous..more on this another day) in skinny jeans and sodden mac and no one will blink an eye.  Normcore it the theatre and you blend right into a crowd that is mainly tourists and some Londoners rushing out after a long day at work.  The Royal Opera House is the exception.  Men and women unashamedly 'dressed up' flit up and down the escalators to the Amphitheatre restaurant and lounge lazily in the bar between acts, diamonds glinting, and even the odd full length dress on show.  It is theatre at the theatre and all the better for that.

One of the views from my seat

The decorative effect of acres of gold, plush red velvet, blazing lights and a deep maroon and duck egg blue ceiling made me think of how over-the-top sometimes just works

I have not been using my gold overlay for a while, but that visit to ROH is going to make me re-visit...maybe this time with silk chiffon rather than suede. I will wear it with the new London-based Galvan label that will be in the shops soon - I have already mentally earmarked the following from their website for a few summer parties

Add a ring from  RAM Chandra (available at Brown's from whose website this photo is taken), one of my favourite jewellers with his beautifully balanced creations of stone and metal....

and that is Dressing Up. 

Flower Power

This is the bag that took me to the Chelsea Flower Show on a perfect, balmy London night.
Always difficult to know where to start, but something with flowers seemed to be sensible -  here's a little linen and taupe suede clutch with silk ribbon flowers, swarvorski crystals and pearls I made earlier....  

Add a layer of Codage Serum No. 1

to try and extricate a petal-like glow from my skin. Pale pink silk dress, Sam Edelman blush coloured wedges (hmm, on paper it does sound overdone, but I assure you dear reader, that the mirror said otherwise) Add Lee at the door and off we went...to see this

inside the marquee, some of my favourite things - specialist nurseries with all their floral wares in full bloom

and then, the gardens....

and a quirky stand from Waitrose and the NFU full of cabbages, peppers, celery - everything you needed for a green smoothie...

a little pick-me- up at the seafood stall with truly delicious oysters...

a favourite, the 'Time to Reflect' Alzheimer's Society garden...peaceful

Every little corner and nook you looked at, there was something blooming, scented and lovely growing

and a Canadian garden, (not that I am partisan)

and from the Gucci stand...

The Flower Show is always visually overwhelming, and there is never enough time to really take it all in.  It makes one ponder to think that it will all be gone in the next week. Ephemeral indeed, but substantial enough to give me lots of ideas for some new evening bags using fabric paints, photocopiers and the like...

The evening ended with a seriously companionable dinner companion, Diarmid Gavin, whose tale of his rise from weed to mighty in the plant world was second to none.  

And a final happy note to end the evening on, a botanical-themed goody bag.

Colour Shock

I was given the most beautiful flowers ever this week...

they arrived curled up in smooth balls, looking like some sort of exotic, fuschia-coloured fruit.  Slowly, over the course of the week, they have unfurled and revealed themselves, in a sort of botanical dance of the seven veils,  to be the most gloriously large, utterly perfect peach coloured peonies.  When did the fuchsia turn into a delicate Watteau-esque peach?  The secret life of plants....

As a result, I have been thinking a lot about flowers this week.  My garden is full of deliciously scented white tea roses, and pale purple lilacs and irises ringing our little pond.

 Which made me think of Dolce and Gabbana's exquisite cherry blossom embroidery, (taken from the pages of American Vogue)

I have not been in the mood for silk-ribbon embroidery for a while, but a Bank Holiday in a sunny garden strewn with flowers + D and G + peonies did spark a bit of inspiration

Next, maybe some extra-large embroidery on a summer basket, or more wheat-sheaves on a linen clutch.  Comments and ideas welcome.  I reckon said basket with  shimmery metallic slides (courtesy of Chloe via Net-a-Porter) and my all-time favourite summer lipstick, Chantecaille's China Rose is just about as good as a holiday.

Roll on summertime....

Gosh, well it has been a long break from my blog, for no real reason except a sort of perpetual fog of disorganisation. So forgive me readers (or what readers are left after my prolonged absence),

 I am turning over a new leaf and am hoping to post once a week, as regularly as a Swiss clock from here on in. 

Lot of new things have been happening. I hosted my first pop-up shop (above), based in Clerkenwell, last month which was fun!  A teeny-tiny space, just perfect for displaying my favourite things, and a lovely, large glass window, which with the addition of some fiery pink cherry blossom lights I think hit the sweet spot between inviting and intriguing.  There was no mad rush, but a nice steady stream of interested customers.  It is always a pick-me-up to meet complete strangers who love your things, especially when you work, as I do, in a very solitary way.  I am keen to do another pop-up and meet more....

I went to see the Matisse Cut-Out exhibition at the Tate.  

It was a beautifully calculated frenzy of colour and shape and somehow brought to mind summer, seaside, and sandals. More than a bit inspirational for when the mizzle outside stops. It was also inspiring to see what someone can do at any age, in any age.  Matisse's work at 80 was as fresh and young as when in his earlier days.  I loved the seeming disconnect between the look of the work above and the man who did it (below).  A solemn-looking bearded man with hat, and his wife, both delightfully Edwardian.  Those fluid, brilliant shapes emerged from somewhere inside that stiff wool suit.

It has made me want to inject a bit of colour into my day, so a quick detour to Shoescribe.com to order a pair of bright red slip-ons

to be matched with my newly made mini triangle purse in scarlet 

and a heavy dose of my new favourite mascara, Charlotte Tilbury's Full Fat Lashes in Glossy Black.

I'm ready for Spring!

p.s. I am absolutely not sponsored by anyone to mention their brands...they are all just things I've found that I love and work for me.