Rochas S/S '15

Oh. My. God.  I cannot even begin to describe how obsessed I am with this collection, in all its floaty sheer perfection.  And the shoes.  And the eye makeup.  Seriously, this is my favourite collection so far this season, and I can't imagine anyone will manage to top it (predictably, I'm still waiting for Chloe and Miu Miu- Carven and Dries van Noten have already managed to disappoint me)  I must admit this isn't a house I normally think of very often, but I saw a photo on tumblr that made me click through to see the whole collection, and I'm so glad I did.  Can you tell I'm going though a big girly phase at the moment?

source

Carven A/W 14

I've made no secret of my 60s obsession, so the fact that my beloved decade seems to have influenced just about every designer this autumn is making me especially happy (and my bank balance weep).  Today I'm fixating on Carven- swingy skirts, over the knee boots, and perfectly cut coats, all in a colour palette that could have been created especially with me in mind. I particularly love the arrow print on everything, and the nipped in at the waist silhouettes- they're the absolute perfect shape for my body type, so I'm hoping they'll be widely copied on the high street.  It's almost enough to make me long for a chill in the air.

photos from here

Miu Miu S/S '14

Whilst the rest of the world is in meltdown over fashion month (oh yeah, and the potential outbreak of another Crimean war, to keep this in perspective), I've been losing interest in the whole circus.  Nothing I've seen on the catwalk for the upcoming autumn/winter season has really caught my eye, and even the street style I've seen has been fairly "meh".  I've liked a few looks from the usual suspects- Simone Rocha, Chloe, Dries Van Noten- but nothing wowed me, so instead, I've turned my attention to the current collections (to be fair, spring is always about a million times more exciting than the promise of cold, dark, rainy nights that come part and parcel with autumn).  I'm particularly enamoured of the S/S Miu Miu campaign, and the colourful crochet tights and lace-up knee high boots featured with every look.  They're the perfect solution to my end of winter wardrobe fatigue. 

I must admit, I haven't been paying all that much attention to Miu Miu the past couple of years, and I can't even remember if I bothered looking at this last fashion week.  Seeing the Elle Fanning ad in this month's Vogue awakened my curiosity though, and I'm thoroughly smitten.  I think generally, it's difficult to get a proper feel for a collection just by seeing it on the catwalk, and there have been a lot of times I've failed to notice something until I see it in print, both in ad campaigns and in editorials.  I'm all for the democratisation of fashion, and whilst things like live streaming/instragramming/tweeting have brought the once rarified experience of seeing a fashion show to the masses, I think it's also taken away our ability to properly digest what we see.  Everyone is so hungry for the newest (and therefore best) designer offering, that we forget what's in front of us.  At the moment all I want is to focus on the upcoming season, not to wish it away thinking about what I may or may not like in six months' time.  So I'm all about slow fashion- taking the time to flip through a physical magazine, and noting what makes me stop and stare, wanting to absorb a certain image, or piece of writing.  Somehow this all gets lost whilst scrolling through endless photos on a screen.  So this spring, I'm mainly planning to revive my old habit of scrapbooking, cutting and pasting my favourite magazine photos, saving them for a rainy, inspiration-less day.  Meanwhile,  I'll spending every free moment scouring ebay for vintage lace-up boots...

New Discoveries

One of the things I missed the most about living in a small city in the middle of nowhere in Greece was access to independent brands, as well as secondhand and vintage, a concept that is still very new there.  There was a small local craft movement, but none of the (very lovely) crafters made anything that was particularly my cup of tea, and I resigned myself to shopping on the high street.  So now that I'm back in London, I'm really pleased that most of my purchases have not come from Topshop/H&M/Zara, but from ebay, charity shops and indie designers I've come across both online and in person.  Today I stumbled entirely by accident on the Hackney Flea Market, a monthly market with stalls full of both handmade and vintage bits and bobs.  And for once, I actually bought a couple of things, and discovered some seriously talented people.  

Illustrator Sandra Dieckmann produces the most amazing animal prints, and I look forward to filling up the walls of my (future) flat with her work.  In the meantime, I consoled myself with this mirror, because clearly the image of a curled up red panda could make even fixing my smudged eyeliner on the bus a much more cheery experience:

I think In With the Old might just be one of my favourite shops, if their stall today was anything to go by.  They're based on Amwell Street in Islington, and stock 57 independent makers of everything from prints to jewellery to handmade children's clothing.  I really wanted some coasters made from vintage tiles, and one of Mike Hall's London Borough map prints, but as I'm writing this from amongst the clutter of someone else's attic, where I'm currently living, I made do with this initial necklace:

 

And finally, a brand I've actually been wanting to write about for a while, which I discovered whilst randomly trawling ebay, Amelia May.  I've been obsessed with rings lately, and their selection is possibly the best I've found, at any price point.  And, as a bonus, all designs are  available either as traditional rings, or in midi versions, and most of them come in brass or silver.  I bought the Crescent Moon Knuckle Ring Set, the Aztec Petal Ring, and the Cobalt Moon Glow Knuckle Ring, but I don't imagine I'll be stopping there...