lifestyle… and things that make the heart race…
Magnolias
I cherish every day the Magnolia is in bloom. I am positively mad about them. The vividness of the white… or pink or purple… against the dark sleek-ness of the tree’s leaves is beauteous. The citrusy scent, a reminder of the romance of warm evenings in spring.
Edie Sedgwick Carrying The Chicest Bridal Bouquet... Ever!
A Good Lashing!
There are moments when tiny facets of my outward appearance reflect the former deathrock creature of the night/club kid. One such example is a frequent desire to wear “fantasy eyelashes”. Somehow they always seem alluring, appropriate and glamorous if staged properly. The loveliest, chicest choices are Shu Uemura’s premium feather eyelashes. They are on the outrageous side, of course, but they are incredibly tasteful and sophisticated ; if paired with an almost-bare face, and luxe-bohemian clothing. Few things cause such feelings of femininity and coquettishness…
Isidore Ducasse
“Who can understand how two lovers who idolized each other only the day before, separate over a misinterpreted word, one going east, one going west, with needlepoints of vengeance, hatred, love and remorse, and never see one another again, each one draped in his solitary pride. It is a miracle which recurs every day but is none the less miraculous.”
-Excerpt from, Maldoror (1868)
Fendi… Kneel At My Feet
I lost my heart over these stunning platforms from Fendi. They are at the top of my list for Fall must-haves. I love the strict severity of this shoe. They flirtatiously announce that in life there is only one way… my way! I intend to pair them with dark skinny jeans for casual moments, and with vintage 1960s dresses with full skirts and hems just below the knee for more festive occasions.
Albertine Simonet
“I wondered whether the girls I had seen lived in Balbec and who they might be. When the focus of our desire singles out a tiny human tribe, whatever may bear upon them in any way sets off an emotion in us, which then becomes a wondering daydream. On the esplanade I had overheard a lady say, ‘Yes, she’s one of the friends of the Simonet girl,’ with the smug superior knowledge of the person in the know who says, ‘Yes, he’s very tight with the young Duc de La Rouchefoucauld.’ I was instantly aware of a look of curiosity on the face of the person being told this, a quickened interest in somebody who was so favored as to be ‘one of the friends of the Simonet girl.’ It was clear this was a privilege not open to all and sundry. Aristocracy is relative: there are all sorts of inexpensive little resorts where the son of a furniture salesman may be the arbiter of all things elegant, holding court like a young Prince of Wales. Since that moment when I first heard the name ‘Simonet,’ I have often tried over the years to remember how it must have sounded there on the esplanade, in my uncertainty about its shape, which I had not quite noticed, about its meaning and the identity of this or that person to whom it might belong: full of the imprecision and foreignness we later find so moving, when our unremitting attention to this name, with its letters more deeply imprinted in us with each passing second, has turned it (as the name of ‘the Simonet girl’ was to be turned for me, but not until several years later) into the first word to come to consciousness, whether on waking each morning or after fainting, even before any inkling of the time of day or where we are, almost before the word, ‘I’ itself, as though the one it names were more us than we are ourselves, as though the first respite, always to end after a few moments’ oblivion, was the respite of not thinking of it.”
-Marcel Proust, In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower (1919)
Hyper In Los Angeles
Parisian artist/photographer Denis Darzacq’s new body of work entitled Hyper, slang for hypermarché, is a response to society’s mindless consumerism and the take over of “super markets” or multi-department stores. The photos feature street dancers hurling themselves through aisles that serve as flourescent runways… Who ever imagined that sort of lighting could be so flattering?
Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles: June 10-21, 2010
Nothing But Wedgewood Will Do
Collecting lovely old fashioned wares for entertaining… or selfishly enjoying for my own daily use, is one of my fondest past times. I am endlessly on the look out for stylish, statement making pieces. This evening I came across this enchanting Wedgewood Blue Jasperware Biscuit Bin. The stunning relief of a hunting scene and the gorgeous silver mount, lid and handle make me swoon.
Care for a biscuit anyone?!
In The Throes Of Love
What attracts us to another human being? What is it that causes us to literally fall for someone? And once we fall… why is it that what we find exquisitely sensual is the heady odor of our beloved?
Diane Ackerman writes, “In the Elizabethan Age, lovers exchanged “love apples” — a woman would keep a peeled apple in her armpit until it was saturated with her sweat, and then give it to her sweetheart to inhale”
Loving with reckless abandon, without the rules of logic is a marvelous and wondrous thing!
Some Advice On Entertaining
Make simple and attractive food
Use the pretty glasses in your china cabinet
Invite friends over for an after hours tea party at your place at the end of the night
Cleverly and artistically dispose of party debris
Embrace the highbrow and the lowbrow and understand the beauty in the marriage of the two
Have fun toys in the pool
Make the hors d'oeuvres colourful
Nice fabrics and textures make all the difference
Tamina Thermal Baths
I am a lover of spas and of ritual. The Tamina Thermal Baths in Bad Ragaz Switzerland turn bathing into an art. The space echos cleanliness in every crack and crevice. It whispers wellness. It has been described by some as Kubrick-esque or like what Atlantis may have resembled… To me it looks like a place to go and find myself… Holy in the beauty of its aesthetic identity.
Smolenicky & Partner Architektur.
June 17, 2010
albertineandodette
Albertine & Odette 