Category: women
Style Icon: Zoe Kravitz x
Maybe it started with knowing which kitchen you loved in Big Little Lies; for me, it was always Bonnie’s warm welcoming one…and so it started, because although Zoe Kravitz was just playing a part, part of her natural soul was on show too: the piercings, the tatts, an effortless grace. And then there was her singing the Elvis Presley cover of ‘Don’t’ in the final episode of season 1. I still have it saved to a play list on Spotify…
Authentic, honest and holding a space in the world that is all her own.
Laters, Kate x
Tamsin Abbott
From the ridiculousness of my last post to the sublime: There are times when I see an artist, their work, their lifestyle and feel a pull, as if but for a sliding doors moment, I’m looking at a life I could’ve lived. This is the work of stained glass artist, Tamsin Abbott, inspired by the mystery of nature, folklore and fairytales.
Tamsin lives in rural East Herefordshire with her family and works from an idyllic studio in her garden.
(All pics Tamsin’s website and Pinterest)
Is it wrong to say I’m now saving my pennies. And stalking her?
Laters, Kate x
Smile x
In the summer, in Greece, I hunt down the old fashioned souvenir shops that still sell the shell based surfer chokers of old for a few euros, then layer them up. A look akin to a mash up between a Masai warrior (is that cultural appropriation – or cultural celebration?) and a sun bleached beach bum. The jewellery of Roxanne Assoulin gives me the same joyful feeling – and for those still on the present hunt, the price point is a Christmas treat (£70 – £350) but not in the mortgage your left kidney and sell your soul to the devil bracket.
(All pics Roxanne Assoulin and Pinterest)
It also helps that her ‘story’ page makes me laugh. You can either read it as I don’t care, or you can see it as a pithy comment on the modern disease to manufacture and self promote.
For me it’s the later.
Laters, Kate x
I C U….
Australian artist, Jennifer Allnutt, has been painting rocks and stones with eyes to then return them to the landscape from whence they came with the wish that they can be found or lost forever.
(All pics Pinterest)
Kindness, magic, setting something free, message in a bottle, transformation, reaching out to strangers, giving something we take for granted another story: There’s something here that catches a special zeitgeist and pulls on the heart.
Laters, Kate x
Christy Dawn x
Christy Dawn produces indie pin-up pieces beautifully crafted for easy living and barefoot dancing in the golden rays of the Californian sun.
Her clothes are made with deadsotck fabrics – the left over fabrics from other fashion houses who’ve over estimated their needs: smaller supplies means smaller production runs making these dresses eco friendly near-originals handmade in LA.
For the laid back beach babe bride, her bridal section is also well worth checking out for its simple lines, lightness of touch and sheer summer elegance.
(All pics Christy Dawn and Pinterest)
In fact Christy Dawn, with her prices of around $260 for a dress, $800 for a wedding dress is the perfect illustration of quality over quantity, buying less but buying better, her prices truly reflecting the costs involved for a genuine artisan label rather than an omnipotent big name brand with willy waving status issues.
Worth a thought.
Laters, Kate x
Revelation x
There are many things that science can still not explain so maybe I have died and gone to heaven, such is my delight at discovering the designer and maker of this wallpaper and her treasure trove of work.
Marthe Armitage graduated from Chelsea School of Art after World War 11. Faced with the problem of juggling young children, she started designing and lino-cutting her own wallpapers. After sketching the design she uses the hand-cut lino blacks and a century-old offset lithographic printing press that she has owned for over 40 years to created custom-printed rolls of wallpaper.
Not only does she create an object of desire but a lifestyle, a passion and a calling.
Maybe she’ll adopt me?
(Link here, all pics Pinterest)
Before my idol was William Morris, but it’s the seductive meanderings of Marthe’s work that pull at the heart strings and make eyes glow.
When my boat comes in, this is the wallpaper that will adorn my walls.
Laters. Kate x
Gold Rush x
We saw Cinderella last week..
There’s an undeniable whiff of cheese..but Cate Blanchett’s costumes were honest-to-God-totes-amaze..
vibrant colours…wicked jewellery
All thought up by three time Oscar winning costume designer Sandy Powell..
A south of the River London lass who still lives in Brixton.
Who says fairytales can’t come true?
Laters, Kate x
Tara x
Tara Button and her website Buymeonce are a blast of fresh, spring air.
Tara’s concept is simple – our lives have been stuffed full of things we’re told we need that lets us down so she has been on a mission to track down the best quality and investment pieces that every house actually needs.
This resonates so much it almost hurts: I too am tired of this modern life that believes it can tell me who I am through the purchase of a skin cream, what I need: permanent upgrades and who I should be: spending lots of money, constantly implying that the real me isn’t good enough.
Just open your eyes to the insistent message of the season: Spring clean your wardrobes/house/family/life – it’s time to refresh!…The underlying, insidious message being that we will make you insecure to make you buy more.
(All pics Buymeonce)
Is it norm corm in the extreme? I don’t know. But what I do know is that we can’t spend our way to happiness and something needs to change. This seems a very good place to start.
Laters, Kate x
Iris x
In astrological terms it’s the first day of spring tomorrow, which didn’t stop winter having it’s final blast over the weekend. Not that I’m complaining: Bad weather is the perfect excuse to hibernate and indulge in some serious sofa surfing meaning I finally got to see, amongst other delights, Albert Maysles film about Iris Apfel, the beloved New York fashion icon and self-styled ‘geriatric starlet’.
Where Iris hits the sweet spot is not her age, her joy of life or her performance art. It’s her deep seated belief that style isn’t about fashion or money or even beauty: Style is about believing and doing.
Until watching the film, I hadn’t realised that Iris had her own shop: Rara Avis, meaning for ‘Rare bird’ where you can purchase her designs and covert a little bit of her.
But it might be more rewarding to follow her sentiments and look at life with a new set of black framed eyes.
Laters, Kate x
100 Years
Greta Gerwig is only the fifth woman ever to be nominated for best director at the Oscars.
Marie Curie – honoured twice with the Nobel Prize, in 1903 for physics and 1911 for chemistry. Between the years 1901 – 2017 only 48 women in total have been awarded the prize.
1984 was the first year women were allowed to run the marathon at the Olympic games. The gold medal was won by Joan Benoit Samuelson.
The Oxford and Cambridge boat race. First rowed by women in 1927 and then annually since 1964. The women’s race was only televised in 2015.
Today marks the 100th anniversary of women in the UK getting the vote – but don’t be fooled into thinking this was all women – we’re talking women over 30 with ‘property’..the real equality would take another eleven years.
100 years later discrimination is still rife. Except it’s not talked about, because it doesn’t happen. In fact there are so many people convinced of their good intentions towards women that they don’t even notice their glaring disrespect for them: Grid girls? Equal number of grid boys please, along with female racing drivers, women mechanics, female engineers, women running F1 teams – and lets add heading up the car companies as well because we still need an explosion of the myth that cars are just for boys. Time to grow up.
Laters, Kate x
Maison Bentley Style 