I’m sorry I didn’t really have time to post anything new in the past few weeks. I spent some time in London again and the rainy and cloudy weather didn’t exactly do anything to brighten up my mood, so I guess I just had a little creative crisis. But – I’m back again with some sunny spring outfit pictures! And it was about time spring arrived!
Coat and skirt: Xanaka
Blouse: Miss Patina
Necklace: Vintage
Have you tried hair chalking? It’s a really good option to (temporarily) get beautifully coloured hair without dying it. Don’t know how to do it? Here’s a quick guide:
1. Get soft pastel chalks in whatever colour you like (I prefer pink, violet and blue). Don’t use normal chalk. It won’t work.
2. If you’re blonde, just add the chalk to your hair. Section and twist your hair while doing it. If your hair is darker, make your hair wet before adding the chalk (do so by sectioning your hair and use a water spray bottle to make it wet). Don’t wet your hair if you’re blonde or have fair hair, or maybe it’ll become permanently pink/red/green/coloured!
3. Try to wear something old while chalking your hair. There’ll be a lot of chalk dust…everywhere!
4. Afterwards, just brush the chalk out of your hair or, if that doesn’t work, wash it out.
Simple as that. The colour lasted a day in my hair, but it’s quite dark. It looked fabulous!
The heading of this post is a line from Lana Del Rey’s song ‘Summertime Sadness’. I love this song, and the music video even more. It seemed fitting for this post, not only because of the red dress which is my new favourite dress, but because the song is about the summertime feeling and what happens when summer is over. Summer is my favourite time of the year and I don’t ever want it to end. The photos were also inspired by Lana Del Rey’s song. There’s this red light dancing in the corner of the music video which adds to the vintage feeling of it. As you can see, I used that too in my photos. I took them on a hill near the place where I grew up. A hill where I celebrated New Year’s Eve with my family and friends, where I came for picnics in the summer with my grandparents, and where I kissed my first boyfriend. The song ‘Summertime Sadness’ is just perfect for those memories and pictures.
The last few pictures were taken in Dresden, Germany, by a friend. They show me posing on stairs of a historical building and goofing around with my new phone case – which I love! I’ve been after this bunny ear case for about a year, and last week I finally found it..for £2! Yay!
Dress: my favourite vintage dress; Cardigan: H&M; Sunglasses: Chanel; Red bag: Cambridge Satchel Company; Bracelet: Chanel
A few months ago, in May, Carrie of wishwishwish.net told us a secret which had taken up a lot of her time during her last months at University. She and her ‘partner in crime’, Lucy of shinythoughts.com, had created a magazine. A magazine which is nostalgic, vintagey, stylish, dreamy, childish, creative, beautiful, British, timeless, lovely, exciting, and truly everything you could wish for in a magazine – Wish Magazine! I instantly pre-ordered a copy, which arrived yesterday after they had a few problems with the printing company at Wish house.
The 86 page magazine is full of breathtaking photos, vintage style clothes, shoes and accessories worn by beautiful models, lovingly drawn illustrations and calligraphy, a summer playlist, secrets by people from all over the world, a career quiz, a style section, a list of afternoon tea places you should try out, a poster, baking and a wonderful article about pen pals (…”about a time when chatting to a friend didn’t involve pressing ‘Enter’”). You simply cannot NOT love this magazine! As Carrie wrote in her Editor’s letter: “Wish allows space for dreaming, without bombarding you with advertising, unattainable price tags or unachievable body shapes. A true collaboration from girls across the universe sharing what they love best.” It’s not one of those magazines you can buy everywhere. It’s unique and full of love, made for ‘Early Grannies’ and people who don’t want to grow up.
Get a copy, a cup of tea and do nothing but reading this magazine for 3 hours while sipping tea..which is what I did. xx
The Toast & Jam vintage fashion fair and show was one of the events I was looking forward to most. Now guess why! Right, because it’s VINTAGE fashion! I do have a thing for all things, vintage, old, very old..and Stone Age. Haha. No, but I love old stuff because I have the feeling there’s a great story behind every old dress, shoe etc. And of course they look nice! There were so many amazingly styled and dressed people at the vintage fair, I even felt underdressed.
With exhibitors such as Etsy, Veist Kleidergeschichten, Mayflower Vintage, Class of Berlin and Memory Vintage, everyone could find something to buy.
The show was the best at the whole Fashion Week in my opinion.
I love the shoes in the picture above!
Again: Great shoes!
Berlin Fashion Week was a kind of surreal experience for me and – surprise, surprise – not all glamorous. I’ve been to Berlin only a few times and usually had a car at my disposal; not this time however. When I got there, I first had to find the next U-Bahn or S-Bahn (tube) station to get to my accommodation, which happened to be almost impossible. It was 7pm, very hot, I had no idea where I was and – worst of all – my phone’s battery was running low. Very glamorous…! Anyway, I somehow did find my accommodation and almost immediately fell asleep.
I had a lot of time for sightseeing, in spite of my pretty tight show and showroom schedule. My feet were very glad when I sat down in Starbucks in front of the Brandenburg Gate (right opposite the Hotel Adlon where the GREENshowroom and salon show took place, which will get its own blog post). 
Above you can see the the outfit I was wearing. It looked way too French for Berlin, but I really wanted to wear the beret. Haha. My Lulu Guinness lips clutch was a great ‘companion’ at Berlin Fashion Week too!
Berlin street style: Skirt: Probably H&M, Jacket: Vintage
More street style pictures in the Showroom magazine by The Sartorialist
I went to several showrooms and shows and all in all really enjoyed the Fashion Week. Actually I wanted to go ‘street style photo hunting’ on Saturday, however all the Fashionistas were hiding in their hotel rooms because of the heavy rain.
I’m going to write 2 or 3 more blog posts about showrooms, shows and the Ethical Fashion Week this week. The first one will be about the GREENshowroom, salon show and Ethical Fashion Week; one will be about the showrooms and the vintage fashion fair and then I’ll probably also do one about some other shows.
Sarah xx
Dress: Camden Market
Shoes: Laura Mode – Osco
Necklace: Cyberdog Camden
Fascinator: Accessorize
Guess where I went shopping…?
Carrier bags: Lulu Guinness and Vivienne Westwood
In this post I’ll describe what the perfect day in London is for me. Opinions differ, of course, and everyone has an individual idea of a ‘perfect day in London’. I got the idea for this blog post last April, when my parents visited London for the very first time. It was one of the most stressful weekends I ever had! We had exactly two days and they wanted to see everything. We went from Finchley to Hampstead to Belsize Park to Camden to Central London, Sloane Square, Westminster, up and down Oxford Street, to the Tower, Shakespeare’s Globe etc etc etc. After I had (barely) survived that weekend, I realised that probably a lot of people make the mistake to stay in London for only one weekend. This is crazy, especially if they’re here for the first time! There are way too many things to see and two days aren’t enough. I called what we did ‘extreme sightseeing’. What’s so extreme about it? Well, go ahead and try to show your friends, parents or whoever almost all the sights in London, but please don’t forget to post pictures of the blisters on your and their feet!
My perfect day would start with a morning in Hampstead. I’d have breakfast (Brioche French Toast!) at Giraffe on Rosslyn Hill (opens at 7.30am), and would then walk to Primrose Hill in the southeast or Hampstead Heath in the north to watch the sunrise over London.
Afterwards I’d go to Camden vintage shopping and looking at all the cute shabby chic things they sell at the market; maybe I’d also try some Asian food and cupcakes.
Photo by turquoisegrrrl
In the afternoon I would take the tube to Central London (Northern line from Camden Town station to Leicester Square, Piccadilly line from Leicester Square to Green Park and then the Jubilee line to Westminster) to do a little sightseeing tour and see the most famous sights in London: The Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, Number 10 (Downing Street) and the Horse Guards Parade. They’re not far away from the tube station, but it’s up to you which of the sights you’d like to see.
Then I’d take the Circle or District line to Sloane Square to have lunch at my favourite pancake house, My Old Dutch, and – if your budget allows it - to go (designer) shopping (either that or Oxford Street..and don’t forget Harrods!!).
In the evening I’d take the tube to the Tower Bridge (London Bridge or Tower Hill station) to watch the sunset. Something which I can’t miss on my perfect London day is a musical! I can recommend Legally Blonde, which I saw last October and which I loooooved. It’s at the Savoy Theatre, so that would be my next stop.
In the late evening/ night I would have some cocktails in the Aqua Spirit Bar on Regents Street (roof terrace!).
Photo by blog.blacktomato.co.uk
Of course there are millions of other things I love to do in London, but since it’s ‘A Day in London’ post, I can’t include all of them.
I would lie if I said I needed a new bag, with over 20 lovely eye candy bags patiently waiting in my room to be used. But when I saw this great vintage style bag I simply couldn’t resist (wait, I have said that before about other bags…). Not only does it have a great ‘vintage red’ colour, but my initials in gold letters on it as well! It arrived at my house Tuesday morning, thanks to FedEx, and I’ve used it every day since then. I already got a lot of compliments on it and a friend of me even wanted to buy it from me. Well, she’ll have to order her own bag, because this cute bag is mine! I’ll make sure to take it with me when I go to its ‘birthplace’ Cambridge this summer. Cambridge satchels have been featured on many great blogs, like Fashionista, The Cherry Blossom Girl and, most recently, Style on The Couch.
Dress: Hollister Boneyard Beach Dress with white underskirt
Shoes: Ballet flats
Bag: Cambridge Satchel Company
Ring: 18k gold with tiny pearl
In your life you should be at least once in London, once à Paris, once in New York, once in Los Angeles and once in Venice, I think. I’m still fairly young, but already have been to 3 of these 5 great cities. Why Venice?, you ask. Isn’t it dirty? Doesn’t it smell weird there? I don’t like prejudices, because most of the time they prove to be completely wrong. I don’t know if all of Venice is as lovely as the part I’ve seen (and I’m quite sure it’s not), but don’t only list the negative things, think of the positive things first. First of all, yes, Venice IS expensive; 5 pounds for a simple coffee. BUT (and there will be a lot of “but’s” in this blog post) you don’t have to sit in a café in the most touristy and crowded places in Venice. There are some wonderful cute little restaurants and cafés in some of the side ‘streets’ (canals or ‘calle’ actually) where you pay a normal price for a normal coffee. Don’t always expect them to talk English to you though. As for the gondola riding, you can’t expect that to be cheap with thousands of tourists every day, but don’t be a cheapskate. You’re there only once maybe, so enjoy it! It’s most romantic in the evening at sunset by the way. And hope for a gondelier who can sing..!
Venice is full of tourists, but somehow, and I don’t know how they do it, it’s neither dirty nor does it smell bad. At least it didn’t when I was there. Venice is charming. That describes it best in my opinion. Think canals, gondolas, the pali that look like candy, designer stores, little vintage shops, amazing old buildings, churches and add some of the weirdest shops you’ll ever see in your life, and you get…Venice! A town which is one of a kind. But please don’t go there expecting it to be heaven on earth, because there are downsides. Lots of tourists as well as pigeons and pickpockets and foreign men trying to sell you replica designer handbags; narrow little streets which are hell for every claustrophobic; and if you plan to walk through one of those passageways in the evening in spite of the dubious people sitting there, because it seems to be the only way to get to the place you want to, don’t let the fact that you have to climb over the dinner of said people put you off. All in all, I loved my stay there and would love to revisit one day.
