Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet
Till earth and sky stand presently at God’s great judgment seat;
But there is neither East nor West, border nor breed nor birth
When two strong men stand face to face, tho’ they come from the ends of the earth!
India is an interesting place, filled with vibrant changes and attempts to move forward despite the many burdens of the past. An amazing book by Arundati Roy laments India’s descent from its culture, explaining that US and international influence have forced India to become the place its tourism industry wants it to be.
It is really easy to be in India and take pictures of poverty. To take note of the beggars, the homeless, the poverty-stricken families living in one room. But in some ways, though of course all of that exists, this is a very limited view of a very beautiful country. Everywhere in India I saw people doing things, trying to make the best of often unfortunate situations. There was poverty and sadness, but there was also innovation, and ideas, and enterpreneurs. I think that instead of dwelling on the past, people in India are trying desperately to move forward.
PS Did you notice the little feet in the third picture? I didn’t until after I took the shot!
RIP – We’ll miss you more than words could ever say.
The Edge… there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.
So I have been terrible about posting because computers overseas hate me and hate my camera. Sorry! I can’t wait to get home to Australia and to start posting all of the amazingness of my trip around the world.
In the meantime, here is a fabulous shot of Krystal from whatisrealityanyway in wayfarers and Alexander Wang. This girl can do absolutely no wrong! (plus she loves Hunter S Thompson even more than I do!)
“We turned at a dozen paces, for love is a duel, and looked at each other for the last time.”
Jack Kerouac is my hero. Is it sad that I wonder what he wore on his infamous road trip? I am sad at what I wear. Wandering through Asia, Europe and North America with one coat (ok yes, I have bought two since I left) and a mere backpack of essentials is hard. Really hard. But I have just been in India and seen what hard is.
PS The Kerouac quote relates to me saying bye to my lovely boy in HK (which also explains why I will struggle to post outfits until I am back home in Australia). (But they wouldn’t be that fun, they pretty much revolve around this coat).
PPS I must apologise for how awful/short/badly written/infrequent my posts are. I have a million thoughts to share from my exciting travels, but sadly, none of the internet access to share it. More to come, I promise!
As someone who has always loved to travel, I have always been incredibly concerned that the most remote and farflung corners of the globe have become commercial and tourist attractions.
Some of my favourite places on earth have become little more than playgrounds for the wealthy and adventurous. I would prefer to remember such places as history does – the home of the people, and their culture and traditions.
But my reaction has always been somewhat ironic to this problem – ‘Get out now!’ I tell my friends. See the world while you still can. While the world is still different and diverse and wonderful, and hasn’t been flattened into an Americanised/Westernised/Commercialised wasteland. It would seem that the response of me and all my friends is contributing to the very damage that tourism is doing.
I was in Egypt last year, and many of the pyramids were roped off because of damage caused by visitors. Luang Prabang has been somewhat saved from a similar fate by UNESCO naming the Laotian city a World Heritage Site.
So these have been my thoughts. I try to be a responsible traveller wherever I go, but is this enough? In my desire to see the world, am I contributing to the depressing flattening of the world and all of its societies?
One day in Hong Kong and I realised that perhaps all is not lost. A commercial and tourist centre of the world – and yet people looked at me like I didn’t belong. I felt out of place, and self-conscious of my obvious tourist status.
It sounds strange, but I revelled in the unfamiliarity.
Cut out patent brogues? LOVE. (plus the oversized tweed blazer and cuffed jeans)
Now that you mention it, I love these too! (Plus I really think red hair is an unfair accessory, like I mentioned before)
When/if I am ever pushing a stroller, I want to do it in pants this amazing, with friends that are this fabulous.
The army of fabulous glamazons!
Now this part of my post is a little bit mean – this woman is absolutely fabulous (as is her daughter!) But I thought it was quite a direct intepretation of the outfit that the Sart had snapped Olivia Palermo in only a few weeks ago! As in, the same topshop trophy blazer (albeit different colours) and all! I’m sure it wasn’t intentional, but… oh dear.
So even in the short time I’ve had this blog, you would have recognised how much I love the Sartorialist. I finally had the chance to meet him at his Sydney book-signing last week.
Now he was wonderful, sweet, stylish and obviously a lovely person. But meeting him was a tad anti-climatic.
This wasn’t his fault at all – but I was really hoping for one of those incredibly special, memorable moments where you meet someone who truly inspires you. I remember reading Tavi’s words a few weeks ago when she met her idol, Rei Kawakabo. She said ‘But I will keep what it was like to meet Rei Kawakubo to myself. The most special moments are to be kept secret…’ It sent shivers down my spine. Have I ever had that kind of a moment?
Now I read that and for the umpeenth time thought about how mature Tavi is for a thirteen year old, and again felt concerned that one of my idols is someone almost half my age.
But moving on from that – I wish I had that this had happened when I met the notorious Scott Schuman. Instead it was a ‘Hi, you’re amazing, sign my book, I love you, bye!’
Like I said, it wasn’t his fault. It was a crazy book signing, with thousands of people who lined up for two hours for their tiny moment. I had imagined an intimate, dimly lit gathering where people wandered around and had casual chats with Scott whilst discussing how stunning the last Sass + Bide collection was.
But alas, as with many dreams that fall into reality, it was not to be.
Upside? There were a million stylish people that I snapped. I finally read looked at the Sartorialist book which is heavenly. And last but DEFINITELY not least – he said my skirt was fabulous. And asked where it was from. And was impressed that it was from a crappy chain store.
Mission accomplished – I feel validated.
Blackbird singing in the dead of night,
Take these broken wings and learn to fly.
All your life,
You were only waiting for this moment to arise.
My greatest love in life is music. And it can be any type of music – classical,’indie’, rock, hip hop. I can appreciate almost anything – from lyrical genius to instrumentals which take your breath away (yes, Alexandre Desplat, I’m talking about you). There are bands like the Frames which make my heart break, or musicians like Rachael Yamagata who give me so much hope and happiness. (Though I must warn you, I tend to be suspicious of anyone who creates their own genre by mashing two together, like folk-jazz, or who just adds an ‘alt’ or ‘nu’ to the beginning of a genre and pretends its different!)
There is nothing which compares to hearing a really great show live, or a new band for the very first time. I don’t even know how to describe Wednesday night. I saw Mr Percival, a musician who is actually quite well-known, perform live for the first time. I can’t really explain what he does, but he uses a loop machine to layer his voice and create music. It truly takes your breath away.
(I know that I’m terrible at taking pictures in the dark right now, but I still really liked this one, even though it is all blurry).
One of the most gorgeous girls I’ve ever seen was sitting next to me – I didn’t take a photo of her face though (what, jealous? me? no, never…)
The show was basically in this guy’s bedroom. They call it the 505 – its an apartment in Surry Hills that has magical, magical performances for the select few that they can cram inside.
To me, this is everything music is supposed to be.
The inspiring Scott Schuman (aka the Sartoralist) – has anyone ever noticed how horribly pretentious it is to say aka ‘blah blah blah’? – had a book signing at Sass and Bide in Paddington a few days ago.
I’ll post pictures from the signing later, but in the mean time, the Sass and Bide girls may as well be models for the harem chic thing that Sarah Jane Clark and Heidi Middleton have going on. I mean, can real girls wear billowing, slit to there chiffon pants with metallic disc belts and sequinned bodysuits?
I can’t even believe I just typed that. I HATE it when people say they can’t get away with things. Fashion is about loving a look and making it your own, it isn’t about ‘dressing for your bodytype’ and ‘introducing this season’s trends into your wardrobe’.
A gorgeous gorgeous cultural studies student I met at the signing said to me ‘I don’t think fashion buyers really care about trends and all that any more, it just doesn’t work like that.’ She seemed quite pleased that things had changed – I must say I don’t disagree.
I have been a little amused and mainly excited as all of my favourite fashion blogs are a-flutter with news of a Zac Posen for Target line.
Now a girl like me, stuck on a student budget, goes crazy for Designers for Target, H&M, Topshop and all that jazz.
But the reason I was a tad amused was because all the bloggers seemed to act like this was the first Zac Posen line for Target? Now someone will have to correct me if I am wrong, but Zac did an amazing line a few years ago.
I’m fairly sure that this was available worldwide (but if it was just Australia, wow!)
I wish I had some professional shots, but a recent French Revolution themed party allowed me to pull out my favourite Zac Posen for Target dress!
Designers for Target is often dismissed by fashion-lovers because they claim that it isn’t good enough quality. I don’t really think that we can expect Zac Posen quality for $100 pricetag – but we can expect something beautiful, fashionable and relatively well-made. I personally have LOVED some of the creations to come out of Designers for Target, and other capsule creations. Camilla and Marc did a line for Portmans in Australia recently which I loved, but simply couldn’t afford. Whilst I think Camilla and Marc fans would have been pleased to buy dresses that are usually $650 for $400, their GORGEOUS, GORGEOUS work was still not accessible for little ole’ me!
This dress I’m wearing is one of my all-time favourites – perfectly tailored and it really does fit like Zac Posen ought to.
Apologies for the happy snap photos – I didn’t have my DSLR yet at this point!
But we had a wonderful night. Keep an eye out for photos of my gorgeous Yeojin Bae for Target dress! (P.S – Heading to Sass + Bide in Sydney tomorrow to hopefully meet the Sart! Can’t wait!)
