The soundtrack of my life

San Sebastián, that amazing little city in the north of Spain that has recently been making it into the top rankings of cities to visit.  From the National Geographic magazine to the Financial Times, everyone wants to tell the world about this magical city.  My magical city.

San Sebastián has many attractions, some of which have already been written about.  Yes, we might have the highest rate of Michelin star restaurants per square meter, we might have an amazing pintxo scene (don’t use the word tapas, if you do, you might get kicked out of the region), we might be one of the world’s best 20 surf towns, but what is really one of the biggest attractions of the city is its amazing cultural offer.

Not only do we have many big cultural events, such as the Jazz Festival or the International Film Festival, but San Sebastián is also the epicenter of what was called the Donosti Sound.  The sound of San Sebastián.  That soft melodic pop that emerged back in the 90’s and that had such an impact in the underground music scene in Spain, mainly dominated by grunge and indie rock at the time, with their unpretentious attitudes and their sounds a little melancholic and a little naïve…

I recently came across some of my old music that I hadn’t listened to for years and realized that I still fall in love with it a little more each time I put it on.

A band I have been listening to a lot again lately is La Buena Vida.  Despite it not existing anymore (although their members are still actively in the music scene with other projects such as AMA) their music will live with us forever.  It's hard to choose one song or even one album, it's just too hard...  

Choose La Calle del Carmen, for example, and I can picture myself driving into Madrid on a Spring day with perfect sunrise, one of those crispy mornings with a blue sky and the Kio Towers in the distance. 

Or Un Actor Mexicano, the one that always (always!) pops up when I’m cycling to the beach along the Urumea river, the smell of the salty water, the warmth in the skin... The feel of the summer.

Despite living far away, San Sebastián will always be my magical place, and its sound the soundtrack of my life.

Check out AMA's website and follow them on Facebook 

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The magic wardrobe - Vogue Festival 2014

Finally, April arrived. And with it, the unmissable Vogue Festival.

V and myself were extremely excited to be able to attend this year, and we were very much looking forward to getting inspired all around.  The lovely crowds, the sponsors and even the limited editions at the shop...  Anywhere and everywhere can one find the inspiration, don't you think?

We started our day with some pampering sessions and dressing up.  It's so hard to decide about what to wear to these events...  Lucky for us, V has the magic wardrobe!  

The magic wardrobe is the one that holds Vjera Vilicnik's latest collections.  The one piece of furniture with the richest fabrics, the most delicate details and the most exquisite colour palette.  Essentially, it's the place where the most precious secrets of each season are best kept.  Well...  We decided to open it for the day.

With the help of Mr I and his never ending (but incredibly useful) advice, we managed to find the perfect outfits, and off we went (not without having a little improvised photo shoot)!

Once we arrived at the Queen Elisabeth Hall in Southbank, we couldn't help but notice the big queue at the tills of the Vogue shop, so we decided to go for a little bubbly and walk around to see what was going on before fighting for a £1 Vogue pencil.

I realised there was quite a lot of people walking around with what looked like clothes they had just picked up from the dry cleaners... Surely that couldn't be it, I thought.  And it obviously wasn't.  There was a place where some Vogue (I believe) stylists were giving advice on the clothes people would bring, hence all those people walking around with clothes in hangers.  There was another place where one could show a beauty specialist / make up artist one's make up pouch, and they would check it and advise you on what you should never (ever) wear again and what you could keep.  There was also an OPI nails stand where one could get the nails done and get VOGUE written on it (one letter on each nail, ma'am)... It was all pretty cool, but the queue was so insanely long again that we decided to explore the other area.

Now, here came our first surprise, when we turn the corner and we bump into Mr Manolo Blahnik signing copies of books about him (that were very kindly on sale at the Vogue shop, of course!).

After adoring him for a little bit and realising we had less than 30 mins left until the talk we were attending, we headed to the (very packed) Vogue shop to get some goodies.  For the record, no, we didn't buy the highly desired £1 Vogue pencil, but instead we decided to go for the limited editions of designer t-shirts, scarf and sweatshirt!

There we were, queuing for our precious treasures when we saw a fairly large amount of people running down the hall.  It was him, ladies and gentlemen, Mr Valentino Garavani!

Right after that, we went into the "Valentino, the king of glamour" talk and spent an hour listening to him go through details of his life.  He was so funny and inspiring...  I'm sharing some quotes from the talk, some of which made the whole audience burst out laughing.

"When I was a young designer working for a French fashion house I went to Spain and watched an opera there. There were so many women dressed in red, and I decided that it was my lucky colour."

(Alexandra Shulman asking) "Valentino, how was that transition from when you first started, you know, from stitching verything youroself to..." (Valentino interrupting) "Oh, I never stitched myself!!!!"

(To the question: Which is the decade you like least?) "Definitely the eighties!  I didn't like the eighties at all, women looked so vulgar!"

Before leaving, we also had the chance to visit the Harrods catwalk briefly and practice our modelling skills a little further...

After all this, we were happy and ready to go home, although... did someone say strike a pose??

Follow Vjera Vilicnik on Facebook

Shop her collections on www.vjeravilicnik.com 

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