La Celestina of the 21st Century

It’s Sunday, 9am.  I get in the tube and look around.  “Cristians make better lovers”, I read. Seriously?  I count 5 adverts of dating sites in the carriage and all I can think about is that someone somewhere is making a lot of money. 

Dating sites are just La Celestina of the 21^st century.  Those of you who are familiar with this 16^th century book might actually understand what I mean.  To sum up the story, Calisto fell in love with Melibea, but she rejected him, so he decided to ask for Celestina’s help, who was an old witch.  She manages to make Melibea fall in love with Calisto and by the end of the book, he accidentally falls and dies while trying to jump the fence of Melibea’s house.  After seeing this, Melibea decides to kill herself.

Celestina is who brings Calisto and Melibea together, with the help of a conjuration.  Just like that, dating sites help bring people together and help them hide what they don’t want other people to know.

There are so many different dating sites nowadays... yet everyone I know who uses one, uses Tinder.  I have heard all about how amazing it is and all the reassuring things they have, like telling you the common friends you have with that person on facebook.  Is this really reassuring though? I mean, come on, we all have friends on facebook whom we might have met once, those we never speak to, who we randomly met ages ago at a party some friend of a friend invited us to. You’re a friend of that weirdo and Tinder says we are the perfect match? No thanks!

I must confess I am not a fan of dating sites.  I’ve never tried them but I’m just one of those people who doesn’t feel comfortable saying to the world “hey you, look at me, I’m looking for a man!” all over the internet without caring about all the weirdos out there.  I don’t really trust those things, I just keep thinking to myself: You’re going out for a coffee/dinner/a drink with someone you’ve never met? Really? What if he is a serial killer?

The thing is, despite all these people I know using dating sites, whenever I asked them if they ever had a good date, all of them said no. 

I have a friend who has been using it for a while now and who really tried to get me to try it. I asked him if he had been on dates and he said yes, but when I asked him why he was still single he said all the girls were weird.  Another friend of mine was supposed to meet this guy she met on the same site.  When he told her where to meet, he made a really racist joke about (surprise surprise) her religion. He obviously didn’t know it, but how can you make such jokes when you really don’t know the other person?  It’s just the effect of sitting behind a computer to interact with others, it makes people think they can do anything and they will be cool.  Well, it doesn’t work like that.

Don’t get me wrong, dating sites might work for some, it just doesn’t do it for me.  Call me old fashioned but I’d very much rather be introduced to someone else by a real friend, face to face, without masks or conjurations.

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What happened to goodbye?

‘And now what?’, he asked. ‘I don’t know…’. I didn’t know.

Somehow I was speechless. I didn’t feel angry, nor did I feel sad. I felt quite hopeful, like a whole new world of possibilities had just opened in front of my eyes, like I could do anything. I felt alive, for the first time in months, years even.

I stood up, got my little notepad and opened it. I started reading:
“Surrounded by strangers, in a strange city, we were the only link to each other. And it worked. While I sat there, just wondering about the future, about life, about us. We could do anything. Go anywhere. And we’d still be us. It was a strange feeling. A beautiful feeling. Just strangely beautiful. As if we were one. We were in no man land and it felt home…. Stockholm, May 2013”.

It was the first time I had read that out loud since I wrote it, a few months before. Back then I thought he would eventually end up reading it, but now I know he never will.

We sometimes forget how fragile we are. We rely on too many people and things to be happy and we often forget that all we rely on, could disappear one day. 

It is like your favourite sitcom. You know the super funny character you love, right? Well, the writers didn’t like him as much apparently because BAM! they killed him in episode 4. So now it’s over, and you’ll never get to laugh about those stupid jokes anymore.

Just like that, in real life, some people just disappear. Without a warning, without an explanation, without anything. It happens all the time and it makes me wonder… What happened to goodbye?

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Zagreb Fashion Week: Vjera Vilicnik & Ivy's Hair & Nail Studio

Last week was hectic. I've been struggling to catch up with sleep all week but it was so great, I keep smiling every time I think about last weekend...

My crazy adventure started on Wednesday before lunch, when Zagreb airport went on strike and British Airways decided to cancel my flight the following Friday.  

I was supposed to fly to Zagreb for the fashion week to be with my dear Vjera Vilicnik, who was presenting her new collection on Saturday.  We had spent weeks planning everything, going through details, looking for sponsors for the event at Ivy's... This couldn't be happening... I had to be there, I couldn't miss it! (And half of the collection for the catwalk was in my suitcase!)

So I ended up flying a day earlier, first to Dubrovnik and then flying to Split, where our hero Ivan picked me up a drove me back to Zagreb.  All in all, 14 hours door to door... Totally worth it though!

On Friday we woke up early and, after running some errands, we went over to Ivy's to start preparing everything for the evening event. After the amazing team there did our hair and nails, we were ready to greet the guests.

Lots of family and friends came around, as well as fashion bloggers Dino from Style Brick Road and Ana from Little Fashion Paradise.  It was a great evening, thank you to all who could make it!

For those who couldn't, you can get an idea of what went on here:

The black tie nightmare

A few weeks ago, me and my colleagues received an email we had long been waiting for: the Christmas party email.  Christmas parties at my company are always really good but the details of the party are always kept secret until a few weeks before. 

When I opened the email, I was super happy to see that this year’s theme was James Bond and that the dress code was black tie.  “Amazing!”, I thought…  Little did I know about how confusing the black tie dress code is to some people though.  

Guys have it easy, they just need to wear a tux and look impeccable, but for us, the ladies, it’s a different story.

Everyone seemed quite relaxed at first, then I started doing my research and asking what people were thinking of wearing and I was shocked to hear some of the answers I got… Ranging from “very short glittery dress” to “long backless dress” , most of the answers were just highly inappropriate suggestions for an office black tie event.  Now, 3 weeks before the event, most people are panicking because they haven’t found a dress yet…

Black tie first came into fashion amongst the higher classes in the Victorian era, became a convention in the Edwardian era and after World War II it was relegated to special occasion attire, and nowadays, one doesn’t get invited to many black tie events, so I can understand the confusion here…  But let’s get this straight; black tie dress code involves a long dress, unless the host specifically tells you otherwise.

I was browsing around some websites and these are some of my favourite dresses.  (Admittedly, there was not an awful lot to choose from):

All images from http://www.net-a-porter.com/

So first of all, the dress needs to be long.  Now, what about the cleavage? What about the back? Well misses, my advice here is don’t show too much skin. You want to look classy, not tacky.  I guess my three rules for black tie dresses are: boring, simple and classic – after all, don’t forget we are not going clubbing.

Another thing to take into account, just on a more general note on office events, is that one the party is over, you still have to go back into the office on Monday and work with all those people at the party, and trust me, if you wear something that is too sexy, their opinion on you will change (and just for the record, this is NOT a good thing).

In terms of accessories, be creative! Since the dress will be so formal (and a bit boring), you can add some colorful notes on the earrings, necklace, bracelets… don’t overdo it though, statement earrings won’t go well with a similar kind of necklace, so choose one and wear a nice bracelet!

This might also be a good time to go to the hair dresser and get that long overdue blow dry done. Messy hair does not belong in such a formal event.

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Vintage photoshoot aka Voodoo Vixen-ing

It's Saturday night and I'm stuck at home feeling a bit ill.  It's now when I just realised a new post on the blog was long overdue... It's been a crazy few months since the last entry but I'm determined to pick it up and give it a proper go again!

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure to join the great team of Voodoo Vixen at the photoshoot of their new collection.

As soon as I got to the studio, I jumped into hair and make up with lovely Claire, who did an amazing job on me, look!

Once I was done there, I went on to choose my outfit and, I must say, it was a tough job! So many amazing dresses, skirts, shirts, cardigans... I went a little crazy but ended up choosing the Lucille dress, which I found extremely comfortable to be in! Once I was all dressed, hair and make up done, I was ready for the shoot.

The photographer, Tom, was amazing and funny, which made it a whole lot easier for me! I still needed a bit of direction from him though...

And then, Tom started shooting and creating magic :)

The lovely people from Voodoo Vixen were so amazing through the whole shoot... Thank you!

Some more behind the scenes pics...

And, the first of the official pics was out on their fbook page!

You can find more info on Voodoo Vixen on their website or their facebook, be sure to check it out, all you vintage lovers!

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London Vogue Fashion Night Out (belated)

I love VFNO. I just do. It's the perfect excuse for taking an afternoon off and sliding into the shops to drink some champagne and catch up with friends. The perfect end of summer (if we ever had one) party. 
This year, lovely RoRo, Joseph and myself went down to Aspinal of London for the first one. It was packed, nice but packed. And they were having a casting in the basement, which made the whole up and down transition impossible. So after adoring the new designs and making long lists of what we will be adding to Santa's list this Christmas, we decided to head to Burberry. 
A classic of the VFNO in London. This year's band was good, Southern. Thom and Lucy sang some lovely songs and everyone seemed to be having a great time. Now, finding a glass of champagne? Almost mission impossible. Gladly we found a few... and we also found my dear Silvia from NottingChic! Gorgeous as usual, we managed to have a little chat before we were taken downstairs and lost her for the rest of the night. 
As we walked outside, we decided to have a quick look at LV and check their windows with all the Yayoi Kusama collection. Awesomeness is the word. I've seen the exact same windows at Selfridges every morning on the way to the office and I can't stop looking at them. It's like when Audrey stared at the windows of Tiffany's at early hours in the morning while she had a coffee and a croissant. Anyway, the point is, we were in LV briefly and then came down to Hermès only to find a stage (outside, obvs) with some people dancing swing. SWiNG! We totally loved it!

All in all it was a good night, but one really got the impression that LVFNO has grown A LOT, and I am not sure that is necessarily a good thing.

Oh, I was also approached by the peeps from BuyMyWardrobe to take some pics of my outfit.

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Photo by www.buymywardrobe.com

Vjera Vilicnik skirt

H&M top

Zara blazer

Vintage belt (thanks mum, again)

Balenciaga bag

DOTS FOR THE DROPS (of rain)!

I'm back in London now after spending a wonderful few days in warm and sunny Spain, and guess what... it's raining! I couldn't believe it spent all day raining yesterday! So, to celebrate that today was a little sunny, B and I decided to stay away from the Notting Hill carnival and go for a walk around the neighbourhood - it ended up being quite nice and relaxing!

What to wear... Dots! I love dotted skirts, dresses... feels so summery! (and when you live in London all year long, you need to find a way to remember that hey, despite the rain and the 16 degrees... we are in the Summer!)

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Levi's denim jacket

H&M tank top

Vintage skirt

Vintage ponyskin belt (from my lovely mum's wardrobe...)

Zara shoes

Bracelets:  Tiffany's, Pandora and traditional Peruvian silver

Burgmeister watch

LV bag