(Left-to-Right)1 Leather Coat – Gift from mummy (Massimo Dutti), Stripe Top –Uniqlo, Jeans – Replay, Khaki heels – Primark, Necklace –DanniJo, Cross-body Bag– ASOS
2 Black neoprene jacket – H&M, Parachute Dress – All Saints, Stripe Top – Uniqlo, Bag – Barbara Boner, Necklace – Brook & Lyn, Booties – Missoni
3 Leather shorts – Vintage, Shoes – secondhand Alexander Wang via Vestiaire Collective, Trench – Uniqlo, Bag – Marc Jacobs via Monnier Freres, Stripe Top – Uniqlo

Boys, look away, go play with the lawn sprinkler please. Girls, should I be afraid the Uniqlooks monthly

recap is synchronizing with my release-the-Kraken time of the month? Like clockwork! I hate you! I love you. Nowadays this seems to be the only thing that helps keep track of time… this and an evil pile of bills that clog up the mailbox but never-mind that because I don’t believe they exist, realllllllly, it’s just a fantasy. (Hubby says he’s got it, such a man) Anyhow, just a quick one for today – the classic striped top that just about goes with anything, done up in three ways. Mind, I might’ve butchered the fail-safe classic with the parachute-dress, but right now that floats my hormonal boat so please let’s just call it an outfit.

Thank you TCS for the organization and the lovely people at Hermès for the warm welcome & tour. 

In school I had a friend who could draw a straight line without the help of a ruler – we called her a witch back then – mind, this was few years before the revelation of Harry Potter wherein witches carry ruler-like things called wands that might’ve made the name unsuitable. She also knew how to fold origami swans with a blade-sharp edge and tear pages out of her notebook without ripping out that bit at the end. We were always in awe – especially me (derpina) with a wad of ‘swan’ that looked like it was chewed on – because none of it was brain surgery and everyone technically knew how to fold a sailing boat by the 5th grade. Being in the Hermès Atelier Sacs reminded me of her, and I do realise this connection is somewhat far-fetched but as we entered the ateliers I was fully expecting to be told off for photographing certain things that might be classified as ‘brand secrets’. But get this, we were free to roam around –  they even explained the details in the techniques and process of creating a Birkin (average 48hours production time!) although I must confess, in most part I was sneaking around in the far corner where the Constance bags were being made and heard only about half the tour (so professional).

That got me thinking, and this is where my witch friend comes in – by now everyone in the leather industry knows how to technically make a bag, but Hermès clearly proves that it takes the talented, adept hands of artisans and a brand ethos that embraces quality to make a great bag. Granted, a bag that costs a lot of months in a London flat and throw in a few kebabs while we’re calculating, but now I’m convinced it really is worth it. The ‘secret’ of Hermès, is not in a mystery beeswax or a particular stitching machine, but the magic of attention and care by skilled hands, not to mention the history of the brand’s relationship with leather. It’s undeniably a perfect strategy on Hermès‘ part to highlight – not hide – this craftmanship aspect and invite certain people to experience what might be considered as secret lair to other brands that like to keep everything under lock and key. Who knows, perhaps in the future I’ll be able to fill a few thousand piggy-banks and grow a patience-bone for the waiting list, then finally get a bag that might be handed down generations until a great-great-great-great-granddaughter accidentally leaves it in a space shuttle on her way to Mars.

Celebrating their 175th year and the brand’s unique relationship with leather, Hermes will be opening a public exhibition on the 8th May (~27th May) at 6 Burlington Gardens where some of the artisans will be present making bags. I’m so in, are you?

Barbara Boner Fringed leather bags & accessories at Pfeffer PR Pressday

Welcome, new visitors! You who searched for a certain naughty term and Google and some SEO magic told you this might be the place you were looking for. Oh don’t leave so hastily, do look around, you’ll spot a patch of skin or two if not a sat-wrong pants-bulge that might answer your search needs.

If that’s not a riveting name I don’t know what is, (except maybe Ben Dover) I swore to myself not to bring up the name issue but as it turns out that she’s 1) Italian hence the name is probably pronounced ‘bonnnner’ or ‘pineapple’ (Italian is a mystery language for me) 2) obviously gone over this many times before she decided to settle on the name and therefore clearly is embracing it. It got you reading, didn’t it? That’s all that matters – I too might change my name to Park & STRIPTEASE. I spotted Barbara Boner‘s fringed bags at the Pfeffer PR press day and I must’ve been looking for a boyfriend or soul mate* or something that day because clearly her work has everything I don’t have – boho-chic, rockstar-chic (if I say chic again please slap me), and really nice soft leather. Overall it’s charismatic – if it were a person she’d chew gum, jump over fences and go out of NO EXIT doors.

* Pffft soulmate in a bag, taking antisocial to the next level.

Leather Coat – Gift from mummy (Massimo Dutti), Stripe Top – Uniqlo, Jeans – Replay, Khaki heels – Primark, Necklace – DanniJo

Over the weekend I had a chance to dig at the blog archives, that token a-day-in-the-attic tour where you peel open just about every dusty photo album and realise how much has changed in the years past. It really is about time to acknowledge that this blog has entered into the latter years of toddlerzone (fwee years old and some) and has so far learnt to use the potty and has grown a decent set of milk teeth; this mummy is also gradually starting to patch together what might resemble a life. Amidst pockets of embarrassing moments (defined by outfits wherein enthusiasm was far from curbed) I realised how much my attitude to dressing is now vastly different. The so called life I’m patching now involves mornings of a regular alarm+snooze pattern, and attempts at giving the wardrobe a rattle yet falling straight back to the fail-proof outfit of jeans and a top of some cotton variety. The transport option: bicycle, dictates what I wear, and the common jeans happen to be the only thing I own that doesn’t get caught in the back wheel. On other – enthusiastic – days I get a few honks from bus drivers who are either trying to alert me of the skirt-in-wheel situation… or to make me disappear from the road altogether, both likey. So over the past 6 months or so the number of jeans have tripled, and when Replay got in touch with their Laserblast jeans (always read ‘laser’ in Dr. Evil voice), I must confess – I revelled. Not just because at the time all my other jeans were pickling in the laundry basket, but it so happens the Laserblast technology eliminates chemical treatment and ensures there’s 85% less water involved in production; green jeans, in other words. This also means no blue smudge on my white accessories or this chair I now sit in for 8 hours a day. (They also sent over the Trailor for the Laserblast but other than the model’s butt, please know that my sentiments to the video can be summarized with one word: Cringetastic.)

Above is a collection of images from previous blogposts and other sources (sources linked – photos 2,3,6,10), to highlight the Giorgio Armani Acqua for Life water awareness campaign

If I’m visiting a new city the first thing I’ll Google once connected to the hotel wifi is ‘can you drink tap water in [insert city]‘, then sometimes I’ll double-check with ‘but are you suuuuure‘ and Google will ask me ‘are you suuuuure you’re wearing the right size bra?’. Just about drops the issue every time. However, the question whether tapwater is drinkable in Warsaw… still not answered after 16 years. The hubby who looked over my shoulder to read this just said ‘yeah, you wouldn’t die, but I honestly wouldn’t’. Growing up in Warsaw, thirty 5-litre bottles would be delivered every other month and the biggest chore for me and my brother was to carry them all into the house because we’d find them dumped at the bottom of the porch one random morning. You don’t leave twenty bottles of water in the lawn with the tigermum prowling in the kitchen. So my brother and I would compete whoever can carry in more at once and we’d hobble in and out carrying 6 bottles at once (30kg); and of course the next day we’d wake up and feel all the muscles in our arms torn and absolutely refuse to go to school. (Then we’d spend the free day swinging broomsticks ‘lightsabres’ and end up being schooled by mother with one, or both.) I guess my point is, 30L is undoubtedly a hell of an ordeal to transport for an average person, but get this, through Giorgio Armani’s Acqua For Life campaign, one ‘like‘ will deliver 50L of safe water to those in real need. So unhide yo

kids, yo wife, and yo husband and tell them to get clicking. Unless you’re planning on doing it personally (and challenging airport security with 50L of water in your suitcase on your way to Bolivia) a click will do.