Photo by Cup of Couple in Barcelona

Hey you! Yes, you with no plans next Wednesday evening – what if I told you I’ll be munching on street food and popping meringues over at GAP London flagship store and willing to share? Will you come by and spend the evening with me?

As you know, I’m doing another style series with Gap Styld.by platform, but instead of hogging the fun all to myself, I thought it might be more fun to invite all my readers for a night out in the store with street food, music and a bit of styling fun. So do pop by on the 4th of June – unhide yo kids, unhide yo wife – rumour has it that one of the food items on the menu will be called ‘Pork & Cube’, and I’m ready to fight you for it (there is a veggie option too, which I’ll also fight for). Plus a GAP £500 shopping voucher is up for grabs if you’re seriously in need of a new summer wardrobe.

See you on the 4th!

(Please RSVP to hello@parkandcube.com, but feel free to show up on the evening – more the merrier!)

Look 1: Off-shoulder top – StyleNanda (similar). White linen trousers – Gap. Shoes – Birkenstock. Bracelet – Zara. Watch – Larsson & Jennings. Sunglasses – Carrera x Jimmy Choo. Necklace – Mum’s Mikimoto

Look 2: Jersey Dress – Gap. Denim Jacket – Pinko. Sunglasses -Sunglasses – Carrera x Jimmy Choo. D’Orsay flats – similar

Well this is annoying. In my dirt-stained brick & concrete neck of the woods these two all-white-errythang get-ups would’ve won me some kind of a medal, if not a congratulatory hug from the bloke at the Turkish convenience store in front of whom I’ve spilled, not once but three times, just-bought green smoothie down my just-drycleaned silk top. The whole sun & cloudless blue skies sun setting altogether nullifies the difficulty of wearing white, it not only looks like I was born like dis, but heck, even the food is white in Barcelona (more on this later) – and evidently a spoonload of seabass and rice doesn’t do much damage to a white jersey dress. All my effort is thrown. I will never be an accidental contemporary artist. Either that or I’m getting very good with the fork since the last post and I’m actually aiming for me mouth, even under effect of white wine. Look mum, hands!

To tell the truth, if not for the white pieces from Gap for my style series on the Styld.by platform, I’d probably have scrabbled around Barcelona in my usual get-up looking like a cockroach under a lightbulb and that’s never a good look.

Outfit photos by my two favourite boys, Cup of Couple. Edit by Park & Cube

Top – Dagmar

White trousers – Gap

Leather Jacket – Francis Leon. Top – Dagmar. White linen trousers – Gap. Shoes – Kurt Geiger. Bag – ZAC Zac Posen

This is me attempting reverse psychology with a pair of white trousers after years of championing the ‘bib’ solution (i.e dark/patterned clothing) which caters to my infamous Flying Food eating technique. For example, one could tell that I ate recently by the fact that there’s food on my husband’s clothes (Babe try a bite of this, OOPS SORRY = a spoonload of pasta on his lap). A pair of white linen trousers from Gap should in theory overload this chipmunk brain’s computing powers and bring balance to the universe… (?) But if that’s not the case then I’ll switch to treating it as a blank canvas and Jackson Pollock on it throughout the day with breakfast, lunch and dinner – heck, it should still go with that chromosome-y Dagmar top in either scenario. Speaking of Dagmar, it’s one of my favourite Scandi brands that I’ve had to make pen-pals (aka potential shopping legs) in Stockholm for, but just the other week I found out that they’re stocked at Harvey Nichols and Harrods… D’OH. Guess I ought to write goodbye letters to those kids now…

On another note, I’m very glad to be back doing another style series with Gap for the Styld.by platform with a few of my favourite white pieces from their summer new-ins. Pieces also to be known hereon as guineapigs on which my reverse-psychology theory will be tested… All I can say now is: check back later for my debut art piece of a white dress splattered with coffee and curry – we’ll probably throw an opening gala with champagne and all that.

Sake No Hana, London

Sake No Hana Cherry Blossom pop-up April 7 – May 19

Cherry blossoms: makes one of a many fleeting moments in life, glorious little pockets of time that just always seem to be in a hurry to leave. Namely this list also includes other equally magnanimous things like the 1-minute warmth expiry in a fresh donut, or the first 5 minutes of a 42-km marathon when you feel like you should be a member of the Avengers… oh and comfort on a 12h flight, lasts up till about the first time the seatbelt sign turns off.

Back to sakura (cherry blossoms) though, is it just me or did it last about one afternoon this year? I feel like it was there one morning in March and then blown off by tea time. So much so that when I arrived for a meeting at the full pink bush atop the Sake No Hana doors I assumed it was some kind of special guest entrance to the Ministry of Magic when a pee-smelling red telephone box just won’t do. Alas, it was magic alright, a pop-up display designed by florist Veevers Carter, blossoms raining above the bar and entwining everything around, including the sakura-inspired menu that makes up for the lost picnic under cherry trees we Londoners were owed this Spring. One thing though, is apparently the pop-up ends on the 19th May, which is in like… two days, and for this I apologize for my blogging competency which is of similar fleeting consistency as the aforementioned donut warmth… Do call to book for a cheeky Sakura crystal double-layer bento box for lunch on Monday, or just drop by for a Sakuratini cocktail at the bar. At least then we can say we can tick the ‘Springtime picnic’ box and move on to harassing Summer.

Disclaimer: Photography by Park & Cube for Sake No Hana (Hakkasan Group) use. This is not a sponsored post :)

Designed by Andrea Morgante, the design of the Black & White bar is inspired by the Woolmark logo

‘A dress from 1,000 angles’ installation by Carlotta Actis Barone: a dress reflected off the classic Fiat Cinquecento windows

The Concrete Bar: to celebrate the architectural growth in Italy’s cities in the early 60’s

Interactive visual installation by Leonardo Worx

Dine with a stranger at the Ribbon bar & Restaurant

Wearing: Leather jacket – Pinko. Joggers – Next. Shoes – & Other Stories (similar). Bag – Saint Laurent ‘Lulu’.

This is what London gives you when you shake a fist at the sky and scream WHY CAN’T YOU BE MORE LIKE ITALY: it fills a house in Holborn with Italy things. While we all know that’s not what I meant but it’s a pretty creative interpretation, let’s give it that – it could’ve been worse, like raining cats, dogs and sheets of lasagne pasta worse. Living in one city for long you learn to put out feelers for great pop-ups and events, and apparently when you feed Gelato masterclass and beer cocktail into the search bar you get the House of Peroni, for the entire month of May. Personally I found the house via a link promoting their Silk Scarf masterclass, which was one of the things I’d had on my To-Learn list since missing the boat completely at uni where the screen-printing lessons were bountiful, and free. It was either that or the Gelato masterclass, but alas – I’m off dairy for skin betterment reasons, and beer too – which apparently co-exist in these Gelato recipes they instruct (so there is Italian sunshine in this pocket of London afterall…).

The masterclasses and events are definite gems, but for frill-free fun, the rest of the house is free entry and full of little corners that celebrate Italian culture and design. I’m personally pining for a seat at the top floor ribbon restaurant where you dine in close proximity with strangers – characteristic to the dining experiences I’ve had in any given city in Italy. Also, mixologist Frederick Riezzo is really is a dab hand, ask for any Peroni Nastro Azurro concoction at the Ribbon bar – I had a few cheeky sips and the sun really did come out (for lack of a better expression), just don’t tell my party-pooper skin.

House of Peroni runs from May 2-31, 64 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London WC2A 3JX. Find out more and book events at thehouseofperoni.com. In collaboration with Peroni