Is this how you summer?

Tropical shirtdress – Gap. Coat – Vintage Valentino via Nordic Poetry

Suede coat – Vintage Valentino. Dress – Gap. Necklace – Effra London. Straw Bag – H&M Home.

Sleeveless – Gap. Shorts – Next. Shoes – Calpas via Etsy. Bag – Ralph Lauren.

Hat – Hoss Intropia. Top – Glamorous. Shorts – Gap. Sliders – Filippa K. Watch – Larsson & Jennings. Necklace – Effra London. Sunnies – Jonathan Saunders

As an inherent cave-bat nerd that insists on applying at least 20 SPF against monitor glare because she doesn’t know how the outside works (and she is “Asian”), summer has never been a topic of particular interest, or a season of preference. Sure, my birthday may be in July and I surprisingly own a picnic blanket, but this is all by chance – I reckon if I had a choice, I’d want a 29th of February birthday just so I can forever regale in the fact that it will always be an amusing/sad thing to tweet about three years out of every four. This is not dissimilar to making meal choices based on how photogenic it is for Instagram, and unwittingly eliminating anything brown or poop-looking (i.e bread/chocolate) from the diet. Hey wait, internet is gluten-free? I live in the corner of 5AM-guilty-dog-videos and Incognito-window-shopping, and have the hots for Conan O’Brien. One day I would like to compose a blog post consisting only of emoji’s. These are my dreams, someone else can be girl president.

Lately however, I’ve been growing a little jaded by this glowing rectangle that supposedly contain my livelihood and all the stress that come with it, so I’ve been turning it off more often and sticking my hand out the window to see if it smokes. And since I’m a bit of a no0b at all this, I’ve been testing out all the textbook summer activities, like taking the laundry basket to the food market, canal-side lunches and picnics in the garden (unknowingly next to some dead baby foxes, as you may have heard in my Snapchat: SparknCube). And of course, wearing easy basics from Gap because while fur-lined Birks are, apparently salsa-stained PJs apparently are NOT yet in trend at the moment. Hey, I’m still learning about all of this, OK?

This is a round-up of Gap x Conde Nast Traveler summer looks I contributed for Styld.by. Photo assistance by Simon Schmidt.

When the going gets hot

Belted popover shirtdress – Gap. Shoes – Isabel Marant. Blazer – & Other Stories.

Printed top – Gap. Culottes – Charlie May Bracelet – MyFlashTrash

Linen roll-sleeve popover – Gap. Jeans – FrameDenim.

I must be one of those folk for whom the season of summer is a general questionmark for their closets wherein rumpled sweaters form burrowed eyebrows along the top shelf and winter coats and beachwear generally hang side-by-side in this arrangement:  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯? because the other day it was cold as balls – excuse ze language – and today I am wearing a singlet that may also be translucent. At this point I am just happy that we decided to place the office desks a few feet away from the windows facing the street, because this half-naked Asian lady violently fanning Vogue inserts is now shaking to the beat of Ciara’s Goodies. Hey wait, it actually might be a good time to move towards the window, given that I’m not really getting any work done. They throw money when you strip, right?

Here’s a few summer get-ups, mostly consisting basics from Gap. Let me know if I’m doing it right, from a scale of the-cold-never-bothered-me-anyway to she-had-dumps-like-a-truck-truck. Was never too great at maths, if you couldn’t tell.

Photography assistance: Simon Schmidt

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.