Three ways I wear Nike LunarElite Sky Hi

Look 1: Lace dress – Zara. Sweatshirt – Nike. Shoes – Nike LunarElite Sky Hi. Clutch – Chanel. Sunglasses – Mango.

Look 2: Coat – Nanushka. Sweater – COS. Skirt – ASOS. Shoes – Nike LunarElite Sky Hi

Look 3: Cardigan & skirt – Peter Pilotto for Target (via Net-a-porter). Shoes – Nike LunarElite Sky Hi. Bag – JinYoo103684. Bag – Kurt Geiger. Turtleneck – Uniqlo. Puffer Vest – Gap.

I don’t know what it is about my late twenties but boy am I working up a collection of trainers, each bought with the same reasoning technique that accounts for the thirty bags of jumbo peanuts in our pantry: THIS MUST BE HANDY DURING THE APOCALYPSE. It’s odd because 1) I am a hamburger when it comes to exercise (i.e I do not put the ‘train’ in ‘trainer’), and 2) I held a crusade against flats all throughout my teenage years and stuffed tissues, not only in my bra, but in my trainers as well for the wedge effect. So I came across these Nike LunarElite Sky Hi‘s, I reasoned that yes I needed another pair of trainers because APOCALYPSE, but also revelled at the fact that it was my teenage crusade manifested (Waterbra? check), in perforated neoprene and all the essential lightweight, cushioning technology of a classic Nike running model. Plus, neon yellow because I’m biologically hazardous like that.

Broadway Market, E8

Sweater – Gap. Grey skinny jeans- Gap. Heels – Kurt Geiger. Watch – Guess. Doorknocker ring – & Other Stories. Bag – Couronne.

Forget bed, this is what you’re doing tomorrow. Throw on a nice cosy turtleneck, pick up a flat white at Climpson & Sons (No. 67) at the bottom of Broadway Market, and work your way through the crowd. 9am in the morning is probably the best time to go for some peace and quiet, but if you like the buzz and would like to eventually end up at The Cat & Mutton pub (No. 76) for a pint later in the afternoon, then a lazy Saturday start is fine. Sourdough bread is a must, so pick one up for the week; the fruit can be a little overpriced, but they look like something out of Gwyneth Paltrow cookbook so whatever floats your boat. Drop by Hansen & Lynderson stall for a the best smoked salmon (Norwegian-caught, locally hung) on bread with sourcream and dill snack – £3 a pop – just enough to whet your appetite. My lunch is pork steamed buns from Yum Bun (Broadway school yard market), or a pot of beef pho from Cà Phê, depending on weather – the latter has a little seating area if you’ve miscalculated your outfit like I always do and regretting those heels. Post-lunch, before you make a bee-line to the salted caramel cookies (yes, those), do a little detour to Strut (2b Ada st) for the best designer vintage in the East, for it may put you on a wee diet before the day’s end. Forget Brick Lane, Strust is where the fashion-savvy East Londoners’ Chanels, McQueens and Margielas come to rest and find new owners (Sunday and Mondays are their buying days). I always have dessert anyway, a gluten-free brownie from the Happy Kitchen stall, or a red velvet from Violet Cakes. One for now, one to have later at home.

A couple more recommendations: L’Eau à la Bouche for people-watching, over a pear flan, best around 3pm. Lucky Chip (31-35 Coate St) for the best burgers in town, Rebel Rebel (5 Broadway market), for great range of flowers if you know you can’t make it to the flower market on Sunday. Off Broadway (No. 63-65) when the sun goes down and home still can wait – a New-York style bar with great cocktails and Tex-Mex nibbles. Oh and don’t forget to visit the fish tank in the bathroom. Last but not least, Noble Fine Liquor (No. 27) for natural wine and craft beer – go back for wine tasting every Wednesday eve.

All makings of a good weekend!

Outfit: Part three of styling series with Gap‘s Styld.by platform. Check part one and part two here!

Cashmere cardigan – Gap. Cords – Gap. Heels – ASOS (US). White off-shoulder top – Stylenanda (similar). Bag – Mansur Gavriel. Scarf – Zara. Watch – Guess. Thank you Kit for the help snapping!

Unintentional dressed-by-mummy look again, cords and sensible knits and all. I guess I shouldn’t deny that I’m becoming more like her everyday… I mean, ever since I cut my hair I’ve been waking up to two-kids-and-a-mortgage hair each morning (styled by pillow, who I need to fire soon) and I’m gradually finding more uses the mop other than just for cleaning. For now it may be broomstick acrobatics to open the skylight window and balancing dried anchovies over to the stray cat across the roof, but I’ll be mop-wielding tiger-mum soon enough, I’m sure. (This blog may become Park & tiger cub then, I fear, pursue at your own risk.) The weather in London is still going through the usual mid-season identity crisis, and thankfully occasionally it still lingers on the summer end just long enough for me to get by with a shirt and a slouchy pair of cords from Gap + a reserve cashmere cardigan in the bag for colder moments. I love me a good coat but as long as the ENTIRE WORLD and their mothers continue to flood central London in the middle of the day (seriously, what’s causing this?) I’m happy with simple layers to darting between meetings less arduous. Happy weekend, all!

Part two of styling series with Gap‘s Styld.by platform. Part one here!

Angry midget grandpa: Laetitia

‘Bacon’

Evil-looking cat enduring a surprisingly nice petting session.

Wearing: V-neck wool cardigan – Gap. Cord leggings trousers – Gap. Dress – Stylenanda. Hat – Hoss Intropia. Bag – L.K.Bennett. Rose-gold watch – Guess. Leather knot bracelet – COS (similar). Boots – Zara. Cashmere scarf – Johnstons of Elgin. Thank you Kit for the outfit snaps!

I love days like this, when one very early morning meeting brings you to the other end of town and you end up spending the day in a very foreign surrounding. You poke at the Twittersphere for some recommendations in the area and ask whether or not they use a different currency/language here, and BAM you land a breakfast date with a friend you never see because, well, she lives at the bloody other end of town. The next thing you know, you’re digging through a mountain of bacon and the smell of it all invites a friendly pooch to sit at your feet, who you eventually end up naming ‘Bacon’. We still don’t know who its owner was and where it came from… although we’re pretty sure its real name is either Bacon, or Bread, or Tuna sandwich, considering that it pootled over to the next table once he saw no more bacon on my chin. And we thought it loved us.

Also, wearing what is probably the most comfortable outfit ever. I mean, cords and a chunky cardigan… it’s like my mother dressed me. Or my father, actually, come to think of it. All with a tiered dress-thing that actually very effectively covers up the junk in the trunk, and boots so comfortable I can jog in. This is the first of a little style series I’m doing with Gap and a couple of their knitwear/cord classics for the Styld.by platform. Make sure to check back for more of what I’m sure will be comfortable outfits championing the Park family genome, aka Pyjama family.

Outfit: Park & Cube x Gap Styld.by

Will instagram for food, I kid you not

Jenny from the (Swiss) block (of cheese)

(All instagram-style additions in this post shot with the Samsung Galaxy Camera)

Military coat – Zara. Jeans – James Jeans. Shoes – Isabel Marant. Scarf – Highlands tartan scarf. White cashmere turtleneck – Uniqlo. Travel wallet – LV Mon Monogram; Thank you Jen for the shots of moi!

Last weekend my life turned a corner… correction, my crusade for a hyperglossed online representation of my life turned a corner. Berlin had won the Most Photogenic City as part of Samsung’s Life’s a Photo social campaign around the new Samsung Galaxy Camera, and I was part of 45 bloggers that were invited out in celebration. Guys, this camera changes nothing, and absolutely everything – I’m having a whole new instagramming experience with this. See, I’ll still pause a perfectly civil dinner to do Taichi moves over the food with an image-capturing device, but those photos will be crisp and juicy in colour. I’ll still look like a complete douche-baguette fondling my phone at the dinner table but this time I’ll be editing my photos instead of flipping between filters that make the chocolate dessert look like cold poop, or hot poop. I will still get pinched nerves on my shoulder thanks to weight in cameras (nothing replaces the Canon beast), but I’ll have agility with this beauty tucked in my sleeve. And get this, I will still overshare the mundane things of my life, but I may or may not use the 21x zoom to shoot the better looking food across the room because haven’t you heard, bragging about stuff that ain’t yours is the next level, yo. See – nothing, yet EVERYTHING.

On an unrelated note, and I’ve spoken about this before, there it was again – the odd sense of comfort when travelling with a bunch of bloggers where an eyebrow shrug towards a corner means outfit shots, now, and collectively tackling snow in four inch heels until we’re reduced to communicating in 140-character grunts, mostly using words like feet, hurt, hungry, cold, hotel. There were many, many bloggers/photographers/instagrammers (I’ve never seen that many MEN in a press trip) at this event and at the end of the day we were inevitably sat around a round table having to make small talk and seem normal. Of course, being bloggers and inherently introverts – we all kept our head dipped and noses in this amazing new apparatus, affixing clip-art party hats on photos of eachother using the editing software, silently laughing at jokes that was never heard past the salt & pepper shaker point on the table. The waitress thought we were in group-prayer for the entire evening. Best party ever, really.

Also, Most Photogenic City in the world? Discuss.