I've moved on...
...to a different domain. Why, what were you thinking? The truth is, I just woke up one day and decided it's time for a change—a metamorphosis, if you will; or, in layman's terms, if Britney can shave her head, then maybe so can I? Nevertheless, it's been a rather handsome 10 years of talking to you, and thank you for putting up with all my moodswings and terrible dad jokes. Fear not! The hormonal imbalance and jokes are more terrible on CUBICLE, see you there.

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creative direction & photography SHINI PARK location GSTAAD, SWITZERLAND

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Le Grand Bellevue is home away from home, with all the right soft corners but with the edge that tends to come with boutique luxury.

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Right: André Ledoux 1948 ad for anouraks. Left: unknown source.

Right: Winter 1963, Vogue.

Above: Spread with Jacques Heim 1938 Winter Sportwear

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Après-ski

Whether you’re an all-terrain ripper or a lumbering human ice-cone-machine in stirrups (AKA me), après-ski cocktails by a roaring fireplace is equally rewarding, if not nourishing. Le Grand Bellevue is home away from home, with all the right soft corners but with the edge that tends to come with boutique luxury. The lounge sports House of Hackney wallpapers, the subterranean spa a labyrinth of sauna and steam rooms, and Le Petit Chalet that serves mind-blowing raclette*, just a stone’s throw away within the grounds. Pack for the glaciers but don’t forget the lightweight cashmere basics for toasty lounges.

*You’ve already scaled a mountain (on a chairlift) (WHATEVER) today, so go on, have some cheese and spuds.

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Le Grand Bellevue
Untergstaadstrasse 17, 3780 Saanen, Switzerland
+41 33 748 00 00
www.bellevue-gstaad.ch

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Coat – H&M. Skirt – Next (Similar). Boots – Zara. Bag – Kurt Geiger (Similar). Turtleneck – American Apparel.

Clocking up nearly eight years in this city and having seen the fantastic variety of elements the sky had for offer (and spewed down regardless of preference) across any given season, the only way I’ve found – so far – to tell apart the damn seasons, was the flower market on Columbia Road. Granted, it’s still a pretty shoddy technique, because I’ve seen snow on sunflower petals, rainwater dousing a perfectly fine barbeque… and so on, but it seems to estimate better than anything else. Anything else, namely, being the date we’ve nominated ‘the official first day of Spring’, which I find basically as credible as me declaring: ‘From now on, I will blog diligently’. It’s Christmas-degrees on the ‘first day of Spring’; 2-week blog hiatus because of jetlag… = same unreliable shebang. At the flower market however, the tell-tale signs are in the flowers: the species, colours and sizes. While I won’t dare to boast I know my flowers, the familiar superstars coincide with the season’s traits: Daffodils, daisies and tulips quickly ensued by the sweetness Springtime; Sunflowers and Dahlias with balmy weathers of Summer… and so on. After a couple of weeks of indecisive selection of evergreens and rust-coloured hydrangeas, last week the market was suddenly flooded with yellow Billy balls and multicoloured tulips, so I picked up a bunch in the name of finally teasing the sun out from behind the clouds… now let’s wait and see if the theory sticks, shall we?

And speaking of Spring…

Looking forward to going back on this potion that always takes me back to NY. Which reminds me, the Marc Jacobs Daisy pop-up store over NYFW was apparently a wild success. As I’d imagined, the #MJDaisyChain hashtag currency overpowered the $$, an innovative social media twist that really made this campaign all the more special. Like I said before, I’d have happily tweeted my tails off for a top-up of Daisy or a piece of Langley Fox Hemingway’s Daisy-themed artwork… or a Marc Jacobs Wellington bag (DAMN). Click on the arrows to navigate the slideshow! In collaboration with Marc Jacobs Daisy (conclusion).

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Bag – Couronne. Boots – Zara. Skirt – Mango. Trench coat – YesStyle

And just like that, back home. Of course, jetlagged again up to my eyeballs, despite the numerous Red Bull showers I’ve taken in the past few hours and all that effort put into not trying to calculate what time it is in Seoul. The latter wasn’t too difficult, to be honest, addition was never my strong point. At some point during the day my body just keeled over and moaned like a pirate and I assumed it was past midnight in the Far East. My husband had suffered some kind of a food poisoning during the 13hour flight and had gone into man-flu mode the minute we landed. He slept till 4pm, woke up to pee, and muttered ‘I don’t feel jetlagged at all’ while I was sprawled, sluggish, in our open suitcases in the name of unpacking. Divorce him, I may. Anyhoo. While I was still up and unpacking (the whole five minutes) I found this – Daisy by Marc Jacobs – one of my favourite scents, a spritz of which took me straight back to this time last year when I had my NYC cherry popped. In fact, I started dreaming of the grand buildings, Central Park and yellow cabs, at which point the dirty laundry in our suitcases made for a soft bedding…

I won’t be travelling for NYFW this season, which pains my heart more than my jetlagged body cares for, but here’s a wee tip to those who will be there in the next week or so: A little bird tells me that there will be a Daisy pop-up store where the currency is not in $$ but ##. One cheeky tweet/a photo on Instagram or Facebook with the hashtag #MJDaisyChain will be all you need to claim a Daisy sample of your own – and since I won’t be there tweeting the life out of my phone in exchange for some Daisy top-up, or what I call, ‘NY-in-a-bottle’, I hope some of you will be able to. Make good memories!

The Daisy Marc Jacobs Tweet Shop will be in Soho, 462 West Broadway from 7-9 February (11am-7pm)

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One piece, three looks – Iris & Ink duchesse-satin top

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Look 1: Satin Top – Iris & Ink. Black jeans – James Jeans. Boots – Kurt Geiger (black). Bag – Marc Jacobs (via THE OUTNET.COM). Sunglasses – Carrera by Jimmy Choo.
Look 2:   Satin Top – Iris & Ink. Skirt – Calvin Klein (via THE OUTNET.COM. Shoes – Valentino. Bracelets – ASOS. Bird bangle – Saught. Clutch – Kurt Geiger.
Look 3:   Satin Top – Iris & Ink. Coat – Mango. Shoes – Mango. Skirt – Next. Bag – JinYoo103684. Rings – ASOS.

I think it’s high time I revive this series because honestly it’s quite fun putting together fantasy outfits, like I have somewhere to wear these to. Oh the joy of working from home. Take Look #2 for example – first date? any date? Dates with the hubby usually involves him telling me to go and change into trainers so we can walk his daddy-long-legs pace, and being asked if I ate a hamster because my lips are very very red. Or Look #3 – yeah pffsh, my business meetings usually happen over Skype, me in pyjamas munching on M&M’s, lying that my webcam isn’t functioning. I mean. I just don’t think they’ll trust working with a girl with no eyebrows. I’m kidding. I have eyebrows, please believe me. The colour of the Iris & Ink duchesse-satin top, exclusive to THE OUTNET.COM – hero piece of this month’s three-ways-to-wear – does put me in a rather romantic mood though. Plus, it’s the best kind of silk – those of the super-thick buttery sort that keeps its cocoon-y shape regardless of what’s happening underneath. I guess I can go eat a hamster afterall.

Park & Cube x THE OUTNET.COM

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Louis Vuitton Spring Summer 2014

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Louis Vuitton Spring Summer 14 collection, Paris; See the entire collection here.

Always personally a step late on fashion news, from start to finish this show was the usual Marc, a succession of delight: glimpses of pink coming through the queue into the show, the French maids that brushed the staircases Finalewith ostrich-feather dusters, and the near-complete darkness behind the doors. Almost too dark – guests were thumbing their phones, not to join the tweeting, but in attempts to illuminate the corridor to the showspace. Then came the hotel porters with mini torches, briefly lighting up the invitations and informing left or right in French. To the left, there was a black fountain that spewed water, also black in the light; to the right, a black carousel, flanked by two wrought-iron elevators each guarded by two doormen. A trainstation clock shone through the black horses of the carousel, its light gently riding down a pair of double escalators under. Upstairs, the corridor was studded with dark hotel doors. It was all too strange and familiar, and yet in my blissful ignorance, was a delight to me.

The clock counted down 60 seconds at exactly 10:00am, and unseated guests scrambled to find a corner in the dark. The models walked out balancing a Stephen-Jones designed ostrich headpiece, donning a collection that swung from glittery showgirl, to punk, to sports (of the rugby sort). The occasional denim, and the barely-there thongs. The choreography took the models through each of the landmarks, striding through the Mongolian lamb rugs, a ride on the carousel, then up the escalators, down the corridor, and down the elevator. At on point it felt like a funeral, a thought I’d quickly brushed aside before training my long lens back on a dress. At the end, Marc Jacobs , and across the floor I saw Anna Wintour starting a wave of standing ovation across the first and second row. The news reached me only as the lights came back on and the seats were emptying, during a frustrated attempt to upload a tweet, and accidentally reading others. Then everything just clicked. I feel a little foolish to have experienced it all in complete oblivion, but on hindsight, I think it made it all the more special – Marc’s last show, a grand compilation of the past seasons, a final mix-tape of sorts and something to remember for years to come.