Watch, Sekonda via ASOS. Rock-bead bracelet, Bijoubar via Boticca. Gold bracelet, JESSICA BARENSFELD hammered initials bangle via Vestiare Collective

Coat, CK (gift from mummy). Top, T by Alexander Wang. Boyfriend fit trousers, Uniqlo. Heels, Kurt Geiger Elsie. Bag, Valentino via Monnier Freres. Belt, JHYoo

Don’t lean on the walls, they’re wet! and made out of lego! (aka hopeful pieces of coding which I hope will endure the weather of the interwebz) It’s my great pleasure to welcome you to the new layout of Park & Cube. After many months of extra-curricular hours scrubbing and hammering, here it is – not perfect but a lot of thought and work went into it, I really hope it’ll grow on you. The new design has actually been up for over a week already – the period that I personally call hamster playground – so I also wanted to thank those kind, concerned folks who tested things out and sent feedback over that week.

Classic Blog View

I know many still prefer the straight-forward scrolling marathon – so I’ve made the Classic Blog Mode is available here: http:parkandcube.com/blog/, please feel free to access the blog through that link if you wish to skip a step. The reason for the change was because I was mostly feeling sorry for a lot of fun content that was being buried and forgotten in the archives, so I wanted to fish some out and re-share… but I won’t be hurt if you’re only calling to see what’s new!

Click around doods, and if you’d be so kind to let me know what tickles you most my day would so be made.

Muchas thanks to Jen for being

photo-slave *whipcrack*

Leather shorts – Vintage, Shoes – secondhand Alexander Wang viaVestiaire Collective, Trench – Uniqlo, Bag – Marc Jacobs via Monnier Freres, Stripe Top – Uniqlo, Last pic necklace – DanniJo

Let me just answer that tickling question – did I peel off my striped-top and give it to Carrie while she waited topless on my bed? No. Not in that order anyway. I mean, no. We just happened to bring one top and they both happened to be striped – but picture us walking around Milan looking like girls who ran away from mime-school; amusing is one way to put it.

Anyhow. It always feels wonderful to be back in Milan, the intensity and… ubiquity of sunlight is really something here. Whenever someone tells me how a country’s climate make all the difference in a person’s temperament, I like to wave my cynicism stick at them (shaped like a frantically-purchased, over-priced corner-store umbrella, naturally), but in Milan I always stand corrected. I stood, in fact (but no miming, I swear), in awe of the well-dressed, well-groomed men and women, while happily soaking in the beauty of the sun-kissed city. It wasn’t necessarily hot or anything, but I loved the fact that light was so abundant until one moment around 9pm you look up to realise the sun has just quietly melted away. Whereas in London the sun is really just a matter of abruptly switching it ON or OFF – at  7pm the sun goes OFF; in October, the sun goes OFF. Sometimes it does disco-hour and does ON-OFF-ON-OFF for half the day, like how we all played with the light-switch when we were seven or eight. I tell you, if I find that kid who’s behind this perverted weather I will put it in a box and send it to Korea.

Thank you Ykone and Bottega Veneta for the much needed break away from cold & wet London; thank you Carrie for the shots of me.

More to come in Part II & III with Bottega Veneta Initials concept and a peek into Salone del Mobil!

(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.

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.)

1    Cotton Shirt – Uniqlo Men, Jeans – Zara, Shoes – Friis & Company (via Zalando), Bag – Marc Jacobs via Monnier Freres, Boyfriend Watch – ASOS
2    Black trench – Calvin Klein (gift from mummy!), Cotton Shirt – Uniqlo Men, Trousers – Uniqlo, Shoes – secondhand Alexander Wang via Vestiare Collective, Diary – Filofax Enigma
3    Leather Cap – Ebay, Cotton Shirt – Uniqlo Men, Dress – ASOS, Jacket – H&M, Leather trousers -ASOS, Shoes – Chloe Sevigny x Opening Ceremony

The irregular geography of the warehouse conversion that is our flat lends a lifestyle not unlike a 11-year-old’s birthday party held in one of those kiddy indoor-playgrounds with rubber obstacles and plastic-ball pools that generally smell of feet and pee. OK, the latter probably not so much – on most days, at least – unless I once again decide to be clever with the pantry arrangement and place a melon on the top shelf and then 5 weeks later find out it’s leaked pee-like substance throughout the entire shelving unit. Rotten melon reeks of sweaty feet, why naturally! Anyhoo, from the mezzanine level I have a sweeping view of the entire flat, so by default anything that needs to be taken down to the lounge, or the general direction of the exit, is simply thrown down over the rails. With an accompanying ‘weeeeeeeeee’ noise at that. Said items either land on the bicycles or squarely on the couch, which is in fact where a haphazard pile of junk now lives – aka my new closet. Consisting of this Uniqlo Men’s pink cotton shirt, a few crumpled ‘silk’ tops, two pairs of jeans, a jersey dress, four jackets for the daily season-change and of course socks of unknown cleanliness sprinkled in between… these are things I’ve been pulling out for the past how many months I’ve had the day-job. If I’d known growing up was to be this messy I think I’d have followed the boy out the window when I had the chance, but then again looking at the state of the flat I’ve clearly convinced him to marry me and sign Neverland over in a prenup. From time to time I slide down the stairs’ handrail fireman-style and wail siren-noises to alert the hubby that I’m hungry.

Please do check out Uniqlooks to see what I’ve been up to and join in on the Uniqlo dress-up fun! Thank you Kit for helping with the first outfit and hubby for the rest!