Lola is Beauty

D.V., 17 HANOVER TERRACE...

Published on 2010-08-20 03:59:00

Yesterday afternoon I was in Marylebone and had a bit of time to kill. It was the perfect opportunity to walk through Regent's Park and after all this time, have a look at the house Diana Vreeland lived in between 1929 and 1937. The only people I saw in Hanover Terrace were workmen and chauffeurs, who were milling around outside some of the other houses. I got a few looks as there's no reason to walk up the terrace unless you live there or are visiting someone. Luckily they were all at the other

CLOTHES FOR SALE...

Published on 2010-08-17 07:48:00

I've been meaning to post some more clothes to sell for absolutely ages, but when it comes to photographing and posting them I get a complete mental block. My perfectionist side comes out and my thought process generally goes, "Hmm, not very good light today, oh maybe I should get a friend to model them, yeah, I really need at least a Stockman dummy to put them on, ugh, that looks terrible, I don't want to put those ugly photos on my blog, why is it so bloody dark in the middle of summer? Oh, cu

SNUG...

Published on 2010-08-13 08:46:00

This is the cover of the first issue of Italian Vogue I ever bought: August 1993. Which was 17 years ago. What! I'd been wondering why I was so obsessed with finding the perfect oatmeal coloured Shetland pullover and a pair of sturdy dealer boots and then I remembered this cover. (Featuring Kristen Mcmenamy pre grey hair.) Isn't it weird that almost two decades later that image is still lodged in my mind, ready to be pulled out on a dark, freezing and pouring with rain mid August day. I was obvi

HAPPINESS IS...

Published on 2010-08-12 06:03:00

Waking up in the morning, the fridge bare as usual...then remembering you bought a cannolo yesterday in an Italian pasticceria and still haven't eaten it.

HOUSEKEEPING...

Published on 2010-08-10 13:45:00

*I'm back on Twitter again. You can follow me if you feel so inclined.*This photo is totally amazing. {Via Them Thangs}

POLPO...

Published on 2010-08-07 05:51:00

It took me almost a year to get round to trying it, but I liked Polpo.It's supposed to be a Venetian bacaro (sort of like a Tapas bar) but it looks exactly like it's in Brooklyn. But it's in Soho. They have those funny half curtain things, so with that meaning you can't see outside, the interior of exposed brick, tin ceiling and low light and the American girl whose grasp of volume and tone moderation leaves you a bit deaf in one ear, you really could pretend you were in Brooklyn.I suppose the i

TWO GIRLS...

Published on 2010-08-05 06:29:00

Left, Klimt's Mada Primavesi, right my granny in Australia when she was a wee littlun. Thought I better offset the ickyness of my previous post with some more pleasant imagery. Though that is really what I saw on the tube - sometimes blogs can get a bit too kittens and fairy dust.

WHAT I SAW ON THE WAY...

Published on 2010-08-04 15:07:00

11pm - ish on the tube:A man with a broken arm and his shirt falling off has an animatedly slurred conversation with two equally slurring girls, as he travels up one escalator and they down another.The man sitting nearest to me slumps with his head bent over his stomach, a thick column of drool falling from his mouth onto his chest. I step over two girls sitting on the floor eating either chips or chicken nuggets. 1pm -ish on the tube: A girl with a fake Hermes Birkin bag methodically eats a big

THINGS I BOUGHT (AND DIDN'T BUY) IN PARIS...

Published on 2010-08-03 10:59:00

I think the way I relate to Paris has changed after so many years of going there. I didn't so much as sniff a macaron. I am just going to come out and say it: I'm not very interested in macarons anymore. There. But two hours after arriving, which conveniently coincided with lunch time, I sat in a very normal cafe, in a very quiet back street. I ate an excellent lunch of pork loin with beans, drank a glass of wine, then had some fromage blanc with honey. And I observed many other people doing the

INSPIRED...

Published on 2010-08-02 11:21:00

Up to my usual tricks at the Musée Rodin: more inspired by the garden and architectural details of the house than the sculptures. Though I suppose some of those were quite good too. *There's a questionnaire/interview thingy with me over on Poetic & Chic. Thank you Annie!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US...

Published on 2010-08-01 14:37:00

We're back in London and today is the FIFTH anniversary of Lola Is Beauty. I can't believe it's been five years - aren't you bored of me by now? What to say, whoo hoo? I still love doing this so here's to another five!{my iphone photos from Paris}

HELLO?...

Published on 2010-07-28 12:47:00

I'm not even going to try and write a proper post. Total internet horrors in Paris, despite bringing an iPhone and a macbook. I thought Paris was supposed to be all wi-fi'd up? Maybe the wi-fi went on holiday to Biarritz a week early...Anyway, who said Parisians don't want to make friends with foreigners? (don't tell Lola)p.s. Obviously internet horrors notwithstanding, Paris is wonderful, captivating, life affirming, etc etc as always...more when I get a decent connexion!

WINDOWS...

Published on 2010-07-25 09:42:00

I'm looking forward to spending this week looking both up at and out of Parisian windows. {my photos: 1. from the bedroom window of the flat in rue de Sévigné where I used to stay. 2. looking up at windows on the Île Saint-Louis. 3. the outside of R & K's windows where I'll stay.}

LOST SATURDAY...

Published on 2010-07-24 12:28:00

Appalling hangover, first homegrown courgette, watching of To Catch a Thief DVD foiled by mistakenly setting language to "Benelux countries" and being too befuddled to reset it, favourite PJs ripped in sleep, spaghetti with lambs lettuce, olive oil, sea salt, pepper and parmesan, earplugs to block out the amateur musician neighbour, naps, tax bill paid, fast falling delphinium petals...

FURRY FRIEND...

Published on 2010-07-22 13:59:00

Audrey Hepburn's furry friend was called Famous. (She had a dog called Famous for about 40 years so...) I love how jealous he is of Ip the deer! {photo credits clockwise from top left: 1. unknown, 2. Bob Willoughby, 3. Conde Nast archive/Corbis, 4. Sid Avery, 5. unknown, 6. Bob Willoughby}

FLYING VISIT...

Published on 2010-07-21 04:05:00

8 hours of driving in two days means packing light, a swim in the sea (no better way to tell your body it's still alive than by plunging it into icy cold waves), a sunburnt nose, cat foot snuggles with no danger of losing a toe, ice cold rosé, fresh crab and seabass (not pictured - food pics usually look gross on blogs) and realising this is precisely the correct time of the summer to re-read Bonjour Tristesse.

I TOLD YOU I WAS ILL...

Published on 2010-07-18 04:42:00

Thanks for all the table love - I must admit I'm eyeing up other various bits of wooden furniture as potential future projects. The fact that my first one was an enormous hulking dining table that seats 12 when extended means anything else looks easy enough to accomplish by comparison.I'm supposed to drive to the south coast today (it takes about 4 hours) but I don't really feel well enough. I've had some sort of virus/the thing that's been going round for a week now and it won't go away. If I c

60 HOUR MAKEOVER...

Published on 2010-07-15 10:01:00

I used to think my aunt and uncle's house was weird. It was built in the sixties and was completely different to any other houses I knew in my childhood. The ground floor living area was open plan with a wooden floor and a huge white modular shelving unit on wheels dissecting the middle of it. (Obviously "modular shelving unit" wasn't in my vocabulary back then.) All the furniture was straight and angular. The windows were huge and looked out onto a pretty little wood. I remember thinking that t

DUSKIN...

Published on 2010-07-13 14:20:00

Duskin has a gorgeous proper website to go with Stephanie Tran's lovely clothes now.{photos from FW10 lookbook}

JUST WHEN...

Published on 2010-07-13 00:18:00

...you thought you were dying of ennui you get spontaneously invited to a poetry reading thing in Deptford. You don't even have time to - Shuffling in to a white wooden basement lined in old mirrors you sit on a pew (literally, you sit on a church pew) and hear the end of a cute young bloke who talks about sorrow and makes everybody laugh. Another man recites something very, very long with feeling and the Australian lady talks in between her poems about leaving a broken love to travel by bus fro

TIRED...

Published on 2010-07-12 10:47:00

I've been so tired for the past few days, I don't even know why. {I heard the air conditioning, the sound of the ceiling fan, the unfamiliar sounds of Udaipur waking up. But I couldn't place the whirring, clicking noise...photo taken by Anna at 6.30am on our first full day in India}

LULA/LULU...

Published on 2010-07-08 13:16:00

Finally I popped up to the Lula pop up shop in Harvey Nichols. Behold, my lightning fast investigative reportage. Aren't you glad we have the internet so that we can communicate about new things instantly? So, the Lula pop up shop has been there for about a week - shall I just hand calligraph this post, seal it with wax and cycle round to your house to hand deliver it instead? I don't get over to Knightsbridge much these days, but I'll always have a soft spot for Lula so I went today and had a l

THE MOST PERFECT...

Published on 2010-07-08 12:19:00

...couple of magazine pages I've seen in a long time. Pages 66 and 67 from Russh issue 33. Click here to read the text. Thank you If Jane for sending me this copy of Russh during its perplexing disappearance from London's magazine shelves!

7...

Published on 2010-07-05 09:00:00

If Jane and Ephemerette passed the versatile blogger award on to me - merci beaucoup! So now I have to reveal seven things about myself and pass the award onto some of my favourite blogs...Seven things I like. I cheated a bit, but surely the things you like reveal something about you?1. The number 7. 2. Being an autodidact. I only learned this word the other day - hey, sometimes things take a bit longer when you're self taught. Phew! I feel so much more legit now that I have a fancy concise word

LINKAGE...

Published on 2010-07-05 07:41:00

* I've always loved Elisa Nalin's styling, so it was nice to see inside her wardrobe, having previously seen inside her home. (And her new haircut!)* TinEye Reverse Image Search. No more excuses for not crediting photographers blogworld!* AnOther Loves - I wish I had thought of designing my blog like this.* Lost Cat Poster.