The Inglourious: Diane Kruger

Funny how being reminded of something can transport you back to an exact moment many years ago... well on twitter tonight 'Inglourious Basterds' (2009) film directed by legendary Quentin Tarantino was mentioned and it instantly reminded me of the time when I watched this epic film at the cinema. I was utterly blown away by the cinematography, the clever narrative and the incredible cast of actors including, Brad Pitt, Eli Roth and Diane Kruger. 

knowing in the back of my mind that I had done a gushing blog post after seeing the film highlighting my growing girl crush on the beautiful and stylish Diane Kruger, which I knew I never quite got round to publishing I began to scour my 'drafts' to see if I could uncover it. Unfortunately it was too no avail, which was a shame as I can quite vividly recall writing a piece to accompany the images I had sourced online to illustrate my 'review' of Inglourious Basterds however not wanting to try and re-hash this, and lets face it not much use doing a review of a film nearly 9 years old where the likihod most people have seen it also and able to judge themselves, however for those who haven't yet all I can say is the film is a strong 8.5/10 for me and well worth a watch.

However I wanted to focus more on the mesmerising costumes which were featured in the film. Set in Nazi-occupied France during world war II it was interesting to see that the clothing was not played down like other war films but they dramatically leaped off the screen to capture the audience attention. 

Here is an overview of some of the most eye-catching costumes designed by Anna Biedrzycka-Sheppard in the film. 

Most of the Images below are from Clothes on Film

Bridget von Hammersmark

 and if there wasn't more reasons to love DK...

- She is also an impeccable dresser while promoting the film her red carpet wardrobe was enviable ...

Incredible style poise... 

Timeless make-up and vintage hair styling 

cute miu miu dress 

New Year... Finally a New Post

So last night after a NYE that didn't quite go to plan and feeling a little bit less than "Happy" 
I decided to write down my thoughts in notes on my phone... doing this reminded me of how I always used to keep diaries both handwritten and typed yet over the last few years I have neglected to do so (ok maybe more close to a decade realistically). As the words flowed it reminded me on how I used to enjoy writing and therefore I should revisit my once cherished blog. 

I don't want to call it a resolution as unfortunately they don't tend to last (Such as the "try something new every month" resolution which lasted until about April - did choir singing, clubbersize, pottery painting and a Shakespeare acting class) I want to make this more of just a conscious effort to write and share more. 

I will try and share across a spectrum of areas of interest from Marketing, Fashion, Beauty, Lifestyle, Art, Fitness (I go to the gym that makes me an expert right), Mental Health, Friends, Love, Music, Books etc... Basically anything that takes my fancy at that time, I can't claim to be an expert but will only write about things that I have a passion for (que the cliche - and yes I know every other blog covers this too!) I just want to put it out there and see... with the hope to improve my writing skills and fall head first back in love with it again. 

With such filtered realities... and don't get me wrong I love a filter as much as the next and spend way too much time on Instagram, I hope to be able to strip some of that away at times and post openly and honestly. 

I guess with the new year its always a time to reflect and look ahead so this is my brief 2017 > 2018 summary of what I enjoyed: 

Books

2017: In our team at work we did a weekly marketing topic where we will share insight/links/articles around the team on the subject. When it came to "content marketing week" it was the opportune time to read the book my team gave me as a birthday gift - 'Content Marketing In a Week' by Jane Heaton 

It luckily isn’t one of those heavy marketing "how to" text books which can often be overwhelming with amount of info. It is instead really manageable, it is structured in bite size  daily chunks which are easy to digest and is presented in a way which make the learnings enticing to apply. 


I highly recommend it.

For 2018: My manager gave me this gorgeous book as a thoughtful Christmas gift which is taking pride of place on my coffee table and I plan to slowly absorb and work through the beautiful infographics.

Podcasts

2017: Is the year I really 'got into podcasts'... mornings really don't feel the same unless I listen to one while getting ready. I devoured the following series: S Town, Serial, Heavyweight, Homecoming, The Butterfly Effect with Jon Ronson and My Dad Wrote a porno.

My weekly go to are - The High Low, This American Life, Desert Island Discs & Table Manners with Jessie Ware.

2018 > I hope to get really stuck into some more so any suggestions are welcome...

Day Trippin' 

2017: I love nothing more than getting out in the fresh air and visiting some new gems of places which are often not much more than 2-3 hours away so really accessible for a day trip. My favourite of this year have to be:

West wittering - what a beaut of a day nothing beats a sunny day at the beach and the bonus was visiting in the week it wasn't too busy either

Wolvesy Castle @ Winchester. This was a great day out as combined with a morning visit to an antiques fair in the local sports hall and then wondered down the river to the castle - again was lucky it was another sunny day... I'm starting to think we did maybe have at least a few days of summer!

Shaftesbury. after seeing the Hovis Hill on Martha Ward's insta stories I saved as a place to visit and it was just as pictured. Weather not so much on our side this day but after a stroll down pine walk the hot choc at the salt cellar at the top of Gold Hill did the trick and warmed us up. Also a visit to the museum also on the hill was well worth the visit.

New Alresford, Hampshire - We had driven through this town once and I was desperate to stop and look but didn't put the two and two together until we went there for a "top rated" walk. We had a really idyllic walk on the Millennium and Arle tail in an absolute chocolate box vi

2018: More of the same please... I have already have a number of locations saved I would like to visit such as... Finchingfield, Studland Bay, Bibury, Sidmouth, Petworth, Hankley Common & Crosby beach. All courtesy of Instagram.

So to not overdo it for one post that hopefully gives a flavour and I hope to share some more in the close future.

Made in Chelsea: Frock Me, Saatchi Gallery, Little Black Jacket

Last Sunday I headed over to the Kings Road in Chelsea ... Not only was Frock Me vintage fair on at the town hall but there was some great shops and galleries to browse too. 

At Frock Me there was rails full of beautiful vintage pieces - it was great to see and catch up with some many of the stallholders who I have met through Anita's Vintage Fashion Fairs. I even picked up a vintage faux fur collar (pictured above) with a vintage brooch which I think will be perfect for the winter months.

Seeing so many people wandering down the streets with large rolled black and white  posters - I was intrigued and soon realised they were from the Little Black Jacket exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery. Just a hop, skip and a jump down the road I headed into the gallery (which is free admission) out of he chilly weather to take a look at the displays. Split over several floors I firstly explored at the Out of Focus Photography exhibition which is currently on. It was really great to step back and take in the wonderful images... take a look at some of the examples below:

Gallery 1: Katy Grannan

Anonymous

A series of candid 'street style' portraits of various individuals in California. It had an intriguing underlining meaning and social commentary aspect to the image which were striking and bold.

Gallery 3: Sohei Nishino

Diorama of New York

2009

These spectacular series of photographed cites Paris, Tokyo & New York were cleverly collaged together to represent that today we are "over-mapped". Nishino reinvests cities with wonder (and not incidentally cites 18th-century cartographer Inō Tadataka, who also did his surveys on foot, as an influence).

Gallery 4: John Stezaker

She (Film Portrait Collage) V

The artist ransacks old bookshops for discarded images that still have some faint breath of life within them and meticulously pairs them up - marries the two strangers. Sliced magazines, postcards, books, shopping catalogues, manuals and publicity photographs to create a new composition.

Gallery 5: Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin

Untitled series

Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin revisited the photographic and documentary archive amassed of the Troubles in Belfast and seeked to reveal the truths in the turbulence of the near past. they chose images not with a curatorial eye, but rather with a throw of the dice: they would expose only what was hidden below the round stickers placed willy-nilly by the archivists on the prints. And as a way of revealing the strong feelings these pictures could unleash, they included images purposely defaced by the subjects themselves, obviously fearful of repercussions.

THE LITTLE BLACK JACKET

12 October - 4 November 2012

If you can - make sure you catch this travelling exhibition this weekend at the Saatchi Gallery in London before it  closes and moves on to Moscow, Sydney & Paris.

CHANEL's photographic exhibition dedicated to Karl Lagerfeld's latest book, 'The Little Black Jacket: CHANEL's classic revisited by Karl Lagerfeld and Carine Roitfeld'.

Karl Lagerfeld photographed 113 various portrait shots of friends of the House, including celebrities, models, actors and musicians all in a classic Chanel jacket. Each personality adapted the garment to reflect their own inimitable style - worn as a cape on singer Lily Allen, draped around model Stella Tennant, or even transformed into a vest by model Edie Campbell. This exhibition showcases the versatility and timelessness of the iconic CHANEL jacket.

This exhibition is on from Friday 12th October to Sunday 4th November 2012.

Saatchi Gallery
Duke of York's HQ
King's Road
London, SW3 4RY

thelittleblackjacket.chanel.com

I ♥ HAUNT MAGAZINE

Haunt is a quarterly online fashion magazine. Where each issue see a different theme explored by young and upcoming creatives to create inspiring and fresh imagery.

I loves that Haunt aims to inspire and capture the moment whilst not taking itself too seriously and embracing the fun side of fashion.

These are a few of my fav shoots which can be seen on haunt-mag.com and feature some great vintage pieces styled to unique perfection.Be sure to take a look at Haunt Issue 2!

Let me know what you think...

London 2012 Olympics - Synchronised Swimming

Do have post Olympic blues already? I do ... cannot believe the 16 days of London Olympic Games has been and gone in a flash and wasn't it spectacular!
A fantastic celebration and Team GB really has made the country proud. I was lucky enough to experience part of the games in all its glory and went along to watch the Synchronised Swimming Tech team routines and cheer on my friend Katie Skelton in the Team GB of course!

It is a fascinating story of how "water ballet" (it's original name) all came about:

Berlin, 1932 Images & extract via Motley Glue

The Inventor of Synchronised Swimming:

Actor, swimmer, diver, ballerina and trailblazer Annette Kellerman (1886/7-1975)

Already famous in Australia, Kellerman achieved international fame when she swam almost thirty miles down London’s River Thames.

In an age where women were expected to swim in dresses, she championed the one-piece bathing suit; in 1907 she was arrested for indecency on Revere Beach, Boston. Later that year she performed at the New York Hippodrome in a glass tank; a landmark event in the popularisation of "water ballet"...

Hope that was informative brief history lesson, However more importantly, 

here is a mini photo diary of my day at the Olympic Park:

Arrive into the park at 11:40am - Excitement is building

Quick take a picture - I'm here! 

12:08 - at the Olympic Orbit - funny looking thing isn't it! 

13:05 - View of the Olympic Stadium while eating lunch

The Olympic park is getting busy - the atmosphere of the crowd is indescribable everyone is so happy!

13:50 My patriotic nails - which I did while waiting for the Synchro slot. 

13:54 - The time is nigh - we start to head over the Aquatics centre having fun along the way with the wonderful game volunteers - cheering and waving our flags. 

Forcing my friend Emma to pose in-front of the Olympic Rings

13:57 - Literally cannot contain my excitement as entering into the Aquatics Centre

14:13 - we take our seats (which we have a great view of the pool) and watch the teams warm-up

Aquabatix are interview prior to the start as the countdown begins... arrrg excitement! 

15:20 A few teams perform before Team GB take to the stage

- Really impressed by the incredible routines on show and the Spanish team's performance was incredible and cheered long with spanish fan who I sat next too. 

unfortunately you may be able to tell from my pics above that my camera wasn't going to provide me with any great images - so decided to give-up and purely focus on the performances - luckily there were lots of fab photos appearing after from others - so here is a selection of Team GB's amazing performance below: 

The routine I believe was based on sea creatures 

The amazing team swimming out to roars of applause at the end - it was so loud with the cheering in the aquatic centre I even started to get a headache - the atmosphere is nothing I have ever experienced before and was completely overwhelming! - so proud of my friend Katie Skelton and the GB squad! 

Lining up to be awarded their marks - it was really nice that my friend Katie (at the end of the line) spotted us in the crowd and waved to us all with our flags cheering. She did an incredible job - Team GB did a fantastic performance to which they should all be very proud!

15:46 - The final scores for the Technical Routine were in - Team GB came an impressive 6th overall and reached their ultimate target. Considering the team had not qualified for an Olympic games for close to 20 year - competing on the worlds stage beating some of the best teams in the world is a huge achievement! 

[The next day on 10th Aug (sadly I was unable to get tickets to be there): The tech scores were added to their free routine - which includes some tricky lifts scoring them 88.140 and meant they ranked 6th Overall - one of the best performances they have ever done - 5 years of hard work really paid off! Gold whent to Russia, Silver - China and Bronze to Spain (who I really think deserved to be higher as the artistic creativity was amazing to watch) - interestingly the positions stayed the exact same as they were the day before.]

17:52 - We explored the rest of the Olympic park and watched the amazing Nicola Adams bring home a Gold medal in the first ever women's boxing at the 2012 Olympics on the large Park Live screen - everyone jumped up in applause. 

The view of the crowds and the lake in the Olympic Park

 

Taking home a memory of the day in the Pin Trading centre - I brought a Synchro Olympic pin as a  treasured souvenir.  

18:57 - Sadly heading home - through Westfield Strafford with large banners of the man of the moment Usain Bolt. 

Our Olympic day was over but is one that will never be forgotten!  

What is your fondest memories of the London 2012 games? Did you watch any events?

Did you enjoy the closing ceremony? And will you be booking your ticket Rio 2016.

What a fantastic London 2012 Olympic Games!