thinking about louise bourgeois

today artist louise bourgeois died at the age of 98. i have had the great pleasure of viewing many of ms. bourgeois' works in a handful of galleries over the years. her impact contemporary art history has already been widely praised and will continue to be after her death. i have come to really admire bourgeois' ability to explore the relationships between people/objects and their environment, and her establishment as a female artist who dealt with issues of feminism without being labelled as a feminist artist. for the cbc article, click here.

les petites choses

dont we all just really need small purses this season? i know all the outfits in my fantasies do..
garance and jak&jil

the enchanting ms hemmingway

couldnt. not. reblog. the colours, the dress, everything.. eyecandy!

via knightcat

jonathan + olivia + topshop

topshop is making the moves on toronto! +1 reason i am excited to move back.

they are beginning by selling their merch in the boutique jonathan + olivia on ossington.. you know, the one with the stop-in-your-tracks intriguing windows filled with all your casual needs? where you go to buy apc, acne, and isabel marant etoile (!!!)?

this is exactly what topshop did in new york with opening ceremony right before they opened their store. very exciting!
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source: toronto star. images: marcustroy.com

i like.. bw inspiration du jour

julie delpy

friends in paris

these guys.. reblogged from vero:)

go to finch's

marnie, kim* and i went on a design sponge tour in vancouver, which was such an amazing and new way to experience the city. along the walk we went into finch's at pender and homer. we werent really hungry, we just really wanted to try the baguette sandwiches. ps, they are amazing. the one i tried had pear, walnuts, proscuitto... and something else.. brie? also note: the oatmeal cookie is as good as it looks. the space also has a lot of character as you can see, which adds interest.. although we found that the staff was amusingly blasé. the had it down to an art! anyway, go out of your way to have lunch here, even if its take out because they will wrap it in brown paper and tie it with a string.

* marnie and kim are not the girls in the picture. marnie took that photo of two other girls who looked so lovely in the space

and speaking of fall

i secretly dream of only wearing louis vuitton clothing sometimes. its a perfect mix of fantasy and luxurious reality. the fall 2010 show romanced me in quite the same way the spring 2007 show did. it just took me to another planet.. i think that planet is in france.. i have grown very fond of mr jacobs in the last few years for his ability to act so instinctually with his collections. they can vary so much from season to season which i admire (also why balenciaga continues to intrigue me season to season), he is always on point with styles/themes that im into, yet he always seems to go into different directions than other designers. as a sidenote, if you have not seen the documentary "marc jacobs and louis vuitton", do it immediately! your life will improve as a result.

images from style.com

you heard it here first

remember this post when i mentioned that i think curves are going to become trendy again? well i was watching my beloved fashion television yesterday, and there was a whole story about all the curvy models that were sprinkled throughout the fall fashion shows. crazy! and the variety looks great as far as runways go.. i noticed that even some of the silhouettes and materials used for the clothes were a bit heavier... honourable mentions: prada, mark fast, and louis vuitton (amongst others).

chasing the horizon

every so often, when im not obsessing over fashion and art, i kinda like exposing myself to some nature. last week my roomate and i drove to tofino with the roof down on a beautiful day and everything was perfect. we made a bunch of stops along the way and saw waterfalls, trees that were up to 800 years old, and a couple of beaches.. after hanging out on the beach in tofino (3rd image with my lovely roomate), we had sushi in town. this is important: if you are in tofino you MUST try the smiling budha roll. just trust me.

le moi .et le je.

like every other admirer of french style (a role that inevitably goes hand-in-hand with jane birkin worshiping), i have always liked the idea of a basket handbag, but have never quite felt that i was ready for one. i have recently realized the time has come for me. i dont want one quite as baskety as janes, but not really as pursey as the ss2010 ones from chanel. and yesterday i went on garance doré, and found that she had purchased the perfect basket-leather bag (below) from a vintage store in st tropez (jealous) called marché du marin. bask in the glory of the rest of the story, here. im in no hurry for one, garance has now made it integral that i found one in an interesting store/city/situation.

tu dis noir et après tu dis blanc

if you wear stripes, leather shorts, camel, chanel, or bright red nail polish, i think we can be great friends. im pretty sure this girl even has my same hair colour. thank you for capturing them all at once tommy.

oh hey, c'est moi

you have to appreciate when your friends scan things for you and urge you to blog! as i mentioned a while back, i am in the june issue of flare, a canadian fashion magazine. i still cant believe it. my favorite part is that they collaged on images of miu miu shoes and bois d'argent, theres nothing more mag than that. also sharing page space with an picture of the new missoni hotel. good company indeed. go purchase!

this is what i think is modern

after being out of academia for almost a month, i realized i commited to speaking at a conference* this weekend so i am back in my old friend the library. i dont know about you, but i love libraries... natural light, the smell of books, being surrounded by so many ideas that help mold your own.. only enhanced by the inappropriatness of speaking to the people around you. a flaneurs haven in a sense. its very romantic too, the idea.. young minds in old scholarship trying to move things forward....

*english conference about material culture. so im talking about poster art from the belle epoque, specifically toulouse-lautrecs (shocker!) rendering of modernity through fashion, sexuality, and caricature. title quote from monsieur lagerfeld, “this is what i think is modern. its like wearing a couture jacket with a pair of jeans”

image reblogged from veronicahhh

the row..fall.2010

behold the genius...........perfection! it is the nature of our consumer culture to believe that our fantasies can be satisfied through purchasing commodities. more often than not, these purchases do not change your life in quite the way you assume they will. i can confidently say that owning garments from the row line will change your life. the integration of these precisely cut basics into ones wardrobe will very likely bring together many classic yet contemporary looks. in addition, you will feel attractive and confident in these advanced cuts.

keeping on the layers

since summer is taking its time to get here, i can still marvel in the range of trenches and camel coloured coats which are plentiful right about now. i wish the middle image was clearer because the lace bottom of the trench is stunniiinnng, i love that designers are still playing around with this classic.

image sources, garance and flare.com

les cheveux ombres

the wind decided to ease up on us today and it was soo beautiful out. its already day 18 (!!)of my two months of freedom in lovely victoria (yeah, today its lovely again). after trying my hand at making greek food (no fires!) for marnie and paish, marnie and i went for a walk on the beach (there may have also been soft serve involved).

marnie took some paparazzi shots of me which resulted in this picture that successfully depicts my ombre hair colour which has been a loonngg process. thaankks laddyyy
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wearing.. seven pants, acne tshirt, vintage pierre cardin jacket, holt renfrew scarf.. timex watch vintage sunglasses

le vent.. grrrr

iiii ddooonnttt likeee winnnddd!!!!!!! if you are coexisting in victoria with me right now, you know of my distaste for these crazy wind storms. they mess up my hair (not in an effortless jane birkin way.. think more medusa), my scarves must be knotted like rope, i cant wear blazers, jackets, anything with loose ends because they flap like capes. and im going to get premature wrinkles from scrunching my eyebrows in fear that a bird is going to hit me in the face. i just want to lightly throw a jacket or sweater over my shoulders with a slight breeze, like in this image above from garance.

arrrghhh! give me snow over this any day!! yeah, victorians, i said it.

im always in paris

this photograph-turned-permanent background on my laptop was posted on my facebook wall by my friend veronica. its one of those pictures that makes me feel like im actually in the room, in paris. that city has a way of pulling at my soul and this image only encourages that.

i often think about hemmingway's description of paris as a "moveable feast" because the concept had proven true in my life even before reading the book. when i leave any city, i leave that city until i return again. but when i leave paris, it comes with me... its like the city tweaks my outlook on life and then lets me loose into the world.