Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Models, Models, Models


so it's true.. I did miss you all too much so back to blogging a week too early!
Hope you all had a great holiday and werent stranded in any airports xx

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

All I want for Christmas...


Merry Christmas everyone!! I'm off on a 2 week break and will not be posting (well unless I really miss you guys and there is sufficient internet connection!). Hope you get lots of lovely presents from Santa!

I'm off to the land of snow, woollen socks, family visits and lots of food!
See you all in the new year!! xx

Monday, December 20, 2010

a little bit emotional ...

There is a lot to be said about love .. especially around Christmas time. Love actually is all around :)
Christmas is also the time to be with your loved ones and the ones closest to you. For me the loved ones and the closest ones are spread over two continents and none of them happen to be in London..

But strangely the loved ones are always with you even if you don't realise it...  Last weekend I got a my Christmas present from my BFF*.. all the way from Australia! The good thing about getting presents from the BFF is that you know that the present will never be a stock standard present. It will be always meaningful.. because as your loved one and the one who knows you best, the BFF always knows exactly what the perfect present is...

One of the best things about a loved one is that, with a little bit of luck, they actually love you back :) When someone loves you they believe in you... I personally think that someone's belief in you is sooo underestimated! When I started doing photography I was a little shy about it (because you never know whether you are actually doing a decent job.. I for one happen to be my own toughest critic) and even now many of my friends don't know that I have a blog... But hearing words of support and reassurance about something that you love doing from people you love is just priceless!

This is one of the presents from the BFF and it came with the following message: "...this book made me think that if Facehunter can do it then you can too..."


and here is the man himself.. Mr Facehunter as snapped by me:


Thank you, my wonderful friend A, for being there (across thousands of miles) and believing in me!! Love you always! xx

*BFF - Best Friend Forever (a girl) and not a boyfriend (had to clarify as this has previously caused some confusion among the readers). And yes I love my friends. In case you were wondering.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Model off duty...


Saturday, December 11, 2010

British Fashion Awards 2010



*Sorry about the poor quality of these photos - took them with my little point-and-shoot which I took with me to the awards ceremony and it was struggling the poor old thing! *

British Fashion Awards is probably one of, if not the, biggest event on the fashion calendar. Of course when it comes to me, something is bound to go wrong!  The problem is that 'passion for fashion' is impossible to align with a corporate job and of course the BFA ceremony had to start nice and early! Needless to say sneaking out of work on a Tuesday is difficult (if not impossible) and of course I couldn't sneak out on time. This basically meant that I had exactly 20 minutes to get ready for the whole thing and my long evening dress (I decided to go all out!) was crinkled from spending the previous 8 hours in a garment bag, my hair was not ready and my make-up was still to be done (what a disaster)!! Anyway, huffing and puffing I managed to get to the ceremony about 5 minutes before it commenced, downed a glass of champagne on arrival to drown the sorrows of missing 'the big celebrity arrivals' and proceeded to ramage through the goody bag.

It was so good to see Phoebe Philo win the Designer of the Year award -well deserved!! Naomi Campbell's speech was long and emotional  (I guess understandably so.. given her 'years in service') and Daphne Guiness' shoes looked extremely uncomfortable (or may be it was caused by the length of her dress - either way she looked like she was about to trip any minute). The ceremony didnt last very long and afterwards the procession moved to the Savoy Hotel for drinks but sadly as I am a mere mortal I didnt get to mingle with the celebrities and instead we opted for a glass of champagne at the Savoy bar which was quite glamorous considering the place was filled with other 'mere mortals' who attended the ceremony and a few up-and-coming models (read: havent quite made it there yet models). The official after party was at Movida and it was surprisingly packed for a Tuesday night but again my efforts to spot a celebrity (or at least a fashionista) did not result in anything and I decided that there must have been a Special Official party for the Daisy Lowes and the Alexa Chungs of this world. Nevertheless, I had a wonderful evening and it is always so nice to have an excuse to dress up (albeit on a Tuesday evening!)

Hope you all have a great weekend! xx

Monday, December 6, 2010

Sharing the love...sharing la musique

*photo by me*

those of you who are my regulars know that I practically never post non-original content (apart from my love for postcards & greeting cards of course.. I btw have some nice ones from Paris to share with you very soon) .. Anyhow, the point is that to stick something that is not mine on my blog - I REALLY have to LOVE it. So trust me when I tell you that this blog is AMAZING... One of my friends on Facebook posted  a link to it and I fell in love! If you are like me and appreciate good music but are not savvy or 'in the know' about where to find it (in Sydney I relied on my friends for this and have been 'starving' since I moved to London) then you will love this blog. It's not all original music, there are a lot of remixes and remakes but man are they good! Special mention to Anya Marina's version of Whatever You Like.

Now, your mission should you wish to accept it: I dont know anything about who is behind this blog but would love to find out. So if you know anything about this person/people then be nice and share the love.  Hope you enjoy it! xx


Saturday, December 4, 2010

Layering...

Friday, December 3, 2010

get the shackles of my feet so i can dance..

Fridays at work are always challenging.. You can see the finish line to the week and your brain just refuses to function properly and keeps digressing to things which are a little more fun than the endless spreadsheets that dominate the rest of the working week... So in my hundredth attempt to negotiate with my  brain and convince it that 'spreadsheets - good, blogsurfing - baaaad',  the brain refused to give up so I gave in and opened yet another browser window. In my gmail inbox I found an newsletter from Look At Me. Any excuse will do... so I decided to check out the newsletter. There I found an article about what a photographer's assistant's life was all about (I would refer you to it but it was written in Russian so majority of you won't find it of much use). It was a surprisingly detailed article with what seemed like a more or less realistic account (as opposed to the normal sugar coating) of what actually happens.

As I was reading the article, I kept thinking that it sounded pretty cool.. hard work, but still very exciting. As I quite often do, I had the "I wish I could do that" thought.. and then I thought: well, why the hell not? What is stopping me from copy pasting a stock standard resignation letter from the internet and stepping out into the 'unknown' and trying myself as a photographer's assistant? The answer came from the same place where the question did - my head, except this time it sounded a bit like my mother and went something along the lines of "oh, dont be stupid! that is not even a serious job! you need to concentrate on what's important!"

The truth is... I dont think I even know what's important anymore.. I have spent so much time, money and effort on getting an education, then another education, then some other 'very important and highly sought after' qualification, then spent another 4 years proving something to mainly myself and a few sundry others that I can survive and succeed in a corporate giant beast that now looking back it would seem like a bit of a waste of resources to drop everything in a pursuit of a profession that is probably even less forgiving than the corporate world. In the corporate world you can learn things, you can earn degrees and then if all fails take 2 years off to get your MBA and come back and whoop some more ass. In the creative world not many people care what school you went to and what marks you got if your product is rubbish. The process of validation does not entail annual reviews and boxes on a  checklist... It involves luck, connections and talent (in that particular order!).

They say that the biggest walls around us the ones we put up ourselves. If that's the case, then I live in a castle... And yet, Carrie Bradshaw style, you "couldn't help but wonder" what it would be like to wake up every morning and go to a job you absolutely love and which produces something unique, something beautiful.. literally on daily basis. Don't get me wrong, not that I don't think spreadsheets are not beautiful.. they can  be very aesthetically appealing depending on the colour palettes you use. Or not.

And of course I would be lying if I said money did not play a role in this whole internal debate. It does. very much so. The book I am currently reading had a brilliant quote in it: "money comes and goes. lifestyle comes and stays".  Enough said.

So until I work up the courage and earn enough money.. to copy and paste that resignation letter, I'm gonna keep on filling my little knowledge pot about what it's like 'on the other side' with useful information, keep on buying lottery tickets (because lets face it, then i could have my cake and eat it too) and keep on hoping that there are some things in life that are just meant to be. Hopefully it will all work out for me before my 80th birthday!

xx

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Miss Vanilla Scented..

Maria from Vanilla Scented

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

i've got love for you if you were born in the 80's...

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

i know what you did last summer...

The most horrible thing happened to me today! 

But, naturally, it would be unlike me to tell a story without a long (and mostly irrelevant) introduction.

I remember the first and the last thing I ever stole. I was 6 years old and I loved Barbies. My parents took me to a play date with one of their friend's daughters. This was done with two main objectives: to expand my social circle and for them to catch up with their friends over a bottle of vodka (as Russians do during long cold winters). My new friend went off somewhere and I was left playing with her dolls. I saw a little red jacket fit for a Barbie doll (or one of the members of Barbie's extended family.. I forget). It was hand made, must've been a product of a combined effort of my new friend and her older sister, and had a metal green leaf accessory attached to the front. I thought it looked pretty cool but I knew that my sewing ability was nowhere near as advanced as would be required to replicate the tiny jacket. So I was sitting there feeling quite sad about the fact that my Barbie would never own anything like that and I wouldn't even be able to nag my mum into buying me one of those. And the light bulb came on: what was stopping me from just taking it? This girl would not be coming to my house to play any time soon and in any case she had plenty more Barbie apparel which might have event meant that she would not notice the disappearance of one tiny jacket. So I picked it up and put in my pocket.

Now that I think about, I realise that I mostly did it to see if I could get away with the act. I clearly remember thinking how easy it was to just take something that you like and probably not have to pay for it or give anything in return. It was genius! Why weren't all the grown ups doing this?! Or may be they were, I thought, but just weren't telling me (as with so many other things that I had to find out for myself). So I took the jacket. Just as I had thought - the girl didnt notice and when I got home that night I took it out of my pocket finding it hard to believe how easy the whole process was.

It wasn't until later that night (and the next morning and for many days after) that I started thinking that may be that little jacket actually meant a lot to the girl, like so many of my tiny treasures that I was very much attached to. I imagined someone coming to my house to play and 'accidentally' taking my favourite    seashell or my favourite old tea-tin-can that I loved. The overwhelming feeling of guilt was growing by the hour. I tried to think of ways to rectify the situation but the only way to do this would have been to tell my parents and pass the jacket back to the girl through them. This would have meant that not only both her and my parents would find out but that my parents would be (shock! horror!) ashamed of me!! This self-inflicted guilt trip went on for a while until I decided that I could not go on like this and I needed to make a decision. So I decided that if I had done something wrong it was up to me to carry the blame (and the guilt) and  not up to my parents. So I decided to put a full stop on the whole story by embracing the well-deserved feeling of guilt and by promising myself that this would NEVER happen again. I put a full stop alright but the guilt never went away. Needless to say I never ever again felt the urge to take something that did not belong to me in the first place. I thought of throwing the jacket out in order to free myself and get rid of the evidence but decided that I would be making it too easy for myself and that I needed to be reminded of what a horrible thing I had done. Major life lesson learned!

Anyhow.. the point of the story is that I HATE stealing. I would never again do it myself and I feel violated when someone steals something from me.

Since I started photography I also became increasingly possessive of my pictures. Whilst I dont watermark my images as it takes copious amounts of time (if you do not have photoshop), I still really dislike it when people use my images on their blogs (or whatever) without my permission or at least letting me know! It's not about money and most of the time not even recognition or credits (unless I am particularly proud of the image). It is essentially about common curtesy. Artistic curtesy AND common curtesy. I am not claiming to be an artist or even to be good at photography but I do feel that whatever I write on this blog or the pictures I post have a little bit of me in them. The first time I saw my pictures and my blurb about an event that I had attended earlier that week appear on my friend's Sydney's social and nightlife blog (with all appropriate credit) my stomach turned just a little as I was not expecting it. It came up on my newsfeed (as it does on Blogger) and as I read the first two sentences of my friend's latest post, I immediately recognised my writing. For a second I felt so hurt that I couldnt quite grasp the fact that my friend would so blatantly steal from me! When I opened the post I saw my name appear in the credits and it felt a bit better but I still felt that he should've asked or at let me know he was going to use it.

I feel just as strongly about other people's work. I take it personally and find it rather offensive! Unfortunately, for obvious reasons this is a very touchy topic in the blogging world since 80% of blogs do not use original content. Luckily most give appropriate credit which makes it if not ok at least more decent.

So now to the horrible thing that happened to me today...

As I finally crawled into a central line tube to thaw (it is bloody cold out there today) after a long day at work, I pulled out a book that I have been trying to get through for the last couple of weeks. I am about half way through and I still cannot make up my mind about whether I like the author's writing style or not. Regardless of whether I like it or not, his style is very distinctive and grabbed my attention on more than one occasion (or should I say chapter) for its use of interesting and sometimes slightly strange metaphors. As I was reading it, I couldnt help but think that the writing style is quite similar to something I had read before. I did find it quite amusing but I could not quite put my finger on it. Until I got to this particular paragraph... At first, I though this was one of those weird 'deja vu' things that happen to me every now and again. You know the feeling.. when you feel like you have experienced that particular moment in time previously?! A little confused, I re-read the last paragraph. Then re-read it again. Then again (just to be sure). After reading the same paragraph for the third time I was sure I had that read the same words before. I now distinctly remembered giggling at those bloody metaphors when I originally read the words.. Could it be??? No.. surely not... I was hanging on a seed of doubt when I got home and turned on my laptop. Found the web page. Found the article. Found the paragraph. At first I felt a little sense triumph at catching someone out. But about about three seconds later the sense of triumph was replaced by disappointment. It's like when you really really like a song and then you find out that it is in fact a remake of a really old song that was just as popular about 20 years before you were born.

There are only three possible explanations to this:
- the author of the book stole from the person in question
- the person in question stole from the author
- the person in question IS the author and they use a pen name and they recycle their 'genius'

The first option is unlikely as the book was published a number of years before I read the dreaded article.  The second option is quite likely but I do not want to believe it as I find it sad (not in a bitter sarcastic way.. it actually saddens me because I used to think that the person in question was a decent writer and I had quite enjoyed their articles). The third option would make the first two irrelevant and would be an exciting (but an unlikely) twist to this sad little story.

So it begs the question: how far would we go in pursuit of virtual popularity in cyberspace?

Last two final thoughts for the night:
- I am sorry I found out
- Shame on the person in question*

*but as was my point with the little red jacket.. they made the choice so they should wear it. I am not here to judge.

Good night!

Monday, November 22, 2010

Miss Lovely...

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Rant: great (hair) expectations...

I have expectations. My expectations are even higher when it comes to hairdressers. For one, they are responsible for what is possibly the first thing that people notice/see when they meet me - my hair. Great haircuts should not be underestimated. When it comes to hair - I pretty much have done it all (apart from shaving it off or making shaved ornaments on one side of my head).. When I was in 6th grade I used to colour my hair with blue L'Oreal 'hair mascara'.. I forget what the official name of that product was but to absolute dismay of my teachers I had it in three colours and used to wear it to school (matching nail polish included). That was when I had long hair. Then my lovely cousin decided to stick a chewing gum in my hair which resulted in quite an edgy (as far as teenage fashion goes) crop which later grew into a bob which later grew into a pob, then into longer hair with foils, then into a perm then into a boy cut again, then into hair extensions (for exactly 2 weeks) then into its next reincarnation. So the point is.. when I say "I know a little bit about hairdressers", I actually mean it.

For me a hairdresser is somewhat akin to a boyfriend. It's a relationship. No small amount of trust is involved as you get in that chair and hope that the man in front of you actually means what he says when he says he knows what he is doing. You take their suggestions and if he comes through with the goods, you repay with loyalty and occasional friend referrals. And if you ever decide to cheat, as you wonder what it might be like with other hairdressers.. it's similar to a break-up - one day you just stop calling them and hope you never run into them on the street or worse at a party (unless of course one day you turn up at your 'new' hairdresser only to find out that your 'old' one is now a manager at this new salon - awkward). And as with any relationship - they take the break-up personally...

In the last 2 years in Sydney I managed to find an excellent hairdresser at a small but mighty salon called Suki in Paddington. I felt that I finally found a man that I could spend the rest of my hairstyling life with. So needless to say when moving to London I was very sad to leave Suki and very apprehensive about finding my new 'hair love'.

After much deliberation I took a chance and went to Atherton Cox in Marylebone to get my hair cut. I was utterly disappointed. Not with the result so much but with the experience as a whole. They made me wait for about 20 minutes before seeing me - which is not a deal breaker.. I am perpetually 10 minutes late..no biggie. As I was waiting, a lady sat next to me with a towel on her head as she was told she had to wait for a spare 'station' so they can actually start drying her hair. As I was ushered downstairs I saw a room full of empty 'stations' that could have been used (but I'm sure there is a perfectly normal explanation for that too). The hairdresser who cut my hair was some big shot who has won a few awards in the past so he somehow felt that he could get away with the 'prima donna' attitude (that or he had a severe case of ADD). He took a phone call whilst cutting my hair, kept talking about unrelated stuff to other staff .. constantly..

He was a nice enough guy but when you are charging 100 quid for a haircut, I would expect a little more than 'nice'. The haircut itself was fine except for the fact that he wasnt going to cut my fringe until I asked him (I know I said I wanted to grow it out but if he honestly was willing to let me walk out his salon looking the way I looked, he must not care too much about the 'message' he is sending to world about his skills). Overall, a somewhat disappointing experience which was only made better by a huge discount I got under a promotional voucher (something he didnt even know when cutting my hair - so he wasnt just being slack because I was a 'cheap job'). I would think twice about going back there albeit the promotional rate is still valid till February (and that means a lot as I love a bargain!)

NB: this is not a photo of me, its just one of the portraits I took during fashion week. I don't know who the girl is but her hair very much resembles mine (on a good day :)

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Mad Men...

If not for the phone.. I think she would be straight from the Jacquie O era... Don't you think? Or maybe one of the characters from the Mad Men..

Friday, November 12, 2010

Alice in Fashionland...

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Portraits: The Cigarette..

Feathers...



Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Frenchy..

To me this outfit is perfect! It is not too try hard, yet stylish. I like the belt, I like the shoes, I like the hair.
And she is actually French...

Friday, October 29, 2010

Portraits: The Kate

Thursday, October 28, 2010

A very pretty Swedish...


Sunday, October 24, 2010

Portraits: The Eyes

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Portraits: The Turban

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Ladies from the PRP...


Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Portraits: The Scarf

Nicole Farhi - LFW 2010 -better late than never!

 

Monday, October 18, 2010

A little bit Russian...



Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Concrete jungle where dreams are made of...


I am a sceptic. In life. In general. But recently I started thinking about a question that had once left me baffled.. yet lately it all of a sudden started making more sense. About 12 months ago... actually exactly 12 months ago my BFF and I went to New York. That NYC trip is basically the reason I am in London now.  Actually, that is not the beginning of the story. The story began when my friend R had come back from her trip to NYC. Listening to R, you would have thought she'd just gotten back from a spa retreat. She was rejuvenated, glowing and happier than I have seen her in months (may have been years actually!).

Anyway, so R was the one who put this NYC idea in our heads and which we, the BFF and I, duly acted upon. I do not know what it is about NYC but we too came back rejuvenated, glowing and ALIVE. 

NYC was like a breath of fresh air which not only made you feel alive but also breathed some new found confidence and sexiness into you (if I say so myself!). It gave you "the vibe", the unexplainable, intangible aura which made people want to know you and be with you. I dont know whether it was the old, beaten to death "love yourself before anyone else can love you" b.s. but IT WORKED! Of course like anything else, "the vibe" also eventually came to an end and both BFF and I went on with our normal Sydney lives (interestingly though, i might add that both R and BFF managed to ride the wave of the NYC vibe well and both secured not-too-shabby boyfriends before the potion ran out).

It was that trip that put the crazy 'i want to move to New York' idea in my head and I havent really stopped nurturing it ever since. Sadly, since about a million people were nurturing the same idea at the same time as me (and another million were just hoping they wont remain unemployed in that friggin city for longer than 6 months), I didnt quite make it to NYC and landed in London instead.

It is now that I start to wonder whether it is in fact the 'NYC' effect or just the 'any huge city' effect... So what is it that creates the effect? 

I have been thinking about it and came to a conclusion that it was a cocktail made up of:

1. well..good cocktails - any big city has places that serve superb cocktails at any hour of the day and/or night (this is silly but I had to put in there for good measure)

2. the number of people - so if you for a minute believe that every person has their own energy (or aura or whatever you want to call it) then surely 8 million people living together and mixing energies is enough to create WILD amounts of energy.. enough to share even with tourists..

3. competition - a lot of big cities (NYC, London and Moscow would definitely be the top of the list) seem to operate on a 'do or die' basis which is also known as 'make it or break it' principle. The huge number of people makes it so much harder to get noticed, to succeed, to survive. Competitiveness increases ten fold in a big city (personal experience) and affects all aspects of your life. It is harder to get noticed at work, so you work harder. It is harder to get noticed socially, so you dress better. It is harder to .. well even get on the tube so you work harder with your elbows. In a big city no matter how hard you try, there will always be someone better looking/smarter/funnier/wealthier/more successful/younger/ more VIP/[insert as appropriate] than you. So all there is left to do is to try your best and or at least die trying (and knowing that you did all you could). 

4. money - of course one of the easiest ways to get noticed (if you can afford it) is to have a lot of money and not to be scared to throw it around. When I first saw a 3L bottle of Belvedere being carried through a nightclub with a fire-cracker-candle thingy attached to it, I innocently asked if it was someone's birthday. The person I was talking to looked at me as if I was from a different planet. Turns out people just like to show-off about the fact that they can afford a 3L bottle of vodka (which costs triple in a nightclub and if you are really lucky still being charged to the corporate amex .. but we wont tell anyone about that). The thing is, this city smells of money. I cannot find another way to describe it - I can smell money (the scent is stronger in certain parts of Mayfair and around Harrods). I know how bad it sounds but it's the honest truth. I can smell money and smelling it makes me want to have more of it so I buy a lottery ticket and work harder hoping that at least one of them will get me there. And so we are back at the increased competitiveness point (see I told you they are all connected).

5. sex - well clearly, money and competitive spirit wont make you sexy. But a lot of sex is likely to make you at least a little bit sexier even if it's not you having it. Just like New York, sex is everywhere in London. In fact, its on steroids here compared to Sydney. People are generally more promiscuous, because being in a big city means you can get away with more stuff unnoticed. But even if you get noticed, most people dont mind and in fact welcome it (see point 3 above). From books, to streets, to shops, to people everyone is embracing their sexuality. When I read Belle de Jour's diary I felt like I was back in primary school and had no idea about life. When I walked into a s*x shop in Soho (i was shopping for a fancy dress party - promise) I felt like I was back in primary school and had no idea about life (or the number of different types of whips invented to date). When I went to an out-of-town birthday party with a bunch of Londoners (or at least people who lived here long enough so that the others dont remember where they are originally from) I felt like.. well you know the drill. The point is, that there is only that long that you can resist it before your skirts too start getting shorter.

6. change - there is always something going on. There are people coming and going, shows changing, exhibitions opening, tubes striking, governments changing, films premiering and catwalks walking. Although you may not be getting involved in the drama of it all, you cant help but notice the buzz happening around you at million miles an hour. I guess as the city evolves and you evolve with it. 

In a city, be it New York or London, where you can get anything, anywhere, at any time (unless it's telephone, gas or any other municipal necessity) you seem to always still want more. The abundance of life makes you binge on it. 

One thing you cannot do in a big city - is be scared. They smell fear. Avoid the 'deer in the headlights' situation at any cost. Because it will be noticed. And it will be commented on (heard this first hand.. shallow you say? yeah, but still not pretty).  

New York... concrete jungle where dreams are made of

There's nothin' you can't do
Now you're in New York
These streets will make you feel brand new
Big lights will inspire you
Let's hear it for New York... New York...
New York

Thursday, September 30, 2010

The Key...




Wednesday, September 29, 2010

LFW 2010 - Look At Me dot RU


Tuesday, September 28, 2010

LFW 2010 - Zara lover

Monday, September 27, 2010

LFW 2010 - Hanneli Hanneli

Lets get one thing straight - at fashion week you either dress to shoot or to be shot. If you somehow magically managed to combine the two then.. well, you must be amazing! Those who dress to shoot opt for keds.. Those who dress to be shot - no limits there!

And then there is Hanneli... the rare breed of 'amazing' who manages to do both...  As a Vogue 'accredited' blogger Hanneli can hold her head higher than  all the other bloggers.. She gets invited to all the major shows and gets to shoot whatever 'real' photographers shoot.. And yet she is as humble and nice as a first timer..

It is really weird to see people that you have been 'virtually following' (yes, its legit and not a form of net-stalking) for months in flesh. The last thing you want to do is run up to them, introduce yourself and act all excited (well.. actually thats exactly what I did to some bloggers.. sorry - you know who you are :)

I guess what makes it weird is that you feel like you know them because, literally on daily basis, you get to read their thoughts on life/love/fashion/travel/[insert as appropriate] ... So naturally, when you see them you feel it only appropriate to pick up the real conversation right where the virtual one left off.

 

Saturday, September 25, 2010

LFW 2010 - outside Vivienne Westwood

Random thoughts: what will not get you laid...

Ladies and ... well actually.. just Gentlemen this time! Although ladies might find some of this painfully familiar. I dont know whether it was just my luck or whether Thursday night is generally a 'bad pick up line' night but this is a true story and happened to me at different venues but on the same night.. Gentlemen take note and never do it again! You will not , and I mean ever in a hundred million years, pick up a girl using the following tactics:

1. Tell me I really look like your ex-girlfriend. At which point while smiling politely I am contemplating which pick up line is more lame 'ex-girlfriend' or the text book 'future girlfriend'. You, having noticed my hesitation and a confused smile (which looks like I just ate a lemon) proceed to prove that you are actually for real and show me a facebook picture of the girl on your phone. I'm still not convinced and walk away to process this information. The situation is only worsened by the fact you bud into my conversations with other people seeking their support and showing them the same picture. They look at me with a silent question - "do you know this guy!?". I really hope you had too much to drink and this is not your normal self. Enough said.

p.s. i then duly find out from friends of friends that you in fact have a girlfriend and she is in fact blond

2. Stalk me on the dancefloor in a nightclub, openly look me up and down and discuss me with your wingman. At this point I already think you are quite rude though I am secretly flattered. You then proceed, in a not-so-subtle manouvre to separate me from my friend by spinning me into a dance whilst your wingman steps in between me and my friend thus creating a wall of flesh so I cannot wink or otherwise communicate the code word for 'SAVE ME NOW!'. The only problem is my friend is male and so is your wingman and at this point it just looks plain weird.. To make things worse you then tell me that my friend is a loser and I should hang out with you and your friends tonight. I mean, really?! Did it ever occur to you that may be if I am friends with this person then I clearly must not think that he is loser?!

p.s. I really wish I said something at the time.. but sometimes I am just too damn polite for my own good.

3. Talk about 'deep' things at 3 am when a really good song is on and I just want to dance. The truth is, I am probably too drunk to register any of the deep talk and your theory about how the feeling of happiness is relative and may be it is not even the feeling of happiness but just means that the person was sad before and now back to normal and hence they are feeling happy... IT JUST DOES NOT MAKE SENSE TO ME AT 3 IN THE MORNING.

p.s. and you really love your mum. I love my mum too. It's a given. Do not need to mention it.

I am not trying to be mean, this stuff happens to girls all the time but because it all happened on the same night I became very concerned that this is no longer a coincidence and is in fact becoming a pattern. I feel guilty for not saying something to the above individuals on the night but I thought I could try to rectify it by getting the message out there so other guys could learn something. I hope.

Friday, September 24, 2010

LFW 2010 - what to expect..

What to expect from my LFW shots: 1) wearable style... or just random unexplainable 'coolness' 2) portraits
What not to expect my LFW shots: the "try-hard" shots.. i.e the crazy outfits that will be headlining a million blogs. Self expression? Yes. Cry for attention? May be. Wearable? Absolutely not.

P.s. this outfit I quite liked as I thought it was edgy but still wearable. I like the high bun so the hair doesnt take away from the outfit. Unfortunately, I did not get her name :(

Thursday, September 23, 2010

LFW 2010 - double trouble..