Francesca Senette, Milan

Caroline Issa - London, Paris and Milan

Caroline Issa is hands down one of my favourite people to photograph. But not just because she has an amazing style. Although that of course is one of the reasons. Caroline to me is an ideal subject for a photograph - she has great style without having to compromise comfort and practicality. Think about it... have you ever seen Caroline wear something that made you think: "gee that looks uncomfortable!"? Well my point exactly, when it's cold outside Caroline will wear a coat and if she has a stack of papers to carry around, she will carry a satchel... a great looking satchel but a satchel nonetheless. I love the fact that she is a real looking person with a warm smile and not a Barbie cookie cutter like so many people you see at fashion week. Of course, I can't omit the fact that I also like Caroline for the brains - I have enormous respect for education. Caroline, with an ivy league establishment and years of experience in management consulting behind her, makes me think that a gal can have it all after all! Xx

Konca Aykan, Milan

Evelina Khromchenko, Milan

Joan Smalls, Milan

Ulyana Sergeenko after Dolce & Gabbana, Milan

Hedvig Opshaug, Milan

Taylor Tomasi Hill, before Missoni

Paloy Horwang, Milan

Yulia Bordovskih before Jil Sander

The Poncho, Milan

Burnt Orange Gilet... Milano

Psalm 44:21 ...

The Pursuit of the Perfect Shoe

I'm a street style blogger. This means I spend the entire fashion week in my Converse shoes. It is practically impossible to wear anything else. I mean I've tried the oxfordy looking flats, I've tried tiny heels from Zara but at the end of the day only in Converse can you make it back to the hotel room and be able to do it all over again the next day and for the rest of the fashion month. 

Reality ... (Dvora, me and Nyanzi at Paris Fashion Week)

Having said that, I must confess that I get an extreme case of shoe envy especially when it comes to other bloggers. Obvious example - Hedvig. By the end of the Paris Fashion Week I started suspecting that Hedvig is a superior human being to everyone else as she spend the entire fashion month running around in super high heels. And I'm talking not your 'pretend' chunky heel or kitten heel, I'm talking the real deal, 6 inch and up! I cannot even begin to imagine what her podiatrist bill comes to at the end of that torturous month.

When surrounded by such eye candy, I feel doubly inadequate in my little converse shoes. As a self-confessed shoeaholic, fashion week for me is akin to teetotaling at a bachelor party in Ibiza. 

As a result of the "shoe situation" and me being 5 foot tall (I'm strong believer that ladies who are tall and skinny - basically the model types - can get away with wearing flats and still looking good.. I mean they can get away with pretty much anything!), I gave up the notion of dressing up for fashion week entirely. 

The situation is further complicated by the fact that the quality of my photographs is directly proportional to the level of my physical comfort. If I am cold or my feet hurt or (the greatest evil of all) I am hungry then I am less likely to care about the fashionistas around me and focus my energy on fixing the problem - buying extra socks, overpaying for an umbrella outside the Tuileries, running around the block in Milan trying to find a cafe that 'looks good' (what a travesty!) - you name it, i've done it.

So where does this leave me? This leaves me in jeans, converse shoes, with a warm scarf around my neck and chewing something from the cafe in the closest proximity (crepes, panini, peanut butter sandwich).

I really do hope that one day I will find that perfect shoe that will be beautiful and comfortable and I will be running around taking photos and still looking fabulous! Until then… jeans and converse it is.

xx    

What I wish I was wearing :) (click the arrows to slideshow)

Elisa Nalin - Outside Emporio Armani

Simone Marchetti - Outside Bottega Veneta, Milan

If you have been following my blog for a while, you would know that I rarely post pictures of stylish gentlemen. I'm not sure why that is but I guess I feel that I understand ladies' style a bit better. However, this time whilst in Milan, the penny finally dropped and I was overwhelmed by the amazingly dressed Italian men. No peacocking, just elegance combined with practicality and great tailoring.  

Natalie Joos - before Jil Sander, Milan

Natalie Joos wearing No21 and a Corto Moltedo clutch. Check out Natalie's manicure - a number of fashionistas were sporting the multi-colour mani at MFW. Just saying... :)

Out with London, In with Milano

Super quick post re my first ever season in Milan. Milan is hectic to say the least. I mean I thought Paris was hectic but Milan is like Paris taken to an extreme. The locations are all over the city and public transport is pretty much non-existent. Oh wait, yes there are trams... where I almost got mugged and it left me paranoid of everyone around me for the rest of the trip. On a brighter note, a lot of the locations are beautiful (especially Missoni) and shooting there is pure joy. Whilst others... like Dolce & Gabbana are a massive hazard. Picture this: a busy street split by two lines of traffic, two tram lines and a narrow footpath. Well, street style photographers are an easily adapting bunch... so what do we do? we put the fashionistas on the tram tracks in the middle of a busy intersection to shoot. The backdrop is very pretty with the light and the trees and the tram track veering into the unknown. The biggest challenge - to make sure you huddle up the subject of your photograph off the tracks at least 3 seconds before the tram passes. I mean lets face it - no one wants to die for a photo... unless of course it's a photo of Anna Dello Russo in which case we all blissfully ignore the traffic by running backwards into it.

Anyways, here are some BTS photos from Milano - dont judge these are my 'quickies' taken on the run and are not at all edited... and street style shots will be coming very shortly xx

 Protesters outside Emporio Armani

Bloggers and photographers gathering before the show (p.s. this is about an hour before the show and the crowd that you see contains very few actual attending guests at this stage)

The heavyweights - Tommy Ton and Nam 

Emporio Armani - guests exit after the show

Unfair advantage - Milanese bloggers cycled from one show to another whilst we were wondering the city trying to navigate the map.. or a Google map 

Outside Jil Sander - Mr Newton, Natalie Joos, Anya Ziourova