February Crushes: Old Town Work Wear

Photo by Matt Hind

Okay, here's crush number 2: the men's workwear chic clothing from British company Old Town. To see a beautifully inspiring photo shoot at London's Red Lion Pub (a classic pub in every sense, which also happens to be the first pub I ever visited in London, many years ago), take a peek at Piccadilly Pleasures.  I think Mr. Magpie has as big a crush on this clothing as I do!

Inspirations: Reverie, Pacha Design, and Wild Thyme

Sorry that I was away for longer than I'd planned! This week somehow escaped me, but I want to thank you for your amazing responses to my last post. Thanks, too, to friends who pay a visit without commenting or who send me an email. I feel as though blogging splits my world wide open like the proverbial oyster.


As promised, here's the first of my posts about people, places, and things that inspire me. I'm having so much fun that I might just get carried away . . .

One of my sweetest, most generous, and creative blogging friends is Melissa at Reverie. She is a daily inspiration to me through her blog posts, which are filled with gorgeous photographs and thoughtful prose; her comments, which never fail to warm my heart or make me laugh or both; and through her online store, Reverie Daydream Boutique. The great William Morris once said, "Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful." Well, not only are the treasures in Melissa's boutique beautiful and useful, they are made by talented artisans from around the world. Reverie Daydream Boutique supports the work of gifted craftspeople and small businesses. Melissa is a nature lover, so her company is environementally conscious, using recycled materials for all its packaging. Receiving a box in the post from Reverie is a treat for the senses.
Two of my favorite Reverie items are the ceramic sparrow vases by San Francisco Bay area artist J. Mendicino and the rose garden scented drawer liners by Hammocks and High tea. My birthday is coming soon. Think my husband will see this post?

Another small company that rocks my world is Pacha Design, a pair of designers located at the border of Devon and Cornwall who specialize in creating furniture from locally sourced reclaimed and natural materials. I love their clean, spare designs that draw attention to the beauty of the materials themselves. With its simple lines, their furniture would look great in a wide variety of interiors.
Pictured above is their blackened oak console table with drawer. Wouldn't it make a great front hall table? I'd love to hang a large antique mirror above it. Below are their ethereally beautiful leaf lanterns.

Last, but most definitely not least, Wild Thyme is a Toronto-based floral design business with a gorgeous website that makes me wish I lived in Toronto. They also have a beautiful blog that I visit for fresh ideas in flowers, fashion, and design. This past week I was especially inspired by two posts at Wild Thyme, both concerning books. The first is about a book that will be coming out in November from Yale University Press:

Mary Delany was an 18th-century British aristocrat and artist whose patrons included King George III and Queen Charlotte. Delany's paper mosaics of flowers, like the passionflower depicted above, are absolutely stunning, and even more remarkable when one learns that she began making them in her seventies. I can't wait for this book to come out!

The other post I want to mention stopped me in my tracks when I read it, and it has been haunting me ever since.
It's about a passage from a book by Christian Tortu called Sensational Bouquets. Monsieur Tortu wrote in response to a deadly forest fire that had been set by an arsonist in the South of France in 1999. I will quote just a small portion of the passage here. Head over to Wild Thyme for more:

We have scheduled our first photographs for this book (Sensational Bouquets) to be taken at this time. We of course feel the need to testify through a bouquet composed of plant life from the desolate area. We are not out to record final images of the site, for we know that the land will revive.

In the weeks and months following this apocalypse, the landscape is in mourning. Black predominated at all levels. The holiest of trees, one hundred year old olive trees, were but pantomimes barely standing out against a background of gray, brown and black.
.........

I painfully remember a herd of boars, adults and little ones, wandering aimlessly along the road, bewildered of what they had seen of hell.......For miles and miles, it seemed like the end of the world.

The photograph above is of flowers taken from the burnt landscape and made into a bouquet. Tortu's words resonate painfully in the wake of devastating fires this year in California, the west coast of Canada, as well as those in Australia, Italy, Spain, and elsewhere--some started by arsonists as well.

Near the end of this passage, Tortu writes, "All our indignation is in vain if we are not deeply concious of our every act [. . .] nature belongs to a time that outlives our own existence."

Thank you to Reverie, Pacha Design, and Wild Thyme Flowers for your devotion to the natural world and to our own place within it. You bring beauty to the world every single day. Nothing inspires me more than that.

Style Crushes: The Hottest Icons on Two Wheels

Audrey

Marilyn Monroe photographed by Richard Avedon, 1958

In this photo from the Library of Congress, Elvis signs autographs for fans in Germany.

Brad Pitt photo by Photo Agency

Who can resist Kermit on his bike in The Muppet Movie?  Sometimes style can be adorable.

Style Crushes: Catherine Deneuve

One of my favorite blogs to do was my style crushes post back in June, so I thought I ought to make that a more regular feature.  I have so many style crushes, you see, so there's plenty of delicious material from which to choose.  It would have been easy to begin with Audrey, but Catherine Deneuve feels right for summer.  When I was a girl back in the seventies, I remember her doing commercials for Oil of Olay.  "Come closer," she'd say, "Closer still.  I'm Catherine Deneuve."  The camera would pull in tighter and tighter until her face filled the screen, and I thought she was the most glamorous person I'd ever seen.

Lovely at every age, she's been the muse for Yves Saint Laurent, and the face for companies like Chanel, L'Oreal, and MAC.  She is also an activist for the rights of children, AIDS patients, and victims of land mines, among many other charitable causes.  Style, substance, and ageless grace. I adore her.  Whose style do you love? 

Style Crushes

I have always had a crush on Louise Brooks--her perfect bob, that porcelain skin, those gorgeous cloches.  How can I help it?  My photograph of her in a black tutu and satin heels ALWAYS stays on the inspiration board above my desk.  But tonight, as I stared dreamily at Miss Louise while I was supposed to be writing, I got to thinking about other style crushes.  Whose style do I adore and why?  I can think of many friends whose own brand of personal style amazes me, and I'll have to gather up photos to post at some point, but in the meantime, I've rounded up a few famous folks whose way of dressing, smiling, talking, moving, and/or simply being in the world has always fascinated me.  I'd love to hear from other people on this subject.  Who are your style crushes?  There's one person I would have included here for sure, but I know that Cate loves her, too, so I thought I'd wait! 

Nina Simone--goes without saying

Yes, I have always loved Morrissey's style.  Still do.  Skinny, not skinny; young, not so young.  I don't care.  When I first met my husband, he looked so, so, so much like this photograph that it kills me.  Now, nineteen years later, Todd possesses even more style than he did then.  I think age has something to do with this--maybe it gives one more comfort in one's own skin.

Harry Belafonte--OMG!

Anne Sexton had no idea how amazing she was.  Her letters and poems make me want her right back here in the world.  She was decidedly not comfortable in her own skin, yet she had a kind of deep intelligence and wit that made her shine.  If true style is dependent on substance, and I think it is, she embodied style.

Gregory Peck: no one wore a fedora better.  Or anything else, for that matter.

Joe Strummer was my style hero all through high school and college.  Actually, he was my music hero, too.  He's another person I want right back here in this world.

Bonnie and Clyde--dangerous and stylish.  

They were sharp dressers, and Bonnie always wore gorgeous shoes.