sacre bleu

The weather is doing it's usual "let's annoy every child in Britain and be sunny when they start school" act which has left me in a bit of a clothing rut. I have a growing collection of knitted tank tops which I am more than ready to wear however I will cook so what do I wear?? Dungarees have saved the day here so for the entirety of September I will just have to look like Mario and Luigi's younger sister (minus the cap and plus a Breton).

 

 

Dungarees - Rokit

Top - H & M

 

Excuse the confused expression, the sun was murdering my eyes at this point so I guess you're lucky they're even open.

I have rediscovered my love for everything French since watching that Jacquemus video (see my last post). The French are just an extremely cool bunch of people with an effortless and automatic style. Bretons are always gonna be cool, basically because they're French. They go with absolutely everything and just. look. cool. There's no explaining it, IT JUST IS. I bought this one ages ago on a whim but never wore it because I was like "meh it's too mainstream" but then I got over myself and realised that Bretons are timeless (and French).

 

~~~

 

I know I shouldn't be moaning but I really miss the typical Autumn weather. I love the multi-coloured leaves and fires (cliché but whatever) and somehow that the cold weather is an excuse for eating more? Golden Brown always reminds me of Autumn and brings back a certain nostalgia of early birthdays.

 

 

(waves goodbye)

Suzie

the pool... it's kind of our headquarters.

I  recently dicovered this French designer called Jacquemus and i already love his designs more than peanut butter. I guess it's based around simple shapes and colours. It's ultra femuline but with a sexy french twist (bc everything french is sexy). I also love how comfortable the models look, like they actually want to be wearing the clothes, most of the time models look pissed off and but these girls just look like a group of (v v v cool) friends. Also all the contact page says (apart from the contacts) is:

 

JE M’APPELLE SIMON , J’AIME LE BLEU ET LE BLANC, LES RAYURES, LE SOLEIL, LES FRUITS, MARSEILLE ET LES ANNEES 80

um can u get anymore more rad?

This collection is called La Piscine and i actually see why. The colours remind me of an old swimming pool, the worn tiles and those lane seperator thingys you get in the water. I can even smell the chlorine looking at it. The photographs also have a cold effect to them which enhances the colours and the whole water vibe. It's only just occurred to me how inspiring water can be, the way it catches sun rays and how everything underwater looks so ethereal. It's such a basic necessity but there are so many ways in which it can appear different. Am i making any sense??

  

  

only the coolest girl gang i've ever seen

 

 
JACQUEMUS / LA PISCINE from jacquemus on Vimeo.

I love how they drink orangina and eat apples and just hang out like regular bored young people. Also totally digging the flip phone, most high tech thing circa 2005. My favourite line is "I think healthy people and athletes are gross anyway".

I'm thinking of writing an early Christmas letter to Papa xmas and asking to be French. More like begging actually.


(waves goodbye)
Suzie

All photos from  http://jacquemus.com/

lose myself in teenage lies

As some pre-school retail therapy me and my friend Libby went to Bristol the other day. It was really fun but pretty hectic as we covered a very large area by foot ( we practically walked around the whole city). Sorry about the picture quality, most of them were hurriedly taken on my phone but i will (hopefully) be getting a camera for my birthday soon so i will not have to suffer any longer (slight exaggeration).

Bristol has a tonne of great vintage shops including Dutty (mirror selfie below taken in said place) which also sells it's own t shirts etc, Uncle Sam's, Urban Fox and many more. Unfortunately we ran out of time but there are loads more. I bought a knitted tank top, some earrings and FOUND magazine which is this awesome collection of photos and letters found and letters found in random places. I was so pleased when i found it (ha ha), no seriously i have been looking for it for ages.

 

In Cabot's Circus we stopped for Bubbletea which both of us were extremely keen to try! I had peach iced tea with mango bubbles and OMG it was almost as good as frozen yoghurt. If you haven't tried bubbletea before  I THOUROUGHLY RECOMMEND YOU DO.

 

I wanna say that Bristol is the birthplace of graffiti because there is so much of it there. On our travels we saw many examples including many by Banksy and Nick Walker (above). I feel like graffiti adds culture to places and makes the outside world a more vibrant place, it's a refreshing change from seeing the monotonous colours of buildings.

I didn't realise at first (even though it seems fairly obvious now) that Naked Man image by Banksy (below) has actually been vandalised with blue paint as i realised when looking up the name of it. This reminded me of the Bansky piece in Cheltenham which has recently been vandalised and is currently boarded up so no one can harm it again. It's such a shame that people deem it necessary to ruin a piece of artwork. It wouldn't be acceptable in an art gallery so why is it acceptable on the streets?

We stopped for lunch in a cafe in Stokes Croft (killing myself trying to remember the name of it) where we had the most delicious falafel, hummus and coleslaw pittas. Still debating whether this or the bubbletea was nicer?? 

This will probably be my last post before school starts so i may not post for a few weeks (possibly due to death by shock of wearing school uniform... who knows?)

(waves goodbye)

Suzie

En Vacances part 2

Yesterday I picked up my disposable photos after being developed and I am really happy with how they turned out. Despite many of them being partially ruined by my finger being on the lense (?) most of them turned out really well especially the underwater ones.

Also, apologies for the random borders the scanner left on them (a good example of my technological ignorance/ineptness). I tried to take pictures of the photos but that was even worse.

 

 

 

Idk why my mouth is grey in this, another eg of my technological ineptness/shit scanner

We found a pack of cards in the sea. 

Aqua poker anyone?? 

 

 

(waves goodbye)

Suzie

En Vacances part 1

A few days ago i arrived back from holiday in Barbados, and I thought it'd be nice to show you some of the photos I took. I ended up taking two disposable cameras (one of which I left out in the rain!) and using my phone to take pictures too. When we there i also bought an underwater camera to capture fish, underwater handstands etc. (When i get the disposables developed i will do another post.) I ended up not taking my camera because it is basically the Samsung equivalent of dog shit and I knew I'd have ended up throwing it in the sea if I had. I swear it is the bane of my life and I actually ended up having a great holiday without it :)

 

When we arrived there wasn't enough space for us all to fit in the pick up truck so me and my sister sat in the back, which was a perfect photo opportunity and welcome to the island!

So apparently this guy is a bit of a famed local for his reckless motorbike stunts (according to my aunt). We were v impressed.

kinda annoyed about the water pistol in this

So one day we were just driving around randomly (as you do on a family holiday) when we came over the top of this hill and it looked like we were going to drive INTO THE SEA. It turned out it was actually this viewpoint place called Cherry Tree Hill where you could stop and take pictures of the bloody amazing view. I think it was the most beautiful place i've ever seen.

 There were tonnes of coconut sellers on the streets selling the most DELICIOUS, FRESH COCONUT WATER. IT WAS HEAVEN, I SWEAR. They would just chop the top off, shove a straw in it and there you go.

On another day we did some more aimless driving and discovered this cool lion mural thing.

 

my very own boat (of course they spelt my name wrong)

Grand Budapest vibes or what

(waves goodbye)

Suzie

GIRL POWER

So before this (kinda ranty) post begins, i want to say i don't feel like i've been as open as i've wanted to. i sort of feel like this blog has always been a bit superficial because i didn't really feel like it was appropriate to share my feelings, thoughts etc. i never really write much on my posts, which i think is partly due to my not wanting to share my whole life or whatever. I also felt like i didn't want to offend people if i voiced my opinion, so i kept the posts short and sweet when in actual fact, i think they're kinda boring. I never explore things as much as i want to and so all my posts seem shallow to me (i'm even afraid writing this, i don't wanna give people the wrong idea) This is the first time i've written about something more personal and (I hope) interesting.

The concept of feminism used to confuse me. I think I believed the stereotypes and was never sure of what it really stood for. I loved reading rookie articles but when there was a  feminist-related one it annoyed me, maybe because i felt i couldn't relate to or understand it. The first time I really began to understand feminism was was when I read an interview with Emmanuelle Alt in Vogue. When asked "Would you consider yourself a feminist?" She replied "No! Not at all! Life would be miserable without men." By this time I had read enough rookie articles to have an idea of what feminism means, although its fairly obvious to anyone that that is not what it is. Its like she thought it meant feminism meant women trying to wipe out men or something and even in my confusion i knew for sure that this was not what it was at all. I don't have a problem with her not being a feminist but I would've thought that such a key figure in french fashion would know what feminism stands for and not have such a basic and slightly distorted perception.

The film Thelma and Louise is what really consolidated my opinion. So at the start of the film (no spoilers I promise) two ordinary women, thelma and louise, decide to go on a weekend away but through a dramatic turn of events by the end of the film they are on the run. I talked about Thelma and Louise in my last post but I wanted to talk about it some more, it really did reveal feminism to me, but simply through the actions they take to get their revenge. When women are treated like shit in films they are rarely the ones to take revenge themselves and someone else (usually men) does it for them, as if they're not capable of being able to stand up for themselves. Thelma and Louise stamped all over this stereotype and I totally recommend watching it.

One of my feminist icons is Marlene Dietrich, ultimate suit rocker and all round babe. She totally defied Hollywood with her androgynous style and bisexuality (I recently found this out and it makes her doubly awesome- one of the first major movie stars being bi?! -FUCK YEAH) I have never actually seen any of her films, although I really do want to, for an early film star she is very unique and not the typical blonde bombshell.This leads me on to Diane Keaton, another suit rocker. I really do love Diane Keaton. She always plays really likeable people but in every one of her movies her true style shines through: femuline. Annie Hall is of course her most iconic moment (although I've never seen it I'm desperate).  

Another woman who i have recently stared admiring for her attitude is Baroness Trumpington. On the plane, when i was on holiday, i watched a documentary called "Fabulous Fashionistas" about super-stylish old ladies - Baroness Trumpington being one of them. Before i begin may i just let you know that this lady is 91, remember that. What i love about her is her 'fuck it' attitude towards everything, she obviously doesn't let things get to her and marches on through life regardless of who gets in her way. She is also a member of the house of lords (YES AT 91) and when some guy referred to her advanced age in the House of Lords once she gave him the v-sign. Lad. I also really recommend watching "Fabulous Fashionistas" if you get the chance, it's really inspirational and i'm p sure my life goal is to be a stylish old lady now.

The Spice Girls did spawn the phrase so I kinda had to include them. For quite a long time women have been pretty dominant in music, nowadays female solo artists dominate the charts but in the 90s and 00s it was all about girl bands. Spice girls, Sugababes (my personal fave), All Saints, TLC, Destinys Child....the list goes on. The Spice girls were the randomest (but raddest) group of girls who each represented part of Britain (that's how I like to see it). Them being all so different made them seem like the most empowering and strongest girl gang ever, inspiring a generation of young girls. Also, none of them were size zeros and not all of them sang?! who cared? absolutely no one.

 

Whilst writing this post I discovered this rookie article, which is basically what i ended up writing (unintentionally). now I realise that feminism isn't black and white and that it can (and will) take a while to understand. it's just like any other journey.

girl power forever (insert peace sign here)

photo sources:

https://pleasurephotoroom.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/on-hollywood-street-january-25-1933.jpg

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/09/26/article-2434273-1BDC10F2000005DC-75_306x602.jpg

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/09/26/article-2434273-0ECC987600000578-34_634x367.jpg

http://tattooroadtrip.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Spice-Girls-spice-girls-231521_1024_7682.jpg