The soundtrack of my life

San Sebastián, that amazing little city in the north of Spain that has recently been making it into the top rankings of cities to visit.  From the National Geographic magazine to the Financial Times, everyone wants to tell the world about this magical city.  My magical city.

San Sebastián has many attractions, some of which have already been written about.  Yes, we might have the highest rate of Michelin star restaurants per square meter, we might have an amazing pintxo scene (don’t use the word tapas, if you do, you might get kicked out of the region), we might be one of the world’s best 20 surf towns, but what is really one of the biggest attractions of the city is its amazing cultural offer.

Not only do we have many big cultural events, such as the Jazz Festival or the International Film Festival, but San Sebastián is also the epicenter of what was called the Donosti Sound.  The sound of San Sebastián.  That soft melodic pop that emerged back in the 90’s and that had such an impact in the underground music scene in Spain, mainly dominated by grunge and indie rock at the time, with their unpretentious attitudes and their sounds a little melancholic and a little naïve…

I recently came across some of my old music that I hadn’t listened to for years and realized that I still fall in love with it a little more each time I put it on.

A band I have been listening to a lot again lately is La Buena Vida.  Despite it not existing anymore (although their members are still actively in the music scene with other projects such as AMA) their music will live with us forever.  It's hard to choose one song or even one album, it's just too hard...  

Choose La Calle del Carmen, for example, and I can picture myself driving into Madrid on a Spring day with perfect sunrise, one of those crispy mornings with a blue sky and the Kio Towers in the distance. 

Or Un Actor Mexicano, the one that always (always!) pops up when I’m cycling to the beach along the Urumea river, the smell of the salty water, the warmth in the skin... The feel of the summer.

Despite living far away, San Sebastián will always be my magical place, and its sound the soundtrack of my life.

Check out AMA's website and follow them on Facebook 

· D ·

The magic wardrobe - Vogue Festival 2014

Finally, April arrived. And with it, the unmissable Vogue Festival.

V and myself were extremely excited to be able to attend this year, and we were very much looking forward to getting inspired all around.  The lovely crowds, the sponsors and even the limited editions at the shop...  Anywhere and everywhere can one find the inspiration, don't you think?

We started our day with some pampering sessions and dressing up.  It's so hard to decide about what to wear to these events...  Lucky for us, V has the magic wardrobe!  

The magic wardrobe is the one that holds Vjera Vilicnik's latest collections.  The one piece of furniture with the richest fabrics, the most delicate details and the most exquisite colour palette.  Essentially, it's the place where the most precious secrets of each season are best kept.  Well...  We decided to open it for the day.

With the help of Mr I and his never ending (but incredibly useful) advice, we managed to find the perfect outfits, and off we went (not without having a little improvised photo shoot)!

Once we arrived at the Queen Elisabeth Hall in Southbank, we couldn't help but notice the big queue at the tills of the Vogue shop, so we decided to go for a little bubbly and walk around to see what was going on before fighting for a £1 Vogue pencil.

I realised there was quite a lot of people walking around with what looked like clothes they had just picked up from the dry cleaners... Surely that couldn't be it, I thought.  And it obviously wasn't.  There was a place where some Vogue (I believe) stylists were giving advice on the clothes people would bring, hence all those people walking around with clothes in hangers.  There was another place where one could show a beauty specialist / make up artist one's make up pouch, and they would check it and advise you on what you should never (ever) wear again and what you could keep.  There was also an OPI nails stand where one could get the nails done and get VOGUE written on it (one letter on each nail, ma'am)... It was all pretty cool, but the queue was so insanely long again that we decided to explore the other area.

Now, here came our first surprise, when we turn the corner and we bump into Mr Manolo Blahnik signing copies of books about him (that were very kindly on sale at the Vogue shop, of course!).

After adoring him for a little bit and realising we had less than 30 mins left until the talk we were attending, we headed to the (very packed) Vogue shop to get some goodies.  For the record, no, we didn't buy the highly desired £1 Vogue pencil, but instead we decided to go for the limited editions of designer t-shirts, scarf and sweatshirt!

There we were, queuing for our precious treasures when we saw a fairly large amount of people running down the hall.  It was him, ladies and gentlemen, Mr Valentino Garavani!

Right after that, we went into the "Valentino, the king of glamour" talk and spent an hour listening to him go through details of his life.  He was so funny and inspiring...  I'm sharing some quotes from the talk, some of which made the whole audience burst out laughing.

"When I was a young designer working for a French fashion house I went to Spain and watched an opera there. There were so many women dressed in red, and I decided that it was my lucky colour."

(Alexandra Shulman asking) "Valentino, how was that transition from when you first started, you know, from stitching verything youroself to..." (Valentino interrupting) "Oh, I never stitched myself!!!!"

(To the question: Which is the decade you like least?) "Definitely the eighties!  I didn't like the eighties at all, women looked so vulgar!"

Before leaving, we also had the chance to visit the Harrods catwalk briefly and practice our modelling skills a little further...

After all this, we were happy and ready to go home, although... did someone say strike a pose??

Follow Vjera Vilicnik on Facebook

Shop her collections on www.vjeravilicnik.com 

· D ·

La Celestina of the 21st Century

It’s Sunday, 9am.  I get in the tube and look around.  “Cristians make better lovers”, I read. Seriously?  I count 5 adverts of dating sites in the carriage and all I can think about is that someone somewhere is making a lot of money. 

Dating sites are just La Celestina of the 21^st century.  Those of you who are familiar with this 16^th century book might actually understand what I mean.  To sum up the story, Calisto fell in love with Melibea, but she rejected him, so he decided to ask for Celestina’s help, who was an old witch.  She manages to make Melibea fall in love with Calisto and by the end of the book, he accidentally falls and dies while trying to jump the fence of Melibea’s house.  After seeing this, Melibea decides to kill herself.

Celestina is who brings Calisto and Melibea together, with the help of a conjuration.  Just like that, dating sites help bring people together and help them hide what they don’t want other people to know.

There are so many different dating sites nowadays... yet everyone I know who uses one, uses Tinder.  I have heard all about how amazing it is and all the reassuring things they have, like telling you the common friends you have with that person on facebook.  Is this really reassuring though? I mean, come on, we all have friends on facebook whom we might have met once, those we never speak to, who we randomly met ages ago at a party some friend of a friend invited us to. You’re a friend of that weirdo and Tinder says we are the perfect match? No thanks!

I must confess I am not a fan of dating sites.  I’ve never tried them but I’m just one of those people who doesn’t feel comfortable saying to the world “hey you, look at me, I’m looking for a man!” all over the internet without caring about all the weirdos out there.  I don’t really trust those things, I just keep thinking to myself: You’re going out for a coffee/dinner/a drink with someone you’ve never met? Really? What if he is a serial killer?

The thing is, despite all these people I know using dating sites, whenever I asked them if they ever had a good date, all of them said no. 

I have a friend who has been using it for a while now and who really tried to get me to try it. I asked him if he had been on dates and he said yes, but when I asked him why he was still single he said all the girls were weird.  Another friend of mine was supposed to meet this guy she met on the same site.  When he told her where to meet, he made a really racist joke about (surprise surprise) her religion. He obviously didn’t know it, but how can you make such jokes when you really don’t know the other person?  It’s just the effect of sitting behind a computer to interact with others, it makes people think they can do anything and they will be cool.  Well, it doesn’t work like that.

Don’t get me wrong, dating sites might work for some, it just doesn’t do it for me.  Call me old fashioned but I’d very much rather be introduced to someone else by a real friend, face to face, without masks or conjurations.

· D ·

What happened to goodbye?

‘And now what?’, he asked. ‘I don’t know…’. I didn’t know.

Somehow I was speechless. I didn’t feel angry, nor did I feel sad. I felt quite hopeful, like a whole new world of possibilities had just opened in front of my eyes, like I could do anything. I felt alive, for the first time in months, years even.

I stood up, got my little notepad and opened it. I started reading:
“Surrounded by strangers, in a strange city, we were the only link to each other. And it worked. While I sat there, just wondering about the future, about life, about us. We could do anything. Go anywhere. And we’d still be us. It was a strange feeling. A beautiful feeling. Just strangely beautiful. As if we were one. We were in no man land and it felt home…. Stockholm, May 2013”.

It was the first time I had read that out loud since I wrote it, a few months before. Back then I thought he would eventually end up reading it, but now I know he never will.

We sometimes forget how fragile we are. We rely on too many people and things to be happy and we often forget that all we rely on, could disappear one day. 

It is like your favourite sitcom. You know the super funny character you love, right? Well, the writers didn’t like him as much apparently because BAM! they killed him in episode 4. So now it’s over, and you’ll never get to laugh about those stupid jokes anymore.

Just like that, in real life, some people just disappear. Without a warning, without an explanation, without anything. It happens all the time and it makes me wonder… What happened to goodbye?

· D ·

Zagreb Fashion Week: Vjera Vilicnik & Ivy's Hair & Nail Studio

Last week was hectic. I've been struggling to catch up with sleep all week but it was so great, I keep smiling every time I think about last weekend...

My crazy adventure started on Wednesday before lunch, when Zagreb airport went on strike and British Airways decided to cancel my flight the following Friday.  

I was supposed to fly to Zagreb for the fashion week to be with my dear Vjera Vilicnik, who was presenting her new collection on Saturday.  We had spent weeks planning everything, going through details, looking for sponsors for the event at Ivy's... This couldn't be happening... I had to be there, I couldn't miss it! (And half of the collection for the catwalk was in my suitcase!)

So I ended up flying a day earlier, first to Dubrovnik and then flying to Split, where our hero Ivan picked me up a drove me back to Zagreb.  All in all, 14 hours door to door... Totally worth it though!

On Friday we woke up early and, after running some errands, we went over to Ivy's to start preparing everything for the evening event. After the amazing team there did our hair and nails, we were ready to greet the guests.

Lots of family and friends came around, as well as fashion bloggers Dino from Style Brick Road and Ana from Little Fashion Paradise.  It was a great evening, thank you to all who could make it!

For those who couldn't, you can get an idea of what went on here:

The black tie nightmare

A few weeks ago, me and my colleagues received an email we had long been waiting for: the Christmas party email.  Christmas parties at my company are always really good but the details of the party are always kept secret until a few weeks before. 

When I opened the email, I was super happy to see that this year’s theme was James Bond and that the dress code was black tie.  “Amazing!”, I thought…  Little did I know about how confusing the black tie dress code is to some people though.  

Guys have it easy, they just need to wear a tux and look impeccable, but for us, the ladies, it’s a different story.

Everyone seemed quite relaxed at first, then I started doing my research and asking what people were thinking of wearing and I was shocked to hear some of the answers I got… Ranging from “very short glittery dress” to “long backless dress” , most of the answers were just highly inappropriate suggestions for an office black tie event.  Now, 3 weeks before the event, most people are panicking because they haven’t found a dress yet…

Black tie first came into fashion amongst the higher classes in the Victorian era, became a convention in the Edwardian era and after World War II it was relegated to special occasion attire, and nowadays, one doesn’t get invited to many black tie events, so I can understand the confusion here…  But let’s get this straight; black tie dress code involves a long dress, unless the host specifically tells you otherwise.

I was browsing around some websites and these are some of my favourite dresses.  (Admittedly, there was not an awful lot to choose from):

All images from http://www.net-a-porter.com/

So first of all, the dress needs to be long.  Now, what about the cleavage? What about the back? Well misses, my advice here is don’t show too much skin. You want to look classy, not tacky.  I guess my three rules for black tie dresses are: boring, simple and classic – after all, don’t forget we are not going clubbing.

Another thing to take into account, just on a more general note on office events, is that one the party is over, you still have to go back into the office on Monday and work with all those people at the party, and trust me, if you wear something that is too sexy, their opinion on you will change (and just for the record, this is NOT a good thing).

In terms of accessories, be creative! Since the dress will be so formal (and a bit boring), you can add some colorful notes on the earrings, necklace, bracelets… don’t overdo it though, statement earrings won’t go well with a similar kind of necklace, so choose one and wear a nice bracelet!

This might also be a good time to go to the hair dresser and get that long overdue blow dry done. Messy hair does not belong in such a formal event.

· D ·

Vintage photoshoot aka Voodoo Vixen-ing

It's Saturday night and I'm stuck at home feeling a bit ill.  It's now when I just realised a new post on the blog was long overdue... It's been a crazy few months since the last entry but I'm determined to pick it up and give it a proper go again!

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure to join the great team of Voodoo Vixen at the photoshoot of their new collection.

As soon as I got to the studio, I jumped into hair and make up with lovely Claire, who did an amazing job on me, look!

Once I was done there, I went on to choose my outfit and, I must say, it was a tough job! So many amazing dresses, skirts, shirts, cardigans... I went a little crazy but ended up choosing the Lucille dress, which I found extremely comfortable to be in! Once I was all dressed, hair and make up done, I was ready for the shoot.

The photographer, Tom, was amazing and funny, which made it a whole lot easier for me! I still needed a bit of direction from him though...

And then, Tom started shooting and creating magic :)

The lovely people from Voodoo Vixen were so amazing through the whole shoot... Thank you!

Some more behind the scenes pics...

And, the first of the official pics was out on their fbook page!

You can find more info on Voodoo Vixen on their website or their facebook, be sure to check it out, all you vintage lovers!

· D ·