FIVE MINUTES FOR FASHION - DIOR F/W 2017

I just can't get over how gorgeous this collection by Maria Grazia Chiuri is.  

The fluidity and grace is just beyond.

The softness of the tones.

The timeless elegance.

The femininity.  But never frailty.

The harmonies of line and texture.

Coincidentally, I've been wearing dresses a lot lately

and having to wonder what a person could wear over a long dress

on a cool summer evening in L.A.  That is not a frumpy-making cardigan.  The answers to those wonderings are all here.  If I hurry up and get out my sewing machine.

I won't be throwing out any of my skinny little belts anytime soon.

I know these pieces are supposed to reference 70 years of Dior, but I'm thinking cashmere shawls, kimonos, spiders webs, smoke, riding habits, the odd flapper - and this romantic movie: Far From the Madding Crowd with Kerry Mulligan.

I need a little bit of romance just at the moment.  Don't know about you.  It feels a little like a necessary retreat.

BUT NEVER DEFEAT.

Here's my version of that old expression:  Dressing Well is the BEST REVENGE.   (So there you winds of austerity and horrid old Donald Trump!)  And you don't need Dior Couture money to achieve it. 

Just a little inspiration.

A Peek into a Spring NEST: Berkeley and San Francisco

Living Etc., the UK decorating magazine says that "Nest" is #19 of "the 50 hottest interior shops

in the world".  THE WORLD!!!!

I had only known the Berkeley store to date, and conveniently (says Mr. Paradis),  on past visits to 

the Bay area,  I had arrived at the Berkeley 4th St. store only after closing time.  The original, Fillmore St. store, I had never visited, and did not know at all.

HAPPILY.  Such was not the case on the occasion of my latest visits.......

TO BOTH THE STORES -  Berkeley on a Monday,  AND the

Fillmore St. store on a Tuesday.  (After a long and informative walk from the Union Square

neighborhood.  Through Nob Hill.)  If you were a woman after my own heart, you might have been

making mental negotiations like mine: "I DO need new car because after all, I live in L.A.!

(Where a car is a MUST. ) BUT,  if I DID NOT BUY A NEW CAR,  but I tried instead to keep the old one going and bought the entire contents of at least one, if not BOTH of these Nest stores......(with the money I'd "save")

could I make myself the HAPPIEST PERSON ON EARTH FOREVER  and 

never need to leave home????"  "It seems very possible", a person like me might persuade herself, "because the Nest stores would provide everything

I have ever, could ever, want or need?"

Would you feel like a Chinese person or an Egyptian, knowing that you could die happy

with everything you'd ever need in your afterlife as well?  The way I do in this magical place?

Is that what heaven would feel like?  That you'd been transported to somewhere utterly wonderful and not wish to ever leave again?  "They" say that heaven is as simple as that.  And through millennia we've been inclined to believe it.  

That there is a heaven.  So perfect, so pleasing, yes, small, perhaps but infinitely varied and pleasure-able.  That heaven for me must surely be NEST.

Carrie Reichardt - Chiswick Renegade

On a quiet suburban byway, Carrie Reichardt

renegade mosaic artist, feminist, disrupter

makes serious statements

 using fabulously fun vernacular....of hippie flowers

Day of the Dead skulls.....

slogans of resistance

and Londoners' traditional favorite form of transport.

She was wearing the proverbial pink pussycat hat before it ever even became a "Thing".

She practices what she preaches.

And speaks not just for herself but for all of us.  Could we all be a little more like her?  Why not?

Website and pics of her other wonderful projects here and here .

Further Flora - Ceramic Art in Blooming Form

Frequent visitors to this site may already know of my love of flowers.

 (Vanessa Hogge at Cockpit Arts Studio, London via This is Colossal)

How much more could I love them if they never died?

But persisted with me?

In a more robust form?  I first fell in love with ceramic flowers 

placed at French gravesites.  

What can be a more striking visual dialogue between fragility and durability

 (Zemer Peled here)

than this medium, in this form?  With these results?

And what about the wonderings that these manifestations of precision and consideration

of observation and complexity evoke?  Beyond the dream and romance

that has, and always has been, the lore and allure

(Molly Hatch also via This is Colossal)

of flowers?  Blooming Marvelous these pieces are!  Am I wrong?

The View From Up Here: The SkyGarden at 20 Fenchurch Street

Yes.  20 Fenchurch Street is that hulking form that you'll see rising above you

like someone's bad sci-fi dream as you gaze across the Thames from the Tate Modern

or Hay's Galleria at London Bridge.  It makes "the Shard" (across the river) look positively inspired, artistically speaking.

20 Fenchurch Street is otherwise known in London as the "Walkie-Talkie" or, the "Cheesegrater".

You can use your imagination (or click here).  Thankfully, there is the SkyGarden.  Free admittance.

Glorious views of changing London.  The Natwest Tower - at left - in the 80's and the "Gherkin" - at right - in the 90's once dominated the skyline.  But the City is astoundingly different now, with no signs of construction - and thus change - stopping, if one is judging by the building crane count.

Some liken the SkyGarden to an airport lounge.  But that IS a tiny bit excessive and unkind.

It's quite a pleasant place.  If you love light, greenery, clean air, open views and.....cakes.  (Plus two bars and two restaurants.)

Sadly.  Despite the compelling visuals, the 3-color cake at center left did not pass the discriminating 

Paradis palate test.  It was artificial tasting and too sweet and otherwise flavorless and expensive.  So you're forewarned.

There is a viewing platform outside.  Very cute seating inside also includes Stark bubble sofas and blankets for chilly days.

You must book your visit in advance.  Do NOT though, think that it will be an inexpensive outing with the kids and bring your own food (like my parents would have done).  THEY WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU.  

If you don't buy them some of those cakes!!!!!!!!!! Hello???!!!!!