A bit of culture: The Wallace Collection

After my recent post on how glorious it is in London when it's sunny, today was one of those all-too-common grey days. It reminded me of the last time it was super rainy, when instead of moping around drinking tea all day, we headed out to see the Wallace Collection in Marylebone.

The Wallace Collection is a museum in an old London townhouse, with galleries and rooms filled with art, sculptures, and paintings. All the stuff was essentially once the private collection of "the first four Marquesses of Hertford and Sir Richard Wallace", the son of the 4th Marquess. (I put this in quotations because I don't actually know what a marquess is. Wikipedia tells me it is a rank below a duke but above an earl.)

Anyway, the collection was left to Britain by Sir Richard's widow in 1897. It's a pretty incredible collection, and gives a pretty good glimpse into what it must have been like to live in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The main entrance of the house. Imagine having to run down these stairs to answer the doorbell!

The light fixture above the main stairs 'sprouts' from this gilded starburst motif, with a face at its centre. 

One of the main galleries. It's expansive and spacious, but I like how there is still a homely / comfortable feeling to the room - a result, I think, of how the paintings are all crammed closely together onto the walls.

"The Laughing Cavalier" by Frans Hals, 1624. One of the highlights of the collection.

"The Lady with a Fan" by Diego Velázquez, 1640 - another highlight.

Loads of miniature paintings. These reminded me of the little school photos we used to trade with friends in junior and high school - you'd write a little message to the recipient on the back and collect the ones you received from your friends, like baseball cards. 

Cabinets full of snuff boxes and tea sets.

A closeup of the intricate, silk wallpaper.

The most ornate curtain cord tassel I've ever seen.

Another gallery.

An old, wonderful chair.

The house also has a covered courtyard, where a café now serves high tea with scones and cakes piled onto one of those cute, very English tiered cake holders!

Somewhat oddly, the Wallace Collection also houses an armoury on the main level. This family was really serious about collecting random odds and ends!

The Wallace Collection seems to be one of those places that not everyone knows about or has visited - guess it isn't as widely advertised as the National Gallery, say, or the Tate Modern (where I just got a membership, yay!). Nevertheless, it's definitely worth a visit, if only for a good ol' dose of Downton Abbey-style Britishness.

London: sunny, at last!

London: the sun does come out here after all!

SUCH a great, beautiful weekend. Elliot's last for awhile, and even though he'll get more sun back in Spain than any Londoner (or anyone, really) could ever dream about, it was so nice to get out in this city and see how glorious it really can be! Also funny: how nice everyone suddenly becomes. :)

This is London Fields, and it actually seemed much greener in real life. A few hours later, when we passed it again, it was JAM packed with people, all lying around like seals on a beach.

This woman and her band were playing in the heart of Broadway Market. She had an odd singing face, but she had actually quite a lovely voice (she sang French ballads; also slightly weird) if you could get over her weird facial contortions.

Our friends pointed out the drawing on the side of this building as a Cyanide & Happiness one. When we went home that night, we spent about an hour poring over recent comics; I really like this one:

Cyanide & Happiness 'specialise' in sick, often cynical, always hilarious humour.

Anyway, back at Broadway Market, there were loads of stalls selling everything from crochet socks and butterfly-wing pendants to Vietnamese banh-mi (the most delicious sandwiches in the world) and these sausages. 

We have been on a quest to eat less meat (I have no idea why; this is one of those instances where Elliot has decided he wants to do something and I, for some reason, agree to do the same), so this stall was particularly painful.

 We then passed a portion of Regent's Canal where a little canal boat had been transformed into a makeshift bookshop, with its owners eating a lovely little meal on top.

It was really cute - not sure if you can see the gingham tablecloth (or the fact that the guy was wearing a studded belt with some kind of bike top / leather vest), but their little picnic looked delicious.

We then found The Dog & Wardrobe, a little vintage furniture / housewares shop next to the canal that, as it turns out, was mentioned in a recent issue of Time Out (which I saw when I got home). It was like a tiny, mini version of the Sunbury market - I wouldn't be surprised if they got some of their great finds there.

We finished off the sunny day out with burgers and beer at the Netil Market... (yes, I had a burger; Elliot had a veggie burger!!!)... next time, I'll take some snaps of the meat.

An outfit post

I'm not a huge fan of outfit diary-style blogs—all I can do when I'm scrolling through them quickly is think, 'how embarrassing' or 'how awkward for the person taking the photos'.

That said, going to fashion week these days involves a lot of prepwork: putting outfits together, packing (which I didn't have to do this season, thankfully), and figuring out how long your feet will last in a certain pair of 5-inch heels. Some girls I know even take snapshots of their outfits so that getting dressed for a 9am show is that much more painless, but I generally just enter the week with a few ideas of specific pieces I want to wear and then go from there.

Blah blah blah. Here are a few of my outfits from fashion week, as they appeared on a few sites that cared! (Thank you!)

This photo appeared on Elle.com's London Fashion Week street style slideshow. Exciting! I'm wearing Dries van Noten pants, YSL shoes, an Alexander Wang leather and velvet jacket, a vintage fox fur scarf, and a zebra print Jimmy Choo for H&M clutch. Inside the jacket is a tee from Portobello Market.

 A detail shot of my clutch as it appeared on New York Magazine's The Cut blog.

A friend of mine sent me this download of the Fashion Week Daily newspaper after she saw me in it. I'm the girl wearing a big orange coat (Sportmax) with blue palazzo pants (Zara), a white shirt (Elizabeth & James) and a blue origami sweater (Phillip Lim). That sweater was making a repeat appearance this season—normally a do-not-do at fashion week, but it was the first day, it matched my pants, whatever.

A closeup of this outfit. The yellow bag is by Rebecca Minkoff. This was a fun, happy outfit. 

See my smile? Happy!

And trying to be less happy for Wayne Tippetts. Like this backdrop, though - this is a walkway near the riverfront / back entrance of the Savoy Hotel before Maria Grachvogel's show.

This was another one of my colourful ensembles for fashion week. Apparently, my mantra this season was 'the more colourful, the better'. (Although anyone who knows me would probably say that's the case everyday.) 

This is a Jil Sander skirt (I could NOT believe it when I found this at Holt Renfrew near the end of the season!), an Anthropologie sweatshirt, and a big indigo coat by Ports 1961 (with removable furry scarf). My orange shoes are Louboutins (again, quite old - I remember wearing these in New York in 2009!) and my little felt-bead purse is from Portobello Market. It matches my Hay rug, which I wrote about before here.

This closeup shot appeared (of me trying to stuff something into my too-small-for-fashion-week purse on Vogue.com. A friend of mine recognised me by my tattoo!

The outfit also got me and my friend Mosha noticed by Damien Florebert Cuypers, an illustrator who was doing sketches for the New York Times' T Magazine blog. This is my ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE 'street style' snapshot EVER. I also loved his little captions: 

Sunny and peacock-esque! 

This was one of my last outfits—Isabel Marant corduroy jeans, Theyskens Theory tuxedo tee, Lanvin for H&M faux fur coat, Alexander Wang Diego bag, and silver necklace from CoS. The Miu Miu heels just about killed me - I even made a pit stop at home to change into other equally-high-but-much-more-comfortable ankle boots. No one ever goes home to change their shoes here—that's how sore my feet were!

This is later, feeling much happier (with different shoes on) and with a drink or two in me, at the Business of Fashion fifth anniversary party at Le Baron. Mosha (in a great Peter Pilotto dress) and I made sure to reference founder Imran Amed's Canadian roots, and he must have liked it, because this photo later showed up on the site's daily newsletter. 

Favourite outfits? Yays or nays? My orange-and-blue combo apparently inspired a few comments after it was included in a Luisa Via Roma fashion week album on Facebook (one girl said "you have to be Asian to pull this off"—huh?)... any other thoughts that simply *must* be shared? 

London Fashion Week FW2012

It's been a insanely busy two weeks, what with London Fashion Week, a digital workshop whirlwind trip to Barcelona, and lots of steps to get the online magazine I'm now editing up and relaunched by April! (I'll point you to the link when that goes up, don't worry.)

Anyway, even though it now feels like ages ago, here are a few of my highlights from the Fall/Winter 2012 collections at London Fashion Week. (Quick note: people here say "Autumn/Winter" instead of "Fall/Winter"... not sure why, but there you go. FW12 is now AW12.)

Probably the worst photo imaginable, but one of my favourite "newbie" shows. Canadian Thomas Tait lured a load of editors to a FREEZING (seriously, it was probably -5 degrees inside... and +5 degrees outside), dark warehouse in east London. Good thing his collection was stellar. Amazing construction, beautiful rounded shoulders on jackets, and this to-die-for sweeper coat in a mossy green.

Peter Pilotto - another one of my favourite collections this season. I've often wondered why they named their label after just one of the guys behind it (the other is Christopher De Vos). Loved the digital prints in this collection, and this snapshot is of one big thing that LFW brought: the pretty puffa.

Two shots from Christopher Kane. There were some great colours in this collection—blood reds and purples, as well as black and dark, dark greys—and a cool wood-grain print that you can just barely make out in this second photo. The purple carpet matched the font used for the tickets, and I sat in the front row, on the very, very (literally, VERY) end of the runway, three down from Poppy Delevingne.

Clémence Poésy at Burberry.

Love this little bow belt at Burberry. Not loving the look on Alexa Chung's face.

A closer look at the belt and one of the owl screened tops from the Burberry show. This photo was taken the next day at Burberry's enormous London showroom. 

I'm not sure if it was the fact that it was fashion week or the fact that it was much busier than usual (I have been there on one other occasion, and it was much quieter), but I did notice quite a few groups of people carrying brown paper bags around. I wonder if Burberry provides a packed lunch for some of the staff! This wouldn't surprise me.

Very wide cartridge pleats at Mary Katrantzou.

Roksanda Ilincic looking beautiful and very tall backstage, before her show. This was one of the calmest backstage areas I've ever witnessed.

An oversized, drawcord checked backpack backstage at Roksanda Ilincic. This makes me want to wear backpacks again.

Another shot of Roksanda backstage. She is gorgeous! And very friendly. The shoes are by Nicholas Kirkwood for Roksanda Ilincic. 

I don't wear heels as much as I did back in Vancouver (the cobblestone on London sidewalks and roads just isn't conducive to them, and running to the tube in 5-inch heels is no easy feat), but I do still pack them in my bag, and they are definitely still my favourite type of shoe to buy.

Some of the colours from the show - as the models start lining up.

A look board backstage at Moschino Cheap & Chic. The Italian label showed in London for the first time, a strategy thought by many, including the Telegraph's Lisa Armstrong, to be a way to gain a larger audience for the second line (similar to when Miu Miu moved from showing in Milan to showing in Paris). 

I heard many people say "Mosshino" during fashion week. When my sister lived in Milan, I mispronounced enough Italian words to know better. Here is a good little recording of how it should be pronounced ("mos-keen-o").

(As a general rule: 

An S before a CH, as in Moschino = "sk"

Two CCs before an i, as in focaccia = "ch"

There are other tricks, too, but Elliot says I'm being pedantic I can't remember them right now.)

More backstage shots at Moschino Cheap & Chic.

(The woman on the far right in this photo is Lucy Yeomans, editor in chief of Harper's Bazaar UK)

Four photos from the actual show. Not sure how I managed to take those first two; as you can see from the third and fourth, I was seated behind Julia Sarr-Jamois (fashion editor at Wonderland magazine), who has a fairly significant afro.

Mustn't forget Mark Fast. I liked this collection—it felt much more grownup than previous seasons, and a nice departure from his usual super-sexy, tight knitwear. As you can see, AW12 is still tight, for the most part, but the subdued palette and stripes felt much more wearable. 

I also went backstage right after the show with my fellow Canadians, Mosha (of FLARE) and Alannah (of ELLE Canada), and saw Mark talking to Kanye West. 

That's it! This last shot is an extreme closeup of the wallpaper in the "Peter Jensen pop-up café"set up in the basement of Somerset House. Isn't it cute?!

Of course, one of the fun (and also slightly stressful) parts of fashion week is all the insane street photography that goes on... but I'll post about that later this week.