May I suggest you read this post while listening to the above.
I went to Africa to see in the new decade. I love Africa. It's a good place to clear the brain. I was very VERY glad to say goodbye to the noughties, and this new decade feels so full of promise. I've been back from my Africa jaunt for a few days now, and still my brain is scrambled. It's churning like a washing machine with visuals from films, fashion references, music, books, sights, sounds, smells, thoughts each appearing at intervals as they would if you were staring into a little round door.....
Today is the first day for the rest of my blog. A day will now not go by without at least one post. So I've been wondering what to start with. This is my best offer: a glimpse inside the washing machine.
LISTENING
I'm obsessed with The XX, and the track above especially. This number is a bit old hat now if you are on the edge of the edge of new music (I listen to NME Radio when I'm not tuned into Radio 4 so I'm doing OK). If I were 22 now I would look like the singer in The XX. In fact when I was 22 I DID look like the singer from the band. I love this track; I listen to it on repeat. Also can't stop playing Exlovers cover of Wicked Game by Chris Isaak.
THINKING ABOUT THE 90'S
Selfridges opens a concept store dedicated to the 90's tomorrow morning. The 90's were my formative years, I did it ALLLLL in the 90's, and I'm going to Selfridges tomorrow for a walk-through of the space with the creative director and can't wait. Reading about the store and its products - original 90's fashion supplied by Rellik, bumbags, CK One, Nevermind by Nirvana etc - has given me all sorts of flashbacks, so I went down memory lane for a walk............
As you can see this was me in 1991, just after I left home. (I'm NOT the girl puffing on a large reefer). All we wore was puffa jackets and novelty jumpers with coloured jeans in the winter (even indoors as you can see, no heating), and in the summer Stussy T-shirts, high-top trainers, and cut -off jeans. Not so different from what I've been wearing today in the sub-zero temps.
Not long after the previous picture I cut my hair off and wore tiny cotton vests and boyish jeans for quite a while loving Helmut Lang (and wearing Muji copies) while listening to Massive Attack, Kruder & Dorfmeister, Portishead, oh and worshipping Kate Moss (just a year younger than me) and generally working the androgynous look that the 90's was all about. The other girl in the picture (on the right) is my gorgeous sister Jennifer.
Yeah, I know I look hilarious. But things got better for me as the decade wore on. By the end of the 90's I was working for the Sunday Times Style as Fashion Features Editor, was dating a fashion designer (Sonja Nuttall), and wearing labels like Helmut Lang, Yohji Yamamoto, Hussein Chalayan, McQueen and of course copious amounts of Ms Nuttall's gear. I also unfortunately streaked my hair blonde (see below), lived in an east london loft on De Beauvoir road, right around the corner from where Giles Deacon now lives (I will never live in a loft again - so 90's, so loud, so cold) and listened to a CD walkman on my way to work at Wapping. I also wore CK One and my favourite film was The Matrix.
Here I'm wearing minimalist Sonja Nuttall and some denim wedges I think they were from Russell & Bromley.
Other things on my mind: (I will be exploring all of these more this week)
1. What will this 90's shop look like?
2. New dressing for a new decade - our wardrobe staples have changed - I think I've pinned down the new essentials
2. African prints - aside from the pastel mania that has been reflected prettily on the February covers from British Elle and Vogue, I am seeing Africa everywhere, and NOT just cos I got back from there.
3. I'm getting bored of Lady Gaga - I thought her hat hair this weekend was just stoopid. Not clever or funny, or a statement - just bla.
4. My Tax Return
5. Why am I re-reading The Fashion System by Roland Barthes?