Jacket – Charlie May SS13 (similar here). Top – (Charlie’s) Alexander Wang. Jeans – Zara. Shoes – Thakoon. Sunglasses – Carrera via Sunglasses Shop. Bar necklace – Kirsten Goss. Skull necklace – Maria Nilsdotter; Thank you Charlie for the snapss!

I made a new friend today, so now I have FOUR friends in total, if I count my mother. Yay. Kobi is my bestest friend though, I’m going to make him a super special friendship bracelet out of spaghetti and string cheese, and he’ll chew my hair back when I hurl into the toilet after a good night out. No, I’d been nagging Charlie (Kobi’s hot day-time nanny) about meeting him ever since he was a wee puppy, and nine whole months later I got out of my PJs and finally paid her a visit. Well, that and the chance to fondle a rail full of serious sexiness from all the Charlie May collections – this amazing blush leather jacket, case in point. I also got to borrow the best accessory, like ever, despite the fact that it kept running after dandelions… so all-in-all, I must say that I’m pretty damn chuffed about this post.

The 2013 London Tweed Run

Photo by Yu Fujiwara of Tokyobike

Time for tea!

Tweed blazer - Vintage Gerry Weber, Skirt – ASOS. Floral shirt – Zara. Shoes – Topshop. Bag – Warehouse. Bike – Tokyobike. Thank you Kit for the shots of moi!

One does not simply partake in the Tweed Run among 499 others and not come home with 49,999 photos of tweeded butts, as Boromir might say.

We spilled out into the streets, ushered by the marshals – in no particular order but close enough to each other to hold hands. Mobile boomboxes in bike baskets sang the 50′s, conversations budded up here and there while turning corners. Girls rode in heels, hands-free for some boys, and we bloggers cycled with our elbows while trying to capture every moment… At times it felt like learning to cycle all over again – half scooting, half balancing with momentum – except here when you topple over sideways you take about twenty people down with you. Every single head turned on the streets, traffic stopped, and windows opened in cheer – it was exhilarating! So this is what it feels like to be a politician, or blonde. We rode through Marylebone, Oxford Circus, Saville Row, Piccadilly, Whitehall, Westminster… all the postcards of London, then ended up in Lincoln’s Inn Fields just behind Holborn for afternoon tea; then up to King’s Cross to finish the day at a pub, at which point England did what England did best and rained on a parade. Only literally, though.

Many thanks to Tokyobike once again for this wonderful experience! Check out part 1 for more tweed, less buttz.

Stolen from the boys: chestnut-brown brogues

Trench – H&M Trend. Crop-top – American Apparel. Trousers – ASOS. Brogues – Melvin & Hamilton. Bag – Kurt Geiger. Belt – Vintage LV; Thank you Charlie for helping with the shots.

Boy, girl, I don’t even know anymore; it’s that time of the month and I feel like wearing my husband’s trunks as shorts with some ‘bro’-gues and a monocle.

In the meantime, my intersexual wardrobe had a baby and this is her blog.

Complexion vs. colour, with Guerlain Terracotta 4 Seasons Bronzer

Hover over products for details

£48

Guerlain

Terracotta 4 Seasons Bronzer in Nude 0

£37.76

Guerlain

Parure de Lumiere fluid foundation

£24.12

Guerlain

Rouge Shine Automatique Lipstick

£21

Guerlain

Clis D'Enfer Maxilash Mascara

£38

Guerlain

Kabuki Brush

Wearing: Top & skirt – Zara. Guerlain Terracotta 4 Seasons bronzer. Terracotta Kabuki brush. Parure de Lumiere fluid foundation. Clis d’Enfer Maxi Lash Mascara. Rouge Shine Automatique Lipstick. Photos with help from Kit!

It’s hard to explain – especially how the sun is increasingly sexy (and it knows it) by day – that tanning is on the last of my beauty to-do list this summer. It seems ungrateful, doesn’t it, like declaring a water-diet while your mother pulls out a lasagna from the oven. I’m pretty sure you have/are that one friend from the Far East, who will walk in the shade and always carry a sun cream with SPF numbers appropriate for Count Dracula to play ball at the beach. And for those baffled few, it’s the Asian (oriental, to be precise) age-old understanding of beauty – the fairer your skin, the higher up the class you’re perceived to be, while tanned skin suggested a rice-paddy lifestyle. Think geisha, and clowns. Asian clowns are basically gods, yeah? My personal makeup resumée screams fairer: better ever since my first foundation purchase, and absolutely did not include bronzers until only recently. But as I get older I’m coming to understand, that while the whole theory is not all a load of bullpoop, it should be taught to people that it’s the complexion/glow of the skin that puts you on any sort of caste system. And if it doesn’t come out naturally (if you are what you eat), a good bronzer is the best tool to achieve this look. I tend to go with a palette that doesn’t look like it’s been in the oven for too long, always one with a slice of pink in the mix like the Guerlain Terracotta 4-seasons bronzer, which come in a six different intensities (I’m wearing Nude 00). For this little collaboration with Guerlain, we shot these photos with a general gold/brown/bronzy feel, to give the old Asian belief the finger, I suppose.

The 2013 London Tweed Run, with Tokyobike

Yu Fujiwara, manager at Tokyobike UK and photographer at 8 and 2 blog

My ride for the day!

…then to UCL to meet the rest of the gang and fuel up

feasting on Vintage Rascal models

Our good marshalls

One can not decline a last minute invitation to join a biker gang, now can one.

The Tweed Run is one of those few elusive, fantastic events in London that you only hear about after its all happened, or worse, one you see happening one random Saturday when, just the other day you’d reminded yourself to find out when it’s taking place. So yes, being in a (flash mob) biker gang is pure awesome, but to be in time for it is a small miracle. The bigger miracle of course, is actually having tickets for it as they’re allocated through an auction (ours of which were provided by Yu Fujiwara [Tokyobike UK manager]). At 8am we convened at the Tokyobike shop in Shoreditch, where we were presented our rides for the day – mine, a mushroom-coloured beauty – and had our numbers pinned onto our sleeves. Then we joined the rest of the gang at the UCL courtyard, where the 500-strong mob filed in, dressed in some form of tweed, bumping fists and fueling for the six-hour tour through Central London. Promptly at 11am we were shepherded out by the marshalls and a day of grins-on-wheels (and bum-bruising) would begin.

Stay tuned for part two, the fellowship of the Tweeds, and a journey across middle-London.