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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Coat – Zara (similar here). Bag – 3.1 Phillip Lim Pashli. Skirt – ASOS. Shoes – Vintage Salvatore Ferragamo. Glasses – YesStyle. Sweater – YesStyle. Shirt – Zara.

Apart from falling asleep everywhere and routinely waking up in zone 5 thanks to some heavy-duty anti-histamines I’ve been taking lately, not much else is up. I tell ya, those hotdang things apparently knock out a grown man within 15 minutes and yet I find myself fondling my phone at 4am with crusty eyes, scrolling the Instagram feed like all life mattered and eventually falling back asleep after the fiftieth cherry blossom pic. But during the day it’d kick in when I’m a least bit idle and then my eyelids get as heavy than the damn Pashli bag and I’m desperately asking twitter whether there’s anywhere to nap in the West end. (Quo Vadis on Dean Street, thank you Sophie.) I know I eat a pint of Ben & Jerry’s Chunky Monkey every other day and I guess in essence that makes me chunkier than a ‘grown man’ but COME ON I CAN’T BE FALLING ASLEEP WHILE QUEUING FOR THE ATM.

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Dishoom London: an homage to the now-fading Irani cafés in Bombay

Lamb Samosas

Dishoom Chicken Tikka and Garlic Naans

Vada Pau

Mango Kulfi on a stick and Pineapple and black pepper crumble

Trenchcoat – H&M Trend. Bag – Kurt Geiger ‘Deuce’. Grey jeans – Urban Outfitters. Shoes – Topshop. Plaid Shirt – Uniqlo Mens. Grey cardigan – Barbour. Watch – Sekonda.

We fit right in, Joanna and I, at Dishoom, inspired by Irani cafes that existed in abundance in Bombay at the turn of the 20th Century, those which welcomed practically everyone regardless of social class or occupation. So we fit right in, because alongside memories of wealthy Bombay businessmen dining next to the struggling rickshaw-puller and the whore, there was us, two girls that knew no more than the ABC’s of Indian cuisine, asking the waiter what samosas look like. To those seasoned Londoners who add to the national statistic of curry being one of Britain’s most popular foods, our choices may seem unusual, but apparently Dishoom prides in being not, an Indian restaurant, but a Bombay Cafe. Everything is designed to share and each person is recommended to order 2 – 3 dishes. The food come in concise portions, each rich in flavour and character, or in other words, DI-SHOOM.* Interiors designed by Russel Sage (who’s also done Zetter Townhouse, The Hospital club…), I’m transported straight into an exotic world that is also oddly nostalgic despite the fact that I’m the dunce that doesn’t know what samosas look like. Don’t let the hype/commercial reputation (their other branch is in Covent Garden theatre district) deter you, especially the Shoreditch branch with the beautiful courtyard already littered with sofas and benches, I’ll be out there with a Bollybellini come July. For now, try the bottomless spiced chai, Behl and the Pineapple and black pepper crumble as dessert.

*Bollywood version of Ka-Pow!

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Photos with help from Jamie McGregor Smith. Editing by Park & Cube.

I am a master at packing. Packing a chicken burrito into a semi-full stomach and then squeezing in coffee and a slice of apple cake after, that is. I don’t know about packing bags though, I’ve done it for six years during my BA travelling four, five times a year to go home and I’m still shoving everything under the bed, so to speak. I’ve been known to un-do pleats forever and transport wet laundry across Europe. Hey, it was clean and minicabs wait for no man. Rolling is my only trick, which means my suitcase is a hot mess with a few cinnamon bun-like things rolling around doing nothing at all. So it was about time I sought help from none other than Louis Vuitton, trunk-maker and packer since 1854, and just in time before flying out for the opening of the new Munich store*, and the release of the new LV 4-wheel Zéphyr trolley case. There really is a subtle art to packing, therapeutic almost, like sorting your life out. Do try these 5 tips out when you’re packing for your summer holiday, and be assured that you’re definitely not packing any luggage-related stress!
Oh, I guess I won’t need to look for an intern that will sit on the suitcase while I zip, afterall.

Thank you Louis Vuitton for the lessons! Visit LouisVuitton.co.uk to learn even more about the art of packing.

*Which unfortunately I could not make due to health issues…

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Shirt – Iris & Ink (the Outnet). Skirt – YesStyle. Shoes – Vintage Ferragamo. Bag – Kurt Geiger. Belt – Vintage LV. Thank you Kit for helping with the outfit shots!

The first few days of Spring, when you can make any sarcastic, over-exaggerated remark and funnily to some extent it will be correct, and for once you get to be a legitimate smartass. (Woo!) This is literally the most sun we’ve had the whole damn year, it’s so beautiful, I am like literally dying – normally this would be classic case of ‘I don’t think she knows what literally means but just nod and smile’, but in April, it’s all technically true! The sun is stronger by day and hanging around much longer; the trees are in full blossom and it’s finally starting to prove the apocalypse wrong. And in my own defense, the last bit is always true, no? Anyhoo. Following up on the previously expressed thoughts regarding my love/hate relationship with London, the sun really is a catalyst. It’s like coming home and finding brownies – it calls for a good snogging-on-the-couch session, which is what the above set of photos is, lucky you.

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DIY floral laces: Fasten your shoes, Spring is a-coming!

Black heels – Zara. Red heels – Kurt Geiger Magdalena. Fabric & bias binding – Liberty. Photographer: ASSHOLE TRIPOD.

This is an age-old trick in the book but since 1) we’re all in a rut of some sort and 2) it’s clear that Spring is using Apple iOS6 Maps to find Europe and will probably take a cab from Africa around June I thought it might be fun to distract ourselves otherwise. If you’re like me, you’ll remember the joy of yanking out dirty laces from your trainers for a pair of spankin’ clean ones to realize you didn’t actually know how to lace them back in.  Once I got my head around it (at an embarrassing age, I think it was), no strip-looking thing in the house was to survive without having gone through some dirty eyelets on my Adidas originals: broken earphones, retired necklaces, some twines that may or may not have held the mackerel in the kitchen, ethernet cable (back when I knew not the value of being connected to the wall)… let’s just say I’m glad I met my husband in highschool because otherwise I’d now be captain of Weirdo-train until 35.

A few tips:

• For sandals narrower strips (with edges fraying) tend to look better, while for trainers, wider laces give a more ‘plump’ look. If you have another fabric, weave in two, or three different patterend/textured (think lace trimmings and bobble fringes!) laces into the same shoe for even more full-on effect – Try out the lattice or checkerboard weave if you dare!
• Cut longer than the original lace so you’ll have extra length to wrap around the ankles a la Alaïa.

Have fun!

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