Wellington Boots – Hunter

Look 1: Look 1: Crochet dress – ASOS. Wellington Boots – Hunter. Hat – Hoss Intropia (Similar). Sunnies – Karen Walker. Bag – Simone Camille

Look 2: Look 2: Tank top – DAY by Malene Birger (simliar) . Shorts – DIY Mango denim. Wellington Boots – Hunter

Burgers for breakfast, nests for heads, drop-in concerts and wild dancing under the stars… yep, the festival season is upon us. Also, lest we forget, the painful reminder of the elementary science behind soil + water, with your brand new canvas plimsoles as collateral to this re-education. Except of course in England one wet sneeze can turn the whole field into cake batter, and however much you try to convince yourself mud-caked shoes are the next paint-crackled converse, it just doesn’t fly. (Stop trying to make mud happen, it’s not going to happen). You’ve never wished for anything rubbery and water-resistant in your whole life, or at least since the invention of squishies at age three. I don’t know what floats your (rubber) boat (ducky), but for me it’s Hunter boots, no question – and here’s two ways I’d style my Shoreditch pair with. And speaking of extremities, now I need to find a clever festival-friendly solution for my hair without looking like I dumped flour (aka dry shampoo) in my hair… All part of the cake-batter setting I guess.

BTW – Hunter are hosting a wee giveaway of the Shoreditch model over on Instagram, simply upload an image of your festival style inspiration and tag @Hunterboots #BeAHeadliner for a chance to win. Dates: 12th – 19th June (5pm GMT). Winners will be contacted on the week of 23rd! (T&C available on request from Hunter)

Photos with the help from ze lovely Miss May.

#MangoDIY, Barcelona

Photos with watermark + video – courtesy of Mango (shot by Cup of Couple). The rest by Park & Cube

I know, POTATO – I’ll explain later. About two weeks back I plastered up a couple white-charged outfits with little explanation for the more-than-usual palm trees and less-than-usual clouds in the backdrop, for which I do apologize. Not that it was much of a mystery – it was clearly Barcelona, in its sexy entirety, where I was called back to lead the second #MangoDIY sessions. Seriously, sometimes I wish these events were public attractions that I can recommend to anyone visiting – I’d pipe on about this DIY class held in a gazebo in the middle of Parc de la Ciutadella where you get to customize dungarees from Mango while listening to mambo records…the teacher is a total hippie and mostly seen making a mountain of pom-poms in the corner or chasing giant bubbles around the park with a toothpick from the lunch spread. But alas, it was a special occasion that brought together sweet bloggers (Anouska, Adenorah, Doina, Izortze) and one each of their lucky readers, around a table where everything related to DIY had blown up on. Including, yes – potatoes. Because 1) this teacher is a hobbit and always needs taters around for emergency fry-ups, and 2) potatoes were the best shape-stamps back in kindergarten, remember? All you need is a simple knife and paint.

What was probably the most interesting was seeing some of the girls try to interpret customization with the trending ‘minimalist’ flair, most of which just ended up in variations of marble-painting on white denim shorts…

Many thanks to our rockstar host Mango again for the great fun! Check out the first session here, and watch some of the mini tutorials filmed during the day.

Top – Stylenanda (Similar). Skirt – Mango (similar). Heels – Gianvito Rossi (Similar). Bag – Kurt Geiger (Similar). Rings – THPSHOP. Watch – Larsson & Jennings. Sunglasses – Karen Walker. Scarf – Louis Vuitton.

Apologies if today this post landed in your RSS reader/Bloglovin’ feed and looked like one hot mess laced with crushed Viagra. Something had launched the draft for this post from the back-end without my consent and I’ve been dousing my computer with bug-spray this whole morning. At this point I’m not too sure what’s caused it, but if it’s a hacker I’d like them to get in touch because I really need some friends. We can order pizza and watch the Sex & the City? or play XBox and throw eggs at passing cars – whatever you want. Dear readers, as a general rule if you see a link that’s does not start with ‘http://parkncu.be’, please try not to click it, and if a blogpost is not accompanied by a blob of rant here + some kind of heads-up  on social media, then it’s an unauthorized post. If you could simply drop a line on Twitter or Facebook I’ll do my best to fix it (with bugspray and a mosquito nets). Although, if the background is black with ‘Di$ S1te H4Z bEEn HAckeD B1Tchez’ flashing in neon green, then most probably I’m drunk on nail polish, or my site’s been compromised and I need some wizardly assistance. Both exciting.

Shot at the Barbican Centre, which may be a perfect location to shoot theatre version of 50 Shades of Grey meets Planet of the Apes if there ever was to be one. Definitely underrated as a destination within London, this is brutalist architecture at its finest (if that’s not an oxymoron, I don’t know what is). Make sure to check out the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibition; or the Food Hall, if you’re more like me. Thank you Charlie for helping with the outfit shots!

Images from the previous #MangoDIY in November

It’s that time of year again when you realize just how many inspiration boards you’ve created over the past Winter, yearning for longer, warmer days – each filled to the brim with promise of travel, food and DIY. Although, let’s be honest, this was all done while cooked up at home wrapped in a cosy blanket with much time to burn (#Irony our evergreen hashtag). If this is you however, here’s a great opportunity to kick start summer: Mango is throwing another DIY bash – hosted once again by yours truly. They’re calling on all dreamers and DIY mavens for a chance to win an all-expenses paid trip to Barcelona over May 13-15, which includes of course, sexy Spain, glorious Catalan food, and a spot at the #MangoDIY workshop tables. How to enter? Easy – simply share a pic on your Instagram account with with the hashtag #MangoDIY, and a choice of which bloggers you’d like to accompany: @Adenorah, @Clochet, @GoldenDiamonds or @Anouskapb.

Good luck, and see you in Barcelona!

Where? Barcelona, baby! What? Two days of DIY fun, with Mango and captain Stud (me, OBVIOUSLY) How? As above, but check here as well for full details. Winners will be chosen by the four bloggesrs and announced on the 2nd of May, so enter by the 1st! Extra: Open internationally, but full Terms & Conditions here.

Samsonite Cosmolite

Quilted jacket – Barbour. Shearling vest – Muubaa. Bag – Couronne.

Coat – Mango. White Jeans – AG Jeans. Shoes – Isabel Marant. Scarf – Zara.

Coat – Mango. Boots – Margiela for H&M. Bag – Mansur Gavriel. Scarf – Acne (Similar).

Coat – Mango (blazer version). Boots – Margiela for H&M. Bag – Mansur Gavriel. Scarf – Acne (Similar).

Two weeks in Seoul boiled down to a mere 30 photos – yeah, either I’ve had my chronic indecisiveness miraculously cured, or someone broke into the flat during the night and magically edited down the lot. If it’s the latter I also wish they touched me before sneaking out. All kidding aside, once I’d dealt with the two-freaking-thousand files that choked up the ‘SEOUL 2014’ folder, I found myself at a bind, because even with a more manageable bunch my time in Seoul was just too big, dynamic, entertaining, nostalgic, and exotic to ‘boil down’ into one sweeping summary.

Over the two weeks, I reconnected with friends and relatives I hadn’t seen in about seven years, and visited my grandmother who fed me the same type of fried fish she used to hide inside my spoonful of rice when I was little; then my Caucasian husband arrived midway through, and together the city was suddenly an exotic new ground with every corner fascinating. All in all I found: the people supremely enjoyable, the fashion essential, and the food unbearably sexy. Tradition and modernity co-exist in great harmony, which is something I particularly adored this time round – especially how the young people embrace and pride in the heritage…

I do realize I’m technically tooting my own people’s horn here and may not be the best person to lend impartial image of the city but then again you’re not here for impartial reviews, are you?! Because in the next post I’m going to rave about honey pancakes and outline why it’s the bestest thing in the world  and you’re not allowed to ask what about donuts and macarons. 

A huge thanks to Samsonite (x Fashiolista) for the great adventure – do check out how I packed for Seoul, the first 24 hours, and more photos from the trip in the visual diary on Fashiolista.