I've moved on...
...to a different domain. Why, what were you thinking? The truth is, I just woke up one day and decided it's time for a change—a metamorphosis, if you will; or, in layman's terms, if Britney can shave her head, then maybe so can I? Nevertheless, it's been a rather handsome 10 years of talking to you, and thank you for putting up with all my moodswings and terrible dad jokes. Fear not! The hormonal imbalance and jokes are more terrible on CUBICLE, see you there.

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Top – ASOS. Jeans – Topshop x Marques’Almeida. Bag – Saint Laurent. Belt – Vintage LV. Necklaces – Monica Vinader.

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Watch – Larsson & Jennings. Key clip – Whistles x Moxham. Rings – Monica Vinader. Case – Casetify. Bag – Saint Laurent ‘Lulu’

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Top – ASOS. Jeans – Topshop x Marques’Almeida. Heels – Tamara Mellon. Bag – Saint Laurent. Belt – Vintage LV. Necklaces – Monica Vinader.

The thing about working from home is that spending the whole day with a crow’s nest for a head, wearing a denim diaper/mum jeans and perpetually smelling of last night’s takeaway is all fine and dandy until the moment there’s a need to step out the house. Suddenly there’s a tremble of confidence when faced with the challenge of having to join civilization: the I know exactly what I’m doing, with, can I use Febreeze as deordrant?, and you’re stumbling out the door with an outfit that is an awkward morph of hobo and put-together. I suppose this may be how the normcore trend came to being – a bunch of freelancers dragging ‘home-shoes’ Birks around the streets of Dalston (or more likely, the narrow corridors of the intranets, seeing as how nobody seems to be able to pinpoint the exact origin) in pursuit of a fresh new pack of post-its or Coconut water and whatnot. Of course, the survival of the fittest theory still seems to apply with said scenario because last time I checked, my 90’s car-thief/soccer mom get-up has yet to be a global trend. Well, until Merriam-Webster gets in touch about using one of these pics to illustrate the word ‘Awkward’ in a new edition of the English dictionary, that is. In which case Tinseltown, here I come.

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Wellington Boots – Hunter

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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.

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London Fashion Week AW14

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Eudon Choi AW14

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Marios Schwab AW14

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Whistles AW14

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Burberry AW14

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Harry Styles in the house, yo

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Outfit 1 (Camel coat): Coat – Club Monaco, Muff – Topshop. Bag – Mansur Gavriel (available for pre-order!). Jeans – James Jeans. Shoes – Church’s. Lipstick – Estee Lauder.
Outfit 2 (Houndstooth coat):  Coat – Selected Femme (via ASOS). Trousers – Zara (similar here). Shoes – ASOS. Muff – Topshop. Bag – Kurt Geiger Britton bowler

Well that just whizzed by, didn’t it. Considering how every season in the past I hobbled home like a war hero, full of stories to tell the grandchildren, dangling off crutches constructed of empty Vitamin Water bottles, this season LFW just felt MUCH less eventful. In fact, it felt like I’d gone to war, hid in the bushes and waited till it was over. I suppose technically this was true, as Hyundai had been so generous to sponsor a car and I spent 70% of the time in there with the awesome driver called Arthur, who’d instantly appear with the Santa Fe from around the corner when I shone a thumbs-up emoji signal into the dark clouds. Thumbs up for ‘I’m done here, let’s get stuck in traffic and talk about motorbikes‘. Coincidentally, I got more work done in that car than a week’s worth of working from home as well, which only confirms that I only work efficiently with impending deadlines (e.g GPS announcing we’re approaching destination). I also started a new relationship with a new phone at the beginning of the week – the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (via Carphone Warehouse) – and spent the five days in honeymoon bliss, poring over improved functionalities (I’m upgrading from the Note 2) and panicked when it took two minutes, not six, to put up an Instagram photo. What does one do with extra four minutes in life?

It was a good season, and for the first time ever I felt like I saw the few shows I really wanted to see (except Mary Katrantzou, that ticket will be my Oscar). Do look out for more updates in the next few weeks. Plus, I didn’t shorten my lifespan by about twenty years by having to haul three camera lenses and a laptop the whole week. I may have grandchildren, after all!

Many thanks to Hyundai UK and Carphone Warehouse again for the extra twenty years, plus four minutes. Also, a cheeky shout-out  to Lulu Guinness and Vita Coco for the survival kits that made the car known as the ‘party car’ by my peers.

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Front-facing catwalk images from Fashion GPS via Topshop, all others by Park & Cube

Aside from the usual stack of multi-coloured foodstuff/beetroot juices (all made by elves, I swear) inhaled by fashion-folk as their first meal of the day at 2pm, and Arya Stark looking all kinds of fierce/cute in the corner, Topshop had a slightly different take on things this time round. This was the second season- while not consecutive – they’d set up camp at the Tate Modern, and instead of the usual fenced-off/dungeon venue broadcast via narrow fire optics and blurry inta-sight by attendees, whoever that happened to be visiting the Tate that oddly sunny Sunday held, in essence, one of the most highly coveted tickets of LFW. The mezzanine offered a vantage point over the entire catwalk and FROWers, and while show goers did the tennis-ball chase with our respective devices, eyeballs, what have you, over the catwalk, the public saw the collection from the privileged Style.com point of view. While I suspect it wouldn’t have made much sense to a lot of the people that watched (‘can you buy those clothes tomorrow?‘ I heard a girl ask) it was admirable of Topshop to embrace such a straightforward approach to ‘public relations’ that suits a brand that is, at the end of the day, an accessible, high-street brand loved by girls across the UK. 

On a separate note, watch me skin a giant teddy bear next fall and wear that over rebellious schoolgirl garbs.

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Coat – H&M. Jeans – DIY slashed Supertrash. Loafers – Hudson. Bag – Couronne. Sweater – Topshop Cardigan worn backwards. Bar bracelet – Zara. Watch – Larsson & Jennings. Tiger bracelet – Kenzo. Rings – Monica Vinader.

I have but moments before the car arrives to take me and one embarrassingly large piece of luggage to Heathrow – Seoul, here I come, start heating up the food. I’m putting this up right before I run out because, if I know my mother correctly, she will compose a short but powerful message on Whatsapp reading something along the lines of those broken jeans in your blog better not be coming with you to Seoul and this time I can be all aw but I’m already in the car. No. Don’t worry ma, I’m fully anticipating to go up a dress size or even two on this trip, I’ve basically packed fifty variations of sweatpants. (엄마 청바지 꼬메지 말아쥬쎄요ㅠ) Plus, after road-testing the jeans in London and finding out getting a sore throat thanks to cold wind through the knee-holes is the very definition of irony, I’ve decided to leave it out of the packing.

On a side note, I know I’ve put this up on Facebook already but I’d really love to get some recommendations of places in Seoul – I’ve never lived there properly and the only places I know are basically the Big Ben equivalents so please do help this hipster out if you can.