I'M STILL IN LOVE WITH JUDAS, BABY

I hate goodbyes. 

I hate goodbyes to people.

I hate goodbyes to rooms.

But most of all I hate goodbyes to great people, in great rooms.

Photos by myself and Michael Stephens

Goodbyes are the worst. I can't even bring myself to write, I'm just too sad. But let's say that my last night out in Leeds was made a lot sweeter by the presence of two great party guests: longtime soul sister and the girl I love to see wearing all the clothes I buy which are too small for me, Kinvara, and my disco-poppin' Judas baby, Michael. 

Oh, and hair rollers are my new favourite.

GO EXPLORING

Everyone should have a trusty pair of boots to hand. You know the ones. Well-worn, well-loved; they have as many great stories of their own to tell as you do. They took you to all those spontaneous community centre parties with beer-stained floorboards, they took you to the top of that huge (you believed) hill in the Yorkshire dales, they took you down countless airport corridors and to summer festivals near and far.  There's a romance about boots. What can be more liberating than the power to go anywhere, explore far and wide, with your trusty boots on?

Palladium's boots couldn't have come into my life at a better time. My summer will be spent between Glastonbury, Secret Garden Party and a lot of pavement pounding in Paris, when I can't wait to spend every waking hour exploring the districts of my new city. Palladium's series of Explorer videos are really worth a gander; Berlin, London, Detroit and New York among other cities are shown in a new light as residents share their favourite hidden gems and great spaces of historical or architectural wonder which are veiled from common view. Having spent the last two years in Leeds at university, I'm days away from leaving and am suddenly getting that wrenching feeling that I haven't done enough exploring. Even at the end of my road, is a huge abandoned redbrick girls school that I should have investigated, camera (and boots) in tow, not to mention the children's psychiatric institution at Adel which has lain empty for over 20 years but is still intact with furniture and belongings. Don't make my mistake. Do it now. Put on your boots, and go exploring...

XOYO

XOYO's 'Royal Rave' on the 28th April was a pitstop on my whirlwind party tour of the south last month, and it was a delight to catch up with favourite London faces Nadia FrouFrouu and Guy.

OH STOP IT. I'm ashamed of even using the words 'party tour' and 'rave' since Kavos '08 but exceptions can be made for a national event that was the Royal Wedding. Water pistols, union jacks, 90s drum and bass and er...Budweiser, the American lager, all made for a a groovy warm-up party to kick off the serial champagne-glugging that was to follow the next day. I actually really regret not blogging at least something from Kate & Willz' big day, since I was a near-hysterical fan of the whole furore, but sadly it was back to Leeds and straight into exams and no time at all for Royal fashion gossip. 

A/W 11 DAVID KOMA

BODY GEOMETRY

At David Koma's catwalk show back in February, geometrical dot art juxtaposed with a svelte silhouette and poker straight hair fell somewhere in between Japanese minimalism and 60s pop art. 2 and 3 dimensional circles, in electrically-bright fur or cutaway shapes brightened sculptured pencil skirt dresses, all in black, whose density suggested an armour. For Koma's woman, the Autumn/Winter look is fierce and demands attention, but also protection from her clothes.

SATURDAY BREAKFAST

Film stills from Breakfast at Tiffany's and Funny Face. The latter has a tedious storyline but is an aesthetic smorgasbord of 60s fashion and Paris couture. Not to mention the opening credits directed by Avedon. Wish I had time this morning to languish in bed and watch either.

THE VEIL

Photographs by Holly Falconer via People in London

Meadham Kirchhoff's A/W 10 collection has bewitched me for over a year. It was crazy and fantastical and fun, it shouted a defiant "Uh...and what?!" to trends and Arcadia Group rip-offs, and it summarises everything I adore about fashion. And veils. Let's talk about veils. The veil, in my eyes, is completely underrated. Unless you're a conservative muslim woman living in France, and in your case, it's now as controversial as crack. Veils have become a symbol of oppression, of suspicion. Of course, there is a vast difference between a burka and the Meadham Kirchhoff veils, but overall, the veil is a garment which has completely disappeared from the western wardrobe. Even most wedding veils no longer cover the face, and if they do, they're more of the the net-cloth-over-a-cakestand variety. Diane Pernet and Lady Gaga are the only two women I know of who rock the veil. The veil used to be a symbol of female power. To wear a veil was to communicate to others that your beauty was of such high regard, of such exclusivity, that one had to earn the privilege of witnessing it. Such mystique, such medieval mischief is in these sheer garments; just the right amount of opacity to conceal, yet keep admirers guessing. Yes, there is something distinctly spectral in these models' appearance, but it is a commanding presence that they conjure. You can't fail to attract attention in a hot pink mantilla trimmed with lace, can you?

BRIDESHEAD BIRTHDAY

"The langour of Youth - how unique and quintessential it is! How quickly, how irrecoverably, lost! The zest, the generous affections, the illusions, the despair, all the traditional attributes of Youth - all save this come and go with us through life...These things are a part of life itself; but languor - the relaxation of yet unwearied sinews, the mind sequestered and self-regarding, the sun standing still in the heavens and the earth throbbing to our own pulse - that belongs to Youth alone and dies with it." - Evelyn Waugh

At long last, I got to make a literary/aesthetic pilgrimage to my beloved Brideshead, namely Castle Howard in North Yorkshire. I couldn't have thought of a more pseudo-sophisticated way to spend my 21st birthday.
If you haven't heard of Evelyn Waugh or Brideshead Revisited, take a recommendation from me. And then, if you have the chance, go drink a bottle of champagne on the steps of the Temple of the Four Winds, dressed in silk pyjamas.