A Hop and a skip to my Portbello

In the launch issue of Love magazine, Pixie Geldof vocally proclaimed that she hated it when people labeled things as theirs when they weren't, like my Cheerios. Which in sentence would sound like "I have to have my Cheerios". Nodding my head in agreement on the tube when reading that sounds a little silly now that I'm comfortably labeling Portobello market as mine.

But doesn't living a skip away from one of the most famous markets in the world allow me to throw in a 'my' every now and then? Selfish ownership thoughts aside last Saturday in Portobello was a funny one, seeing as a I met 3 diff people at the market for breakfast, coffee, and lunch. I'm amazed I still had room to have dinner after watching Hairspray at the theater but I did and it was great. Having visited the market a handful of times in the last 5 years I am uberly excited to be based here and am privileged to be able to explore this market thoroughly. Below is my first photo diary as a Notting Hill resident.

Note to reader: Yes I am aware that I have been photographing more food than fashion lately. I blame it on being soo excited to meet Tommy from Notes From Naive this weekend. I know I can never capture food like she does, but one can wish, no?

Vintage tin cookie boxes

Vintage stamps

What a sunny day does to Londoners

Sizzling seafood

The Stroll

Spending a day in the sweet London sun wouldn't be the same if I didn't do my usual street stroll of gallery hopping, vintage book buying, and concept store discovering. Last month's Harper's Bazaar had a great review on Cecil Beaton, costume designer, socialite, and renowned fashion and people photographer who is going to have many of his famous portraits hung in the Chris Beatles Gallery. Call me on being way to excited to check if the portraits were there, I lugged Lumz, who is fast becoming my fashion twin to the gallery on Ryder Street to find out (after being locked in the gallery for a good 20 minutes) that Cecil's show would start on the 22nd of April. I believe the right word to use on such lame occasions is .. pooy.

My annoyance was fast diminished when we walked across the street to the White Cube to find Fred Tomaselli's layered colourful works of art on the Mason Yard walls.

Instead of summing up his work myself I clipped this expert from the press pages,

"Tomaselli has always been an avid collector, regularly scouring various newspapers, fashion magazines, field guides, botanical or anatomical illustrations, for an array of images that he cuts out to collage and embed in his paintings. He arranges a variety of eyes, mouths and hands, with their various perspectives and expressions, so that they are ‘all coming together in a drunken chorus’."

Walking to Regent Street we also stumbled into the most romantic vintage bookstore I have come across so far, Henry Sotheran. It was stocked full of vintage Vanity Fair's and Cosmopolitans, each as a lil as two pounds. I bookmarked this space as a fave space to scout out every time I was in the area promising myself that I would only limit myself to two book buys each time. I ended up buying a hefty encyclopedia textbook on Cecil Beaton (with no internet at the apartment in Notting Hill one must entertain oneself). The day closed with a walk about into Beyond the Valley, a cool concept store that sells illustration, t-shirts, one-off graphic jewelry and also doubles up as a gallery and studio space.

Fred Tomaselli

Henry Sotheran's bookshop

beyond the valley

Every Girl's Dream

Every girl remembers her barbie dolls and all her pretty little clothes. And if you were lucky you would remember the Barbie doll house, the car, and the very hot Ken. Walking into the Varg PR office in Leicester Square I was amazed at their beautiful studio space (lots of natural sunlight, great views of Leicester Square) where gorgeous Swedish labels like Day by Birger Millkensin were hung and stocked. Much like a mini shopping spree I snagged almost all of Day's collection for the Brown Book shoots that I was styling for and used all the pieces that were lent to me. Anyways I'm veering off point here but when I saw this beautiful doll house by Miss Bibi stocked with accessories instead of actual dolls my heart sunk. I wanted it. I suddenly (and embarrisngly) became a little girl prancing around, touching all the little chairs and the long necklaces on weaved in them in awe-trance like manner at the wonder of such a piece. Everything from the pillows on the bed to the bath taps were super tiny and made out of real materials. There are more beautiful close up images of the doll house/mini furniture/accesories on their website. Hats off to the designers for coming with an original concept to showcase their accessories in such a creative way.

More Selfies Eye Candy

When I scoured style.com for NY fashion week fashion fix-ups I was transfixed with DVF's pom poms and was waiting not so patiently for Pom poms to slowly take over the streets of London. But it seems that Selfridges were way ahead of the street stylers on Oxford Street. I snapped these up on a sunny day in London (which are super frequent now-a-days) so sorry for the glare but you can tell its heavily inspired by DFV's ermazing AW09 collection. Pom poms in hair, hats and all things wearable. I see a DIY project in the near future for moi - I just need to purchase the glue gun.

Borderline Feature Part 2

3 photo shoots, 3 days, 3 models, 8 hair and makeup/stylists/styling assistant's and photographers later and my body is in such a state of exhaustion that I think I may need a few days of rest to catch up on my sleep. It doesn't help that I have to move to my new flat in Notting Hill at night like a bat after a long day of shooting. However when I curl up in my bed I do sleep with a cat-like smile, long and purry, exhausted yet feircly proud at a group effort to complete three fantastic shoots in such a short period of time.

I have a kabillion behind-the-scene images which I cannot wait to post up but until then I present to you my latest feature for Borderline mag. It compresses my first experience at LFW which I titled Colour Reigns In London Town which reminds me that I still have to post images from Day 3 of the event. If you want to read the feature click here.