Out take Beauty

Sometimes it really is the shots the magazines decide not to run: either they don’t feel they fit the theme, or perhaps they are too risky, or not enough: whatever the reasonings, across my styling career, it has frequently been those privately cherished precious shots which readers of magazines I have worked for never got to see.  That’s what is great about the exposure of a blog and the worldwide web: now we can share what we who were on those shoots loved, and be sure that it is seen…

Photographer: Alice Rosati

Stylist: Tamara Cincik

Model: Hanna Putz

Make Up: Sarah Reygate

Hair: Antonio Deluca

Jewellery Piece: Erickson Beamon

Fade To Grey

As the mother of a newborn, I’ve appreciated that now is the key time to shape Dukey’s future: from his intellectual to sartorial futures.  Our days veer from light ‘reading’ while punching monkey and parrot on his playmat, to my finger-light taps to his forehead with a smile, saying: ‘lawyer, architect, doctor…’ (turns out I am truly a North London <half> immigrant mother!).   ‘We’ve‘ simultaneously been working out our sartorial style in coherent coalescence (indulge me!): think rock and roll lite, lots of easy jersey pieces, with colour coordinated casual charm.  Let the journey, the joy, the future commence…

Dukey working the sweats on rocker look.

Monkey should be very afraid: Dukey anticipating using his left hook...

Happiness.

True Style Often Displays A Playful Element...

The Hackney Empire Interior at the House of Hackney Pop-Up Shop.

Some people see an empty white room and feel a sense of peace, order and tranquility.  There are others for whom this is a blank canvas onto which they can lavish layers of love, adding a treasured piece of texture from their travels here, a handmedown from the family, or a cherished much coveted heirloom-to-be sourced from hours spent carousing car boot sales, markets, or auction houses.  I fall firmly into the latter category: what I described to M. Christian Lacroix as ‘too much is just enough’; I rest most happily in a world of more is more completeness.  While I can and do appreciate the clear charm of minimalism, there is for me an innate comfort in the creation of collections: the sheer enjoyment in the knowledge that my world is filled with pretty things.

This love of maximality started young: obsessed with history, I would try to recreate the past in my imagination – via the portals of time-travel, jumble sales and wardrobe.  Aged 7, I was quite the young fogey: partial to a puff sleeve in the style of Holly Hobby and Laura Ingalls Wilder.  Fast track a few years and I was at my happiest collecting again while living out of a rucksack: from traditional Indian fabrics, to handicrafts my Turkish aunties made in our village (my Aunty Meryem was shocked when I coveted an old deeply gorgeous slightly frayed patchwork quilt over a brand new one) and vintage kimonos in Japan from the Tokyo Salvation Army sales.  What might start filled with base essentials, would on each trip mushroom into a Mary Poppins universe in a bag, filled with new treasures, as I explored ideas of  colour, fabric, texture and taste through travel-happy folkloric ritualised design (part of my aunts’ dowries were 100 piece of embroidered bedding), thus to a sense of the timeless root  of beautified utilitarian design.

Last week we went on a day out adventure to the mothership of my childhood time travel fantasies: Hampton Court Palace.  It was one of those alchemically divine early Spring days, the light was bright and the day filled with hope of sunshine days to come.

Entrance to another world: where magic happens through the arched doorway.

Taking in the Tudor Kitchens.

Like a tourist... In William and Mary's garden.

Stuart Maximal Neo-Classical Order

Tudor Chimneys resting in a beautiful blue sky.

What is quite amazing about Hampton Court Palace is how each epoch danced time on her surface: from Cardinal Wolsey’s Thames-side retreat, gifted to Henry viii and Anne Boleyn when The King’s Matter (his divorce from Catherine of Aragon) seemed out of reach and his own future doomed, to Tudor pleasure palace, through to the renovations undertaken by William and Mary, who had hoped to totally rebuild it, as a response to Versailles’ stylistic dictate of royal living.  As they ran out of money, they had to accept this hotch-potch half Tudor, half Neo-Classical patchwork of a palace: eras grafted onto each other.  Somehow to me this is more poetic, more English as we constantly edit and reapply our design motifs onto the past – how many Victorian London terraces have been gutted and remodelled in the last decade to display a new opened out kitchen, defying the rectangular narrow design of the original?

Admiring Charles 1st's portrait - hung directly opposite William of Orange's throne: defiance or humility?

The sheer luxury of William of Orange's velvet privy was not lost on me!

Admiration for Anne...

From Hampton Court, we went to visit Lesley Silwood, from Buba London at her idyllic island Thames house.  Jeremy was quite entranced with the idea of us relocating to this magical place: resting on the riverbank, it is amazing, very Swallows and Amazons.  Lesley and Euan similarly embrace the maximal approach to living: with Euan’s zingy poptastic artworks, Lesley’s partiality for sparkly treasure updates, which given her mother is a vintage clothes dealer, means she knows (!) it did translate into a sunset slice of paradise.  Recently branching into homeware from their  gorgeous bag collections, Buba London have designed the most gorgeous pouffes, a white one of which sat rather comfortably in their bright expanse of kitchen, as we looked out at their cat tormenting their rabbit rather mercilessly in his front garden hutch.

Buba London Pouffe.

As we are about to have a baby, but waiting to move from our let’s call it compact one bedroom apartment until after the birth (translation: until we know what we’re doing!), Jeremy has been actively modifying the space: from creating a shoe cupboard, to repackaging my Victorian owls.  As we aren’t moving yet, rather than install the new kitchen we bought a few months ago (still in boxes in the garage until we move), we have restyled it on a budget thanks to wallpaper and willpower.  Adhering to the maximal codes of overlaid design, I feel rather proud of the results.

Taxidermitastic for Tamara.

After butterflies and gnomes, came owls - an ode to collecting..!

Kitchen refurbishment rather than Kitchen overhaul, thanks to a spot of wallpapering.

The original cabinets are rather revolting and if we were planning on staying much longer then the spanking brand new ones we have chosen, bought and paid for, would now be shining in all their boxfresh glory.  But as we are aiming to move, this then is a Spring-hopeful transformation.

Last night we popped over the launch party of the East End’s ode to maximalism: The House of Hackney, a pop-up shop on the strip of road where Dalston meets Stoke Newington.  Their delightful hostess Madeleine guided us on a tour of the space: three themed spaces, with sustainably locally sourced interiors, where fun and OTT embrace the more is more prerequisites of layering, redesigning and making you think.  I loved the Hackney Empire room, with its Mad Hatter sense of psychedelic Victorianism.

Walls have been stripped back to reveal their Georgian past, while mirrors have been over printed with floral designs and updated with graffitti.  I was totally charmed: perhaps I was old before my time, my little girl well-being was as rooted in how a space feels; and as such I have always felt the pangs of lust of a luscious interior, as much as for a snazzy pair of shoes.  What is charming here is to see how this world order has been translated into something at once layered with an homage to the building’s many pasts, with current stylistic solutions and humorous analogies: Colefax and Fowler on acid indeed!

Have you ever imagine what happened if we dared to step through the looking glass and saw the world through topsy-turvy spectacles for an afternoon?  Well I think it might be rather fun: a place where our eccentricities sense order in their madcap escapades and where good design is shown it’s ultimate OTT overhauled conclusion.

If you do go down to Dalston this weekend, take a trip to the basement where cult baker Lily Vanili’s subterranean tea room will complete your tour.  Jeremy reported that the espresso martini was rather delicious.  As Lily had fed us at Amelia’s 123 Bethnal Green Road book launch, it felt like a full stop to the circle to enjoy them here too at another of London’s charmingly creative responses to duller than ditchwater corporate uniformity.

http://www.bubalondon.com/

http://www.houseofhackney.com/

http://www.hrp.org.uk/hamptoncourtpalace/

Please click on the link:- http://testmag.co.uk/painted-eyes/

Here are some screen grabs from the film for you to enjoy.

Screen grab from a film for Test Mag I styled; shot by Daniel Sannwald.

PAINTED EYES

Director: Daniel Sannwald
Director of Photography: Ruta Balseviciute
Stylist: Tamara Cincik
Model: Elena Sudakova @ FM
Hair: Hiroshi Matsushita using Kiehls
Make Up: Thomas De Kluyver @ D and V Management using Mac Pro
Music: Architeq (Fulgeance Remix) by Birds of Prey
Stylist’s Assistant: Siam Goorwich
Photographer’s Assistants: Moses Power, Christian Roman Thumm
Digital Assistant: Studio Private
Lighting and Location: Studio Private
All fashion by Michael Van Der Ham
Sunglasses by Janz & Cooper, jewellery by Erickson Beamon
Copyright TEST 2011

A list of deliciousness available at Dukey's Baby Shower

Last Sunday I hosted Dukey’s Baby Shower at the newly opened Bunker Cafe, at 123 Bethnal Green Road (www.123bethnalgreenroad.co.uk): a shop whose products are all sustainably sourced from within the boundaries of the M25.  What I loved about the store, when I came to Amelia’s book launch there last month, is the way it combines a simple use of space with quirky eccentricities.  Plus designers sold there include some old friends, such as JJ aka Noki, which adds another layer of familiar cuteness to the equation.

The Bunker Cafe pre-celebrations: prepped for the baby shower

My lovely god daughter Zoe came down for the weekend on an exeat from her school in Taunton to take up the mantle of face painting artistry; while Mark commuted between shows at Covent Garden for balloon animal-making duty (plus a rather ‘creative’ balloon neopolitan ice cream, as well as randomly sized swords, which was perhaps more than a sleight of hand!..).

Zoe, brush in hand.

Mark displaying his skills.

Face Painting Art Direction: note how the result matches the outfit - genius!

The staff at The Bunker Cafe were lovely: providing a carb-fest high tea of scones and victoria sponge, combined with Siam’s super-duper triple layered home-made carrot cake. The result: a relaxed soporific haze of smiles and contented stomachs; while mini-munchkins compared their face painted results, enjoyed a spot of colouring book wizardry and fought each other with balloon-shaped swords.

Eddie and Rocco as Spidermen.

Jeremy arrived for the last hour; displaying if ever we needed reminding our divergent tastes in wardrobe!

All smiles from Dukey's Glamour Aunties!

Mum aka Grandma!

As the countdown to motherhood rushes on unabated: part exciting, part scary; this was a really special afternoon, filled with kindness and smiles. Pregnancy can be isolating and I am sure so can early motherhood, it was then, all the more lovely to spend time with friends, basking in a golden glow of love and kindness.  We were bought some fantastically gorgeous gifts, Dukey (our nickname for the bump) will clearly be the best-dressed baby in town!

While I work out the looks, poses and how to look intriguing, rather than just bulging at the seams, for my soon to be revealed ode to how to looking like the stylist I am while growing week on week, as I am now 5 months pregnant, in the true spirit of diversion, here is a sonnet of love to all those Winter Wonderland inspirations, primarily gleaned from my quintessential top five favourite film list: David Lean’s epic and gloriously beautiful ‘Dr. Zhivago’.

This film has seen me through so many epochs: from childhood Christmas holidays, to litmus tests with boys, to snowed in in New York, through to New Year’s Day two years ago, when I needed some TLC, unaware that life was about to change forever…  I have been building up for another sitting: that’s the glory of the modern age – dvds which you can switch on, off, pause, choose; rather than trying to sit through a film en famille on Boxing Day, when your mother and grandmother would rather discuss whom in the film used to be married to whom and what to do with the garden next Spring…

So here is my litany of timeless Winter inspirations, to show why capes, cossack collars and (fake!) fur trimmed cloaks are year on year a jaw-gasping choice to entertain the glamour of our snow-sieged hearts, eyes and escapist imaginations.  Having just been bought the most delicious vintage red cape (thank you so much my darling Juicy aka Sarah Reygate, for Christmas – perfect for bulge explosion pregnancy stark glamour, mixed with Red Riding Hood playfulness methinks!), from Mary Portas’ beautifully decorated spanking brand new Living and Giving Shop (109 Regent’s Park Road, Primrose Hill, NW1), which was designed by my old friend Kate Monckton (once the best and most helpful pr in London, now a one to watch interior designer: http://www.katemonckton.com/) , it seems fitting to hark back to true style and show a gallery of glamspirations, perfectly (like red capes) suited to bright white snowy days and misty, dark nights.

Geraldine Chaplin arrives back from Paris to Moscow; at the train station in all her glorious Parisienne couture.

This utterly gorgeous colour combination of pale pink with soft grey, marking her time spent learning the art of glamour in Paris – perfection.

Too much is just enough.

The scenes with Lara (Julie Christie), when Yuri (Omar Sharif) falls in love with her, coincide with front-line on the Eastern Front during WW1, then the revolution and thus the colour palette shifts to utilitarian taupes, khaki and earthy tones.  Echoing images from Soviet stark propaganda, these are then wholly practical: woollens, tweeds and furs, yet utterly romantic.

Julie Christie showing how blonde on blonde is always beauty.

Lara an Yuri arriving at the Summer House.

Genius art direction, or how to make sunny Spain and wax look like freezing Russia on ice.

Elizabeth Taylor showing how to rock a mono cape and hat look at Heathrow Airport in The VIPs

The VIPs, directed by another great of British cinema, Antony Asquith and based loosely on the true story of Vivien Leigh’s attempt to leave Laurence Olivier, is another film where each outfit is jawdropping in its chicly cut simplicity: stuck at an airport as fog stops all flights, somehow fabulosity never leaves the room, while scene on scene Elizabeth Taylor shows the value of cut and shape, aligned with perfect taste.

Hooded perfection in The VIPs.

A Matter of Life and Death

Jack Cardiff cinematographer: the camera genius inspired by Rembrandt.  His work with Powell and Pressburger: a marriage of form, art and magic.

If you do anything this weekend, please try to see ‘A Matter of Life and Death’, or ‘The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp’, or ‘Black Narcissus’ (my first Archers viewing film aged 7, I was totally entranced), or ‘The Red Shoes’ .  I guarantee technicolor transportation…

29 October 2009 at 09:24 style hunter
Style Hunter: new neon!