Legs eleven - tights in the summer.

Recently I have noticed a few comments wondering why on earth, in the heat, some women insist on wearing opaque or woolly tights and stockings, often with proper shoes, on hot sunny days? Some merely wonder, some are critical. I am however one of those women who stockings in the sunshine. And I have good reasons for doing so, some of which stem from living for several years in a country whose summers in terms of humidity and heat are never equalled here in London:

Summer legs!

Vanity. Legs unless long, slim and brown look a bit rubbish.  And toes are ugly. Pasty legs and knees and toes sticking out from shorts and cotton skirts are not my cup of tea. In fact I don’t think even beautiful bare legs ever look as good as they would in seams, just don’t like them. It’s a taste thing.

Comfort.  I find my feet blister easily in sandals and shoes in the heat if I do not wear socks or tights.

Hygiene. Without socks or tights you sweat directly into your sandals and shoes. I feel drier and less damp in opaques. I hate sticky skin and I don’t want London dirt over my feet. I found in Asia that like the locals being covered up was sometimes more effective than light clothing in keeping cool.

Health. Tights and socks keep the sun off and mosquitoes away. Also if I am doing anything active I want to be able to move around and I find sandals impractical, apart from the blisters they feel flimsy. And men do have a habit of standing on one’s feet in tube trains.

Aesthetics. The sun n’ surf, wear a kaftan, look like a festival goer or a sweet forties land girl in a field look is never, as anyone who knows me will testify, the way I am going to choose to look. I like hard edges, good heels and dark colours. These don't work with bare legs and painted toesies.

I’m not saying that this is the fact for everyone or that I hate the sun but just that when you see a girl in opaques wandering the city, like me it might be what is comfortable, cool and clean feeling for her not sheer eccentricity or stupidity. xx

Fine for the beach but....

'Olympic' London.

Before I start let me warn the reader, I am an Olympic cynic and whilst I am happy other people are having fun and feeling proud, I’m not an Olympic bunter myself. I thought the views of a dyed in the wool born and bred Londoner on how the place feels might be interesting. It is just an opinion, if I wrote about the Olympics per se it would turn into a long rant!

The ugliest logo in Olympic history?

 

What is it like to be in an Olympic City? Well quite peculiar, it is as if a large alien parasite has suddenly landed, crablike on the city and taken it over. Or maybe it is more an like Invasion of the Body Snatchers. We knew stuff was being built in a bit of London most of us never go near at great expense but suddenly, with fireworks and a lot of entertaining Danny Boyle directed guff it was upon us. London is again festooned with flags, a riot of international colour this time rather than the red, white and blue of the Union Flag.  This flag business is a good thing and is very attractive, we should have more flags every summer; I’d like to see a load of Jolly Rogers on Regent’s Street! Unfortunately the official designs for the Olympics are uniformly ugly. London is enveloped in purple with a cerise accent (it is like someone chewed a wine gum and spat it out over the city), an ugly font and an inelegant symbol outdone in ugliness only by the grotesque mascot who bears the kind of name you expect a Dickensian murderer to have. Not that that is a problem, I like the name ‘Wenlock’. I think the swimming pool should have been called the ‘sink’ and the main stadium the ‘bear pit’ for true London authenticity.

Wenlock!

 

London has also been invaded by an army of happy volunteers wearing  shell suitey type things in the aforementioned nasty colour scheme, the whole place is awash with garish nylon. The city is also full of people often proudly occasionally smugly wearing big plastic squares with the word ‘OCOG’ emblazoned on them. Those that are not Olympic storm troopers are similarly generally wrapped in sportswear. Everywhere you look people are got up like seven year olds in crackly brightly coloured clothes. The static generated must be fantastic. When you are not party to the sea of Olympic spectators it is an odd feeling, curiously Kafkaesque, of suddenly being a stranger in your own home. Like coming home from holiday to find someone has moved into your flat, but in a friendly way. 

Terrible uniforms invade London Streets...but I like the grins.

There are only two ways to approach the thing really; one is to wholeheartedly throw yourself into it and indulge in Olympic Spirit until the British position in the medal league becomes your sole overriding obsession. The bread and circuses approach is not to be dismissed, the money has gone, it will be gone when this is over so some might as well have a bit of fun and entertainment while it is here. The other approach is to quietly let it be, avoid the areas where it is happening or leave the country.  There is no real escape however short of moving to a cave and if you are not a sports fan you just have to quietly grit your teeth and get on with it, it is only a couple of weeks after all.

Pretty flags, we've got them now, can we put them out every summer?

There was a lot of scare mongering before the whole thing kicked off. Yes London Bridge station was doing a good impression of a scene from Bosch when I visited it, the rudeness of some of the visitors was startling (so much for Olympic Spirit) but the volunteers were doing a good job. It takes a certain amount of verve and fortitude to answer the same daft question forty times in a day. But they have seemed to be unremittingly cheerful and good natured which should give visitors a totally unjustified impression of Londoners as a jolly welcoming lot, like Italians but without the sunshine. Mind you the system of 'penning' travellers in was worrying, especially as the queues for particular platforms suddenly switched, a bit like the railway version of Hogwart's corridors.

The 'pens' for commuters at London Bridge.

Lots of people have heeded these doom laden warnings and taken the avoidance approach. I have never seen central London quieter; there were more people around after the bombings. Seats can be obtained on tubes and trains, theatres, pubs and clubs are quiet and last Saturday I could see broad expanses of pavement on Oxford Street.   This was very pleasant for me but not so good for traders and businesses. This was even the case during the hugely popular torch relay; people didn’t really buy much from local bars or cafes who were advised by local councillors to get extra staff in. But as a relative of mine said regarding the popularity of the torch relay ‘Londoner’s will go and watch the opening of a curtain if it is free’ and restaurants and pubs aren’t.

Nothern line was still running at 1.00 am, why only during the Olympics?

I haven’t watched much of it but ultimately it hasn’t had much negative impact on me or much impact at all really. I may get cross when the next big sweep of nurse sackings takes place especially as some of those dancing nurses are likely to get the chop. But for now I can at least, if nothing else, appreciate the surreal quality of Olympic London. There is however one aspect of it that I am complete impressed by: the underground trains running later, significantly later on Fridays and Saturdays. For a single London lady about town it makes a big difference. Why not have the late Friday and Saturdays all year?  Any future mayoral candidate who pushes this will get my vote. I also realised on Saturday that my Chinese dress was in the Olympic pink and purple (don’t ask), is the body snatching Olympic crab parasite subconsciously taking me over too?

But what will our government do with the used and finished article?

The 'Vintage Dream Team'

I considered the other day who my vintage ‘dream team’ might be? If the vagaries of time and motion could be overcome, bank accounts were full of shekels and I could beam myself around London Star Trek style?

First of all the basics, eyebrow shaping, facialistic fiddling, eyelash lashing the clipping of nails and the waxing of, well whatever needs to be waxed. For this I would find myself in Anerley Hill in the elegant surroundings of La Belle Jolie, listening to Ella Fitzgerald whilst talons are painted jungle red by the charming Renee. Basic canvas prepared and polished I would need to consider my hair.

On my magic carpet to Carnaby Street to Miss Betty’s in Kingly Street for a sharp cut, zinging colour and a proper fringe. Here I can relax with a cup of coffee from Sacred coffee on the ground floor and listen to the best rock and roll in a red rockabilly paradise of a salon whilst wishing that my French was better…

Should I want a perm with a vintage set I might jump on a mystery train to deepest darkest Walthamstow to see Claire who knows her way around a set of perming rods. I’d get a mug of tea and a complimentary cute dog.

If I wanted to then trip off and buy the perfect little thirties day dress in mint condition I might board a steampunk airship to the Vintage Emporium off Brick Lane, which also sometime provides good dog stroking opportunities.  If in need of vintage shopping advice I might turn to the lovely Naomi Thompson to come and help me out.

My underpinnings would be provided by What Katie Did as second hand undies are not my thing and WKD’s mesh seams are amongst the toughest most glamorous hosiery items there are.

If I want to set my look off with a nice brooch I would then find myself at the little retro fair at Norwood Feast with friendly sellers, funky music, cheap prices and that relaxed Sarf London vibe.  I would top it off with a bespoke hat from Kezia Argue, Atelier Millinery or Pip Hackett.

Shoe wise the Miss L Fire website would magically transform into a physical shop with handsome boys in tops and tails offering a range of colourful shoes for my perusal.

Finally I would trot into a ChapOlympiad, drenched in sunshine with a Fortnum and Mason’s hamper on one arm and a moustachioed gent with a twinkle in his eye on the other. Well that is my London Dream Team, what’s yours?

xxx

Themed bars of Barcelona

Recently I have been a bit here, there and all over the place, thus my lack of blogginses. One of the there's I have been to was Barcelona, my brief to combine a bit of healthy R & R to recover from a rather unpleasant year, see a friend of mine and cast my eye over Barcelona in vintage terms. Of course Barcelona wasn't named for it's bars, that would be silly. But that is where I am going to start. With bars, the silly ones.

Some of my friends are very fond of faeries and I found the idea of a fairy inspired bar/cafe hard to resist. Especially when I found it was next to a waxwork museum. So my first touristic visit in the city of Gaudi and Miro in the bright sunshine was the waxwork museum. An odd but enjoyable experience, the waxworks were dreadful yet strangely the place was better for it. I was pretty much alone, you know that feeling when portraits follow you? well imagine the eyes of 20 waxwork figures following you around, deliciously spooky. I felt the need afterwards for a quick cervesa before heading out into the sun and popped into the El Bosc de les fades (Fades is fairy in the local lingo).

It was wonderfully loopy as the pictures below indicate, a fantastical dark grotto full of tiny lanterns, little pools and tree branches and leaves. Perfect for my faerie, Tolkein, Game of Throne loving friends and really very pretty. 

It wasn't all like a scene from a Dadd painting, another smaller part of the bar consisted of a rather more eery twisted fairy tale room (bad picture below). Drinking in here would have been strange, note the levitating figure in the corner. 

Another fantastical bar was 'Hook', pirate themed it was jammed full of fairy lights, galleons hanging from the ceiling, swords, parrots and obviously anything the owners found appealing.  What was particularly attractive was the presence of bric a brac that didn't ostensibly have anything to do with buccaneers. A 1950's radio, photographs of hollywood stars, and for some reason nutmeg on their pina coladas. Various photographs below.

Perhaps the most unexpected was Club Pipa, this bar was above one of the prettiest squares in the city, Placa Real. It reminded me a bit of Gerry's in Soho, you wouldn't know it was there, it is just a doorway with a small metal sign and does not open until very late. Go up a flight of stairs and you find yourself facing a small bar surrounded by a series of rooms. Most surprising is that Pipa means Pipe and the whole bar is devoted to Sherlock Holmes. It was by far the louchest place I visited in Barcelona. Some very dodgy photographs below (what do you expect?, I was having fun...).

All of these bars are not particularly designed for tourists but the last one I'm mentioning does perhaps fall into this category although it is more an ex-pat joint. Obama's does contain a life size model of the US president in the front part of the bar but otherwise the whole place is themed around English Colonial Africa. The combination of the anti-colonial politician and an array of pith helmets and militaria does not bother the locals at all. Most peculiar. This place seemed to be more of an all day meeting place for Barcelona's numerous foreign residents, was open all day and served food. Photographs below.

I recommend Barcelona as a place to visit, great food, beautiful buildings, lovely people and of course wonderful sunny weather.  Being there was not only cheering but gave me space to think about my future and surrounded by Gaudi buildings, sunny gardens and smiling faces it was hard not to be optimistic. Roll on the rest of the year! 

Vintage shopping Event: Raise money for Save the Children.

For vintage lovers in the capital this shopping event is well worth a ganders. It is also a good 'entry-level' evening for those who want some friendly advice. 'Entry-level'? I can't believe I just used that term, makes it sound like learning Serbo-croat, or ballroom dancing....this event won't be like that at all! It is also entirely for charity and the perfect opportunity for those of you with a too small, too big vintage item that could be passed on to someone to love. Organised under the auspices of the tireless and rather omni-present Mary Portas (gotta love a woman with a ginger bob!) it is likely to have some good stuff available and to be well attended. In addition the lovely Naomi and Jenni will be wafting (or more likely bouncing) around to help those who need either reassurance or just a reliable second opinion. Blurb below. If not exhausted by my day I hope to trip along, if I do my donation will be an absolutely fantastic scarlet 1950's straw skull cap trimmed with berries

Living and Giving Shop Primrose Hill

'Love to put a fabulous retro look together but unsure where to start? Then come to Mary’s Living & Giving Shop at Primrose Hill onThursday 31 May 2012, 6pm-9pm, to hear Naomi Thompson, vintage stylist and shopping specialist talk about all things vintage.  Naomi will be reading from her new book ‘Style Me Vintage’ which is packed full of fantastic tips. She will explain what to look for when shopping vintage, when to part with your cash and most importantly what to avoid. In addition to signing copies of the book on the evening itself, Naomi and her trusted cover girl, Jennifer Siggs, will be on hand to answer your personal questions  - anything from ‘How to buy and date vintage?’ through to ‘Is Fifties à la Mad Men or Sixties Le Chic best for my body shape?’  No need to book an appointment for a one-to-one session with Naomi or Jennifer, just come along on the evening and pop your name down on the list (first come first served basis).

The friendly and fabulous Jennifer and Naomi (photograph http://hansonleatherby.com/)

The sensational 1940s inspired trio The Three Belles will provide live music whilst you shop pieces that have been donated by some of the most coveted vintage stores in London as well as vintage inspired pieces from an A to Z of designers, Allegra Hicks to Zandra Rhodes.

We are expecting a big turn out and are offering VIP QUEUE JUMP entry to anybody bringing a vintage donation.      Any donations donated before the evening will also be hugely appreciated.

Whether you want to buy a glamourous 50’s inspired dress, learn how to mix modern and vintage together, or enter the raffle and be in with the chance of winning several fabulous prizes, then this is the event not to be missed.  Rumour has it that Naomi will also be donating a few personal pieces from her wardrobe, so you never know…you may even find that special something you’ve always been searching for!

Diamond Jubilee celebrations in London Event Guide.

Well a long weekend of bunting, fairy cakes, union jack- waving and boozing approaches. The shops are full of souvenir tat, there is an extra bank holiday and London is bracing itself for an influx of visitors and patriotic chaos. It would be remiss of me, despite republican leanings  not to come up with some ideas of how to fill the weekend in London whether you are visiting or battening down the hatches. I am either going to, or would be if could, to the following shindigs.

Friday the 1^st

Breast of British Bluestockings Jubilee Cabaret

Excellent line up of cabaret for the evening including Ophelia Bitz, Fancy Chance and Tricity Vogue. Likely to be a highly entertaining mischievous witty night, with the odd boob thrown in. Which makes sense as Elizabeth the 2^nd has always had a rather impressive décolletage herself. Although if you want to know where these ladies store their diamonds you’ll have to go along. Convenient West End location and good value with tickets at a tenner a pop.

Details here.

Patriotometer: Subversive!

Saturday the 2^nd 

1953 Themed Jubilee Dinner. Ella Armstrong Lach of the London Vintage Kitchen, who for some reason is rather keen on cooking is organising a pop up dinner party serving food from the same era as the coronation in a secret location, which I have been assured is not Dalston. A three course meal from the era and drinks will be accompanied by singing, party games and dancing. All for the rather economical  price of £25.00.

Details here.

Patriotometer:   God Save the Queen!

Sunday the 3^rd

Diamond Jubilee Flotilla, the river, your local hostelry, your sitting room.

Now if you are lucky enough to know some rich git with a view the place to be is in their place watching the pretty ships. For the rest of us it will be the usual scrum, millions of tourists shoving, screaming kids, people blocking your view. The screens are all North of the river which means most people may get rather stuck when it comes to moving around.  The native Londoner will find a nice screen, in a nice pub, settle down with a glass of English ale and and watch it in comfort. After all most of us see a Royal at some point every year…

Details here

Patriotometer: depends, some will merely be interested in the pretty boats.

Sunday the 3^rd

What the Butler Saw

Large Ball/Party in Farringdon channeling a perverse version of Downton Abbey. Confirmed performers include Frank and Nancy Sanazi and Fifties style singers plus cabaret, burlesque and DJ’s from Torture Garden amongst others. Continues until  3am the next day.

Details here.

Patriotometer: Unsuitable for a modern monarchy but Edward VII might have rather liked it.

Monday the 4^th

Battle Royal

The Double RR crew host a cabaret night in their own inimitable style. Cabaret in the atmospheric Bethnal Green Working Men’s club with performers taking a republican stance. The performers are likely to be amongst the best in London, instead of being the first to be lined up in front of a wall come the revolution, be the first lined up at the bar (which has pub prices). Additionally all the money raised goes to charity. Highly recommended.

Details here.

Patriotometer:  Traitor’s Gate.

               

One Aldwych - Martini Movies

Going on a date in London can be tricky, keeping yourself occupied stylishly in the evening when on a romantic trip to London can be equally trying. You can go for the tried and tested ‘see a show’ approach. But for the amorously inclined the large part of the evening will be spent not talking, and when you do get a chance it will be for fifteen minutes in a crammed theatre bar. That is if your date has not had to queue for a quarter of an hour to use the loo. Drinks and/or dinner will be crammed in before the play, or shoved down at an anti-social hour afterwards.  Leaving the theatre aside the simpler option of a nice meal can be equally challenging. That is hours of conversation, and finding a good restaurant, and booking it (many fashionable eateries have this infuriating ‘no-booking’ policy at the mo). Of course you can always wander through a glamorous city by night, if it isn’t raining.  More vulgarly there is the issue of cost; two theatre tickets, meals and drinks will not leave much change from £200. It’s enough to make you grasp singledom with enthusiasm.

Bar at OneAldwych

One good alternative is provided by OneAldwych, a modern sassy boutique hotel in Aldwych. Their Martini Movies package offers a cocktail, a film in their small private cinema and a three course meal, all for £42.00 a head. There are a number of advantages to this option; you are a guest, not just part of the cattle train of hen nights, confused tourists and predatory suits thronging London. One of the hotel’s strong points is its level of service and especially if dating or going out after a day at work a bit of care and attention makes a difference. 

Comfy seats and cocktail to accompany your viewing.

A wide range of films are shown and the small cinema has large comfy leather chairs. On popping yourself into one you are presented with a cocktail. Even if it were fully booked the cinema is bijou: there wouldn’t be hordes of you and certainly no yallering teenagers or crisp bag rattling morons. In addition a film is not too long, but it does provide good conversation fodder. Amongst the films coming up are ‘The Artist’ and ‘Midnight in Paris’, which if you haven’t seen them already are superb romantic fare.

One of the retaurants that provide dinner.

The evening also includes a three course meal; I ate at OneAldwych some time ago and enjoyed it. Just being able to wander out from the auditorium and into a nice restaurant with a table waiting for you is a treat. No fighting your way through crowded London streets weighed down with coats and umbrellas to squeeze your way into some noisy restaurant that is already jammed. The screenings are also timed so you sit down for dinner at a civilised hour and don’t have to rush your food so you can grab the last train home. Being a hotel of course it has a bar and it would be quite possible to just finish your meal and move in there for a digestif.

Vintage lovelies

Last week along with some of London’s vintage finest I was treated to a truncated form of the evening and if the excellent canapes were anything to go by the food remains good.  The cocktails and champagne certainly hit the spot as you can see from the pictures above and below.

Myself on the left (picture courtesy of Katie Chutzpah).

I think this would be an equally good option for those based in London, who have a busy enough life and want a stylish evening with minimal hassle. I also think it would be good for those who are here on holiday and want an evening away from frenetic tourism. Indeed who needs a date? Not me, a girls night out would be great fun, we certainly enjoyed ourselves (we watched My Week with Marilyn, and I still don't understand the enthusiasm for Mr Redmayne!). Finally for London’s West End it is very reasonably priced.

Details of the film club can be found here