oh boy oh boy oy boi.

My nose is running. WELL YA BETTER GO CATCH IT! that's what my dad would say.

The neighborhood where I have corsetry class reminds me a little of Cedar-Riverside. There are a million different cultures. Here's a mural.

Then I biked to Hyde Park. It was the most gorgeous day. Ah to be a seagull with nothing to do but eat fish and chill on the roof-pole.

Here is something I scrawled in my sketchbook while I was there: "What an absolute glory of a day! Perfect sun, tugging breeze, and nowhere on God's green earth I'd rather be than Hyde Park. This will have to be a regular thing. The water is so ridiculously blue. The birdies bathe in it, flapping. People are doing all the things that should be done in a park: kissing, biking, talking, sleepings, sitting waiting, wishing, longboarding. A sanctuary, like a library.
P.S. there's a paddleboat full of French kids who yell like little children whenever the big Canada geese fly near them.

That was on Wednesday.

Today, we went to various things to do with London Fashion Week, namely went to Topshop to hear the cool Charlotte Taylor talk about starting your own line, producing collections, manufacturing, how to find retailers, press, so on, so forth. She has awkwardly adorable prints, one of which she was wearing. She was so kind as to let me take a photo:

there was a cycle race

hhhaha side note i'm now watching some vid about an entire family who plays World of Warcraft....

anyway, after that we went to Somerset House on the Strand, stared at all the expensively dressed people, went and had dinner at some little cafe, sat there till they closed, then went back to Somerset (which is one of the venues for shows during London Fashion Week) and asked to register for the show screenings they do, and found they were about to close, though there were still lots of people there. Then we asked where the bathroom was, and sneeked right past the guard fellows into the bathroom, drank some free champagne, watched a screening of Cassette Playa by Carrie Munden's SS 2012 collection (May I note that though the clothes were very cool, the word intelligent was misspelled on the brochure, and my inner grammar geek giggled) and then went and people-watched in the lobby till they started kicking people out. it was close quarters so I took no photos of all those ridiculously well dressed people, and was wary of asking them as we really didn't have any sort of pass or anything we should have had......but it was a bunch of cool peacocks, believe me.

And it was next to the river and it was preeedddy....

also, here is this very blurry picture illustrating your trend for the day: ombre'd hair. it has the potential to look cool, and the potential to look like you have the longest roots in the world.

und zat, chilllens, is all for today. i have many a thing to do, tomorrow, yea, even tonight.
groodbai.
-Lu

Brick Lane. Hipsters. Clothes.

If you like Ragstock, I'm about to make you drool. Brick Lane is one of the more well-known markets in London, and it is the motherlode of all vintage, funky, punky, eclectic, sometimes black-market shopping. You cannot throw an empty Starbucks cup without hitting some little hole in the wall full of half junk, half treasure, and clothes from the last five decades. There are whole alleyways full of beautiful stolen cycles and parts. Stalls full of old electronics and food and just plain interesting pieces of crap.

It is also CRAWLING with hipsters. Need I say I felt so at home it was almost uncomfortable. I was too busy enjoying myself to take too many pictures: it will have to be revisited. Many times. However, I shall share with you what I did snap.

We begin with the view from my street, (deffo not Brick Lane) on such a London morning as makes you really happy to be alive and sauntering down the avenue.

Now we get there.

and this place, oh, my mouth waters at the thought. They make these fantastic beigels, then they put salted beef in them, then they hand it to you and you are happy. We're not talking about Arby's beef. It looks like you've got half a cow in your hand. Glomp. eaten.

drawing on the wall is encouraged, or at least tolerated. space invader was here? and little pink dinos eat coins. Actually he wasn't all that little.

I believe this store was called Beyond Retro. It never ended, pretty much.

There was a jacket from.....wait for it.... SHAKOPEE. Shakopee Minnesota. in London. What a laugh.

And that food

the pink boots are great too, no? Don't let me forget to tell you about the cross-dresser who asked if I were a lesbian.

le People


Ladeez an gents, it geeves me great pleasure to present to you.....the hipsters (in the best possible sense) of Brick Lane. yeah. And some from Fashion's Night Out. And various other places in this excellent city.

FNO. The fellow in the beautiful coat and cravat was in Alexander McQueen, the rest, as you can see, mostly stopped on the street.

This fellow was standing in Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park. nice jacket sir.

Brick Lane folk:

Yes, I do believe I could live here. Yup.
-Lu