Exactly Like

I am currently reading Venice, a travel book by Jan Morris. It is well-written and interesting, with historical detail and historical anecdotes.

I love Venice and, even more than going there again, I'd love to take part in the famous carnival!

I would dress up as a Victorian lady, complete with the corset, the bonnet plus ribbons, gloves and the crinoline.

I would also wear a parure, like Ginevra Fanshawe from Charlotte Bronte's Villette.

Ginevra Fanshawe is one of my favourite characters in literature -- she is beautiful, exuberant, sexy, coquettish, fun; she is the light to protagonist Lucy Snowe's darkness. Most of all, Ginevra is dressed amazingly well. You just love to read the descriptions of her clothes and costumes. Her fashion sense is among the most wonderful in the whole of literature!

Villette is a phantasmagoric novel. It is mysterious, puzzling, disturbing, it is fascinating and artsy, as well as exotic and tough.

Exactly like the Venice festive carnival.

Sewing Magic (Make Sexy Even Sexier)

One of my life's regrets is not becoming a seamstress and fashion designer. For me, sewing and fashion design are three-in-one: a job, a career and creative magic!

The dark side of the fashion industry is often discussed today; for the same theme in the 19th century look at Elizabeth Gaskell's novel Ruth.

The novel describes the hard-work, tough working conditions and poverty of the Victorian seamstress. Charles Dickens does the same in Nicholas Nickleby, when Kate Nickleby goes to work at the fashion house of Mrs Mantalini.

However, both Ruth Hilton and Kate Nickleby are young girls of amazing beauty -- indeed, the scenes where Gaskell describes Ruth's beauty are among the most wonderful of their kind in literature. The young seamstress is presented as talented, pretty and eager to work hard.

An inspiring portrait of the young seamstress and designer is done in the character of Valentine O'Neill in Scruples, the novel by Judith Krantz. ("This should have been your own career too!" My inner harpy wakes up to haunt me). Scruples is not one of my favourite novels, and the only reason it remains on my library shelf is for the information on the working of a fashion workshop contained inside.

I had a student colleague at University who could sew and design clothes, alter clothes she bought from stores, and did beautiful work with the needle. She was herself beautiful, and one of the most attractive women I have ever met. With a portable sewing machine and her sewing magic, she could make sexy clothes even sexier. She had this amazing ability to make a fine piece from any sort of plain cloth and --

I better stop here before my inner harpy wakes up to haunt me again!!!!!!!!

The Goddess of Haute Couture

One of my most valued possessions is Valerie Steele's book The Corset.

Here, Valerie Steele tells us all about the history of the corset and what it means in culture. In the book Bound to Please, another valued tome on my library shelf, Leigh Summers tells us about how women designers and women entrepreneurs created and produced corsets in the 19th century. Jean Fouquet painted the Virgin Mary in a corset.

Constricting though it was, and damaging to health, the corset allowed Victorian women to express their sexuality and frame their beauty, in an era which tried to repress female sexuality.

The corset continues to fascinate us today, in the work of many designers, most notably Jean Paul Gaultier's.

I think that Jean Paul Gaultier is, together with Karl Lagerfeld, among those people without whom the world would be less beautiful, less creative -- less fun.

Praise be to the Goddess of Haute Couture!

Give me Some Candy

One of the defining texts of my childhood is definitely Candy Candy, the well-known Japanese anime series. For those of you who are not familiar with Candy Candy, it is a Cinderella story, exciting and lovely, but with a twist. Candy (short for Candy-Candy) is an orphan girl, pretty and clever, but mistreated for her poverty and orphaned status. Candy is defined by goodness, bravery and a strong sense of honour. She risks her life to save Annie, her childhood friend, eventhough Annie shuns her after being adopted by a rich family. Candy is herself adopted by a rich and powerful family a couple of years later.

The twist comes in many ways. Anthony, Candy's childhood love and first boyfriend, dies tragically in an accident. Anthony's death is a trauma for many Candy Candy viewers and fans -- I have met adult people (women AND men) whose faces assume an expression of horror at the mere mention of Anthony's death.

There is more. One of Candy's beloved male friends dies at World War I and Terence, boyfriend number two, also faces darkness and a murky fate. The ending of the series is ambiguous and we do not really know whether Candy eventually finds happiness.

I have heard that the series is actually unfinished, because of copyright issues between the original writer, the scriptwriter(s) and the production companies. I don't know if this is true.

I have also discovered that the original writer, a Japanese lady, has written and published the Candy Candy novel, with a definitive (though still mysterious) ending. The novel exists only in Japanese, a language I sadly don't speak.

I can only pray to the Goddess of Romance books for a good translation to come out soon! 

Life's Coffee

I am at my local Costa Coffee writing my lecture notes, and I have just to write about a little scene.

A young couple are at a corner (not visible from where I am seated) with the boyfriend lying in the arms and on the bosom of the girlfriend. I thought, how cute! And how comfortable and happy he looks! (She looked happy too, and protective). I just had to write about it.

As usually, Costa is full -- friends, couples, a teenage musician working hard on his music sheets, me writing my lecture notes and, last but not least, my friends the baristas, patient, kind and harder working than us all.

Enjoy your coffee cup!

Keep Looking

I was so impressed today with Christian Louboutin's Princess creation! I have never seen anything so elegant, lovely or classy in the form of a shoe! Never, ever!

I wrote a comment at once, of course: all my dreams will come true the far off day when I will be able to afford Christian Louboutin!

And I mean it!

In Fifty Shades of Grey, Christian is a fan of Louboutin shoes, and buys Ana some pairs. Sadly, there is no Christian Grey in my life -- but I will keep looking.

Until I find my own Christian (and he has to really, really, REALLY resemble the original) I can only count the days for the opening of the film!

Lipstick Beauty (the year's last client)

For Italian fashion journalist and style writer Cinzia Felicetti, the perfect lipstick has to be Feux d' Automne by Orlane. It's no longer manufactured, and she is still looking for a replacement. For me, the perfect lipstick must be Clinique G7 Pinkberry. I felt so lucky to have found it again on Beauty Line this New Year's Eve -- buying it at about 7pm made me their last client for the year!

I find that the colour of the lipstick suits me wonderfully, but it is more, much more than this! G7 Pinkberry is perfect in every way: texture, durability, feel on the skin. It is also easy to apply and shape on the lips, without the need of pencil. With other lipsticks (which I also love) I often need to use a shaping pencil.

A second lipstick which is great for me is Rouge Dior 351 -- when I learnt that it is going out of production, I bought as many units as my tiny budget would permit. I also enjoy Lancome L' absolute nu 302.

Yet the Clinique G7 Pinkberry lipstick remains the winner: applying a bit of it on the lips can make better any day!

Fifty Shades of Beautiful

There are many reasons I love the Fifty Shades trilogy: it would probably take me the whole blog to explain!

Here I would like to mention only one, and this is the positive way bookish/nerdish femininity is presented throughout. One of the truly feministic and empowering messages of the book has to do with Ana's bookishness. This is not because the girl who gets the most desirable man in town is a book-worm with no sexual experience, later to be transformed to a desirable woman herself. This has been done before.

It is actually because, (a) Ana continues to be bookish and study after marriage; to his credit, Christian never finds bookishness off-putting, and in fact, he presents Ana with a whole library at home and she places her desk there; (b) this is done without demonizing the sexy and beautiful girl (Ana's flatmate Kate), which is what usually happens in books and movies promoting so-called "simple" rather than coquettish femininity, and, (c) in the end Ana becomes so sexually strong that even Christian is in awe of her!

Bookish or not, Ana Steele (later Grey) is on her way to sexual dominance!

Sexy Exquisite

I watched the Blugirl Spring 2014 collection last night on World Fashion TV and I was amazed! 

The collection gives us satin in the most beautiful shapes, colours and hues. This is my personal favourite:

Together with the maxi dress appearing at the end! Anna Molinari has always been among my preferred designers, for the endless ways she knows to combine the sexy with the feminine and the absolutely exquisite!

Paper Beauty

New Year is fast approaching, and it's the time again to transfer entries from the old diary to the new. All my diaries come from Paperblanks, and this year the new diary had an additional bonus for me! Paperblanks are now using paper from Fabriano, Italy.

Fabriano make the best paper in the world, and they are the first to have manufactured paper in Europe.

Fabriano drawing paper is, indeed, for me, the best drawing paper in the world. I have never drawn on anything more durable and satin-like. The one and only time in my life I could afford a holiday, I went to Italy. One of the first things I did was to visit the Fabriano boutique in Rome! Next time I am able to afford a holiday (and the next 50 times too) I will go to Italy again, and this time I am going to visit Fabriano, the actual city!