I HEART: Jenna's Picks

In the same way I would live in London only to walk around Topshop and eat at Leon (sad, I know but being aware of it must at least count for something), I would live in The Wonderfully Nuts States of AmeRiKa (think West Side Story for that final lift or just don't) just to eat at diners (Mel's vs Canter's in LA, discuss or don't) and walk around J. Crew. But since I do live in London, I can waste hours of my life I will never get back checking out Jenna's Picks on the brand's website. Again, acutely aware of one's sad state here. I want everything she picks. Am I the only one to think that the J in that name is suspicious? Jemma's Crew. Magic!

Images by J.Crew

BLOG BLESS AMERICA: The girls from Vena Cava

I have a girl-crush on Lisa Mayock and Sophie Buhai, the girls behind Vena Cava. And I really think Lisa has the-best-haircut-EVER! Their NY label is just getting better and better every season with their relaxed, slightly abstractly referenced style gathering more attention and deservedly so. Their recent GAP collaboration and last year's CFDA / Vogue Fashion Fund runners-up award certainly contributed to that but I think the clothes can talk for themselves (imagine that!). Individually, they are pieces you just have to have in your wardrobe, like an easy dress with cut-outs you can just put on for a party without thinking about a 'whole outfit', and all together in a collection they represent the great way New York girls can just throw a few items together and look...well, good! 

Images by Style.com and Vena Cava.

Now, all the above would be just enough to qualify for a label-to-follow in my book. But when I saw the pics from Refinery29 on Lisa's Williamsburg appartment and stumbled upon their blog, VIVA VENA CAVA I knew. I love these girls!

Images by Refinery29

Francophilia: Tout le monde est un théâtre...

Dior Couture, Paris

Image by Jak & Jil

GIRLS ON BIKES

Obsessed with bikes this summer! The stats do show that more and more Londoners have taken up cycling for various reasons and it must be true, so often now I'll walk my usual route downtown through my beloved Regent's Park (so beloved in fact that I recently stopped and gushed about it to a girl taking a survey on public opinion about cycling through the park for far too long!) and see, usually, pairs of cool girls on their pretty bikes, dressed in anything but cycling gear (although, am I alone in thinking that cycling shorts can look great under dainty dresses? Perhaps). Having just cycled the width and length of Ile de Ré (admittedly, it is a tiny island) on Francoise (the name I gave her, original, I know!), a black rented Cycland bike (another subject: are the cool dudes working at all Cycland stores in Ré the equivalent of all those cool, surfer dudes manning surf stations in California, Australia, Bali...?) I can safely say that my obsession has been satisfied. With bikes that is. For now.

Images by The Sartorialist, Garance Doré, The New York Times

BOW BOW BOW!!!

Tom Ford Eyewear

Image by Tom Ford