There And Back Again!

This is what it would be like if I was a teen blogger. At this moment, I am sitting on my bed in my teenage room back at home in Greece, blogging. What would I be telling you about then, I wonder.

I find myself here again, slowly melting away from the heat (26C when we landed at 2 in the morning, around 35 right now), just a few weeks after my last visit, for family reasons. The kind that rattle you a little bit. That put another border between your present self and your childhood. But the sunrise over the Greek islands as our plane flew over them this morning and the fat melon of a sun that started ascending above Rhodes as I started descending the airplane's stairs were simply wonderful. And I am sure I will fill these pages with more pictures of family gatherings and food and swimming and Mitsos.

But for now, I just wanted to say, hello.

I HEART: Preen Resort

Resort, schmesort. Preen's latest collection will do me just fine for any season, thanks! 

Thea Bregazzi and Justin Thornton have a serious affair with flowers and it's still going strong after their fantastic S/S'12 collection that was inspired by a vase of peonies on their desk. Digitized, pixilated and in colours to make Mother Nature jealous. Their A/W'12 collection referenced Beatrix Potter's botanical studies and now, for Resort, they looked at Jeff Koon's plastic-fantastic flowers. Not that you need to know that. Just think signature Preen shapes (the peplum, the slight Victoriana, the great blazer) in bright prints and sporty stripes as well as lace as in a gorgeous red top with lace done in India.

Like I said, resort, schmesort. I'll have it all now, please!

The Things I've Seen...

I flew here...

I hang out with these guys...

What I smelled...

What I ate...

What I did...

And then I flew all the way back.

All pictures from my Instagram (kikigeo)

Home and Back Again.

Dear blog, I'm sorry I haven't called but I've been busy. It's not you, it's me. I just had some things I needed to sort out. But if you let me buy you a drink I bet you your little HTML heart I can woo you back. Because we're good together, you and I. But first, I think you should know that...

I've been cheating on you with this guy. He's just so damn cute. You would too, wouldn't you? 

So, about that drink...

Camden Coffee Shop

I love coffee and as much as I depend on a cup of tea to get me through the day, it's the smell of coffee that does it for me. Sorry Earl Grey! But when it comes to where my coffee comes from, who roasted it, who carried it in big sacks and loaded it in a van thousands of miles far far away to get all the way to me and my cup...I don't really mind. I am not, God forbid, a coffee snob. My good friend A and I meet at Starbucks. Because we like our grande lattes. And we get to bitch about the tourists that crowd them. You can't do that with an award winning barrista, can you now? Having said that, I love walking past the teeny tiny little Espresso Room on Great Ormond Street or Kaffeine on Great Titchfield Street just to smell the coffee. It's good coffee!

So, when I realised that on good ol' Delancey street in Camden Town lies a little gem of a coffee place I had to visit and promised to become a regular. Because places like Mr George Constaninou's Camden Coffee Shop need regulars to keep going. He's been running the place since 1978. His coffee roaster is 85 years old for frappuccino's sake! Go, visit and smell the coffee. 

Candice Lake Shot Me!

And I loved it! Naturellement, I'm talking in the photographic sense of the word although Candice is such an angel that you'd happily accept a bullet from her and you'd probably say thank you in return. Trust me, you would.

Two reasons why I ended up loving the whole thing despite dreading it so much I was contemplating leaving the country and their names are Candice Lake and Rachel Ingram, aka The Dream Team*! This is why I found myself on a sunny but 4C H.O.T. December morning on the mean streets of Primrose Hill freezing my limbs off in pretty little S/S'12 things, with Candice kindly offering instructions on how to appear taller and leaner ("thrust your pelvis forward, shoulders down...") that went in one ear and out the other while simultaneously hatching a master plan to get me killed by incoming traffic ("stand in the middle of the road and skip towards me, skip, SKIP, ignore the giant van coming towards you, gooooorgeous...") and Rachel (who works with me at Glamour where I kindly feed her neon addiction while she tries to get me to stop wearing socks with heels) manhandling me with my own coat and rubbing my arms to keep circulation going, at least until the shoot was over.

So, here are the resulting images, which appeared in the March issue of Glamour, where behind all that smiling and smizing you can see my eyes going dead from the cold, my skin turning a deathly pale hue and my dying arm clutching that neon clutch one last goodbye.

* Our last victim was the gorgeous Caroline Issa that Candice agreed to shoot straight after landing from a 125 hour flight back from Oz. We are dedicated assassins, you see.

Click here to view larger but please, do cover your eyes!

Toy Story / The Shining Mashup!

AKA Awesome! You'll never think of Woody in the same way again. Sorry.

Image by Kyle Lambert

Giant Mylo Xylo Xylophone!

This is pretty wonderful too - sadly it's an ad but let's ignore that for a minute or two. Spot Bambi!

The Red Ball Project

I'm pretty excited this is coming to London this summer. Because, let's face it, what else IS coming to our little city this summer? Nope, nothing is coming to mind. (It's only the Olympics, stupid!)

New York artist Kurt Perschke has so far taken his project to Chicago, Barcelona, Taipei and Sydney among others and has squeezed it into alleyways and bus shelters and - even better - displayed it right in the middle of squares and busy streets prompting schoolchildren and forever-young-oldies to run and bounce off it. I don't know you but that's what I call an Olympic sport!

BLOG BLESS: How To Pronounce...

BLOG BLESS AMERICA!: Jenna, Jenna, Jenna, JENNA!

Note: the title of this post needs to be read with this in mind.

I love J. Crew and I love Jenna Lyons. If you know me (hi!) you'll be well aware of that. You will also know that the likeliest answer to the question "what are you wearing" (although why anyone would actually ask me that I don't know) would be a) J. Crew, b) Whistles, c) COS or d) J.Crew and J.Crew and J.Crew! I am the person that associates any trip to the States with a trip to J.Crew. If I'm going I'll get J.Crew requests. If I know someone who's going I'll ask for a little something back and as soon as I hear "sure!" I'll hand over my printed wish list with pictures and everything. Yes, they now deliver to the UK but I'm clinging on to the old-fashioned notion that trips abroad mean presents you can' get at home.

I was therefore pretty excited to speak to Jenna a few months ago for a lovely feature we did at Glamour on her amazing style and the power of the Crew. I love the above picture and if you wish to read the full feature click here. And you can imagine my excitement when upon publication I received a gorgeous grey cashmere sweater from Jenna with the loveliest handwritten note. The words girl and crush, friendos, don't even come close!

The presentation at the Lincoln Center during NYFW did not disappoint. Well, crowd control could be improved, I guess, and perhaps it's time for the superbrand to not be so modest and acknowledge that A LOT of people want to attend their presentations so better give them a bigger space to enjoy. Cue a lineup of models in what is essentially the cashmere sweaters, Cafe Capri trousers, pointy pumps and bright pea coats we'll all be wearing come autumn, a lot of fashion folk snapping away and making mental shopping lists, and in the middle of it all a besieged by well-wishers Jenna.

I loved it, of course. And the moment I got some free time I went to the nearest store. Now it's all about waiting to find out what the location of their first UK store will be. One thing is certain; I'll see you there, yes?

I HEART: The Jane in New York and Cafe Gitane.

I had the following conversation a lot with people while in New York for Fashion Week:

friend: Where are you staying?

me: The Jane.

friend: Oh, nice, how is it?

me: Nice, it has Cafe Gitane and it's quirky, straight out of a Wes Anderson film and, of course, you know about the shared bathrooms, right?

friend: *in shock* *cue open mouth and look of terror in their eyes* You. Share. A bathroom?

Yeah, people! My name is Kiki and I shared The Jane's shared bathrooms and I came out ALIVE! Here's two additional pieces of information you need to know:

1) I paid something like $99 a night. In New York!

2) The location is amazing, right in the West Village. And here's one more:

I had avocado on toast at Cafe Gitane EVERY DAY! So, who cares if I had to share a very clean white bathroom with DOORS IN THE SHOWERS with other guests on my floor? Well, the old person in me did wonder once or twice if I was indeed too old for this craziness (my life is THAT wild, I know) and the lazy me looked a bit grumpier than usual in the mornings once I realized I had to carry all toiletries from my room, down the corridor, to the bathroom and back. But then, I was in, out and wandering the streets of Nueva York on my way to the shows. I never actually encountered another soul at any point - until the very last day when a dude walked in while I was brushing my teeth but I probably scared him more than he scared me. So, no big deal. But hilarious to see how much it shocked fashion folk! We can do grungy straight-off-the-street dirty-rock-n-roll but we will absolutely NOT share our bathroom.

How was the room itself, you ask? Good question. Tiny teeny walk-three-steps-from-the-door-and-you-hit-the-wall kinda small. One bunk bed and that's it. But with clever storage space for all your luggage underneath the bed and done up as if Wes Anderson and Bill Murray hired a boat for the summer and set off for ad adventure. And that, for me, is all I need for my 99 bucks. Oh, and some mashed avocado with chillies and lime on grain toast!

By the way, you have no idea how much inner strength it took NOT to buy the Hello Kitty camera.

Sartorialisms: Her Hair!

Image by The Sartorialist.

I HEART: The Story Hotel in Stockholm

Let's say nothing about the fact I 'returned' to this blog only to disappear again for ages. I'm still trying to figure it all out - aren't we all? (Rhetorical question but if you must, answers in the comments, please) I have a bunch of things to talk about, not much time to do so but STOP, I've promised myself this is not a blog where said 'blogger' moans about lack of time etc...Simply put, with an hour free in my day I'm more likely to watch TV with a nice cake from Lanka, go for a walk, read a magazine, stare at the window (favourite activity, this)...than blog. I'm sure my therapist would have something insightful and terribly clever to say about this, if I had a therapist and if said therapist was Dr. Paul Weston from In Treatment (obsessed, let's talk about that another time, shall we?).

And having done what's known in the business as an AA Gill (ramble about something other than what's on the title) I must tell all three of you (hi sis!) how wonderful the Story hotel in Stockholm is. Because it is lovely, with character, and as I'm planning on returning to the city once temperatures rise above 0 (something around 25 C would be nice) I'll definitely be staying here again.

A small boutique hotel in a great location, right next to all the shops and a walk away from cafe Saturnus and its giant cinnamon rolls, it features a mash-up of prints and graphics on the walls, an empty mini bar that you're welcomed to stock up yourself (just go to the 7/11 and do a Lisbethaka load up on junk) and a yummy buffet breakfast (no pic because I ATE it all) it's very much a does what it says on the tin and very nicely and if this isn't the most enthusiastic hotel review you've ever read well, just bear in mind that I only realised how truly good Story was once I moved over to Berns hotel for the remaining of my stay. Yeah, Berns not so good, Story good.

I think it's time for me to go and stare at the ceiling again. See you back here soon (famous last words!).

Tack Tack, Stockholm!

I left my heart in Stockholm, possibly next to the half-eaten monster cinnamon roll that proved to be my kryptonite. And for this Greek-blooded "what's the point of cold holidays?" ignoramus the fact that the -13 C temperatures did very little to dampen my spirit says rather a lot about how much I liked the place!

I was in Stockholm for fashion week thanks to the lovely people at Filippa K and Mercedes Benz Fashion Week. You can read my report from the fashion trenches of Scandi-cool at Style.com here. I liked the place, the people, the silly little hissy fits that at times kept me entertained and at others made me despair about it all, stocking up on Daim bars at the 7-11 to last a whole winter and the fact that Acne is so damn cheaper over there! I did damage but for the benefit of T.

See you in the summer, Stockholm!