dead holdall

My trusty Primark holdall has finally given up the ghost; overworked like a pack horse its handle snapped off a couple of days ago, leaving me with no other option than to use an extremely annoying mini-wheelie-crappy suitcase to get my stuff down to London for the week.

My old bag was nothing special, I didn't even like it very much when I first bought it. It was one of those fabric tartan pattern slouchy bags from Primark. However, I grew to love its little quirks, such as a tear in the lining which swallowed all my money, and an outside pocket with no zipper, and the inevitable huge tears in the fabric after some lonnnng years of being chucked onto coaches and trains and kicked around the tube. 

This means I have to find a new bag, but it's so hard to find one that would match most outfits and be of the optimum week's worth of clothes and make up size.

A few possibilities:

[American Apparel Nylon Gym Bag]

[Head St Moritz Lavender]

[Head 1989 @ ASOS]

[Head 1989 Monte Carlo @ ASOS]

The Head bags are calling out to me, especially the peach option. Although that might look faintly ridiculous come winter. And I am thinking of winter, even though summer has only just started, because winter is going to be ACE if all the new collections seeping through on blogs are to be believed. So maybe it will have to be the American Apparel practical option. But would nylon rip easily? And the peach bag is called the Monte Carlo, which conjures up images of a tanned young lady playing tennis before crossing the hotel lobby as Brett and Danny arrive to check in. I also used to have a white version of this bag for when I went ice skating. Yes, I did reach Grade 10, and I have the sew on badges to prove it.

I hate having to make decisions on items I actually need, it adds a horrible element of pressure to shopping.

jewels wishlist

Wishing away Monday...

Triskaidekaphobia tooth cuff

Burberry Prorsum

Iwona Ludyga

YSL

Falconiere Epaulettes

Ongwat

A Persuaders Summer

Dreamy stuff all inspired by the colour palette of The Persuaders. Not just of the clothes, but of the backgrounds, sets, and scenery. This means a lot of coral, sunny yellow, duck egg and azure blue, deep tans (Danny and Brett's), gold, peach and crisp white.

[Lord Brett Sinclair goes casual - note the daring black/peach contrast and bare chest with medallion]

[House of Harlow 1960 medallion and See by Chloe platforms]

[More coral - a zingy hue against Brett's medallion man tan]

[Kenneth Jay Lane amethyst ring]

[Seneca Rising dress at Asos]

['Darling, I just wish Danny wouldn't wear such obnoxious, shiny clothes.'

'Whadd'ya on about Brett, ahh shucks don't listen to him baby etc.'

A winning look of peach dress against mint green and royal blue backdrop. I too wish Danny would refrain from wearing shiny leather.]

[Reiss Skirt and TBA tier dress]

[Asos Tulip sunglasses]

[Nice white shirt and peachy lips]

[TBA shirt dress at Urban Outfitters. Absolute perfection]

Jennie Linden as Shelley Masterson in an episode called 'To the Death, Baby', which is a pretty standard title. I think in that episode she was conning Brett and Danny, but they didn't really mind as she was so sassy.

I like her make up and hair and I remember her as one of the few actresses on the show who actually had a range of emotions. Women on that series lost friends and family to improbable murder-to-take-control-of-oil-business plots yet could barely muster more than a lacklustre pout before continuing to giggle at Danny's fiendish ribbing of Brett. So yay for Jennie Linden.

[Oliver Peoples Resort flip sunglasses - Riley]

[That is one hell of a bikini, nice blue and white stripe theme]

[Peter Jensen Stripe dress at Urban Outfitters and Vivienne Westwood for Melissa heels]

[See by Chloe shirt, now on sale at Urban Outfitters]

ADAM

Net-a-porter has kindly introduced me to Adam, hi Adam! I feel like I should already know about this brand, but clearly I am behind the times as it is a completely new one for me. Apparently Adam Lippes counts Nicole Kidman and Eva Longoria-Parker as fans of his lux sportswear. That may explain why he has passed me by, as these are not people whose wardrobes I covet. However, this dress, which may be found here, is everything I need for my upcoming Ibiza holiday:

I love the detail on the back:

It has a vintagey 30's feel, partly because of the covered buttons - but remains fresh and modern. I adore the fabric and the muted colours are perfect for summer holidays. If it was a maxi it could look very 1970's and Persuaders-esque, hmm... The rest of the collection is a bit too LA for my tastes, but I like the way he's going.

Mischa Barton at Coachella

On a more positive note than the last post:

Mischa Barton is looking well...

I have a soft spot for poor 'unwaged' Mischa because she has the same body shape as me. I identify with her skinny top half, chunky bottom half dilemnas. We bear the same burden of looking either thinner or fatter than we actually are depending on whether the skinny trunk or hefty legs are capturing the most attention. Unfortunately, Mischa has the added problem of people pasting photographs of her cellulite all around the world. Thankfully, mine is still under wraps in opaque tights, although its getting so sunny I'm not sure I can justify wearing them for much longer. I hate the first reveal of bare legs, especially as mine have the colour and texture of SPAM at the moment. 

Anyhoo, Mischa's look here is a bit boring, but if you check out some of her past, er, 'looks' here at gofugyourself.com then you will see that's not necessarily a bad thing. These guys are responsible for some of the mean captions, but they even this out with helpful styling advice so really, they only want to help.

Rimmel London Lippy

This makes me sad:

 I absolutely hate this packaging for Rimmel's new lipsticks. It offends me so much I nearly didn't put a picture of it up on the blog because I thought it would immediately lower the tone after the extremely classy Persuaders post. In real life, the high shine pink and gold with embossed crown is even worse because it is made out of the cheapest, flimsiest plastic. Ugh. Sort it out, Rimmel.

The sad thing is, I saw them while I was messing around at the high street make-up counters and the colours are actually quite nice. One in particular, called Tell No One, was very nice. But I just couldn't bring myself to buy it - maybe if it was on offer. But it was £5.99 - and I couldn't imagine getting £6 worth of enjoyment from the tacky, cheapo packaging. This is why brands should stick to simple designs, and black if they are ever in any doubt.

A Tribute to The Persuaders

(Brett and Danny in the middle of a caper)

The Persuaders is my favourite show, even ranking above early Hollyoaks and Buffy.

For those of you that don't know, The Persuaders was a 70's series that revolved around two millionaire buddies; Danny Wilde (Tony Curtis), and Lord Brett Sinclair (Roger Moore). They zipped around London, Monaco, Paris, Rome etc. in brightly coloured sports cars solving crimes on behalf of Queen and Country (well, Brett's country anyway) and making wise cracks. Despite their international remit you always knew what city they were in, even though the hotels and locations often looked surprisingly similar, because the city name hovers uncertainly below the opening scene in that charming way of 1970's graphics.

Why they are solving crimes is never certain. There is an old man who used to be a Judge who tells them what to do, sometimes. Sometimes he isn't there. It's a miracle they ever get anything done though, because these two are such different characters. For one thing, Brett is an English aristocrat and Danny is a brought-up-on-the-mean-streets of Brooklyn American! Gosh - I smell trouble! 
If you weren't totally sure on how different they were, the opening credits clear it up for you:

There's Danny Wilde as a child playing in a Brooklyn slum, there's Brett Sinclair wearing a ridiculous Eton uniform, oh look now Danny is a sailor, Brett's in a racing car, Danny is counting piles of money with an oil rig in the background, Brett is doing Lordly things. Oh yeah, now I get it!

("Do you get it Danny?")

Despite the pair being a trifle old, they still bounce off car bonnets on a regular basis, disarm Russian baddies with guns and jump out of windows without breaking a sweat. And they get all the young ladies, which is in no small part down to their dapper dressing and innovative use of cravats. Roger Moore actually designed his own wardrobe, don't you know. It's no surprise that it was his performance in this show that got him the job as James Bond.

These two playboys solve the plots through good old fashioned thumping, and overhearing all the plot details as told by a shadowy evil figure to a predictably moustachioed henchman. They drink all the time and then end each episode by dancing with a pair of girls in a groovy nightclub. They are amazing.

All London business is conducted out of Brett's mint green and duck egg blue apartments, which are the model for my dream flat. Everything that can be gilded, is. Everything that can be wedgewood, is. Everything else is shag pile or tassled. Basically, they are very on trend right now:

The women are nearly as superbly attired as Brett and Danny, the episode with Joan Collins in what I *hope* was a terrible wig, being one of note. Otherwise they all look pretty much like this:

(Note the on trend lavender jumpsuit!)

And they want to sleep with either Danny or Brett. They don't mind which.

I used to watch this with my mum when I was little, and a couple of years ago I bought all the episodes in a box set. Last year I was watching a couple of hours of it a night and researching it on wikipedia afterwards. Apparently Tony Curtis was really rude to everyone on set and Joan Collins didn't like him. This upset me somewhat at the time, but now I think it adds a little frisson to the repartee between him and Roger Moore, knowing that they actually found each other highly irritating.

Key Persuaders Facts:

It had the biggest location budget of any TV series, ever. Probably. Either way they spent millions on going abroad to real locations. This makes it harder to explain why they always stay in identical hotels.

Roger Moore was a producer, sometime director, and fabulous costume designer on the show

Duck egg blue features strongly in the majority of scenes

Most plots involve an identical double of someone, or Brett being hypnotised

Most plots involve gold bullion

The actor who is playing a Russian baddie will choose when and where he wants to do his terrible Russian accent, thank you very much

Brett likes to wear gold medallions

Roger Moore and Tony Curtis performed their own stunts

At some point they will be locked in a cellar. This cellar will be always be full of the same props that allow them to escape

What I have termed 'day-night' is a reoccuring technique whereby the scene is shot in sunny daylight, then a filter is added over the top to make it look like nighttime. This comes out...interesting

The Persuaders is brilliant and a visual delight. Not in an ironic way, in a genuinely good fun way.

The Good Life starring Marianne Faithfull and Miss Selfridge

I have wanted sunglasses like the ones Marianne Faithfull has on in this picture ever since I saw the image in the now sadly defunct ElleGirl (RIP). Today, dear reader, I found them. For the bargain price of £12 in Miss Selfridge. They aren't exactly the same, but I like the additional metal detail. Behold:

They have that wonderful brown tint that makes a sunny day look even sunnier; like you are walking around in a 70's television show - maybe on the set of The Persuaders (my all time favourite TV show and greatest inspiration - not just for fashion but for life). The sunglasses are named 'Margo', which makes them even more fantastic because that reminds me of Margo from 'The Good Life' - another 70's classic. Ahh.

Even though I was completely smitten by my find I couldn't resist picking up another pair of sunnies when I saw these babies:

The flower detail and pastel pink do actually remind me of baby's sunglasses. I like the cats eye detail, and they were super cheap at £5 so I won't be too heartbroken when these ones meet their inevitable fate. That is, I sit on them or smear suncream all over the lenses so they are unwearable. To guard against this I have bought a case for the Marianne-esque beauts. No squashing for them.

Topshop Make up

I'm really, really, really very excited about the Topshop Make up collection. I love the packaging, and the colours are bang on. As you would expect from Topshop. Drool.

Slightly worried about the quality though as I remember Topshop used to sell that 'Pop' make up and it was pretty rubbish. Since this is their own range and it has been much anticipated by all the fashion press and blogs I assume they will have raised the quality. The make up was created by Lizzie Dawson, a Topshop designer, and the range seems to be based more on fashion looks rather than beauty trends. The 'Festival' range was used on the Topshop Unique catwalk for a sort of Woodland hippy, wild caveman look. (Which brings to my mind that advert for chicken pieces in a packet where the woman turns into some sort of werewolf creature. Ahem. I'm pretty sure that reformed chicken bits were not the inspiration for the range.)

I don't go in for very neutral/bronze make up so I'm reserving judgement on it at the moment, but the main range is right up my eye-popping street. Yay!

Anyway, it's out in May so get thee to Toppers!

Miu miu clogs

Oh Dear God,
   Please allow me to win the National Lottery - or get a better paid job - so that I  can be the sort of person who can unthinkingly spend £285 on these cat print clogs that are highly impractical and will attract scorn from the unenlightened in the street. That is all. Cheers.

Miu miu cats and make up bags

I was just going to do a little post about how much I love the Miu Miu cat print, and how much I want this bag to put my nicest make up in:

And of course, then I was going to moan about how I couldn't possibly afford it, and if I bought an expensive designer clutch I would never actually use it as a make up bag. But then I read this post on the excellent Imwashingmyhair where they talk about the miu miu cats and then suggest a brilliant alternative cat-print by Paul & Joe. Love it!

Even better they have discovered that you can get nail files in this amazing print! And there is a mint green one! Yet more things for me to covet.

The print reminds me of those incredibly naff birthday cards you could get for about 20p off the market in Leicester, which always featured a sickeningly cute cat with impossibly large eyes and some glittery flowers. My great-grandad would always buy me one like that for my birthday, and give me 2p to get a chocolate bar with. He never believed in all that inflation nonsense. The cats also remind me of an updated version of the Tom Kitten character by Beatrix Potter. Ahh I love cats. Even the colour palette of the print is kind of similar to the Ladybird book covers:

I came across imwashingmyhair while I was, ahem, researching Lisa Eldridge rather intensely. It's a brilliant blog full of beauty news and reviews and they do it much better than me with much better pictures.