proust, la partie deux

1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
self-fulfillment, travel

2. What is your greatest fear?
failure

3.What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
my apathy

4.What is the trait you most deplore in others?
selfishness

5.What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
patience

6.On what occasion do you lie?
in order to appear enthusiastic about tasks I have absolutely no zeal for

7.What do you dislike most about your appearance?
My nose

8.What is your greatest regret?
not taking care of myself

9.What or who is the greatest love of your life?
I'm not aware of it yet

10. What is your current state of mind?
Pensive, melancholy, motivated

11.What do you consider your greatest achievement?
independence, moments of spontanaeity or clarity

12. What is your most treasured possession?
My health, people I love

13. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
failure, self disappointment

14. Where would you like to live?
I haven't found it yet

15. What is your favorite occupation?
Writing

16. What do you most value in your friends?
honesty

17. What is your greatest extravagance?
other people

18. What is the quality you most like in a man?
talent, loyalty, passion

19. What is the quality you most like in a woman?
Independence, strength of character, wisdom

20. What are your favorite names?
Caden, freya, amelie, lux, frederick, matilda

21. What is it that you most dislike?
ignorance

22. How would you like to die?
Contented, in spring amongst the flowers (Who wants flowers when they're dead? Nobody.)

23. What is your favourite journey?
I haven’t taken it yet

24. What is your motto?
"I think you have to be influenced by everything and be reckless enough to gamble all or nothing to follow your dreams. You have to believe in what you do as much as you love it. You only get a short life so take chances, follow your dreams and go where the winds of fate blow you." -John Galliano

“Fear defeats more people than any other thing in the world.” -Emerson

25. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
Fuck.

"attitude is everything"

I adore this photo of DVF in the wig coat by Margiela! DVF & Margiela, fashion's kindred spirits? What I admire in them both, asides from the fact that both of their work is always slightly deviating is the fact that one gets the impression that they could walk away from fashion tomorrow & still have a completely content and inspired existence. I love, love, love them.

apathy

So, I've been really neglectful with my blog for the last few weeks, things have just seemed somewhat inconsequential. One of the things I have been meaning to cover is Paul Smith's London show at Claridge's last month, I've been reading his Vogue blog rather avidly & have come to really admire him. Lately I've been struggling with formal vs. casual and the show struck me as a perfect illustration of the two combined. Defining the style of the show has apparently been somewhat problematic but I think Smith himself probably coined it best when he said "couture-like clothes which could be borrowed from Mum and mixed with teenage co ordination." Perfection!

ooh la la

Yves Saint Laurent exhibition on at the Petit Palais in Paris until August 29. Well worth a visit. Thanks for the heads up Mr Smith! I can't wait to see this on my travels xx

Ted Hughes

"what happens in the heart simply happens"

today, i wished i was a bird

I caught this morning morning's minion,
kingdom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in
his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and
striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling
wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend:
the hurl
and gliding
Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird, - the achieve of, the mastery of
the thing!
Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride,
plume, here
Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a
billion
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!
No wonder of it: shèer plòd makes plough down
sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold vermilion.

The Windhover by Gerard Manley Hopkins.


And I did too, wish I was a bird. It sounds slightly insane, I know. I sat and gazed out of my bedroom window, in a rather pensive state at the "sky blue pink" as I frequently do and actually envied the birds. My uncle died two weeks ago and he was such a free spirit though he never really got to see the world. Perhaps if I was a little more eloquent I could articulate the importance of living life the way in which you really want to but I think Browning probably says it best "How good is man's life, the mere living! How fit to employ all the heart and the soul and the senses forever in joy!" Or, Galliano when he said "You only get a short life so follow your dreams, take chances, and go where the winds of fate blow you." And so it's settled, get this term out of the way and I'll be gone! aah.