On the bus...

All of you know how the majority of the posts of The Sartorialist are titled: "On the street"

Well, I could make an antology of posts "On the bus". Or even better "from the bus window", meaning windows of every mean of transport.

Really, not that is the most interesting thing of the world for you to read, but I think I spend half of my life looking outside the window of the bus, train, car, plane and to the unknown people that travel with me.

That is because I travel a lot alone. 

When I was a kid we did a lot of holidays with the caravan, we traveled almost all Europe like that and my sister was too little to keep me company (and even if she was old enough we're like cat and dog, so better that we don't interact too much, especially in close little spaces ahah) and I already had that big fixation with music: trips of hours and hours, just looking outside the window and listening to music.

That's how I still remember many of the landscapes and details I saw, even if I was very little, it's the best way for me to print something in my mind forever.

Then when I was going to University I had to do four hours of trip every day from and to my town, and I kept  doing it really a lot.

Now it's also like that, from the bus ride to work to my trips to Italy to meet my family, to my holidays.

I look, I observe, I imagine and I listen to music.

I could write a book on the things I see, you could tell a whole story just about those two minutes in which your bus is waiting at the red traffic light: so many things happen outside, so many expressions you can read on the face of the people sitting in front of you.

The girl of this drawing was sitting in front of me on the tram the other day. 

She had a bit messy hair, washed out red lipstick and her eyeliner was starting to fade. It looked like she ran to catch the tram after a long day of work. And she was extremely beautiful. She was looking outside too, she seemed to think about something deeply, thing that actually permitted me to take hundreds of mental snap shots of her without her noticing (no, I'm not a stalker).

But believe me, she was much more beautiful and intense than how I managed to draw her, I still remember her.

This other girl instead was on the bus this evening. She wasn't beautiful, but I liked how she was dressed. She looked impatient, and determined and strong, that's why I draw her with strong strokes, in a fast way. It seemed like she was looking forward for a date, I really liked how she jumped off the bus.

It's nice to wonder what the people around you are doing or are about to do... 

It's strange because your world revolves around yourself, and when you stop and actually start to think that all the people around you have a life too, that comes from a moment before the one in which you're seeing them and continues also after that, and you start to imagine how these lives can be, you feel your head spinning and it's like you lose your center. 

It's like when you look at the night sky in summer, full of stars, and you really feel like you're a dot and it's too much so you have to think to something else...

OK, enough with this pseudo-philosophic crap, it's Friday night for God's sake (and my boyfriend went out but I stayed home to draw, it's quite peaceful in here eh eh eh...)

And OMG, I was about to forget an important, FUNDAMENTAL thing:

THE NEW ALBUM OF THE RADIOHEAD IS OUT!!!

If you just could imagine how much I like the Radiohead, then MAYBE you would be able to guess how happy I am.

I am listening to it now and I am almost crying for the joy (really... no it's not because I am a bit drunk, what are you saying?? It's really because I love them and I've been waiting for this moment for ages!) 

Oooohhh Thom Yorke thank you, you made my next 6 months of bus rides completely a different story!

You can buy their new album, The King of Limbs, here (mp3 version for 7 euros) and I leave you with their new video:

The music is too beautiful, the video too good, Thom Yorke is too cool... should I continue until tomorrow morning?


Look at it!


Good night!


Al

Surface to Air

I remember a day, when I was in the second year of University.

It was 8 am of a wonderful July Sunday morning, I was driving back from a party held in a country house on the hills around Florence and I was listening to Chemical Brothers. 

They just released their new album, "Push the Button", and I loved it.

I had my car window open, it was hot but still a little bit chilly because it was still early in the morning. 

The sun was shining very hard on the short, burned grass (if you ever been to Italy in summer you should know that light can be pretty overwhelming).

I was driving to work, at that time in the week-ends I was responsible for the House-museum of Giotto (a great painter of the XIII-XIV century). 

It was this house in the countryside, 5 minutes drive from my town, I just basically had to open everything and wait for visitors and tourists (not many, actually). 

I usually brought my books there to study, or alternatively I also had the company of two very sweet kid girls of the neighborhood: they were making me feel less scared of being alone in that old house and I, in return, was used to draw for them or help them with the home works.

That morning I was quite tired, I partied all night and also drank a bit (a bit...), the book of Biochemistry was waiting for me at the Giotto house because I had that terrible exam in 3 days but I had a nice feeling (incredible how many energies you have when you're 20... Sigh...)

The air was too sweet, perfumed and warm not to feel happy that morning. 

"Surface to Air", my favorite song from that Chemical Brothers album, was playing on my car CD player, I put my hand out of the car window and started to design the hills with my hand, following the curves of the air against my skin, through the speed.

Today, when I listen to this song, I still think of that day. 

It has become the symbol of youth and summer, and freedom in my memory.

But! 

Saccharine memories aside, "Surface to Air" is also the name of a Paris-based creative cooperative (they are the agency for brands like Uniqlo, they have an art studio that works for many great designers and so on...) and prêt à porter brand that I really like. This is their website, have a look!

I really like their woman SS 2011 collection, it really has that light, simple feeling that that Sunday morning reminds me:

A collection of dresses from Surface to air website

Aaaaahhh the shoes... They are sublime! You can find them on Surface to air website
or on Net-à-porter (a small selection)

My favorite sweater from the collection and the perfect black trousers, on Surface to air website

So, do you like this collection? I really do, I really smell spring and warm air when I see their clothes.

I will go now, you be good girls, listen to "Surface to Air" song and dream of summer together with me.

Goodnight!

Al

Before you are in Paris...

In front of Merci shop, a wonderful concept store in Blvd. Beaumarchais where YOU GOTTA GO

... You have to arrive there!

Does it sound like the most stupid and banal sentence of the century? 
Ok I've got to admit that it is indeed, but I just want to tell you about my trip of Friday because for me it was kind of something strange. 

I don't know, I travel alone so much, and this trip was really nothing special or adventurous, but somehow it made me laugh once I finally stepped out of the train at Paris Nord, so I feel like I want to share... usually I would call my mom or a close friend to have a laugh but they followed the story live broadcasted (I swear! My phone company must have loved me that Friday!) so I can't make a recap with anyone. 

Sorry to tell you, you are the unlucky chosen to listen to my bla bla bla.


So no fashion or drawings or whatever slightly interesting here, I'm sorry, you're authorized to step directly forward to the next post if you prefer! (that I hopefully will publish tomorrow... I'm so busy these days, sigh... )

So Tommy was already in Paris for his "secret mission" (he asked me not to talk about it, maybe later on!) that started at 3 PM, I went to work instead (after a night of three hours and a half sleep), had my department presentation (imagine to talk one hour about your lab results and studies of the last six months in front of a bunch of quite smart people... Believe me, it's kind of exhausting). 

So imagine me pale and super tired after work, with a 10 kilos-backpack on my shoulders and a big heavy bag, feeling literally stoned by the tiredness and the release of tension, running to the bus for the station and calling happily Tommy. It was 5 so he should have finished what he had to do by then. Phone shut down, no Tommy.
"Ok, maybe it takes longer"
I call him again at the station half an hour later. Then after 20 minutes again. Then after 10. Black-out. I'm starting to worry.

I call him again, the phone is still off, I'm on the train for Lille, it's 7 PM and since I am totally not an anxious person I start to freak out. 
I call Veronica "What should I do?? Is it possible that he's still there (doing what he was secretly -ahaha-doing)?? How do we do for the keys of the apartment, the guy is waiting for him from 6:30 to 7:30!!! Is it possible that he forgot?? Oh my God, what if something happens, he never travels alone!! TELL ME WHAT TO DO!" She tries to reassure me, I try to call him again and by then is 7:20. Panic.

At this point I called my mom, burst into tears for the anxiety, the guy in front of me on the train was looking at me full of hate while trying to read his book (do you have any idea of how an Italian worried woman sounds at the phone with her mother? Something like this, but even worse for your ears)

I was just about to call the Belgian armed forces, the French army, the MI6 and the CIA when Tommy finally called me and explained me the situation. Everything OK, no panic, calm down.

I finally return to my usual self (I still don't know if it was the effect of tiredness or if I just discovered a new crazy side of me, we'll see...) and I am already arrived in Lille.

I decide to buy some cigarettes. In this moment I need or some nicotine or an injection of Valium so I decide for cigarettes, which should be the easiest to find near a station.

Apparently it is not. Easier, I mean.

So I wander a while, I decide that my backpack is too heavy for any kind of adventure, I enter a bar and ask the bartender in my spotless Belgitalfrench (where the Belg- is a very nice, very comprehensible I would say,  mixture between English, my Italian accent and the Dutch accent of my friends and the people from Gent):

"Esskussé muà, esskevvusavé ù sjjé pé asssheté dé sssigarrretttess?" (Should I translate my Belgitalfrench for you?)

I think he understood the word "cigarette" and also what kind of French-speaker he had in front of him so without a word he left his bar, a baguette half open and 4 people waiting for their drinks (and one for a baguette sandwich, apparently) at the counter, showed me to follow him with the hand and walked down the street until the corner (in the meanwhile I was really trying to imagine what the 4 people at the counter and the baguette were thinking...). 

"Là! là! Tabac!" He said pointing at a sign big as an elephant on which was written TABAC in red neon light. Needless to say he made me feel a bit stupid (just a LITTLE...) but he was so nice and funny that I just thanked him with a very big (and stoned) smile "Merrrssi!"

I arrived at the cigarette shop laughing and when I asked for my cigarettes apparently the Belgitalfrench worked again because the guy asked me, very nicely, where I was from:

"Ssjje suiss Italiennnne... mé sjj'abitte en Beljjikk!" (No translation? Sure?)

So he laughed. And I felt even more stupid. But then he gave me as present, again with a very big smile and a wink, a cute lighter.

Actually, that's when you start to think that your skirt and the leather perfecto that suits you so well are starting to do their job.

At this point my energies left me (for the presentation - or the fear of half an hour earlier that Tommy could be in the Seine stubbed to death - or the embarrassment for my stupid Italian accent - or maybe all of them - I don't know...) I really needed some fuel but the only place I found to eat something was McDonald's. 

And I entered. 

I.went.to.mac.donald.s.O.M.G. 

Immediately after the first bite to my Big Mac I felt like a truck full of fat just deposited its greasy contain right on my hips. Oh yeah, 5678 Kcal in a bite, now I call it life!

Anyway, I had something in my stomach and (lots of) sugars in my blood again that could keep me alive until Paris, I never felt so much thankful and friendly to fatty acids, believe me. 

Time to get to the train track, (I warn you if you ever take a TGV in your life: check every single number of the coaches, because the order in which they are positioned defeats any logic), the "Relais" (the magazines/newspaper shop) closed LITERALLY in my face one hour before, when I was trying to find some cigarettes so I had to deposit my fat (even Big Mac-fatter) bottom on the first class seat (not because I am classy and cool of course, it's first class because it was 27 euros thanks to an offer ahah) of the TGV without even a magazine to read.

As always I find a very good solution: sleep!

I didn't even notice that we were moving and suddenly I find myself in Paris Nord station, my (alive and safe ahahah) boyfriend waiting for me, together with a nice and cosy night in a bistrot in the Marais...

Finally, Paris!

And now I leave you with this very boring flood of words and I'll come back tomorrow, well rested and fresh as a rose, with my usual way of blogging and drawings and Fashion monomanias (and maybe some pics of Paris, but I'll see: I still have to check them!) 

A very big kiss in Belgitalfrench, a very good night and see you tomorrow!

Al

À Paris

The style of les parisiennes is able to make me freak out even more than the Londoner's.... argh!!

Yes, as you may understand from the title of this post, I am going to Paris.

Don't misunderstand me, I am usually not lucky enough to travel this often (Italian week-ends with family aside) but this time it happens that I have to go to Paris just after I came back from London and honestly I couldn't be happier.

So friday night I'm hopping on the train and I'll be back on Sunday (for secret reasons ahahah... I'll tell you next week but no, anything that has to do with something super-cool like fashion weeks and the like... I guess it was not so difficult to imagine, ahah).

So this tiny post just to tell you that I'll be back here just on monday or tuesday: I'll be very busy until Friday because I have to finish my presentation (a one hour-long presentation for the department meeting, the most boring thing ever but I have to...) and then I'll leave so I'll see you in a few days... I'll miss you!! ahahah

If you have any suggestions for restaurants, nice places to see and cafés please tell me!!

I leave you with some pics and songs to put you in a Parisian mood as much as I am...

La Tour Eiffel in May

Place des Vosges, my favourite square

Les Halles... I love it!!

The Air are my favourite French musicians (and I love their French accent when they speak english!):

I love the album "5:55" from Charlotte Gainsbourg (in fact, the Air wrote the music).

Bises!!

Al

Me and the Shopping...

Dress and scarf Zara. Long Pendant ASOS

Finally here I am, after quite a while.

I'm having problems with an eye (mainly a bad pain) and I couldn't draw and stay at the computer for a long time for days (this also means no make-up and contact lenses = very angry Al).

I still have pain so I'll put aside drawings for a while and I'll try to save my energies for work and a stupid 1 hour-long presentation I have to prepare for friday (I. Hate. It)

But yesterday it was the last day of sales here in Gent and my friend Jolien and I couldn't say no (even half blind) to a last tour of bargain hunting. 

You have to know that here in Belgium sales are amazing: they last exactly one month, and every week-end prices go down. You start from a 30% (and something at 50%) the first week and you end up with 70% almost everywhere. Good thing is that since the sales period is rather short and "organized" many people wait until the last days and this means you can find quite a lot of good stuff at incredible prices in the end.

When I was living in Italy I used to show my mom my shopping as soon as I got home. 

It was an incredible pleasure for me to take out from the bag item after item, show them to her and explain her how I found them and how much I payed them. A colleague and friend of mine, Anouk, told me that it is scientifically proven that when you shop you have a double release of endorphines (the molecules responsbile for the feeling of happiness and satisfaction, released also when you're in love, have sex... or a good pice of chocolate ahah): once when you actually pay the items and once when, at home, you take them out of the bags and packages.

So lately I really miss the second release of endorphines, I suppose. 

You already saw the dress in the first pic, but I would like to show you a few more pieces that I got yesterday and in the past days:

This was a real bargain, believe me.

I got this beautiful Delvaux bag for 20 euros! It was buried under a pile of miscellaneous stuff in a very small vintage shop in Gent where I went just by chance with my friend Liza the last day of 2010. I immediately fell in love with this bag but I don't know why I didn't take it immediately (the strap is slightly consumed but it's almost invisible). The following Saturday I ran to the shop again, sure that my little bag would have been taken by someone else.

The woman saw me arrive, she smiled and took the bag out from under the counter "I knew that you would have come back, I kept it for you!"

When they say I am an open book....

(It's also a very good idea to always be friendly and nice with shop owners and shop assistants, believe me...)

These beautiful flats were abandoned in a corner of Zara.

In spring and summer I wear flats a lot and lately I was starting to search for a nice (and not expensive) pair of black ones.

So I spotted this pair just by chance yesterday, hidden under a table covered with a mountain of T-shirts, I grabbed them and they happened to be my size. The last pair. They are hyper soft and made of a very beautiful leather. I ran to the register to ask how much were they (the price tag was gone). 19.90 euros. Mine!

These two beauties, necklace and shoes, come from Massimo Dutti. 

Necklace was 39,90 and I payed it 11,99. The shoes were 120 euros and I payed them 34,90 (the last pair. I've never been so happy to wear size 40 in all my life).

Oh sorry I stop a moment, I am having a massive endorphine release that is about to make me faint.

Ok... 

So, I coveted that kind of boots for months and I bought them now just because it was the perfect colour, the perfect soft leather and the perfect low price. Problem is, that I am totally not able to walk in heels and these wedges are 10 cm tall... I am exercising at home (you should have seen me this morning: glasses on, heels and pijama preparing breakfast... ehm...) but I will talk about this matter soon again: it's a big issue for me and I'll need all your heel-walking secrets.

And here's another recent love:

The Holga 35 mm camera!! 

If you don't know it, it is a LOMO camera: they are basically plastic cameras (and for this reason they are called "toy cameras") and thanks to their plastic lens they produce strange photos with different effects. The Holga gives pictures with black corners and a vintage feel (you can see some examples here)

As soon as I develop the first roll I'll show you some pics, if they come out well.

Click!

Ah, I was almost about to forget! The scarves in the last four pictures come from the Spitalfields market in London: 1 £ each, wohoo! I love them!

Now I am going to rest my eyes a bit before working on my presentation, have a look at this while I am away:

It's a movie of a part of the Light Festival in Gent which took place this week-end (but I didn't take it, my camera was not good enough!). 

It was so amazing that the video, even if it is good quality, isn't really able to show all the beauty and magic of the situation, but still, have a look!

Have a very good Sunday!

Al

London here I come!

Finally! I am spending the week-end in London and I really need it because lately at work is a hell.

I am going to see an amazing show "30 years of Japanese fashion", at the Barbican Art Gallery (it's there until 6th of February so if you have the chance...) and I really can't wait. 

I actually decided to go in November: I discovered the show through twitter, I thought "Oh I so want to go!!" and the same day I received a mail from Eurostar with special offers for January: 79 euros return. I call it destiny, what do you think?

So I convinced my friend Mari (the lovely owner of the green flats in the "Life in technicolor" picture of this post, apparently we are the London duo) to come with me and finally the time has come. I am leaving Saturday morning and I'll be back next Monday, yuhu!

But of course, as always when I leave, there is a big issue. 

The luggage issue. 

Oh yes, you know what I mean.

A week-end in London means that you're basically going to eat in nice restaurants (Korean, wait for me!!), meet friends, visit cool places and night clubs. But you're also walking all day long for savage shopping and sight-seeing (mmmmh.... not sure about this one....). And we're going to leave the B&B in the morning and come back at night. So no change of clothes.

So here's the dilemma: What am I going to bring? Something comfortable but also nice enough to wear for a drink... and the shoes, oh the shoes! I have to walk all day long but I'm not going to wear Converse, NO WAY!

So in the end do you know what's going to happen? I will put a couple of dresses in the luggage and three different buttoned black cardigans to put over (one little in cotton, one long in cotton and one little in wool.... because you know, you never know what's the weather...); I will bring ten different pair of shoes and don't know how many trousers, skirts and shirts because "you never know what the mood will be that day". And let's not talk about make-up. And lotions. The hair-drier and the iron....

I also know that I am going to bring two coats... Oh yes, I know myself, I know what's going to happen.

And you know the worse part? I am traveling with the train so I've got no luggage size and weight limit! I am screwed.

I will leave with my 60 liters backpack and a full big trolley in the end, I know. For two days. Please don't let my mom know...

At least, I still have got 5 days to think where I am going to put all the stuff I'll buy. 

Can always buy a new trolley there, ah-ah!

Gotta go now, I won't have much time tomorrow and friday (and I'll maybe come back to the blog on monday or even tuesday :-( ) so I have to start to think about the luggage list... eh eh eh...

Kiss

Al

PS: and don't look at me like that: I know that EXACTLY the same thing happens to each of you when you go to holiday!

The Cool-wannabe

I am. Oh yes, I am one of those who WOULD so like to be cool. Like, you know, if I was living in Paris or London or New York I would go out all nights in Zac Posen (his Pre-Fall 2011 collection inspired my drawing, I like it a lot... have a look!), sky-high heels drinking champagne and Martini. 

During the day I would wake up at 10, have a cappuccino in my bed caressing my grey cat and checking my e-mails and then out for inspiration (because I would be an artist of course), shopping for expensive groceries and elegant dresses.

It would be oh so Gossip Girl of me.

Instead here I am (and here the sound of the public: "Oooooohhhh..." you know, like the sit-coms, when She says He a bad thing for Valentine's day and He makes a sad face?)

But since I am a girl full of hope I am sure that in 3 years, when I'll leave Belgium, and I'll still be a young girl of almost thirty years old (!), I will be able to live all this glamour in Paris, London or New York. 

Yes, sure! 

In the meanwhile I made a list of things I can do to feel a bit more cool. No Zac Posen or Moët & Chandon involved, but you always start from the very small things, no?

You can take it as a resolution for the New Year if you want, but I know it's not: I never make resolutions, I am totally not strict and I will change my mind hundreds of times before December... Ha! I can make resolution for the new month though! It's a good idea, I should start....

Anyway, here I go. Your role here is to keep me on the good path until they don't become habits, agreed?

1. Try to get a manicure at least once a month (twice is better), and always keep my nails (and toes, from spring) perfectly polished.

Oh yes, that's hard. But I'll do my best, I promise. I think that when your nails are good they can change all your appearance. I like to keep them quite short and wear dark nail polish: Marron Glacé from Mavala (it is actually a dupe of Chanel "Particulière" so uncool, so uncool...), a dark blue-almost-black and deep burgundy were my colors for the winter. Got to find the spring shades ASAP.

2. Try to use my body cream every day.

WTF you don't use body cream every day??? 

No, I know, I apologize.  But I am too lazy!! I got out of the shower and bam, narcolepsy on! 

But I'll try to do my best. Also because lately I noticed that that Kaloderma Q10 cream I bought for 3 euros (thanks to my friend Veronica, the bargain hunter) is making kind of wonders and when I use it my skin is smooth as a peach. I don't want to know what kind of silicons it contains, I'll keep away from the ingredient label as much as I can.

Oh, and did I tell you that Kiehl's just opened in Gent? I've got to have a ride there, have I not?!

3. Try to go to the gym MORE than twice a week.

Which is also: run longer. And don't listen to your spleen.

And got to go back to Pilates. You really feel you have a super-sexy-firm body when you get out of the lesson. 

4. Always perfectly waxed, even if it's -15° C outside and you wouldn't show a centimeter of skin, not even for a 50.000 euros coupon to spend at Miu Miu.   

(I think this is kinda obvious and doesn't need explanation)

5. Buy some really good sexy-but-not-too-much lingerie.

Have you always thought that those who say that good underwear makes you feel more confident are just working for La Perla writing shady columns for Elle?

Nothing more wrong: it's actually true. You really feel good if you wear killer underwear.

I think that Stella McCartney deserves a part of my salary.

6. Wear my red lipstick more often.

And this doesn't need further explanation too, does it?

And now I am lighting some scented Dyptique Baies candles, having a bath with Santa Maria Novella soaps and going to bed, in my white silk sheets.

........ Joking, it's actually Ikea. Both. Candle and sheets. 

What? You didn't have doubts?

Ehhhhh..... You'll see! In three years!

Gotta go! Kiss!

Al