Sunday, 11 October 2009
Tuesday, 8 September 2009
Shop therapy
Has the GFC, as it's known in Australia, changed your shopping habits? Do you experience disgust, fear and guilt every time you lust over a must have, indulgent item। Do you experience pangs and doubt your decision when the plastic comes out when you're about the finalise your order on NAP?
I do। I feel the same pangs even when finalising an order on The Outnet, where my final invoice amount can be about 5-10 times less than it was on NAP. My psyche has well and truly shifted away from plastic pleasure to plastic displeasure.
This has had it's positives। The amount of plastic in my wallet has decreased from 4 to 1. The bank doesn't make nearly as much money from me as it used to. I no longer fear opening the envelope and scratching my head in amazement that I spent THAT much on one binge and still have NOTHING to wear out for dinner tonight??
Danger danger danger - I feel disgust towards the price of that flimpsy, made in China man made silk frock that I'll only wear once anyway, at which time my brain will long for something just as dangerous।
But hang on a second, if we all stop our habits dead in our tracks, what will happen to the designers, the pattern makers, the seamstresses, the fabric supplies, the manufacturers, the dock people, the sales assistants, the banks we borrow money from to fund our lavish lifestyles? Don't I have to continue to support these people and their families. Since I still have a job, shouldn't I be celebrating and rewarding myself for my austerity? I'm worth it, I survived, the good times are rollin'...
I do। I feel the same pangs even when finalising an order on The Outnet, where my final invoice amount can be about 5-10 times less than it was on NAP. My psyche has well and truly shifted away from plastic pleasure to plastic displeasure.
This has had it's positives। The amount of plastic in my wallet has decreased from 4 to 1. The bank doesn't make nearly as much money from me as it used to. I no longer fear opening the envelope and scratching my head in amazement that I spent THAT much on one binge and still have NOTHING to wear out for dinner tonight??
Danger danger danger - I feel disgust towards the price of that flimpsy, made in China man made silk frock that I'll only wear once anyway, at which time my brain will long for something just as dangerous।
But hang on a second, if we all stop our habits dead in our tracks, what will happen to the designers, the pattern makers, the seamstresses, the fabric supplies, the manufacturers, the dock people, the sales assistants, the banks we borrow money from to fund our lavish lifestyles? Don't I have to continue to support these people and their families. Since I still have a job, shouldn't I be celebrating and rewarding myself for my austerity? I'm worth it, I survived, the good times are rollin'...
Saturday, 29 August 2009
The age old question
I think a 25 year old like myself, who these days goes to the gym twice a month, is too old and too mushy to wear a dress like this. Lucky it's on pre order so I have a bit more time to decide.
Friday, 24 July 2009
The iT Bag
Vogue says it's over, but the Chloe Paraty bag may just prove the theory wrong.
Apparently luxury brands make anywhere from 10 to 30 times the cost price in profits. Ouch
Throw in the suede over the knee boots while we're at it!
NAP
Tuesday, 14 July 2009
Monday, 13 July 2009
Sunday, 12 July 2009
Who am I?
How do I define myself? What makes me, me?
I was born almost 26 years years ago to Serbian parents, whose grandparents are from Montenegro.
I was born in the above pictured town called Knin, a Serbian strong, the capital of Republika Srpska Krajina, which happens to be in the middle of Croatia. Knin itself connects Zagred, the Croatian capital to the very important coastline.
Due to the war in the region, we moved to Brisbane, Australia. In Brisbane, I was a lot more Serbian than I could imagine. The community is based around church and the traditional things long forgotten in the mother country. We danced folk dancing in our "nosnje" (national dress as pictured below). We sang patriotic songs, and learnt the language and Cyrillic script.
Through school and uni, I had many friends. Australian as far as they can trace, Greek, Persian, Asian, Guatemalan, Argentinian... Yet I still felt Serbian. Going back to Serbia in 2005 was a defining moment. I felt at home.
Then in 2007, I moved to Melbourne and settled in St Kilda. I love this place. I'm close enough to the CBD, the eclectic vibe of the neighbourhood, the glitz of South Yarra, the riches of Toorak.. and the rent is affordable.
I am married to a wonderful, tall, green eyed man. The love of my life. I met him 5 years ago and I fell in love with him, then I didn't see him for 4.5 years. When I saw him again I didn't waste any time in making him mine! He loves me just the way I am, whether my hair is dirty or clean. Whether I'm grumpy or embracing.
But I guess all this makes me Australian, because I travel with a Kangaroo & Emu passport...
Who are you?
How do I?
style.com
For months now I've been looking for a pair of harem pants.
These are my requisites:
1) neutral colour (no black)
2) not the actual harem pants with the elastic at the ankle, but kind of like the slouchy, silky, cargo pants.
I came close today, with a pair of metallic grey ones from Forever New, but I wasn't in the mood. I think they'll take a few tries, like ankle boots did last year. Here's some inspiration.
Tuesday, 23 June 2009
Jolie Good
By Naomi Wolf
Who are our female film legends these days? Rare are the sultry, dangerous, and highly individualistic Hollywood goddesses who were so prevalent in the 1930s and 1940s.
Of these few exceptions, one thinks right away of Ms. Angelina Jolie. Ever since about 2004 — when she started crafting a new and revolutionary persona out of her prior story line as an eccentric ingenue, a story line that had been erratic and filled with missteps — she has resonated in a way no other modern female star has managed.
Yes, she is conventionally beautiful: Bosomy and wasp-waisted, with that curtain of hair and those crazy pillowy lips, she is an obvious male sex fantasy. But more suggestively, polls show that her appeal and magnetism play at least as powerfully in the fantasy life of females.
Women admire Angelina Jolie, but that would hardly stop the presses. Polls also show that if women — not just lesbian and bisexual women but straight women — had to choose a female lover, they would want to sleep with Angelina Jolie. In other words, women both identify with her and desire her.
There's something more than a simply physical response. Her persona hits an unprecedented level of global resonance — and makes women want to be with her and be her at the same time — because she has created a life narrative that is not just personal. Rather, it is archetypal. And the archetype is one that really, for the first time in modern culture, brings together almost every aspect of female empowerment and liberation.
Consider how patriarchal civilization has managed to keep women in hand for all these millennia. Among other methods of social control, women are almost always given a series of either-or choices. The deal is usually that they may realize one aspect of their personality but at the expense of many others. And the deal is usually that if they choose "too much," a terrible punishment one way or another awaits them.
So you can be respected as a symbol of goodness (Florence Nightingale, Mother Teresa) but not, obviously, be seen as sexual. You can have a hot sex life (Marlene Dietrich) but not at the same time be seen as a symbol of goodness. You can't get away with it. (Somehow, when an icon who was at once both a sexual being and engaged in good deeds died in a violent accident — Princess Di, of course — the story had a kind of terrible narrative inevitability.) You can take a lover — and even be a home wrecker — but not claim the hope of being seen as a good mom (Madame Bovary, Elizabeth Taylor). You can't get away with it. You can have money, fame, and a dazzling career, but you must surely be depressed, drug addicted, lonely, or self-destructive (Jacqueline Susann, Marilyn Monroe). You can't get away with it.
The magic of Jolie's self-presentation? She makes the claim, with her life and actions, that, indeed, you can get away with it. All of it. Against every Western convention, she has managed to draw together all of these kinds of female liberation and empowerment. And her gestures determinedly transgress social boundaries — boundaries of convention, race, class, and gender — giving many of us a vicarious thrill.
Remember how, for the first few years of Jolie's debut in the media spotlight, she kept hitting off-key notes? She emerged as an edgy starlet in such films as Girl, Interrupted and Hackers, then broke through into mass-market consciousness with her turn as cartoony superheroine Lara Croft. And with her success in that role, she previewed aspects of the persona that would take her to global icon: sexy and daring, confrontational and independent.
But in her personal interactions with the media, her gestures at transgression seemed girlishly eccentric. There was the slightly icky presentation of then-husband Billy Bob Thornton's blood in a vial, and then the oddly intimate kiss on the lips with her brother at an awards ceremony. ("I am so in love with my brother!") At that point, Jolie seemed to be simply an attention-seeking, slightly Goth upstart.
But there was a turning point not long after she adopted Maddox — her second marriage over, now a single mom — and began to immerse herself in her work as a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Suddenly, she seemed more mature, more beautiful, and more serious. Single moms had been cast as society's pathetic cases, but with more than a quarter of U.S. households with children headed by such moms, this was long overdue for a rebranding. When Maddox appeared — this adorable, brush-cut tyke photographed by Annie Leibovitz in his early romance with his mom — Jolie revealed a new, and fairly radical, vision of single motherhood that made the relationship seem tender, glamorous, and complete, father figure or no father figure in the picture.
When the megascandal took place — Jolie's alleged seduction of a married man, Brad Pitt, on the set of Mr. and Mrs. Smith — it could have been the end of Jolie as a role model. But she managed the almost unheard-of task of turning the home-wrecker label into a wholesome, family-friendly triumph. There was little Maddox, who was growing up and clearly enjoying tossing footballs with his mother's new boyfriend. Jolie had managed to head off the scarlet letter by giving a boy an ideal masculine counterpoint.
About that time, Jolie's persona suddenly kicked into megadrive. Her intense work on behalf of stricken women and children worldwide solidified her status as unconventional role model, and the rapid adoption of additional children turned the Jolie-Pitt story into one of family devotion and global idealism, which certainly stood out in a raft of narratives of stars who simply shop, tan, and go into rehab.
It isn't so much her accomplished, but not always transcendent, performances. Her icon status now has to do more with our dream life as women than it does with her career choices solely as a film star.
Then there is the plane. Women are so used to being dependent on others (certainly on men) for where they go, metaphorically, and how they get there. Flying a private plane is the classic metaphor for choosing your own direction; usually, that is a guy thing to do, yet there was Jolie, with her aviator glasses on, taking flying lessons so she could blow the mind of her four-year-old son. That is the ultimate in single-mom chic: Even before she had reconstructed a nuclear (or postnuclear) family with a dad at the head of it, she was reframing single motherhood from a state of lack or insufficiency to a glamorous, unfettered lifestyle choice. Paradoxically, having done so, she makes the choice of a man to help her raise her kids seem like one option among many for a self-directed woman rather than either a completion of a woman or a capitulation.
Then she insisted on being a mother to not just one but many — actually, with a gesture of maternal extravagance, an übermom, ostentatiously mothering on a global scale (Maddox ... and Zahara! ... and ... Shiloh! And ...). The clearly well-thought-out multiethnicity of her family is a delicious in-your-face countermove against conventions about who we are to one another and what "family" is expected to look like. She seems, without breaking stride, to care for half a football team of children while the rest of us tread water with our own biological offspring.
Equally ostentatiously in her role as lover, she took for her own pleasure the male seen as the most desired of the tribe, Brad Pitt, who is always ranked at the top of indexes of male beauty and virility. As for the constraints of social convention — ahem, he was still married? You can have a variety of feelings about this, but Jolie's evident disdain of that social constraint certainly, for better or worse, put her in the same self-entitled category as those men who have traditionally taken what they wanted and let the emotional chips fall where they may.
Finally, she blurs the conventional boundary of what female stars are supposed to do — look pretty, emote, wear designer clothes — by picking up Princess Di's fallen torch and wrapping her elegant bone structure in a shalwar kameez to attend to the suffering of Afghan refugees in Pakistan and putting on jeans to help rebuild the housing of low-income U.S. citizens wiped out by Hurricane Katrina.
She insists on claiming every role on an operatic scale, making the symbolism as transgressive as possible — and saying, implicitly, "See? It can be done." And if she can get away with it, presumably there is a decent chance that, someday, so might all women get away with our own most cherished secret dares, self-gratifications, and even transgressions.
So she becomes what psychoanalysts call an "ego ideal" for women — a kind of dream figure that allows women to access, through fantasies of their own, possibilities for their own heightened empowerment and liberation.
What's next for Jolie? No way to tell, but I am certain, given the knack she has shown for tapping into this female collective unconscious, that we will watch with more than ordinary interest. Can the matriarchal tribe sustain itself? What will happen when the youthful beauty changes? Can such a sexually pluralistic woman stay satisfied in a conventional monogamous relationship — even with the most beautiful boy — for life, as Brad Pitt becomes a solidly middle-aged man? Will truly nothing break in this have-it-all-all-the-time exceptional drama?
I for one will keep watching, since Jolie's image is not just a mirror of one woman but also a looking glass for female fantasy life writ large.
Who are our female film legends these days? Rare are the sultry, dangerous, and highly individualistic Hollywood goddesses who were so prevalent in the 1930s and 1940s.
Of these few exceptions, one thinks right away of Ms. Angelina Jolie. Ever since about 2004 — when she started crafting a new and revolutionary persona out of her prior story line as an eccentric ingenue, a story line that had been erratic and filled with missteps — she has resonated in a way no other modern female star has managed.
Yes, she is conventionally beautiful: Bosomy and wasp-waisted, with that curtain of hair and those crazy pillowy lips, she is an obvious male sex fantasy. But more suggestively, polls show that her appeal and magnetism play at least as powerfully in the fantasy life of females.
Women admire Angelina Jolie, but that would hardly stop the presses. Polls also show that if women — not just lesbian and bisexual women but straight women — had to choose a female lover, they would want to sleep with Angelina Jolie. In other words, women both identify with her and desire her.
There's something more than a simply physical response. Her persona hits an unprecedented level of global resonance — and makes women want to be with her and be her at the same time — because she has created a life narrative that is not just personal. Rather, it is archetypal. And the archetype is one that really, for the first time in modern culture, brings together almost every aspect of female empowerment and liberation.
Consider how patriarchal civilization has managed to keep women in hand for all these millennia. Among other methods of social control, women are almost always given a series of either-or choices. The deal is usually that they may realize one aspect of their personality but at the expense of many others. And the deal is usually that if they choose "too much," a terrible punishment one way or another awaits them.
So you can be respected as a symbol of goodness (Florence Nightingale, Mother Teresa) but not, obviously, be seen as sexual. You can have a hot sex life (Marlene Dietrich) but not at the same time be seen as a symbol of goodness. You can't get away with it. (Somehow, when an icon who was at once both a sexual being and engaged in good deeds died in a violent accident — Princess Di, of course — the story had a kind of terrible narrative inevitability.) You can take a lover — and even be a home wrecker — but not claim the hope of being seen as a good mom (Madame Bovary, Elizabeth Taylor). You can't get away with it. You can have money, fame, and a dazzling career, but you must surely be depressed, drug addicted, lonely, or self-destructive (Jacqueline Susann, Marilyn Monroe). You can't get away with it.
The magic of Jolie's self-presentation? She makes the claim, with her life and actions, that, indeed, you can get away with it. All of it. Against every Western convention, she has managed to draw together all of these kinds of female liberation and empowerment. And her gestures determinedly transgress social boundaries — boundaries of convention, race, class, and gender — giving many of us a vicarious thrill.
Remember how, for the first few years of Jolie's debut in the media spotlight, she kept hitting off-key notes? She emerged as an edgy starlet in such films as Girl, Interrupted and Hackers, then broke through into mass-market consciousness with her turn as cartoony superheroine Lara Croft. And with her success in that role, she previewed aspects of the persona that would take her to global icon: sexy and daring, confrontational and independent.
But in her personal interactions with the media, her gestures at transgression seemed girlishly eccentric. There was the slightly icky presentation of then-husband Billy Bob Thornton's blood in a vial, and then the oddly intimate kiss on the lips with her brother at an awards ceremony. ("I am so in love with my brother!") At that point, Jolie seemed to be simply an attention-seeking, slightly Goth upstart.
But there was a turning point not long after she adopted Maddox — her second marriage over, now a single mom — and began to immerse herself in her work as a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Suddenly, she seemed more mature, more beautiful, and more serious. Single moms had been cast as society's pathetic cases, but with more than a quarter of U.S. households with children headed by such moms, this was long overdue for a rebranding. When Maddox appeared — this adorable, brush-cut tyke photographed by Annie Leibovitz in his early romance with his mom — Jolie revealed a new, and fairly radical, vision of single motherhood that made the relationship seem tender, glamorous, and complete, father figure or no father figure in the picture.
When the megascandal took place — Jolie's alleged seduction of a married man, Brad Pitt, on the set of Mr. and Mrs. Smith — it could have been the end of Jolie as a role model. But she managed the almost unheard-of task of turning the home-wrecker label into a wholesome, family-friendly triumph. There was little Maddox, who was growing up and clearly enjoying tossing footballs with his mother's new boyfriend. Jolie had managed to head off the scarlet letter by giving a boy an ideal masculine counterpoint.
About that time, Jolie's persona suddenly kicked into megadrive. Her intense work on behalf of stricken women and children worldwide solidified her status as unconventional role model, and the rapid adoption of additional children turned the Jolie-Pitt story into one of family devotion and global idealism, which certainly stood out in a raft of narratives of stars who simply shop, tan, and go into rehab.
It isn't so much her accomplished, but not always transcendent, performances. Her icon status now has to do more with our dream life as women than it does with her career choices solely as a film star.
Then there is the plane. Women are so used to being dependent on others (certainly on men) for where they go, metaphorically, and how they get there. Flying a private plane is the classic metaphor for choosing your own direction; usually, that is a guy thing to do, yet there was Jolie, with her aviator glasses on, taking flying lessons so she could blow the mind of her four-year-old son. That is the ultimate in single-mom chic: Even before she had reconstructed a nuclear (or postnuclear) family with a dad at the head of it, she was reframing single motherhood from a state of lack or insufficiency to a glamorous, unfettered lifestyle choice. Paradoxically, having done so, she makes the choice of a man to help her raise her kids seem like one option among many for a self-directed woman rather than either a completion of a woman or a capitulation.
Then she insisted on being a mother to not just one but many — actually, with a gesture of maternal extravagance, an übermom, ostentatiously mothering on a global scale (Maddox ... and Zahara! ... and ... Shiloh! And ...). The clearly well-thought-out multiethnicity of her family is a delicious in-your-face countermove against conventions about who we are to one another and what "family" is expected to look like. She seems, without breaking stride, to care for half a football team of children while the rest of us tread water with our own biological offspring.
Equally ostentatiously in her role as lover, she took for her own pleasure the male seen as the most desired of the tribe, Brad Pitt, who is always ranked at the top of indexes of male beauty and virility. As for the constraints of social convention — ahem, he was still married? You can have a variety of feelings about this, but Jolie's evident disdain of that social constraint certainly, for better or worse, put her in the same self-entitled category as those men who have traditionally taken what they wanted and let the emotional chips fall where they may.
Finally, she blurs the conventional boundary of what female stars are supposed to do — look pretty, emote, wear designer clothes — by picking up Princess Di's fallen torch and wrapping her elegant bone structure in a shalwar kameez to attend to the suffering of Afghan refugees in Pakistan and putting on jeans to help rebuild the housing of low-income U.S. citizens wiped out by Hurricane Katrina.
She insists on claiming every role on an operatic scale, making the symbolism as transgressive as possible — and saying, implicitly, "See? It can be done." And if she can get away with it, presumably there is a decent chance that, someday, so might all women get away with our own most cherished secret dares, self-gratifications, and even transgressions.
So she becomes what psychoanalysts call an "ego ideal" for women — a kind of dream figure that allows women to access, through fantasies of their own, possibilities for their own heightened empowerment and liberation.
What's next for Jolie? No way to tell, but I am certain, given the knack she has shown for tapping into this female collective unconscious, that we will watch with more than ordinary interest. Can the matriarchal tribe sustain itself? What will happen when the youthful beauty changes? Can such a sexually pluralistic woman stay satisfied in a conventional monogamous relationship — even with the most beautiful boy — for life, as Brad Pitt becomes a solidly middle-aged man? Will truly nothing break in this have-it-all-all-the-time exceptional drama?
I for one will keep watching, since Jolie's image is not just a mirror of one woman but also a looking glass for female fantasy life writ large.
Wednesday, 3 June 2009
Love
Have you ever been in love? How do you know it's love? An all consuming love, that makes you crazy and willing to do anything. A love that makes you buy a plane ticket and fly to the other side of the world, even though you cannot afford it? A love that makes you give up everything as you know it, for something that you think you want instead? A love so strong, that it makes you believe that it's the only thing in the world that matters.
I found that love exactly a year ago today. I was willing to do anything for this love and I did it. I went to the other side of the world and crossed comfort zones that people could never cross. I was brave, somewhat insane and I took a chance. It's the best thing I did, the only decision I've ever made that I don't regret.
I've done many foolish things in my life, trusted too many people who hurt me and burnt me. Done too many things out of the goodness of my own heart. But I pursued this love selfishly and it's the best thing I've ever done.
From now I will trust noone and nothing, except me.
Thursday, 28 May 2009
Corporates
Since all the systems are totally broken, I figure I may as well blog.
This week's topic of conversation has been the stress associated with the corporate world. Friends taking up a 2-packs-a-day smoking habit, 15 hour days, broken marriages, caffeine habits (expensive ones too).
And that all maybe the case, but I love my suits and heels and coffees and muffins. I love a nice building, work trips, bonuses and even the bitchiness. I think you gotta know how to play the game!
This week's topic of conversation has been the stress associated with the corporate world. Friends taking up a 2-packs-a-day smoking habit, 15 hour days, broken marriages, caffeine habits (expensive ones too).
And that all maybe the case, but I love my suits and heels and coffees and muffins. I love a nice building, work trips, bonuses and even the bitchiness. I think you gotta know how to play the game!
Monday, 27 April 2009
Time...
I feel like I never have any time. No time to sleep, no time to straighten my hair and apply make up in the morning, no time to choose a half decent outfit in the morning, no time to peruse style.com, no time to cook, no time to clean, no time to study, no time to exercise, no time for anything...
What is the secret?
Sunday, 22 March 2009
Last days in NYC
My darling is in the shower and I'm sitting and trying to figure out a way to not have to leave New York.
This morning we were up at about 8 and the weather was looking nice and sunny so we decided to do the last thing that was on our list of things to do - see the Statue of Liberty.
We subway-ed our way down to Wall Street and walked to the Staten Island Ferry terminal. The ferry goes every half hour and is free - better than paying $20 to hang out with tourists I say.
The ride was very cold though, took about 20 minutes and we got relatively close to the Lady. Close enough for some snaps. We turned around pronto and decided to go shopping at Bloomingdale's. Not the fanciest of the department stores here, but it did offer us an 11% discount.
Bojan hadn't been on any of my shopping expeditions yet, but he did enjoy Bloomy's and the sheer range of things it had on offer, even if it was a bit overwhelming.
I ended up with a pair of J Brand jeans that I'd wanted forever and ever but couldn't try anywhere in Australia and didn't want to buy off the net without trying on. Bojan bought some red and navy Ralph Lauren socks and a "The Who" t-shirt (he's going through a rock t-shirt phase I think). I saw my Chloe perfume lady again and she tried running after me - it sent a shiver down my spine!
The rest of the day we spent at Bleecker Street- the Village really grew on us today. It was wonderful and sunny! We had some cupcakes again, this time in the park and walked up and down. I went into some of the stores, which were nice and very well priced. I loved Intermix!
Tomorrow is our proper final day - we are definitely going skating again and we'll see about the rest!
Saturday, 21 March 2009
One week on...
Today we woke up at about 9am, as didn't really have any plans. We were loosely considering going on the Staten Island ferry which goes right past the Statue of Liberty.
When Bojan pulled the blinds up - it was snowing outside! I'd always wanted to come to New York in winter, but honestly it was terrible outside. We walked around the block and ended up with huge headaches from the cold.
We finally ended up at at our little Elmo for breakfast and had some pancakes and eggs and warmed up. Bojan had decided that apart from Lady Liberty he'd seem most of the things he'd wanted to see, so he went home to study and I opted to go to The Frick Collection as it was another indoors appropriate day weather wise and student entry is $5.
Wow!
The Frick is located on the corner of 5th Avenue and East 70th Street across the road from Central Park. The building it is housed in was built in 1913-13 by Henry Clay Frick as his residence who later bequeathed the building and his artwork with the wish that it be developed into a public gallery for the purpose of "encouraging and developing the study of the fine arts". Aside from the furniture, drawings, prints etc, he left 131 paintings with a further 37 having been acquired since his death by the Trustees with endowments from the Fricks and other gifts.
Even though photos were not allowed, Milijana would not Milijana without sneaking a couple in (don't worry I didn't use flash as I know the harm it does to artwork).
The gallery is made up of glorious dining rooms, sittings rooms and an actual gallery. It is said that Mr Frick held 2 dinner parties a week, to which he invited 27 gentlemen. The ceilings were high and gilded with beautiful gold borders. The paint on the walls was a deep green.
The main staircase is exquisite. I am so happy I managed to sneak a photo of it in, as the official portraits don't really do it any justice. The staircase itself was inspired by Dean's Staircase at St Paul's Cathedral in London.
I loved the Rembrandts and the Van Dycks, but my favourite was Jean-Augustine-Dominique Ingres' Comtesse d'Haussonville. A portrait of a married woman in her mid 20's who already had 3 children, but was a seductress and an independent woman capable of making just about every man fall in love with her - including the artist.
After the gallery, I decided to wander around the Upper East Side - which is definitely my sort of neighbourhood.
The streets are clean and wide, the buildings architecturally designed. Each one has a door man that helps you out of your limo when the shopping bags get in the way. Stores a plenty, but again, nothing in my price range!
The funniest incident was when waiting at the lights near Bloomingdale's. A perfectly put together lady with a fur coat and a Louis Vuitton handbag was walking with her 2 year old daughter. When we stopped at the lights, the little girl pointed at a subway station and said "Mummy, what's that?" to which the lady said "That's the subway world - we don't go there". LOL - very symbolic of the Upper East Side.
I hadn't yet been to Macy's or Bloomingdale's so I went into Bloomy's. Yikes. I smelt a nice perfume on my way up the stairs and when the lady stopped me to ask if I wanted to try it I said "sure". Well, she kept going on and on and on and on about some special that she would only give to me, a jewelry box, extra perfumes and creams - all for only $125! Well lady, I have no shopping budget on this trip. But the next thing I know she's pulling me towards the counter and ringing it up! With tax it's $132 and I know that I can't buy this. So she walks off to get my "extra gifts" and I make a run for it!!!!!!!
The jeans section was great though and I'm lemming a pair of dark denim J Brand skinnys... I'll see what Bojan thinks!
Right now we're off to watch the Knicks play at Maddison Square Garden!
Friday, 20 March 2009
Day 6 - MoMA, Saks and other shenanigans that Bojan didn't want to part take in..
After returning from a very expensive round of drinks at The View atop The Marriott Marquis smack bang in the middle of Times Square, we got to bed fairly late last night, so ended up sleeping in this morning, which was meant to be our museum day. Besides, Bojan was not feeling the best.
And what an appropriate museum day it was - about 0C and raining.
To continue our bad form, we got on the wrong subway, so ended up nowhere near MoMA! In the end we caught a taxi, which is never recommended in NY's stand still traffic, especially in the wet. MoMa is located just off 5th Avenue on 53rd Street. This is the view from inside!
And what is the Museum Of Modern Art? What defines modern art? According to the "Highlights" booked I picked up in the gift shop, it's not as easy or as simple to define as one would hope. MoMA was founded in 1929 and now occupies the whole block, 7 curatorial departments and over 100,000 objects! The founders believe (and still believe as most of them are still actively involved with the running of the museum) in the premise that the art of our time is as relevant and as important as the art of the past. And when I think about it, I guess it is true, even though sometimes I fail to understand the abstract and the non-conservative interpretations of art that modern artists tend to have.
There are paintings, sculptures, film, media, photos, design, print and drawing galore.
There is no doubt that MoMA has done tremendous things for modern art and it is interesting to see where it will head - how it will continue to select the pieces and build upon its legacy.
I adored the Picassos and the Van Goghs. I loved learning and seeing how the different types of printing paper make a photograph print entirely differently. I never really realised that before until I saw the prints side by side.
Another notable piece was this drawing - which are DOTS! Totally cool!I had hoped to have lunch with Bojan at the Terrace Cafe on the 5th floor, but it was far too small and the line was too long. The food here has really been terrible and the places that serve anything half decent are really difficult to get a table at. Bojan tends to get really grumpy when he's hungry, so waiting was not an option.
I really hope to be able to go to the Met, Frick and or Guggenheim on Saturday.
At this point we parted ways as Bojan needed to study and I wanted to see some things that Bojan had no interest in seeing.
I made my way to 5th Avenue, which is so depressing due to its affluency. There is nothing to buy there that's within my Gold Credit Card limit, haha! The only things within my reach are from the Americana chain stores - and Zara! Banana Republic was on sale and the skirt that I tried on on day 1 which was not available in my size, suddenly had two available! So I snapped it up. It's a gorgeous, silk, pale gold tiered, ruffled skirt. Plan to wear it to a wedding we have coming up.
I love people watching on 5th - the old ladies with their fur coats, the businessmen in Ralph Lauren talking about hedging, the Gossip Girl tweens texting and wearing perfectly put together "I don't care" outfits, the tourists in stone wash jeans and sneakers talking photos...
Of all the department stores I've visited, Saks has been my favourite because it has the full range - the couture, the runway and the contemporary. And what I loved is the fact that I was "ignored" by the sales assistants. Not so much ignored, but not hounded, they'd smile and say hi and let me browse. I ADOOOOOORED their 8th level shoe salon. It has it's own post code. The Louboutin section is wonderful. It has a bigger selection than any online retailer I've come across. Anyway, my point is to retell seeing a girl about 16 shopping with her dad, pointing at the Loubies she wanted and she got them all.
Next I made my way further along 5th to the New York Public Library. The famous location where Carrie and Big were MEANT to get married for all you SATC fans.
The building is grand, you feel like you're in Venice or something. It's so peaceful and elegant, with carved desks, high ceilings and intricate paintings and carvings on the walls and ceilings.
I then made my way down to Grand Central Station where I got a cookie, the new US Vogue with Beyonce on the cover (yawn @ them using celebrities all the time) and I was on my way home. I knew that Bojan would be worried about me at that stage because I didn't take my mobile with me.
For dinner he's dragging me back to Kafana in Alphabet City, but that's ok, because I like a good pljeskavica too!
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
Today, Tomorrow.. Always
TODAY:
What is today's date?- March 4, 2009...
What was the first thing that happened?- I woke up.. went to get my mail and came to work??
Who was the first person you talked to?- My husband of course
What was the best thing that happened so far?-The new issue of Vogue being out... oh how vain I am lol
What was the best thing you've eaten?- A mint lol
Whats the worst thing you've eaten?-Considering it's not even 9am I've not eaten much at all
Who were you with?- Woke up next to my husband and am now at work!
Where did you go?-Post office then work
What did you wear?-A suit
What did you buy?-Tram ticket & Vogue
What was the best song you heard?-I've not heard a song yet
What's the funniest thing that happened?-My tennis partner being keen to win the final tonight, a bit too keen!
TOMORROW:
Whats tomorrow's date?-March 5, 2009...
Got any plans?-Same as always - working
Is there anything you HAVE to do?- Nothing is a "have to" apart from death. Which I hope won't happen tomorrow
Who are you going to be with?-The usuals
What would you like to get accomplished?-Book the other bits and pieces of the trip
Who are you defiantly going to talk to?-Customers!
Do you have to go to school/work?-Work
FUTURE:
Who do you want to marry?-I am already married to him!
When do you want to get married?-Been there done that
How do you want to get married?- NA
Where do you want to settle down at?-Anything but a massive McMansion!
Whats your dream job?-CEO of a charitable organisation
How many kids do you want?- However many God gives me
What do you want your kid's names to be?-They'll be named after the saint they were born close to
Do you want to have kids early or later on in life?- Middle ground
What kind of house do you want to live in?-As long as it isn't bigggggggg.. Not my thing at all
What kind of car do you want to drive?-A nice lil Merc
How many and what kind of pets do you want to have?- Just a doggy pls
Where do you want to go to college (If you haven't already)?- Been there and never doing that again!
What is today's date?- March 4, 2009...
What was the first thing that happened?- I woke up.. went to get my mail and came to work??
Who was the first person you talked to?- My husband of course
What was the best thing that happened so far?-The new issue of Vogue being out... oh how vain I am lol
What was the best thing you've eaten?- A mint lol
Whats the worst thing you've eaten?-Considering it's not even 9am I've not eaten much at all
Who were you with?- Woke up next to my husband and am now at work!
Where did you go?-Post office then work
What did you wear?-A suit
What did you buy?-Tram ticket & Vogue
What was the best song you heard?-I've not heard a song yet
What's the funniest thing that happened?-My tennis partner being keen to win the final tonight, a bit too keen!
TOMORROW:
Whats tomorrow's date?-March 5, 2009...
Got any plans?-Same as always - working
Is there anything you HAVE to do?- Nothing is a "have to" apart from death. Which I hope won't happen tomorrow
Who are you going to be with?-The usuals
What would you like to get accomplished?-Book the other bits and pieces of the trip
Who are you defiantly going to talk to?-Customers!
Do you have to go to school/work?-Work
FUTURE:
Who do you want to marry?-I am already married to him!
When do you want to get married?-Been there done that
How do you want to get married?- NA
Where do you want to settle down at?-Anything but a massive McMansion!
Whats your dream job?-CEO of a charitable organisation
How many kids do you want?- However many God gives me
What do you want your kid's names to be?-They'll be named after the saint they were born close to
Do you want to have kids early or later on in life?- Middle ground
What kind of house do you want to live in?-As long as it isn't bigggggggg.. Not my thing at all
What kind of car do you want to drive?-A nice lil Merc
How many and what kind of pets do you want to have?- Just a doggy pls
Where do you want to go to college (If you haven't already)?- Been there and never doing that again!
Friday, 20 February 2009
New York New York
I’ve wanted to go to NY ever since I can remember. The first time I went to the States in 1998, all I did was try and figure out how to get to the other side! And more than 10 years on, I am 3 weeks away from my departure for the Big Apple.
There is a myriad of things I cannot wait to see and do.
I want to spend hours in Central Park, I want to eat at the Boathouse overlooking the lake. I want to ice skate. I want to shop and shop and shop (but I know I won’t be able to do too much of that). I want to visit the Plaza and the Waldorf. I want to people watch. I want to leave Manhattan.
I want to stay in New York forever!
There is a myriad of things I cannot wait to see and do.
I want to spend hours in Central Park, I want to eat at the Boathouse overlooking the lake. I want to ice skate. I want to shop and shop and shop (but I know I won’t be able to do too much of that). I want to visit the Plaza and the Waldorf. I want to people watch. I want to leave Manhattan.
I want to stay in New York forever!
Thursday, 12 February 2009
Recessionista
I guess you could say that I was one of those people who didn’t pay much attention – I always bought myself whatever I liked.
Then suddenly two things happened – the impending recession and marriage, which created the need to share my limited wardrobe space with somebody who wanted an equal share. But I have room to argue – men wear shirts and pants (and sometimes shorts). We women wear pants, shorts, ¾ pants, skirts, dresses.. well you get the drift. Plus the husband wears a uniform to work! So no need for an elaborate corporate wardrobe which I have to have.
So 2009 became the year I vowed to not make any fashion or beauty purchases for the first 4 weeks or maybe the first 10 weeks, which is when I go to NY, because seriously what fun is a trip to NY without the ability to purchase fashion and beauty? Heeeeeeello Zara & Sephora.
So I’ve lasted 6 weeks and the only thing I’ve bought was a silly little silk skirt from SG ($40). It was because it was 48C and I was dyingggggg (plus the skirt will look great with opaques in NY) and a bottle of OPI Bubble Bath ($20) because I’d quit my fortnightly mani & pedi addiction so I had to do something with my nails.
Besides, being minimalist and a spendthrift seems to be de rigour in today’s times. NY fashion week starts tomorrow and the recession is fostering an improvisational atmosphere that's focused on finding ways to maintain fashion’s extravagant soul despite reduced circumstances.
And even though I won’t be buying anything from the high or low end stores, I’ll still be keeping on eye out on the recessionista trends!
Only 30 more sleeps til NY.. I can do it!
Then suddenly two things happened – the impending recession and marriage, which created the need to share my limited wardrobe space with somebody who wanted an equal share. But I have room to argue – men wear shirts and pants (and sometimes shorts). We women wear pants, shorts, ¾ pants, skirts, dresses.. well you get the drift. Plus the husband wears a uniform to work! So no need for an elaborate corporate wardrobe which I have to have.
So 2009 became the year I vowed to not make any fashion or beauty purchases for the first 4 weeks or maybe the first 10 weeks, which is when I go to NY, because seriously what fun is a trip to NY without the ability to purchase fashion and beauty? Heeeeeeello Zara & Sephora.
So I’ve lasted 6 weeks and the only thing I’ve bought was a silly little silk skirt from SG ($40). It was because it was 48C and I was dyingggggg (plus the skirt will look great with opaques in NY) and a bottle of OPI Bubble Bath ($20) because I’d quit my fortnightly mani & pedi addiction so I had to do something with my nails.
Besides, being minimalist and a spendthrift seems to be de rigour in today’s times. NY fashion week starts tomorrow and the recession is fostering an improvisational atmosphere that's focused on finding ways to maintain fashion’s extravagant soul despite reduced circumstances.
And even though I won’t be buying anything from the high or low end stores, I’ll still be keeping on eye out on the recessionista trends!
Only 30 more sleeps til NY.. I can do it!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)