Saturday 31 March 2012

Good Day, Sunshine!

The weather has been absolutely glorious here this week. We can't quite believe that we've been able to abandon the cardigans and 60 derniers in March! Last weekend, we throughly enjoyed spending long days in the garden with some icy cold beverages, Motown soundtracks and a good book! Bliss.

With James set to have busy year ahead with The Moons, Lola took some time out with her boy.

 
Lennon specs!








 
Sun in the eyes, squint.





 
L&J's delish veggie bbq buffet!


 
Lola made her first homemade lemonade, topped with ice & mint picked from the garden. Stupidly tasty!

 
 
Rhi & Little M went on a little outing to a local Market Town with Rhi's Mama and enjoyed a wander around the shops in the sunshine...
 

 
Cool signage on Vintage Shops & surreal window displays...

 
Coffee break...
 
 
This town has some of the best thrifty charity shops in the area, always so much fun for a rummage, with tons of trinkets, beautiful dishes (why oh why did we walk away from the beautiful pastel floral 60s casserole dish! Fools!) and a brilliant section of records, in shop that didn't take cards, with just enough change for one vinyl - Did we pick the Cabbage Patch Kids Dreams or a bit of Joe Meek's lad Heinz...?

 
Successful trip, Little M got some Dinos, picked up some bargains in our favourite cookware shop, a few fun bits for our Easter displays and an interesting floral essence that will be appearing in a Recipe post very soon... 'Citing!

 
We had a little snack picnic in the sunshine when we got home... Little M's brand new dinosaurs were invited, of course (Paleontologist in the making!)

 
OI, STEGASAURUS! We see you trying to steal the homemade granola bars! Cucumber water, delightfully refreshing.

 
We went for Heinz in the end. Sorry Cabbage Patch Kids...




Happy Saturday!
Much love,
L&R xx

Friday 30 March 2012

Friday Flick // The Hunger Games...






We should probably start this post with **SPOILERS ALERT** ... Forgive us for being a little slow on this bandwagon - we appeared to have somehow missed the hype - but Rhi tagged along to see The Hunger Games with her little sister and brother this week - and we have another fan to add to the list, the books are on their way via Amazon as we speak, HAVE to know what happens next (even though we already have a pretty good idea where this is going...)

It has not gone unnoticed by World Cinema lovers that The Hunger Games is very much like Battle Royale (we've been fans since we were probably too young, we actually started up a jewellery brand called Nobu after our favourite character when we were about 13/14 as mentioned on our 'About')  and it's not just 'a little bit' like BR, not just 'oh isn't that a funny coincidence' - it goes right down to some of the characterisation and the dynamics between the players in the game - it's pretty much the same plot, with some pretty fun additions, we'll get to that in a minute...




We'll always love you Nobu... Even though your head gets blown off in the first 5 minutes...


For those who are unfamiliar with Battle Royale - it is a pretty incredible Japanese flick (and book, originally) of the dystopian genre, about a game that the government introduced to keep the youth of the country in check... a game where a bus load of teens are dropped off in the middle of an island and supplied with the tools to massacre each other until just one is left standing for a televised event (sounding familiar?)... in the end the 2 main characters a boy and a girl get away and tecnically win (are you thinking, "wait, haven't I heard this story somewhere before...?") Granted BR is not as teen friendly and certainly a far cry from the PG-13 rating, but Hunger Games is just a decapitation and a bucket full of corn syrup away from being simply a Hollywood remake of Battle Royale, but with an added bonus or two for fashion fans...






We've heard The Hunger Games frequently described as 'Battle Royale meets Twilight'... We'd disagree, we're thinking it is much more 'Battle Royale meets The Devil Wears Prada'... Not only does this film also star Stanley Tucci (looking fabulous in his blue wig) but you've got the rather delicious Lenny Kravitz, who's character does a grand job of styling Katniss and Peeta's characters to the max (chariots of fire taken as literal inspiration for the Tribute Parade - too cool! The use of fire again for her red dress during the interview with Caesar, magic! We want one!) ... Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket, seriously rocking that Marie Antoinette via Blade Runner look - and the stark contrast of looks between the Districts, where despite being set in the future, the demure and simple design is comparable to some 40s/50s looks, versus the Capitol's outlandish and dramatic style, riots of colour and extravagance...






Definitely worth a watch if you fancy something that is a futuristic Fashion-Fest with a bit of homicidal teenage angst and an undercurrent of dystopian political themes... You mean that's not your favourite movie genre already?

Bring on the books... And may the odds be ever in your favour.

Much love,
R&L xx

Thursday 29 March 2012

Twee Troubles // Childhood Outfit Posts

Hey lovelies,


After a spending an hour giggling our way through our boxes of childhood photographs, we were mildy bemused to find that things hadn't changed very much in the styling stakes over the past 23 years. We are ashamed to admit that we appear to have been stuck in a two decade long style rut, desperately clinging on to the comforting familiarity of our youth. We must apologise dear Mothers, our pleas for pink shiny things in our younger days were unfounded, and we can only say that you dressed us well... most of the time.


There probably should be something said for our dressing like three year olds at the age of 23, but we find ourselves irresistibly drawn to collars, frills, florals and ankle socks, not to mention, the fringe. Recently, one mentioned that we had reached that god awful stage in our lives where one finds that fashion has discovered that it cannot reinvent the wheel and churns out previous trends of bygone eras. Gosh, no that cannot be the case! Tell us it isn't so!?


Maybe by evaluating these pictures, we can begin to seek out new directions. So here we bring you, the best and worst of our childhood outfit posts...


Sailor Style
We like to think we coined the term, nauti-cool. Doing sailor collars long before this year's trend. Note, Lauren's mum's epic perm & the way she matches her shirt to the sofa and Rhi's sister Ellie working shower cap chic. We were all surprised that one didn't pull through to the fashion forefront.



Florals
A Lauren & Rhianna childhood staple. Our Mum's dragged us around Laura Ashley waaaaay too much. We can still remember the dread of that shop being mentioned on a Saturday morning during Live & Kicking.  





Disney Fanatic
We were bigtime Disney fanatics. Tee's, shorts, pj's, dungarees, converse (until a member of housekeeping in Florida half-inched Lola's pair), matching legging & jumper sets. GIVE US MINNIE MOUSE. 


 
Pretty detailing
Beautiful dresses in dreamy fabrics





Work Attire
Whilst Rhi opts for a practical nursing outfit for a shift in the teddy hospital, Lola drives the trains in style (polka dot crop tops and jelly shoes), just what National Rail needs today. 


 
Hoxton
She was always going to live there...


 
Mint Green Raincoats & Chelsea Boots
Raincoat in minty green, gingham shirt with the top button done up & chelsea boots... have we seen this look before? Swap the jeans for something skinnier and Lauren, has not changed.... few more front teeth mind. 



Polka dots
Always!


 
Matching with Dolls
Dressing like dolls continues to be a daily source of inspiration


ALMIGHTY Fringes
... that continue to dominate our lives and our faces. We have since stopped letting our mum's trim them, badly. 




 
Fashion Faux-Pas
We're not all perfect okay. We had our bad days too. Namely, multi-coloured puffa jackets and purple leggings. 


 
Double-figure style
Upon reaching the grand old age of 10, we scored a (local) modelling deal. This was backstage preparing ourselves in sports dresses and Tammy girl tee-shirts. There was also a picture from around this time where we were wearing a lot of velvet and lace... and not in a good way, we'll keep that off the internets for now. 


Sorry Ellie, please forgive us. 

Much love, 
L&R xx

Wednesday 28 March 2012

Lauren Likes // Winged Catwalks of the Sixties

At the age of 10, in our year 6 leavers assembly, we each took it in turns to take to the mike and naively declare what we would like to be when we were older. At that time I had become disenchanted by dreams of being a ballet dancer and with my mum persuading me that being a Spice Girl wasn't a feasible career choice, I had to give up the ghost on that one too. If there's one thing you should know about my mama, it's that during the 90s, she had a serious gripe with the Spice Girls. Only after years of guilt-tripping about the time she persuaded by to buy an Oasis album with my birthday money, rather than the girl power gift to mankind, did I receive my first SG album... at the age of 17). So thus, upon reaching double figures, imagining faraway lands and glamourous outfits, I decided I was ready to take on the world and announced that I was going to be a an air hostess...


As I got a little older, and my interests in the arts grew, I am sad to say that the dream never materialised. I also realised that I'd be rubbish in an emergency and would get bored of serving tiny cans of pop and snacksize pringles to disgruntled and nervous passengers very quickly. It did, however fuel a ebullient interest in the wonderful, winged catwalk that existed in our skies in the Sixties & Seventies.



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With the world literally at their feet, the stewardess of the sixties were noted for their notorious glamour; their lives were made up of fabulous tales of mischevious romances with the elite (as well as the Captains!), and discreetly sipping champagne, 30,000 feet over the Atlantic. At that time, the position of an air stewardess was up their with supermodels & actress'. 

heathrow

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Berets and stripes for the French airlines!

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Hot Stewardesses
The girls were expected to have wit, personality and education and above all, great legs. After the stuffiness of the fifties, airlines went to town in the sixties and fashion began to dominate the skies. With regards to the uniform, conservative blacks and blues were dropped in favour of mesmerising concoctions of eye popping colour blocking, micro minis and even an appearance from the go-go boot! The hostess themselves were marketed as flawless, vivacious pinups, perfectly preened and wonderfully modelled outside the aircraft for press shoots like synchronised swimmers.

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British Caledonian air hostesses

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Emilio Pucca spearheaded the modernisation of Braniff Airways with their 'End of a plain plane' campaign by using bright geometric shapes, cheeky advertising & the creation of the incredible 'bubble helmet', a charming piece of sixties PVC designed to protect the steward's hair from wind and rain!



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Don't you just wish you could have been there!?

And to leave you with something apt for our ventures into the skies today... the lovely, Thunderclap Newman's 'Something in the Air'... enjoy!


Much love, 
Lauren xx
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