Sometime a few years ago, not long after a new episode of Sex in the City, American women were presented with a new representative standard of beauty buzz word:

Brazilian. Brazilian butt lift, Brazilian extensions, Brazilian sugaring, Brazilian keratin treatment, Brazilian threading, Brazilian pedicure, and the infamous Brazilian wax.

Having participated (ahem, visually) in my share of Carnival, I happily agree that Brazilian ladies are lovely, but you know what? A butt lift is a butt lift, no matter what the name.

Just to be different, this weekend I believe I’m going to ask for the Venezuelan pedicure.

We all like to look good, that’s obvious. How deep does looking good gets though? I’m not talking here about so-called inner beauty. Sure personality is important … and actually when I think about it this blog entry perhaps is about personality. To be more precise it is all about keeping up the appearances.

You have your super-expensive shoes (or at least ones that look like they are), ultra fashionable trousers and a beautiful top. But … what do you have underneath? Do you actually care? 

My friend’s mum is a nurse working in an emergency room. She often undresses people who were brought to the hospital after some accidents. What she noticed and mentioned many times were people who had super expensive outfit on the outside … but old and dirty underwear!Why would they bother? Nobody looks at it anyway, right?  

Study shows that people who are self-confident, like and accept themselves often buy pretty underwear and spend more money on it than people who obsessively care about the opinions of others. It’s all about covering up.  

So ladies show me your knickers and I will tell you who you are!

I thought this pretty clever. Puts paid to all those ugly wires snaking around your room for various iPods, cellphones, Blackberrys and the like.

Wish my room were this tidy!

I am a working woman.
I have to look good every day.
I have to be in my office at 7.30 a.m. Way too early for me!
Why? I am one of those people that puts the alarm to snooze 5 times before I wake up.
I don’t wake up at 6 a.m. and I don’t have enough time to go through a slow waking up routine. Why? Cos I LOVE TO SLEEP in the morning!

Instead, I wake up at 7 a.m ( the alarm started ringing from 6.30) I have about 10 - 15 minutes to dress up, brush my teeth, put some make on and RUN out of the house.
Quality make up is important to me but the process of putting it on needs to take 5 minutes top.
I’ll tell you my secret. I use Dior Airfresh -a spray foundation with incredible feeling of freshness that lasts all day. Yes I know it sounds like and adwertisment but I really love it ,:) I need only two seconds to spray it on my face! Before, I used to spend a lot of time putting the foundation on. Not any more.

Being in Barcelona, as I often am, I get to see the little Japanese princesseens stepping off the tour buses with frightening regularity - apart from their little Kitty merchandise, the ponytailed hair and the ubiquitous next-generation digital camera in hand, they all share another common feature: flat soled shoes that look like this one.

So I decided to investigate for the benefit of our dear Le Style readers, and to get a legitimate opportunity to look at Japanese girls’ legs. Tod’s apparantly is the answer, specifically “Ballerina Dee”, which somehow seems to suit the overall look coming out of Japan right now . The pair sells for a snip at US$345 BUT BUT BUT, made in Italy, you get Rose metallic leather, Rubber pebble sole, and tie front detail - but it’s only available in “BLUSH” colour, oh my.

“Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.”

photo by Katarina Holkenbrink

I’m liking the Green Wheelie Sm. Civilian, as they call their mouthful, from R.E.Load. A small five-person business split between Seattle and Philadelphia, their bags are handmade, and tend to favour the cyclists out there (not I!)… but I do travel on two wheels, so I count!

The one I like above (in green) isn’t exactly cheap at US$216, but the look is so now, the size at 13″H x 15″W x 6″D is just right, and I appreciate that it’s a small business that cares about the quality of its product. A thumbs-up from me.

A few months ago I was walking down the street in Iceland. A women passed by me wearing the wierdest pair of shoes I had ever seen. They were orange, goofy looking and well… not nice. Not nice at all.
I just felt sorry for the poor women, surely she was a nice lady, just lacking fashion sense…or what???
During the next days and weeks I saw more and more people wearing them, pink, blue, purple, black, white, red, you name it, they have all the colours. And it wasn’t just in Iceland. No, that thing had made it’s way to Barcelona too. After a while I started to realise that people actually liked them. They told me that they are sooo comfortable and not THAT ugly.

I think they ARE ugly, and I just don’t understand how people can actually leave the house with those on, or just put them on to begin with.
And now they even have crocs bling-bling to try to make them look nicer!!!
Well, a newsflash for you; it’s not working. It’s a mission impossible. So people, please stop wearing these monsters.

As August nears an end the New York tans are getting deeper, a testament to the weekends spent in the Hamptons, barbeques along the Palisades, the required kiddie trips to Florida or the 24-hour convenience of tanning beds.

So imagine the horror I felt when I noticed a fellow commuter on the uptown #1 whose face was colored like this:

A dayglow orange creamsicle. Obviously a tan like this was neither a creation of the sun nor tanning bed. This is what happens when you decided the bronzer at Sephora is too damn expensive and buy, oh, I don’t know, Jergen’s body self-tanner and slather it on your face like it was antioxidant cream.

*Obviously the picture is not the woman I saw on the train — but the color is exactly the same. Can anyone tell who this face belongs to?

Why bother sending flowers? Flowers are over-rated. Also, I don’t want to sound sexist here but when you are a woman sending flowers to a man does not sound appropriate. Maybe I am just being too conservative.  

Anyways… I found a PERFECT alternative to flowers, perfect from a point of view of a chocolate addict that I am.

 With Chocolissimo you can send chocolates or a chocolate telegram to any place in the world!

The only downside of it is that the website functions only in 2 languages Polish and German, however the English version is supposed to be launched shortly. 

Bon appetite!

Maurizio Cattelan’s stuffed horse with its head embedded in the wall of the Modern Art Gallery in Frankfurt is causing something of a stir. This is typical of Cattelan, deemed by some to be the finest contemporary Italian artist.

If interested check out his praying Hitler, or his Pope John Paul struck down by a meteor.

I just walked into the duplicating center of the law firm where I am employed. My friend was putting on his ‘business’ shirt as I entered the room and I was able to get a delicious whiff of his intoxicant and I had to ask…

What are you wearing?

With a knowing smile he replied…Envy for Men

As soon as I walked back to my office I googled it: fragrances notes are Opoponax, Incense, Patchouli, Amber, Musk, Cedarwood, Cardamom, Anise, Ginger, Nutmeg and Pimiento

Yes that seems about right ’cause I could have definitely could have taken a few bites. It looks like Gucci figured out how to put sex back in the bottle.

What’s your scent today?

Oh if I was a rich girl…..I’d definitely buy a pair or two from this wonderful designer.

Simple, elegant and sexy, always a good mix.

As hard to say as they are hard to find: especially when you start naming titles and types, the blue one below for example is a Boblbee Megalopolis Sport. I’ve had my eye on these Swedish-designed carry-alls for a while now, for two reasons mainly: my back always aches when I carry my backpack, and these are supposed to support, not pressure, the back muscles; AND it’s got a hardshell, which would come in handy if I fell off my Vespa, as I’m always carrying my iBook.

The only reason I haven’t bought: they don’t make Boblbee’s big enough for the larger iBook sizes… so I remain disappointed. Come on Boblbee.

Next up: Joel Gion of The Dilettantes and The Brian Jonestown Massacre.

I haven’t seen Joel perform as part of the former, but I did in Sweden (at Hulsfred) in 2006, when he appeared on stage with the latter.

I wanted to whack-him. Such smugness. He looked like he didn’t give the slightest shit. He stood there, tamborine in hand, head back at at 20 degree tilt… and rhythmically playing the tamborine was all he did for the entire gig.

Someone’s even set up an organisation called “The Church of Gion“! You can see his in-performance stance and pose on YouTube here.

There is an over-crowded train which connects East London with the City. I have a doubtful pleasure to take this train twice a day, everyday for 6 minutes. There is also a bizarre phenomenon which occurs on this train only. When you look around most of the people are dressed very smart as most of them work in the offices of the financial district. When you look around the floor, as much as you can look around the floor in this crowd, you will notice that most of them wear sneakers. It is not a manifest of some new city fashion; it’s just a very practical approach towards commuting in an over-populated city.

a). high heels can hurt your co-passengers due to the very limited space each of us have, b). Your new, shiny shoes you spent a fortune on will get wasted before the end of the journey. Therefore it is much a better idea to put those shoes on no sooner than when you reach the office.

Maybe this habit sounds slightly excessive but that’s London and you cannot get more London than that!

I’ve discovered Kenneth Cole is love. Kenneth Cole at 50% off is orgasmic love.

I was a little down earlier today….moments before I hit Fifth Avenue as I found myself standing on the second floor of Kenneth Cole purchasing pants, cardigans and boots because more than any other man

he knows the length of my arm
the shape of my legs
the skim of my calf
and how to gently hold my hips

well, maybe not more than any other man.

Knit one, purl two, drink. I was chatting with my good friend M the other day and mentioned how incredibly hip knitting has become in New York. Especially for the 20-30 something crowd. I take a look around me, young women and metrosexuals everywhere are doing it – on the subway, in Bryant Park, at bars, coffee shops, movie shoots….New York is being taken over by zenned out knitters one stitch at a time. And I’m part of the craze.

Recently I took lessons and honestly, at first, I wasn’t feeling it, being a bit (ok a lot) hyper and in constant need of instant gratification, I found knitting at a click, click pace completely out of tune with my character. Until my knitting instructor Rahshida (see, I told you it was hip) informed me I would become a better knitter if I would just relax, light up and have a glass of wine. I skipped the weed, but reached for the wine and suddenly I got it. I had entered the knitting zone. That zenned out place you reach as the click of the bamboo needles rocks you into a sense of security as you weave your issues into the Alpacan softness and create your masterpiece.

Knit one, purl two, drink. Knit one, purl two, drink. My favorite places in knit? Booze and Yarn – where knitters and drinkers unite, Knit New York – where knitters and coffee/tea drinkers unite (I also run there when I’m stuck on a pattern), on the subway and of course, Central Park. My current project is a Ruana in a green/brown cashmere mix….it’s in my bag right now, locked in my desk….but I can hear it softly calling my name.

So you have your Moo cards (and a Moo card holder) now it’s time to get stamps with your photos (or photos of your cat)

During my never-ending online adventure I found THIS

Sadly these stamps can be used only in the US but I still think it is a really lovely idea!  

Capturing the very-best and the absolute-worst of Americans and how they party - a snapshot of urban fashion from the gutter to the red carpet, from one man’s camera perspective: Last Night’s Party.