I got my very first pair of earrings from my great-grandmother. I was 5 and I did not care much. However my grandma felt deeply insulted by the fact I didn’t wear her gift. Also it was considered ABNORMAL not to wear earrings at this age. Therefore one gloomy afternoon (the weather is my only memory of that day) I was dragged kicking and screaming to the local beautician to have my ears pierced.

5 years later I asked my mum if I could get another piercing in my left ear.

That one unfortunate piercing got me instantly into trouble. Two studs in my left ear made me a rebel in the eyes of all the teachers. Even though neither my grades nor my behavior was any different to what it was before. BUT there was something about me they couldn’t understand. I was so normal yet I had THAT extra earring and it was annoying the hell out of them. 

Now I am a teacher. I still wear two earrings in my left ear and I am constantly being asked by Polish (!) children and their parents WHY do I have two of those?!

What is it about Polish people and their idea of what’s ‘NORMAL’ when it comes to appearance and such prejudice towards anything that’s even slightly different?

Besides, how do you define ‘normal’?

Photographer Martin Klimas specialises in capturing split-millisecond moments in his photography, such as the moment of breakage of a fragile object, or the beat of wings, as seen here. Beautiful.

Grey seems to be small town favourite. I was walking down the street in my hometown this morning, everything and everybody was grey, grey and the same. As if there were no other colours, designs, styles. Just grey. Grey and shapeless.

Depressing.

First it was Karl Lagerfeld for H&M, though afterwards Lagerfeld accused H&M of snobbery because the retailer only created limited quantities of the collection. That hasn’t stopped other designers, and we’ve since seen Stella McCartney and Viktor & Rolf create successful lines for the high street store.

And so we wait for Roberto Cavalli at H&M (November 8th!)

Here’s the fall-out after Viktor & Rolf went on sale in H&M Amsterdam. Funny stuff:

I’m a bit of a sucker when it comes to time pieces. The more out-there the better.

It doesn’t get more out-there than this, from Urwerk, the 201 they call it. Get this: the thing even features an oil change indicator to show the “watch” is due a servicing. It has a 100-year-plus lifetime expectation, and the hands adjust their length to display the correct time on the face. Swatch it’s not, nor is it Swatch-like in it’s price, it’s gonna be over US$50k, and they will make only 10 of the suckers… I could be waiting a while.

The capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires has everything, and for fashionable people it is the most important destination in South America.

Foremost is Palermo Viejo, the coolest neighborhood in Buenos Aires, full of hyped-restaurants, coffee bars and trendy shops, and the most stylish people walking around the area. Here are my personal highlights:

For bars and coffee shops: don’t miss Bar Uriarte, where you should take the “té para dos”, it’s what comes with the tea, rather than the tea itself, that will impress you. By night it becomes something really special. The owners also run Gran Bar Danzón, one of the coolest and trendiest places in Buenos Aires, which is in La Recoleta.

For restaurants, try Casa Cruz, probably THE hippest place in the city right now.

For the all-important shopping in Palermo Viejo? Definitely María Cher, Trosman, Cora Groppo, A.Y.Not Dead, Sal si puedes+Condimentos, and you also have Mishka and Josefina Ferroni for some really cool shoes. All this shops are for women. For men I  recommend Félix.

With its leafy cobbled streets, hidden terraces, and friendly people, Palermo Viejo (literally meaning “Old Palermo”) is a must. Let me know how YOUR visit goes!

I like my tea. I like it hot, I like it sweet and I like it served in a pretty mug.
Therefore I squeed in ecstasy when I saw the new limited Micky Mouse vintage mug collection at Whittard. Guess what I brought back home tonight?!

For grown-up kids, gloomy mornings and cold autumn afternoons. 

It sounds a touch bland, but it works. Photography of people passing through NYC subway turnstiles.

Wish I’d thought of it. More about it here.

Do you ever feel that models are mere puppets? Here’s Ali Stephens of Elite being screentested. Note how eyes go back to centre when camera goes too far to side. Note lack of reaction. Note how pencil thin she is.

A little sad, I feel.

These things have gotten out of control. Some cyclist or other wore one once, then everyone thought it was a good idea. While purportedly worn to show support for good causes… people now wear these things to tell the world X, Y or Z about themselves: that they’re a geek, or that they support a particular football team, or that the like the colour green. Ridiculous stuff.

A fashion item it’s not. If you’ve got one of these around your wrist, do us all a favour, don’t cut off the bracelet - cut your wrist!

Airport security is not there to protect us, airport security is there to annoy us and make our trip difficult.
It’s been ages since I have traveled by plane with hand-luggage only.

Can somebody explain to me how on Earth am I supposed to fit in all my liquid cosmetics into one clear plastic bag that is 20cm by 20cm? 

I would like to take this opportunity to thank terrorists for making my life difficult again. 

All the way from the University of Berlin, and designer Markus Kison comes this so-clever-it-hurts creation: a ring, which displays the Google hit count of whoever is wearing it. I wouldn’t do so well, but Pablo Picasso does pretty good, as can be seen from this video demonstration.

For those of you who are vain enough to wear such a thing!

Wearing clothes because they happen to have a custom-made iPod pocket is pretty dumb. Whatever happened to normal pockets for holding normal things? It’s not as if iPods come in one fixed size for one fixed pocket size anyway, Apple’s selling-out-to-the-masses ensured there’s now about 10 different dimensional sizes. Nor is it like the things are so heavy that pockets need special stitching or reinforcement. And BROTHER, these cars with the iPod dock, what are they thinking!? You’d hope your car would last longer than your iPod, right? And with iPods on average (from personal experience) lasting a total of 366 days before they die, you’ll have gone through at least three before you plan on selling-on your wheels.

Get WITH it! Music players, wallets, mobile phones, cash and coins should fit into YOUR life, you don’t mould your life, or change your clothing, to fit with THEM!

Revealing the all-new fashionably-designed Irish rugby jersey, used in the recent Rugby World Cup in France.

Special.

During my shopping adventure in central London this morning I saw a guy wearing a t-shirt saying ‘I BELONG TO A GENERATION THAT IS FAMOUS FOR NOTHING’
First of all, things written on t-shirts shouldn’t be THAT long, as it makes it hard to read especially when the t-shirt is being worn by an individual in motion.

Second. What’s the thought behind that slogan? Are we really such a lousy generation? Do we really have nothing to be proud of? … or are we a generation of ‘anybodies’ being famous for nothing (or just for the hell of it)

When you look at people like Chris Crocker everything becomes clear. He had been mentioned in every possible news program recently along with the Burma crisis and SA mine rescue.

(With extracts borrowed from an earlier post of mine on another blog.)

In the changing room there is another set of rules.

I don’t just mean the don’t-look-below-the-waistline-rule.

First, note: I’m a white-assed, freckle-endowed, non-muscular, burn-easy Irishman in Barcelona.

Today, having been at the local pool, I found myself in the midst of a very busy male changing room, Catalan being spoken all around me, with a race of people who:
a) actually have summers (and Autumns) where you can go to the >outdoor< pool;
b) who have white-asses, sure, but are dark-brown elsewhere;
c) who have grown up and lived their lives to date in swimming pool changing rooms, unlike me.

There’s an unhurried cool in Barcelona swimming pool changing rooms; and this contrasts wildly with my hurry-to-get-my-underwear-on style, with one still-wet foot in the air, while the other foot balances precariously atop a flipflop.

I realise I’m getting it all-wrong. I’m letting my shorts drip on an otherwise dry floor; I haven’t brought a hairbrush, nor skin moisturiser for that matter, nor a separate towel for my face. I’m an Irishman for God’s sake, we don’t DO that kind of thing!

It’s cultural… that’s about the only comfort I can offer myself. I wonder if another year, or ten, of post-pool Sunday-afternoon experiences will ever give me that natural changing room cool? Somehow I doubt it.

For the second time in my life I am pressed to make one of the most difficult fashion decisions women worldwide face….the wedding dress.  I’ve made my choice and today commissioned someone to make this dress for me:

This simple yet elegant cowl neck dress has lower draping in the back and will be made of double sided liquid silk.  I’ve chosen ivory because ivory is more flattering than white on my complexion and with five children following me down the beach to my ex-husband, new groom, white would be uh laughable. 

This week I will hire a personal trainer who has absolutely no compassion or tolerance for excuses I have some serious arm work, and who am I kidding, ab work to do. 

… for New Years, I would like to have the photographic skill of Klaus Thymann. Thank you. Genevieve.

… for Christmas, I would like to have the artistic skill of Dave Gorum. Thank you. Mark