Dolcevita Blog

I saw a movie from the 80’s yesterday. It was really crappy – an erotic thriller or something – and nothing exciting ever happened. I did get a glimpse of a secretary in the movie. She was wearing a very simple and conservative outfit. What made the outfit interesting was a pair of red pumps. I’m trying to recreate the look today.

There was no outfit photo yesterday as I was hung over from a party I went to the day before. It was one of the craziest parties I’ve ever been to. First we walked through a labyrinth of strange art. Then we got to a room were the word GO was blinking with light bulbs. Down the stairs you got to a basement where they sold cheap beer accompanied with performance art. You really had to be there cause there was a new surpise in every corner and words can’t describe it. I wish I had a camera with me as there were some people there with great outfits.

Back to today’s outfit, it was very tempting to match the red shoes with some red accessories, or to add some fancy jewelry, but I really wanted to keep it as simple as possible.

Top: H&M
Skirt: Secondhand
Shoes: Secondhand

The new spot for Chanel Coco Mademoiselle starring the lovely Keira Knightley! Read the rest of this entry »

While London melted last week, I was breathing in the fresh air of Somerset. It was a happy coincidence that I ran away to the countryside just before the city started to sweat.

The reason for the break was to avoid heading back into work following a weekend at The Glade festival, where I was hooked up to a bottle of Absolut vodka in order to keep going through 48 hours of electronic beats. The thing with growing older is that the spirit is still willing to dance in a field for hours, but the body’s recovery time is extended from hours to days.

So I headed off to the village of Porlock, staying at Lower House Farm, where I did very little apart from work off the best fried bread I’ve ever tasted with a stroll by the beach or to the cute shops. Now I’m back, refreshed and ready for the rest of summer. And, thanks to the glorious British sunshine I’ve got a light tan, so I’m booking myself in for a manicure and pedicure in celebration of managing to avoid dark circles under my eyes and that slightly manic look you get from greeting the dawn three days running. Read the rest of this entry »

Another year, another decision as to what outfit I should wear to my birthday celebrations.

Some people feign modesty over their birthdays: “Oh just a small dinner, a few friends, nothing too extravagant.” Fools, that’s what I say. This is the one date in the year that attention-seeking behaviour is totally justified, as opposed to my daily annoying demands for everyone to look at me. Then, I am a Leo and, bowing to stereotype, I do like to be made a fuss of and to queen it up at any opportunity.

And birthdays are the perfect opportunity to pile on the glamour and encourage complete carnage. I feel that I’ve failed if there hasn’t been at least one affair sparked during the evening, or at least a little bit of drunken weeping followed by lots of dancing upon restricted surfaces. I have high expectations of low behaviour from my friends and acquaintances. Read the rest of this entry »

I was never a Barbie girl. I was never one for dinky dolls; I liked life-sized toys that you could pretend were real friends.

I put it down to being practically an only child, as my sister is nine years older and by the time I was a toddler she was far more interested in experimenting with punk boyfriends than playing at house with me.

Whether it was because of this, or because my mother thought the doll was too spooky looking to introduce to her child, I hadn’t heard of Blythe until a girl in my university bar tried to convince me that she existed. “A doll with an over-sized head and huge eyes, which wears the latest fashions? Someone get that girl an orange juice to clear the drugs out of her system!”

But the girl wasn’t hallucinating, as I discovered years later when I came across an article all about Blythe’s revival, thanks to the Japanese love of kitsch. Photographer Gina Garan relaunched the doll with a set of beautiful photographs, which appeared in Vogue Nippon for 12 consecutive months in 2011. Designers who created Blythe’s outfits for the project included John Galliano, Prada, Sonia Rykiel and Vivienne Westwood. Read the rest of this entry »

Apparently, trainer pimps with spare rooms filled with boxes of never-worn, limited edition trainers wrapped in protective tissue paper do exist and are not the urban myth I always assumed them to be.

I love footwear, but even for me that’s taking it a tad too far. I think I’ve written before that trainers are not really my thing – except for white, old school sneakers. I recently had a twinge of trainer envy after my friend Vicky bought a pair of the Adidas Forest Hills. These fabulous, re-issued 1970s tennis pumps are part of the Adidas “Originals” collection. Read the rest of this entry »