Happy New Year

We hope you will have an amazing New Year's Eve!

A big THANK YOU to all our readers and followers!

All the best for 2011!

Clean slate

“My soul is impatient with itself, as with a bothersome child; its restlessness keeps growing and is forever the same. Everything interests me, but nothing holds me. I attend to everything, dreaming all the while.”

Fernando Pessoa

... contemplating all the great, life-changing things that happened to me in the past 12 months (because when something comes to an end, I tend to overlook the bad stuff) and getting ready for the new year ahead...

UNEARTHEN jewelry

People who love unusual jewelry and accessories like me need to see Gia Bahm's accessory line UNEARTHEN. It has some pretty cool stuff I'd like to share with you.

The crystal and bullet necklaces are the most popular items of her line but as a ring addict myself I wouldn't mind owning the first piece below. Who am I kidding, I'd love to have every single thing from her line and then maybe I'll become a convert and believe in the healing and mystic powers of the gemstones... ^^

Large rose gold prism ring with clear quartz

Gold top natural cord with sand

Large silver watch

Large amethyst necklace

Zipporra + Love & Luck at The Club!

Two Hot hot, New new labels paraded their stuff together at 'The Club' in Sydney's Kings Cross last night. I know they are hot and I know they are new because-I have just finished shooting the Fashion Campaign for Love & Luck and our model Rochelle is part of the Zipporra team-as I understand it. Actually you can check out the BTS Video from the L&L shoot Here. This was a very pleasantly chilled out evening thanks in part to the Chambord & Champagne drinkie poos. You all know by now I love the Chambord since first trying it out at the Carl Kapp show last year, and there have been some big Chambord nights since...

And, the parade was spot on with models who can walk and a sizzling DJ set of heavy 70s classics, Hedrix, The Doors-like a scene, fuck no; like being-there, in the boat, "Appocalypse Now" style, very trippy...



















Love & Luck styled the Accessories and Bags from their new ranges while Zipporra sent out Swimwear and Summer 10. Enjoy the besy of the blurry shots as ony Street Fashion Sydney can do them!

I can't wait to see more for both of these lables they are both off to a superb start.

Zipporra

Love & Luck Blog

Thursday's Inspiration

Source: song of style, fyndigt, jak&jil, boafft

Cuddle up hoodie

Zurich 22.47: snow snow snow

hoodie - new yorker

Have a good start into the week!

Les Amours Imaginaires

A love triangle with all its ups and downs is the core of Xavier Dolan's second Movie Les Amours Imaginaires: Francis and Marie are best friends but they fall in love with the same guy named Nico, who enjoys his life to the full. Francis - played by Xavier Dolan - and Marie start to court Nico, which slowly tears a hole in their friendship.

Les Amours Imaginaires bares the human feeling of love in all its aspects. It shows with ease the dramatic art of love but still remains wistful.

Xavier Dolan plays masterful with slow motion, close up and light settings - all accentuated with matching background music.

Have a look at the trailer here!

Les Amours Imaginaires is a fun, emotional and thrilling movie, which shows human weaknesses in an elegant manner and banks on a gentle hope.

Xavier Dolan also gratifies fashion-forward spectators : )

Premiere: 6th of January 2011

German-speaking Switzerland

Director: Xavier Dolan

Country of Production: Canada

Marie: Monia Chokri

Nico: Niels Schneider

Francis: Xavier Dolan

♥

Crispy chewy chocolate chip cookies

After baking several christmas cookies I craved something more chocolately so I baked an alltime favorite of mine: chocolate chip cookies. Being aware of my recent baking craziness a class mate made the remark that I'll be gaining weight until the end of this stressful semester but I swear, those were so worth it! I wanted my cookies to be crispy on the outside but chewy on the inside and this recipe delivered exactly what it promised.

I found the recipe on one of my favorite food blogs, Smitten Kitchen. If I were to use the same recipe again I'd make some adjustments. The cookies were a tad to sweet for my taste so I'm definitely going to reduce the amount of sugar and use a little less vanilla essence the next time. Other than that, this will be my go-to recipe whenever I want to enjoy a chocolate chip cookie with my cup of coffee.

Esprit Icon Store - Sydney Opening

The terms Icon, Iconic, Classic, (and even ironic) seem to have sadly been rather beaten about about for some time now. One only need to think of the popular term 'instant classic' to know language has taken a real beating. Lets face it, 'instant classic' is an oxymoron! It takes time to become a classic and no matter how you may feeel about something new; only the passage of time and society's take on that thing; film, art, fashion, architecture, song, whatever-will reveal if something becomes a classic or not.

Now the word Icon also follows all the same rules as for the word Classic. It takes time to build an Icon just as it does to create a true Classic, it doesn't happen overnight. So as you can imagine it was with a little trepidation that I attended the launch of the brand new Esprit Icon store at Wesfield in the Sydney CBD last week. Whilst in my minds eye I knew the new Esprit store would be a fabulous shop front opening onto the mall, the still continuing construction work, lolly-pop-people-&-cement-trucks nature of the Pitt St Mall forced me off of Pitt St and directly into the bowels of the new New NEW Wesfield in the city. Not such a bad thing really as whilst wandering about looking for the Esprit store I did get to see just how BIG this new shopping development in Sydney really is. Its HUGE, but as I soon found a touch screen directory it was not long before I was standing before the lower ground entrance to Esprit and a solitary security person who, as a veteran of many many nights of Night Clubbing, I chose to completely ignore as I strode towards the small gap of an entrance before me. Well I am clearly losing my touch as I was stopped and asked if I had been in here before... "No, but I am on the list". I was required to make my way back up to the Pitt St entrance where surprise surprise a red carpet arrival awaited 'me'.

I won't say much about my arrival other than to say that to everyone I met who remembered me from the Ford Connect launch party; I apologised to and promised I would behave myself tonight!

The good news is that it seems the people at Esprit really do know what the word Icon means. They know that you cannot become an Icon overnight and that it takes time and effort-that to be an Icon means raising the bar to a particularly high place, a place well above and beyond what you would expect and more than that as well. This was immediately born out Vis-à-vis by experiencing just how nice everyone was at the store. If it was not that I know every stop on the train ride from Marrickville to St James station where I alighted my trip, I could have sworn I had slipped into some sort of space-time-continuum-vortex and emerged at a store opening in Melbourne! Yes, people were so nice I almost forgot I was in Sydney & thought, "my god, its just like I am in Melbourne"!

The press release said that the launch would have something for everyone-kids welcome! And I must say that I did think that was a pretty big call; and yet they delivered. Apart from topless male models strolling around the store, yes there is for-the-first-time-in-Australia an Esprit menswear section (on the third floor). The fashion show had both teen and kid dancers who also doubled as models, doing their thing kitted out head-to-toe in Esprit.  Between the dance routines came your more typical runway show; all in all it there was something for everyone and everyone in attendance seem to be like-me having a pretty good time.

The funny thing is, or was, although this was a great big opening of a great big store. Something has stuck with me over the past week. And it kind of goes without saying that if I had posted a story about this opening next-day, well... I have been mentioning to friends that this opening was a lot like dropping into your fav small boutique where they know you, they offer you a glass of champagne. I thought those days were gone but my friends assure me they are still alive and well.  The opening, no; the store felt personal. And that is something special; if you want to be an Icon store, that has to be a truly great start. Anyway, enough of my blather, if you have read this much of such a long post even if you are on a slow connection all the pictures must have loaded by now. Enjoy!

Pamela Love

To me this doesn't look creepy at all and I'd love to have the talon cuff clinging to my wrist. That is, if I had 1000 dollars to spend on an accessory... Have a look at Pamela Love's site if you want to see more of her tough-luxe accessories.

Source:
1: Pamela Love, 2: Jak&Jil

I’d woken up early and I took a long time getting ready to exist

Mixed fruit yogurt parfait: a concoction of raspberry purree, yogurt and oranges topped with crunchy granola and liquid honey

Have a lovely Sunday everyone! I won't be going anywhere I've never been today but really wish I was. At least I made myself a nice little breakfast, which doesn't only look but also taste good plus you get some vitamins, which is never a bad thing.


Photo: private, Quote: Seensucht

If a little dreaming is dangerous, the cure for it is not to dream less but to dream more, to dream all the time

This hair essence from paul mitchell smells incredibly fruity and I'm so far more than content with it. It helps to protect my hair from the heat of blow driers. I have to dry my hair after washing it since it's so winterly here in Zurich.

Ladurée macarons: rose, caramel, pistachio, vanilla, mixed berries, chocolate

shirt and scarf - h&m

I'm still addicted to black tea with coffee cream. Here I'm having a cup of tea at the Fotomuseum in Winterthur, Zurich.

both rings - six, nail polish - catrice 070 caught on the red carpet

private photos + quote

♥

Cranberry and Pistachio cookies

You might not know this about me but I love baking. Standing in the kitchen, trying out new recipes and surprising my loved ones with little delights is my favorite way to unwind. Every now and then I’m planning on sharing some treats with you filed under the category “Kitchen Heals Soul”.

As for these cookies, I was looking for a recipe for sablés (French cookies) and stumbled upon a fantastic blog called Le Pétrin. Here you can find the recipe for these delicious cookies. (Let me know if you want me to translate it).

I made some with pistachio and some with almond crust, the flavor of the dried cranberries adds a fantastic tang to the cookies. Needless to say these sablés will make my whole apartment smell delightfully cozy again some other time…

UPDATE: translated recipe

170g softened butter
125g white sugar
2 egg yolks
2cc lemon juice
190gr all purpose flour
110g almond powder
110g dried cranberries
a handful minced pistachios or almonds for the crust

Cut the softened butter into pieces and beat it with a wooden spoon in a large bowl until creamy.
Pour in the sugar and beat energetically until it’s well incorporated with the softened butter.

Add the egg yolks and the lemon juice and beat until it’s mixed well with the other ingredients.
Add the sifted flour and the almond powder, mix only until incorporated with the wet ingredients but avoid overworking the dough (it would make the cookies harder during the baking process).
Add the dried cranberries by hand and mix them to share out equally.

Divide the dough in two pieces and form a roll.
Put the minced almonds/pistachios onto an aluminium paper and roll the cookie dough, elongating it to a lenght of 20-22cm. Repeat likewise with the second roll. (I used pistachios for one roll and almonds for the other.)

Wrap the dough rolls into aluminium paper, making sure the ends are closed tight. Put the rolls into the fridge, leaving it there for several hours, preferably over night (that’s what I did). You’ll see that the dough will be really firm and ready to be cut the next day.

Preheat your oven to 180°C. Put parchement paper onto two baking trays.
Unpack one roll from the aluminium paper (keep the second one still in the fridge) and cut it into 5-6mm thick slices. Put the slices onto the parchment paper, making sure there is enough space between the cookies (they spread a little).

Bake the cookies for about 12 minutes depending on their size and the temperature of your oven, until the edges are lightly toasted. Leave them on the tray for a couple minutes before transferring them onto wire racks to cool completely.