revisiting the glamourous 20s

Word on the street has it that the style of the twenties is going to be huge this year, and I for one couldn't be more delighted. Although I don't much suit the shapeless, drop-waist look we immediately associate with the era, there's a lot of inspiration to be had from the fashion, art and literature of that time.

Spurring on the resurgence are recent films Midnight in Paris, Woody Allen's tribute to and send-up of nostalgia, and The Artist, and Baz Luhrman's already hotly-anticipated version of The Great Gatsby, due out in December. Style-wise, I particularly liked The Artist, as it also featured looks from the early 30s, when the severeness of the twenties' silhouette had relaxed a little, but when simplicity with exquisite details was still the order of the day. I would wear in an instant Berenice Bejo's white dancing dress and dainty headpiece, below.





Partly, the twenties are a satisfying decade to contemplate from a safe distance due to the aggressive celebration of youth and exuberance, always tainted slightly in retrospect by the knowledge that it was all really decadence hovering on the edge of a decade-long depression and the rise of fascism. The American twenties are presented as being all jazz, dancing and sparkle (actually quite an accomplishment considering it was the era of prohibition) but reading the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald one is immediately aware of the pretense, closet alcoholism, fear of aging and even mental illness lurking behind a sea of golden-haired girls and rich men.





Even more fascinating than the brash and brassy American experience though, is Germany's Weimar Republic, which lasted from 1919-1933. I love the creepy-fabulous depictions of nightlife in Berlin, as examplified by Otto Dix and the recently-discovered (by me) Jeanne Mammen(second picture) and love reading the novels and stories of Christopher Isherwood, set as German democracy crumbles and Hitler takes power, amongst a cast of strange and sad men and women. His novel Goodbye to Berlin was the loose inspiration behind the film Cabaret. The years of the Weimar Republic were tumultuous and difficult, but also very much a time of living in the moment... because probably hyperinflation would render your savings worthless by tomorrow.

I'm not exactly sure where I'm going with all this... except that I'm looking forward to channeling a bit of that madcap energy this year!

real february

February is one of those months that makes me want to go into hibernation, for various reasons, but here I'll just mention the style blogger ones. Winter, I've had it with you. I know you just began, but scram anyway. This is less of an outfit than a grumbled afterthought of "what haven't I worn together yet?" I've done some pattern-mixing to keep things rolling, but at -10 C I don't engage with fashion beyond that!

Also, I have a cold-sore. They don't usually make it onto the blog, but I'm human and I get them, and they're pretty much impossible to disguise with make-up so there you have it...

Anyone else ready for spring?







Photos by Albert

dress: Tommy Hilfiger (gift), coat: Zara, tights: gift, necklace: gift, raven pin: gift, hat: vintage, boots: Steve Madden

moving day

I'm sad to think this may be my last post on the terrace of my flat. Mainly I'm just sad to be moving on before I really had a chance to enjoy its splendour in full summer. Barcelona summers are long and languorous and having a terrace to drink wine on is the height of goodness. And even though it's currently really cold, I still love watching dawn reflect on the upper reaches of the buildings around us, while the streets below are still in night.

Meanwhile, I'm loving this it-doesn't-count-as-a-purchase-since-I-neeeeeeded-clothes-for-a-job-interivew coat. It makes me feel a little boyish in silhouette, and I like the strong shouldered swish as I trample over American exchange students in the metro...

Speaking of which, if anyone's thinking of doing a Masters in Creative Writing, I've been spending some time with the people behind a really fantastic sounding one. It's run through an American University and is accredited, and most of the work (writing a novel or equivalent) is done by distance, meaning you could keep your job. But then there are bundles of courses in two-week blocks, once a year and then once for graduation, taking place in Dublin, Barcelona, Vienna and Bratislava. Anyway, I only wish I could take it myself, as I've been attending some free writing seminars this week from the director which have been really interesting...



coat: Zara, sweater: ancient, shirt: vintage, jeans: Warehouse, pin: gift, shoes: ebay

red dresses are not just for holidays

Well, that was a bit of an absence for me! I'm usually a pretty regular poster, but life has suddenly just decided to be madness. Right after my last post I got really sick, got handed a lot more work at my job, got way more into the task of finding another job, tried to keep up with my writing schedule... I'm tired. Also it's 0°C in Barcelona! It even snowed (briefly, and I have never seen such over-reactions) on Thursday. Posts might be patchy around here for the next week.

This red dress is my winter uniform. When I first showed it on the blog in December, several people rightly pointed out that it was perfect for Christmas. It's also I guess perfect for Valentine's day. My friend pointed out today that I can wear it for my Carnival costume, holding a syringe, and be a naughty nurse. In fact, today I wore it with polka dot tights and looked pretty Minnie Mouse. It definitely veers on the extreme/cartoonish side of things, but one thing I can't argue with is the colour. When black and grey and navy make me look dead in the winter, fire-engine red is there to reignite some signs of life.

These pictures were taken in a hurry, but I wanted to show the fantastic red wall of my flat, especially since I'm moving out next week... oh right, another thing to do...





Disfraz de enfermera cachonda: Kling, tights: Dorothy Perkins, shoes: ebay, cushions: Spitalfields Market, everything else is just part of the decor!

december's dress

I mentioned a few posts back that my New Years fashion resolution is to only buy one item per month. The main reasons for this are that I have enough clothes to cover most occasions, but I still love getting new dresses (or whatever). With my travelling lifestyle, clothes are basically the only things I can practically collect, and even with them I'm severely limited as to space/weight, so they may as well be items I love (and then I better wear them). Anyway, if I were to apply my New Years resolution retro-actively, this would be December's dress.





I, (and Albert) love the easy, flattering shape and the bow, but possibly my favourite detail are the three layers of seams along the bottom. It reminds me how dresses used to be made longer and hemmed, then let out as children grew so as to maintain a decent length. Anyway; love. I wore this dress all weekend; to lunch with Albert's grandparents, for two empanada breakfasts in a row, to a restaurant, to a nightclub, to the Sant Antoni Sunday morning book market, for a walk in Raval. I have a more urban lifestyle than the average Nadinoo heroine, but I think this dress couldn't be more perfect for Barcelona's narrow streets, crowded markets, and nighttime warehouse district. I had fun headbanging in the dress too for a while...probably not what it was intended for!



I got a few second-hand books at the market, including scoring the only French copy of a Tintin book I could find. I'm trying to improve (read learn) my French again. People who aren't Canadian always think that we're all perfectly bilingual but um--we're not. Here, people always assume I can speak French (I can't) since I'm Canadian, but also assume since I'm a native English speaker that I can't speak Spanish or Catalan (I can) because everyone knows that English speakers are dumb and can't learn languages. Le grrr. Anyway, I'm trying to learn French again.

dress: Nadinoo, cardigan: car boot sale, necklace: craft fair (gift), shoes: Fly London, pin: Sherlock Holmes museum, London, bag: vintage via Mom

a canadian in barcelona

I don't actually have anything profound to say on the subject of Canadians in Barcelona--apart from anything else I'm the only one I know--but it seemed a fitting enough title for this post with the city spread out below. I took these pictures on Montjuïc, where I spent some time skulking in the bushes waiting for a couple to vacate the ledge. In the bushes I met about a thousand wild cats, who growled at me throughout.





This outfit is actually the dressy version of what I've been wearing most mornings. I've been really pushing myself to get out to a café by 8am to work on my book for a few hours before the rest of the day catches up with me. It's working out really well so far, but it does seem to mean a daily outfit of black pants, blue airline socks, and whatever shirt is closest to hand. It's kind of silly that all fall when I had hardly any clothes I was obsessed with getting dressed up every day, and now that I've brought back a lot more things to wear, my priorities are elsewhere. Given all of that, I think I look surprisingly put together... and that unrolled trouser-leg is getting filed under the excuse of "artistic temperament." Anyway, to jazz things up a bit I added some sparkly flats and a star-studded beret. The shirt was box-dived, and is an old union shirt. I'm not sure which of my family it belonged to, but we do have great collection of vintage slogan t-shirts, from "Muskoka Jazz" to "Cuba Si" to "My Karma ran over your Dogma."







t-shirt: family vintage, pants: H&M, beret: very old, shoes: Ardene (gift)

what do nicole kidman, kosovan refugees, and my outfit have in common?

... Not that much, as it turns out, but if you do want to know the link, head over to Virginie's Cinema--head over anyway; I love her blog! Here you'll find me waxing semi-eloquent about cinema and so forth...