(Some of) the week in pictures

The itinerant fashionista is back and jetlagged but joyful for having managed successfully to squeeze both business and pleasure into the last 144 hours. There was some travel knitting, but, alas, there are no pictures. I can show you snippets of what I did see on the way from meeting to meeting, though:

Flowers bought from the Chelsea Flower Stand in London:



Various Parisian views from along the quais and the Pont des Arts:











By the way, Jane, I picked up some lovely mini macarons at Paul in London and thought to take a picture for you -- but they had been gobbled up before I could fish my camera out of its case!

Essential Chic

[x-posted at The Cashmere Gallery]

In stolen moments between WorkWork and the colourworks studio, I'm having a fabulous time drinking in a fantastic book: Genevieve Antoine Dariaux's Guide to Elegance: For Every Woman Who Wants to Be Well and Properly Dressed on All Occasions. So few are the opportunities when we can get a kick out of reading a how-to manual. Written originally in 1962, the book still contains a lot of practical advice. One or two things may be slightly outdated, but some things do not erode with time, including this nutshell definition of...

CHIC

The essence of casual refinement, chic is a little less studied than elegance and a little more intellectual. It is an inborn quality of certain individuals, who are sometimes unaware that they possess it. Chic is only perceptible to those who have already acquired a certain degree of civilization and culture and who have in addition both the leisure time to devote to improving their appearance and the desire to be part of a particular kind of elite, which might be called the 'aristocracy of external appearance'. It is a gift of the gods and has no relationship to beauty nor to wealth. One baby in its crib may have chic, while another doesn't.

Dariaux goes on to say that elegance is achieved in part by having the right accessories, which may be simple but of impeccable quality.

And nothing says that like a cozy cashmere scarf around your neck in winter, like this 1x1 ribbed scarf by Helen from Yorkshire, England.



She used 2 skeins of Pippin (100% aran weight cashmere) in colourway Bumblebee to create a simple accessory that is ALL casual luxe.

Thanks for sharing such a lovely photo, Helen!

~*~

In other news, I'll be traveling from today until next Wednesday, again with little or intermittent internet access, so please be patient. I will reply to your emails and orders when I return. Orders: if I have received your payment by Paypal or check, your orders have already begun processing (there is plenty of cashmere drying at the moment) and they should be ready to ship shortly after I get back! Have a lovely week, everyone!

In celebration of the ephemeral...

Although this is a knitting blog, the following image has nothing to do with knitting. But think of it as an acknowledgement of wonderful visual talent. It's a photograph by Benoit Peverelli that was part of a spread in, of all places, the Enfants supplement to French Vogue's September 2005 issue.



It's less about the Eric Bompard cashmere sweater and Bill Tornade trousers than it is an homage to the power of imagination and innocence, this little boy against the horizon with his cluster of balloons standing tall with the metropolis at his feet.

This is definitely one of my top ten favourite fashion photographs of all time.

How long can we make the power of that inner child last?

Which brings me back to the two Robs: Laura, you got it right in one in the last post . Buried deep in my subconscious is this poem that was featured in The Outsiders, the film starring a host of pre-Brat Pack members, including Rob Lowe (based on the S.E. Hinton novel):

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

--Robert Frost

(PS. Actual knitting content to follow sometime soon!)

A busy bee in autumn, that's me

Ah... fall. The skies glorious cerulean, the air refreshingly crisp, and overnight the trees here have gone from green to gold -- coordinating spectacularly with my fall wardrobe. *sigh*



And a circuitous train of thought brings me to the question of the day: What do Robert Frost and Rob Lowe have in common? Actually, they may have lots in common, but I'm thinking of something in particular... Anyone? Feel free to gaze thoughtfully at the picture above while you muse. (answer in next post)

In the meantime, I have been very very busy with orders and plenty of things that, unfortunately, I can't show you. But I do have some new colourways, soon to be added to "The List". (Unless otherwise noted, all colourways below, shown in Mont Blanc, 100% light DK cashmere.)

Kate:



My Etro Shirt:



Bruise (shown in Pippin 100% aran weight cashmere):



And some semi-solids to coordinate with My Etro Shirt and other colourways...

Paddock Brown:



Perry Winkel:



Grape:



and Hill of Tara: