ninetwelvetwentyfive

some days are so beautiful, all you can do is rent a car and take off to the beach.  yesterday was like that. so that’s what we did.

(sunglasses karen walker, sweatshirt uniqlo, black skirt self-made, tights can’t remember, karen walker runaway girl necklace and charity shop bag covered in studs by your humble reporter.  not shown, wicked-cool russell and bromley brogues ..)

(ah, there they are.  they’re a luscious cherry red.)

the rockstar rockin’ in the free world.  he’d never touched the pacific ocean before.  how adorable is that?  so we went down to the water’s edge, and ..

.. the tide came in, very quickly.

it was a lovely day.  how did you make the most of it?

(photo taken by the rockstar)

ah bless, sometimes men just don’t get the whole fashion thing.  the rockstar is extremely stylish and works a suit better than practically anyone i’ve ever met.  but he doesn’t quite (yet) get that it’s not so easy for us chicas to pick appropriate outfits.  in packing my suitcases for this one-way trip, i had to pick clothes that would be suitable for two weeks in nearly-winter london, a month in nearly-spring new zealand and a month in definitely-summer brazil.  not easy, but i think i did a pretty bang-up job. what i did not do, however, was anticipate that three days after arriving in wellington i would be attending a wedding.  the rockstar’s best friend’s daughter was getting married and both she, and her husband-to-be, are evangelical christians.  a little heads-up might have been helpful.

looking through my wardrobe, i realised i had very little that wasn’t (a) black, and therefore possibly unacceptable;  (b) over-challenging fashion-wise, and therefore possibly unacceptable;  (c) a bit too boho, and therefore possibly unacceptable;  (d) skin-tight and short, and therefore definitely unacceptable.   this beautiful jaeger dress came to the rescue.

i love jaeger.  my mum used to save her pennies to buy  pieces of it when she was a student.  i seek it out in vintage stores because a lot of people have not yet come to appreciate the utter awesomeness of their 60s and 70s ranges.  in fact one of my most treasured and most-commented-on vintage coats is a gorgeous apple-green jaeger number picked up for a tenner at a carboot sale.  okay, so later on the big j became very boxy and very unflattering, the kind of stuff that ladies-of-a-certain-age bought because that’s the brand they’ve always bought.   for a while there was a collaboration with bella freud which did okay but was screamingly expensive and didn’t quite hit its target market, i felt.   but with the breakout a/w 2007 jaeger london collection — of which this dress was a part — the venerable old lady stepped once again into the spotlight, making everyone remark how god-damn sexy she is, still, after all these years.  witty and modern shapes, beautiful fabrics and finishing and the ultimate accolade of a kate moss photograph .. and this perfect dress.  pretty, styley and just that bit unusual, it was perfect for an early-spring wedding.  no thunderbolts were forthcoming, so i musta did good.

(not that you can see in this photo, but i wore the dress with seamed stockings, my comfort station goats-head necklace and my karim rashid for melissa wedges.  hey, i figured i’d already made some concessions to the occasion ..)

you’re not supposed to take photos in the newly-reopened wellington art gallery, but i didn’t read the gallery advice thing properly so snapped a couple of quick pics at the yayoi kusama show.  a nice lady came over and said i shouldn’t take photos.   i said to her “oh i’m sorry i didn’t know .. would you mind if i kept that one, though?  you can’t really see the work, it’s just the reflection i like”.   she smiled and said it was okay.  so here is myself and the rockstar, reflected in one part of an installation which is all about — ta daa! — narcissism.  kind of apt, really?

(oh, and what i’m wearing, just so i can pretend this is an outfit post:  battered chuck taylors, battered diesel jeans, customised uniqlo cardigan which you can see better in this post.  oh, and my wayfauxrers.  i have been a bit slack on the style thoughts and outfit documenting, but i’ll get back on that, promise promise.)

well hi there, interbets.

i am in wellington at the moment and it is cold but beautiful.  today i am flying to auckland to go to my best friend’s wedding.  i will be staying in a lovely hotel with my favourite brazilian and we have dinners, coffees and sightseeing planned.

i am also trying as hard as i can not to think about how i am going back to london on monday

anyway, welcome.  seja bem-vindo.