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London, Style

Style – Saying Goodbye to London

July 26, 2020
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The last few weeks have been busy and spent running around seeing people when possible, completing projects, taking care of bureaucratic details, you name it.

Luckily the weather has been nice for most of the time, which does help, even though it sometimes does make me feel like being on holiday instead of stuck at home! Hopefully soon enough and after the upcoming adventure is over, I will be able to have a few days off.

One of the things that have changed in the last few months has been the makeup routine – with having to wear a mask I don’t wear any foundation or do any blusher or contouring, not to mention lipstick as the mask just rubs it off. After seeing loads of adverts for it on Instagram, I ordered a set of 12 brightly coloured liquid eyeliners and I’ve been having fun trying them on – especially as most of my brightly coloured eyeshadow has been packed away for a couple of months, ready for the move.

The first one I tried was the electric blue eyeliner and I really love it!

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I wore makeup that day as I had to go out and run some errands – mainly picking up my cat’s passport, so she can travel. I am happy to report that it’s all ready to go and in a week’s time we will be embarking on a new adventure!

This is what I wore for running errands:

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Had to take some photos with a timer in front of the house as I didn’t have anyone at home to capture the moment (and my tripod was also already packed away!)

Details:

Khaki Boxy Long Sleeved Tie Loungewear Set – Femmeluxe (gifted)

T-shirt – Target (from a trip to the US years ago, hadn’t worn it in ages!)

Neon Pink Trainers – Adidas Stan Smith

Mask – from a set purchased on Ali Express

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The next eyeliner look I tried was this one – how fun that the colours match the top exactly, right? I thought it was a super fun yet simple look and it’s nice and bright for the Summer. That day I went out to have lunch with my friends Tony and Renee and we had a lovely time at Mamuska, a Polish restaurant in Waterloo. As the weather was nice and there were tables outside, it was easy to sit outside to eat and not break social distancing rules.

What I wore on that day:

Pink Tie Dye Padded Shoulder Sleeveless T-Shirt – Femmeluxe (gifted)

Denim Trousers -Monki

Neon Pink Trainers – Adidas Stan Smith

I took some full-body photos but they looked bad so I am sticking to the one with the top – which is the nice one anyway!

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Detail of my current favourite trainers – a steal on eBay. I love a good outlet purchase and these were no exception!

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One of the things I’ve been working on (and can also be seen on the previous post) are a few pasteups to go up on the street, so I can leave a few bits behind. I do intend to come back frequently but with all these travel restrictions, who knows when it will be the next time I can do it?

In the photo, I’m holding one of the larger ones I’ve made – which have yet to go up. I hope I can find a nice spot for it as I think it looks a lot of fun and everyone loves kitties!

As I was mainly working on my art pieces at home, I went for something comfortable and casual. Here are the details:

Black Boxy Long Sleeved Tie Loungewear Set – Femmeluxe (gifted)

Salmon Pink Furry Slippers – Primark

The last outfit I have to share was what I wore on the day I finally refreshed the bar front at Monty’s bar on Brick Lane – the only street art friendly bar in London and where I have made so many friends! It was a bittersweet day I spent doing this work, I thought it turned out good but I also know it was probably one of the last few times I will be visiting the bar for quite a while. In addition to that, many a friend stopped by to say hello (and goodbye) and we had a great time but it was also sad knowing that I won’t see them for a long time. It’s sad to leave but I also know that I got to know amazing people and made some lovely friends. not to mention a wonderful street art community that I don’t think I’ll ever stop being part of.

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Relaxing outside the bar – photo by Rory!

 

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Same moment but photographed by Anaïs!

Outfit details:

Black ‘Baby Girl’ Slogan Print Oversized T-Shirt – Femmeluxe (gifted)

Denim Mom Jeans – Primark

Trainers – New Balance

Phone holder – Normal (shop in Oslo). Funnily enough, I never see anyone wearing these holders here in London but saw loads of people wearing them in Hamburg!

Anyway, here are some more details of the piece I made at the bar:


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One detail that most people won’t know or recognise is that I usually don’t use references to my Portuguese heritage in my work but it was appropriate to do so this time. If you look at the female skeleton’s hair, you will see a small yellow and red heart. This design was based on a traditional design called Coracao de Viana or Heart of Viana. The reason I used this was that the couple’s photo I used for the photo turned out to be Portuguese, so I thought it made a nice fun addition. 

And there it is. My last large piece in London for a while. I now have one last week in London and I intend to make the most of it, time and energy allowing! Until then, here are the two foxes I see from my bedroom window all the time. I am going to miss them 🙁

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London

London – Stand up Camden

January 14, 2017
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If there is anything I would say that I would like to do more often is going to comedy shows. I’m a big comedy fan and there is nothing better like laughing, I would say.

I headed down to The London Irish Centre with my bestie Ross, for an evening of drinks and laughs, and we got just what we wanted at Stand Up Camden. I even joked that all I needed to put on the review was that I laughed all night, it was that good!

We got a drink at the bar and headed to the function room. We sat right at the front as I didn’t want to miss any of the action and also have the chance to take a couple of pics for the blog post. I forgot that people in the front usually get picked on, haha!

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London, Style

Style – I got my hair did at Luke Jacob

September 28, 2016
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A few weeks back I met Luke at a friend’s birthday party, who upon finding out that I’m such a great blogger (I’m joking!) invited me over to try his salon, Luke Jacob. I’m not one to say no to these things and after hearing good recommendations from my friend who usually goes there, I arranged a day and time to get my hair a much needed fix.

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art, London

Art – #HPStreetArt tour #ReinventingMemories

August 23, 2016
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The other week I was invited to participate in an Alternative Street Art tour of Shoreditch and the East End. The idea was to go around the East side of London, learn a few things about the history of places, look and photograph some street art and then have a go at printing our amazing pics on the new smallest all-in-one printer.

And that my friends, is exactly what we did. Doug from Alternative London was our street art guru for the day and after meeting up at Shoreditch High Street station, took us around to our first stop, Brick Lane. On the way we managed to see a few bits here and there, as there’s always art everywhere, be it in the shape of stickers, paste-ups or graffiti, and all the mixed media pieces in between.

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art, London

Art – Punk’s Not Dead at the British Library

May 25, 2016
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… just getting older and going to bed at a much more reasonable hour. This funny meme comes to mind as I go through the photos of the latest British Library exhibition: Punk 1976-1978. I was invited to attend the press preview and we all had a guided tour by one of the curators, Steve Cleary who was kind enough to guide us through the glass cases and impart some knowledge on the items on display.

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This exhibition is my teenage self’s wet dream, seriously. All the big names such as The Clash, Sex Pistols, The Ramones, Siouxsie Sioux and everybody else in between is represented in some way – all the bands I used to listen to when I was a kid (and sometimes still do). Punk is now 40 years old and in this exhibition, we are taken on a tour of the first couple of years of its inception. We’re given the chance to see not only pieces straight from the British Library’s vaults but also others on loan from private collections, which means that we probably won’t have the opportunity to see them again – another good reason not to miss this.

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-One of the funniest things on display: a copy of Investors Review magazine, declaring the Sex Pistols as Young Businessmen of the Year. This was due to the amounts of money they were given as a golden handshake by record labels, who were keen on getting rid of them, troublemakers that they were.-

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-A very big photo of The Clash. (Remember I went to their pop-up shop a couple of years ago?)-

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There is a wide variety of artifacts on show: videos (when the Sex Pistols swore on Bill Grundy’s show on live TV), records, flyers, posters, zines and even Rat Scabies‘ leather jacket (along with a letter certifying that said jacket was his inseparable companion through many punk rock riots, motorcycling days and a lot of rock and roll). See Jamie Reid’s photo inspiration for the God Save The Queen poster, issues of NY-based Punk magazine and various situationist books are all there, giving us a great insight into the creatives responsible for punk.

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-Soo Catwoman was a punk icon and her image endures the test of time – still iconic! Ever wondered what happened to these people?

This isn’t meant to be an exhaustive analysis of the Punk movement but a good sample of how things started, to show the influence the movement had in subsequent years, an influence that remains until today in the graphic arts, fashion and music. The infamous boobs or the naked cowboys t-shirts Vivienne Westwood was selling out of her King’s Road shop Sex are all there – originals and now worth thousands of pounds.

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Which reminds me of a bit of news I’ve read recently – as the mainstream establishment is adopting punk as part of British culture, Joe Corré (son of Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm Maclaren) intends to burn his collection of punk memorabilia worth £5m as a protest. I’d say give it to me instead, I’ll make good use of it, haha. But I understand where he is coming from, I really do.

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-The lovely yet badass Poly Styrene. I’ve always thought she had great style.-

A movement that espoused DIY against installed corporations and was rebellious in nature is now being co-opted by some of the most traditional figureheads of our society. In a way, this is what happens to any underground movement, eventually. Well, maybe not so much as other musical genres such as power electronics or industrial (Throbbing Gristle, for example) but one can understand the appeal of punk rock. The punk tribe’s visual identity was at times scary (mainly to old ladies, but still…), creative and irreverent – something that also appealed to me as a youngster – and of course, very striking.

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Now, it’s like your grandmother decided to start wearing safety pins through her nose and studded jackets – what are you going to do to rebel? It all seems so quaint these days. Maybe what happened to punk is the same that happened to everybody else – we all grew up, got jobs, became cynical and got rid of our mohicans. Throwing a tantrum over this would be like going back to being a sulking teenager shouting how “I just want to be different”. Maybe it is time to grow up, take inspiration from it and create new movements? I digress…

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Despite the image we might have of punk as unwashed, drunken hordes of people yelling “Anarchy!” (crusty punks, I’m looking at you), not all about it was negative. There was also the affirmation of freedom and self-expression that came along with it. Punk was an inclusive movement (or at least more than its predecessors): women had their own voices and were visible (Jordan, The Slits or Poly Styrene are two of the examples on show) and there were several bands with an anti-racist message (Rock Against Racism was started in 1976 and mainly punk bands were involved in it). Finally, DIY culture started with punk – the zines, the records, the shows, the home made clothes – is another positive aspect that seeped out into the mainstream that we know today – Etsy being a good example of how DIY also became commodified but is still great for artists. I personally wouldn’t complain too much about punk ideas becoming mainstream as we can see, these are very positive aspects of it.

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After the exhibition, we headed down to the Punk pop-up shop, filled to the brim with punk related items. There we played with the photo booth (I can’t resist those) and I was happy to see that I used to have some of the vinyl records available – back in the day when I still owned a record player and records to play on it – it was a nostalgia filled moment, I have to say. I felt like buying all the books and was sad that I live in an attic and have very little wall space, as legendary punk photographer Sheila Rock’s prints were smiling at me, begging to be purchased.

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-Record listening station-

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Spellbound by this Siouxsie Sioux t-shirt.-

I had a lot of fun and recommend anyone with an interest in punk or in music in general, to come and pay the British Library a visit. I have to go back again and take my time reading all the information on the cards, there’s loads to learn.

British Library | Punk 1976-1978 is FREE and open until Oct 2nd, 2016.

96 Euston Rd,

London NW1 2DB