Tag Archives: BRAI

Cold Summer Outfit

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Believe it or not, being Italian, one of the reasons why I decided to move to the UK was the climate. I never really liked excessively hot weather and where I’m from, that’s what you get from mid-June to early August. I always loved the British summer, with a gentle breeze, a shy sun and the occasional need of a light cardigan.

All this was true until last year. This year, things have changed. We saw one week of scorching heat at the end of May and then back to 10°C, rain and gusts of ice-cold wind. Which means that the sunglasses in my handbag looking at me with hopeful little eyes are completely redundant, just like all my sandals, floaty dresses and summery hats in my room.

To try to raise the morale in my wardrobe, I decided to keep warm while wearing summery colours. So here’s what I put together.

Dust pink silk shirt and cashmere and lace cropped jumper from Italy, pink gold necklace and pendants from Braï Jewellery, leather-look leggings from ebay, pastel-green Superga plimsolls, beige trench coat from Banana Republic and Classic Q Hillier Hobo bag Marc by Marc Jacobs in black with golden hardware.

The Time I Went to Paris

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On 8 October I took a train to Paris. I arrived there just after the capital’s fashion week had ended, which gave me the chance to visit beauties such as the Oh So London exhibition in the high-end department store Le Bon Marché without the hustle and bustle of all the people brought into the city by the event.

The Le Bon Marché exhibition was very well thought-out. It showcased a collection of Bryan Ferry’s albums, a whole section dedicated to Kate Moss and a few collections by British celebrity-come-designers such as Lucy in Disguise (Lily Allen) and Pretty Green (Liam Gallagher). I wasn’t exactly allowed to take pictures (a mysterious plain-clothes security guard told me off as soon as I zoomed into a bunch of Lanvin ties), but I did my best.

 

Walking around Paris you cannot avoid stumbling upon all sorts of wonderful things almost constantly. The best of my visit included a whole pink-and-blue window dedicated to Matthew Williamson’s chocolate, a Russian tea chain shop called Kusmi, a gorgeous Isabel Marant window, the biggest Zadig et Voltaire store ever seen by human eyes and a very elegant tea and candle company called Mariage Frère – Comptoir deThé (the Darjeeling candle is on my Christmas wishlist).

One of the highlights of my trips, however, was a unique and beautiful jewellery shop, which I reached at the end of a long walk from La Frégate, a great upmarket-yet-affordable restaurant on the Rive Gauche, where I had a mouth-watering confit de canard with garlic roasted potatoes…

Going back to the jewellery shop (!), this little boutique is called BRAI exclusive and takes its name from the homonymous jewellery collection created by two of the most inventive jewellery designers I’ve met in a long time. Delphine Pariente started off her career designing bags in 1998 moving to jewellery pretty soon after and hasn’t stopped creating one-of-a-kind pieces of art since. Her co-designer Claire Naa is also extremely creative and is the creator of the origami jewellery. I bought two pink gold little pendants, but it was very hard to choose.

 

Unhappy with the huge (but seemingly not sufficient) amount of cash I had spent until that point, I went vintage shopping. I was lucky there. Shall we talk about how cheap quality vintage is in Paris? I headed to the hip area Le Marais and visited Fripes Star, Free ‘P’ Star (my favourite) and Le Verger du Prince among others. I bought a lovely blue polka dot 1940s dress, a skirt, two pairs of shoes, a jumper and a hat, all way under £20 each.

Oh Paris, I want to come and see you again!