The Roots - You Got Me ft. Erykah Badu

Just your average feel good tune. I have those moments where i let go, unwind. A glass of rose in one hand, turning up the speakers with another. My i-phone can ring, my blackberry can keep on making that irritating PING, nothing comes between me and the music. A major flaw but for me i dance like nobody is watching whenever, whereever and tonight my bedroom is the dance floor! The great british weather is preventing me from going out. Its messed up to say it bluntly. Rain with sunshine. Wind with hailstones. What do i wear? usually results in me spending the day under my duvet watching grey's anatomy online or any other american sitcom to pass the time. Tonight i'm meant to be finishing an article for an online magazine but for now its ME time ...articles can wait....

hope you enjoy xxx

Россия куклы

Tim Walker and Karlie Kloss team up a second time for the feature in Vogue Magazine ... i don't need to tell you what i think as a picture tells a thousand words ...

a wonderfully wicked place ....

There is always that someone that causes your heart to skip a beat. Someone that captures your attention and you become in awe of them. A perfect romance. I think i have found mine with Tim Walker in his feature for W Magazine featuring the model Karlie Kloss. His work both breath taking and mesmerizing as he captures fairytales and transforms them into a reality.

who inspires you ?

Fashion and Media Students @ Lfw. GEEK CHIC -L.O.V.E the mustard cardie and the two-tone satchel!!! a/w bring on the knee high socks!!
TOPSHOP assistant-WESTFELDS- I'M IN L.O.V.E. WITH THE BLONDE HAIR !!!

( sincere apologies ladies. i have a tendancy to loose things and lost the slip of paper with your names so drop me a msg and i'll edit this to something more appropriate than assistant and student)

Simone de Beauvoir, Anna Julia Cooper, Langston Hughes : Feminists.

Edgar Degas, John Singer Sargent, Rene Margritte: Artists.

When it comes to art and literature i can easily say the people who inspire me. Their work, i find to be thought provoking and sometimes unable to be put into words. There are no limitations. When it comes to fashion however, i am able to name designers, a bag i must have, the colour pallet for my wardrobe this season...but there is one question that always leaves me wondering...who inspires me?

I am unable to respond straight away. I don't have a celebrity or a designer that screams 'style inspiration' and that is why my style fluctuates depending on my mood or most probably what i find to be comfortable at the time. It isn't i'm afraid Alexa Chung or Grace Kelly who would be my ideal icons but more towards everyday people i meet in the street, coffee shops, art galleries,bloggers, lookbook users whose style leave me breathless, star struck and intrigued ( just like a painting or a novel).

On my recent travels i'm always meeting people who i stop and stare at. Sometimes this leads to a) starring so hard that it comes across as a dirty look leading to the person i'm oogling at saying ' what is she looking at?' ... or b) people thinking that there is something slightly wrong with me leaning more towards i've been let out for the day from my psyche ward. The way they put they outfits together effortlessly and not caring what others my think is what i admire the most. In ever have my camera on me (tut tut) or a business card (tut tut again -note to self get some made asap) and have to rely on iphone/blackberry/ scrap pieces of paper and eyeliner as a pen to exchange details. Embarassing i know but i will be more organised at some stage.

These ladies bring an edgyness to their style and look fierce! So this autumn i'm going for a style transformation. I'm looking to cut and dye my hair ...and add a full fringe! arrrgh not as bright as the blonde -though i'd love it, i might if i'm brave enough recreate that look in the summer when i jet to L.A. and MIAMI with the ladies. In the mean time i'm leaning more towards the red. Just watch this space!!

Rox - My Baby Left Me - Official Video

My latest music squeeze! Sitting in my dressing gown, looking a hot mess and passing the time as British Gas are installing a new boiler because thanks to my ancient house we currently have no hot water or central heating ....n brrrrrr its cold in here ! ( no pun intended or trying to relive my youth and quote cheers). Having heard Rox a while back i forgot her name and could only remember a couple of the lyrics, until this morning when she came on MTV !!! oooh my baby left me so ... lyrics dear to my heart and relate somewhat to a previous relationship ...but thats the past we look towards the future. on a brighter note (my fingers feeling more like ice than anything else right now) she talented with kooky, quirky style her voice is husky but mellow and reminds me slightly of Corinne Bailey Rae and Shingai Shoniwa the front woman of the NOISETTES there seems to be a soulful tinge to her voice that you feel her emotion through her songs. Well i leave you to enjoy most probably in a warm house and lets all just keep finger crossed that this problem gets dealt with by e.o.d. ....i will never take water for granted again !

turn the page ...

Luella Bartley whose name screams quirky, quintessential British cool has decided to release a book which pays homeage to English style. After a year delay, the book that has every tongue wagging will be making its way to a bookshelf near you in 2 days time!!! Bartley's aim was to show her 'appreciation and devotion to those contrived subtleties and that contrariness that makes British women so staggeringly adept in the art of expression through

style.' Amen to that! Not being biased but British women i feel bring an edginess and underlying rawness to our style. We look effortless when coming home from the night before adding simply a bit of mac lippy and after the forth Starbucks skinny latte with an extra espresso shot (speaking probably about myself ). On days like this when we might be sitting in a Starbucks, Cafe Nero, EAT, (or the comfort of your own home-the recession style cafe i like to call it) we all need a bit of Bartley to remind us why British style rules... this is a guaranteed fashion page turner!!!!

My room reminds me of a public library ....

After weeks, days, months of persistent nagging by mis padres, it was time that i tackled the bomb site which can only be referring to my bedroom. I'm messy but clutter is my thing! its not an excuse to being lazy like every family member yells at me,especially my gran in her strong st.lucian accent. So the detox process began. My ipod on shuffle, my look for the day pj shorts and rolling stones tee,my hair in a heap wrapped in a headscarf An hour in and still i could only see a sea of hardback and paperback books, heaps of material, i do not wish to move from this solitude, i feel content in my skin dancing around, trying to sing in tune (that still remains a dream). And then it hit me. My love for books and clothes means that there is not enough room in my abode to hoard this stuff. I have a strong feeling that i'm slightly kleptomatic....

There are piles and piles of novels and poetry that i've read, read again and some which i have never touched. I simply tell myself that i'll save that novel for another day. The only solution is to take a trip to the one and only ikea and buy some bookshelves. It is novels were i find peace and tranquility (this is becoming more like an advertisement for a spa) but i dont know why im so hooked on them. Books a my comfort blanke alongside clothes. I become lost in worlds and shut myself out of my own... now if that makes me different then i'm alright with that. The sense of peace i feel when sitting in my messy room, book in one hand, ipod on shuffle in the background as Sir Edward Dyer said 'my mind [is] content with anything'. As for my public library of a room and a jungle of clothes...i'll tackle that at later stage ....when i pay a trip to ikea!!!

a mini thank you ...with love from me to you ....

i've been meaning to write a short thank you note to those who support my blog , whether they are die hard followers, stumbled across it randomly, or just for the mere fact they like my depressing tales either way this is merely why i love to write and why i do what i do. I'm not in it for the fame or fortune but it keeps me sane and fashion is i hobby so why not write about it. However s bigger thank you has to go to those that encouraged me and to other blogger who inspire me with their talent. I know that my blog in comparison is beyond basic but hey i'm going to get there, at some stage, some time, and for that reason alone i want to say another big big thank you! I'm slightly feeling overwhelmed and reaching for the man size kleenex tissues...

so in this case read it and weep .....

with love

Monique

London fashion Weekend

It's that time of the year which every fashionista braces themselves for. It's almost a military operation and unfortunately i became a pawn in this fashion chessgame! Recently i've had a chest infection and therefore have become somewhat of a hermit locked in my room, my ipod, cough medicine and kleenex tissues (jumbo box) have been my only source of communication with the outside world. Unfortunately on london fashion weekend this was the same case...but like every budding fashionista do you think that i was going to allow that to stop me from attending.... i think not! I was armed and ready with a toilet roll in my bag! My trusty sidekicks and fellow non- blondes accompanied me. The transition between summer and autumn is a tricky one for me as with british weather you simply never know what to wear but i'm so looking forwards to stocking up on my chunky knits, colour palette tights oooh i just need to hustle for some dirrty cash BROKE has now become my name. The trends that dominated the catwalk were 'into the wilds' channeling the love affair with animal prints , faux fur, the 'lady of the manor' english heritage as we go back to all things british mixing tweed,and leather.
Its funny that my secondary school blazer was tweed. In the rain it used to make me want to heave with the smell. I'd stuff that bad boy in my locker at any given oppourunity and would hate to be caught on my journeys home but now i love it- cant get enough customised my old blazer with elbow pads and its always the things we loathe when we are children that we are obsessed with in the future .....

enough of the rambling back to fashion week...

My outfit i think was daring. My mantra for the day was 'dare to be different' and indeed i was. In broad daylight the oldies must have thought i was on the job with my suspender tights and the stares were harsh to say the least. Their facial expressions said 'poor child..', 'hussy' and 'if she was my child she wouldn't dare to leave the house in that get-up'. The irony of it all was my mum encouraged the outfit! i had to keep whipping open my yellow coat and declare 'i'm wearing shorts' and some were still not satisfied all i can say is fshion has no boundaries. I was scouted by fashion magazine FASHIONBABYLON.COM and by a fellow blogger eve (eveloves.tumblr.com- and can i just say her blog rocks!) and by JOY clothing forb street style. This lifted my spirits or it could have been the cough medicine that i had mixed with two complimentary glasses of wine!!!

The street style ...insane !!! (sorry for the delay to those people i have taken pics of they will be up in due corse) and my friend lucy was there promoting her line neverfullydressed the clothing

breath taking, edgy.

dinner and laughter and stares as i towered over people in my wedges completed my night.
i learnt something new when it comes to fashion ... expect nothing than extraordinary!!