Stuff I'd Wear From La Redoute Boys' Section

Hi there fashion lovers (I know you are all fashion lovers, that's why you come to this, my incredible fashion blog). When I was a kid my mum would always get a La Redoute catalogue through the door, and we would pore over the clothes inside. Sometimes I'd circle ones I liked. It was the height of entertainment, and now I associate the brand with a particular nostalgia and the smell of catalogue pages. We would often end up buying some stuff from the boys section for me. Cool stuff for powerful boys.

As I am now the most powerful boy of all time (a woman), and a phantom desire took me on this day to the La Redoute website, where I did infact see cute boys' stuff, I thought I would put together all the fun boys' clothes I liked the most (because it turned out there was a lot of things I would wear right now and every day).

Please enjoy my findings.

DUDE LIFE

This is the first thing that truly caught me eye as something I have a strong desire to put on my body. I long to declare the type of life I lead, to celebrate it: the dude life. Thank you, yes.

MR. HAPPY

Mr. Happy is an icon and a treasure. I respect him. And that's why I want to honour him by wearing him on a t-shirt. Mr. Happy is probably my favourite of the MR. MEN characters at this point. I think when I was a kid it was MR. FUNNY (because I was a clown), but Mr. Happy is so... happy, and cute. I love him.

PACK OF SHORTS

I like these. Simple shorts. The most powerful clothing item imaginable. There's two of them! They're £6.50 on sale! I can only conclude that it's shorts time.

PACK OF SHIRTS

Same as above, basically. 2 shirts. They're cute. I like a good basic, and YES I do enjoy the little pockets (that I will never use).

IT DOESN'T MATTER

Another incredible slogan. And it's true. It doesn't matter.

☆☆☆

With all of these items of clothing I would be fashionable as hell. Don't think about it too much. I don't want to intimidate you with my power. But anyway, Mr. Happy is a king.

Woman

Who is she?

Where is she going?

                                                                                                                      ...there are so many of her.

Here are some stars, don't worry about it

It's a real year, and these are real stars. Check out their points. I made them, so they're my children (anything you make is a child, legally - make a pie? That's a child!). I'm feeling fuzzy in a lot of ways. It feels like there's a lot of stuff whirling around me. Do I own a lot of socks? Yes. Do I make a lot of drawings? You bet! It seems like there is always a lot to organise. I gotta wash my socks, I gotta put them all in the sock place, I have projects to do (like my illustrated videos for Big Joel, the most incredibly satisfying things to work on), I have places to go! Everything feels large and out of focus, like an old photo, shot strangely, filled with a light leak, fondly remembered.

It feels a little bit like things are spilling out of my hands, but in a good way, like all the ideas are a big pile of laundry I'm scooping up. These are scans I made a month ago, the last thing before I left for Italy, unknowingly to stay inside most of the time, work on one of those illustrated videos, drink wine and watch The Simple Life.

But now it's back to paintings, and having too much stuff in too many drawers, and journals creeping along to completion (they'll get there), and spinning the wheel of fortune on "stuff to make". And making new stars every Wednesday, or whenever.

And, I don't know, listen to this or something.

2020 Scanner Adventures

I'm still here and I still have a face, so here it is. I still miss my old scanner for these, because it made really nice, dark, high contrast images, but sometimes you just have to move on. That scanner started making a terrifying screeching noise (something scraping from the inside...), so it had to go.

These are my first scans of 2020, and it's almost the end of February already! I made an Instagram for these a while ago, because I think these scans really lend themselves to being displayed in a grid like that. Maybe not so much if I take a year and a half between posts though, so I guess I'll try to update it more frequently.

Anyway, I like the drained look of these. I won't be stopped... from scanning my face.

Do Not Look Me in the Eyes When I am Wearing This Jumper

Hello, here's an outfit post. Never have I felt more powerful than in this jumper, one of a now uncountable number of jumpers given to me by my boyfriend. I was complimented on it by a girl working at the booze section of Costco recently, so I know it's good (this section is separate from the main Costco area, like a shameful little garage full of gin, and it is great).

You can really tuck any weird jumper into some kind of skater skirt and it will look purposeful, I think. Tucking is a powerful tool. Please use it with caution. I've also been wearing my glasses near constantly lately, and to be honest, it is good to see. These are a very light, mint green, and I got them from Firmoo (I always get cheap glasses online since I discovered this possibility, and also that a lot of normal glasses in shops are weirdly too big for my face). I'm thinking about getting some tortoiseshell or clear frames at some point, but for now it's just these.

If you are a sentient glasses company reading this, please consider sending me some glasses.

I'm also getting more and more into wearing shirts - anything with sort of painterly birds or flowers is perfect, but also any check and flannel shirts. They're just... very cute. Are t-shirts even necessary? When you can wear shirts?

I'll tell you what is definitely necessary though: a frog. This sweet frog is from Jellycat (I got it from TK Maxx for a third of the price though), and I love both him and his incredible shorts.

Hester Street (1975), or: Carol Kane is my Queen

The other day I watched Hester Street (1975) and I can conclude that I love Carol Kane. I was a little lost for the first part of the movie until she showed up and suddenly lent every scene a brilliant sense of tension, gentle but taught. I rewatched the first section of the movie immediately afterwards and with the context of what's to come, it has a great, almost-but-not-quite-comical lightness, and a sort of odd but great scene-setting feel.

But Carol Kane is wonderful from the moment she arrives as Gitl, a Jewish immigrant in New York among a crowd of immigrants, thrilled to suddenly recognise her husband with a kind of schoolgirl-ish excitement. Everything is new to her, including the particular ways her husband's callous personality has moulded to his assimilated, modern life, and Carol Kane plays this with such a touching innocence, but always like there is some kind of fire bug just underneath her tear ducts.

Also, Bernstein is wonderful.

This scene... mwah! This scene towards the end of the movie is so sweet, and it feels so understated. I love Bernstein's stacks of string-tied books, the tentative-yet-purposeful way they speak, and the handshake. People talk about the notorious hand scene in the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice a lot, and it is very good, but this is my hand scene of choice (mmm, just like the hand touch in The Last Jedi, am I right? note to self: okay, hand touch scenes are a whole thing, and I respect it). As much as I enjoy the Pride and Prejudice hand scene for its expression of sheer tantalisation, the handshake here is so great because it not only expresses affection but also Gitl's growth, emancipation, and ability to make not only an agreement with a man who values tradition as she does, but one where what she values and wants is paramount.

And, I don't know, it's just really cute. The little room, Bernstein's diligent tying up of his books, the tentative and indirect, but very sure way they speak, the reverence and respect they show each other, and their contented expressions. It's perfect.

The divorce scene also slaps hard. I'm not going to say anything about it. Just look at her face. This movie is good.

Also, shout out to this guy who is in the movie for about a minute near the beginning, doing a really good "befuddled immigrant" performance:

I loved this movie so much.

please look at my horses

I've been idly wanting to paint some kind of "anatomy thing" lately, and this week I was struck with the sudden, urgent desire to paint horses. So here are some horses. I tried painting the forms and shadows with a blue and yellow combo, and then added pencil on some paintings for more detail later.

And you know what? It feels really good to paint a horse.

I'm happy with these and I hope to paint more. I'm a horse painter now.