Eva V - Costume Jewellery at Galerie Deletaille in Brussels

When I met Eva V. for the first time I was immediately taken in by her easy and open friendliness - and by the amazing necklace she wore. I was  - I hope, discreetly - gazing at it while we talked and my mind was wandering and wondering whether I had ever seen such extraordinary and individual pieces before. I had not. Next time we met, she wore another one and the third time I finally asked her, where and how she had found those one of a kind costume jewellery pieces, one more beautiful than the other. Easy: she produces them herself.

That mystery explained, I wanted to see and know more about them and Eva very kindly invited me to her Atelier, where I could hardly know where to look first, for all the colours, semi precious stones and very originally constructed necklaces and brooches of a very unique beauty.

Once you have attentively looked at a piece made by her, you will instantly recognise it - they are very much their own style and immediately recognisable. I find they remind me of the late antique mosaics of Ravenna and the glamour of Venice, I see a hint of South American Aztec aesthetics and  discover a well-known and dear southern German "baroque" feeling, a love for earthy colours and  dazzling stones - all of that put together delicately in rows and rows of amazing colour combinations and timeless elegance.  If I would not know better, one could think that Dolce and Gabbana in their latest discovery of Byzanz and its riches might have been inspired  by Eva's pieces before!

What makes me so convinced that her work is Art and not just some necklace you put on for a summer and throw away, is the fact that they suit all ages and all persons - always a sure sign of quality and sincerity -  and they do "make" each and everybody an individual in her own right. The pieces are very present, but do not overwhelm the personality of the woman who wears them, they make her more beautiful, more true, more present.  Put one such necklace on a beautiful girl of 20, with a crisp white t-shirt, jeans and great shoes and she is perfectly dressed - put it on a hard working director in her costume and you need nothing more to impress the board room and mark your point -  put it around the neck of a wonderful old lady with white hair in her cashmere turtle-neck and she will look adorable and unforgettable. Short: If you have an inclination to the evasive idea of Chic, here you go. Think of Diana Vreeland or good old Coco Chanel and you get the idea - the ladies who wear her pieces love them and know that their piece is unique.

I think a part of the secret lies in this uniqueness of each piece - there is never a second one, all of them are one of a kind and made by Eva alone - she sources the materials all by herself and the production process is something which would make it impossible to produce this jewellery mechanically - sometimes the way to put strings together or to include a stone at a place where it needs to be can take days and demands careful consideration. 

The good news and also a reason for writing this post is that until the 24th of May there is a rare opportunity to see her pieces at the beautiful Gallery premises of Lin Deletaille in the heart of Brussels, right next to Park Egmont. 

Eva V and Lin Deletaille

Eva herself will be there in the late afternoons with her very own touch of picking something up and draping it around your neck which wants you do scream with joy and chic. I could go on and on - better, if you have the opportunity of being in or around Brussels, go there and have a look yourself.....
I think her work deserves to be known not only in Brussels, but far beyond.

Gallery Deletaille - 32, Rue aux Laines - 1000 Brussels

Telephone +32 476 69 81 79 - l.deletaille@gmail.com

Some thoughts about fashion magazines

What would we do without fashion magazines?
We would be at a complete loss: not the faintest idea what happens in Paris, in London, in Milano and in New York. Full blown catastrophy: So essential to be informed!

Who would be otherwise so easily convinced, that painting your nails in a shade remembering more the glibber of a corpse in stagnat water than of a supposedly embellishing colour, is the utmost of stylishness, if you would not have seen it in all the major papers?
The hold those pages have over us - we all wait for the autumn issues of our favourite fashion magazines with the same impatience as we wait for school to begin again in september - to unveil all the secrets and must-have´s, do´s and dont´s of the upcoming season fall/winter. And every year it is the same stuff we see, the same counsel we take and the same ridiciulous readiness to believe it all.

By browsing for a first "overview" through this years paper harvest I had the distinct feeling once again, perhaps never so clearly expressed, of wondering, WHY do I read that stuff anyhow? Why do I look at those pictures of beautiful and heavily retouched young girls, in outrageous wardrobes, far away from my metro station and lunch cantine?

You will say, that this exactly is the appeal and magic of a good ( and I say good!) fashion magazin - it should make us dream and get creative about who we want to be and also the way we present ourselves to the outer world. (Ok, not very philosophical or intellectual, but then normally intellectuals are rarely well turned out.) It is meant to be an inspiration to the masses. An incentive to go out hunting for a little glamour at Zara´s - where you find the copies of all great inventions boiled down to wearability and affordable prices. A sacrifice on the altar of consumerism: the quality is bad, you throw it out after wearing 4 times and hop, off a new circle starts and our economy is happy and well.  Yesterday I went with my daughter to H&M and, I tell you, the place was buzzing. No crisis in sight, far from it.

Fair enough - let us not discuss this - it is obvious.Everyone of the people there hunting for some style and glamour, all on remote control of the imense fashion machine. Why would those magazines otherwise have such a hugh editorial number and be big bussiness? Why would I buy them all the same?

But to come back to my train of thought: How many times have I laid down a magazine - happens particularly often with french Vogue, which I do not even bother any longer to buy once in a while, so much it gets on  my nerves - with the distinct feeling of looking at a Bilderbuch for big girls, with no what so ever relation to my reality: the way I live, I look, I dream, I think,  I eat, I work - the environment I live in etc etc pp.  Said French Vogue is, in my personal dowdy view, so disconnected from reality  - and I believe also from french reality - that they miss the point totally.

Another interesting fact: For the last 20 years, models have been all about 15 years old and heavily underweight. Now, apparently there is a  new crop of Supermodels out there, in their glamourous 50ies,  selling us the fact, that 50 is the new 30. Hurray!
Just think about the huge  potential group of buyers with well equiped purses and the time at their hands to go out and shop indeed. At least, the beloved glossy pages make us normal people believe, that they do so. And off we go and buy the copie of the copie of the copie of that Galliano dress, which would not be recognizable to all but the insiders of the fashion industry. ( Remember the cool drydown Meryl Streep gave the newcomer Anne Hathaway about the colour "blue" in The Devil wears Prada?)


But to keep things straight: I love to read them all the same - my favourites being English Vogue and american Harper's Bazaar.
The magazines are a lifeline to glamour and an ideal projection of personage.  All of a sudden we are not mothers and cooks and drivers and secretaries and  but all in the grasp of becoming the next grace Kelly and it seems all right and only natural that the Valentino dress for 8000 £ is for us...
So even if we cannot wear almost nothing of the things we see, we go on buying the next issue and will read with utmost interest what is the latest in make-up and fashion for the upcoming season.
 And then go out and do as we like anyway.

As I said, information is all and  the query as old as humanity: Which fur is it this year Darling, Mamut or Seal?

Old clothes - yes AND no

I think it was Coco Chanel who said, that old clothes are like old friends - one cannot live without them. I suppose the good lady talks naturally about couture clothes, not the stuff one buys in H&M or at Zara. Old clothes are worth a good thought. In the end it is this stuff, we tend to wear most of the everydays of our lives.

Do face it: when you open your wardrobe, then most probably you have admit, that you wear all over and over again always the same old friends. Apparently there are studies, that we out of habit wear only about 20 % of the clothes we harbour and hamster in all possible places. Makes sense, as the times, where one had to change from a morning dress into a lunch ensemble, followed by an afternoondress and get changed for dinner again are long and sadly gone. Would not fit our modern times and timetables... Good golden times...

There are clothes which are simple foolproof - we love them, they are our basics and we can throw them on without even thinking about what we do. A grey jacket, for example - good for everything, from an evening in the Opera or your bussiness dinner and also with jeans good for a stroll in the park. Those basics make the skeleton of our wardrobe. In the best case basics are really your best friends. And as it is the case with best friends, we should care about them. What is different: old friends normally are not discarded when worn out - thanks God! As Coco Chanel was talking about timeless couture pieces, this principle may apply to those clothes too. Unless you change your figure dramatically..

In the 18th century (only in England?) it was somewhat bad taste to wear sparkling new clothes - I speak of the leisure classes, of course. As clothes indeed are still an indicator of class, sorry. This habit has come down to us, fresh and sound. There are always the lovely old tweedjackets, which get better and better with age. Or the old cashmere pullover, which has some inbuilt aircondition with all the holes in it. Or the good old "Church"es, hopefully inherited from your grandfather and cherished for their inimitable colour after 40 years of cleaning with several colours of shoepaste. Or the leatherjacket, which looks the part only after two generations having worn them. Those are real friends, never to be parted with. I bet, as soon as you have found a substitute and got rid of the old thing, you never ever wear the new pullover with the same glee as you did the old one. Try it! I bet.

But then there are other old clothes: the horrible ones, mostly used out of indifference for one´s own pleasure and housed in a crammed wardrobe of equal antiquity. They are still "good",ie no holes and all the buttons intact and therefore have to be worn - despite of offending all around you, because the yellow colour of the old poloshirt really does nothing for your complexion, or the cut of the jacket was in the hight of fashion in the early 1980ies, but this revival is to be expected only in 2045. Old worn shoes fall in the same category for women. Likewise plastic trousers, hanging on your stately figure long out of shape, but comfortable. Take a hard look at your old clothes and divide good from simply old. Good exercise, for sure.

I have seen in my time some wardrobes, crammed with clothes, which were only fit for the bin -  inspite of horrible high pricetags at the time of aquisition. The only remedy here is ruthless throwing out and weeding.  Just imagine that good old Kate would have got married in the meringuedress of her dead mom in law?

So, just get over it and dispose what has had its time and is not worth being kept and loved and worn until the very end. Those get-rid-offs have had their time and deserve a good recycling. Best fate for them: to ressurect as something new/odd/happy for someone who really loves it. One never knows!

Sophie D´Hoore - a new find!

I was just in Paris and the obligatory strawl in the beloved "Bon Marché" was on the programm. We did not look for something special, just browsing and inhaling style here and there and felt like the world was at our feet - the sheer choice of wonderful and beautiful clothes, shoes, hats, in short all sorts of things is again and again a true pleasure.

 But then something caught my eye: Clean and nice clothes, great colours, easy cuts and a simple but very effective chic. I was particularly attracted by this dress, which is not very well fotographed here, but is simply divine in its cut and popeline material. I tried it on and it looked like I stepped out of a film with Ingrid Bergmann, going out to meet Gary Grant for lunch in the garden of Palais Royal..

Susanne went also to have a look and she, being her, found also the most marvelous pieces - a little blue pullover made of such a good quality, that you were just grasping your breath. La gamine parisienne par excellence! We both - looking quite different in our morphologie, I have to admit - were happy trying and looking and commentating and feeling wonderful.  I tell you, that I even did NOT have to try on the biggest size - I fit snuggly into a perfectly normal dress here - finally great and modern and timeless clothes for all womankind! So, it IS possible after all... congratulations, Sophie!

This is one of the moments, where you wish to be a millionaire and just be able to buy those wonderful little pieces, which make you feel a chic and happy woman, living her life of everyday and feeling well in it. It is not cheap, but the quality, cut and beauty of the garmets should give us a quiet conscience: to be used for ever, no fashion fad. Good investment.

The lovely sales lady brought one thing after the other, one more beautiful than the last. And then we learn, that Sophie D´Hoore is in Belgium, in Brussels! Oh wonder!

I just googled her address and will get there to have a look and perhaps even talk to her. Can´t wait! The website does not say much, unfortunately - only the adress. But I will explore and let you know!

Shoes...

Women and shoes - the despair of men, as it seems. Well, they have other problems. In fact, if a man buys a really good pair of shoes and takes good care of it, it may last him well some 30 years. I speak of Aldens, Church´s etc.etc. Handmade shoes for the gentleman are widely envied, I understand. A powerful sign that "you´ve made it".
We knew it: Life is not fair after all. If a woman runs around in perfectly maintained shoes for 30 years it might be a problem. Or you start to become a style icon yourself. Even the great Diana Vreeland - wearing always the same model of custom-made black shoes - had them substituted regularly for a new pair and did indeed change her style of shoes slightly during the whole of her life. So..

We women do have another approach - we love shoes. Basta. We need shoes.
To be able to buy a pair of really great shoes, let´s say, perhaps the ultimate Manolo Blahniks or some latest newest Roger Vivier´s comes near the feeling of "having made it". But not only: to have a really great pair of shoes on those poor old feet is some sort of a Cinderella moment, just only that you don´t become a pumpkin after taking them off. You step out of one personality, throwing the high heels from your feet and getting in a pair of walking shoes. We all have different aspects of ourselves and different situations in life require very simply different pairs of shoes - that might be a reasonable explanation, why women need more than just "shoes for walking, keeping warm and feel comfortable in"?

And one thing more: shoes have the big advantage that the weight issue does not really impede the aquisition of a wonderful pair of shoes and therefore provide a sudden miracle in the self-estimation. Lovely, difficult word. But you all know what I mean. Allthough I hasten to say, that a great pair in size 41 is more difficult to find than let´s face it, 38. (Sadly the same goes for clothes...)

I love shoes, as I said already, and I am in good company. I know.

One wonders though about the uncomfortability women inflict upon themselves in walking around in 10 inch stilettos. I just can´t imagine, that this makes one feel better, great or especially chic. At least I am not capable of surviving a day running around in high heels, perhaps a genetically inflicted fault in my perception of feeling well. 
It just hurts and  the way the lady walks is not attractive  - in my view.

I ask myself soemtimes, if someone who adores women on breathtakingly high heels is not otherwise someone who would be afraid that the object of desire (i.e.the girl) might run away if wearing a pair of "normal" shoes. So, difficult connotations between sex and shoes....
Perhaps shoes do give us, deep deep down in our subconsciouness, the illusion, that we  really are in control, can really dash off, if we want to? "Walk out" on something or someone, "take a step" to somewhere? At least do it in style and not in trainers.

Handbag Dilemma

This is a dilemma - not a really real one, but a dilemma after all: I have to think about it and cannot just move on, doing other, more interesting and urgent things.

I need a new handbag. For the summer; one, which goes with everything (though not for evenings, bien-sure). It should be at ease with a wardrobe in light grey, white, terracotta, some little blue, a lovely olive green and quite a lot if browns, camel and cinnamon. And a bit of black. And white/grey hair. Green/brown eyes.
So, you see, not easy....

For the last weeks, the dilemma has been getting even bigger: My budget and my ideas do live in different space galaxies. At least on the first and second look. I have done some real soul/wardrobe searching and walked around with my eyes wide open in this city of Brussels. Up to now, very diffcult, not really successful.

What do I need? I need a bag with handles - my beautiful slopping Biedermeier Shoulders do not support a bag which hangs on your shoulder. I look like the hunchback of Notre Dame and get definite pain in my back. I need a bag with handles, like the Queen.
Good models: Birkin Bag and some very nice things done by Celine. I immediatedly refer here to the budget dilemma.

I have the form. Now: Which Colour?

I have had for years and years always a summer bag in a "tan" - going very well with white, browns, terracotta and grey. But I feel, that I have to move on - thinking right now about some grey or beige handbag..... But this could be dangerous, I could look within a minute dowdy and frumpy and just "passée".
Perhaps in Patent leather?  Bearable, but not really for me, and not easy to pull of. And not really a classic for the next years to come up. I am not rich enough to buy several bags in the next years. So, be clever and buy well.

I have the shoes to consider as well. All the magazines tell us this season, that putting shoes and bags together is boring. Last season it was still ok, if I remember my english Vogue right. I still think it makes my life easier and looks pulled together. The only NO-NO: A white bag with white shoes looks defintively like a first communion outfit, so don´t go near this.
And then, who wants to change every day his handbag? I search for one and for all, going through the summer with me..

A red handbag, you will say! I have one, but in a cherry red, which I love, an old model by " Le Tanneur", of the times when they were not yet back on the market, being revamped. A very nice and good structured bag, then very affordable and still much beloved. It will come out in october to see the autumn season again and go with my black coat and boots. No dark red bag for summer for me.

For the last 20 years I have bought and rebought the classic tote bag made by "Longchamp" - great quality there was to be got for a great price.
But in the last  years they have also started to vamp the label up, and out go the structured bags, in comes Kate Moss and the zippers and embellishments, which gives me no desire to possess these bags any more. Also, the quality of the interior has dramatically got worse.

I want a plain, good leather bag, well executed, with preferably a nice interior, affordable, discret, elegant, a bit special all the same and a workhorse to be relied on. I know, this is impossible...

Next week I will be for a day in Paris and will have a close look there. Perhaps I am lucky and some bag simply sits there and waits for me - and I will recognize it the moment I see it. But then, with my genetic ability to always fall instinctively for the most expensive thing in the room, I am doomed from the beginning.
Another problem is still this colour question - greige, beige, grey? Or simply, again good old tan? Dark grey? (Looks good with white, though..) - Any ideas? Any place in Paris to be recommended for the handbagsearcher?

Well. I could also start seriously to save for that Birkin thing, for my 70th birthday. There would be some time still to consider the colour and change my mind. But then, I will have to live for the next ... years out of  my already existing handbag collection. And that is not a nice, not a really elevating thought.

I could go on to bore you with the bags I have collected over the years, why, where and when - make even pictures of them and then ask my readers to vote for the "Existing Bag of 2011". But I will do it only, if you ask me to do.