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Wednesday 8 February 2012

Live colorfully

Yes, I do realise that "colorfully" has been spelt the American way, and that's because for the purposes of this blog post, we shall suspend disbelief and imagine we are roaming the streets of NYC, past Times Square, Madison Square Garden, and Magnolia Bakery (yes, we have time to get a takeaway cupcake - anything can happen in your dreams) to arrive at the Kate Spade store in Soho, on 454 Broome Street. And her motto is nothing less than "LIVE COLORFULLY", appropriate advice for those who have just entered the rather drab world of full-time work. So if you open your wardrobe and see a sea of blacks and greys and quite possibly browns, it might be time to heed Spade's advice. Because nothing is worse than blending in with your morning coffee. Life is just too short.



Why can't I do that with my coffee? Guess I should start practising ...




This is how I like to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon, swimming in a colourful sea of the unread, re-read, about-to-be-read and, occasionally, the unwanted. Not that books have feelings, but there are always those that have gathered sufficient dust to render their titles illegible. And that's just embarassing. Moving on.











Digging the hot pink retro sunnies. I love how whimsical, playful and just damn fun Kate Spade is. Peering into my black bag the other day, I discovered the following words shimmering along the inner lining. It was a description of the type of girl who carries her bags: "She is a voracious reader and a fantastic dancer [okay, ignore that part]. She saves old scrapbooks but always loses her umbrella. Her emails pile up but she never forgets to call her grandmother. She has $7 in change at the bottom of her handbag". Apart from the $7 sitting at the bottom of my bag (more like 7 cents), this describes me (and most girls I know) to a tee. What could be better than a bag that knows you better than you do?




Answer: a bag that comes with optional hovering mechanism (see picture below). If only advertising didn't lie.




Or a bag that came with a furry friend.


Or a red car.




Or a lime green bike.




Or a bag that took you on holidays. Definitely wouldn't say no to that.



As you can see from the above, Spade's spring/summer 2012 campaign is as colourful, playful and whimsical as you'd expect. And it seems that she's not the only one jumping on the colour bandwagon. The S/S 2012 campaigns for Prada, Mulberry and Salvatore Ferragamo are equally saturated with every primary colour under the sun - bright and cheerful hues of red, green and blue, softened by the occasional pastel pink and buttery yellow. What better way to escape the dreary Sydney rain than by becoming a walking paintbox?

MULBERRY S/S 2012







LOUIS VUITTON S/S 2012




This is what I dream about when I'm at work - an endless swing, dangling somewhere high above a glittering sapphire ocean, surrounded by burning Mediterranean sunlight, without a care in the world. Okay, so never going to happen, but a girl's gotta dream, right?

PRADA S/S 2012

Think Mad Men outifts, dreamy hair and flashy, angular old cars. Welcome to your parents' generation.










SALVATORE FERRAGAMO S/S 2012

It really doesn't seem fair to mock us with all these heavenly resort photos, bursting with life and colour, just as Sydney is experiencing the coldest summer on record, and it's that time of year when everyone has to head back to the office. Guess that's what daydreams are made of.






If I could marry a suit, it would be this one.



And if I could get a happy canary yellow holiday car, it would be this one. As much as I love black for work, colour (lots of it, in bright shades) makes me extremely happy, for some unfathomable reason. Visiting Burano island in Venice was high on my to-list ever since I discovered that each house along the canals was painted a varying shade of pink, blue, yellow, green or red. Who couldn't be happy walking along a street like this?





It was extremely extremely hot that day, and what Burano offers in colour, it lacks in shade. Pretty sure I was dripping in sweat when I ventured out from under a shop awning to take these shots, but they were absolutely worth it.



And since colour seems to be in this season, I'm all for it. To me, living life "colorfully" means laughing out loud, singing off key and believing in taking chances.




It means eating cake for breakfast (because your wallet is telling you to).


Or giving your cake a crazy pink hairdo.




Yes, pink hair. This was the "Marie Antoinette" cake we tried at Sevva, Hong Kong. Apologies for the slightly blurry photography, it was a very high balcony, and a very windy night, which explains the windswept hair. Almost as soon as the waiter set the cake down gingerly on our table, we grabbed at tufts of pink hair (fairy floss) to stop it from blowing away. Altogether an incredible cake.



The view from Sevva's balcony was equally breathtaking. The Hong Kong skyline definitely reveals its true colours at night.







So let your imagination run away with you. Let your daydreams take you places. Because sometimes understated is overrated.



Here's to a life lived colorfully!


1 comment:

Kate and Chelsie said...

Love the candy cake !!
http://katieandchelsie.blogspot.co.uk/