There are things I don't understand....
Had a surprise call from my friend Annabel at the weekend....she was going to be around for a few days before flying back to New York where she lives and we managed a long lunch together to catch up somehow....it was like a speed-talking convention as it's been aaaaaages, but as we parted I had that lighter-than-air spring to my step you get when you've spent quality talking, laughing, righting wrongs time with a fantastic lady-friend!
Annabel used to work at Shop, god about 10 years ago! She was a cool teen with short duck-fluff hair and we got to talking and it turned out she worked in the x-girl shop in New York and was now in London working at Sotheby's and was looking for a Saturday job, so of course naturally.....
So over the years our paths have often crossed either here or in London, and Annabel has always been working at her photography which is amazing, I remember even looking at her polaroids of friends from school and they had something extra-special, check out her website http://www.annabelmehran.com/, I'm so proud of her, she's busy busy busy, regularly working for Teen Vogue as well as stuff for New York Times and Art Review if you please!!!
We only had a few hours so we decided on lunch at her fancy hotel, Browns on Albermarle St - I'm so glad we did!!!!! The sommelier looked at us, brought the champagne TROLLEY and assumed (rightly) that a glass of pink champagne was in order - he knew class when he saw it! Annabel gave me the cutest little tiny book of love letters to Josephine from Napoleon, here's a picture for scale...
Very romantic it is..."Je vais me coucher, ma petite Josephine, le coeur plein de ton adorable image, et navre de rester tant de temps loin de toi; mais j'espere que, dans quelques jours, je serai plus heureux et que je pourrai a mon aise te donner des preuves de l'amour ardent que tu m'as inspire..."
We both had a divine salad and our cup of tea was accompanied by these treats!
I LOVE going to fancy places to eat! It's all about the extras you didn't ask for isn't it?
I suddenly realised the hotel backed onto Dover Street and I've never been to Dover Street Market and Annabel had never heard of it so we decided (especially after I said Alaia and Lanvin) we needed to check it out.....It kind of wasn't what I was expecting.....I don't get it. Lots on sale at the moment ( I got a pair of leggings down from £60 to £24) and I kind of felt sorry for the clothes as I don't think they get many visitors, I mean, we can talk....but it was a strange atmosphere, but apart from one really bouncy japanese shop assistant who loved his job so much, it was kinda dour. I liked Arts and Science and the World Archive the best and they had those divine Alaia big lace corset belts which would look good with anything!
Annabel was similarly confused....
Bev and I have had an unofficial bookclub for a few months now but we've decided to make it public!!! So far we've read Berlin Bromley by Berlin, Fabulous Nobodies by Lee Tulloch, Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs, The Beautiful Fall by Alicia Drake and Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton....our reviews for these we will post next week but in the meantime we plan to read Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides if anyone wants to join in....We also thought it might be fun to meet upstairs for tea and cake once a month to discuss instead of doing this all in cyberspace! Let us know if you want to join, and boys are allowed, Jonathan already put his name down!
Last bit of sale....do rush down for a bargan!!!
Madame xx
Annabel used to work at Shop, god about 10 years ago! She was a cool teen with short duck-fluff hair and we got to talking and it turned out she worked in the x-girl shop in New York and was now in London working at Sotheby's and was looking for a Saturday job, so of course naturally.....
So over the years our paths have often crossed either here or in London, and Annabel has always been working at her photography which is amazing, I remember even looking at her polaroids of friends from school and they had something extra-special, check out her website http://www.annabelmehran.com/, I'm so proud of her, she's busy busy busy, regularly working for Teen Vogue as well as stuff for New York Times and Art Review if you please!!!
We only had a few hours so we decided on lunch at her fancy hotel, Browns on Albermarle St - I'm so glad we did!!!!! The sommelier looked at us, brought the champagne TROLLEY and assumed (rightly) that a glass of pink champagne was in order - he knew class when he saw it! Annabel gave me the cutest little tiny book of love letters to Josephine from Napoleon, here's a picture for scale...
Very romantic it is..."Je vais me coucher, ma petite Josephine, le coeur plein de ton adorable image, et navre de rester tant de temps loin de toi; mais j'espere que, dans quelques jours, je serai plus heureux et que je pourrai a mon aise te donner des preuves de l'amour ardent que tu m'as inspire..."
We both had a divine salad and our cup of tea was accompanied by these treats!
I LOVE going to fancy places to eat! It's all about the extras you didn't ask for isn't it?
I suddenly realised the hotel backed onto Dover Street and I've never been to Dover Street Market and Annabel had never heard of it so we decided (especially after I said Alaia and Lanvin) we needed to check it out.....It kind of wasn't what I was expecting.....I don't get it. Lots on sale at the moment ( I got a pair of leggings down from £60 to £24) and I kind of felt sorry for the clothes as I don't think they get many visitors, I mean, we can talk....but it was a strange atmosphere, but apart from one really bouncy japanese shop assistant who loved his job so much, it was kinda dour. I liked Arts and Science and the World Archive the best and they had those divine Alaia big lace corset belts which would look good with anything!
Annabel was similarly confused....
Bev and I have had an unofficial bookclub for a few months now but we've decided to make it public!!! So far we've read Berlin Bromley by Berlin, Fabulous Nobodies by Lee Tulloch, Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs, The Beautiful Fall by Alicia Drake and Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton....our reviews for these we will post next week but in the meantime we plan to read Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides if anyone wants to join in....We also thought it might be fun to meet upstairs for tea and cake once a month to discuss instead of doing this all in cyberspace! Let us know if you want to join, and boys are allowed, Jonathan already put his name down!
Last bit of sale....do rush down for a bargan!!!
Madame xx
Labels: Alaia, Annabel Mehran, Browns Hotel, Dover St Market, Lanvin, X-girl
5 Comments:
im down with a book club.. although i didnt like middlesex when i read it/cant remember it v well/ and cant be bothered to reread it! (life being too short and all)... although i loves patrick hamilton! the last time i ever had diner out with my grandad was at Browns, such a nice place, they treated him like royalty. x
Well, I think it'll all be pretty free and easy so you can talk about Patrick Hamilton and beep out the Middlesex bits....I forgot to mention the other book we've read which is My Booky Wook by Russell Brand! Can't think why I missed that out! It's a very quick read if you want to get up to speed with us!
Fabulous Nobodies was my absolute favorite book when I was sixteen. I HAVE to reread!
And I just read The Beautiful Fall in the summer. I loved the picture of Donna Jordan and Antonia Lopez (and Corey Tippen?) on the beach in the South of France in 1971, and the idea of Karl tripping down to the shore in his heels.....
I really liked Berlin Bromley; it was well-written, from the heart and didn't peddle the same-old same-old.
I met him a few years ago mincing down Wardour Street. He seemed nice. Tiny. And that bit in the book where he stays in squats in Berlin (which he visits for the first time as a 40th birthday treat) and ends up living there after bumping into Jon Savage deserves a play in it's own right...
So I think we might have some recruits??!!! Fabulous Nobodies is so fantastic isn't it??!! And Berlin Bromley I loved, was reading on last Paris trip, I agree about Berlin (the place), it's like his last hope and he seems so hopeless until he bumps into Jon Savage... OMG that beach picture is amaaaaazing, I just got a book on Antonio for Christmas - verrrrry inspiring!!!! I can see we have so much to talk about!!!!
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