so if i can't get a hold of a vera wang,

can i wear this for my hypothetical wedding?!

i'm in love with this dress.

http://lookbook.nu/look/1385019-Frolicking-through-the-Forest

john singer sargent, modernized.

Every once in a while I see Nicole Kidman's Madame X-style photo (from Vogue June 1999) - but I didn't realize there was a whole Sargent-themed photoshoot!

My favorites -

 after Madame X by John Singer Sargent, 1884

Mrs. Carl Meyer, 1896

Repose, 1911

this is cool.

http://twistori.com/

the christmas miracle of jonathan toomey

Cleaning - and I love looking at old children's books.  I rediscovered one of my favorites - The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey, by Susan Wojciechowski.  it's about a grieving (and grumpy) widower's road to newfound happiness, by way of carving a Christmas nativity set for a widow and her son (okay, bad description but you get the picture...).  Whenever I read this book I end up in tears.

The illustrations are goregous, too - by P.J. Lynch.

winslow homer, black+white+brown

fisher girl with net, 1882

 flamborough head, england, 1882

 girl seated, 1880

going berrying, 1879

would you be mine, valentine?

valentine typewriter
ettore sotsass, 1969

i want one!

white dresses, part 3: more paintings!

i just love the pre-raphaelites and pre raphaelite-influenced art.  people may call it kitschy but oh well.  i enjoy some bad architecture just as much as some good architecture, so i may as well feel the same way about paintings.  plus, it makes me feel calm.  which is a good thing.

The Lady of Shalott, John William Waterhouse, 1888

The Accolade, Edmund Blair Leighton, 1901

white dresses, part 2: paintings

Two contrasting depictions of white dresses in the Victorian Era - one impressionist, a windy walk outside, the white dress all the more impractical but picturesque (i'm thinking Anne of Green Gables or A Room with a View); the other a portrait of a woman sitting down on a luxurious chair, her elusive expression challenging the viewer to question a woman's role as just another ornament in a lovely house.

Claude Monet - The Walk, Woman with a Parasol (Madame Monet and her Son), 1875

John Singer Sargent - Lady Agnew of Lochnaw, 1892-93

my new life goal.

i think my chances of ever living in a converted firehouse, princess diaries style, are pretty slim.  so my new life goal is to live in a church. like a converted one. no, seriously, i'm sure life in a church is generally happier than the hunchback's in notre dame...

hm, unfortunately i think that both options are quite unlikely. well, one can always dream.

a space in a north london victorian church:

in kensal green, london:

in lincolnshire:

in suffolk:

in Bazel:

still in love

did i mention that i love love love elie saab?

from fall 2010 collection.

beautiful (skating) couples

are they always canadian?

tessa virtue and scott moir, ice dancing

jessica dube and bryce davison, pairs figure skating

just saying.

let them wear saab.

i've been having lots of fun thumbing through all the hello magazines that my mom brought back for me from england - which brought to my attention (along with the latest WAG gossip) elie saab's spring 2010 collection - with a fairy tale theme. and i love love love LOVE the dresses.

i haven't always been such a fan of the giant slits in the dress, but, well, the model can certainly pull it off even if some celebrities cannot, and this certainly caught my eye.

loving the asymmetrical straps (do these even qualify for straps?  they are far too lovely to deserve such a commonplace name).  it's more like...non-drapey drapery.

and this one...i love how these dresses can be long, yet so flowy and elegant at the same time.

saab has managed to do what cavalli could not in virgin territory - create long, romantic-inspired gowns with a modern twist (without making them look too trampy).

my idol. seriously.

happiness. because i just found out that i passed my physics final, which means that i don't have to re-take newtonian mechanics next semester! for now (key words: for now), i just get to think about happy things - like the amazing-ness of leonardo da vinci! one of my current obsessions has to be his drapery studies. i love this study for a seated figure.