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Recent Posts

Saturday 27 December 2014

"EXODUS"...AN EXERCISE IN PATIENCE

On a brief and amusing note....we went and saw Ridley Scott's latest snooze fest:

                                            
EXODUS: Gods and Kings....
Starring:Christian Bale as Moses/Moshe, Ben Kingsley, a mute Sigourney Weaver....and believe it or not Aaron Paul of the amazing : "Breaking Bad"....as Joshua

What he is doing in this film is still bewildering to me....He is forever Jesse Pinkman, however hard he tries to shake off that mantel and even in rags and looking bedraggled you can still hear him say:
"YO YO!Moses!.....BITCHHHH...."


All I can say is this...if you haven't had enough helpings of turkey over Xmas...go and indulge in this prime Turkey and drink some Redbull...cos you are going down for a nap at some point during this film.

...Still picking the feathers out of my mouth.....pitouiiiii

Tuesday 23 December 2014

'Twas the Night Before....Before Xmas....


It is that time of year already...the night before before Xmas..thought I'd get ahead of myself before  the headiness of Xmas takes over.

May there be gifts aplenty, Champagne corks better pop! ....and may that turkey be what you eat and not how you would describe your gift!..Before you sell it on Ebay....

Enjoy the end of this year my friends:



                                        MERRY CHRISTMAS LOVELY PEOPLE!

.....come back and see me after the celebrating has died down to a dull roar...
                                        
                                                    XOXO FROCKANROLLA 

Monday 22 December 2014

Hunt for the Keffiyeh Dress Part 2: Rough Rugs

Ever since I started  posting on Instagram...my passion has grown for the unattainable featured by several "people" I have started following....
Hence part 2 of  the "Hunt the Keffiyeh Dress"...

 Which has taken me to this....
Posted by "roughrugs"....they primarily sell: cushions...and rugs....and this fabulous dress!!!


Let me introduce you to:

The "Leila K. black/white dress: one size only.....sounds good
                                                          100% Linen.....nice......
                                                          149€......I don't care.....
                                                 and.....SOLD OUT!!!!


*COURTESY OF ROUGHRUGS TUMBLR*

This was posted back in June/July 2014....obviously not available either....




So where does that leave me? Still wanting the bleedin' dress...
Any thoughts?

Check out their website:
http://www.roughrugs.com/home/

Monday 15 December 2014

Denmark's Cecilie Copenhagen:A New and Happening Designer


Thanks to my friend Ahmed. A ...I have become an Instagram addict...and that's a sincere thanks. It has opened my horizons and eyes and has led me to this fabulous new Danish designer:

Cecilie Copenhagen....who has this fabulous,eye opener collection of Keffiyeh cotton ...that takes Keffiyeh to a whole new level and not just as a "statement scarf" of the masses.
Don't get me wrong as a proud Palestinian, I wear mine with Panache ...but the use of this eponymous fabric has turned it into a must have collection.

The collection is vast and you have a choice of colours on Cecilie's online store as well as styles : short dress,long/short skirts/shorts/tops etc....






My only problem...and this is a conundrum: they only come in tiny sizes!!!!!!
Size 1: 34-36 EU
Size 2 : 38 EU.....
SERIOUSLY?.....Hmmmmmm???!!! Please don't tell me that Cecilie is a sizist? 
Sizes : 40 42 and yes a 44....are seriously neglected and only happen to be the healthy sizes for the general female population out there.
Haven't we been told by the lovely Meghan Trainor that it is "All about that Bass...no treble"? Huh? No truer words have been spoken.
Still.....


Unless they size super big!!!.... I  shall remain a disappointed  bystander who will not  be able to purchase anything from Cecilie but  will have to content myself  to admire the pieces from afar and suggest to my young, lithe friends out there like lovely Stephanie and Mael B, gorgeous Melanie S in Miami...(and I could go on)...to check this out.



http://www.ceciliecopenhagen.com/studio

Available at retailers in Denmark,Belgium, Germany and at Browns in London: South Audley Street W1


Snifff......



Wednesday 10 December 2014

Boogie Wanders-land: The Andaz, Amsterdam


This is the reception taken from the bar/tearoom/ hotspot in Amsterdam...Have you ever seen such magnificence?

Let me show you some more:


This was taken from the elevator....take a good look at the wallpaper....pure genius.

So before I bombard you with more images,let us take a minute to chat:
I was whisked off by my sister for a "Gals Getaway" to beautiful Amsterdam a couple of weeks ago and we stayed in this former public library: The Andaz on the Prisengracht.
It is in the heart of town and the Prisengracht is it's beating pulse along of course, with the other "grachts"...Heren and Kiesen.

Who would not want a view on the canals when in Amsterdam and a view we got:

...along with some mind boggling decor by Marcel Wanders....I am a HUGE FAN! What he did in this hotel makes the Andaz New York seem faded and worn (and I stayed there a couple of years ago) as well as outranking it in the service and hospitality department tenfold and Lord knows how the Americans pride themselves on that.


Behind that glass door is the shower, the sink is in the room but part of such clever design that you want to wash your hands constantly because it is a marvel and a pleasure.


Funky but fun and refreshing and clean...the whimsy was certainly not lost on me:




This lil piggie is part of a wall panel with many other animals...who would want to go to market when they can stay here ...at The Andaz and be part of this amazing trip.





This wallpaper is in the toilet and will provide you endless hours of reading material as it tells the tale of Amsterdam in sections ...you may never leave,but leave you must or carry your haemorrhoid's in your back pocket.

I truly felt like Alice in Wandersland...enchanted,beguiled and embraced.

The ride up and down the glass elevator was worth every trip:




Seen enough? Come Boogie with me in Wanders-Land...it is worth the trip alone to stay in this hotel, to eat in the gorgeous restaurant and to ride in the elevator and stare at it all in wonder.


I shall leave you with my final image: me grinning from ear to ear like the Cheshire Cat.

Monday 8 December 2014

MAMA BROWN AND HER 72 DESIGNERS

Walking into "Mama Brown's Pop Up Store" in the old postal sorting warehouse on London's fashionably eclectic King's Road was like walking into Ali Baba's cave after a psychedelic trip into the past when Hyper Hyper reigned supreme on Kensington High Street back in the 80s.




To our right was an impressive throw back of Punk/Goth/Parakeet ...a surly young man with long black hair, wearing a coat of pink fur so expansive that the whole looked exotic as well as a little scary. I am sure that anyone who knows this person will probably attest to him being:
" A sweet guy, a pussy cat"...
I gave him wide berth and almost bumped into his female counterpart on our left: Mrs Punk Rock circa....then  and not very welcoming either...or maybe it was because it was late on a Wednesday evening and she and her friend were tired of being ogled at.

BUT! This by no means should detract from the experience of Mama Browns...eclectic it well is...Punk caps, colourful furs leading you to jewellery encased in "DO NOT TOUCH" glass cabinets....only to find that you come to a drafty corridor with some clever Calligraphy artwork leading further still into  a surprisingly massive den of art,design and Middle Eastern cuisine!
And that is what threw me...the Middle Eastern theme that I was hardly expecting let alone seeing the mom of someone from my past,sitting with headscarf and glare that she has always sported beside another lady selling her wares ...where have I landed?
My past????
Ahead of me I see a sign for Tania cashmere...Tania Laurie and I went to school together here in London many,many years ago. We were besties then and lost touch until the miracle of Facebook....when does Micheal Aspel jump out and say:
"Reem! This is your Life!!" and hand me that blessed red book!!!




There is jewellery by Tateossian, Neville Hair and Beauty is on hand, funky cartoon pop tshirts with Arabic "Boom" and "Shebang"...not that I can read Arabic but was told so by my faithful companion Omar B.
We met and chatted with a very sweet Canadian, Lebanese handbag designer called Nathalie who told us about all her trials and tribulations. There was also fabulous photography from Noura Al Sakaf...most of which was already sold and understandably so...Stunning.

It is fun and there is lots to see and buy...so get to it before it closes it's doors by the 10th of December, we were told by Nathalie..unless they have extended it by popular demand.





Friday 5 December 2014

The Japanese Diamond System....Hair we go again!

 I have been a slave to my hair since puberty; I would wind a gauze bandage around my blow dried ...long... thick... curly hair and slept with what felt like a furry rod . The next morning and upon the unravelling; my hair was controlled and lush...my neck on the other hand needed a brace BUT! off to school I went not looking like Diana Ross who had been dragged through brambles but a happy teen with lovely hair.

Fast forward many years of bi-weekly blow dries/blow-outs:burnt ears and scalp to all the latest fads to get my hair under submission and control.

Yuko: done....Ramrod straight hair after 5 back and ass debilitating hours with  Manolo my then Spanish hairdresser whose accent was as thick as molasses and kept calling me "Ren"...
"It's Reem"...
"I know..Ren"!!
It cost a fortune and looked like crap when my hair started growing out.

To cut a long....long...agonising story short: I did it all....

And now I simply get it relaxed at Junior Green's in Knightsbridge... With a yearly Brazilian thrown in for good measure before summer... I spend less time at the hairdresser and get out by lunch time for a glass of Pinot as opposed to twilight and a handful of Nurofen.


Now there is a new kid in town :The Japanese Diamond system available at Eleven Hair Salon which uses a new technique for our unruly tresses : ultrasound.

Apparently this only takes an hour while the ultrasound pushes healthy ingredients such as: argan, jojoba and rose oils into the hairs' cortex thereby smoothing the cuticles into a glass like shine. Then you are free to push healthy doses of Prosecco into your system followed by a delightful lunch.

It costs £85 and results last about 2 months....cheap as chips compared to the rest!

Get thee to Eleven Hair: 11 Blenheim Street, London W1 ( 020 7491 2390)...minutes away from Bond street station.




Latest Resort by CHANEL

I walked by the Chanel boutique in Brompton Cross, London with my dear friend Omar the other day....after a nice lunch at Aubaine might I add(BTW the soup the jour is more like the soup du month...delicious as it is).
...and what caught my attention ? Not the Boy bag on everyone's arm,nor any particular item for that matter... just the cacophony of colours,flimsey fabrics and some seriously hideous "baboush" like shoes on the mannequins.

This apparently is the Resort collection..more like last resort... judging by what we saw in the window. It didn't look good,it didn't look chic and it didn't look like Chanel! 

Then I came across this fashion spread from Marie Claire and thanked God for stylists! Because there is cohesion here,not a collection of "expensive rags" as well as some pretty lovely shoes that don't look they come from The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul.

Have a look for yourselves:






My personal favourite by far is the "keffiyeh" print silk lace jumpsuit worn under the tweed jumpsuit...(lotta jumpsuits at once, I give you that...)
Pray to God you don't have a hangnail as you ease the silk jumpsuit on...at £4,480 there is no going back.

So what did I learn from this? That sometimes window displays just don't convey that intended look?.....or that the said "look" was simply not working as intended and Chanel need to rethink their display.

Moving on....