El Casal, Barcelona - Fresh and French

Shockingly, we ate at a place that wasn't a festival burger stand or our favourite cheap neighbourhood tapas bar, Bitácora, today.



On the recommendation of some friends, we visited a French bistro called El Casal, which hides away in the most touristy bit of El Barrio Gótico. The staff are French, there are lots of books everywhere and the place is a bit like what Shakespeare and Company might be like if they had a kitchen in the middle of the shop, There I ate the best salad I have had in a long while (not just because every molecule in me had been crying out for plants to eat) and everyone else ordered what they thought was tapas but came as a filling in massive hunks of bread.


They also do a day menu there which I want to try next time, which was several courses and cost about 10 Euros. Go visit if you are in the busy part of town and need to refuel for cheap.

Fashion and Textile Museum - Liberty Exhibition

After obsessing about Liberty over the winter, I finally visited the FTM Liberty in Fashion exhibition in January, and took a lot of photos of luscious clothing after the jump.

Better late than never....

Polyester Poiret

This dress is pretty cheap and nasty fabric-wise, but I couldn't get the kimono sleeves and the resemblance to Paul Poiret's designs out of my head.

I really used to hate the inverted triangle shapes from the 1910s, but now I've grown to really like them (in photos and drawings, even if I don't have the ass for them). The history of the era is also so interesting, with huge changes in art and fashion from the Edwardian age. The trends for everything artistic, fauvist, oriental, and the fact that they didn't know it but they were dancing on the edge on WW1...

"Soon, as Paul Morand cruelly pointed out, this Belle Epoque was no more than 'a submerged continent with only the crowns of its top hats still remaining visible." Parisian Fashions - La Gazette du Bon Ton

The Thin Man (1934) - Pre-code wisecracks, hangovers, slinky dresses and fur

 The Thin Man is an old favourite film of mine, partly for the hilarious dialogue and warm joshing between Myrna Loy and Charles Powell and partly for the impossible 30s glamour of the costumes, which are by Dolly Tree, a British designer. As well as clothing, she was good at illustration and career advice.

If you like fur, elaborate sleeves, velvet, bias cuts, perky hats and want to know how to look good with an ice pack on your head, you're in for a treat... screen shots of my favourite outfits after the jump.

Ozma (Return to Oz)

So... my main achievement over the holidays has been finding and stalking some new Instagram subcultures. One of them is Disney Princess cosplay, oh yes.

While I kind of love it, I think the only Disney princess I'd want to go out in public as is beautiful Ozma from the highly awesome and dark, 90s Disney film Return to Oz. I love her green dress and Ruby slippers and her Art Nouveau headdress. She is a bit of a cross between Glinda and the fairy Sherly Lee plays in Wild at Heart.

I also love me some ostrich feathers...

Scarfed

I took the kitchen scissors to my fringe and have been trying out some scarf turbans as inspired by some of my favourite Instagrammers (below)

A photo posted by Isabel Barense (@isabelbarense) on Dec 18, 2014 at 8:12pm PST

Selfie de cuisine, coucou les placards 🙋

A photo posted by @lucyrose_sailor on May 26, 2014 at 9:34am PDT

A photo posted by Meg Windsor (@meggieloveday) on Apr 5, 2015 at 2:45am PDT

Tonight we're getting our Christmas tree, which I'm very excited about!🎄#1940s #vintage #collectif

A photo posted by Rachel (@ohdeerly) on Dec 2, 2015 at 7:49am PST

New Year's Eve

My outfit for our New Year's Eve party: Happy 2016!

Pierrot collars

Pierrot has always been a big fashion icon for me (hello 2013 post) but I seem to be seeing more and more Pierrot collars at the moment. Possibly because of all the 30s babes I follow on Instagram. After seeing the price of dresses with almost any type of collars from Etsy, I have decided to make one myself that I can attach to different outfits. Here is my mood board:

I miss shoognie 😿

A photo posted by Gabrielle (@thedramaofexile) on Oct 28, 2015 at 2:26pm PDT

A photo posted by s a m a n t h a 💐 (@samantha_asam) on Oct 23, 2015 at 7:51am PDT

A photo posted by Amy Roiland ✅ (@afashionnerd) on Oct 28, 2015 at 7:57pm PDT

And just for fun, here is a Danish Pierrot  (and harlequin)I snapped at the Danish Embassy Christmas fair a few years ago:

 

Retro cheerleader chic

Now that Christmas is officially over with, my thoughts are turning to what I am going to wear in the summer, including for our annual trip to Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona, which is basically my annual week of wearing whatever silly stuff I want.

At the moment, I am a bit obsessed with the retro cheerleader look, from Mermaidens' amazing retro cheerleader Halloween costume to 70s exploitation flick, Satan's Cheerleaders.


 

I have  a good selection of mini circle skirts and tight sweaters, so I think I just need a varsity jacket to get the look. After a few hours slaving over a hot MacBook, I found the perfect one on Etsy and I can't wait for it to arrive from Ohio and I can do my own version of cheerleader chic.

Here are some other gems from my window shopping:
 
From Etsy sellers TurquoiseFlamingo, InRetrospect208, and LuxieVintage

Stars

 For my Christmas outfit this year, I picked this rust coloured Topshop dress (sleeves!), Zara shoes and this Crown and Glory headpiece that I spend my life thinking of excuses to wear because it brings out all my 20s showgirl wannabe urges.

We are staying in a part of Essex where a battle between vikings and the British took place a thousand years ago (next October), which was a great victory for the Danes, so I feel very at home.