Automotivation

As with everything sartorial, I'm pretty much at least six months behind the trend. These shoes, from Prada's 2012 spring collection, were widely flagged up in editorial fashion pages earlier in the year. I have borrowed this photo from a site called Autoguide.com, which noted that the designs referenced classic American cars of the Fifties, borrowing details such as chrome, lights, wings and flames. So pretty (and so crazy). There's considerable scope for  the imaginitive combining of cars and femininity: the suggestive back seat, the skin-soft leather, the mirrors, the headlights. The soft top that can conceal or reveal. The grimace of the grille at the front.

The reverse has potential, too; this drawing is by the sublime Tomi Ungerer, from his book 'Horrible', and is made particularly wonderful by the uncertain expression of the chap behind the wheel.

Pasta

Inspired by the spaghetti image of a few days back, I thought I'd try a few more pasta styles. How much easier to have pasta instead of hair- a dusting of powder or a slick of oil, and, voila- perfection. What bliss no longer to have to wash, dry, comb, style, spray, tint, perm, braid, tease, gel. And pasta shapes imply a certain style- the long, luscious waves of fettuccine (above), the corkscrew curls of fusilli (below)...

... or the soignee chignon of vermicelli..

... and all edible, to boot.

Ladies Who Eat Cakes

On my regular route into town, I often pass the tiny shopfront of Stephen Jones, milliner. The windows are crammed with exotic and desirable hats, restrained or wild, always witty, and delightfully free of price tags. I spend one or five or ten minutes deciding which I would purchase, were I a wearer of hats. In another life, I hope to be such a person. I am, however, an eater of cakes, tea being my favourite repast, and cakes being a good deal more necessary than headgear in a mild but mournful climate. Nothing will cheer me up so effectively as an hour diverted from the daily grind in pursuit of a slice of Victoria sponge, coffee-and-walnut, scone and cream, or even a more fanciful patisserie. The combination of hat and cake is my idea of bliss, provided, of course, that it isn't raining.
This all might seem a little fey, but I would like to add that cake eating is not only for the dilettante. Just today I was reminded by Radio 4 that tea rooms were often used as meeting places by suffragettes. Darjeeling and dissent, rock buns and rocks thrown, etc. 

Bikini

Almost the end of the bikini season, although it ended for me some decades ago.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

As so often, I just spent a couple of days toiling away on some ideas that have come to naught- or at least, come to a good deal less than expected. And then at the last moment, this thought arrived whole and perfect and al dente.

Flip Flops for Weightwatchers

Nothing much to say about this one. I've long considered this novel combination of weighing scales and footwear to be one of my better money-making ideas, but have yet to find a backer. Still open to offers, though.

Strike A New Line

A digression. I have been revisiting a delightful little volume purchased in a small, second-hand bookshop in pre-Amazon days. 'Strike A New Line', by Inge Brandeis and published in 1946, promotes 'physical culture through everyday movements'; that is to say, it's a workout  book, albeit very modest by today's standards. It is written in simple and unpatronising language that nonetheless sounds surprisingly modern, give or take the odd moment ('See how your girl carries her doll or pushes her pram exactly like you!'). Miss Joan Garside provided a series of robust line drawings, alongside photos by Mr. Waldo Fergusson..

Ways of Walking. From left to right (in twos): exaggerated self-importance; simulated elegance; near approach to perfection; slack walk (this one closest to my own).

Ways of Standing: Apparent relaxed position, involving deformation of the spine and compensatory twists of groups of muscles.

Ways of Standing: Apparent comfort, with insidious curvature of the spine.

Attitudes to Work: Unnecessary stress on back and shoulder muscles while ironing.

Attitudes to Work: Inevitable stoop and hunch with badly adjusted sitting position at keyboard (very close to my posture at this precise moment).

Everyday Actions: Apparent comfort, but actually a tiring posture.

Everyday Actions: The careless sacrifice of the figure in favour of the face.

Casual Movements: Tiring inelegant variation (of shoe-installation, presumably).

Casual Movements: Clumsy gait arising from swinging the weight of the body to achieve upward motion (otherwise known as going upstairs).

A further digression. In her preface, the author credits a  'Madame Mensendieck' as the source of the movements and approach advocated, a rather Dickensian name which prompted more time wasting on the internet. Bess Margaret Mensendieck (1864-1957) was apparently an American physician who was called to Austria to instruct in her method of exercising, promoting good posture and correct body mechanics. She was herself the author of several books, and had been summoned to Europe by Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was greatly vexed by the daily sight of pot-bellied ladies-in-waiting, standing to attention with their hands over their stomachs in an attempt to disguise the bulge. Problems of self-image among females at court: plus ca change.