Winter Light

At home, the light is at its most beautiful at sunset during winter. When the air is crisp and your breath floats all around you. When the ground crunches beneath your feet. The naked trees that provide relief from the sun in winter play games with it instead. The two flirt so that light dances all around, between gaps, under, over.

Comfort is important on these cold days. Ease of movement, protection against the elements. The surroundings and the setting influence how I dress. It's so quiet and other-worldly in its beauty that it feels like a different time here. Wandering through it on my own, with internet firmly behind doors and the rest of the world far away, I get this sense of calm. I breathe again. It helps recharge. So I put on a vintage coat owned by my mother before me and as old as I am, from our time in France. It is a timeless piece - navy wool, practical, reliable. Both light and warm. Voluminous enough to hide in but not so heavy as to get lost. Around my neck is a new Fat Face scarf from my aunt. Hardly a practical item, it is such a slip of a thing. But charming in how much it suits my tastes. Beloved for having someone who knows the things I like so well. Muted blue run through with many other colours so subtle that they are like speckles in tweed. Earthy. On my feet are well-worn New Look boots. Slightly cowboyish with a low heel. Enough to feel adult, adequately low for me to walk in with ease. The latest purchase from Zara encases my legs. Again in the blue family - navy pinstripes. Wide-legged. Elasticated waist. Casual today but always sharp and ready to be dressed up. Trusty Topshop sunglasses to help tame that playful sun. All together something a little Parisian in styling but traditionally Irish in elements of materials and tones.

Perhaps not the clothes for trekking around the fields in but something for wandering just a little with camera in hand and head in clouds. For basking in how lovely everything around me is. For embarking on something a little new to me. My first OOTD captured on camera but moving, not still.

Okay, so I'm super-nervous about this one. But I really wanted to show how I see home and winter how they inspire me to dress. I thought the combination of words and photographs and films went some way towards doing this. What do you think? 

Dublin in Winter

"Why don't you leave Dublin?"

Well-meaning strangers and friends and family alike ask me.

"Go somewhere else, with more opportunities."

I have two issues with this. One, opportunities are made not bestowed upon us and, therefore, can be found anywhere. Two, I don't want somewhere else. I want Dublin.

I'm still as unflappably, unfailingly in love with this city since the day I moved here for college. Six years ago, as Mammy pointed out today.

Of course, I want to see other places. I want to grow, to move forward. I don't think I will always stay here but I also think it became a second home in a way I never thought possible. When your first home is so wonderful, it's hard to imagine anywhere else will fit in quite the same way.

I love the streets, the architecture, the oddities, the odd characters, the energy, the art, the music, the bars, the people. I love the bones of this city. I love who it has made me, I love it for nurturing me like a wise parent - not throwing me to the wolves, nor coddling me. The people I was born to love remain near while those I chose to love gravitate back to this place. It's a hub for past and present and future. And it's only become more in the last year or so. More vibrant. re-energised. It's so alive and the dead months and years made people reawaken, ready to chase dreams instead of settle down.

I'm not settling for Dublin. I'm choosing it. For all of its flaws and wonderful eccentricities.

Look at her, in all of her glory. Laid bare by winter and yet more lovely. This is why Dublin will always own a very large chunk of my heart.

Dublin in Winter.

November Favourites

It's now well into December but I still wanted to do a "favourites" post for November. It's something I've done sporadically so far and without connection to particular months. While I think categorising things by set time periods is a bit redundant (don't get me started on using centuries as umbrella terms for styles or cultural movements), I also think it's a useful way of organising the posts and encouraging me to make them more coherent and regular.

The underlining note to my blog is echoed in the format of these favourites. Rather than exploring things merely related to fashion or beauty (not that there's anything wrong with those sorts of favourites), I group all the cultural, creative and design things that I've been vibing in one place because, to me, they all feed into each other. The music I'm listening to can affect how I dress or the book I'm reading will decide how I do my hair. It's all connected and to separate them seems unnatural.


Chanel Coco Rouge Shine in Bohéme

I blog about make-up and beauty but I don't wear make-up every day or anything near it. This may seem odd but make-up is something I like to wear but don't feel obliged to use. However, if I feel like I should, or want to, dress up for something yet can't be arsed to do the whole routine, I'll fill in my eyebrows, do a wee bit of concealing and pop on some lip colour. This lipstick has become my go-to. It's not matte so it doesn't catch on dry patches and goes on smoothly. It's hydrating. It's a gorgeous shade and doesn't look like you're trying too hard. But it still adds a bit of polish to your look. It's not at all high-maintenance - Basically it's everything I could ask for from a lipstick.


Akatsuki no Yona

Finding a new anime is a bit of a miracle. So many are filled with unbearable clichés or unlikeable female characters. When I find a good one that happens to also be a grand, sweeping adventure, filled with amazing art, funny, historical, with a great female lead, scored well...I am overjoyed. This anime recounts the adventures of Princess Yona after her father is killed, a childhood friend and love betrays her and her country is thrown into upheaval. Yona has to deal with the real world and difficulties for the first time which is a relateable parallel for anyone in their twenties. Plus, it's funny as hell. And the opening and closing themes are great.

Keaton Henson

Keaton Henson has been the soundtrack to my November. Especially his latest instrumental album. There's something old world about the talented bastard that's both frustratingly idealised and wonderfully romantic. I love the subjects that he gravitates towards, his expression as an artist all around and his voice. Plus, his latest EP came out on my birthday. That has to be fate, right?

Keats

Another Englishman with a similar name. Another love of late. I'm a sucker for the Romantics yet, for some reason, Keats was new to me. But thank God! What a discovery, a revelation. There's something so beyond and of his time about his work. It's the ideals of that era with form more modern, titillation and flirtation not in keeping with his peers. A particular favourite du moment:

 

Alexander Wang x H&M

You all know how excited I was for the collection and now I have it in my hands, I wear it on the reg. Most often I wear my cropped black pants but the iconic Wang jumper has a rather special place in my heart. It hangs in my room where it's almost a piece of art.

Paul Costelloe Living for Dunnes Stores Candle in Fig and Vanilla

This is my absolute favourite smell at the moment. I'm feeling all things Romantic and the past at the moment so candle-light is an absolute necessity and this candle is the perfect one. From the simple design to the smell to the packaging, everything about it is great. And, at twelve quid, it's much more affordable than most luxury scented candles without compromise on the quality.

Christmas

Christmas is my favourite time of year and I've been going crazy for it. I've been doing so for the last month and a bit. November is when I stock up on stocking fillers for my family, begin to hoard decorations and start planning meetings with friends. Now the countdown is on and I can't wait.

Heatons Coat

This coat featured in a post recently and I'm so in love with it! It breaks up the almost entirely black outfits I wear on the daily and it's so sweet without being twee. It's also one of those pieces that people stop you to compliment - which is always nice.

Winter

I have a whole photo post about winter coming soon but suffice to say that I love winter. I love the freshness of the cold air, I love warm drinks and cosy clothes and huddling by fires with loved ones. I love layering outfits. I love the light (when there is any). I love the look of bare trees against setting suns.

So, what have you been loving?

Home

In the summer, my home is bursting with life. The hedges grow out, obscuring the roads, and the grasses grow tall. Before I started to suffer from hayfever, I would lie in the long cool grass and pretend to swim in it. I would hide from my parents and the merciless sun above (when it deigned to make an appearance at all). Still I become petulant when these things are sheared back, mown, put in "order". To me, it ruins the wild beauty all around that I love so.

In the winter, it is a different place. But it is beautiful all the same. Just different. It becomes bare and skeletal. All those abundant trees shake off their leaves and leave dancing limbs behind. The place is alive with noise rather than life; wind whistles through the emptiness and rain beats against the hard earth. Those same grasses grow lower and allow great sweeping views across starkly lovely landscapes, the peaks of Wicklow off in the distance. Though the sunsets come too soon, they stain the sky the most wonderful colours and the cool air is the sweetest and freshest I've ever known. I walk these paths and roads, ones I've walked thousands of times. I cycle with my parents. I laugh with my brother and sister. I chase after my ageing dog. I look around and, twenty-three years on, it is the most beautiful place I have ever known. I love my home and everything in it. It's not the stifling place that the nearby town where I went to school is - it's the place that bred me. It made that earlier version of me that knew nothing of unkindness or troubles and merely explored and questioned and adventured and tried. It was the giant garden of my youth and the haven of my teen years. And, now, it is my respite from adult life. It reflects who I am. I see myself in the wildness, in the empty ache and in the life-filled joy. 

I look around and I feel it in my heart, a sense of belonging so precious I know myself privileged to have it. I can see the love in the home I now spend less time in. But I know that it will remain my home forever more none the less.