Eminent Emin - Love is what you want...

Today I visited the Tracey Emin exhibition 'Love is what you want' at the Hayward Gallery in London with my friend Mr L.  We both really enjoyed it, I particularly liked the room upstairs with the white neons and the single neutral appliqued blanket 'It Always Hurts' made up of various words and sentences in shades of off white, beige, cream and nude.  I would have loved to see this piece outside its framed glass fronted case like the room of blankets when you enter.  To see the craftsmanship that has gone into each one of these blankets up close is awe-inspiring and en mass (x12) hung closely together they looked amazing. Unfortunately (but obviously) photos were not allowed so I have found a couple of images from the press material from the show below to give you a taster.  I wish I could share images of my most favourite pieces, instead whilst walking round I wrote down words / elements of a blanket, letter, neon or sculpture that I felt connected to in some way or that touched me.

Love to the end

The past is a heavy place

I want to love forever

Lover of my life

The last great moment is love

Tiny beautiful kisses

It always hurts

I can feel your smile

Why be afraid when I will be the one who carries you to heaven

Just love

I would urge you to go see this exhibition at the Hayward gallery which runs until 29th August 2011. http://www.loveiswhatyouwant.com/

Posted by: Miss J

Introducing Bijoux Bailey...

Miss R and myself have been dreaming about getting dogs for quite a while now and this week Miss R's dream turned into puppy reality!  On Tuesday Miss R and Mr R became first time parents to a gorgeous little fawn coloured Puggle (Pug x Beagle) which they have named Bailey. He is literally adorable.  Bless him, he is teething at the moment and oh my can he bite! But he gets away with it by being instantly, fall in love with cute.  Say hello Mr Bailey -

Posted by: Miss J

Bearded Lace...

I LOVE lace. French, corded, eyelash, scalloped edged (especially), antique bobbin; so many guises, so many ways to wear.  It is an exquisite fabric that my love affair with will never tire.  So imagine my lace lust when I came across this photo.  Shot by Karl Lagerfeld, ex Vogue Paris editor Carinne Roitfeld looks stunning rocking some rather sexy 'facial hair'.  It reminded me of a lace eyemask I had fashioned when I went to a masked ball several years ago, so thought I would share it with you all.  This image will feature in Visionaire 60: Religion which has been guest edited by one of my fashion heroes Ricardo Tisci in collaboration with Givenchy.  With only 3000 editions and a price tag of $425 unfortunately I don't think I will be experiencing the image in print personally (sigh).

Carine Roitfeld by Mr Lagerfeld for Visionaire 60: Religion

Miss J {2007}

Posted by: Miss J

 

Lady Gaga interviewed by Stephen Fry in FT magazine...

As you may know, myself as well as Miss R are both massive Gaga fans. After spending alot of today with Born This Way on repeat in my flat and dancing around the boring housework, this article was a welcome respite.  Thanks to the gorgeous James for alerting me to this amazing interview with Lady Gaga by Stephen Fry in today's FT magazine.  The article is really entertaining and the audio and accompanying photos have captured the unique personalities of Fry and Gaga beautifully - enjoy!

I LOVE this photo, nothing like drinking champagne straight from the bottle!

Images by Shamil Tanna

Read the full interview below - 

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/0cca76f0-873a-11e0-b983-00144feabdc0.htmll#axzz1NeYb3GlX

Posted by: Miss J

Behind the scenes: William Wilde shoot - Part 2...

I thought I would share with you some of the vintage treasures that were dotted around 'The Roost' that particularly caught my eye....

{http://www.theroost.co.uk/}

Posted by: Miss J

Behind the scenes: William Wilde shoot - Part 1...

A couple of months ago I assisted my amazingly talented and dear friend designer William Wilde when he shot his Valentine collection 'Through with Love' at a wonderful old pub in east London.  The Roost {once open as a drinking establishment}, a four floor location filled with a fabulous array of vintage props, furniture and curiosities created a wonderful backdrop to Mr Wilde's designs. In this his second collection William has used his signature crafted bows, gingham print and engineered chevron stripes alongside candy stripes, ruby encrusted bust and bikini embellishments and hand drawn printed silk kimono's to exquisite effect - enjoy!

The collection

A girl can never have too many shoes...

Accessories

William spraying rubber 'Cherry Cocktail' dress to make it nice and glossy!  The Vivienne Westwood Squiggle Print wallpaper created the perfect graphic background for this predominantly red, white and pink collection.

Final make-up touches...

More rubber spray - we must have got through 6 cans at least!  The gorgeous Stacey in her final look of the day - powder pink Vanity Cape, Pussy Blouse and Hot Pants.

A rare moment of reflection.

To view the complete collection follow the below link - 

{http://williamwilde.com/section/219381_Through_with_Love.html}

Posted by: Miss J

Saturday 7th May - Bob Bob we heart you...

Yesterday I treated Miss R to a congratulatory lunch at the uber glamourous Bob Bob Ricard {www.bobbobricard.com} to celebrate her amazing Marathon performance a couple of weeks ago.  I was lucky enough to dine at BBR a few years ago and LOVED the entire experience and think we popped Miss R's 'Bob Bob' cherry in style!  Greeted by a charming maitre d' we were led to our booth and our magical afternoon began. With several of their delicious 'BBR Signature' rhubarb gin & tonics, cucumber martinis and probably the best chocolate fondant I have ever tasted under our belts we left a little afternoon tipsy with a spring in our well heeled steps.  'Sister Saturday's' are my new favourite thing!

BBR Signature - Rhubarb Gin & Tonic, delicious.

Even the butter pat was embossed with the stylish BBR logo!

Pickled beetroot and goats cheese delightfulness.

Quails Egg Mayonaise.  Egg mayo taken to a new level when topped with shaved truffle.

Cucumber Martini - clean and subtle flavour, with a Hendrick's kick!

Miss R et said martini!

Dessert, decisions decisions.....

Chocolate Fondant with Pistachio Ice Cream 

{THE END}

Posted by: Miss J

To gold leaf of not to gold leaf? That is the question...

Miss R & Mr R (big brother bijoux) and myself visited our favourite antique fair last week and I purchased the below horned skull for £10.  I have painted the wooden crest mount white (of course!) and now I am deciding whether I should take the plunge and gold leaf the skull like the gilded examples I saw on display a while ago in Dover Street Market, hmmmm decisions decisions...

Posted by: Miss J

Friday 29th April - Miss R's Royal Wedding Tea Party...

I thought I would share with you a few photos from the delicious 'high tea' that Miss R put on in celebration of the Royal Wedding on Friday.  Congratulations Wills and Kate!  Princess Katherine (as she is now to be known) looked exquisite in the dresses that Sarah Burton designed with/for her.  I am so so happy the bride wore Alexander McQueen.

I lent Miss R my vintage Union Jack flag that I bought on ebay years ago to use as a tablecloth.

Homemade carrot cup cakes with orange zest cream cheese frosting and Miss R's mini Union Jack cocktail stick flags!

Unusually for Miss R, there were a few shop bought sweet treats!

I took a couple of stills from the TV, I particularly like the above which looks like Kate is sticking her tongue out at William or the crowd or both - or maybe not?

Posted by:Miss J

Sunday 24th April - Homemade Easter Eggs...

As you may or may not know I love baking and making sweet things and so I thought I would experiment this easter and see if I could bring out the chocolatier in me and make famille bijoux homemade easter eggs instead of buying the usual Lindt chocolate bunnies (no offence Miss R!)  

Green & Blacks 72% cooking chocolate - lots! I like to use good quality dark chocolate when baking.

I decided to do a range of different fillings - organic dried fig and toasted pistachio (Daddy Bijoux), dried strawberry & roasted almond (Miss R & Mr R) and roasted hazelnut & cherry (Mummy 'Hazel' Bijoux)

I bought a plastic mould from my favourite shop in the world - a.k.a my happy place, 'Party Party', I was hoping to get the smaller ones but alas on Good Friday this was the last mould left so I was happy that at least I had this one - there is always next year, yes I have got the chocolate making bug!  This is the first layer of chocolate which I melted in a bain-marie and left to set in the fridge.

After melting some more dark chocolate I mixed in the filling and left to set again in the fridge.

It took a couple of attempts to work out the best way to get the eggs out of the moulds without getting fingerprints on but after a couple of batches I became a bit of a dab hand!  Latex gloves were a big help though - who wants a chocolate egg covered in finger prints I ask you?

The next stage was to 'stick' the two sides together, this is done by melting the flat side ever so slightly on either side and pushing together.  However after one quite unsightly attempt I decided to keep them as halves and wrap them up in baking parchment together as a pair, giving the illusion of a whole egg and making them much more ladylike to eat!

Et voila! I used different colour ribbon for different flavours and I think they were a great success, I can't wait until next year when I would like to be more organised and make lots of small eggs and experiment more!

Posted by: Miss J