New York Street Style...Tartan Tease

Laily, who is Brazilian (she is from Sao Paulo) but who currently lives in Dublin but who I met in Soho in New York! Laily's sunglasses are Balenciaga and her badge, Sonia Rykiel.

New York Street Style...In The Trench

I took this guy's photo after passing him while he was lining up at a street vendor/lunch truck in Soho to buy his lunch. I rather liked his casual, slung-together look and especially his suede shoes. And because his lunch looked very tasty, I went back to the street vendor about an hour later and got one of the beef/beans/rice wraps for myself (flinging aside all thoughts of food poisoning, of course!). And it was nice although I think they had just cleaned the grill so there was an ever so slight whiff of detergent which accompanied most bites!

New York Street Style...Tartan Bootie Call

Layering for legs+super cute tartan booties+that gorgeous hair!

New York Street Style...Hanneli Mustaparta

Jumpsuit for the Girls.


The ever beautiful Hanneli Mustaparta on the streets of Soho, New York, wearing smooshy, velvety goodness from H&M....and Zara shoes....oh yeah and that little 'ole Alexander Wang handbag ;)

Hanneli was another person I just randomly bumped into in Soho! Sometimes it really does feel like a small world out there.... p.s. Did not desert blog readers again for frolic overseas! Nope, just had a DISASTER....computer hard drive died.

Had bad, burny feeling after my last blog post that something DISASTROUS was going to happen so made sure all my photos were backed up to my external hard drive. Sure enough, 2 days after I did that I was sitting at the computer clacking away when I hear "clunk, clunk, whirp, burp, ker....plunk" and windows (I use a PC- yes, yes I KNOW I need a mac stat! No need to remind me of the obvious :) throws up some weird message and then everything goes black. As did my mind. Lots of huffing, puffing, choice words, panicked phone calls to my computer technician later (am I the only one who has a computer technician on speed dial?) and it was obvious that my computer had breathed its last little RAM-y breath. Probably just to spite me because it senses how much I despise it.

All my photos were safe (thank the Lord for my external drives) but my operating system, photoshop, lightroom etc all had to be reinstalled.....oh and appear to have lost all of husband's i-tunes purchases :( Complete and utter nightmare- I almost need a vodka gimlet just thinking about it..... Anyhow, I am back up and running again BUT if you are reading this and thinking gee, I haven't backed up to an external drive for awhile.. DO IT, DO IT NOW!

New York Street Style...Stars and Stripes

Okay, so she really isn't wearing any stars.....but we can pretend just a little bit, huh? :)

I took this somewhere in Soho (maybe Mott Street?), New York near one of the best coffee shops I came across, Gimme Coffee. Brilliant coffee, really friendly staff AND they are open nice and early which is great if you are suffering from jet lag and need a wee caffeine jolt to boost your energy levels.

We stayed in midtown at the Wellington Hotel (great location if you want somewhere near Central Park and Times Square, but hideous, hideous bed linen: the sheets were so wafty and thin {I'm sure they were about 50 thread count} that they kept untucking the whole night and sliding around the bed. Not fun, especially when jet lagged) but I think if we were lucky enough to go back again, we will stay somewhere Downtown which feels more relaxed and "homey".

In A New York State of Mind

Cooooeeee! Coooooeeee! Is anybody still out there?

Mmmmm, well, where did I disappear to? AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yep, we went all the way to the United States of America and had, quite simply, THE BEST TIME EVER. It was just incredible: the people, the food, the countryside, even the coffee went way beyond my expectations.

I have only been to America (to New York) once before back in 2005 and I loved it then but going back a second time with our good friends and doing a road trip made it that much more enjoyable.

We flew into New York for a few days of Bright City Lights before flying to Denver, Colorado, where we picked up THE TRUCK (aka a Chevy Tahoe SUV) for the drive to San Francisco. When we first clapped eyes on the Chevy in the rental car parking lot we were all giggling wildly-it was ginormous! Once we were on the open road, however, we quickly realised that almost everyone drives these humongous vehicles- and if they aren't driving one of them, they're driving an RV with an SUV trailered to the back!

So where did we go?
Gunnison, Colorado in the Rocky Mountains (1 night).
Monument Valley, Utah/Arizona (1 night). We stayed at the View hotel which is located inside Monument Valley and is pretty spectacular especially as the sun sets and rises.
Flagstaff near the Grand Canyon (1 night).
Las Vegas (1 night). I am still not sure quite what to think of Vegas- it is almost like Disneyland for grown-ups but in very twisted way. Loved the lights along The Strip at night and the world's grumpiest Elvis who we encountered on an afternoon stroll (and who I swear is on tv advertisements back in the UK for Vegas) but I don't think I would go out of my way to go back again anytime soon.
LA (2 nights)- 1 night near Anaheim, 1 night in West Hollywood
San Francisco (following the coastal road) and the Napa Valley.
Home to London and the most dreariest weather ever.... with a horrid flu to top things off which has kept me in bed for the last week:(((

If you are thinking of doing a trip to the States and want to start in New York and finish in San Francisco, I would highly recommend the route we took. We saw so much diverse countryside (a lot of California reminded me of Australia) and stayed in some fantastic motels along the way which were really cheap and super roomy (compared to travelling in Europe).


I *heart* you America!


p.s. more importantly than my blithe holiday wafflings, this photo is of the lovely Francesca Vuillemin, commercial director of Six Scents Parfums in NYC. Francesca was wearing a cute customised t-shirt by Philip Lim; Dr Denim high waisted jeans and Melissa shoes.

New York Street Style...Chantal of Cocorosa

A little bit of Christopher Kane for Topshop in a New York State of Mind......the gorgeous Chantal from cocorosa blog.

Okay, so this was a very cool, random afternoon- I met up with Craig Arend from Altamira for coffee and we were just sitting outside Balthazar in Soho, New York, sipping our lattes (actually, I think Craig was having a cheeky mocha) when along came Guerre from Swagger360 who you might remember I bumped into randomly on the street in Paris earlier this year. So we chatted for awhile and then next thing we bump into Chantal and her friends who had been out shopping and making some photos for her blog! So of course I jumped at the opportunity to photograph Chantal as well.

And best thing was, Chantal had only just purchased her Christopher Kane for Topshop hoodie earlier in the day. Yay, we love a new purchase :))

Thanks Chantal (and Craig and Guerre) for a super afternoon.