Magical Fashionista all Grown up!

Harry Potter Fashionable?

Ok I know, Harry Potter is not what you would call super duper cool and fashionable, but I just can't help it: I'm addicted to the little boy with his lightning scar and tiny round glasses, which he has outgrown big time.

It all started around 6 years ago when I was dating this lovely skinny french boy Thomas. He was totally into the whole HP rage, and I just refused to go with it. I thought Harry was for kids, and seen my 17 years old, I surely wasn't a kid. But he stood foot, and placed me in front of the tv and made me watch HP and the philospher's stone the movie. Two hours later I was hooked. I bought the second, third and fourth book the next day. Four books were already published, imagine how far behind I was. But two small months later I was up to date. I read like a madwoman, sometimes until 4 in the morning. Harry Potter for kids? Heck if that meant I was a kid, who cares!! I was totally turned around, and my boyfriend regretted introducing me to the magical world of Hogwarts.

Ever since I was on waiting lists for every book that was published and I sat in the cinema as soon as the next movie was out. My ultimate favourite was the fourth book and movie, Harry Potter and the goblet of Fire. Amazing the way JK Rowling let her imagination go on that one.

But the last movie: HP and the Half-Blood Prince! Just one word: BRAVO!! Really well done, and even though some parts of the book were left out, it's amazingly done. I just love the way they have all grown up and how they're starting to have love lives and so on. And one character has especially evolved big time: Hermione Granger. Wow. In realy life as well... To think that she has become the new face of Burberry.

So in the end, Harry just is plain fashionable, and there's no shame in saying you read or rather devour the books and movies... :D few, what a relief!

On the Rise in Amsterdam: Ann Bogaerts

See my dear people, I wasn't talking all balloony stories. The Amsterdam International Fashion Week is not the little sister of the big fashion cities anymore. It has proven to produce cool and significant upcoming designers. Go Dutchies!!!

www.style.com - July 27th 2009 - Mark Smith

"Amsterdam International Fashion Week lived up to its name this year by selecting a 22-year-old Belgian fashion student as its breakout star. Ann Boogaerts, a graduate of Holland’s prestigious ArtEZ Institute of the Arts, Arnhem, was chosen by a panel of 100 industry insiders (among them Wendy Dagworthy, originator of London fashion week) as the winner of the €10,000 Lichting cash prize. For her brightly hued capsule collection, Boogaerts drew her inspiration from Spanish-born Queen Fabiola of Belgium, who reigned from 1960 to 1993, imagining what might’ve happened if the young Fabiola had taken a Dutch lover instead of her eventual royal suitor, Baudouin of Belgium: “My show starts to the soundtrack of the Belgian national anthem and morphs into the Dutch one. I wanted to make light of the little fashion stereotypes and preconceptions that exist between the Dutch and the Belgians. The Dutch think the Belgians are bourgeois. The Belgians think that all Dutch people wear bright red pants.” Whether or not they understood the sartorial and political significance of this excursion, the Lichting jurors were charmed by the whimsy of Boogaert’s designs. Dagworthy, for one, was royally impressed: “It’s been such a difficult decision,” she said of her duties on the panel. “I’ve seen degree collections here that are innovative and experimental, with fantastic cutting, color, and fabric choices. This bodes very well for Dutch design.”

Baby Blues

Global warming.... definitely present! We are the 27th of July and the past week and a half have been unpredictably predictable with rain, storms, sunshine, wind, heat, cold... and so on! The only predictability of the weather in Brussels so far has been the storms every night/morning at 6 am! And this is supposed to be my summer?!

No wonder there's a little bit of the blues in the air. Where I felt extremely positive and energetic this weekend, and therefore managed to do loads, today is just the opposite. Drained of energy and creativity, I feel that I just want to curl up on the couch and watch movies all day. Or again, is it just the rain that makes me feel like that?

To cure the baby blues, I've started downloading a bunch of french 'ballades' ... picking a bunch of movies to watch tonight, and making myself a cup of jasmin green tea for with my new favourite book: Petite Anglaise!

Lipstick Jungle

No "Lipstick Jungle" is not about the marvelous series of Candace Buschnell, who also wrote Sex and the City, but it's about my own personal "Lipstick Jungle".... I have discovered that with a little tan, my lips tend to fall on the background, and well aren't your lips exactly that, what boys love to ... indeed: KISS!!! And then not to forget, the fact that lipstick is sooo 2009!

The question is:

• Rouge Scarlett
• Rouge D'Amour
• Pink Baby Doll
• Rose So Lovely
• Beige Plaisir
• Bedtime Plum...

Gosh too many deliciously sounding colours, which you'd rather want to eat than put on your lips. They're actually a handful of the new line of Nivea by Chantal Thomass. I've tried the Pink Baby Doll, which is more of a fluorescent kind of bright pink than the sweet and soft pinks I usually use in my make-up, but it looked amazing and stayed on even after having jogged and taken a shower!!!! And in these economical dark times, and grey and black tones in fashion a splash of pink might just be the thing the world can use. So I could go for the Pink Baby Doll right...? Wrong... cos I love to put scarlett reds on my finger and toe nails, and I don't own a Pink Baby Doll nailpolish yet. Unfortunately it doesn't exist either, which definitely does not make my life any easier at the moment. Well it does exist, but not in the Nivea by Chantal Thomass line, but by NUBAR, with another lucious name as HOT PINK! My luck again, they don't ship abroad...

So basically my dilemmas are:
1. which of the lucious colours to choose to start my lipstick grown up life?
2. where am I going to find: Pink Baby Doll, Hot Pinkish nailpolish??!! (it has to be really fluorescent!!!)

*SIGH*

Amsterdam International Fashion Week

The Amsterdam International Fashion Week Spring Summer 2010 has just started. From the 22nd to the 26th of July, Amsterdam is covered in fashion!!! Exactly the way we love it.

Besides the fashion shows of the upcoming designers, there's the exceptional downtown programme. This programme is designed for the public, meaning that everyone is allowed to join in on the AIFW. I think this programma is amazing, especially for us fashionistas dying to be part of fashion weeks in general. Amsterdam is until now, the only city that has such a programme and others can learn from the upcoming fashiontown of the cheese peeps. Living in Milan I have praid the gods many times for them to initiate with such a programme.... Maybe it's time for me to take forces into own hands and start such a programme abroad. But HOW??!!! :)

Anyways, I have been following the fashion week day by day... and in stead of the usual big names which tend to rule the fashion scene, the upcoming designers get a chance to shine during the AIFW. This is another lovely aspect about this unusual fashion week compared to the big ones.

Picture will come soon, as they're not yet available to the public and can't seem to get them from the official site. But if you're so curious and can't wait another day, check out www.aifw.nl and join me in following the official Amsterdam International Fashion Week. It's worth it, trust me!

I heart PARIS

Spending the summer in Brussels, even though at my parents house, means I get to go city-hopping big time! From Brussels you get to Amsterdam in two little hours, to Paris in 3 little hours and so on. So when my dad said: "I have a business appointment in Paris tomorrow, who wants to join?" My sister and I (she's visiting the parents front as well) didn't hesitate a minute on whether to go or not. So the next morning (last wednesday) we jumped in the car at half past 7 (gosh- waaaay too early for a holiday morning, but it's for a good cause) and drove off to Paris! Paris, la ville d'amour! I love Paris with all my heart since I was a little girl. I used to say: "When I grow up, I will work for a glossy magazine in Paris!". However, since then I made a few side steps, but I must say that after this little visit, my dream has been awakened again. After Amsterdam, now Milan, who knows, my next step might just as well be PARIS!!!

While walking the gorgeous streets of the 'Marais', the neighbourhood of Paris where les Halles, la Tour st Jacques and the Louvre and not to forget the famous 'Paris Plage' are located, I looked beyond the beautiful buildings and surroundings. I really tried to get the real vintage Paris Feeling and the extraordinary fashionable people there and then I tried to capture them on camera. Gosh, respect to the Sartorialist! How does he do that?! To spot fashion is one thing, but to get them on camera is a whole other... But I did my best....

These three Asian girls were walking by while I was sitting in the Jardin des Tuileries... Usually Asians are hung with Hello Kitty and fluorescent clothing and gadgets but these ladies were sophisticated casual chic. Although quite hot with leggings and stockings under their hip shorts, they had the perfect town-strolling outfit complete with cute ballerinas.

And don't you just love the hip couple having a sushi lunch .... sigh!

Sneek Preview

After having searched on the web for various blogs, and trying to find my style I want to use for my own, I have decided to continue my research some more. I'm currently busy doing some scrapbooking, which I totally love, to get some inspiration and things like that. Don't you have that too, that when you're up and about in town, of even under the shower, that genius ideas come to mind, and then once you actually want to put them to life.. oops "what was it I was thinking about again?"
This is actually the main reason I'm starting this blog. I want to get those ideas out there... who knows, I might reach some people who really appreciate it. Although my ideas range from: 'Where's the latest party?, What to wear tomorrow, or to that latest party? What to eat tonight? Is he really into me? .... to .... What will my life be like in 10 years? or When will this damn recession come to an end?' So there's not really one topic I want to share with you. Although, the focus will be mainly on: How a twenty-something year old manages the last year of her life abroad, with a keen interest in fashion, food, health and bien sur, boyssss!

Surprise surprise: it's SUMMER!!! And as Milan, the city I currently study in, is boiling hot and therefore dead silent during the summer, I'm spending my lucious summer months in Brussels, where my parents live, and Amsterdam, where I used to study before. Planning on going to Egypt at the end of August with my best friend, so I guess my summer is packed and busy enough. I actually went to Paris for a day yesterday, which was amazing! PARIS PARIS... I will love you forever. But more on the Paris chapter later on! Besides chilling and enjoying those sunny days, I have to start doing some research on my thesis, and boy let me tell you, I am not looking forward to that one at all. Even though it's is going to be on luxury brand management and marketing communications (my master major), which are topics I love, but it's still a damn pain in the ass!

So yeah, I guess welcome on my blog "A Quiet Moment"... which is by the way the title because I lost my voice exactly four years ago and it has changed my life and my view on life radically. It's coming back to me, thanks to my wonderous doctor, but there's still some work to do. Good thing about losing your voice, is that you have time to really get those brains going on whatever is worhtwhile and important at that point. It has made me who I am right now!