The Ladybug and the celebration of nature in a pair of shoes (aka Luisa Tratzi SS2017 preview)

There are things that I don’t like to miss: the new movie from my favorite director, the new album from my favorite singer, the new book from my favorite writer, the new shoe collection from Luisa Tratzi!

This season again, during the Milan Fashion Week, Luisa Tratzi was in town with her temporary shop in via Solferino and with a preview of her new Spring-Summer 2017 collection.

I’ve been quite bored about shoes in general lately: I browse shoe shops in town and online but it seems like nothing excites me anymore. I always look for something funny, girlish, sexy yet comfortable but nothing has really inspired me lately.

When I was going to meet Luisa to see her new collection I was wondering with what she would surprise me this time because she knows how to revamp my love for shoes, but this time she really went beyond any expectation!

Luisa Tratzi SS 2017 collection was a celebration of the earth, an invitation to travel and to enjoy our mother nature:  camel shoes with patterns that make you dream of the African desert downs; turquoise and deep blue sandals with textured waves that bring your mind to the beautiful Caribbean sea; golden shoes with the brightness of the sun in a summer day; peach, yellow and pink sandals with the taste of a fruit basket and the smell of blossomed flowers!  Feminine shapes and stiletto heels with a new entry: lace-less soft sneakers in the tones of pastel pink and pale blue!

The creativity of Luisa is endless and it always goes with her incredible attention to detail, the quality coming from the handmade production and – as usual – the choice of the best materials (especially soft leather, patent and suede).

I couldn’t resist trying some of my favorite pieces, starting from the camel and golden pointy shoes (they reminded me of the Sahara sandy hills) and the yellow sandal-boots (definitely my favorite color and a new shade for Luisa!).

What was a preview of a new collection quickly turned into a shoe party: what else when two women in love with shoes come together in a cloudy afternoon in the center of Milan?!

If you want to know more about Luisa Tratzi, where to buy her creations or directly buy some pieces of her current collection you can visit www.luizatratzi.it

 

 

The Ladybug kissed Ben Harper and she liked it!

It was end of the nineties when I first heard a song written by Ben Harper.

As most of his fans it was a friend of mine at the University who introduced me to his music. I still remember it was “Roses from my friend”. No surprise if I tell you that this is still one of my favorite songs ever.

Since then I started buying all his music. The date of each new cd release from him was written on my calendar and I start my excitement for every upcoming album a couple of months before! I saw him in concert six times in Italy and in France, my last concert being one of my favorite at the summer arena in Assago where he made an hour singing solo with his guitar: I have never been so thrilled during a concert. It was so emotional that I started crying! It felt like people stopped breathing not to disturb that moment.

A few months ago he was in Milan to present his new album with The Innocent Criminals “Call it what it is” at the Feltrinelli and I thought it was a good idea to listen to him live and maybe to get an autographed copy. He played his music for more than an hour, it was so great to see him a few steps from me…it was the first time (even if in Naples I had the chance to be in first row during his concert!).

After a long queue I finally managed to talk to him for a few minutes while he autographed my cd: I couldn’t help telling him how great his last concert in Milan was and how emotional it felt.

Then I started all these things, you know: “I’ve been following you for ages” “I am a huge fan of you” “I saw you in concert everywhere” and all the stupid things that you say when you meet your music icon! Although I felt totally stupid he was fun, nice and so kind that I couldn’t stop myself from asking him if I could just hug and kiss him…which I did!

I felt like a 12-year-old girl meeting Simon Le Bon (ok, nowadays I should say Justin Bieber…I am still a vintage girl after all!) and I went back home saying “I kissed Ben Harper, I kissed Ben Harper, I kissed Ben Harper”.

For those who are wondering, yes he is still hot as hell!!

(First photo courtesy of Feltrinelli).

The Ladybug’s personal view on William Klein

Before going on holiday I made sure to visit all the interesting exhibits happening in Milan…just not to miss any of them as they will mostly end in September and I don’t want to be famous anymore for being the last visitor of the last day of the exhibit!

In a hot Thursday afternoon I joined my friend at the Palazzo della Ragione to visit the William Klein exhibit, “A modo suo”. I always love the exhibits in this amazing place and I fell totally in love with this one! Klein’s multifaceted work (from painting to photography, movies and literature) is grouped in nine thematic areas starting from Abstractions, his first exhibit in Milan collecting his wall paintings for various Italian architects.

And then New York, Paris, Rome, Tokyo, Moscow the towns where he lived and/or worked, a real journey in his favorite places in the world where he didn’t stop going around with his camera day and night to catch the essence of events or just ordinary street life.

The last part is dedicated to fashion and movies, two big areas where Klein exposed is talent and spread innovation.

If you want to visit the exhibit it is open until the 11^th of September 2016.

For the event I wore my new vintage gem: a dress that I bought from Vintwear2 at Frock me Vintage in London, an original late 40’s dress with rare tropical print that I adore!

I paired it with Swedish Hasbeens shoes, Traffic People headband (both from London but from a few years ago!) and Miu Miu bag.

The Ladybug finds relief in Escher’s geometries

Milan is too hot to do anything these days. It is hard to go out running or walking and when I cannot reach the beach I need to find a way to reduce my pain caused by the awful heat.

The only way to do it is finding a nice place with air conditioning, like a museum! Thanks God there’s always a good exhibition to visit (there are a few actually!) then I called my friend to reach me for what became more than a simple visit, but a real interactive experience: the Escher exhibit at Palazzo Reale.

I have always loved this artist, especially how his art was involved in fashion and music industry (one of my favorite pieces ever is the so-called Escher dress by British designer Matthew Williamson for example!) but it was the first time that I visited an exhibit dedicated to his work.

More than 200 works were exposed in six different sections going from his roots to his love for Italy (especially Southern Italy!) and the discovery of geometric art in Spain. What I love more about his art is that it challenges the viewer and his ability to “read” his work, to find new images in images, to discover new paths from the visible paths. A large part of the exhibit was also dedicated to his huge influence on comics, advertising, music and films during the 20^th century…but I couldn’t see the Matthew Williamson dress!

You can visit the exhibit until the 22nd of January 2017.

I wore Topshop mom jeans, Please golden tee, Zara laced shoes and vintage 70’s bag from Foxy Brown Vintage. I added my new handmade turban from Heka Couture and handmade silver Nepalese double necklace. ..I was totally in my “Princess of Persia mood”!

The Ladybug on how to start the day with great energy (and sleep for the next two days!)

When a friend of mine had the idea, I was very skeptical: as I missed the 5.30 morning run in Milan because I was still recovering for surgery and couldn’t run for about a month we had a second occasion to do an early morning run, the Breakfast Run organized by RDS (one of the most famous Italian radio stations) starting at 5.45 am.

I said ok anyway as I was curious about the experience, but I regretted it immediately that Friday morning when my wake-up call rang at 4.30 am!! I used to run at 7 am when I was in Dublin but 5.45 was too much for my old soul!

Somehow they brought my body and soul totally asleep to the Arco della Pace, the weather was awful and you could read on my face that I needed to sleep! I couldn’t even think that after that I needed to run back home, get quickly showered and dressed for the office instead of going back to bed and sleep!

But something happened when I started running my 5K in a wonderful town, almost empty and showing its beauty in the first morning lights. Incredibly the sun showed up, I felt a lot of energy and I finished my run with my best time on a 5K! We also enjoyed an healthy breakfast offered by the event team and I can say that I started my day full of positive energy and ready for a long day at work.

I started thinking that I should do that more often, but after lunch I started yawning and that same night I went to bed early and totally destroyed! I also spent the whole weekend sleeping and trying not to fall asleep when I went out so I guess that this is cool if you do it once but the early morning routine is definitely not for me!

A Ladybug’s vintage aperitivo in Milan

I don’t know if it’s just me or if it happens to you too but my weekends always start with a phone call from (or to) a friend saying: What are your plans for today?

Once we realize that we are free and that we have time to spend together we start checking online what’s on in town, trying to find the event that will be perfect for our couple of hours of chatting and – possibly – drinking! It can be a market, an exhibit, a shop opening, a lecture, a concert.

Milan is a town full of events of every kind and it is almost impossible not to find what you are looking for, it is just a bit harder than anywhere else due to the large offer. But when you have a lovely place (Frida bar in the Isola district) organizing a vintage event (Let’s Vintage) with special offers and bargains it is easier to pick up the perfect event that makes everybody happy!

It was indeed the perfect occasion to drink my favorite ice tea in town (Hanoi!) and to grab vintage bargains for really ridiculous prices.

It was also the perfect occasion to wear my new thrifted palazzo pant from Mary Portas charity shop in Edinburgh (never worn, still with tags, only 4 quid!), my new favorite fringed leather jacket from IL2L at Your Shores, Michael Kors bucket bag, Nike 4 & Other Stories white sneakers and Céline sunglasses.

The Ladybug is feeling so “Goude”

One of the best exhibits that I have visited in the past few years: this is how I can define the “So Far So Goude” exhibit at the PAC in Milan. Really amazing work from the curator (the installation made it even better) and from this talented artist that I didn’t know really well but that I appreciated during these hours spent at the PAC.

Over 230 photographs illustrated the world of Jean-Paul Goude, graphic artist, designer, photographer and film director, a man who deeply influenced our iconographic imagination in the recent decades. Most of the pictures exposed are part of our cultural background, we all know them but maybe not many people know that they all come from the same hand and eye.

I didn’t even know he was the man behind Grace Jones best photographs and videos (he was also her husband) or behind the amazing Naomi Campbell photographs that I’ve been loving for ages.

What I loved about his work was the joy and playfulness, the colours and life. He approached nudity and sex with such a playful eye that there’s never vulgarity in his art…it’s just plain straightforward sparkling life!

I think that the best thing that I can do is trying to show you some of my favourite photographs and drawings (believe me it was hard to pick only a few) . Drawings are an important part of the exhibit and they often represent the starting point for photographs and videos.

For the exhibit I wore Imperial dress and Tosca Blu ankle boots.

 

The Ladybug’s oversized Sunday brunch

It is now in our running routine to organize a brunch or lunch after every run, especially when we run early in the morning and we deserve proper food and drink to reward our double effort (running and waking up early during the weekends!).

After our Strawoman run we decided to try one of the most interesting venues in town, Otto in Chinatown.

We loved the place, the beautiful green area outside and the welcoming space inside. We had a perfect after-run brunch with avocado toast, potatoes, fruits, Greek yogurt with honey and orange juice (ok, we had also a small dessert!) and we had the time to take some pictures around.

I was very tired from the run so I decided to take it easy and comfy with an oversized outfit for a Sunday casual brunch!

I wore my oversized Topshop denim shirt with oversized Zara culottes, Superga shoes and Celine sunglasses. I added handmade fish necklace from Pamphlet and souvenir folk bag from Ecuador (a present brought to me by a lovely friend visiting South America…I love when people bring me things from their trips!).

The Ladybug’s new experiments at Miró exhibit

Since the opening of the new Mudec Museum in Milan I must say that I have seen there some of my favorite art exhibits, including “The Force of Matter” dedicated to Juan Miró. Over 100 works of the artists dating from 1931 to 1981 (with the contribution of the Fundació Juan Miró in Barcelona) are exposed chronologically to reconstruct his art trajectory. His pieces are one of the highest contributions to modern art and his constant experimentation with forms and colors has as a result a captivating, joyful and colorful art that I love. The exhibit is very well curated and I enjoyed the visit a lot. I especially loved his simplification of forms (which reminds me a lot of a kind of primitive art) and his incredible mastery of colors.

For the visit (and a brunch out with a friend in a lovely summery day) I decided to wear my new oversized striped tee from & Other Stories and skinny jeans from Acne Studios. I added silver flats with buckles from Max&Co (a piece from this past winter sales but perfect for spring and summer days!), Michael Kors bucket bag and a pair of Dior vintage frames.

The Ladybug on how to get the perfect retro look for the office (again!)

This is one of the most debated topics among vintage lovers and one of the questions that I receive more often from my readers. We love vintage, but how can we try to have a retro or vintage look when we work in a corporate office and we are supposed to wear suits? Shall we leave our passion for our weekends?

My answer is always: No! When I started working in a corporate office (where I still work) I standardized my workwear to look like the others: dark colors, blazers, pencil skirts etc. It didn’t work for too long as after a few months I realized that this was totally killing my personality. With time I decided to add small vintage and retro pieces just to add color or a retro touch to make people get comfortable with it. After more than ten years I wear vintage shirts, dresses or jewels at work and I have managed to make my colleagues understand that this is just a part of myself. I never cross the line but I don’t want to hide my own personality every day during the week or have a double wardrobe, one for work one for my spare time. Well, there are still things that I wear only during the weekends and that I would never wear at work but I can say that they are limited.

If I’m not wearing vintage, I always try to make it look retro, by adding details that say “Hey, this is me!”. I went all black for this outfit, wearing a classic little black dress from Diffusione Tessile paired with a bon-ton retro black spring coat by Benetton (they have them in many colors though and for a very good price!). If you wear all black with a pair of heeled bicolor lace-up shoes like these from Fratelli Rossetti, you will see that they will change the whole outfit! I added my day bag from Miu Miu (it pairs perfectly with the color of the shoes and it is big enough to contain all my stuff!) and a very retro touch with this adorable flamingo brooch from Erstwilder, one of my favorite jewelry labels lately (I am totally obsessed!) that I bought in the lovely Godiva vintage boutique in Edinburgh (btw, I will tell you everything about my last trip to Scotland very soon!).

If you also add waves to your hair I guess that your perfect retro outfit is ready for your next workday!

PS: The pictures are not taken in an office, but mostly in Capra e Cavoli, one of my favorite spots in Milan for a good aperitivo (I love their mojito and they always offer new great side dishes!), but it was just a drink after work, so my outfit comes from a real workday! (I thought the disclaimer was pretty much needed! Hehe)