Friday 30 November 2012

The Red Shoes. In Progress ...


You can tell it is production week by many things: double amount of emails from the SM (Stage Managers), lousy/depressed/maniac faces on the corridors, LOUD music, a LOT of swearing (yes, even more than normal). But usually, you know it's production week when set designers/makers come into the costume department to sew their pieces of material together; and I don't mean a couple of meters, more like a couple HUNDRED. 
One minute you are"peacefully" sewing away your pearls, christmas music in the background and the next you are surrounded by a sea of never-ending fabric. Here are some classic set-people-in-costume phrases:

              "This scissors don't seem to be cutting very well..." Reply: (Sigh) They are paper scissors....

              "This sewing machine doesn't like me!"

              "This needle doesn't have a hole?!"  Reply: (sigh x2) It's a pin

              "HELP!"

              "F*** MY LIFE" 

              (General crying)

The pictures are for our upcoming Fairytale projects, ours being The Red Shoes, based around the Andersen classic tale. 




Jumper: Zara
Shorts: Urban Outfitters
Shoes: Zara
Knee High Socks: Uterque



XOXO 

Saturday 24 November 2012

Love is double blind...

I didn´t know what to say or how to feel just after coming out of the National Theatre's new play  "The Effect".
I felt the urge to cry but I didn´t seem to be able to. I also felt calm, serene in a way, as if some mighty truth had been revealed to me.


The story had me trapped right from the start. A man and a woman volunteer to take part in medical trials for a new anti-depressant drug. She: psychology student, realistic about life, slightly cynical about love, rational (as most scientific minds). He: carefree, humorous, optimistic, living-the-moment kind of guy.
And what starts as a healthy flirtatious courtship soon turns into a love affair. But is it love love or just a consequence of the anti-depressant drugs that are being given to them? These drugs fire chemical reactions in the brain, mainly to produce dopamine, substance responsible for feelings like happiness or love. But in higher doses also comes with abnormal heightened emotions, acceleration of heartbeat, over excitement, inability to sleep or eat... But are these not the symptoms of any human in love? The couple cope with the reaction to the drugs as well as trying to understand all the feelings that are rushing through them while attempting to rationalize if what they are experiencing is "real" love or just a consequence of the anti-depressants. At one point, they decided that it doesn`t matter and give into the emotions.


In literature and cinema, love is usually portrayed as a kind of madness, with symtoms similar to fever or dementia: can't sleep or eat, feel hot, nervious, can't stop thinking (about the love subject)... And so does the play. But is that what love really is? Has everybody that has been in love experienced that flow of heightened emotions and temporary crazyness? If that is what love truly feels, or should feel like, I don't believe half of the people that assure/assume they are in love have actually been in love. I certainly haven't.


Of course, every person is different and so is every brain. The information we experience from the outside world is filtered and understood in a unique way by every one of us. Some people might describe love as tenderness, others as blind trust, others as a feeling of security. But few would describe it as a whirwind of emotions (like the ones displayed on the play), at least not in the long term. That kind of infatuation and passion tends to be experienced in the early stages of a relationship but usually wears off. What the play is arising is the idea of a drug, a "viagra for the heart" that could keep us in that over-emotive state constantly.
Although it seems like an unlikely idea, I think if it was available, people would buy into it.


In the world we live in, so influenced by the media and all these stereotypes about how we should look and feel, having a drug that could make us fall in love and be insanely happy as if out of a Shakespearean Sonnet would be successful. In our society, we never consider ourselves happy; it is always "not as happy as..." or "not as thin as..." We tend to believe that the life we lead or the emotions we experience are not perfect or enough to satisfy us and we should always be looking for something higher above. However, if we are happy to accept that we are never entirely "happy" with our way of life, we are quick to classify depression as an illness and an abnormal state of mind when we don't even consider our state of mind to be normal and up the standards.
All this questions arise in "The Effect" but the meaning is open to interpretation. Every person in the audience was comparing their own love life and emotions to the ones experienced by the characters and questioning whether their feelings are as real and powerful as the chemistry that was almost palpable on stage.
So, what can us, the mortals in the real world that don´t live in a fictional fantasy do when it comes to our feelings? Would we dare to take a "drug for happiness" and fall head over heels for someone that we normally would only exchange polite remarks? Or live our lives until the end always looking for that "crazy, true love" to appear?

XOXO


The Effect is on at the National Theatre until 23rd of February

Wednesday 21 November 2012

It's just Brunch...


Sunday Brunch in Angel with Daisy H. who came all the way from Kent just to do that... (or that is what I would like to think) Our original plan was to go eat at the "famous" Breakfast Club but the queue, the cold and our rumbling stomachs put us off; and it was a good move because we discovered the lovely restaurant The Elk in the Woods. With its rural aesthetic and colour palette, it feels like you just walked into a Diner in a remote mountain town in Canada. The food is full of flavour, the Pancakes with cinnamon baked pears, goats cheese yoghurt and maple syrup are orgasmic. 
We also had a chance to wonder around Camden Passage (where I had never been before), checking out the Vintage Stores (Annie's, Dreamtime) and Decoration shops (Tadema Gallery). I couldn't resist buying my first Christmas Decoration of this year: a pink acorn. 
And a Little Tart's Blueberry and Vanilla Cupcake
Naughty me 


XOXO


Jumper and trousers by Zara
Denim shirt by H&M
Hat by Accesorize
Custom Necklace

Saturday 17 November 2012

Her...


Today it's her 20th Birthday. The birthday of the lady pictured above, left. 
Olaya. 
I don't know where to begin, explaining her is like trying to hold air between your hands: easy and complicated at the same time. Adjetives become irrelevant, petty and superflous when it comes to her. That is why I've decided to post extracts of letters we wrote to each other (through the computer, mostly). I won't say who's are who's, it doesn't matter. Maybe this way you will understand what she means to me, what we mean to each other a little better.

   

That feeling of total trust with another person is rarely achieved in a lifetime; being in a toilet while one does number 2 and the other is around, putting make up on or simply talking is incredible hard to do (partly because it sounds horrific), or just simply be together in silence for 5 minutes because the pauses are not uncomfortable or on the contrary, speaking for hours, trying to break the world record of our longest phone call, fight and then cry like girls

Esa sensación de total confianza con la otra persona que en pocas ocasiones se consigue en esta vida; eso de que una esté haciendo el número 2 en el baño y la otra por ahí, maquillándose, o simplemente hablando es increíblemente difícil de conseguir (en parte por lo mal que suena), o poder estar simplemente sentadas sin decir nada durante 5 minutos porque los silencios no son incómodos  o al  contrario, hablar durante horas y cada vez intentar romper el récord mundial de nuestra llamada más larga, pelearnos y después llorar como crías


Y ya daban igual los edificios, solo contábamos el número de pisos correspondiente para encontrar luz en aquella casa, la tuya, la mía. Y nos saludábamos tras largos veranos sin vernos, casi parecía oír los gritos de alegría que pegábamos. Ya casi por costumbre corro la cortina para ojear tus luces, tus llegadas, tus horarios, aunque tú ni siquiera estés.

And the buildings didn't matter, we only counted the correct number of flats to find light in that house, yours, mine. And we said hello after long summers away, almost hearing the screams of joy. Now, out of habit, I open the curtains, glancing to your light, your arrivals, your habits, even when you are not there


You have become indispensable, like oxygen, like a hug, like pizza, like ibuprofen, "El Internado", like Titanic, like gasoline, like music, like brownies... so if I have to call you, I will (and suicide later when the bill comes), if I have to take a plane I will, and even a boat.  Not even the English Channel will come between us.

Te has vuelto imprescindible, como el oxígeno, como un abrazo, como la pizza, como el ibuprofeno, el internado, titanic, la gasolina, la música, los brownies… así que si te tengo que llamar, te llamaré ( ya me suicidaré cuando llegue la factura de teléfono), si tengo que coger un avión, lo haré y si me lo pones difícil, hasta un barco. Ni el canal de la Mancha podrá separarnos. 


Eres mi sombra, mi ángel, mi pequeña adoración. Hoy es tu cumpleaños y sólo un pretexto más para decirte que luches, que creas en el amor cortés aunque sean tiempos difíciles para los soñadores, que confíes en ti y que dejes que te quieran. Sé valiente, como lo has sido hasta ahora.

You are my shadow, my angel, my little worship. The date today is just a pretex to tell you to fight, to believe in courteous love although they are hard times for the dreamers, to trust and let yourself be loved. Be brave, like you have been so far.


When you are alone in your room and it is raining outside and the frosty cold shakes your bones; when you've had a bad day; when you are terribly nostalgic; when you want to remember, take this letter out of the draw. Not only to read it (of course) but to remind you that I am here, 1245 kilometers from you

Pero cuando estés sola en tu habitación, esté lloviendo fuera y ese frío se te meta en los huesos; cuando hayas tenido un mal día, cuando estés terriblemente nostálgica, cuando quieras recordar, saques esta carta del cajón. No sólo para leerla (por supuesto) pero para recordarte de que estoy ahí, a 1245 kilómetros de ti

   
They made you special, at least to me, and to see you smile I will be here all the days of the rest of our lives. I love you

Te hicieron especial, al menos pare mí, y por verte sonreír estaré aquí todos los días del resto de nuestras vidas. Te quiero.

Monday 12 November 2012

London. Blackberry Diaries 2...


XOXO

1. Somerset House  2. "Ballgowns" Exhibition, V&A   3. "TEA" by Complicite, Dora House  4. V&A  5. View from Millenium Bridge  6. "The Little Black Jacket" by Chanel, Saachi Gallery   7. Victoria's Secret Store  8. Fortnum & Mason   9. Barbican Bookshop   10. 5th November   11. Christmas morning coffee   12. Liverpool St. Station   13. Lulu Guinness Store   14. Trafalgar Sq.   15. Liberty Nov 12

Saturday 10 November 2012

London. Blackberry Diaries 1 ...


A collection of pictures from my phone of this last year. There is a bit of everything: shopping, eating, theatre, beautiful moments... because I  London....



XOXO

1. Carnaby St. Nov 12  2. Spitafields Market  3. L'Eto Cafe, Wardour St.  4. Marc Jacobs, Mayfair.  5. Liberty, Dec 11 6. Tate Britain  7. Outsider Tart Brownie, Southbank Market  8. Bill's, Covent Gdn.  9. Nursery Rd. Feb 12  10.  Pizza Express  11. Fortnum & Mason  12. Trafalgar Sq. Dec 11  13. National Theatre Bookshop  14. View from Southbank bridge  15. Anthropologie Store, Kings Rd.  16. Collaborators at the National Theatre