Autumn Leaves Falling Down

AUTUMN LEAVES FALLING DOWN

Autumn is my absolute favourite season. My favourite time of year. The best time of year. And it always has been for as long as I can remember. Of course I can appreciate the merits of every other season, but there's just something so magical about Autumn in particular. Those final summer days have drawn to a close. A fresh start begins with the turn of September. Christmas gets increasingly nearer, like a glittering promise of joy and happiness on the horizon. Something to look forward to. Something to smile about. People seem to be happier, kinder, more humane. There's a special feeling in the air that runs in parallel to the cosy, warming, autumnal mood that envelopes everyone within its grasp. The clocks go back, the night falls quicker, along with the stars and the moon in the sky. The leaves steadily transition from bright luminous green to gold, lime, terracotta, burgundy, caramel before cascading to the ground and colouring it with warmth. Everybody seeks out their cosy winter coats, patterned scarves, thick gloves, clunky boots. Noses, cheeks, ears are tinted with blush. 

Long country walks or around the autumnal tinged city, Sunday roasts and meals with those you love. Instrumental lead music that warms the soul, evening television, endless cups of hot tea with a biscuit or two thrown in for good measure. Baking pies and puddings and nutritious food, dressing up for Halloween, movie nights and takeaways instead of heading out and braving the cold. Is it any surprise that I love autumn so much? It's such a beautiful, joyful, peaceful and loving season. Over the years my autumns were characterised by the same kind of things, and though I always enjoyed autumn when it came around each year, I didn't realise how much I took it for granted. As you may know, I moved to Manchester last September for university, and since then I've found that the arrival of autumn has rather different connotations to what it used to have all those times before. The way I experience autumn in Manchester, in the very heart of the city, is very different to how I used to experience it back home in Derby, and honestly, I do miss it. I miss it a lot. 

I miss roast dinners and warm puddings with the family on Sunday evening. I miss getting the bus to college in the morning, and chatting together whilst we sat there freezing in our coats and gloves. I miss going to town on a Saturday and having a warm hot chocolate in the cafe, before coming home to watch Saturday night TV. I miss watching Downton Abbey whilst sat on the sofa, wearing my pyjamas with my hair in plaits, in the hopes that it would be wavy for school the next day. I miss going to the park on the outskirts of town, where all the leaves pile up on the floor and you can run through them, leaving a cascade of falling leaves behind you. I miss trick or treating at Halloween around the local neighbourhood. I miss making pumpkin pie together with my dad and sister. I miss being able to hop in the car on a Sunday and escape to the countryside for a long and glorious afternoon walk. The kind of walks where you leave everything else behind, leave your worries by the front door, and instead just spend a few hours escaping it all and regaining peace and clarity. I miss the peace of the countryside, and driving through it with the radio on in the background. I miss seeing the leaves change colour, and having the world around me coloured in all these warm and rich tones. I love Manchester and I love being in the city, don't get me wrong, but it's always this time of year especially that I wish I could escape it all, and just be out there in the spectacular countryside, the freedom of the great outdoors, breathing in the fresh, cool air, leaving all my cares behind, taking in the beauty of the world around me. 

So when I got the chance to come home this last weekend or so, I jumped at the chance, got those train tickets booked well in advance, with dreams of being in the peace of suburbia and the great outdoors propelling me onwards till the day to come home arrived. And boy has it been a marvellous few days. Roast dinner with the family, watching the brilliant Spectre, catching up with friends back home, watching films, making pumpkin pie, doing absolutely no work whatsoever, seeing my Nan and Grandad, going for a lovely afternoon walk, having a delicious carvery, lots of cheesecake... oh, and did I mention that I also finally passed my driving test too? It's been a wonderful, delightful, magical whirlwind the last few days, as October drew to a close and November begins, however I appreciate it all so, so much. I'm very happy. And so with that, as I conclude this long post about my favourite season, I would love to share with you some photographs that I took yesterday afternoon when I went for a walk at a park I've been going to every year since I was little. It was a stunning afternoon, the scenery was so beautiful, and I came away feeling ridiculously content. It was such a simple thing, taking a walk in the park, but it meant the world to me, and I hope you enjoy these photographs as much as I do, and have a fabulous November!

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-PHOTOBOOK-

La Inspiración Artística

LA INSPIRACION ARTISTICA

The last couple of weeks or so, I've found that I've really been thinking about my style, my aesthetic, what's important to me in terms of the clothes I wear and the image I'm conveying (did you notice the spontaneous blog re-design this last week?). It's not that I didn't care before, it's just that I've noticed that I seem to be putting more thought into the way I dress now. I seem to care about it more. Now I'm not saying that I've adopted some extensive fashion orientated thinking process, supplemented with a Cher Horowitz-esque outfit selector that I thoroughly divulge through every morning before I leave the house. And it's not that I pay attention to the current fashion trends either and make a conscious to follow them, nor do I dress in order to please other people. I don't have mood boards, a select colour palette tailored to my complexion (unlike my darling little sister), a set clothing or style criteria that I seek to fulfil. It's none of those things.

I think it's more to do with the fact that I just read a really great biography about the glorious Chanel, and also because as I progress through my nineteenth year on this planet, I seem to be getting a stronger and stronger notion of who I am as a person. What my identity is. The kind of aesthetics that I connect to most vividly and truly. When I look at all the visuals in the world around me, all the clothes, accessories, styles, people, what they're wearing, photography, magazines, art, I seem to have a more accurate and acute eye for picking out exactly what things I love most. The things I'm drawn to. The things that inspire me. What I identify with most of all. I seem to be able to filter everything else out now, and instead focus on what I know is important to me. And what I keep finding is that these patterns keep emerging. I'm drawn to the same aesthetics and visuals, the same styles of clothing, inspired by the same things in different female icons that I look up to. And it's something that has steadily evolved over time. What I like to see on other people, and myself too, includes segments of things that I used to like, combined with newer forays and aesthetics that I've been exposed to as I've grown older. It's interesting, and I love it. I really, really do. It feels like I've found my calling at last. And quite possibly the best thing about it all, is that I know truly that if my younger self was to see me now, meet me now, she would love wholeheartedly the person that I have become. She would recognise the person looking back at her. She would be proud of who I am now. Maybe even feel relief that somewhere along the way, the little shy, lost duckling finds her wings, stands a little taller, finds her confidence, her majesty, who she is, and is happy. So happy. But I haven't lost who I was or used to be. That's still there, forming my foundations. I'm just a better, more confident, more assured, wiser version of who I was.

I think this whole process of self identification arose like the most glorious whirlwind of change, when during the summer, after a frustrating run-in with the past made me realise how much I'd changed and developed as a person (much more so than I had ever realised before), I decided to reflect this visually. I wanted to show people that I had changed. I wanted people to look at me and think something's changed about her, so I did what every girl does after one of those life affirming moments. I cut my hair. Now normally these rash decisions to change my hair don't quite end up how I'd originally envisioned, however the monumental difference this time round was that I cut my hair into a hairstyle that actually suited me. As soon as I took that final cut with the scissors, and stood back to properly look at myself in the mirror, I knew that I had finally, finally found myself. It felt like I was looking at myself properly for the first time. Hello me. There you are. Where have you been hiding all this time. That kind of thing. And what's more, when I ventured downstairs to show my Mum, she told me I looked beautiful for quite possibly the first time in my life (my ma, lovely as she is, is not a liberal complementer). And for quite possibly the first time in my life, I believed her. And from that moment onwards, everything seemed to rapidly progress for me. Onwards and upwards, as one might say.

So in order to mark what feels to me, an important turning point in my life, I wanted to share with you a visual idea of what things are inspiring me right now. The kind of aesthetics that I'm identifying with. I'm loving those long, brooding, autumnal toned coats, the kinds that almost seem to make the outfit. I'm loving high waisted tailored trousers and jeans that cut off just above the ankle (a la Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina), and subsequently elongate the leg in the process. Never before have I been so enthusiastic about showcasing my ankles to the world. I'm loving button up shirts with neutral colours and patterns adorned on them (something like that French simplicity) and likewise simple coloured t-shirts tucked into jeans, trousers, skirts. Long sleeved t-shirts and jumpers that stop just above the wrist, showcasing the elegance of the female hand. Colours like terracotta, burgundy, mauve, pale blue, camel, violet, indigo, emerald, black. The enviable, effortless, beautiful French/ Spanish aesthetic that celebrates femininity, the true essence of what it means to be a woman and not apologise for it either. Those European styles that strive to celebrate being a woman, celebrate the female figure, but do so in a classy, elegant, fitted way. Showcasing a little bit, but not too much. Respecting yourself. Retaining an air of mystery and magic about oneself, not revealing all those wonderful secrets that comprise who you are to just anyone. Simple make-up to accentuate your unique facial features, brown eyeshadow, red lips, long lashes, being proud of your freckles and beauty marks. Simple hooped earrings, a bold necklace, ballet pumps, doc martens, brogues. Fringes, bee hives, up-dos, buns, occasional curls. All those kinds of things are inspiring me so strongly right now. It's what I aim to incorporate into my own aesthetic, it's what I take from the icons I look up to, it's what I appreciate in those around me. Whether I achieve it or not is another matter entirely, and I suspect I often get it wrong, but again that doesn't really matter to me, because I'm confident in myself and what I wear, it makes me happy, I dress for me, I like my body shape rather a lot, I've never been healthier or fitter, I feel like I'm being true to myself, presenting who I am to the world in exactly the way I want to.

It's wonderful, so with that I would love, love, love to share with you some pictures that inspire me, give you a flavour of that aesthetic I've just rambled on about, and I hope that it might inspire you somewhat too, or if not, help you on your own journey towards discovering who you really are. It's a rather brilliant journey to embark on.

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-INSPIRATION-