Tea Time Easter Holiday: Bavaria Tea Set, Tafelgut All the Best Tea, Blondie Bakes & Chanel Cupcakes!

April Showers March May Flowers. During the third phase of lockdown, the Saturday afternoon train from Helsinki to Jyväskylä is massively spacious, while the drizzling weather accompanying iTunes Nu Metal, leading the 3,5-hour journey privately pleasant. It’s always lovely to spend Easter weekend with beloved ones, sharing smoked salmon dinner and some chit chat moments altogether. 

 

Since the public hygiene is still the major concern, hence, our Jyväskylä flea market shopping plan is rescheduled for the brighter future. Nevertheless, during our cherished afternoon teatime, it is such a sweet surprise to receive a set of family vintage teaspoon as Easter treat. Made in Finland, descended from the 1950’s, each gold-plated spoon prolonged with stainless steel stick, finalized with an embossed blossom ruthenium rose, where at the backside the abbreviation of granny’s name, E.H, engraved. 

Considering my Helsinki apartment tea set collection, Winterling BAVARIA rosy teacups and sauces teaming up with WEIMAR GDR sugar jar are the perfect full unit for the Finnish vintage gold-tone teaspoons. The history of Winterling BAVARIA porcelain started by seven brothers from the northern Bavarian town, Röslau, in 1907; In the 1950’s the business was turned into a joint-stock company, while the company went bankruptcy in year 2000. Today, the factory continues at the Triptis under Eschenbach Porzellan Group with proven professionalism. According to the pottery marks, my secondhand bargain Winterling teacups and WEIMAR GDR, embellished with 22 karat-gold sugar jar, where I store a handful of Bulgarian rose buds, are produced approximately in the 1980-90. 

As for the afternoon tea, I pick TAFELGUT ALL the BEST fruit tea blended with raspberry, popcorn, apple pieces, pineapple cubes, freeze-dried raspberry pieces, heather blossoms, marigold blossoms and rose petals. Hunting this high quality TAFELGUT tea canned in a 30g tin jar from a delicate grocery shop in Porvoo. Brew with boiling water and infuse 10-12 minutes, adding up with a spoonful of organic WILKIN & SONS honeysuckle honey, TAFELGUT ALL the BEST fruit tea gives out more of rose tea flavor than fruity taste, smooth and sweet. The rather crimson colour of the tea matches perfectly with the tones of Winterling BAVARIA rosy teacups and sauces, where the hand-painted 22 karat-gold roses and leaves dyed in light violet and magnolia pink gradually appear with the declined amount of the tea, as if a blossom show performing at eyesight during the afternoon tea time. 

 

Together with TAFELGUT ALL the BEST fruit tea, the best cupcakes are Chanel chocolate and BLONDIE BAKES Oreo biscuits! Since 2021 is the 100^th anniversary of CHANEL N° 5 Eau de Parfum and the 40^th birthday of establishment of Chanel Helsinki store, at the end of March the team specially requested a local professional bakery customizing Chanel chocolate cupcakes to celebrate. The chocolate based cup tasting more of a canelé de Bordeaux, rich and solid cocoa, whereas the light yellow milky cream balance the slightly bitterness of the cup base, the CHANEL CC logo is made with pulled sugar techniques. Chanel chocolate cupcakes offers rather a cute shape and colour, and with handmade mini Oreo biscuits cupcakes, which owns rather airy mocha taste of cup base, from BLONDIE BAKES, are offering supreme visual and mouthful experiences of Easter tea time. 

 

Special Thanks: Heikkinen, Blondie Bakes & Chanel Helsinki

Fashion Fun Printemps! Vivienne Westwood Wool Muffler, Chanel 2020 Autumn Cardigan & All Saints Leather Jacket Smell Like Spring Spirit in Tapiola Garden City

Tapiola Garden City, Finland 

Finland has been experiencing the phase 3 lockdown since March 8^th 2021: high schools, universities, museums, entertainments, gyms, certain restaurants & bars are closing their doors for the yet another further government regulations; while pharmacies, department stores and offices are still partially opening, thus discovering a rather spacious space to hangout on a warmer moment is becoming an amusement to balance between. 

 

Tapiola was built under the principles of British urban planner, Sir Ebenezer Howard's garden city. Combining the nature domination and architecture of modernism, the architects commissioned to plan Tapiola had also been influenced by Le Corbusier movement, and thus their urban ideals also included tower blocks forming impressive silhouettes, as well as the various residential units, either detached or in rows, introducing a note of variety in the neighbourhood and allowing for the mixing of residents. The third phase of Tapiola city expansion is still underway to the beam of WestEnd region, therefore, the iron fences with postmodern graffiti remain the best background to take a look and strike a pose during the rather warmer days. 

 

Tapiola providing a utopian vision of an alternative perspective to what an oppressive urban environment look alike today, is both experimental and humanity orientation. Strolling in Tapiola Garden City, outfits of day is mainly based on CHANEL 2020 Autumn cardigan in dark navy blue; yarned with 54% wool & 46% cotton fine fabric, the most delicate design of Chanel ready-to-wear is that the each button embossed with a head of lion—representing vintage Chanel accessories and jewelry back to the 1950’s—and being a Leo herself, Gabrielle Chanel was an avid follower of astrology, the symbol of the lion became the House’s talisman. 

 

ALL SAINTS buffalo leather jacket owns rather thicker texture, was my 2020 bargain during Chinese New Year holidays at Gloria Outlets in Taiwan. I adore the intaglio technics on the silver zippers of All Saints leather wears, together with clean-cut shoulder pads and wider-sleeves design, All Saints HADI Biker allows me to under wear a wool cardigan or sweaters to mix and match, consequently long wool coat is no need to serve in slightly chilly March days anymore.

 

As for accessories, VIVIENNE WESTWOOD 100% virgin wool grey muffler with tassels, its 29 x108 cm size is ideal to lightened the dark navy blue of Chanel cardigan; ZARA mid-waist ribbed jeans in 95% cotton, 3% polyester plus 2% elastane is extremely warm and comfortable, while its coal grey colour balances my rather dim tone of the outfits. MIU MIU lambskin espadrilles with silver plates and CHOLÉ ivory white acetate sunglasses are my all time essentials at outdoors, and they never go wrong with any collection of my garments. Walking alongside against the graffiti walls, Jean Reno from Léon echoes my shady styles, whereas the pinkish paints bloom the whole passageway. Smell Like Spring Sprit. 

TOP TIP 1: Select the wider-sleeve leather jacket in order to allow under wear a wool cardigan or long coat

TOP TIP 2: Adapt bright tone of accessories to lighten up the darker shade of pre-spring outlook

Special Thanks: JMH

Magazine Madness: Dua Lipa’s 2021 VOGUE, from New Artist to New Rules

VOGUE UK February 2021 

Dua Lipa appears to have lived 9 lives already in her 25 years—child of war-fleeing immigrants from Kosovo, determined goal at teenage, two-time MTV Europe Music Award, three-time Brit and Global Award, four Grammys in-hand and six-straight MTV Video Play Award winner has to become—a pop artist who emerged from a DGAF to the next massive star. Now a full fledged musician, this young Brit returns to cover of VOGUE UK, by wearing Giorgio Armani’s beaded jersey dress, stars in a transformative fashion story by photographer Emma Summerton. 

With Grammy’s Best Pop Vocal Album on 14^th March 2021 under her belt and a clutch of new tracks, Due Lipa opens up her uncertainty, anxiety and new rules to interviewer Yomi Adegoke. I began to notice Dua Lipa’s slightly husky voice but strong vocals from her 2017 smash hit “IDGAF”, finding her ELLE UK August 2020 interview and styles very attractive, on March 15^th midnight while watching her dazzling medley “Levitating” and “Don’t Start Now” from the 63^rd Grammy performance on broadcasting, and at the same time reading the words at VOGUE UK, during the Finland’s third implemented lockdown, inevitably I hold the same question as Dua’s :OK, What’s next?

Dua Lipa describes her oeuvre as ‘dance-crying’ or ‘dark-pop’, however, her 2020 release Future Nostalgia’s “Dance” and “Pop” both sound more positive glamorous than 2017’s single “New Rules” or “IDGAF”. Her outlook has been converting from glam sporty to retro sexual since 2017: styling by Kate Phelan, in VOGUE UK February 2021 issue, Dua Lipa has her cut for bob and dyed in blond, wearing black Valentino playsuits, silver Givenchy bandage mini dress, Alberta Ferretti pink satin bra or Balenciaga chain-mail slip dress, recreating Marilyn Monroe’s portraits, comparing Léa Seydoux in VOGUE Paris 20/21 issue, yet in a rather alternative ways. 

 

Despite of myriads of change of Dua Lipa, still her relationship with social media remaining complicated. Dua Lipa gains certain followers by uploading cover songs on YouTube while attending Sylvia Young Theatre Schools at age of 15 (in 2010), but in 2020, after a video of her in a strip club surfaced, there were tons of hatred comments via Twitter; it goes without saying that Lipa is staunchly anti-Brexit and troubled by anti-immigration rhetoric. Still, while life under public eyes can take its toll, Dua asserts that much has remained unchanged, “I’d love to do something fun in terms of fashion” (109).

As for photography, since the cover of February 2021 issue is at brownish grey, and Lipa’s Giorgio Armani dress is rather darker tone, that silver Chanel camellias covering the price tags would be always the ultimate option. Spring Finnish pastel pink roses touch the edge of the pages, while TOM FORD #72 Tony the crimson red tone with copper gold cap match perfectly with Ferrero Rocher chocolate, and CHANEL Spring 2021 Button collection earrings are my recent favourite, while Chanel eyebrow pencil #60 Noir Cendré is yet another good bargain. Last but not the least, sprinkling of dark pink rose buds always signify my flat lay photography. 2021 welcomes IDGAF styles, creates new rules.

 

-> DUA LIPA IDGAF AT THE NEW SEASON: ELLE UK AUGUST 2020

Art Attack! Vivian Maier: The Self-Portrait & Its Double

K1 Kämp Galleria Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki 

15 February -18 April 2021

 

Who is Vivian Maier? Born in 1926 as a French American, a full-time nanny and a street photographer: during her lifetime, Vivian Maier took more than 150,000 photos, primarily of the people and architecture in Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles, and travel photography in Beijing, Shanghai, Manila and Bangkok; whereas those photographs were unknown and unpublished, even many of her negatives were never printed. Moving back and forth between the United States and France, Vivian Maier settled down in Chicago’s North Shore area in 1956, where she worked primarily as a nanny for two families: the Gensburgs from 1956 to 1972, and the Raymonds from 1967 to 1973. As a real live Mary Poppins for over four decades, the Gensburg brothers, helped their dear nanny while Vivian Maier became destitute in old age, until she fell her head on the ice in January and shortly passed away on April 21, 2009. 

 

In 2007, A Chicago photo collector and part-time historian, JOHN MALOOF, together with two other Chicago-based collectors, Ron Slattery and Randy Prow, acquired a large amount of Maier’s photos and 8mm films during an auction in North Side, Chicago. Maloof at first was unable to discover any information about Vivian Maier until a link of Maier’s death notice from Chicago Tribune in April 2009. In October 2009, Maloof shared selections of Maier’s photographs on Flickr; which soon became a viral phenomenon, with thousands of readers expressing their interests.

In early 2010, Chicago art collector Jeffrey Goldstein acquired a portion of the Maier collection from Prow, one of the original buyers, and in December 2014, sold his purchase to Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto. John Maloof, who runs the Maloof Collection, now owns around 90% of Maier’s total output, including 100,000 to 150,000 negatives, more than 3,000 vintage prints, hundreds of rolls of film, home movies, audio tape interviews, and ephemera including cameras and paperwork. The motifs in Maier’s photographs include street life, portraits of anonymous and the children she knew. She also captured herself a lot in the frame: in various surroundings, either on a reflective surface, or as the photographer’s shadow. Maier herself in an inventive way performs as a pioneer selfie influencer before the rise of any social media; she surely is a secured Queen of Selfie.  

 

Anne Morin, the curator of the exhibition, has curated several exhibitions with Vivian Maier’s photographs since 2010, from Oslo, London, Paris, Amsterdam, New York to São Paulo. From February 2021 the collection of photos are exhibited at K1 Finnish Museum of Photography, is the first round to focus on Maier’s self-portraits.

 

KI FINNISH MUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHY divides the short films, the street portraits in New York and Chicago, the self-portraits and the period of colour in order to outstand the distinguished themes of the worlds of Vivian Maier. Her best-known photographs depict street scenes in Chicago and New York during the 1950s and 1960s: Elderly folk congregating in Chicago’s Old Polish Downtown, garishly dressed dowagers, and the urban African-American riding on a black stallion in downtown NYC. Under Maier’s Rolleiflex lens, her photography suffused with the kind of human understanding, warmth and playfulness, those who aware of or none, were simply natural and not a touch of pretentiousness.

 

Journalist William Meyers in the writing for The Wall Street Journal, notes that due to Maier used a medium-format Rolleiflex, rather than a 35mm camera, her pictures contain more details. As phenomenal as those legendary street photographers, such as Harry Callahan, WEEGEE or ROBERT FRANK , the most interesting and truly intriguing about Vivian Maier, is that her high numbers of self-portraits among those negatives: “in many ingenious permutations, as if she were checking on her own identity or interpolating herself into the environment. A shadowy character, she often photographed her own shadow, possibly as a way of being there and simultaneously not quite there”(Meyers, 1).

 

From Finnish Museum of Photography’s Self-Portrait Wall, Maier herself occasionally stood in front of the store windows, eyes upon atop, a fitted dress with a rather stern shape of lips; or multiple desk mirrors reflected photographer’s fuzzy shadowy silhouette, grey and slim; one of my favourite  self-double is Maier her own profile, guarding as if her caring children on-going mischievous behaviours, while the round mirror showcases a Dutch Protestant’s headdress, makes Vivian Maier a Holly Hunter Doppelgängerin, from Jane Campion’s The Piano (1993). 

 

The location of K1 Finnish Museum of Photography is genuinely convenient for those who live the regions of Helsinki, for Vivian Maier exhibition I paid an early visit on the premiere day, before the third wave of lockdown on March 8^th; however the lack of discovery information, detailed descriptions alongside with each photography remain still the repentance, even though the Google search is never challenging nowadays. The rise of a newfound photographer relies not only on Maier’s persistence or collection, but also the efforts of historians and curators. For more information about Vivian Maier, Vivian Maier: Street Photographer (2) or Vivian Maier: Self-Portraits (3), both edited by the original collector John Maloof, are recommended to read. As for motion pictures, in 2013, documentary Finding Vivian Maier was written, directed and produced by John Maloof and Charlie Siskel, which won at Miami International Film Festival, later in 2015 it was nominated at the 87th Academy Awards for the Best Documentary Feature. I encourage K1 curators to provide visitors more of further reach about the presenting photographers, at the reopening of Finnish Museum of Photography. 

 

Who is VIVIAN MAIER? Through the reflections the nanny finds herself, via the negatives we finally find her. 

 

Works Cited:

1.     Meyers, William. “The Nanny’s Secret”. wsj.com. July 2, 2014. 

2.  Maloof, John, ed. Vivian Maier: Street Photographer. Brooklyn, NY: Power House, 2011. ISBN 978-1-57687-577-3

3.    Maloof, John, ed. Vivian Maier: Self-Portrait. Brooklyn, NY: Power House, 2013. ISBN978-1-57687-662-6. 

4.     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivian_Maier

Magazine Madness: À La Mode! Anna Ewers & Virginie Viard Chanel Ensemble À Vogue Paris Février 2021….À La Fois!

VOGUE Paris February 2021 No. 1014 

À la Mode & À la Fois!

 

2021 est l'année où Monsieur Karl Lagerfeld nous a laissé 2 ans (Je me souviens que notre équipe était si triste le 19 février 2019….), tandis que Chanel célèbre le Eau de parfum N ° 5 cent ans de sortie. Vogue Paris Février salue CHANEL, Anna Ewers, le mannequin Germain, orne la couverture, avec Chanel SS 2021 Ready-to-Wear et Chanel produits de beauté; il interviewe aussi Virginie Viard, qui a pris la succession de Lagerfeld en 2019 après trente ans de collaboration, ‘Pudique et trés sentimentale, elle souhaite surtout mettre en avant les trésors, les equips et les savoir-faire de la maison pour pérenniser une certaine idée de luxe et de raffinement.’ (125). Une bonne conversation avec Nelly Kaprièlian, photographie par INEZ & VINOODH. 

 

Virginie Vivard was introduced side-by-side Monsieur Karl Lagerfeld’s right hand during Chanel 2018/19 SS Act One runway collection. Being as rather reserved or, more careful under public gazes, Virginie Viard during the Vogue Paris 2021 interview opens up about her memories with Karl Lagerfeld, that both are affective and in love with masculine silhouette, a touch of cavalier romantic of outwear design. On SS 2021 collection collaborates with Princess of Monaco, Charlotte Casiraghi, Viard states that she resembles to her mother, the eldest child of Rainier III and Grace Kelly, Caroline, Princess of Hanover: highly inspired and supremely elegant, ‘everything about her makes you dream’ (126). 

With large amount of collaborations with European or American profound actresses, Art Director Virginie Vivard loves to bring another attitude of red carpet superstars, by adapting Chanel classic tweed jackets or logo-printed T-shirt. Vogue Paris February cover girl is German supermodel ANNA EWERS, who is almost the Brigitte Bardot Doppelgängerin during 1960’s, wearing pink cashmere long cardigan, silk hairband, metal flap bag necklaces, Chanel logo cuffs and lambskin matelassé flap bags, performing a cute and chic Chanel SS 21 look. 

As for photography, according to the greyish and pinkish tones of the No. 1014 issue, I first cover the magazine price tag with CHANEL 2020 Christmas silver camellias, place a mini bouquet of dried lavender wrapped with Chanel cotton ribbon, adapt CHANEL Le Vernis #515 Sweet Lilac and #711 Pure White to make the flat lay composition a bit more of visual dimension. Since 2021 is the 100^th anniversary of release of CHANEL N°5 Eau de Parfum, for sure here stands 7ml purse spray to support Paris Vogue 2021 February Chanel special issue. I always in an addiction to collect cute Chanel CC logo earrings, therefore BUTTON SS21 with C.H.A.N.E.L embossed design surely a must-have pair, plus a twin set of AW20 cardigan spared buttons as pseudo earrings, or Chanel silver pedant as a mimic-lock, are quite a creative way to display. Last but not the least, light pink rose buds are always the best accessories to decorate the whole tone of photography, afterwards they infusing lovely into my favourite afternoon tea.