Mod Cool: Aline Weber

Tom Ford cast the Brazilian runway beauty in his debut film, A Single Man.  She looks so chic in her black pencil pants (styled by Madonna's costume designer, Arianne Phillips.) But I'm most loving her hair!

A few more of her photos:

From Italian Vogue:

(Polaroids of models are always interesting...)

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Red

So lovely...I hope you're having a wonderful Friday.

(All from We Heart It, here)....

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Zooey Deschanel? Is that you?

I almost didn't recognize her with the blonde hair. Then I saw who took the photo: the goddess of transformation, Ellen Von Unwerth.

But what do you make of this photo?...(i feel like i'm alone on my blog today. where is everyone?)

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Neville Trickett, Diptych Master

South African artist and stylist Neville Tricket produces the most interesting diptychs. Here he juxtaposes modern clothing tags against old fashioned sewing notions. Have a look:

There are even more on Trickett's blog, Saint Verde Digest.  Let me know what you think!  Creating diptychs seems so easy to the casual observer, yet it's actually very complex. Like mathematics translated into visual beauty.

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The Next Page Update

Hello everyone...I just wanted to give you a little update about our new blog, The Next Page.  The RSS for my fashion blog, Ms. Muse, is now forwarding to the site.  So those of you who were signed up for Ms. Muse, I hope you're not too surprised to find The Next Page content on your reader.  The blog is doing well, but please tell your friends about it and add it to your blogrolls. Here's the address: http://lilymuse-collage.com/ ... As you know, it's so hard to get a new blog going.  Liss and I really appreciate your help. Also, don't forget to email us if you want to submit a post!  Here's a little sampler of what we have up now on the site:

Thank you!! xo

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Colin Firth

Hello everyone! I wanted to tell you that my story on Colin Firth ran today, if you're interested in seeing it. The link is here.  He's considered an Oscar contender for his role in Tom Ford's  "A Single Man," based on the Christopher Isherwood novel. He's also smart, down to earth, and -- well -- very handsome (tall, square jaw, curly brown hair). ... Ok, I'll stop. Check out the story and let me know what you think!  It was a piece I was working on at the LA Times before my recent layoff...

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Girls Who Wear Glasses...

I've been trying to decide for a few months now what sort of glasses I should get. Perhaps something bold, Anna Karina style...

But should they be round or square or oblong or heart shaped? Like these....

Or perhaps like these?...

I have a new life, so I decided to do something unexpected:  Big,  gold, and bold -- to match the new streaks in my hair.  With glasses from here.  In addition to being beautiful these glasses, hopefully, will finally help me see things clearly!

Hope you're having a lovely Wednesday...I can't believe the week is almost over!

(Photos from We Heart It, with credits on my page.)

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Charming Stockholm Apartments

I love these photos from the Jeu de Paume series, which I found in my favorite bookstore in LA's little Tokyo recently! These little apartments have so much style. Have a look:

From the apartment of Cajsa Bratt & Pontus Frankenstein. I love the pink fabric.

From the apartment of Linda Karlsson. It's such a clever way to display a teacup collection -- just nails on wood.

From the apartment of Saga Ekman.  Ooooh I love the Chanel clogs!

From the apartment of Lilian Bäckman. I love photo walls, although they're complicated to put together, like a puzzle.

Have a lovely Tuesday everyone...I'm meeting a friend for lunch here in LA, where the weather is perfect today...

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Now introducing: Lily & the Muse video sharing site...

There are so many photo sharing sites out there on the Internet, everything from We Heart It to ffffound,  but there are few places "curating" the sorts of videos we adore -- like the Sofia Coppola Miss Dior ad and the Temperley Zoetrope film.

So this week Liss at Daydream Lily and I are launching a video sharing site called Lily & the Muse.   Here's a sample of what it looks like, but please drop in and let us know what you think:

Would you like to be a contributor?  Email us!

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Introducing....The Next Page, a blog about inspiration journals, etc...

Since we all seem to love inspiration journals, Liss (at the original dreamy blog Daydream Lily) and I decided to start a blog that's dedicated to featuring inspiration notebooks, boards, walls, journals and other ways people collect and save the bits of ephemera they find beautiful...So, I'm very proud to introduce The Next Page, a constantly shifting collage of beauty and inspiration:

And it seemed only fitting that a blog about inspiration journals should look like one itself:

So please have a look and let me know what you think! (It has some of my favorite English Muse inspiration images on it at the moment to give you something to look at!)  I hope you'll subscribe and contribute to The Next Page. We're also starting a very special project to feature all of our friends inspiration journals' in the coming months...Email Liss and me for more details at lilyandmuse (at) gmail (dot) com. We would love to include you!!

And tomorrow, I'll have another blog to tell you about!!

PS: Here's the link to subscribe to The Next Page.  Thank you.

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Happy Weekend!

I'll be back on Monday with a very special announcement!!! Have a wonderful weekend! xoxo

(Photo above from the movie Atonement.)

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Thanksgiving...

Hello everyone. Wishing you a lovely holiday tomorrow. My mom is doing the cooking this year. My only task is to bring the cupcakes for dessert! (Yes cupcakes! It was my mom's request.) I ordered a dozen -- a mix of chocolate and vanilla -- from my favorite cupcake place in San Marino. As usual, we'll watch the Macy's parade on TV, have dinner at 1 p.m. and then watch football (and fall asleep on the couch.) Bliss.


Photo by Consumed by Cake

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Amazing Auction of Audrey Dresses

Some 35 dresses, gowns, memorabilia and other treasures will be sold on December 8 at a London Sotheby's auction -- the largest public sale ever of clothing that belonged to the beloved actress. Here's a sneak peak:

This photo by Richard Avedon.

The little black Chantilly lace Givenchy dress Ms. Hepburn wore in "How to Steal a Million."

A wonderful black mod coat.

Her gorgeous white gown from "Love in the Afternoon."

The Fontana Sisters gown she planned to wear to wed Lord James Hanson. (The wedding never happened, and the dress was carefully stored by one of the actress' friends.)
Could you image getting married in her gown?! Wow!

A few more photos (taken by Reuters at the NYC auction premier over the weekend):

The sale is expected to raise tens of thousands of dollars. Half of the proceeds will go to UNICEF, a charity the actress strongly supported.

Oh, I would love to be in London for this sale! I know I always ask you this every time I write about Audrey Hepburn. But I love to hear your answers: What is it about the actress that appeals to an entirely new generation of women?


One last thing: I've watched this clip so many times. I think it's one of life's treasures.

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Nine!

I just finished writing my profile this morning of Colleen Atwood, the very talented Academy Award winning costume designer on this movie, Nine, based on Fellini's 8 1/2. I can't wait until this is in theaters. Have a look at the trailer and tell me what you think!

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Death of a Supermodel

South Korean supermodel Daul Kim -- who was a regular on catwalks in New York, Milan and Paris -- was found dead after an apparent suicide last week at her luxury flat in Paris.  According to the Daily Telegraph of London, her death was discovered after she left a series of messages on her now closed Blogspot blog -- I Like to Fork Myself -- saying she was lonely and depressed.

So sad. What a beautiful girl she was.  Do you think the fashion industry puts too much pressure on its young models? I've been thinking a lot lately about Gemma Ward, who announced last week that she was taking a break from modeling. The press has been relentless recently in posting unflattering pictures of Gemma,  who gained weight following the death of her boyfriend, actor Heath Ledger. The girl is gorgeous, no matter how much she weighs.

I guess this is a dark subject for a Sunday evening. But it was on my mind, so I thought I would post it.

(Photo above via Lost and Found)

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Five for Friday

Happy Weekend! (I'm so glad this week is over...!) Here are some of my favorite landscape posts for a little Friday afternoon cheer:

from Hei Astrid

from Tea for Joy

from Beyond Wunderman

from That Unreliable Girl

And from Little Gray Pixel

I'm looking forward to next week...a fresh start, I hope! Have a lovely weekend everyone.

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Are Newspapers Doomed?

It's after midnight in the lovely city of Los Angeles and as usual I can't sleep. I heard something terrible today and it really upset me: There's another round of layoffs coming at the newspaper where I used to work. Even more of my friends will be jobless by mid-December.

They're going after the feature writers because the editors think they can turn them all into low-rate freelancers. I'm afraid they've forgotten that those writers are the ones who consistently provide the voices that make the newspaper unique.

The men who run the newspaper where I used to work don't understand that truly beautiful writing can only be created in an environment where it's appreciated. They also don't know how to attract young readers, like you, to the newspaper. You're a precious commodity. Did you know that? Young, stylish, educated women (and men) who are curious about the world and who love beautiful things. You have the power to fuel a newspaper revival.

I told this to several editors. I wanted more than anything to help them puzzle this out because I believed so much in that newspaper and in the value of print media. And I guess everyone who reads this blog knows what happened to me after that.

One of my friends sent me an email this week amid all of my angst. He said:  "Be glad you're not going down with that ship." So I wonder, are newspapers doomed. What do you think??


(PS: the photo above was found during one of my Tumblr rounds. I'm not sure of the credit. So if you know, please tell me...)

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What is Flickr?

Hello everyone. Continuing with my humor theme today, here's a clip from the switched.com crew, which took to the streets to find out if people know what Flickr is...The photo sharing site seems to be a little better understood among the general public than, say, Twitter. Have a look:

I love the guy who says: "What's liquor?"

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Sassy Grandmas

I love these women. When confronted by corporate greed and insensitive bosses with dumb ideas, I suspect they would offer a string of obscenities that mean basically this:   Buzz off, idiots.

Photos from Shechive.com
Have a lovely Thursday!

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Thank you...

I can't begin to tell you how much your words of encouragement have meant to me. I'm up off the floor and I'm feeling better -- all because of your lovely messages. I'm so lucky/thankful/happy that I found you here in this corner of the Internet, with all your beautiful blogs and kind words. I lost one community at my former workplace where I thought I belonged for so many years, but I found another one here. So thank you.

Photo above from (here)

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