A LIFE ON THE ROAD

I know I promised a post on Bordeaux, but I've been travelling so much in the past few weeks that it just seems too specific at this point. The thing is, I love being on the move, meeting new people, seeing new places, but also revisiting the old. My parents sat me on my first flight alone when I was 5 years old. Not long after I decided I must become an air hostess - for how could I ever find happiness on the ground once I'd been amongst the clouds? All melodrama aside, the point is that I like travelling. To that end, the past two months have taken me from Poitiers to Bordeaux to Tours to Brussels to London to Cambridge to Manchester to Cromer and back again - not in that order and some of them repeatedly. The life of an Erasmus student, eh?

But this post was triggered by a conversation I had with someone about the possibility of the UK leaving the EU. "Why would I ever want to leave the UK anyway?" they asked. You have no idea how that makes my blood boil. By all means, be as Euro-sceptic as you like, but an argument that's based on a stubborn unwillingness to learn and discover is, to me, the absolute height of ignorance. And what's worse - it's an ignorance that's self-perpetuating because some minimal open-mindedness is needed for a person to change their mind.

Anyway, rant over. Let's avoid getting too political for a fashion//photography blog... Maybe it's best to ignore my complaints and just enjoy the photos=)

[photos: cathedral in Bordeaux, view from the Tour Pey-Berland in Bordeaux, flea market in Bordeaux, landing in London at sundown, Futuroscope in Poitiers, the new London King's Cross, Cromer pier]

Where have your travels taken you recently?

MEET NINA GOSSE

Parisian and fashion-obsessed, Nina Gosse is quite literally my French counterpart. She is also a law student and she has taken my place at Cambridge this year whilst I have taken hers in Poitiers. It's strange being replaced by someone who is actually similar to you - she's even ended up living on the same staircase of College halls as the people I'm closest to! Nina runs a website called Empreintes-Digitales (read more in the interview below) and participates in various fashion collaborations. She also happens to be gorgeous and agreed to model for me for the shoot below, more of which you can see HERE. I hope you enjoy the photos and the interview and be sure to check out Nina's website (especially if you speak French=P)!

Hi Nina, so to kick off, can you tell us a little about your website? What's the basic idea and how did it start?

I am Editor in Chief of a website called "Empreintes-Digitales", it is a French website but read by people from everywhere. The guys whom I now work with founded it a few years ago, initially to talk about music but it now extends to art, culture, fashion and so on. The basic idea is to share my discoveries and infatuations with a personal touch.

A lot of your entries are fashion based. Would you like to end up in the fashion industry? Why?

I'd love to because it is one of the areas I am most interested in. I don't see fashion as something totally superficial, on the contrary I think it is deeply anchored in our daily lives, it reveals both our personality and the spirit of a certain point in time. But I'm not sure about my future yet of course, there are so many paths one can take...

What's your biggest dream?

My biggest dream is to realise all my other dreams.

Who is your biggest inspiration?

Broadly speaking, I'm very inspired by people who are passionate and dedicate themselves to something they believe in, people who make things happen, those who never have enough. As far as fashion is concerned, I think it is difficult nowadays to name just one person because they are not unique enough... But I'm a fan of women with elegance like Romy Schneider, Catherine Deneuve, Audrey Hepburn, Julianne Moore, Eva Green and so on. I think that's the most important thing to looking beautiful, even in an old jumper.

Who is your favourite designer?

My favourite designer is Chloé, I recognise myself in everything they do. But I also admire Balmain, Chanel, etc. I also love small brands like Eple & Melk whom I modeled for, I love clothes with the Nordic spirit.

What is your most prized possession?

I guess it's my YSL Downtown bag (grey croc), and my Cartier Trinity ring that I got for my 18th birthday.

If you were an animal, what would it be?

I'm not very keen on animals... Maybe a bird so I could fly. I find French bulldogs very cute, but they're too much work.

And finally, what's your favourite quote / saying / moto?

"Be true to yourself"

Thank you, Nina, for being an incredible model and for this interview!

Check out the rest of the shoot

Check out Nina's website

'TEA' IS FOR THE TELEGRAPH

In my continuing search for what on Earth I want to do with the rest of my life, I spent this past week interning at the Sunday Telegraph (UK newspaper). I worked and sat in on an eclectic array of tasks - highlights included interviewing a high-flyer in the arts world, editing the Queen's obituary (no, she's not dead) and even getting to write a short article that has been published in last Sunday's paper. I quickly found out that tea is the primary fuel of every Telegraph journalist and I am now certain that as long as the newspaper lives, Twinings will never go out of business.

I whizzed up the 111 Buckingham Road escalators on Monday morning not really knowing what to expect. I've done a million and one law internships / work experience weeks, but now, for the first time, I am seriously considering abandoning the securely paved path of a future solicitor for something closer to my heart. The truth is, I'd be perfectly happy working at some City firm negotiating contracts and making a ton of cash, buying a new pair of Jimmy Choos every week... But there's this annoying twitchy creative part of me that just won't give me a break.

And so I found myself at the Telegraph. I started off in the Life section, through to the design section, through to the fashion section of Stella magazine, through to news... So I basically stalked / annoyed / questioned every possible person working at the paper. It's so much easier with open-plan offices. Sometimes it even means you can stalk / annoy / question multiple people at the same time. Perfection.

JEALOUSY IN MOTION

JEALOUSY from Eliska.H on Vimeo.

Et voila, the promised video. I beg you to be kind - this is my first attempt at playing around with moving images (you may have noticed that the video in my previous post is a bit of a cheat in that it's just a compilation of 100s/1000s of stills).

The star is Bex Huddart, the music is a 

BRUSSELS

By some incredible stroke of luck, Jack and I managed to bag second prize in an EU creative competition with the video (way) below. And just like that, we found ourselves being shipped (flown/train-ed) over to the heart of the EU - Brussels. Our couple of days there were mostly spent in the EU Parliament meeting far too important people and trying to look slightly older than we actually were - the "DELEGATE" tags we were given helped, though my answer to the "where were you delegated from?" question was never really smooth enough. We were interviewed by a Danish newspaper and a European blog (ohyesthisisasfamousasi'mgonnaget), quizzed a couple of MEPs on their opinions of the EU's future and just generally put our "important" faces on. But despite our childish attempts at conquering the EU Parliament, we managed to befriend an array of super interesting people and just generally have a blast.

 Important wardrobe decisions back in my Poitiers apartment. In a sudden realisation that what I really wanted was to brighten up the MEPs' day, I opted for the most screamingly flowery pants I could find.

 Delegates! This one's Jack's obv.

 The theatre filling up, complete with headsets and mikes for everyone - I won't even attempt to deny that Blue and I tried to act out a pilot / radio tower scene.

 Ethiopian restaurant for dinner! The most finger-licking meal I've had in a while. Like, literally, I don't usually eat with my fingers.

Our last shot from brussels, plus a part of Jack's head in the bottom corner.

And here is our video for those who are interested:

STEP THIS WAY

Other than a pair of owl-covered socks I once got for Christmas from a friend (which, I'm sure, were intended to highlight my eternal wisdom), I'm not usually the quirky sock type, but I've decided this is allowed, dots and studs and all. Less because I'm that cool and more because I really need to do my laundry, so my sock selection is on the sparse side. So this isn't really an attempt at some grand fashion revelation - this is me showing off my brand new Zara oxford flats.

In other news, I spent half the week in Brussels and I'm off to Bordeaux this morning, so more on that later lest I miss the train and have nothing to tell.

BECOMING FRENCH

It's been a month and a half since I arrived in my little FrenchVille. I'm here on Erasmus, and whilst your immediate response to that is probably "wheeeyyy, partaaaayyyyy!" I can assure you that that's hardly the case - partly because this FrenchVille prides itself in maybe 3 clubs in total (at a push) and partly because the dance floors in any of the three only start filling up around 3am *shock, horror*. Seriously, whatever happened to good old beauty sleep? When that question comes from a notorious insomniac, you know something's not quite right.

Anyway, my habits are slowly slipping toward the French stereotype - I've scorched my inner arm on a fresh baguette I was clamping under it whilst trying to balance my coffee and open our french windows to enjoy my breakfast on a balcony overlooking the classically white streets of FrenchVille. I've taken to red wine, which I am now perfectly happy to drink on my own whilst buried in a romance novel, intermittently savouring a slice of camembert or two. I've began slipping French words into English and my blood no longer boils at the sight of paperwork. Cigarettes are the one thing I can't imagine succumbing - they still smell crap and yellow teeth haven't become any more attractive.

But I can do a year of this, yes...

[Images: 1. Musselssss, mmm who'd have known I'd get so into these squidgy little things. 2. An average evening of mine, fashion "reading", strewn clothes and his love notes on my window]