Thursday 8 November 2012

Outdoorsy













 
 



 
 
 
 





The Outfit
Green coat with contrast sleeves: Hobbs, a gift from Mr Eve 5 years ago.
Hat: Accessorize.
Jumper: Oxfam Online website.
Jeans: GAP via charity shop.
Wellies: Hunter via ebay.
 
The Soundtrack
Wild Beasts, Smother.


Photographs taken by me, using the self timer on my cheap and basic Kodac EasyShare digital camera. 
 
 
With this outfit I was inspired by the outdoorsy style of aristocrat and member of the Bloomsbury Group Vita Sackville-West, whom my maternal grandfather knew, along with others in the group, when he worked as a farmer and sculptor near Sissinghurst in his twenties.







Here's Virginia Woolf writing in her diary about Vita, the inspiration behind the alluring androgynous character of Orlando in the novel by the same name:

I like her and being with her and the splendour--she shines in the grocer's shop in Sevenoaks with a candle lit radiance, stalking on legs like beech trees, pink glowing, grape clustered, pearl hung. That is the secret of her glamour, I suppose.


 
Victoria Mary (‘Vita’) Sackville-West 
by John Gay, photograph,1948.
© National Portrait Gallery, Lo


images via 1, 2


Plus, breaking news: I have finally managed to add a follower button to my blog, with the kind help of Tani of Bohemian Vanity, without whom I would have stayed at 4 followers for many years to come! Now I'm hoping there'll be a crazy follower rush to push the number up to 13 by Christmas...

I'll be in Paris for the weekend until Monday, I promise there'll be photos aplenty of the trip on my return!

 

34 comments:

  1. really great inspiration you took for your outfit and I do love your hat!

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    1. Thanks, that hat always makes me feel I'm channeling Vita when I wear it!

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  2. Great outfit, beautiful in that autumn setting.

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  3. Loving the country vibe and your inspiration.
    Have a fab time in Paris! x

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    1. Thanks Vix, yes I can't wait! Used to live in Paris at 21 so looking revisiting old haunts and finding new ones!

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  4. Oh lovely coat and great inspiration!

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  5. Lovely pictures dear - oh i love autumn ! And your outfit is gorgeous ! Makes me wanna take a walk with my dog in the forest now ! XX Tani

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    1. The colours of autumn are wonderful aren't they. Hope you had a chance to go for that walk!

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  6. Such beautiful photos, and a great hat and coat too! Beautiful portrait of Vita Sackville-West (though I struggle a little with the Bloomsbury set as a group, and Woolf's writing - I feel I should love it but I just don't!)
    I'll go and click that follow button now.
    Have a great trip! xxx

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    1. Ah thanks! Glad you like the photos. Woolf isn't an easy read, very surreal and difficult to follow at times, i tend to read her as i do poetry, enjoying the words and images without a firm grasp of the meaning behind them! Orlando is definitely her most accessible and enjoyable book if you ask me....

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  7. love your hat! looks like a beautiful day to be spending outside!

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    1. It was a gorgeous sunny day, with all the russets and greens of autumn! looks from your blog as you've been having a lovely time outside too!

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  8. Love your coat and the wellies. That's the right outfit for a fun autumn day outside. Your hat is gorgeous too. I own a similar one in a warm yellow tone with some feathers. I'm so smitten with warm vibrant colours. Maybe I'll show it in one of my next posts. Have a wonderful and adventurous journey to Paris. I'm looking forward to some photos.

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    1. Thanks I'm very excited, just packing to go!

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  9. I love this look, it really brings to mind something the characters in Downton Abbey might wear!!!
    Following you now :)

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    1. How kind of you, really glad you like the look. And I've just discovered your beautiful blog, following you now too :)

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  10. Love the photos. I have to say, I'm not a Woolf fan myself, I find the whole Bloomsbury set more than a little annoying! Although I am reading The Edwardians at the moment. Very interesting, though, from a historical point of view, and I'd certainly love to visit Charleston and Vita's house.
    I've been admiring the Rowans at the moment, my favourite tree, absolutely loaded with berries, like little red jewels.

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    1. Rowans are so beautiful with their jewel like berries aren't they. I adore all the colours this time of year. Yes the Bloomsbury lot can be annoying and frustrating, but Charleston house is really stunning, every time I visit it inspires me to come home and paint half the furniture!

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  11. And I am so glad you did add the follower button, which I just used hard!
    Stupendous jumpsuit in the last post, excellent honouring the women of your family, love what you're doing here.

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    1. Yay! Thanks so much Amber! I've just started following your lovely blog, you have a great unique style, gorgeous use of colour.

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  12. Your sculptor grandfather knew Vita Sackville-West? You have amazing sounding grandparents! Great inspiration for your outfit. I love Woolf's work, particularly 'A Room of Ones Own'. Hope Paris was perfect.

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    1. Yes he was quite a lot younger than all of them but was taken under her wing and became friends with her, John Maynard Keynes, Dora Carrington, Lytton Strachey. Thanks for your kind words, I do have incredible grandparents, on both sides of the family. Sadly they've all passed away in the last ten years, but it feels good to be honouring their memory with this blog.
      I love Woolf too. To The Lighthouse is amazing, but I also love immersing myself in the strangeness of The Waves. As for A Room of Ones Own, what a brilliant early feminist piece of writing.
      Paris was magnifique, thanks so much lovely Rosalind.

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  13. I'm having difficulty using Google Friend Connect to follow not just yours but others as well. I think Google disconnected GFC and now it's harder to use it. If you're on bloglovin' or networked blogs please post those widgets so there's alternative ways to follow your sweet blog.

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    1. O dear I'm sorry to read that Bella. I'm pretty shite at blogging technology, haven't got to grips with bloglovin' yet but I will try to do so asap, hope to bring you on board when I can :)

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  14. Just followed! Your blog looks a delight, expecting some fabulous outfit posts to come. Such great pictures here, loving the golden trees in the sunlight x

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    1. Ah that's great, thanks Sophie, I'm very pleased to be following yours too!

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  15. You look chic in this Fall look. The backdrop of photoshot is wonderful.

    xoxo Ra

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    1. So glad you like it Ramona! I've just put up my first batch of photos from Paris - it was beautifully autumnal there. Great to have discovered your lovely blog.

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  16. Lovely colours in your outfit, works so well with that gorgeous backdrop. Love the inspiration too, I'm currently reading (and very much enjoying) Virginia Woolf's 'A room of one's own.' But currently I can't seem to find it!

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  17. Thanks so much Willow! Woolf is a wonderful writer isn't she. I've just discovered your blog, isn't it gorgeous! You and your sister look like magical mermaids in your latest post. Your have your newest follower here :)

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  18. I can't believe you have a connection to the Bloomsbury Group! Every time I pick up Virginia Woolf, I wonder why I bother reading anybody else. I could say the same for the rest of her circle - T. S. Eliot (J. Alfred Prufrock haunts me) or J. M Keynes (whom I not only equate with Economics but also with giving me a depth of understanding of WWII, and we did "name" our mini Cooper "Maynard" :) ) ...

    You have a wonderful heritage, and that includes the couture passed down from your grandmother. Thank you for swinging by my blog. And if it's only a hat I need for Le Marais, hopefully my selection is qualified!

    - J xx

    www.thefoolishaesthete.blogspot.com

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    1. So sorry I've only just seen this message J! Yes they're a fascinating lot the Bloomsbury Group, sadly rather unfashionable nowadays but they've always been great inspiration to me. We have Aldous Huxley's old hat somewhere, I'll search it out and show it in a future post :) What a fabulous name for your car.

      Yep, only hats needed in Le Marais, it's a free love kind of place!

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