Desert highway

dress made by my mom (designed by me)

Asos hat

platform Converse with shoe-wings from a market in San Diego

This summer I visited two deserts (the Sonoran Desert in California and the Chihuahan Desert in Texas) and I can now safely say that: a. the desert is full of art in unexpected places and b. I LOVE the desert. These photos were taken by the side of a highway in the desert on the way to Joshua Tree National Park. :)

Chilli-picking

Primark jumper (back painted by me)

trousers made by me out of fabric from NYC
Topshop cropped shirt
backpack from Spain

YRU shoes

old scrunchie

I'm home now but here's a quick throwback to Amsterdam in June, wandering down one of the tiny side-streets in the old centre of the city. Amsterdam is one of my favourite cities for its beautiful architecture and canals, art galleries (can you say Van Gogh and De Stijl?), and most of all its laid-back atmosphere. It's one of a few cities that I would seriously love to live in for a few years when I'm older. :)

TX

Asos shirt and shorts

bag made by E

Topshop boots

Sekonda watch

Going back to my first day in Texas, exploring the backstreets of Houston, probably the most spread-out city I have ever been to! :)

Backwaters

Meadham Kirchhoff x Topshop dress

Zara belt

Topshop boots

arm cuff from Manchester Christmas markets

Pandora bracelet

Sekonda watch

If I look tired in these photos it's because they were taken in some tiny desert town (aka a truck stop) during an 8 hour drive from Austin to Marfa. Even though this dress is not great for sweltering Texas heat, I had to pack it because it reminds me a lot of the dresses in Meet Me in St Louis and Gone With the Wind (aka my main points of reference for Southern belles). Seriously, this dress is an absolute joy to wear and I don't care if that sounds weird, I thought I really blended in with the small-town ranchers in their Stetsons and alligator boots. :)

The Way It Was

ˆThe Killers

shirt made by me

Cheap Monday boots

Asos hat

skirt from Buffalo Exchange

vintage sunglasses

Sekonda watch

I still have a lot left to post from California, but I thought I'd share some from Texas. I'm currently in Austin visiting family and although the official slogan here is "keep it weird" I decided to tone down my multicoloured funkiness for the South. Also it is just too damn hot here for wearing anything complicated. :)

Art Queen

necklace from the V&A museum

Topshop body

H&M skirt

mother's yukata

headband made by me

platform Converse

shoe wings from a random lil shop in San Diego

Over the course of a 10 day trip to Cali we visited at least 12 art museums (possibly more… I can't remember, they all started blurring into each other). Pretty good going. These photos were taken with a huge installation of street lamps by Chris Burden outside LACMA, the west coast's biggest art museum. We barely had enough time to cover modern and contemporary art so LACMA is definitely on my list to spend a whole day browsing next time I'm here. But at the moment, I'm in Texas so let's see what cool stuff I can find down south. :)

Jade

^ Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes

vintage shirt and sunglasses

American Apparel shorts

earrings from China

fluffy headband made by me

YRU shoes

These photos were taken in the courtyard of the Pacific Asia museum in LA (you can see I'm wearing a super cool sticker), an impromptu stop between various art museums but definitely worth it! And this was possibly my favourite outfit from the whole trip, in no small part because both the shirt (silk) and the shorts were so soooooft. I kind of felt like a rainbow feather bomb wearing this and it was great! :)

Cabazon dinos

mother's yukata

dress made by my mother

Asos hat

platform Converse
vintage sunglasses

shoe wings from San Diego

We only spent two days in the Californian Colorado desert but that was plenty of time for me to fall in love with it. There's so much awesome/weird stuff in the desert if you just know where to look! As well as Salvation Mountain, we visited a whole bunch of cool desert sites, including these dinosaurs (billed as the world's biggest!), right next to the highway near Palm Springs. After these dinosaurs were built, creationists bought them and turned the site into a creationist museum, asserting that dinosaurs and humans lived on the earth at the same time. You have to pay to go to the "museum" inside Mr. Rex and since I don't care to support creationists, I refused, but was allowed to wander inside Dinny the brontosaurus who serves as the museums gift shop. It was pretty surreal to walk up the stairs inside him and see the original evolutionist murals alongside starkly contrasting crazy creationist "research". :)

Shangri-LA

vintage top and sunglasses

kimono and shorts made by me (shorts worn backwards)

YRU shoes

American Apparel scrunchie

Topshop pendant

Sekonda watch

I'm now back from my trip to California and while I'm glad to be able to sleep all day, I do wish I'd had more time to explore. We did a lot but Cali, particularly LA and the desert, is one of the few places I love with all my heart and want to really get to know. Hopefully I'll be back in the not-too distant future and until then, I have hundreds, possibly thousands, of photos to look back on. These ones were taken in Venice Beach, LA, aka the mural capital of the world (by my official reckoning). :)

Defender of anarchy

Nathalie du Pasquier x American Apparel top

Asos skirt

Office boots

vintage sunglasses

fluffy earrings made by me

Sekonda watch

We've done so much since my last post I don't know where to start. I'm now in Los Angeles and I love it here. LA loves me too apparently. Forget all the Hollywood celebrity stuff, I'm here for the art and culture. And there is a lot of art. These photos were taken at the Getty Centre where I miraculously matched the architecture (despite not previously knowing what the Getty looked like). :)

Salvation Mountain

Illustrated People crop top

skirt made by me

YRU shoes

lei from Hawaii

vintage sunglasses

Sekonda watch

earrings from China

photos by my father

One of the main places I wanted to visit on this trip was Salvation Mountain. Literally a colourful mountain in the south Californian desert, Salvation Mountain was created by Leonard Mcknight as an act of worship to Jesus but he saw it as a symbol of all kinds of love and devotion. It's been on my bucket list for years and I'm so happy I had the chance to visit (even if I did practically melt in the desert heat). I can't wait to come back in the future with a whole team to do a shoot (although my dad did pretty well here). And I'm sure you can tell I specifically dressed for the occasion. :)

La Jolla

H&M skirt

sari blouse/crop top from India

YRU shoes

scarf from China

mother's old belt

Sekonda watch

vintage sunglasses

So after a two-day fest rest, I'm now in California! San Diego to be precise. West coast summertime is here and the livin' is easy. Following Susie Bubble's example (who has just done practically the exact same trip I have planned), I packed all my most "Cali" clothes for this trip aka shiny, colourful, fun stuff! And people here are loving it - yesterday I got six compliments on these sandals, including one woman sticking her head out of a car driving past and yelling to me how much she liked them! :)

Ps. You may be tickled to know that I wore the exact same clothes (minus fluffy headdress and earrings) as in my last post to go sea kayaking. "Always fabulous" is the motto.