Art is in the Hair

In spite of my not so happy relationship with hairdressers&co. one of my best friends is training to become one (hair stylist actually), and she’s doing great, so great that I’m thinking to have an hair cut done by her (and I've been cutting my own hair for years now).

Elettra and her model, Margherita
photo by me

Tuesday 15th I went to see and support her and her model of at the Richard Ward Junior of the Year Awards, a competition where trainees show off their talents in front of an audience of parents, partners and friends, as well as an esteemed panel of judges including Catherine McMahon from L'Oreal Professionnel and Richard Ward himself (I know I’m missing some judges but I don’t remember their names, I’m so sorry! If anyone could please fill my memory gaps I’d be very grateful).

photo by me

photo by me

 

Richard Ward Hair and Metrospa is the past winner of Hair Magazine’s London Salon of the Year, and has been described as ‘leisurely and luxurious yet unpretentious’; glamour, excellence and an outstanding customer service are perfectly combined to transform customers experience into a little luxury treat.

photo by me

The competition has been running for several years, and it consists of two separate awards: The Junior of the Year Award itself, which was voted for by the senior team at the salon based on day to day work ethic and achievements throughout the year; and the Technical Achievement Awards, which is the one I went to watch and cheer for. For the second award juniors were asked to create a look that combined current trends with model style and features. As well as creating a suitable style, entrants were also judged on research, inspirations and presentation. 

photo by me

This is the second time I have been part of the audience and I have to say that this year the standards were amazingly high (even for one who is not an expert like me the styles were just wonderful) and I really enjoyed it, especially for the ’50 atmosphere which seems to have inspired almost everyone.

rock/romantic braided updo
photo by me

This year I really enjoyed the show because I saw a lot of styles which I would like to try on my own hair (I’m thinking about two braided styles in particular) and also some of them which I personally would never wear but were amazingly done (I’m thinking of an extra short cut with the most beautiful red shade I've ever seen and a lovely Marilyn inspired style).

Marilyn
photo by me

rock/romantic braided updo
[front]
photo by me

super short/ultra red bob
photo by me

My friend Elettra’s creation consisted in a fusion between fifties style, vintage accessories and oriental look, inspired by Japanese anime and manga, the film “Memoirs of a Geisha” and the western '50s atmosphere. The result is an Updo consisting in three sections: the two frontal sections call to mind both the Geisha's hairstyle and the 50sVictory Rolls style, while the back ponytail was tied up to remember famous anime hairstyles as Sailor Moon.

pin-up geisha
photo by me

photo by me

The look was completed by a flower hairpin, a Chinese style inspired dress and a makeup that perfectly balanced Japanese Geisha's and ’50 pin-ups styles.

romantic braided updo - the winner
photo by me

After all of the trainees showed us and commented their creations, and a little break was allowed for everyone, Hellen Ward announced the winners: Elle with her romantic braided Updo won the Technical Achievement Award and she was also rewarded with the Junior of the Year Award itself; while my friend Elettra was the runner up for the Technical Achievement Award.

romantic braided updo - the winner
photo by me

I am really happy for my friend and proud of her work and results; her look was almost flawless and really creative, different from the others in spite of the common inspiration which seemed to have struck all the competitors; plus, it was just perfect for her model (who's also a dear friend of mine), she managed to combine her skills and creativity with her model personal style and character and I think she did a great job.

Elettra and Margherita
isn't that military coat perfect for the look?
photo by me

Eggs, bread and tomato sauce

Saturday I had planned to go to the Shoreditch Vintage Fair, but I woke up late in the morning and I wasn't feeling very well (thanks to a nasty cold which has been going on for two weeks and it's starting to be annoying) so I decided to skip it (luckily the next one will be on February, yay!) and stay at home.

I had lunch really late, if you can still call it lunch after 3PM, with a recipe inspired by Sardinian "pani frattau", which is slightly different from how I made it most of the time.

It's a very quick and easy lunch or dinner option, and it's perfect if you have some leftovers (as stale bread or a couple of spoons of tomato sauce).

You will need (for1 portion):

2 eggs; 

some tomato sauce; 

some stale bread,;

1\4 onion;

2 tbsp evo;

basil or dried Italian herbs;

a cup of lamb stock;

Pecorino or Parmesan cheese.

If you have a little tomato sauce as leftover then it's perfect. The best would be a very simple tomato&basil sauce, but if you don't have it ready don't worry because it's very easy to make.

Start chopping the onion (I like it in big chunks) and gently cook it with a little extra virgin olive oil. When the onion is softened add some peeled plum tomatoes (3 of them will do) or some spoons of passata and let it simmer for about 20 minutes; add fresh basil leaves or dried Italian herbs mix at the very end (you don't want to burn the herbs flavor).

You can choose then to cook the eggs directly into the tomato sauce or made them poached.

Remember to toast the stale bread (if you don't have stale bread, you can toast fresh one and nobody will notice), either in the toaster or in the oven, personally I prefer the oven; and then soften it with a little stock (lamb is better, but you can use whatever stock you have at home, just avoid the fishy one).

Serve the slices of stale bread topped with tomato sauce, the eggs and finally a generous amount of grated cheese.

Enjoy!

Snow sprinkles and a cup of tea

Sunday is my favourite day of the week since I was a little girl, and I had to wake up very early in the morning (6 am) to catch the school bus at 7 am, every day except for Sundays.

Now I usually wake up at 7am during weekdays (actually, I put set my alarm clock at 7 but I get up from bed at 8), and sleep all Saturday morning, so in Sundays I can wake up early enough to do something interesting, and spent some time with friends.

Last Sunday I enjoyed the light snow fallen on Saturday night, which by midday was already melting. I was invited by a friend of mine to have lunch by her place and then we would go to Goodge Street to meet another two friends of us.

I took some photos of my street covered by snow, children playing in Wandsorth Park  and a view from Putney Bridge.

For lunch we had a delicious chicken pie, carrots and guacamole, some pane carasau (Sardinian flat bread) kindly offered by my friend’s flatmate, and a few glasses of red wine.

We met the other two girls at Goodge Street and we all went to a bookstore nearby, this is a bookstore me and my friend were planning to visit for months. As it always happens with long planned and full of expectation things, they’re never the way you imagined them.

It was smaller and somehow “less” than I expected, but nonetheless I found some interesting books; in fact, although small, the shop was full of books, some of them ancient and rare, and it deserves a second visit.

After the visit to the bookstore, we went to Le Pain Quotidien to escape from the freezing temperatures, and we enjoyed hot drinks and some food. I love this cafés, the ambient is warm and shabby, the teas and food just delicious.

Grey Sunday in Greenwich

Last Sunday (29th Jan) I went to Greenwich with a friend of mine, to take a breather from home and office routines.

The weather wasn't nice but I really enjoyed the grey sky;  the top of the buildings in Canary Wharf were shrouded in mist, and the atmosphere were in some way "magical".

Once at Greenwich we decided to eat immediately (it was almost midday and we were hungry), and then we explored the market, getting lost among the thousands of vintage items and crafts.

There was plenty of food stall, from Japanese, to Spanish, to French... and we choose Italian. Such a bad choice. After two years of London life and eating all kind of food I should have learnt the lesson: never choose Italian.

I know that probably for most of the Londoners Italian food is great, and it is! But in Italy, not in London. Probably this is correct only for me and not for you; but, as an Italian, I'm never satisfied by the quality or simply the taste of Italian food out of Italy.

So we fell in the trap of "feel like at home" and bought some arancini (fried rice balls filled with sauce), but as I said they were disappointing, and we went wandering around and looking at all the other food we ignored.
There were some wonderful bread with olives and other stuff, organic, which looked really tasty!
Next time I'll try it!

The next step was the lovely Cutty Sark, still under renovation; the National Maritime Museum; Greenwich Park and the Royal Observatory.

It has been a truly lovely day, wandering around, filling my eyes with art, crafts and nature...

I've never been a fan of ships, pirates and this kind of stuff, but I found the Museum quite interesting, especially the instrument like meridians, compasses and telescopes were finely crafted and fascinating.

I also spent some minutes trying to attract squirrels and talking to them, they're so cute!

Simple things make life better: a good friend, a lovely place to visit, and the attitude of a child discovering the world.

Photos: Moll