Friday Fashion. Remembering Dubai.


Sometimes, when you’re underwhelmed with the prevailing winds of fashion, you just have to go it alone and sail off on your own.
Bangle – Lovisa.  I’m on a roll with $5 finds there right now.

Currently at SSG Manor, we are embracing blue and bold prints.

Blouse- Uniqlo, pencil skirt – J Crew.

Preferably worn together.

Toddler SSG wearing legging as pants.  He’s only just young enough to still get away with it.

It was Toddler SSG himself who set the forecast.  He was happy with the blue striped T I chose for him yesterday but not so much with the khaki shorts I’d chosen for him.  Instead, it had to be his crab print PJ leggings.

Despite the heat, he wore them all day.  As he played hop scotch, as he ran across the back of the dinosaur in the play area, as he climbed the fridge (don’t ask…) and out in the garden as he watered the plants.
In other news, the SSG bedside table has been reunited with an old friend – L’Artisan Parfumeur’s Premier Figuer Extreme. 

Technically, though, its official place of residence is on the second shelf from the top of the built in wardrobe.
I have Strawberrynet to thank for my new bottle of perfume.  They recently had an extra 10% off promotion in honour of Australia Day for Australian orders which meant I no choice but to buy it.  And a backup supply of my favourite soap.  I also scored this free CK mascara which I haven’t tried yet.
It’s Friday afternoon and I’m feeling like a bit of an armchair trip somewhere, to get into that long weekend frame of mind.  How about Dubai?

I bought my first bottle of Premier Fig in Dubai way back in 2012.  It was at Bloomingdales at the Dubai Mall.  I’ll always remember the way fragrance defined Dubai for me on that trip.  Heady citrus, amber and wood noted perfumes would waft past me on a regular basis as immaculately dressed locals sailed past me.   Because everyone seemed to sail rather than walk or run.

Perhaps it was the obsession with creating an oasis in the desert that gave everyone a fluidness to their movements.  No one ever rushed.

With the temperature regularly hitting an inhospitable 40C or higher, life was best and most comfortably lived indoors.  Where you barely heard the traffic 20 or so floors beneath you as it swarmed down six plane carriageways alongside the slightly Star Trekian trains.

There were man made tributes to water everywhere despite the desert location.

And luxury was often not too far behind.

One shopping mall featured a Hermes exhibition in much the same way a western shopping centre might use a forecourt for the performance of Five Seconds of Summer or the young Justin Bieber.  Only with much less chaos and visible security.
High tea was literally taken at high altitude and with plenty of champagne on hand.

Gold tones highlighted everything from furnishings to mosaics.
And there was always something jaw dropping to look up at.

 Something that made me smile was seeing how much Dubai embraced American institutions.

There was a Bloomingdales that out Bloomied anything I’ve seen in New York.

A Magnolia Bakery more spacious and inviting than its big sister back home.

 And a Dean & Deluca where you didn’t have to jostle with crowds for a table or service at.

Melbourne has also left its mark in Dubai in the shape of a Brunetti’s.

Complete with an impressive bank of espresso machines.
And Paris.  It’s a city that can’t help but leave its mark on every other big city around the world. 
 Its fashion, its food, its particular aesthetic. 
And in return, the rest of the world has now united with Paris in a stand for freedom of speech.

All this remembering of favourite trips and cities and given me the travel bug again.  Something to think about over the weekend.

Take care and have a lovely Australia Day!


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