St Tropez

 St Tropez! This is the final travel post from my summer road trip and I have to say, I think its my favourite. I spent a grand total of about 8 hours in St Tropez (Former home of Bridgette Bardot), but some of my favourite photographs of the trip were taken here, so I've been very excited to share them with you. I think you just gel with some places immediately, even if you only spend a small amount of time there, and I wasn't expecting St Tropez to be like this at all. When I went to Paris (last year's trip, which you can see some of here) and Milan, it took me a good few days to fall in love with the cities, but when the boat we travelled on docked in St Tropez, I instantly understood what the place was all about. It was exactly how I imagined the French Rivera to be: warm, friendly and glamorous in its own quaint kind of way. My outfit photos were taken in Cannes before we set off, mainly because it was the coolest time of the morning and, therefore, the most convenient time to take them, but also because I don't really like boats and, after disembarking, I looked more than a little worse for wear. Whilst I wanted to stay on the top deck taking photographs of the coast, I spent most of the journey huddled up in a corner seat downstairs trying not to feel the swaying movements or look out of the window. Thankfully, Ellie was with me to get some pictures of what I missed out on! 

 Before we go any further, I feel like I should address the fact that the Chanel in St Tropez is the most insanely beautiful shop in the whole entire world. From the 26th of April to the end of October, Chanel takes residence at La Mistralee. La Mistralee was once the mansion of Alexandre of Paris, Hairdresser to Audrey Hepburn, Sophia Loren and Elizabeth Taylor, which only adds to the glamour of it all! The pool in the gardens is clearly gorgeous and gives such a tranquil feel.  I am obviously not at one with peaceful surroundings, as I did almost trip into the pool after falling over my own feet. Very elegant! After Chanel, we headed over to Cafe de Paris for some lunch, but after a drink we decided to head somewhere a little more interesting and ended up eating salad, pasta and seafood, and people watching at the tables outside a little restaurant.

We then headed off to do some shopping, as we usually do! I wore Ellie's top from Topshop, a Zara skirt bought in Cannes, River Island shoes and the best summer bag ever from H&M. Shopping in Cannes and St Tropez was incredible, there was so much to lust after! I loved seeing the stores of Miu Miu (Who really are killing it at the minute, don't you think?) and Louis Vuitton right next to independent boutiques and ice cream parlours. As usual, my favourite part of the day was spent wandering around with no purpose, just taking in my surroundings, though this did lead to us getting ever so slightly lost in the most beautiful area, surrounded by white houses with flowers and vines growing up the walls. We also found the most perfect street, completely free of people with only a white Vespa on the pavement. Basically a bloggers dream photo destination!

The colours and architecture of St Tropez have left me wanting to work on some art inspired by my trip, so I am going to try and take some time in the next few weeks to do that. I never have the time to just sit down and work on something entirely of my own accord. I regret not sketching whilst I was there so it was all fresh on my mind but I suppose I was preoccupied exploring and photographing! I am having a pretty busy (but fairly wonderful) time at the minute balancing coursework and taking time out to eat pizza and watch Halloween movies with friends, but I do want to let myself just sit with a sketchbook at some point and work on whatever I want.

I'm completely up to date on all my post material now so hopefully I can start sharing more current and season appropriate happenings on here. I want to try and document more and I feel like I've lost my blogging mojo recently, so I do want to show you more of whats happening, especially in the lead up to Christmas! I hope you've had a wonderful October,
Bethany x

20 comments Fashion

Share:

Sequins and skulls

I have a week off! It’s the autumn break here in Denmark, so I'm taking lots of time to catch up on work and to have some time to myself. I’ve been doing loads lately, so it’s good just to chill out a bit! I'm going for an impromptu couple of days in Copenhagen tomorrow and I'm looking forward to that. It seems ages ago since I was wandering around vintage shops in Norrebro or buying cake from Torvehallerne. Trips to Copenhagen are always so relaxing, so it’s going to be lovely to have a wander around and eat Chilli Squid in Wagamama (Which I've never seen in Denmark outside of Copenhagen). It’s starting to feel quite wintry now, so I'm wearing a lot more black and quite a few more bulky jumpers. Yesterday, I gathered all my summer clothes together and got them ready to put into storage to clear some space on my already crowded clothes rail. Now, rather than being packed with little print dresses and pastel cardigans, it houses a fair few midi dresses and skinny black tops to layer under things. I always feel more comfortable with my style when it gets colder, especially thinking of the prospect of snazzy party dresses as Christmas gets closer. I suppose I should get Halloween out of the way before I start thinking about Christmas but, to be honest, Christmas is only 10 weeks away and is my favourite time of year, so festive excitement is allowed! I’ve been wearing an awful lot of black recently and I'm not sure why. I have quite a colourful wardrobe but I always seem to go back to wearing darker tones, it’s just how I feel more comfortable really. I find blacks and greys so much easier to layer up, especially when I'm leaving the house in a rush and don't have the time to think about what matches and so on. I want to go back to wearing more colour, like I used too, but I think I should introduce it back a little bit at a time and that is where this gorgeous Collar* by Abbie Walsh comes in. I was over the moon when me and Abbie decided to collaborate! I've been admiring her pieces for quite a while now (and also admiring this British Vogue shoot of Lana Del Rey wearing Abbie's accessories) so I couldn't wait for my gorgeous collar to arrive. I feel it adds just the right amount of sparkle to what would otherwise be quite a plain outfit, and the lace is so intricate and beautiful. It is such a special piece to have, especially since all Abbie Walsh pieces are hand sewn, completely unique and incorporate vintage and antique elements into their design. I'm also very excited that the sequins are silver as I'm usually such a gold girl but I always love the way silver looks, especially paired with some metallic shoes! I was planning on wearing these silver heels but unfortunately they are a little bit grubby after I wore them to see Shaka Loveless last friday and had a drink spilt on my feet whilst dancing (so worth it, and after a clean they will be good as new!). I guess glittery T-bars are the next best thing!

Lately I've been busy doing sketches for my art project on Skulls. It seems strange now that I was so worried about starting studying art again and whether or not I would enjoy it as I find it really therapeutic now! I love being able to unwind and channel my energy into something worthwhile. This skulls project has also given me an excuse to look at the Damien Hirst and Alexander Mcqueen collaborations which is never a bad thing really. I'm pretty happy with how its going to far, and I'm now at the stage of making screens of my research for my studio work which I'm sure will pop up on my instagram (@bethanygraceo) if you're interested in seeing what this was leading up too! I still have a way to go with this and I must admit, I'm looking forward to having the freedom to sketch something a bit less morbid. I want to start carrying my sketchbook around with me more too so I can document things on the go and also just practice more often, so I might do that soon! I hope you're having a lovely week, Bethany x

23 comments Fashion

Share:

Luxembourg

This summer I also had a trip to Luxembourg City. By this, I mean that we stayed the night in Luxembourg as we drove to and from somewhere, so we didn't really have much time there, only a night really! I have been to Luxembourg city before, so I wasn't missing out too much. It's a strange place to be really, as it seems to be half charming village and half cosmopolitan city,  a mix of Laduree and Chanel with a medieval old town and little bars and restaurants. It was incredibly warm when we went, so we were able to sit outside by the river with drinks before heading to a restaurant for baked Camembert and Spaghetti Carbonara. I sit writing this snuggled up in a jumper in our front room watching a storm out the window, I now understand what people are talking about when they say they miss the Summer! 

These photos were mostly taken outside of the Notre Dame Cathedral as we were just making our way to the old town. I wore this outfit so much on my holidays this year! It is super easy and super comfortable in hotter weather, and the monochrome colour scheme means it's great for so many occasions. The bardot top is actually a body con dress from Primark but with a skirt on top. Ive been loving bardot necklines for so long now, but I usually prefer them with a full length sleeve as I like my arms covered. This dress is actually a bit intimidating for me with it having so much of my arms on show, but with a slight (and I mean slight) tan and an extra bit of convincing, I actually quite enjoyed wearing it. Ive been getting into the habit lately of sticking well within my current comfort zone of smocked dresses and long sleeved tops but I really do need to start wearing more of my wardrobe and branching out again. This time last year, I was being much more bold with my clothing choices so I hope I can go back to that! By Christmas time, I would love to have my old confidence with clothes back so I'm going to work toward that goal. I do usually get a bit more adventurous in the months leading up to Christmas (which is surprisingly close, thinking about it).

My skin cleared up loads over the summer so in these pictures I didn't use a foundation, but opted for  a BB cream and concealer instead. I don't really like using a full coverage skin base in the summer because I think it can look a bit funny with my freckles, so I try to embrace my natural skin when I have less blemishes to cover. I tend to go for a glowy, contoured look and I've found my absolute favourite products for this are the Seventeen Skin Wow Primer (either mixed with my moisturiser or blended along the high points of my face) and the Contour Cream by & Other Stories, blended below my cheekbones. Ive been loving liquid and cream products because they give a much dewier more natural feel to your makeup rather than a cakey or powdery look, which is great for someone with combination skin like mine! 

I hope to do more posts from home when my last travel post (St Tropez!) is live. I feel like my blog is, quite literally, a little bit all over the place at the minute and I need to catch up on regular life.  I do hope you've enjoyed seeing what I've been up too this summer though! I have the week off next week, in which I should be taking a trip to Copenhagen, finishing off some art and finally getting round to reading my books on Vivienne Westwood and I cant wait to just be able to chill out and get sorted again! 

Have a lovely week, 

Bethany x

14 comments Fashion

Share: