FUCK strapless.

Flattering for ALL body types. Why would you want "back cleavage" on your wedding day?

By Maria Lluisa Rabbell.

Maria Lluisa Rabell.

From the 2010-2011 collection by Barcelona-based wedding designer Maria Lluisa Rabell. In my opinion, these are the most romantic wedding dresses around, and I'd take one of these over a Vera Wang any day.

Originals cost around 3 or 4 thousand euro; however, you could do what I did and head to a stockist like Myrtle Ivory in Dublin, and beg them to sell you the store sample at about 25% of the cost.

Merry Christmas.

Lie down I think I love you.

Enough said.

I own a larger one in brown, and despite lots of rain and abuse, it still rocks.

PS: I just bought the bag pictured for my wedding.

Make this purse.

All you need is:

1. an old clutch or wallet that you're sick of looking at

2. a t-shirt, silk scarf, or even a tea towel that's a pretty colour or pattern

3. scissors, needle & thread, pencil

Then follow the instructions here to make a bunch of rosettes, but obviously instead of putting them on a long string, start sewing them onto the purse. Keep going until it's completely covered with rosettes.

I want to live in this photoshoot.

1. Near-derelict Georgian townhouse.

2. Lacy gauzy Goth-Edwardian outfits.

3. Silent-film makeup.

I'm even in love with the lilac nail polish in the third picture.

These stunning photos by fashion photographer Emily Quinn for the Irish Independent. Check out her blog for full hair, makeup, and styling credits.

Irish snow.

Both photos by Karina Finegan Photography.

The latter photo won "Best Monochrome Image" from the SWPP (and was technically taken in Park City, Utah, I believe... but it sure looks like Ireland today.)

You should also check out her blog.

Correspondence.

I am grateful to all of the people in my life who still write me real letters.

Task-mistress by Miu Miu.

This is the outfit I want to wear when I scold people. Sexily.

All Miu Miu via Net-a-Porter.

Hint! (pt. 2)

Mini sewing machine + curtains = Maggie saves $416.50

See by Chloe via La Garconne.

Winter Wedding

I'd like to think this is the dress Amy from Little Women would have married Laurie in.

The Goddess Room in Greystones, Co. Wicklow.

Hint!

Hoping for a mini-sewing machine for Christmas. I shouldn't have to pay $160 for the above.

Interestingly.

"Interestingly Mrs Jacqueline Kennedy and her children resided [here] for the summer of 1967."

This house, built in 1823, may need a bit of work... but at least it hasn't been carpeted and peppered with down-lighting.

Woodstown House, Woodstown, Co. Waterford, for sale by Knight Frank, via Daft.ie.

Fur?

If it's from the 1950's, I'm sure that animal would have been very dead by now anyway.

Go for it.

Screw the unity candle.

I find this really romantic... somehow.

His Hers Ours decanter set by Catbird.

Elegance: a "mega-trend".

My husband-to-be is an economics nerd. Usually I tune out when he starts talking "financials", but when he recently started mentioning this guy Gerald Celente, and more specifically his prediction for a return to Elegance in popular design and consumer goods, my ears started to perk up.

He showed me a few youtube videos, where Celente talks about the reversal of the "bigger is better" trend, to move toward a society of "smaller quantity but higher quality."

After reading the full version of Celente's predictions in the Winter 2010 Issue of The Trends Journal (Vol. XVIII, No. 1), I agree that the "mega-trend" of Elegance, could (or indeed, should) become a defining principle in fashion, architecture, interior design, and overall consumption.

Hard and dispiriting times will engender a wide range of spirit-enhancing strategies to dispel the enveloping gloom. “Affordable sophistication” and “Elegance redux” will direct and inspire products, fashions, music, the fine arts, and entertainment at all levels. It will be a restoration and amplification of a well-documented historical phenomenon.

But it's not just about the way we shop. Elegance is political, in the way we refuse to live the way we've lived before; the excesses and the dizzying turnover of trends are unsustainable, and it's certainly not the consumer who's benefiting. To declare that objects--objects of use and objects of beauty--have an inherent value, one that exists and persists, is to declare that you will no longer be a machine of consumption in society. Your things are meant to work for you, and make you happy.

Celente also reminds us that Elegance can be spiritual:

From the beginning of recorded time, there has never been a major civilization without the connection between beauty and spirit. “Beauty can become a path toward the transcendent, toward the ultimate Mystery, toward God,” said Pope Benedict XVI to 250 noted painters sculptors, architects, musicians, poets and directors whom he had invited to the Vatican in November [2009]. Concerned with the direction the arts have taken, the Pope reminded them of their “great responsibility to communicate beauty.”

Whatever an individual’s personal or religious beliefs may be, “Elegance” can be applied to every creative profession, trade and endeavor. While there are no precise dimensions or definitions for Elegance, everyone knows it when they see it.

But my favorite passage, selfishly, is where he perfectly sums up what I think this blog is all about:

In the grip of the “Greatest Depression,” people will have a lot more time on their hands, a lot less money in their pockets, and ample opportunity to tap into the creative talents formerly submerged beneath the exigencies of 24/7 job overload. Self-made style will become the new style. The design-it-yourself, tailor/sew-it-yourself trend will span the socio-economic scale and serve as a high-fashion equalizer. It will take time and talent… not just money… to create good looks.

Get creating.

Stay cozy.

Rumours are flying around the office that it's snowing "somewhere in Dublin" right now.

I'll believe it when I see it, but never hurts to be prepared...

Sweaters by Surface to Air and Proenza Schouler via La Garconne.

I'll be having that.

Stainless steel kitchen with 1950's fridge, Scandinavian orange table and a chandelier? It shouldn't work, but it DOES.

4 Lower Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin 2, via Knight Frank.

A woman's touch.

I love the series At Home With the Georgians that's currently airing on BBC2.

Best episode yet: Part 2 "A Woman's Touch". Who knew the advent of wallpaper signaled the rise of the middle class?

(Gotta be in the UK to watch online, or get a proxy.)

Live like Mr. Darcy for less.

What's wrong with it? Is it haunted? Because you wouldn't get a 2-bed terrace in Rathmines for 550k...

For a similar price, you could get something more Elizabeth Bennett...

Both properties being sold by Knight Frank.

Some serious class.

This 3-bed terrace in Drogheda, Co. Louth, overlooking the Boyne, is pitch perfect. It's also something that would cost you nearly a million euro in Dublin, but an hour away by train it's 390k.

Who wears this shit?

Too ugly for Lady Gaga, too impractical for even a stripper... who exactly would these be meant for?

Victor & Rolf and Alexander Wang, respectively, via La Garconne.