Bonjour! Here is the second installment of my Postcards from Europe series (read here for info about the project). The second European state I decided to tackle was France. I love France, I've visited twice; once to Paris and once to the south. I want to go back a thousand more times. The glorious food is enough on it's own but coupled with the weather, beautiful fauna and copious amounts of delicious (and cheap) wine it really has taken my heart in a big way. I'm hoping to take another trip there next summer, my boyfriend is currently learning to drive so the hope is us and a few friends will trek over there.
Of course another of my major interests in France is it's fascinating textile history; from silks to linens to printed cottons, it has a long and tangled history. I constantly find prints that I love and find that they originally hail from the French, for instance the fabric of this dress.* I knew it was French in style (it reminded me so much of Provencal lavender bags). However, it turns out it definitely is French and is a fabric designed by Charles Demery who designed for the French house Souleiado (read this article for more info on him). They sold (and sell) their fabrics wholesale so it seems very likely that Susan Small used their fabrics. In recent years Cath Kidston has ripped them off in a major way, I hadn't really realised (doh) until today how similar her prints are to Southern French cottons.
*As you might of guessed this dress is the counterpart to the other Susan Small dress.
I took inspiration from a couple of images but mainly the below, I loved the black scarf against the Fleur print dress and the yellow flowers (I used St John's Wort because they are my birthday flower and are currently out in abundance):
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Behind me you can glimpse a tiny bit of our newly mosaiced cob oven (thanks ma!)
I've also begun a mural in the garden, so I'll put together a little post on it all soon.
My mum has also been working hard on her 14 countries, a few of you asked me to share hers too so here they are:
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| Romania (Penny MacBeth, 2016) |
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| Spain (Penny MacBeth, 2016) |
I'll be back very soon with another postcard from Europe, until then Au Revoir!
Outfit Details
Provencal 1970s Susan Small dress - Ebay
Printed cotton shirt - Celia Birtwell for Uniqlo
Black shawl - Zara
Straw hat - Topshop
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Amazing these photos make you dream France most romantic and distant in time, but still feels the scent of lavender and .. vous êtes une créature provençale de charme, ces décoration sur les tissus sont fantastiques, je l'avais trouvé une petite mais belle boutique Provencal vêtements, il y a quelques semaines à Calvi mais ... ils étaient juste pour les enfants, malheureusement! Votre coiffure est parfaite et très élaborée. Brava! Maintenant, je l'attends pour d'autres cartes postales de l'Europe!
ReplyDeleteI'm so happy I found your blog! Your style is so lovely and I this post is exquisite.
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scarlettandgiselle.blogspot.com
the yellow print always reminds me of French tablecloths. I'm not sure what a cob over is, it looks like a pizza over to me.
ReplyDeleteI love your blogs and this one is no exception - full of romance, colour and summer. Beautiful...
ReplyDeleteI thought it was France! Well captured Lally. I've always wanted to live in France. I've been lucky enough to spend a lot of time there, but it's so big, so there's lots more to see. What I love is that all the regions have their own character. When I was a young teenager my parents went to live in Paris for a couple of years. It was truly the most exciting place to be. Even just walking around all the side streets was great. Ah, la belle France. Just wish it wasn't suffering so much at the moment. Xxx
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