Archive for September, 2007
I went to the horse show last Sunday and I found these boots. I saw them glowing in cherry red across the exhibit hall and had an instant image of myself walking through Paris in them. Max Weber Italia makes great boots in Macerata, in the arch of Italy’s boot. The workmanship is wonderful and the leathers are really high quality. The color chain made me moan.
So you buy this short boot so that when you are wearing trousers or jeans you don’t have a bulky shaft to deal with.
Then you but these matching gaiters for when you wear a skirt or need extra warmth or protection. You can wear them with anything to protect your legs when you hike, too.
When they are together they look like my favorite riding boots, the ones with laces at the arch to make them fit perfectly. I wish they were showing them on the website in the greens and fauns and reds, but they aren’t.
If you don’t like the laces, buy this boot.
If you don’t believe my estimation of the quality, look at this fashion boot made by Max Weber for Chanel. Chanel knows.
The toe cap and cuff are pearlized, which is just a little too much the lady to suit me, but they are beautiful. I expect they are a bit pricier, especially if you buy them at Chanel. You, however, can buy the short boot and matching gaiters for Euro 210.
The website, a rather modest affair, is at Max Weber Italia and although it is written in Italian, stivaleria means boot seller, so go have a look about.
September 13th, 2007
It looks like food.
Bedwear.
The Royal bathrobe.
For cruelty to dumb models.
Ummm, Dolly?
If it makes her look bad?
Anyone else wonder where the mummy went?
I hardly saw the clothes. Every model is a fat-faced child. What happened to the usually sensible Donna Karan?
Throw that jockey in here, too. Fashion victim? Bloody murder.
All photos courtesy of the wonderful UK Telegraph fashion pages.
September 13th, 2007
That one Marc by Marc Jacobs seriously looks like an air hostess. But you could work the look a little.
Tomorrow the horrors, mostly by the same designers.
All photos linked from the UK Telegraph.
September 12th, 2007
No.
Yes.
Jacobs sent clothes down the runway meant to show up the tight, everything out there, show your undies or what should have been wearing them. Not everyone got it. I say Bravo!
It will be interesting to see what London and Paris have to show us.
Ms Beckham courtesy of the NY Times. Jacobs model courtesy of Style.com.
September 12th, 2007
I figured this out. This model from Baby Phat’s runway show is carrying that huge, gold purse so she can carry her purchases in it instead of the big plastic bags they provide– at Walmart, where she buys all her clothes.
She’s going to be so jealous when she sees this girl wearing Anna Sui, and carrying no purse at all.
Not that Anna Sui can’t do that look, too. I think you can get that hair at Walmart, though.
All photographs from UK Telegraph fashion pages.
September 11th, 2007
When classes are forming, I will post openings here.
April 19th, 2008 we have up to four openings. Pasta plus. Five course meal.
These are all at the school itself in the countryside just outside Città di Castello.
September 11th, 2007
This Vera Wang design is in the Spring Collections as reported by the New York Times. But is is also a reminder of what Marc Jacobs showed us a while back that has seemed to begin a slide towards being womanly and pretty.
While few of us who are normally proportioned are going to wear the exaggerated proportions on this model, many of us are going to wear looser skirts to the knee or a little below it and tailored tops. It’s fashion that works. You can walk in it, move in it, sit in it without overexposing yourself. It can be worn with boots when the weather is dreadful and shoes when it is fine, or sandals when it gets hot again.
These classic and feminine clothes make accessories important again. Stockings are back! Thank goodness. Shoes are terribly hard on the feet if you don’t wear stockings. Jacobs showed his version with a long sweater belted at the waist. Most people look a bit better with the belt relaxed to fall a little lower in front. A gigantic “name” bag is all wrong too, so you don’t have to regret for a moment that you and the Grace Kelly bag are separated by $10,000. A cuff bracelet looks great with both the winter and the spring version of this look. The big thing, however, is that there are hats, hats, hats all over if you’ve the nerve for them.
People are forever telling me they don’t have a hat face, but I know that means they haven’t tried on enough hats to have found the style that makes them more beautiful. There was a day, not so very long ago, when no respectable woman went out without a hat, and those ladies looked hard to find the hat that suited. All hats are not huge and floppy nor are they flowery or be-plumed. Look harder, because nothing can work harder to make you look better proportioned or taller than a hat.
When it gets cold enough for a jacket, this year it is trim and fitted at least to follow your shape. A few jackets are trapeze shaped, but take it from me, those are hard to wear unless you are very tall and relatively flat.
Most of us won’t be going to Barney’s and buying the big names, but when we buy the pieces we need this winter, we’ll be wise to make them feminine and practical. On my list are are longer stitched-down pleated skirt, a longer sweater and a pair of tailored boots. I think I may have seen the very ones this weekend at a saddler’s display. I’ll look for a webpage and show them to you if I can. They gave me an instant image of me in Paris, doing the town — in red.
September 11th, 2007
But this Ralph Lauren hat was what I was going for, sans butterfly. I’m just ahead of my time.
Reported by the UK Telegraph.
N.B. Certainly not this hat! Apparently they reshuffled their photos and my hat became a jockey.
September 9th, 2007
My wonderful digital camera still works after 9 years, but the memory card went blonky. I of course immediately tried to buy another.
They no longer make this card. What a waste to have a great camera for which you can’t buy the “film.” Disgraceful waste, I say.
I loved this camera so much I bought stock in the company. Now I won’t buy another camera from them. I will probably also sell the stock.
So it’s off to the store to buy a new camera, which because I am in Italy will be outdated technology for more than the original new release suggested retail. I guess Italians don’t care enough to put up a stink. I looked at UK sites and the prices there were even worse. UK prices on the same camera were double the US price.
But these days you can’t write a food blog without a camera.
September 8th, 2007
No picture, but Lucy Vanel published one recently that looked very similar. She is a great photographer.
So we took the duck all apart and put the breasts in the refrigerator. Now we have to take them out. They need to come to room temperature, but they are easier to work with when they are quite cold.
The ingredients for four people:
2 boned duck breast halves
a mixture of salt, rosemary, garlic and pepper ground together or bought
honey
Oven should be preheated to 200°C or 400°F.
The first thing to do is to use a very sharp knife to score the skin in a checkerboard pattern. This will allow the fat to render out from under the skin as they bake. Fortunately, there is not so much fat under the breast skin, and much of it will melt away in the cooking. These are quite big and each is big enough for two. You can actually pretend this is TV now that your imagination is engaged. Now have a look at those edges. Any overhanging pieces of skin? If so, use that sharp knife to cut them away.
This recipe is so easy that it seems disgraceful to claim it. I’m going to anyway, otherwise the inventor of Hamburger Helper will get all the credit for being a time saver. Turn the breasts skin side down and sprinkle on and rub in some of the spice mixture, not a lot. Turn them back over and do the same to the skin side.
Line a shallow baking dish with aluminum foil. If you don’t you will be sorry. I used a broiling pan, but I was also making double the amount. Lay the breasts on the foil and drizzle honey over the skin, fairly lightly, just moisten it. Pop it into the hot oven. After 10 minutes or so, take it out. You should see red juices welling up through the cuts and a lot of fat melted around on the foil. Drizzle honey over it all again and put it back in the oven. Start watching the progress, because as soon as the skin becomes really golden and crisp, you must take it out of the oven. It takes perhaps 20 minutes total cooking time. The meat should be rare. The skin should look like cracklings. The smell should drive you mad. Let it sit for about five minutes, then using a very sharp knife, carve each breast into slanted slices. A garnish of rosemary branches is a reminder of what’s in there.
I served these with the Ligurian tomato salad I posted in August and the rosemary baked onions from the Slow Travel cookbook, for which there is a link to your right.
If you did not line the pan with foil, drain off the fat into the garbage and start soaking the blackened crusts of honey/fat immediately. It will take hours. Thanks to the reduced fat in duck breasts, however, a quick swish with a damp sponge will do for the oven.
September 7th, 2007
Next Posts
Previous Posts
