My homage to Japan + Modena, Italy

long cardigan Stefanel, shoes Prada, leggings Zara, scarf Mojca Makuc This outfit is my little homage to Japan, a country that has been my continuous source of inspiration for over 7 years (I started listening to Shiina Ringo and Dir en grey when I was 12 and the rest stemmed from there). The belt is actually a long raw silk scarf - I discovered how to tie it like this purely by accident.

I got the long cardigan I'm wearing here last January in Modena, Italy. Modena is the city that surprised me the most so far; prior to our trip I didn't know anything about it so I had nothing to expect and what I was mostly looking forward to were exquisite Italian food and lazying around, which is something you can do regardless of where you are in Italy. Modena is strange; there's nothing spectacular about it, but it crawls under your skin in a way that keeps making you think of it long after you've already returned to some other city.

My favorite part of Modena is the main square (Piazza Grande). It gives the impression that time has stopped and reminded me of Italy from the 50s and 60s (good thing I was shooting black and white film, not digital). The atmosphere is accordingly calm even at noon when all other Italian cities I know suffer from the same rush as the rest of the world (the general belief that everything is much more slow-paced in Italy is just a myth). I really like the idea of the main square being the place where people gather to to exchange news; in my book cities where this centuries-old "habit" is still cultivated always score extra points.


Piazza Grande, January 2009

Modena is well-known for the Military Academy (the oldest in the world) and students in uniform (long dark blue cape, boots and fancy hat) are a frequent sight on the streets in the historic center where the Academy is located. There's a great number of small 3-star hotels nearby - the most convenient option for parents visiting their children who are studying there. Another particularity of Modena is that no matter how they're dressed, all women wear fabulous shoes. I found this really incredible, so much thought going into something that might actually be trivial for their everyday lives - most of these women are probably not that much (if at all) into fashion, but they choose to pay attention to such details because it's elegant. I don't have to mention twice that seeing my shoe twin parading in front of the railway station the day we left was a cherry on top of my Modena experience.

желим бити нови гроф бетона
sometimes my brother thinks i'm james bond

Today I said goodbye to my beautiful room and view and everything at the seaside, I'm back in Ljubljana for a few weeks until I go to Belgrade (we postponed Venice for a while) & I don't want the summer to be over. I don't like the seriousness of autumn, I don't want to change my wardrobe, but most of all I don't want things to become the same as before like they do every September. I don't need order, I (only) feel comfortable enough in my chaos.

Perfect dress, perfect shoes & Anna Wintour

the perfect dress, take 2

These shoes were my first choice to pair The Perfect Dress with, but when I was shooting Take 1 the combination just didn't come out right in the photos. Perhaps the shoes were not feeling it that day (I tend to think of inanimate objects as alive, especially when they have so much character), perhaps it was my concept that was wrong & I had to settle for another pair. I wouldn't be me if I didn't try again though.

I finally watched Anna Wintour on Letterman and find it hard to comment on it because she's obviously a bigger "authority" than Letterman and I cannot escape the feeling that a lot of what they said was staged; it's a mystery to me why she decided to appear there in the first place (I have incredible difficulty believing they just invited her and she said yes) when she spent her entire life first trying to be, then actually being "above" such things & their exact opposite; why shatter your ice queen reputation now and try to soften the distance (that is bound to remain forever anyway)?

It's always puzzled me how people are constantly flabbergasted at the fact that Wintour isn't nice to them. Of course she isn't friendly, she doesn't have time! She's the editor-in-chief of one of the largest fashion publications in the world, deals with tons of people and takes tons of decisions each day, she's always in a rush, and both the pressure she's under and her responsibility are beyond most people's comprehension. A job like hers also requires that you basically give up your personal life. How else than bitchy she's supposed to act if you take into account all this I really wouldn't know.

I find Wintour's style rather bland so she never fascinated me as a fashion personality and prior to this interview which inspired me to wiki her I didn't even know she was originally from London. She has one of those fantastic accents that you cannot pin down and I liked the tone of her voice although I doubt she uses it off-camera very often. I think her appearing on the show might be remembered even more in the long run than The September Issue itself. You can be the main subject of 100 documentaries and keep your distance, but the appearance on Letterman was Wintour's venture into the world of "common people" wearing ugly grey socks and I have no words to describe this other than her "descent from the throne".


fake Holga effect (dark edges), brought to you by Photoshop!

кловн је био опасан тип
чувени шармер и љубавник
с очима као рефлектори
с очима само за мрак
није га плашила чак ни смрт
стара уседелица
његов је ред, чека на знак
сваки нови скок, можда промашај
и пад, пад, пад ...

I'm going back to Croatia for the weekend (probably the last chance to swim this year, not that I like the beach but having the option is always nice) and school starts next week for my brother which reminds me that my (year-long) holiday will be over all too soon as well. I want things to start happening, I want to meet more people, but I'm always afraid that I'll end up not having enough time for myself. And as I have nothing else to be worried about in life, I'm worrying about this.


What my summers never looked like.

P.S. From now on you can also follow me with Bloglovin'.

How I Survived the Bolshoi Theatre & On Fashion

dress Marella, shoes Prada, bag Marjeta Grošelj, necklace Radmila Gorjanc

i always end up posting outfits a couple of days after i've worn them.
so many outfits, so little time! {shoe details here.}


I saw the Bolshoi Theatre's Eugene Onegin last night at Ljubljana Festival and the most mindblowing thing about it was that it wasn't mindblowing. I'm speculating that was almost entirely due to someone's "wise" decision to change the original structure of the opera (Act 1 - 3 scenes / Act 2 - 2 scenes / Act 3 - 2 scenes) into Act 1 with 5 (!) scenes and Act 2 with 2 scenes; Act 1 obviously went on for what felt like years, the plot was dragging on (I find this opera to be rather static until Lensky dies) and the scenography didn't change until Act 2 except for a couple of chairs that Tatyana threw around in despair in Scene 2.

There was an intermission after Act 1 during which I was seriously considering leaving but when I remembered that could have been the only time I ever saw the Bolshoi Theatre live (I wouldn't travel somewhere specifically for their performances, but it would be stupid to miss them when they came to Ljubljana) I decided to stay. It turned out to be a good decision because Act 2 was everything Act 1 lacked, offering decent compensation for our stiff limbs and growing tiredness – it had incredible rythm and Prince Gemin's (Alexander Naumenko) aria in Scene 6 was undoubtedly the peak of the evening. I wasn't really touched by anyone else's singing – they were all good, above average (what else can you expect from the Bolshoi Theatre anyway?), but it just didn't happen.

What truly stood out, however, were fantastic scenography and costume design, so far the best I've seen anywhere. Act 1 was set in a dining room of a mansion in the countryside which looked exactly the way I envisioned such surroundings reading Russian romantic literature and in Act 2 which took place in another dining room, this time in St. Petersburg, there was this huge chandelier (visual candy for someone as fond of chandeliers as me) and walls in my favorite shade of red (I call it opera red as every self-respecting opera house is full of decorations in this color) and furs and evening gowns and it all looked to die for, beyond gorgeous.

I figured that people's behavior during curtain calls reflected the overall (confusing, uneven) experience quite well – some individuals went for standing ovations while masses of others were simultaneously leaving the hall and some (including yours truly) stayed in their seats just applauding. I'm not a fan of intermissions, but this Onegin would have been far more enjoyable with an additional one between Scene 3 and 4 (originally Act 1 and Act 2); it's a pity nobody thought of that when there was still enough time.


my favorite moments from the fall '09 shows:

Balenciaga + Yohji Yamamoto
photos: style.com
Lauren Hutton summed up all my feelings about fashion in this quote:

There's no such thing as fashion. Fashion is an idea to make you think that you're not in it at all times. Fashion is what you're offered four times a year by designers. And style is what you choose.

Despite this, I cannot not like fashion because it also produces people with strong, consistent vision and meticulous approach to work. A secret? Each new Yohji Yamamoto collection makes my eyes water up. In one of the rare interviews he's given he stated that he would like to design time. I cannot imagine anyone better suited for the job.



Fellini's Giulietta degli spiriti, 1965
a reverie of sorts


P.S. Grafita modre ptičke iz te objave ni več, prav tako so prepleskali Najdaljšo miš na isti stavbi (ostal je sicer dobršen del repa). Zares lepo, da se v Ljubljani sistematično uničujejo vse njene simpatične posebnosti ...

Remembrance of Things Past

dress Mojca Makuc, belt Almira Sadar, shoes Tod's

This is one of my favorite dresses not only because of its functionality but also because of its sense of humor - I love the zippers (sometimes I zip them up for about half the length) and the crazy color combinations of threads.

REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST

Until I was 15 my family used to spend a couple of months a year at a house here at the seaside just a few minutes up the hill from where we are located right now. Seeing as that house is my number one association to the word "childhood", I've had a strange relationship with it since we stopped going there because when something that valuable for your inner life is (for the most part) taken away, you begin to question everything related to it in order to discover a definite, carved-in-stone truth that you hope will help you adapt to the sudden lack of it as painlessly as possible. In these 4 years my mind slowly recalled, reconstructed and analyzed every single memory: being afraid of going in the lower courtyard as a child because I was convinced a lion would eat me were I to disturb his kingdom unaccompanied by an adult, watching ships and lights with elbows resting on windowsills at night, narrow, steep stairs you could never get the hang of, the smell of lavender after having watered the garden, mysterious paintings in the living room, shortcut leading to the bakery past a brood of hens, stories bordering on occult everyone enjoyed elaborating on whenever they got the chance, the saddest dog in the world, listening to gentle morning rain between crisp white sheets … All pure magic realism the source of which was, I was sure, the house itself.


Neighbors' dog. He died last year after a lifetime of agony.
I went to the house a couple of times this summer with my brother. Happy that I finally had the opportunity to do it, I took a camera with me to capture everything I had been constantly thinking about all these years; however, when we unlocked the doors for the first time, let the light in and took a walk around the entire house, there was suddenly nothing to photograph, as if everything I held so dear never existed at all. It was then that I finally realized what I missed wasn't the house but the time when we inhabited it. It was us, the people, who made it alive, and that feeling can never be recreated because my childhood at n° 87 is long gone, no matter how nostalgic I feel about it.

In a way, I'm content I let it go as – like so many times before – what I yearned for was unattainable. A part of me will probably always wish it weren't, but this new place has many qualities to it as well. If nothing else, I still have the memories – I've learned it doesn't pay off to live off them, but in smaller doses I'm sure they can be nothing but benign.

Ej, što volim miris aviona

new address:
http://www.evainternazionale.com


this took me hours to shoot. trop compliqué.


pants & top Mojca Makuc, bag Marjeta Grošelj, shoes Marella
I'm living out of my suitcase(s) and the constant moving + uncertainty feel as normal as ever; what's certain is that I'll be in Venice and Belgrade next month and I'm going to skip my fourth day of university ever in October to fly over to London for opera (and general awesomeness). Ej, što volim miris aviona ...

Istanbul is called "the city between East and West" due to its bicontinental location, but the name has little to do with its soul which is far from anything the West is capable of understanding. To me, the city that truly resembles the meeting point of East and West is Belgrade. I will write more about this one day; it's hard for me to write about Belgrade because I want to say so many things and (as of yet) I have no form.

BOOKS OF SUMMER 2009:
Miroslav Krleža: Mnogopoštovanoj gospodi mravima
Marko Grubnić: Otkrit ću vam tajnu
Amélie Nothomb: Ni d'Eve, ni d'Adam
Philip Wilkinson: Myths & Legends

Miroslav Krleža is one of those astoundingly brilliant authors who will always remain largely unknown to the general public thanks to what I call "the curse of the language" - Krleža spoke n languages yet wrote only in Croatian, it makes perfect sense because he possessed enormous love of (the aesthetics of) language and his is the most beautiful, baroque and colorful Croatian I've ever witnessed, but it detached his writing from the rest of the world. Translations in major languages do exist, but they are rather difficult to come by. Krleža amazes me. He was depicting the 21^st century 70 years ago, in details, people, their actions and inner lives; the entire world should study his works thoroughly because he was the best psychologist there ever was.

MELITA: U intimnom mom ličnom životu igrali su mnogi ljudi važne uloge, ali vi nikada. Spram vas subjektivno nikada se nisam osjećala obaveznom. I ako vas interesira, što se tiče preljuba, izvolite uzeti do znanja da je naš zajednički život u tom pogledu potpuno konzumiran! Ja i sada stojim spram jednog čovjeka u vrlo intimnoj relaciji, ali, molim lijepo, to nije vitez Urban! Ja mislim da je to otprilike sve što sam imala da vam kažem!

Leda (1932)

Sweetness, get me in the right direction

tunic Sisley, flats Salvatore Ferragamo, bag Marjeta Grošelj, necklace Radmila Gorjanc

l e g g e r o ( ? ) // "so that's how we live our lives. no matter how deep and fatal the loss, no matter how important the thing that's stolen from us -- that's snatched right out of our hands -- even if we are left completely changed, with only the outer layer of skin from before, we continue to play out our lives this way, in silence. we draw ever nearer to the end of our allotted span of time, bidding it farewell as it trails off behind. repeating, often adroitly, the endless deeds of the everyday. leaving behind a feeling of immeasurable emptiness." ۞ haruki murakami, sputnik sweetheart

BEBI DOL: HOW GOOD NOT TO LOVE

Coincidentally, the first time I heard Bebi Dol (Serbian phonetic spelling of Baby Doll) on the radio after she'd already been reigning as one of my all-time favorite singers for months happened exactly where the story of this video takes place – in Budva, Montenegro, two years ago. That was also the first and last time I went there in summer because Montenegrin coast has the worst mosquitoes and I the worst allergy. However, breakfasts at Hemingway and must-have siestas don't make sense in any other season … Budva and especially Sveti Stefan are a bit like the French riviera except they have substance (I hate the French riviera, too many wannabes) so they're the perfect backdrop for such a pretty song. I cannot relate to its lyrics but they're fascinating because I used to know people who write in the exact same style and I'm certain they've never heard of Bebi Dol, let alone the song. It's a highly European aesthetic, I doubt it's possible for anyone else to pull it off. Come to think of it, most very European things and concepts (European by essence; for what's left of the Old Continent today is a different story) I'm aware of come from the Balkans, the ghetto of Europe …

---

SUMMER IN LJUBLJANA II
The thing about 6x6 film is that developing is expensive so I'm really careful with what I shoot - consequently it takes me a while to finish a roll and when I finally get it developed and scanned, I often don't remember having shot half of the things I see in the photos. These are from July, not photoshopped (colors are this vibrant by default with Holga). Ljubljana, of course.






I wish I had someone to take photos of constantly, a muse of sorts.

VIP lesson on photography

dress Lacoste, shoes Zara, bag Marjeta Grošelj, necklace Radmila Gorjanc, bracelet Chanel


lucky (impromptu) find of the season. Zara, one week before the sales (of course).

Very important lesson learned today: DIY (one person) photoshoots can get frustrating without a remote.

Белешке једне Еве

skirt: feels like summer itself, amazingly light to wear and moves beautifully (by Mojca Makuc)
bracelet: found at the market in fethye, turkey, two summers ago



Белешке једне Евe

finishing my 20^th moleskine
beef carpaccio at Cubo
discovering new parts of Ljubljana by bike
the Perfect Dress on sale at Rašica
compliments from people I've just met
dreaming about кафане Ибарске магистрале
Mahler's 6^th Symphony with the Berlin Philharmonic & Claudio Abbado
serija Lisice & old photos ↓


no photoshop

Split, Croatia ஐ I miss sitting at Peristil in evenings, having recently seen a photo of them in a magazine I realized I don't remember Prokurative at all and my favorite memory from last year is a 10-year-old boy blasting Severina's Gas, gas out of his cellphone in front of HNK (Croatian National Theatre) ... A true clash of cultures but then again not really. Having drinks at Riva isn't so glamorous in the company of vješala, however Split has always known better. ↓

Venice ۩ Venesia ۩ La Serenissima

If I could be like anything in the world, I would want to be like Venice. I've always thought it was more million-dimensial than three-dimensional (who knows what's going on in the canals at night, beyond sea level?) Every stone has its own story and walking through the old, washed-out streets is like being in a painting. It's so full of magic it's almost not real.

not my photo, unfortunately

TO (TRY TO) UNDERSTAND VENICE ;;
despite my great affection for literature i don't connect prose or poetry with cities; however, the following books have shaped my perception of venice remarkably:

1. The Flowing Queen by Kai Meyer → read this book if you're not in Venice but want to know exactly what it feels like. it is unimaginably difficult and rare to capture essences of cities (actually of anything), but he did it.

2. Corto Maltese: Fable of Venice by Hugo Pratt → this and all other volumes including those not set in Venice because Corto has Venice inside him. these comics are beyond gorgeous and inspiring. i bought two volumes when i was in nyc; i'd never read comic books in english before - the first one i was into was Diabolik which i had in croatian (later in italian) - and it was a bit strange, but the other Corto Maltese volumes we have are in croatian and they feel just right.

3. The Secret Venice of Corto Maltese: Fantastic and Hidden Itineraries by Guido Fuga and Lele Vianello → 7 itineraries with (often deliberately vague) instructions on how to reach places that appeared in Corto Maltese or are related to the life of its author + hundreds of little stories, amazing illustrations and recommendations on places to eat and drink. a book like this should exist for every city. available in most bookshops in Venice.

these photos are from September 2008



I have the biggest crush on this giraffe, I would definitely wear it were it possible to buy it! They've been showcasing it in the same place for at least two years now, always with the "NO SALE" sign. Sigh. It's probably one of those "Venetian sense of humor" things.


Speaking of Venetian sense of humor ... Love this. More?



Last September was the first time I saw a film at Venice Film Festival legally, even though from my experience nobody really cares about the 18+ rule.

Love letters to cities, clothes and people

BARCELONA MEMOIRS » in april 2007 my class went to barcelona for graduation trip. it was the first time i came into proximity of custo barcelona stores and i really wanted to get something from there, but i managed not to stumble upon any until the last evening when i found the one on las ramblas. the clerk who helped me decide between two t-shirts with birds - i think his name was samuel - was one of the most genuinely nice people i've ever encountered. there are a lot of nice people in the world, but very few of them make you feel elevated and the experience left me in total shock (positively). another catch about this t-shirt is that it doesn't look remotely special from the front, so the back is even more of a surprise.

"what a strange illusion it is to suppose that beauty is goodness." -- leo tolstoy


LjUBAVNO PISMO BROJ II


Hoće li ovo pismo započeti i završiti na hrvatskom ili ne u stvari nikad nije bila istinska dilema; ne krijem da u posljednje vrijeme često razmišljam da se – ne isključivo zbog tebe, ima tu i drugih razloga – opet prebacim na jezik koji navodno razumije cijeli svijet, no što više promatram ono što jesam i ono što bih željela biti, svjesnija sam da neće moći jer ovo nije pitanje dresure, bar ne u doba kad je vrijeme za istu već odavno prošlo. Hrvatski će se za mnom uvijek vući kao Ljubljana; nekada mi se to nije svidjelo, sada shvaćam golemu vrijednost toga da mi je u životu odano barem nešto.

Sve je počelo sićušnim detaljem koji je suviše delikatan da bih ga prepričavala uzduž i poprijeko; radije ću napraviti fast forward na trenutak kad sam počela zahvaljivati Bogu u kojeg ne vjerujem što nisam donijela nikakve odluke o studiranju u inozemstvu jer bih u suprotnom upravo ovih dana jedan za drugim doživljavala živčane slomove i na kraju razočarana nad sobom odlučila da usprkos mogućnosti blistave karijere u velikom europskom gradu ostanem ovdje jer sve dok živiš u Ljubljani, ja ne mogu otići. Bilo bi to razumljivo da smo stalno u nekom kontaktu pa na toj osnovi mladalački zaluđeno gajim nadanja da ćemo jednog dana biti zajedno, ali poput baš svega u mom životu i ovaj je slučaj mnogo kompliciraniji.

Ponekad želim napraviti nešto suludo, otići glumiti amneziju u haustor tvoje zgrade (naravno savršeno dotjerana i s okama nevine srne), crvenim sprejem sto puta ispisati ВОЛИМ ТЕ na fasadu (onako baš delinkventski) ili uhoditi te sve dok ne saznam kamo izlaziš i zaposliti se u kafiću gdje ispijaš prvu jutarnju kavu (ako). Ponekad mi sine koliku si štetu radim stvaranjem takvih predstava pa prestanem na nekoliko dana sati; rijetki trenuci lucidnosti nažalost ne traju dovoljno dugo da bih mogla učiniti nešto konkretno u svrsi mijenjanja stanja stvari na bolje.

Jeseni idem na faks, premda nisam sigurna kako ću završiti godinu ako se ova morbidarija ubrzo ne rasplete. Ne koncentriram se, više ne mogu čitati. Možda ću se jednog dana moći isplakati; trenutno se osjećam kao da sam sve suzne zalihe potrošila već davno prije tebe. Najviše se bojim da ću te (neuzvraćeno) voljeti zauvijek. To bi bio posljednji dokaz mog potpunog neprihvaćanja stvarnog života koji ponekad ipak ne pruža samo jednu šansu.



Ljubljana tomorrow.