Darkle

I heard this word for the first time on the radio a few weeks ago. Its meant to be the opposite of "sparkle". To appear darkly or indistinctly. To grow dark. To become gloomy.

Its now one of my favourite words, along with its antitheses "sparkle".

To me the dark is just as beautiful and innocent as the light, with an added depth. I love walking around the city streets long after the sun has set and there isn't a soul in sight, everything seems so peaceful and soothing.

When I was a child we used to spend our summers at my maternal grandparents' village, which is my favourite place in the world. During the day us kids had lots of fun getting up to much mischief and driving the adults to insanity. At night the lights would all go out at a certain time in the whole village and everyone would go outside and marvel at the millions of little dots in the sky. It was the most wonderful experience to share with people who loved me and whom I loved back. The adults would tell us wondrous stories of when there was no electricity at all and us young ones listened and dreamt.

All the images below represent some form of dark and I find them all incredibly beautiful.

 

Irène

I met my good friend Geneviève two years ago in a short course for Lingerie and Swimwear at Central Saint Martins.

She later told me that she was drawn to me out of all the people in the class, like a spotlight was pointed at me and she wanted to know: "Who's that girl?" The funny thing is that I felt exactly the same, down to the very same question, I wanted to know who that girl was. So class by class we sort of gravitated towards each other and ended up taking a whole pattern cutting table just for ourselves so we could get to know each other. What's even funnier is that this was all unspoken, it just happened.

There are very few people in my life with whom this has happened and I'm thankful for each and every one of them as they are truly special.

I went back to my Graphic (and product) Design job with a better appreciation of how beautiful under garments can be (and its coming in handy at work now) and Geneviève designed and manufactured her own collection which was truly beautiful. She worked with two friends to photograph this collection and soon they realised they wanted to explore it further. When she first told me about their concept I thought it was very brave and loved the way it explored the human condition. All three girls being french they found that the english had a somewhat narrow idea of what eroticism meant and realised that the magazines and fanzines that were out there didn't really explore it from the point of view of beauty.

And so Irène was born and she's wonderful. She makes you think about what eroticism and sensuality really are, invites you to explore it with her and to accept your own beauty, your own sensuality, your own eroticism. It's nothing to be ashamed of and its part of her, me, you.

So go and explore her... And be happy!!

Below are some photos I took from Geneviève's blog which I think are pretty wonderful!

Enjoy!

The lovely creators of Irène.

For Lovers Only

I've just watched this film "For Lovers Only" and even though the scrip sometimes removed me from being immersed in the story, the photography is simply beautiful. Here are some stills I couldn't resist doing a screen shot of..

The photography in this film is so romantic that it almost makes me believe that beautiful love stories can be real.