spring necklace lemmings

Delicate filigree necklaces from Zoemou are the lemmings of the day. i'm leaning more towards the second one (forget me not). what do you think?

it's a heidi klum kind of day

How ironic is it that there's a huge feature on Kristy Hinze on the September Instyle but they still chose to put Heidi on the cover?

I love Cleo's newest cover. That skyblue colour is just divine and the PS job on Christina as well. But alas, I don't want to read about orgasms and neither do I want a man slave. Another point for tackiness Cleo!

Grazia Week 5 is also out. Tempting but I stopped at issue numero three. Maybe if it's a slow mag week, I would be tempted.

french fare for Yen and new look for Notebook

French mademoiselle Clemence Poesy is rocking the sultry, just-got-out-of-bed look for Yen's 34rth issue.

Contents inside includes:

- How far is too far when it comes to art? I'm sure the outcry on Henson's photographs and THAT art magazine cover will get a mention.
- Goodbye Polaroid! (my roids are still up and running, I'm not ready to say goodbye just yet).
- Anxiety issues
- David Lynch, Annie Leibovitz, the Dandy Warhols and more cool Yen-type profiles.

Issue out now!

To coincide with women's lifestyle mag Notebook's third year anniversary, they've released a new look mag with a new cover. I was pleasantly surprised to see the cover at the news agents this morning, it was summery and fresh. The flowers on the covers were getting too old-fashioned and it was time indeed to have a new look.

Even the contents have changed and the calendar area is now jamp-packed with more activities and new reads and events. The Your Life section has been moved to the front of the mag and that really where it's supposed to be rather than hiding in the back after the lifestyle and foodie section. What also caught my eye is the focus on French chic homewares.

I don't know if it's enough to get me to purchase Notebook again regularly. I was one of the few readers who were into the mag when it first launched and I think I still had my first one and a half years worth of issues somewhere. I've also been to some Notebook meets and met the entire staff at a nice spring picnic at the Botanic Gardens (they're all lovely!). But the mag got repetitive and I stopped purchasing. Hopefully, this new look would make fork out for an issue again monthly.

Glossies: All about Keira

In what has to be the most anticlimactic Vogue cover of the year, here is this year's efforts for the September cover of US Vogue. In two words, very disappointing. They had a lot of material to play with when it comes to styling Keira - a free-spirited young woman wearing lots of florals a la her newest movie Edge of Love or The Duchess herself. I was envisioning huge decadent gowns in various plum and beige colours with matching lavish jewelry. But instead, we get street style Keira in an unflattering Balenciaga *thing*. Double blah, thank you Anna Wintour. And don't let me get started on that bird's nest on top of her head masquerading as her hair.

In other words, I was expecting more in the lines of the below picture.

Moving on to much better Keira September covers from Tatler and UK Glamour.

{tfs}

Literati : For Japanese Reading Challenge

Firstly, thank you to Bellezza for letting me join the challenge a couple of days too late. You're a star!

My first book and I'm about 100 pages in is Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino. I've read Out years before and finished it in a day, it was both very dark and thrilling and one of the first Japanese literature I've read so now I'm hooked.

Synopsis of Grotesque from goodreads:

Natsuo Kirino made a spectacular fiction debut on these shores with the publication of Edgar Award-nominated Out "Daring and disturbing . . . Prepared to push the limits of this world . . . Remarkable"--Los Angeles Times). Unanimously lauded for her unique, psychologically complex, darkly compelling vision and voice, she garnered a multitude of enthusiastic fans eager for more.

In her riveting new novel Grotesque, Kirino once again depicts a barely known Japan. This is the story of three Japanese women and the interconnectedness of beauty and cruelty, sex and violence, ugliness and ambition in their lives. Tokyo prostitutes Yuriko and Kazue have been brutally murdered, their deaths leaving a wake of unanswered questions about who they were, who their murderer is, and how their lives came to this end. As their stories unfurl in an ingeniously layered narrative, coolly mediated by Yuriko's older sister, we are taken back to their time in a prestigious girls' high school--where a strict social hierarchy decided their fates—and follow them through the years as they struggle against rigid societal conventions.

Shedding light on the most hidden precincts of Japanese society today, Grotesque is both a psychological investigation into the female psyche and a classic work of noir fiction. It is a stunning novel, a book that confirms Natsuo Kirino's electrifying gifts.

Sunday bits and pieces

GLOSSIES: And more September mag covers (while we are patiently waiting for THE Vogue US cover):

Edgy is the word of the day for Julianne Moore in the August/September issue of Wonderland and Kate Hudson on the latest W. Who do you think rocked it better? Read what the Fug girls have to say about Kate's cover here.

I am not impressed with both the subscribers cover and the normal cover of HB. I don't like her pose and her feet looks awkward and what's with the blue gradient? Meanwhile, the normal cover is just too much hair and too much smile. Remember Tyra, smile with your eyes! She also does a very robotic impression of Michelle Obama in her ed (although check out the model portraying Barrack, he's hot!).


I feel like I'm in a Photoshop 101 Class: Gradient for Beginners. At least Kate Moss looks FIERCE in the cover (take that, Tyra!).

Jourdan Dunn (aka the next Naomi) rocking that short, blunt fringe on the newest issue of iD.

How's the crushed hand, Shia?

Sophie Dahl fronts UK Harpers Bazaar's The British Issue, I'm sure Australian Grazia will be copying a lot of material from this issue as they seem to be fixated with all things British lately (even though it's supposed to be an Aussie mag).

China is going completely ga-ga over the Olympics lately, it's just fitting that their HB would release an Olympics Fashion issue with a pretty Zhang on the cover.

I really can't tell with Miley anymore: other days she's trying hard to be sexy and now she's trying hard to be wholesome and failing at both. Make up your mind, Miley!


CALVIN KLEIN: A furore has erupted in the US over CK's new ad for Secret Obsession featuring the sexy Eva Mendes. Watch the uncensored ad on CK's website and tell me what you think. Too racy for TV?

TV: I've finally seen an ep of the Australian version of Make Me a Supermodel. My verdict: Cheap, tacky and under budget. Jen Hawkins is one of the worst hosts I've ever seen (too fixated on herself) with a manly voice to boot, the first shoot where they had to pose in their underwear in a leather couch with throws and cushions is just a cheap, tacky porn shoot and lastly, what does dancing have to do with being a supermodel? Maybe they should have titled it Make Me a Beauty Pageant Queen instead because that's what Jen is, definitely not a supermodel!

{mags: tfs, fug}

more mag prettiness

Both are out tomorrow! New look Marie Claire with a glowing Scarlett J on the cover pimping her "sexual energy" and a coy Abbey-Lee Kershaw is on the cover of September Aus Vogue. And my fave weekly Sydney entertainment mag Time Out is also out tomorrow (mmmm.. am now craving wood-fired pizzas!)

alice does d&g

Very Addams family - I adore it.

{from topmodel-LJ}

all shiny and new

New treats at the newsagency this morning (damn you busy job, i wanted to stay home and read them all!). i'm still on two minds about getting Grazia #3. So far, I haven't been satisfied with the first two and $5 is a lot of moolah for a weekly mag. But of course, my first buy was the sweet and pink Real Living (psss, if you buy it at Woolies you get a handy magnetic organiser).

New look very thick Cosmo - I just might get it this month.

And hands-down, the most beautiful, eye-catching cover for this month is Harper's Bazaar with Uma as the cover girl (lady? woman?). I love it and it's uber thick as well. There goes the food budget!

{uma cover: TFS}

because one can't live on chick lit and fashion mags alone...

I'm ashamed to say that I haven't even read any of the books shortlisted for the Man Booker this year. And I still haven't found a copy of Anne Enright's The Gathering which was last year's winner.

Too many books, so little time.

This year's longlist (there's a longlist and a shortlist which will be announced in September) includes:

1. The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga

2. Girl in a Blue Dress - Gaynor Arnold

3. The Secret Scripture - Sebastian Barry

4. From A to X - John Berger

5. The Lost Dog - Michelle de Kretser

6. Sea of Poppies - Amitav Ghosh

7. The Clothes on Their Backs - Linda Grant

8. A Case of Exploding Mangoes - Mohammed Anif

9. The Northern Clemency - Phillip Hensher

10. Netherland - Joseph O'Neill

11. The Enchantress of Florence - Salman Rushdie

12. Child 44 - Tom Rob Smith

13. A Fraction of the Whole - Steve Toltz

I've read each of the book's descriptions and I'm really keen on reading The Secret Scripture as I don't think I'm ready for an epic ride one can receive from an Amitav Ghosh novel. Or I might give Rushdie another go as I owe him for not even making it halfway Shalimar the Clown. Did you know his book Midnight's Children which won the Booker in 1981 (my year of birth - I should definitely plow through this) won the Best of the Bookers award? It has now therefore been elevated to the top tier of my to-read list.

But after blogging about all these *serious* potentially award-winning novels, I'm actually starting Eclipse tonight to prepare for the release of Breaking Dawn tomorrow (if you haven't heard of this series, which rock have you been hiding under?). So far, I've just heard some bad reviews. What can one expect from a young adult vampire slash werewolf slash Romeo and Juliet-based trilogy? Team Edward by the way. ;-)

September mags round up : part one

Introducing one of the biggest round-up of magazine covers I've ever done and it's only Part One (and not including Australian mags). A glimpse of each one:

- Obviously the Victoria's Secret girls in VS. Who else would look exactly like a VS parade on a GQ cover?

I have just recently warmed up to Penelope (hated her in passion in Vanilla Sky but that was years ago so totally forgotten!) and I love everything in this cover, the blues and the reds and her silky hair.

Smug much, Ms Mendes? I would be too if I had a figure like yours.

Karen Elson for Vogue UK. I'm not entirely in love with her as a model so the cover does not really strike me in a good way. And where's the G? I think they went overboard with the red fonts as well.

Lauren Conrad on the cover of EW under the microscopes and forced to answer questions about how real or rather how fake The Hills really is. Can't wait for Season 4!

Vanessa Hudgens in bright pink nana dress in a bright pink coloured Teen Vogue. I really should watch High School Musical soon.

A model on the cover of Lucky? Milla Jovovich, model/actress/singer/designer/something else is looking incredibly vibrant and theme is purple. Lucky, you will be mine this month!

Yawn! Haven't we seen this before?

Mischa either looking really sultry or they filmed her while she was high in the 20th anniversary edition of UK Marie Claire!

Diddling James Franco? I'd venture out to Borders just to have a look-see on that feature!

Hmmm, who would have guessed that they're pimping Jessica out to be a country singer? Is it that shirt or that mighty buckle? A truly cringe-worthy cover!

Natasha Poly for Vogue Nippon - they're getting better and better in positioning that G between the model's eyes unlike its British counterpart which just deletes it all completely. But isn't that better?

Phew! Watch out for Part Two and the round up of Aussie mags coming soon!

Out of the above covers, which one is your fave and which one do you think is headed straight to to the bin?

{pics: popsugar, justjared, TFS}

model vibes

Featuring the winner of Australia's Next Top Bully in the latest Aus Vogue September issue.

And the winner of Britain's Missing Top Model, Kelly Knox who was born without a left hand and lower arm. See her editorial in the latest Marie Claire UK September issue.

I know who I'd prefer to invite for dinner and guess what, it ain't the Aussie chick.

{pics: vogue.com.au, marieclaire.co.uk}