A WALK THROUGH VOGUE

Hello Darlings!

Hope you had a wonderful weekend!

Sometimes it's fun to just sit together with a friend and chat,
perhaps leafing through a beautiful magazine.

Do you love magazines as much as I do?

As I was leafing through the latest issue of Vogue

my eye was drawn to so many images

and I found myself wondering if

we are all drawn to the same things.

So, today I thought I'd take you with me

 on a little visual ride through

the April 2012 issue of Vogue

and share with you a few of the things I found inspiring  ...

Before we begin the Vogue post,

I'd like to mention two super sweet things

that were bestowed upon me recently:

 

First, how fun it is to discover that you've been quoted!

And I was, not once but twice recently
by Poppy over at the very fun Project Gadabout ...

thank you, Poppy ...  I'm so very flattered!

 

Recently, I had a lucky day
 {don't we love those!}

and won a sweet Harvey Prince fragrance giveaway

hosted by Rowena of Rolala Loves

so I wanted to take a moment
to say thank you to both of them and let them know that

I love the very "scent-ful" package I received!
Harvey Prince creates "inspired scents of purpose" ...
one to make you feel younger,
one to wear when you're feeling a little flirty,
one to reduce stress ... and more.

I received a lovely bottle of the
 Harvey Prince Eau de Creme scent,

which is a magical mixture of

Citrus, Passion Fruit, Rum Raisin, Vanilla, Patchouli & Chocolate.

(yum, I know, right?)

Harvey Prince also sent me a too-cute tee-shirt that looks like this:

 

I also received samples of three of their other scents,

Ageless, Yogini & Eau Flirt ...

now all I have to do is decide each day if I want to

seem younger, feel tranquil or flirt away!
Thank you very much, Harvey Prince and Rolala Loves!

I'll be having fun exploring all of the sweetness!



This issue of Vogue is an eye-catcher,

starting with a sultry photo of the beautiful Jennifer Lopez ...
I can almost smell the sea and hear the ocean waves behind her ...

As I leafed through the pages of the issue,
I first stopped at this spread showing
 Felicity Jones for Dolce and Gabana's
Spring Make-Up Collection called "Bouquet."
The colors just grabbed me
and wouldn't let me turn the page ...
they seemed whisper welcome spring!
 Don't you love the nail color and the
flowers of the "bouquet" scattered all over the dress?


If someone should ask me,
"why bother looking at fashion that is
so very expensive if I cannot afford most of it?"
My response would be:
 "simply for the beauty and inspiration."


Speaking of inspiration,
this Oscar de la Renta dress
 leaves. me. breathless.
You can almost imagine how beautiful it would feel on ...
we'd be all wrapped up in it's delicate petals
and dripping in fabulous jewels ...


I love the beautiful, soft, flowy style of Chloe.
One of my very favorite Chloe summer looks is the
pleated sheer deliciousness of this.
I thought the following Chloe ad on page 63 was so delightful,
as if the two models are both saying "mine!"
So, this is one I just had to illustrate ...


I love this Brahmin bag for the same reason the
Dolce and Gabana dress above caught my eye ...
it has a voice and that voice is whispering, "Spring is here!"
It's the Olivia Rose ... don't you love the hanging rose detail?


And, of course, this caught my eye!
Page 81 is the stunning Louis Vuitton ad
 that I found inspirational and illustrated
on a post a few weeks ago.


If silky sand and the blue sea aren't enough to make you happy,
how about standing on that beach in a gorgeous
 Leon Max dress with the flowing ribbon detail?
Doesn't it make you want to twirl ...  just a little?
You can browse through the
Leon Max lookbook if you'd like, here.


Okay. I admit it.
I have a thing for touches of very pale blue green.
Not lots of it ... just touches.
As in a high-gloss pale blue-green smooth wooden bench
sitting against the rich green of a formal garden.

I once had a kitchen with lots of white cabinetry
and I painted the walls in a very pale
Benjamin Moore blue-green color called
 "Icing on the Cake"
and it made me happy each time
 I turned into the room.
I swear that one day
I will have a glossy front door this color
with shiny nickel hardware for door jewelry.

The color I'm talking about is not as dark as Tiffany blue,
and not as green as sea green.
And it's not the grayed-down version of blue we see often in design.
The charming VW Bug in this Clarks ad is
bluer here than it is in the actual pages of the magazine ...
{my fave color is kind of like the background of the blog ...
and like some of these pics from this Ooh La Frou Frou
Pinterest page}
but in the magazine, this VW Bug was so close to my fave color
it made me want one ...
wouldn't it just be too darling
for running around town to pick up macarons and
bouquets of pink flowers?

I've always loved the sheer joyfulness of
~ tangerine ~ ...
I like starting the day with icy cold orange juice
in a stemmed glass.
The color of sunshine can only add
a little more fabulousness to one's day, no?
So, when I saw the combination of tangerine
with these pretty seafoam ballet shoes ...
well, it was enough to convince me to become a collector,
which is what the ad asks us to be, after all!
So ... I had to illustrate this one too ...


It's amazing how utterly easily
 a visual image can make me happy.
  I can literally feel the warmth of summer
 in this ad for UGG Austrailia.
Anything that can make me feel as if I've nothing to do but
loll about looking glamorous on a yacht
 is a little bit of marketing magic!


The pièce de résistance
of this April issue
is a luscious photoshoot entitled,
"Checking Out"
in honor of The Ritz Paris
closing its doors for renovation.
In this photoshoot, Kate Moss is romping
like a grown-up Eloise as she poses in haute couture
as Marie Antoinette for photographer Tim Walker.
Complete with images of Kate in gilt-edged rooms,
surrounded by Chanel shopping bags,
balancing precariously on the edge of a marble mantle,
toppling over expensive lamps
 and waiting for a bath overflowing with pink bubbles ...
it's the stuff of a magnificent imagination.
 
I must confess I have such a thing for grand hotels.
They come complete with luxuries like doormen, fancy elevators,
shiny brass luggage carriers, mints on my pillow
and I could live in one.
You probably realize this,
as I've featured a quite few here on the blog.
When I hear of one as grand as The Ritz
closing for renovations I feel ... a wee bit sad.
Not that I've ever been there.  But because I've never been there.
I hope they just powder its nose instead of give it plastic surgery.
A little something usually is lost along the way
when everything is made shiny and new.
I would have been happy if the Plaza in New York,
which also closed for renovations a while back,
 had never changed at all.

Here is an interesting video slideshow of
this Ritz Paris photoshoot to enjoy
and you can go here to read details on the photoshoot.
{remember to click the emblem in the lower right-hand corner
of the video below to make the video full screen
 and hit escape when you're finished to come back}.


Since we started our
"Walk Through Vogue"
with Jennifer Lopez, it's only fitting that we
end our walk with this photo of JLo
in a stunning red Valentino jumpsuit with rose detail.
The photo is part of the Vogue article featuring the Latin beauty
called, "Venus Rising."

Thanks, everybody, for joining me for a little
Vogue browsing this week ...
I'd love to hear which magazines
are your favorites each month
{and anything else you'd love to chat about!}
I love reading your comments
and thank you for taking the time
to visit me here each week ...
I so appreciate you.

Have a wonderful week, everyone! 

Illustration by Sandy M
{Sandra Markwalder}
artist and illustrator and founder of
Ooh La Frou Frou.

For custom illustration contact Sandy here.
To shop for Ooh La Frou Frou cards
featuring Sandy's illustrations, go here.