Balance

From top: Balancing the model at Viktor & Rolf, Spring/Summer 2010. Source: Dominique Charriau, Wirelimage.com/Guardian.com
Isabel Marant, Autumn/Winter 2009/10. Source: The Fashion Spot

After a particularly hectic week at work (read: furious report writing and 3am finishes), I started to think about how achieving the perfect balance has such a profoundly positive impact on my state of mind. A balanced life for me isn’t necessarily one that is divided equally across different things, but one that has just enough of everything to keep me smiling.

After several seemingly endless months of searching, Peter and I finally found the most perfect Georgian flat in my beloved Crystal Palace (pictures will follow soon). Georgian architecture encapsulates all of the features that, for me, create the perfect home: high ceilings; huge windows with lots of natural light; symmetry and a general sense of harmony. The style somehow manages to strike the ideal balance between grandeur and comfort, and I am already researching interiors and counting down to April when we move in.

When it comes to fashion and style, balance represents something else entirely: it’s the need to offset a voluminous cardigan with the skinniest jeans; the most daring heel with the simplest dress; or about pulling together lots of pieces to create something so crazy or so simple that it just seems to work: basically fashion yin with fashion yang (for this in extreme form, see Viktor & Rolf's Flowerbomb Spring/Summer 2005 - two completely contrasting concepts rolled into one show). Those are the outfits that make me happiest. Above are looks from Viktor & Rolf and Isabel Marant. Whereas the latter manages to create that quintessentially, slightly 'off', relaxed French style, Viktor & Rolf show the need for balance in a characteristically extreme and whimsical form!

In life, it’s about offsetting the everyday with the escapist, and that’s how this blog was born. I hope that through reading this, you’re inspired to find that perfect balance in your life, whatever that may be.