In the shade of a giant pancake

Joanna:
I have just returned from travelling, and will add a few words on Canada before whipping out the fashion photos. My conference in Toronto was awesome, but apart from that...
- Canadians are incredibly friendly and polite. It's a bit of a shock to the system after living among the (mostly) frigid Brits. Canucks are talkative, helpful, and have a nice American air to them (while at the same time being more civilised than those wild Americans).
- Canadians love tattoos! I was in Toronto Zoo on a hot day and saw more tattoos than I wanted to. In fact, it was easier to find a person with a tattoo than without.
- Canadians make good dads - plenty of them take their kids to the zoo. And apparently there are baby changing facilities in men's toilets (haven't checked that though).
- Canadians love their huge portions of food. A portion of maple syrup pancakes (with bacon - why???) lasted me for two meals.
- Canadians are very proud of their flag and display it everywhere. Again, a nice change after ostentatiously unpatriotic Britain.
I also saw the ROM, AGO, Bata shoe museum, monster trucks, a musk rat, a car with cojones (literally!), and a guy carrying a hockey stick and wearing a moose t-shirt. Sweet!

And Brussels - with its great beer and wonderful couchsurfers - was just cool.

Below are photos of a hat I bought last year at the Gloucester Green market (8GBP - bargain!), seen through the lenses of Adrian and Marten Collins.


Dzisiejsze zdjęcia znów wzięte z archiwum, bo Joanna bujała się po Kanadzie i Belgii. Kapelusz z czwartkowego rynku na Gloucester Green w obiektywach Adriana i Martena Collinsa.

Adrian's work:

And Marten's work:

Joanna is wearing:
- A hat from a vintage market
- An ancient corset
- Gloves from a bridal shop
- Mum's pearls.

That Hat

A while ago Joanna sent her Mum to a millinery crash-course organised by Małgosia Wybrańska. Mum returned overjoyed, and on her next visit to Oxford presented Joanna with a fascinator-hat, which she produced at the workshop. Take a look, isn't it beautiful?

Jakiś czas temu Joanna wypchnęła Swoją Mamę na warsztaty kapelusznictwa organizowane przez Małgosię Wybrańską (relację można zobaczyć u Karoliny-G). Mam wróciła zachwycona, a przy najbliższej wizycie w Oksfordzie wręczyła Joannie własnoręcznie zrobiony kapelusik. Sami popatrzcie, czyż nie piękny?


The fascinator viewed by Adrian:

And by Kasia - who joined us for the studio shoot:

Apart from the hat, Joanna is wearing
- A corset (from the bottom of the wardrobe)
- The Same Gloves As Always
- A necklace from Dueci Bijoux

White Swan - Black Swan (the studio shoot)

Adrian: Most of all I wanted to thank you very much for the recent comments and sincerely apologise for the delay. I was on a long holiday during the Easter break and had a lot of work catch up with afterwards. Not much time for the hobby unfortunately. Not to mention, I've had a little photo crisis recently. For some reasons I don't feel the urge to take photographs... I think I need a little break after the recent months when I had so many assignments. Besides, I've been into music a lot recently... It has always been my greatest love and I don't want to neglect it anymore.

Nevertheless, here's the second set of the studio pictures. Once again thank you for waiting, I do appreciate that.

Joanna: On my part I want to add that my no. 1 Black Swan accessory is a woolen boa from Peri (she made it herself! talented woman), and the White Swan showcases a wonderful vintage coat bought at the Affordable Vintage Fashion Fair in Oxford, from Samantha.

And as an aside - check out "Puttypaw", a book recently published by my friend Tom. It's available online for free until the 25th of May, so hurry!

Here goes...

Black swan:

White swan: