THREE BOOKS // COFFEE TABLE EDITION

 

Hey there! So a while back I did a little post on three of my favourite fiction books, and today I thought I'd do a similar post on three of my favourite coffee table books! I'm a sucker for books like these, I often get stuck in Urban Outfitters looking at all the potential books I could have lying around my room for flicking through when in need of inspiration or a little pick-me-up. I just love pretty, interesting and aesthetically pleasing little books for my spaces!

 

First up is Alexa Chung's 'It'. I LOVE this book, firstly because it is impeccably well designed, secondly because it is hilarious. The sarcy quotes and satirical comments on society are humorous and strangely accurate, but not only does Alexa make a witty author, but she writes about real style icons and inspirations of her own. Considering anyone who buys Alexa Chung's book probably takes inspiration from her, knowing who inspires your inspiration is pretty cool. The pictures are fun, quirky and relevant, the text is laid out in different ways making it enjoyable and easy to read/flick through, and all-in-all, its a great coffee table book!

 

This quote in particular had me giggling! As someone who constantly seems to get my hair cut shorter and shorter every time, this longing for 'great standard girl hair' comes up every so often. Then of course I just think well what the heck life is too short to be standard. (Short pun totally not intended).

 

 

My second book is one I found in a newsagents just in Soho London. I often pop into this newsagents as it doesn't just have regular magazines such as my beloved Vogue, but has many indie and international ones that aren't readily available in the UK often such as Kinfolk, Cereal and many others to do with everything from fashion to travel to food. This book is a little city guide by the travel magazine Cereal. Most of the other city guides require subscription, but their London one is sold as a sample of sorts. I for one really like it as it has a very lovely photo series at the beginning and a couple of short essays about London by various people who live here. The rest of the book is suggested hotels, restaurants, coffee shops and shops that all look amazing! The book has a totally cool style and all the places they have picked will be right up anyone's street if you're similar to me.

 

I have already started bookmarking specific places in the book. I'd love to visit them all but I'm bookmarking the ones I want to go to ASAP so I remember every time I'm up in London to try and tick one of them off!

 

 

Lastly I have my 'Shopping for Vintage' book by Funmi Odulate. This was actually a present from my Nan in one of her many lovely attempts to buy me things that I appreciate (success woo!). The book has a little rundown of the general style inspirations from the 1920s to the 1980s, complete with watercolour illustrations and famous designers of the decades throughout time. Not only does the book to this for clothing, but also again for handbags and jewellery. The beautiful designs and tips are then followed by pages and pages of listings for vintage shops all over the world, so that wherever you are you'll always know where to pick up the best vintage deal. Although I'm not a hard-core vintage shopper, this book would be IDEAL for someone who is dedicated enough to reading and applying all the tips and suggestions when going on a proper vintage shopping spree. I on the other hand like to browse casually and if ever I see something I'll pick it up, but I'm not all that bothered. Saying that, the book made it into my favourite coffee book list as I do love fashion, and I love to see the style evolution over time, which this book encapsulates perfectly.

 

What are your favourite coffee books?

 

P H O E B E. G R A C E //

LONDON WANDERERS

Wowww I have really been slacking on the blog posts here. I've been pretty busy with family and exam stress recently and so the inconsistency with my blog will probably continue a little longer unfortunately, but I will endeavour to do my best! Anyhow, I have in fact put together a few outfit snaps from the other day out chilling in London.

My boyfriend and I are constantly wandering the streets of London, its our favourite city in the world and we're lucky enough to live practically in it (although we'd like to move further in). We of course love the main attractions, but we also love simply wandering round backstreets and seeing where we end up. The other day we happened to wander into Mayfair, where of course the buildings and houses were to die for.

 

Here I'm wearing my very new and very adored Adidas Gazelles. I love these so frickin' much! I wanted to invest in a pair of low trainers for summer, and these seem so subtly cool and perfect for matching with almost all of my wardrobe.

 

I wore a simple black outfit, Topshop black jeans and an M&S black roll neck, along with my fave Topshop coat because the weather is crazy here in London and although a couple of weeks ago it was boiling, we're now back to coat weather!? I don't know why I'm pretending like that is surprising however, I've lived in England all my life and I'm quite used to our temperamental weather! My sunglasses are also a new purchase I am loving. They're simple black lenses in a nice rounded shape, but what really caught my eye was that they in fact have faux leather around the rim and on the end that goes over the ear, thanks Urban Outfitters!

P H O E B E. G R A C E //

Follow me on bloglovin', instagram and pinterest; links are on the right.

TRAVELS IN BERLIN // DAY 4

This was our last day of our short trip to Berlin, and so we wanted to spend the afternoon shopping and milling around in the shopping centre before we got on our flight home, and so there is not a lot of content I have to share with you about that. The morning however, we spent at the Jewish Museum of Berlin, and I can honestly say it was one of the best museums I've been to! I keep mentioning how much I enjoyed the architecture in Berlin throughout this trip, and this museum did not disappoint. In the cleverest way, the designer of the museum had split the building into sections, and the first part was laid out in a style that tries to represent the struggles of the Jewish population throughout the Nazi regime and especially in the holocaust, although the museum is not solely dedicated to the Nazi persecution of the Jews only, but to the struggles of the Jewish race through history.

The ceiling of the first part of the museum was all black, which created a sense of being vulnerable as the Jewish people may have felt. Additionally, none of the walls were actually straight, nor was the floor completely even and the different corridors got smaller or wider as you walked along, all contributing to the sense of confusion and uncertainty which represented the struggle. The lights on the ceilings represented what the museum called 'the axis of the Jewish struggle' and the ways in which all the Jews came in, but all came out in different ways, and in fact of course, not all of them did come out. At the end of one of the corridors was a room pictured a couple pictures above. This room had four completely black concrete walls, with no design or pattern. They were extremely tall, it was very cold and dark, and in the highest corner there was a very small slit in the wall, through which light from outside the museum was streaming through. This was there to try and recreate just how lost the people who suffered in the holocaust felt, and how although they may have had hope, they ultimately knew that the chance of their survival or freedom was very limited, and there was no possible way they themselves could do anything to reach that hope; their lives were completely under the control of others.

We then made our way upstairs following our tour guide, and stopped off half way up the stairs. I didn't take many pictures of these rooms as I was quite engrossed in the tour itself, but generally speaking this museum was not only one of the most fascinating museums I have been to, but was also very well laid out and presented all the information easily and interestingly. On this floor we saw and heard about more stories from the Jewish perspective of the Nazi regime, including some personal stories from young children. We then wandered up stairs and viewed some of the other parts of the museum which were focused on the history of the Jews before the 1900s and way back into biblical times which was although irrelevant to our course, quite interesting.

After we had all finished roaming the museum we returned to the entrance where there was also a really lovely café. I don't know about you, but the one thing that makes a good museum even better, is a real good café... with real good cakes..

As I explained for the rest of the day we mostly did some shopping and then got our flight home very late at night, only arriving home at around 1 or 2am. All in all, my trip to Berlin was so wonderful, and not only did I learn a lot and see some amazing sights, but I got to do it all with some of my closest friends too. I would definitely recommend going to Berlin if you have an interest in history (the history geek in me woop woop) as it was so interesting, but also a very nice city to visit and I wish I had slightly longer to visit more of the city area too.

Hope you've enjoyed reading about my little trip, and thank you so much for taking the time to be here! See you soon!

P H O E B E. G R A C E //