Sunny Afternoon

After a longer break, Miss Katjes is back with blogging, fresh photos, exciting stories and visually enchanting inspirational stuff. I have much to catch up on, but let me start with some not-so-recent photos that might just take us back a little to summertime afternoons.

:* :* for the wonderful photos Vilmos Varga and Timea Kiss

Colors of Tuscany (part 2)

Things I've loved in Italy...little details, a piece of art even on the tiniest streets all around Tuscany. It's a mixture of art, tradition and architecture that charms you instantly. The fabulous atmosphere and breathtaking sites makes you feel like you're taken on a journey beyond time.

Photos by: Miss Katjes

Colors of Tuscany (part 1)

Make the best of your travels by getting lost, intentionally making a wrong turn at the next corner...that's a golden rule for every traveler, who's determined to discover a sort of down-to-earth beauty in each place and experience a more intense personal connection with it.

Toscana, with its medieval towns, dreamy landscape, rocky mountains and mysterious islands, has so much beauty to offer that you never know what you'll find in the next town or at the next corner. Maybe it's just a simple flower pot or the traditional outer shutter which is everywhere and you're still so enthusiastic about it. Eating melon while walking down the path of history in Florence or choosing the wrong gate in Volterra and then getting totally lost might sound insignificant, but can easily become essential to a mind blowing Italian experience.

[Photos: Miss Katjes]

Canadian indie, a great deal of instruments, extraordinary stage presence

Arcade Fire is one of my great favorites, especially after I've stumbled upon their 2010 Reading performance. It's so good to see them on stage, being totally excited about their performance. It's infinite love for music in each and every tune they play. Btw, Régine is so cute in her glitter dress, especially while singing 'Haiti'.

Fashion in Movies: Zooey Deschanel in New Girl / (500) days of summer

Hush Puppies Sandals

Getting together a new look with a little vintage flavor is so chic these days. The reason why people like to roll back the wheels of fashion time machine is that a dress let's say from the 50s represents such a classy, sophisticated, unique style, rather than something outdated or totally out of fashion. Just think of Audrey Hepburn in her little black dress, eating her breakfast in front of Tiffany's-an unforgettable 'fashion in movies' moment.

Audrey Hepburn (Holly Golightly) in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)

The glory of those old movies [that you've watched either because of the beautifully unfolding romantic stories, or the 'femme fatale' manner in which Greta Garbo smoked a cigarette] are now back with some of these gorgeous details that make us want more. We have the movies (Pleasantville, Married Life) and even series (Mad Men, Smash, Downton Abbey) placed in another era we think of as --aww, so retro!!

Mad Men cast

Married Life (2007)

...And there are movies and series where the whole plot is built around the style and personality of a cute character, where the story has little or absolutely nothing to do with fashion or a particular era, it's just simply there for the sake of indirect characterization. Take Zooey Deschanel for example. Her role as Summer Finn in (500) Days of Summer was simply unforgettable, influenced many of us as a matter of retro / vintage / geek or whatever-you-call-fashion and the music...man, it was such a great combination of fashion moments and music that the story didn't even matter that much.

I could go on with the list of the cute Zooey outfits, really, but if you didn't have enough, study further the funky combination of colors and textures in Jess' ensembles in the New Girl series. I've recently found a website -- what would Zooey Descahnel wear? with loads of images from each episode. You can browse through a number of categories depending on what kind of inspiring outfits you're looking for - summer? winter? casual? fancy? It's Jess! Having it all!

Images: wwzdw.com