BARCELONA YELLOW

Created by Sarah Mikaela

Shot by Lyle Moxsom

Welcome to Barcelona my friends. I found myself here this weekend with Pronovias to celebrate their first show in the last two years, and you know there is nothing I love to do more than celebrate beautiful dresses. We flew out on Lyle's birthday (those of you who've been following over on Instagram now know, that I've found love!) and we had a 6am flight, meaning that for me to have any success in waking him with a birthday song, my system would have to naturally wake up before our 03.15am alarm - eek! Nevertheless, I magically succeeded to sneak in a bike (a bike!) without him knowing to cover in blankets and add a little bunting before he noticed. If making a 6am flight isn't achievement enough, sneaking in a large frame bike in the middle of the night hopefully is!

Annnyways... We made it to Barcelona and straight into show prep. Hair  by ghd and makeup by Charlotte Tilbury and fittings done by the most incredible seamstresses flown in from Italy. All lined up for an incredible night, that I - with some sweet help from this post's sponsor caffeine - managed to stay awake the whole night through.

Leontine Dress by Vera Wang

LET'S TALK ABOUT IT

The Quarantine Diaries

How's everyone doing? Health, family and well-being above my word spill any day. What an absolute time we find ourselves in! I'm not sure this generation has ever experienced anything close to seeming this apocalyptic, and alas we will get through this. Locked down around the world, I hope you're all well and safe, together with your close ones and taking this time to enjoy the variety of tea in your cupboards as well as kicking butt on projects you've been meaning to start/finish/continue. I've been dusting off certain parts of my inbox, calling friends abroad, meditating to calm the nerves and started knitting! (I don't even like knitting that much, but I've been making wash-cloths for home, and my kitchen is loving them). 

It's truly more evident than ever, how interconnected we all are. The Brits are no more immune to the coronavirus than the Italians and the Chinese. The world is our oyster but first and foremost our family. Now, a personal note. Firstly, I'm not in a fancy hotel in Paris, like the image could suggest. Two days ago I was prepping for lockdown in London, and with my feet having been on Italian ground only 3,5 weeks ago, with things still seeming normal, it felt bizarre to me, that London had thousands of cases already, and looking to its neighbours the government still didn't take action or give out sufficient preventative guidelines to prevent the same situation. I tearpouringly realised Sunday night, that at this unknown time, I'd struggle hardly going through it myself. My mind was a non-stop news display board and whilst I wasn't in panic, I knew it was a time for precaution. Not for my own health, but for those around me. Right now, we truly show our care  best by keeping distance. Making space, for each other and ourselves, and whilst we may have healthy bodies that will treat this like a flu, loved ones with weaker immunesystems your best friend's father with asthma or perhaps the security guard at your workplace's mother may not. Knowing this, I wasn't willing to take any risk, an accidentally passing on something I didn't know whether I had. Anywho, my home country Denmark was shutting institutions down by the time 500 cases had been confirmed. This was only a few days after there'd only been 35 cases. They announced that they'd be shutting down the borders, and whilst it took me a minute, I got myself back to Denmark this Monday. 

I'd love to hear how you guys are doing. Let's share and support each other in this time, my DM's are open on Instagram, the comments below will be checked and responded to, so let's help get each other through this. Whether you're in quarantine  alone or with friends and family, let's be here for each other.

I've made a couple of playlists for those wanting some nice calm but groovy tunes for doing things around the home. Find it on Spotify and Apple Music!

Lots of love,

Sarah

PARIS

Bringing us back to 2019 here for a second, but stay with me, it's worth it. I'm taking us to a special walk in Paris in Autumn, that enhanced into the top of my awareness one thing I truly love about my job. The fact that I get to dive into different fields, I previously knew nothing about and could only appreciate from a superficial level, to be surrounded by experts and artisans of different crafts and share it here with you. And whilst it can be consuming to just see and understand the world from your own point of view only, there is something to be said for taking the time to tour through known places through the lens of another - to add value and deeper understanding of something you thought you knew. I was so fortunate to join Frederic Malle in Paris, for walk around the city in the event of the global launch of the Rose et Cuir (to those of us who just know a bit of school French, that's Rose and Leather in English). Frederic is unique within the world of perfume, and let me explain to you why. You'll be known to having "Blockbusters" thrown at you, probably because x amount of cookies in your browser and devices have typecast you for a celebrity perfume, just because you occasionally keep up with the Kardashians. Little does the algorithms know or realise, that you are a complex individual with a wildly wonderful secret emotional life that no computerised system could truly understand, and a crowd-pleasing scent would only fractionally support that. Where FM is different, is that he draws in the true artists, a small portion of the top crop and royalty of fragrance, like Jean-Claude Ellena behind Rose et Cuir, to give them the freedom to truly create works of passion, however many years it takes to create just the right scent. Jean-Claude, when I met him in Paris, told of visiting farmers (of flowers) to export just the right . Now, you'll go over these images thinking: "What do these have to do with fragrance?", but this is a photo diary of Frederic's Paris. A tour of inspirations and experiences that have formed the palette of his creations.

HALL OF FAME OF JEAN-CLAUDE ELLENA'S CREATIONS

Richard Biedul

Walking with Jean-Claude Ellena and Frederic Malle

POST CREATED AS PART OF A PRESS TRIP WITH FREDERIC MALLE. ALL OPINIONS ARE GENUINE AND MY OWN.

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LONDON'S finest

BY SARAH MIKAELA

ASSISTED BY GIULIA GRECO

London is a place of so many faces. I'll find myself at furniture sales in Hackney, sipping on a luke-warm formerly an iced-coffee with some sad far apart islands of tiny ice cubes that have survived my indecisive pondering, debating on whether my digitally led life really needs a magazine rack. And then there are moments like this. The rush of the major fashion weeks arrive, and the luxury of a location in central London as beautiful as Hotel Café Royal becomes exactly the calm a hectic time like this finds its fuel with. It's my prime time of work, I'm constantly on, at shows, at dinners and launches. You only have a few moments in the early am and now in the later in the pm for me, since I've recognised, that fashion parties till the early hours will be the one Jenga piece that'll make the whole thing apart. That, and I'd much rather be curled up in what I believe to be the finest bed in London, tackling the day's admin and editing. I've been coming here for years now, and I feel so at home now. Less so because of any actual resemblance to my living space, but more so due to the wonderful team at Hotel Café Royal always creating the friendliest and most accommodating surroundings.

The most inviting, tranquil spot.

VINTAGE SHIRT / ELEANOR BALFOUR TROUSERS /  CHARLES&KEITH
STILLETTOS / MISSOMA NECKLACE / CHLOE "S" RING

With the traveling required for work, being home becomes a novelty. But when you'reThe space is the complete essence of what London can be. I've stayed here enough to know, that regardless of sun or rain, it presents London from its finest angle. Classic, but not dated. Modern, but not cold. I become so busy, that I couldn't take it all in? It's funny how we can desire things, and through our thoughts and actions send out those signals to the universe, and as it's all happening, we're standing too close to view the prosperity and blessings. A bizarity happened, when we became a 'like'-society.  

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A MODERN EMPOWERMENT

BY SARAH MIKAELA
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SARAH MIKAELA & TOM BUTLER
ASSISTED BY GIULIA GRECO

It's no secret, that it's been a whirlwind of a year, and not least the past six months. Whilst the projects have been grander and by far more exciting than catching my own tail, the dizziness remains the same, and I have moments and travels that I've been tingling to share with you in here. One of them, is the work and presentation of Central Saint Martin's graduate and dear friend of mine Amy Barrie, who presented her debut collection at The Royal Academy of Arts. Amy's work is some of the most incredible, both in craft and essence. Most important to her, si the message that her work carries, to promote and empower women and to celebrate the voices of equality before us. On this note, she selected six incredible poets (female and all awesome), to perform their work in tailored AB from her debut collection. One of my personal favourites is the purple embroidered suit , you see here on the left, shot on the gorgeous Elena in black and white and in featured in colour again just below. It's embroidered with the words of suffragettes and female leaders, that have paved the way to create the (still-needs-improvement) world we live in today. If anyone has a passion for women and fashion that's empowering, it's Amy, and her work beautifully speaks the words of all these incredible voices. Mixing in historical elements, Amy's designs embody , through garments that are meant to be heard in a modern context. 

Now, you remember me saying it's been quite a year, yeah? Well, my technical luck has been especially poor these past six months, and the harddrive that contained the images of Amy's breathtaking presentation at The Royal Academy, had a breakdown at the hight of Paris Fashion Week. I'm gutted I don't get to show you my own shots from the event, but my friend Tom Butler, who I work with on video projects (such as here) had a few stills I've added in to supplement here for you to see alongside my shoot of the collection earlier this year on Elena. 

printed cape with marbled lining.

Pen nibs attached by hand, for the suffragette gown.

"We take the ink from insults and use it as mascara,
We take bad days and vibes, that think that they 
can scar us to make something new. To make something 
healing."
- RAKAYA FETUGA

ONE OF THE INCREDIBLE POETS OF THE PRESENTATION, RAKAYA ESIME FETUGA.

YOU CAN SEE MORE OF AMY'S WORK HERE AND CHECK OUT HER INSTAGRAM.

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