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What’s the deal with the new post-apocalyptic down-at-heel look sweeping the capital? You could be forgiven for thinking that Londoners have lost their sparkle! OK, admittedly, 'Rainmageddon' was definitely a factor, but I think it’s deeper than that. The world is perceived as being very unstable at the moment but let’s not get unnecessarily gloomy. According to Hans Rosling, author of Factfulness, and in my own humble opinion, there’s never been a better time to be alive.

Fashion is always a mirror of the times we are living through. I don’t know if it’s Brexit, #MeToo, or the prospect of winter setting in but the nouveau drab has washed over Londoners like a gargantuan spider’s web of mismatched hemlines, outfits cut like a sack of potatoes and shapeless anorak atrocities.

Everyone I know regardless of whether or not they work in the sustainability space is naturally buying less and making an effort to shop more consciously. Weaning yourself off that quick dopamine hit that a £20 purchase from Zara will give you on a gloomy Tuesday evening after a long hard day at the office is a process. There is a chasm between the will to change and how to translate that into everyday actions.

In the short term, this could result in buying nothing at all (which is no bad thing) whilst you undergo a re-education process and adjust your habits accordingly. In the long term, you’ll have a beautifully curated wardrobe full of gorgeous pieces you love, that you wear all the time. Take time to research brands whose ethics and ethos resonate with yours. Spend more on pieces you fall in love with, that you’ll wear forever and will even outlive you as family heirlooms! Of course, this strategy requires a larger financial investment but if you work it out cost per wear over decades, it represents greater value. So it’s just about changing our perception.

In a period where traditional religion in the west has been on the wane: compulsive consumption became the new religion and mankind's natural predilection towards the external was exacerbated by social media. There has been a counter-movement towards the internal, the inner life, that which we cannot see. In the western world, this has taken the form of a surge in spirituality, yoga, meditation, wellness, healing therapies. Many yogis and healers I have met are former Fashionistas! 

I am always trying to steer clear of polarity - I think it’s one of the scourges of our age. I lean towards unity, oneness, and inclusion. I believe that we need to lavish equal attention on our inner and outer worlds. There seems to be amongst some of the spiritual community derision of anything external as fluffy, inconsequential, or a distraction from the soul’s quest.

I regard beauty as an expression of divinity. I always thought it was the utmost courtesy to make the best of yourself, to be respectful of others' eyes, and to express light, sparkle, fun, creativity. Dressing well feels like a type of prayer and something that we all have control over, in a world where many aspects of our lives may seem beyond our control!

As JJ Martin the founder of the brand La Double J said in a recent interview with Vogue;

“The new mood in retail therapy involves, well, actual therapy.”

I don’t believe the censorious, condemnatory dialogue around sustainability is going to get us anywhere. It certainly won’t inspire us to shop more consciously! Joy, fun, and creativity are much more palatable.

So come on beauties; party season is approaching; Be illuminated by the sparkling rays of the disco ball, a beacon of hope and possibility shining light on election melancholia and Brexit dystopia. Whether you favour an LBD, a white tux, Halpern-inspired sequin razzle-dazzle, tantalising tulle à la Molly Goddard, or vintage 80s puff-sleeved Dynasty throwbacks; get your sparkle on and celebrate because life is a miracle, fashion is fun and your next best friend, lover or partner in crime is dying to meet you on the dance floor!

Image Credit: Pinterest

Tangoing in Killer Heels and Kimonos is always a good idea! 

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Diamonds of Azul dance and sparkle,

Singing a song of joy and restoration.

Waves stroke the shore

Like the soft touch of a painter’s brush.

Life is here, life is perfect,

This moment is everything.

Pure connection to all that is,

All that ever was and all that ever will be.

We find oursevles in this moment,

We meet ourselves in all our divine perfection,

All our woes fade away,

Their noise silenced by the whispering ocean.

We are the answers we seek,

We hold all the solutios in the palms of our hands,

In the velvet corridors of our hearts.

Everything we need is here, right now.

We are our greatest teachers, our greatest advisors.

If we could just listen to our own true voice

With as much attention as we do to others,

We would be at peace.

You don’t need to be anything other than that which you already are,

Your work is to remove the bryers,

thorns & spiked creepers your mind has built around your heart.

Image features the Pelagos Kaftan 

Inspire comes from the Latin word meaning to inflame or to blow in to. When you inspire something, it is as if you are blowing air over a low flame to make it grow.

What / who isnpires you, what does inspiration mean? Be the inspiration you want to see in the world is perahps a good mantra for the edge of the new era that we find ourselves on the precipice of.

Original thoughts, ideas, seem like a rare breed in the aesthetically oversaturated times we find oursevles living through. They are more pertinent than ever.

Inspiration can come from our connection with divine or with nature. One of my biggest sources of inspiration is the ocean, it gives me a sense of limitlessnes, beguiling beauty and oneness. It can also come in the form of a muse which we have seen through the ages and indeed is the case for many designers and creators. 

Each of us has something different to express, a different perspective to offer, a unique vision to share. If it remains unexpressed then it will go with you to the grave. So if there’s something you are aching to do, to share or to express, be bold, just do it, get it out there! 

Stay in the process without getting too attached to the result. I’ll leave you with one of my favourite quotes from John Lennon.

 “When you do something noble and beautiful and no one notices, don't be sad. Sunrise is a beautiful spectacle but without a doubt the greater part of the audience is still asleep.”

Image by the amazing photographer Hugh Arnold 

The Fashion Industry has, in recent years, been criticized for promoting a narrow perception of female beauty. A culture of exclusivity pervades, invoking insecurities and a sense of lack, fortifying the ”you can’t sit with us” hashtag mentality.

A much more interesting story is fashion as a vehicle for authenticity, female solidarity and social inclusion. Fashion has great power to mobilize social movements. Political ideologies were born from trailblazers such as Katherine Hamnett, giving a new platform to political protest with Statement Tees and Vivienne Westwood’s unsettling of a nation through her Punk Fashion Terrorism Assault on Thatcher’s England.

Fashion’s capacity to unite rather than divide, to be a force for social change and female empowerment is something to shout about. A friendship born from a casual conversation in an Ibizan market about beautifully bohemian bejewelled sandals, women giving each other a virtual high five in the street in mutual appreciation of each other’s style savvy attire; These moments of beauty, of kinship, are a fire of inspiration, that colour our worlds with fun, vibrancy and universality.

An extract from my article for Compassionate Business Magazine Salt https://www.wearesalt.org/stitch-witchery-embroidering-social-change-in-fashion/

Image Credit: rødgrød med fløde
http://code-fashion.tumblr.com

One of my biggest inspirations for starting GLOMAD was to bring more beauty to the world, whilst re-connecting women with their inner goddess energy, something which I feel can be increasingly challenging amidst the hyper speed mania of the technologically driven societies which vast swathes of the world's population are now living in. 

In my view, the way for women to celebrate their true power is to accentuate not repress their femininity. Some women have felt it necessary to assume a more masculine mantle to assert themselves in a male dominated, patriarchal world. 

The further the schism between our behaviour and our true nature the greater the level of anxiety, dissonance and discontent we experience. When women start competing with each other a vitrioloic culture of mistrust and jealousy arises. We are stronger united, celebrating each other’s strengths, attributes and gifts. We all have something different to offer; together we can bring out the best in each other. 

AS WITHOUT SO WITHIN

It's always been my belief that fashion far from being frivolous is a beautiful, fun, authentic expression of our inner creativity & beauty. 

Diaphanous fluid garment shapes encourage a lightness of movement, an otherworldly grace, creating space for the true feminine aspects to be expressed. I love to see the way these pieces change how women move, how they feel, as if the lightness of the flowing kaftan, kimono or voluminous dress allows an internal softening, a type of flight, an expansion, a revelling in the sheer joy of the gift of womanhood. 

Pink sands, Idaho skies, aqua marine waters; the beguiling beauty of Formentera makes the perfect bedfellow for the elegantly erudite Kallistrate Kimono. Kallistrate was a powerful, passionate, magnetic character from Ancient Greek mythology. The erudite aquatic inspired print combines lovingly with the beautifully elegant line of the kimono, perfect for Glomadic silk swathed island adventures.

These must surely be the most alluring beaches in Europe, more reminiscent of the pristine shores of the Caribbean or Indian Ocean, than the untamed beauty of Formentera's wilder sister Ibiza.

There's something about the light here that could convince a mermaid to sell her voice to the sea witch in exchange for staying forever on this seductive island if only just to feel that light dancing on her face for the rest of eternity.

Photography: Gee Palmer 

Instagram @geepalmer

www.glow-living.com 

Being in Seychelles feels like you just stumbled onto the film set of Jurassic Park or The Land Before Time, hardly surprising given that these are the most ancient islands in the world, with 115 coraline and granitic islands to choose from, you could spend a life time exploring their shores. 

Fairy Terns, Coco De Mer, Giant Tortoises, exoticism, sensuality, raw vivacity abounds and pulsates everywhere you turn. Resistance is futile to this utopian seduction. So many new vistas, dreamscapes & horizons for The Atlantis Collection to explore.....

Lilith Jardine Kimono 

There are few places in life that offer a remedy to the eccentric confusion of our quotidian lives, our human worries, a place for our burgeoning imaginations to reside. The mind often lingers in future places it can never truly occupy. Atlantis, an escapade of intricately carved rock faces hidden behind the dramatic drop of a cliff edge, offers such a sanctuary. The oscillating water basins and quarried earth mirror an efflorescent mural of the world.

As though the rocks have not just borne witness to, but crystallised in time the cycle of voices that have been moved by this place. Locked in time as a hippy enclave in the 60s and 70s, where the sun warms the adorning rocks of hidden landscape, endowing them with a voice that echoes with the breaking of waves like the elusive siren's call.

Altlantis marks an imprint in historical memory. Materials were extracted to build the fortified walls and labyrinthine alleys of D'alt Vila. In this sense, Atlantis becomes a junction between the history of human construction and fortification, and its latent portrayal as a mythical destination. The common denominator being the stardust that lies in all life. The fundamental composites of the cosmos meet here, in the chiffon movement of stardust from the walls of Ibiza town today, extracted from this interweaving environment, to the self same components of our being.

This fantastical element of the physical Atlantis also translates into the Atlantis beachwear collection. As I wonder through the Atlantis world, Barbarella the notoriously iconic inter-galactic space woman, in the eponymous body suit, is conjured from the expanding psyche. She is washed ashore from another dimension, 'The woman that fell to earth'.

Barbarella Bodysuit 

The cosmic ambience of Atlantis clothes the mind in a new image, where the ethereal being is witnessing the new earth for the first time. The fibres of the Barbarella body suit are woven with this concussed perception of the world. The body is as a transformative platform. This aspect of beachwear captures the living being in its cosmic rawness, its unprocessed and indigenous cloak, and returns it to the heart of the wearer / glomadic woman

Nurtured in the shimmering silver mermaid scale design, the artesan weaving of the body suit, is intricately involved in its individually crafted tapestry, emblazoning its naked veracity unto the outside environment. The image of the beautiful alien reignites this concept in an entirely nuanced vein of nomadic exploration as Barbarella meets Pelagos, the silk kaftan of ‘the open sea’, in craftsmanship of the self same inspiration.

Pelagos Kaftan 

Free-falling, unkempt, and exonerated in this mystical surrounding, the flow of the Pelagos kaftan seems to unravel the wearer through these mystic prisms of ethereal light. Released from occupation, obligation and weariness, the Glomadic entity moves with the agile, fluctuating wind.

Atlantis seems a perfect place to step into these roles, not only to gain a sense of inward ambience, but to retrieve the bare elements that the Glomad philosophy encases, a story that is forever being re-told in the fluid materials of the amorphous beachwear. In the Atlantis beachwear collection, beauty is ever adapting, morphing from an emergent horizon, transforming and transformative. It interlopes the gap between cosmic vastness, and ripens the explosions of light, from far off stars, weaving them into the fabric of our imagination. 

Guest Blog by Gabriella Morris