-Bum bags. Prejudices about tacky tourist attire aside, they are possibly the most practical way of schleping the essential things you need around. Add a serious makeover and rebranding courtesy of Celine and you have an unlikely contender for the new it-bag. If I could find one that was affordable but still chic (read: in leather or maybe canvas and without thirty zippers and/or waterproof material) I would be very tempted to buy it. I'm already dreaming about endless hands-free walks in the summer. After all, what do you really need besides some money, your phone if you feel like being reachable and a pair of sunglasses? Plus, I like the way a minimalist bum bag can be part of your outfit and act more like an accessory -like a cool belt- than an encumbering add-on.
-Flares. I need a new cut of jeans in my life -if you think about it, mom jeans came into fashion a couple of years ago already and so did cropped lengths, so it might well be time for something new! Personally, I would wear them as a nod to the 70's, maybe with clogs, a crochet top and even mini braids on my hair-, but they're also good as a 'smart' jean with a tailored shirt and they lengthen your legs if you wear them long with heels (the oldest trick in the book, I know). It'll be weird getting used to having so much spare fabric around my calves again after years of skinnies, though. Also confusing: not all flares are the same, some are extremely wide, some tiny, some high-waisted, some low. I trawled ASOS a little bit and I like the shape of these (although I'd buy them in blue denim).
-Graphic novels. Although university work is preventing me from reading much at the moment, I read the graphic novel Maus for a course and I thought it was brilliant. It is about the Holocaust, so not the lightest, most mood-lifting read -yet at the same time it reads really quickly because it's basically a comic strip. I admired how this text approaches the memory of the Holocaust in a very self-conscious, openly subjective way. Aside from earning Art Spiegelman a Pulitzer prize, Maus also legitimized the genre of the graphic novel as something that can qualify as 'serious' or 'quality' literature. Personally, I'm just beginning to explore this genre, and now seems like a good time to start given my lack of time for 'real' books. I think I know what my next read will be: one of Guy Delisle's graphic-novel-formal travelogues. I have already read Jerusalem and I thought it was great. It made me feel like I grasped the spirit of the city, problematized its dynamics with a sense of humor, showed what everyday life there was really like for the author... and, of course, made me really want to visit! He regularly moves to different places and he's (so far) published graphic novel-format works on Pyongyang (North Korea), Shenzhen (China), and Burma -which one should I pick?
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