Maria - shorts and half-boots

There are people that don't match up to our expectations. There are others, however, that what you see is what you get. That applies to Maria. So beautiful and so pleasant

My first turban

If you ask me for an exotic destination, the first country that comes into my mind is India. Besides, I have a hyper-romantic conception of the Indian woman and every time I think about its male version it always occurs to me that scene from The English Patient where the character played by Juliette Binoche starts drooling about Naveen Andrews (Lieutenant Kip Singh) washing his hair after we’d seen him carefully taking off his turban.

Some of the photos that show up here are concepts that I had previously designed in my mind and just waited for the right opportunity to materialize. The turban was exactly on of them. I must admit it was the turban that took me to Martim Moniz. This part of Lisbon and the idea about it that the people from Lisbon have sends me back to everything we cheer about London, New York and all of those big cities that serve as paradigms for the “melting pots” and the “multiracial societies”. The truth is that we tend to appreciate these sociological concepts better if they’re several thousands of miles away from our homes. This is just my own personal confession…

This all came to my mind the moment I walked away from Balbir Singh. I just never would have thought that his last name would be the same as the movie character responsible for my charming vision of the Indian man.

Smells like Summer

The Gentleman - lilac mood

Tropical Lisbon

I can’t think of any other European capital where sea diving and History can get along so well as in Lisbon. I can imagine, for example, that for those that live somewhere between the English Channel and the North Sea, the idea of being able to go to the beach in March or October can seem… tropical. Our Portuguese judgement tells us that anyone that loves a shirt like these should keep them religiously destined for a beach party or a vacation in the Pacific, but go and tell that to those that only have 1500 hours of sunshine per year.

Rossio train station - bohemian vintage

I’d read somewhere about a Titanic exhibition in Lisbon. The idea didn’t got stuck into my mind, but when I walked by the Rossio train station, I thought this was a good excuse to see the old (but renovated) station. Too bad the price of the tickets didn’t quite fit into my concept of killing time waiting for my lunch company to arrive. I turned my back to the shipwreck and faced Gonçalo. Well, the rest of the story, you already know…

Conference about style

Apparently these two gents were coordinating a fashion production right in the centre of Lisbon. For some reason I can’t explain I’ve found them a more interesting concept to work with than the model. I have to admit she was probably 7 years younger and 3 centimetres taller than me. Even so...

São Saturnino - green over green

An English lady at Guincho

How wonderful to see the effect that a single accessory can have on the whole.

4 ways to use your head

Chequers and coincidences

I’ve realised some months ago, reading a fashion editorial in Men’sHealth, that chequers are back for good. It reminded me of the shirt I (probably) took to a Pearl Jam concert in 96 and it made me realise that I’m not that immune to fashion tendencies as much as I would like to think I am. We’re done about chequers.

I like coincidences. They don’t leave me wondering about the good or bad energy of the universe, but I find them amusing. These two fellows are German. In 5 days, I’ve found them in two different places of the city. Ok, they’re designers, they’re here for the OFFF, but it’s still a funny coincidence. The thing is that I really enjoyed talking with these guys. More than a photoblog or a fashionblog, this is a peopleblog. Without nice people like these two guys The Lisbon Tailor wouldn’t have survived for more than two weeks.

The day Terreiro do Paço stood still

I heard a horn. Drivers never tended to go crazy about me walking on crosswalks, but I turned around by instinct. I saw two police agents, gazing, the same agents that had just missed two blatant proposals to get cocaine (from there to Rossio, the rule is the same: just as long as you don’t try to offer “dope” to the gentlemen in the uniforms, everything will go on just fine). The way they elbowed themselves reminded me of how we used to do it, in our pre-teens, every time we saw Mariana Cardoso, a girl from our school, walking in front of us. I held the camera firmly and took the shot. Some may like it, others may not… But the fact is Terreiro do Paço stood still.

Encore

“I just don’t know how you could not shoot him again”, my girlfriend said when, one day, going up the avenue, we found him walking the dog. That’s more or less the feeling I get every time I come across Luis. When he told me he was going to Paris in June, I couldn’t resist and suggested him “Until then, every time we meet I’ll take you a picture”. Here’s his answer. I win, you win and the Taylor wins. And I hope Luis wins too.

My (2nd) precedent

(Like my 1st precedent) I would like to publicly apologise to this lady and, at the same time, thank her for being here. I loved her look. I can only hope that someday she can meet this blog and also (who knows?) love it.

Campo Grande, summer look

So Indie

I don’t care much about labels, and even when I was 15 I still didn’t have much patience for that “urban tribes” crap that everybody kept identifying in every type of hairdo, length of pants, colour of underwear or in the number of times you pick your nose. But the truth is I have to name every post, or at least I think that their beauty and sense begins on the title itself. Hence, and taking into account the look of those that show up here…

Bahia de Alcudia and Magaluf, long shorts (male and female)

Port de Sóller - An English Lady in a "North-American" dress

"I´m just an old lady" she said. I just answered "Well...I love your dress and my girlfriend agrees".

Palma - the tourist, the girl and the street artist

United Colours of Vespa

I like Time Out and apparently Time Out likes me too

It feels good to see a young blog like this in an article in such an amazing magazine. Thank you TIME OUT Lisboa!

About a jacket

A few days ago my godson asked me for advice about what his first suit should be, and I told him on the telephone: “dark blue, two buttons and two vents”. The same suggestion I would give to my friends when - on the day before their first oral exam in college or their first job interview – they told me they wouldn’t like to wear the same suit that their mom had bought them one day for their cousin’s wedding.
Dark blue will always be my choice for a first suit. It’s possible that grey will come up as my second, but a checkered suit will surely be my third choice. When you buy a checkered jacket, you risk yourself to: a) losing another afternoon trying to find the right tie, b) having your boss looking down on you and c) getting complements from the only women in the world that will never stop doing it – your grandmothers. How should I put it… a while ago I saw a blog called this is our thing. Well, the checkered coat is definitely “my thing”.

Sunny day, rainy look

Lapels are so passé

Three moments

Three simple moments, three graceful moments (and three different sandal models)

Tallinn girls

April showers (the girl and the lady)

The women in red

The movie was shot in ’84 and the memory I have from it can even be more remote than the one I have of Maradona taking his hand to the ball two years later in Mexico. In fact, it took several more years for me to switch priorities between girls and football – the only truly scientific criteria to define the beginning of men’s puberty. Basically I remember a character with a stupid face and a huge flying red blur. The moment being portrayed here is more sober, but every time I see a woman in red it reminds me of the movie.

I didn’t ask her, but I could bet that the trench coat we see here is from H&M. Ten years ago I would go nuts every time a Swedish friend brought me a sweater from there, and several years later, with the backpack on my back and a train ticket semi-stuck in my boxers, passing through other European countries where I would find this store with Inter Rail prices. It’s been 6 years since the first store opened at Chiado. Meanwhile, many others opened, but unlike what usually happens, that didn’t stop me from coming back.

The Burberry detail

If it was winter time I would dedicate a post to white trench coats. It’s an old attraction, from those days when I used to read Dick Tracy’s comic books and I would be impressed by any hero that would beat up a bunch of bad guys and showed up holding a good looking woman. But today I’ll stick with that neckpiece detail. Hardly any American label could ever compete with the elegance of that British pattern. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy those fat letters referring to the big American universities, and I’m even willing to pay 20 or 30 dollars for such a souvenir, with “Yale” or “Berkeley” stamped on and (I’m pretty sure) Hanes or Fruit of the Loom tags on it. I just don’t feel qualified to pay out 100 or 200 euros to advertise whatever brand it is on my chest. But for that pattern…
P.S.- I’ve checked it out in several sources, it really was Thomas Burberry that invented the trench coat (1880)

Siamese twins

Man in white

Dressing all white is not easy. And even though the weather invites me to, I always end up saying no. The challenge is simple, trying to look in the mirror without it making us feel as if being part of a boy band. But when I saw this gentleman that didn’t even cross my mind, and I doubt that his mirror would have anything to add. Only when I turned around I wondered “how come I never dress like this?”.

Amine

He’s French, and he’s been in Lisbon for a year. Amine speaks with a kind of innocence difficult to find. He asked me what I thought about the price of the t-shirts. A good salesman doesn’t ask if it’s cheap, he claims it. I just suggested that he could make a discount if someone bought a pair (us, consumers, we always like to think we’re paying less than someone has already paid before). shukr@live.fr