Out East.

I'm still here, but I've only got a week left in Berlin (in fact, this time next week I'll be on a train somewhere around Leeds, on my way back to Durham from my Dad's). Last week, though, I had a week off work and I popped out to Poland and to Budapest and mostly forgot to take photos.

Here are some of the ones I did take...

Buildings in Warsaw old town//

Sunset over the mountains in Slovakia (taken on the bus from Krakow to Budapest)//

various sights of Budapest from various angles

Poznan (of which there are no pics...) was wonderful; Budapest even more so. Warsaw was nice enough but I didn't need to stay so long, and I have no desire to return, unlike most of the other places I've visited on my travels.

All the above pics are from instagram, btw...

Eagle!

all imgs from style.com

An unlikely feature-ee on venturess, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac* showed a primary coloured (and black, of course) collection full of bird motifs and aztec style patterns and faces.

I'm not crazy about the gimmicky bird shoulders and such like, and some of the prints I like are on shapes I can't stand (and vice versa) but there are some great pieces here - if only the make-up wasn't so off-putting!

The black/yellow ombré suit (look 2) and the mirrored wings on bright backgrounds (top in look 1, trousers in looks 5 and 7) are the pieces that stood out to me, but perhaps I'm just coming around to prints and bright, bright colours... (it certainly seems that way, if you scroll through the last few posts!)

*no, I don't know how you pronounce it either. What fashion degree?

dior.

all imgs from style.com

I don't often post/care about the Christian Dior show, but multiple thumbnails caught my eye this season and all 56 looks graced my screen with their presence - OK, that, and my interest was peaked given all the talk about the house of Dior recently.

Absolutely stunning. Not necessarily in an 'I-want-every-piece' or a 'good-lord-look-at-the-theatricality' sense, as is my usual wont, but simply in an 'oh-my-that's-beautiful' sense. I do, of course, appreciate the silhouette (but then, the nipped in waist and flared skirts are quintessentially Dior, so, y'know) and the silver dress in look 6 is PERFECTION IN DRESS FORM, it is elements other than those that drew me in.

The blown-up, metallic, barely there houndstooth. The buttery twisted leather. The off-the-shoulder leather, paired with a high necked layer, belt, and silk pencil skirt wonder that is look 3. Even the gowns. !!!. I'm so not a gown girl, but the gowns. The gowns.

While every designer under the sun is being touted to take over the reigns at Dior (and some a little ridiculous - Alexander Wang?!? AT DIOR?!?! I just don't see how the aesthetics could possibly work), I, for one, am more than happy to see Bill Gaytten continue to head up Dior if he's going to produce shows like this.