November Diaries - Ann Demeulemeester

Normally, this time of the year has our flat village of a city teeming with red leaves and thinning trees. But Montréal is surprisingly still green for November, and balmy-warm too! I'm still happily biking to work every day, my Dries Van Noten's sliding down my nose. I'm even able to dress in light layers for my ride back home after catching a yoga class (I'm doing the 30 Day Moksha Hot Yoga challenge for the second time this year!).

The warm temperature is finding its way conspicuously in my wardrobe choices too which synchs up conveniently with the fact that I'm still poring over images from the Spring/Summer 2012 collections.  I can't get the moody yet light Ann Demeulemeester SS12 looks out of my head! I find myself incorporating Indian sari-like draping and long and flowy dresses paired with tough footwear or a hat. Here are some of my favorite looks from Ann's SS12 collection...

Portishead, playing outside beneath a clear night sky on 7/10/11 @ Quai Jacques Quartier, Montreal 

While we're on the topic of devastatingly beautiful things that stay in your head... This year I experienced two concerts which have tattooed themselves on the inside of my head and heart: Portishead, and James Blake.  Portishead's lead singer, Beth Gibbons, made me rethink what an artist can be in the field of music. Seriously. And James Blake is the manifestation of the old adage that you have to know what you are doing before you know how to mess with it. He did his version of Joni Mitchell's "A Case Of You", which (I know, not even I can believe I'm saying this!), rivals the original. It's not even that these artists' music has dominated my iPod these days so much as moments from their concerts have been swishing around my mind when everything else is quiet. I'll find myself singing The Rip while I'm cooking or Glory Box while I'm biking.

These striking images and arresting sounds are with me this rollickingly delightful Fall.

O' Happy Fall. What an enchanting time of the year.