Lana Del Rey

The next big thing, erm, according to some. But her song Video Games, which catapulted her to the fore, sure is a thing of beauty. I’ve been listening to it on a loop for a good while now, and what a gorgeously haunting song it is. My pick for Best Song of 2011. Her sort of debut album, Born to Die, was released into the world last week and has already shot to No.1 in 13 countries. Sounds peachy? Far from it; she’s got tongues lashing wagging, read on to know Why This Kolaveri Di for Lana Del Rey.

Okay, take a deep breath. She was born as Elizabeth Grant in 1986 to *minted parents* (her dad’s a millionaire, just saying) in New York City, and grew up in another rich men’s playground Lake Placid, New York. While studying metaphysics (which is working out whether it’s possible to mathematically prove God’s existence, if you didn’t know!) at Fordham University in NYC, she trawled bars in Brooklyn for a singing gig. Persistence pays as they say, ‘cos she bagged a recording contract with New York indie label 5 Points Records. Under her own name, Lizzy Grant, she released an EP titled Kill, Kill in October, 2008 and a full-length album in *January, 2010* titled Lana Del Ray, both of which tanked. In *March, 2010*, bizarrely, that album, along with footage/recordings/anything to do with Lizzy Grant, was scrubbed from the Internet. That is, there was no trace of Lizzy Grant to be found in the virtual world, and she even decamped… to London.

Lana Del Rey

Skip to July, 2011, and enters Lana Del Rey, the pillow-lipped pouty, sultry, seductive version of Lizzy Grant to be known as of now, to sign a recording contract with Interscope Records (did daddy bribe the record execs?). Suspiciously, that deal was not made public.

Then, the supposedly self-made video for Video Games surfaced on the internet, and, just like that, it went on to become crazily viral (did Interscope seed and viralize it? Cynical git you’re for thinking so…), making her the poster child for indie kids along the way.

Lizzy Grant (photo courtesy | HipsterRunoff.com)

In September, 2011, noted indie music and meme interpreter Carles, of Hipster Runoff, posted a bunch of old photos of Lizzy Grant LDR in which she had smaller lips, and with it started the storm about her authenticity altogether. Then in an attempt to refute allegations of cosmetic surgery through an interview with Complex, she accidentally (ha!) muddled with her cushty background: “I haven’t had anything done at all. Anyone who’s known me will tell you that. I’m sorry, but I was living in a trailer park for a few years. I didn’t even have enough money to buy Cocoa Puffs. ”

All very petty and irrelevant, I know. But can she actually sing ‒ live? Her TV debut, on 11^th October, 2011, at Britain’s Later… with Jools Holland implied that, erm, she couldn’t. She made a few more live performances and unfortunately, none of them suggested otherwise.

But what really opened the floodgates was her performance on her U.S. television debut at Saturday Night Live on 14^th January, 2012, which, in all honesty, was shambles. Somewhere amidst it all ‒ and adding fuel to the fire ‒ Billboard confirmed the rumoured Interscope deal, and that her album would be coming out in early 2012. Which it did on 31^st of January ‒ to mixed reviews.

So, yeah, some people feel victims of an immense confidence trick: far from being an organic wunderkind, her transformation from Lizzy to Lana was plotted all along by shrewd record execs ‒ and backed by her wealthy father. Is she actually talented; if so, why didn’t she take off when she was Lizzy Grant? SO, friends, would you give LDR a listen; or, has her spot of airbrushing the past backstory made you all too sceptical to give her any credibility as an artist? I’m yet to listen to the whole album but the three songs that I’ve heard so far, the misanthropic me loved ‒ think I’ll go for it.

Fashion Spotting at Sula Fest

This weekend over 8,000 (give or take a few) people turned up for the two-day Sula Fest. Nashik was brimming with folks who wanted to soak up the sun with a glass of vino and listen to some good music. Where there is a music festival, there is some interesting fashion, and I wanted to document it all!

It really is the era of travel and adventure, everyone we spotted was wearing something from one of their trips. Their looks were so global and trendy in an eclectic way. Here are some of their gems from their wardrobe!

Juhi

Her Style: Urban Bohemia
What We Love: Her ring she got from an exhibition in town (such a Mumbai-kar!) 

This girl was our last but most trendy fashion spotting victim, she is the one you should be thanking for all your fashionable high street clothes. She recently joined the design team for Vero Moda, Zara and Mango etc (I believe). Her style is easily accessible and definitely something we recommend!

Lady in H&M and Caché

Her Style: Feminine Ladylike
What We Love: Her Caché cuff

I’m all for ladylike dressing, I think it’s so chic and  polished, just like this lady above. I spotted the H&M dress from afar (as I have a similar one in fuchsia pink) and then my attention was drawn to her cuff. Don’t have a statement neck piece? Well here is another option you must have, a statement cuff. She got hers from Caché in the U.S, but do a little search and you too can find something just as bold as this right here.

Elisha

Her Style: Contemporary Boheme
What We Love: Curio Cottage statement turquoise necklace

Elisha Saigal is always on the run, and needs her clothes to be easy and comfortable, especially for those whole day events. She loves to keep things simple and make her accessories the focus of her outfit. Simplicity is key for a working girl, we second that!

Manisha Prakash

Her Style: Fashion Forward
What We Love: Her Swedish ring and pendant

Manisha Prakash is a stylist at heart and strives to change up her look everyday. She is an avid collector of interesting accessories and believes in the power of unique separates. Her wardrobe is interchangeable and can be worn many times, in different ways, truly a stylish lady. FYI: Day 2 brown blouse is from Monkey See Monkey Want.

Dr Marten Dude

His Style: Mod Rugged 
What We Love: His maroon Dr Martens.

Who says you need to have a full blown beard to appear rugged? This gentlemen teams up his rugged Dr Martens with mod elements such as his slim fit ankle length pants and plaid shirt. Mixing styles make up his look. We’re totally digging the boots btw!

Girl in Aldo

Her Style: Zen Pop
What We Love: Aldo tie up flats 

We spotted this girl sitting with her friends and being completely at ease, which I’m sure comes from her comfy, anti fit clothing. Her pants are from Si Branché in Bandra, in case you wanted to go out there and get them. She adds a fun shoe to make the outfit interesting and a little pop of colour to her beige clothing.

Kareena Aggarwal

Her Style: Experimental Girl Next Door
What We Love: Her bold choice of colour

We couldn’t miss this pretty little thing in her bright orange dress, she loves to experiment with colour and picks up accessories where ever she travels. Orange is a great colours for our skin tone, so whether you wear it head to toe or a small flash, have fun with this colour.

Divyak D’Souza and Zahra Khan

Their Style: Funky Fresh
What We Love: Their colour palette

It was hard to miss these front row-ers, I’m normally chatting with Divyak D’Souza at fashion weeks, so it was great to catch up on a social level. Both of them clearly love their fashion, mixing and matching their colours and accessories to make this amazing collage of personal expression.

Now for Some Trend Spotting!

Teertha Shetty and Tara D'Souza

I saw a lot of ladies wearing these fedora hats with their maxi dresses. Both items are a great addition to your wardrobe, so if you haven’t got one, go get one now, especially since the weather is warming up! Another great summer trend is the side swept braid and bun (yes it’s back!), perfect for those sultry days where you want your hair off your neck!

Gobal tribe

Commit to the global tribe trend with bold embroidery day dresses. The girl in yellow got hers from street shopping in Colaba and the girl in black got hers from Global Desi. Both these ladies finished their look with bags from a different country, the skull bag is from Thailand and the tribal figures bag is from Brazil, what a great mix of global style!

Sofia Coppola with Marni's founder/chief designer Consuelo Castiglioni at Marrakech while shooting of the fashion film

Marni for H&M. Another designer/high street collab I’m madly excited about, other than the Jason Wu for Target one, of course. Its campaign video dropped yesterday and… What an achingly beautiful fashion film it is by Sofia Coppola (yep, H&M tapped in an Oscar winner)! You know you want to peep, so click on ;-)

Stills from the fashion video featuring Imogen Poots

Set to Bryan Ferry’s “Avalon”, it has up-and-coming actress Imogen Poots swan about, along with a bunch of beautiful rich-looking kids (Annabelle Dexter-Jones, Charlotte/Samantha/Mark Ronson’s half-sister; models  and actors Liu Wen, Sam Hayes, Antonine Peduzzi, Nicolas Peduzzi, Charlie Klarsfeld and Jonatan Frenck), in a villa in Marrakech ‒ all the while looking effortlessly cool in Marni for H&M clobber. I absolutely loved the hazy, languid and cool-girl vibe of the film, don’t you too? While you’re at it, check out the behind-the-scenes video too for a closer look at the clothes…

Marni for H&M print ads

…which appear to be quintessentially Marni: boho-chic at its sophisticated best. Grrrreat, cos Marni’s so bloody expensive as befitting of a fashion connoisseur’s label of choice (I mean it sells at a much higher price point than your average designer labels like Fendi, Miu Miu, Missoni, Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, Versace, Roberto Cavalli, Ralph Lauren, Céline, Chloé and their ilk), and from 8^th March onwards (for a limited time, mind) you can get it ‒ at high-street prices. Score!

WittyGift Boxes

Adventure Seaker, Indulgence Junkie, Spa Lover or Culture Vulture? Tell us what your Valentine is like in the comments below and win them a WittyGift Box of your choice!

This Valentine’s Day do something you’ve never done before; gift your Valentine an experience! Lucky for you MissMalini has 8 awesome WittyGift Boxes for you to win :)
Psst! Don’t forget to tell me what city you’re in so I can send you the right box xoxo

WittyGift provides over 800 of the most fun-filled and thrilling experiences like massages, beauty treatments, fine art, kayaking, paragliding and even Japanese cooking classes! Available in a variety of themes like Adventure, Adrenaline, Wellness, Culture, Gourmet, Dance etc. with a price range of 999rs to 7999rs, there is a box for every occasion and budget.

Wellness Box

Wellness WittyGift Box

Wellness Box : 2000rs
Choice of activities include massages, manicures, pedicures, skin treatments, makeovers, art therapy, fitness, yoga etc. from AromaThai, Lakme, Birla Ayurveda Vaidyashalya, Ambika Pillai, B-Blunt, Sykz Fitness and many more.

Adventure Box

Adventure WittyGift Box

Adventure Box : 4000rs
Choice of activities include paragliding, rafting, paintballing, camping, star gazing, trekking, flying fox, zorbing, quad biking, sailing etc. from Natura Adventures, Wanderlust Travels, Adventure Plus etc.

Culture Box

Culture WittyGift Box

Culture Box : 3000rs
Choice of activities include salsa, ballroom, photography, film making, painting, wine tasting, multi cuisine cooking classes, pottery, guitar, bollywood, fashion design, color exploration, belly dance, acting, ayurvedic treatments, yoga, kathak from Sandip Soparrkar, JJ Rodriguez, Yellow spiders Pottery, Nrityanidhi, Guitar Hall, Delhi Dance Academy, The Art Loft, School of Symphony, Pulse the Studio, etc.

Indulgence for 2

Indulgence for 2 WittyGift Box

Facebook Like! WittyGiftBox
Twitter: @WittyGiftBox
website: www.wittygift.com
email: info@wittygift.com
Tel: +919820881993

@nrizwanu at Lake View Resort

Lakeview Resort

@MissMalini at Lake View Resort

Mumbai getting to you? Craving some peace and quiet? Looking for a quick getaway? With final wedding preparations hitting a fevered pitch this week, we sure did! We decided to accept an invitation from Greenarth Leisure to check out Lakeview Resort, an up and coming leisure development spread over 80 acres of land in Vikramgad, about 2 hours outside Mumbai. Bordered by a private natural lake and a river, Lakeview features a clubhouse with 8 guestrooms, conference facilities, and a newly built swimming pool. We were sold on the idea of a quick, mid-week getaway to go boating on the lake and horse-riding on the resort’s two horses!

Scenic Drive

Scenic Drive

Open Skies

Adrenaline junkies also have the option of ATV rides, but lazier souls such as ourselves were intrigued by the idea of whittling time away at the property’s fishing pond. Once complete, the property will also feature roughly 140 weekend villas (as of now only the sample villa is up but 75 have been pre-sold) with a central garden and sports facilities. Until then, the surrounding property consists mainly of open space and clean air, a welcome change from the congestion and traffic snarls of the city. Aside from its natural landscape, Lakeview is making a big bet on affordability – a membership for 30 room nights, spread over 10 years, costs Rs. 30,000 (or Rs. 1000 a night). Greenarth has ambitious plans to build up to 30 more such properties across Maharashtra and Goa, all centered on the theme of the quick getaway. After our relaxing day away, we look forward to visiting some more of them!

Guesthouse

Courtyard

Guestroom

Horse by the River

Horse Ride

Boating

Hard at Work

Inside Road

Sample Villa

Facebook Like! greenarth.leisure
website: greenarth.in
Twitter: @greenarthresort

More pictures of our getaway here!

Narendra Kumar, Prasad Naik, Giselle Monteiro and Harry Cheng

Giselle Monteiro flew down specially for the launch of the ‘Cool Japan’ calendar, she’d arrived into Mumbai just that morning, but managed to look as fresh and as perky as ever.

The event celebrated the 60 years of Japan and India’s association plus the launch of Narendra Kumar’s Cool Japan Calendar. I’ve been eagerly awaiting this calendar as the pictures are stunning thanks to photographer Prasad Naik and Nari’s impressive Japanese inspired collection.

Favourites

Each of the pictures have a red dot in it, and it’s the thread that holds all the months together, no we’re not talking about our bindi but rather the Japanese flag. Although, since this calendar is very much about the celebration of the 60 years between the two countries, one could say that the dot represents both aspects. I caught up with Narendra and Prasad to find out just how similar both countries are, as well as how it was shooting in Japan for 8 days. As you can imagine both said it was tons of fun but more importantly they now have a new favourite drink, check out the video to find out what it is!

Maybelline New York BB Cream

Nowadays, we are all traveling so much, and that means packing up our face kits and lugging it with us wherever we’re heading. Ladies, I’m happy to announce that Maybelline New York has given us a solution in ONE squeeze bottle. Although I haven’t tried it yet, it’s supposed to do all the 8 things mentioned above!

BB Cream

Since I’ll be going to Goa soon, for MissMalini’s wedding, this is one product that’ll help minimise my bulky make-up bag.I like that it has a bit of foundation in it as well (3 shades – nude, radiant and natural) – for working girls like us, it’s great to use a tinted moisturiser, instead of heavy makeup, on a regular basis. So if you’re a makeup product junkie like me, then enter the contest!

Thank you Maybelline New York for making my suitcase just a little bit lighter xoxo

Uma Thurman in salwar kameez!

That’s right! Who’d have thunk it that Uma Thurman would be seen prancing around NYC in gorgeous desi garb? But the reason…?

Absolutely loving everything about Debra Messing here

Errr… She and Debra Messing were actually filming scenes of the highly anticipated TV series titled Smash.

It is behind-the-scenes look at a team preparing to put on a Broadway musical about the life of Marilyn Monroe ‒ so I suppose it’s a musical series in the vein of Glee. Looks promising, no? I’m looking forward to it…

Smash poster

It’s due to hit the TV screens in the US on 6^th of February (actually, NBC has already put up the pilot episode online) and the rest of the world soon.

Love, love Uma Thurman's salwar kameez, too!

Debra Messing has a starring role in the series, and Uma Thurman is listed for one episode so far; episode 5 specifically, and as these pictures suggest it’ll have an Indian theme, so a must-watch then. Looks like the world can’t have enough of Marilyn Monroe!

Victoria, Victoria Beckham on slebs (from left to right): VB herself, Danielle Linekar, Celine Buckens, Michelle Williams, Julianne Moore, Katy Perry

Remember me burbling about Victoria Beckham’s *relatively* cheap line, “Victoria, Victoria Beckham”, some time back? Yes, yes, yes, it’s now in stores (Harvey Nichols in London and Birmingham, errr,  for now) – and is every bit as brilliant as expected and then some (proof: it nearly sold out in just *one* day). BUT, what impressed me the most is the fashion video VB came up for it. It’s fun, clever, quirky and cat-tastic! Then there’s the little matter of the video going crazily viral since its release a mere four days back. I’ve already hit replay a gazillion times; you probably will, too. Click through to watch it.

Directed by the 27-year old super-talented illustrator and film-maker Quentin Jones (it’s a she, btw), the video is being beamed at the windows of Harvey Nichols store in London. “This collaboration is really exciting for me,” VB said in a release. “For the Victoria line I wanted to appeal to a slightly younger audience – super chic but with a sense of humour and an edge and that’s exactly what Quentin brought to the creative process.  I really wanted to capture the essence of the playful feminine character at the heart of the collection and Quentin has realised that for me in her unique, innovative style.”

Passers-by found marvelling at the installations, conceptualised by VB and Quentin Jones, in the windows of Harvey Nichols, London

The bril fashion video being beamed at the windows of Harvey Nichols in London – and people stopping by to watch, obv!

Victoria, Victoria Beckham on display at the first floor of Harvey Nichols, London. Btw, how adorable are the bespoke kitty-cat ragdoll heads by artist and dollmaker Alice Mary Lynch?

Now some hard facts about the collection itself… It’s already been spotted on slebs like Michelle Williams, Katy Perry, Julianne Moore, Danielle Linekar (wife of ex-footballer Gary Linekar) and Celine Buckens (War Horse actress). The pink and black scalloped (worn by VB and Celine Buckens), the cat print ‘patch pocket tunic’ (bubba Harper has a mini version of it – how, how, how cute!) and the cloud print ‘Good Heavens’ (as seen on Danielle Linekar) dresses have sold out on the first day (and have overwhelming waiting lists). I’ve trawled the eBay but couldn’t find a V, VB item listed there *yet*, which means people really, really, really want these dresses (no selling on at a windfall for the girlfriends!). Impressed much? Coming soon to net-a-porter.com!

Sula Fest 2011

Whine for your wine (again) and we’ll give you a VIP couple pass for Sula Fest 2012! Post your suggestion in the comments below to win.

That’s right, once again whining will get you your way (all the way to a Wine Festival in Nashik in fact!) The Sula Fest is awesome and gets better every year, this time you just need to b*tch and moan about why YOU deserve to win tickets and MissMalini will give you a couple! Quick crib away in the comments below xoxo

P.S. MissMalini went for Sula Fest 2010 and 2011, which she said was epic, can’t wait to experience it myself!

Taal Inc

It’s that time of the year when the party season has died down and work is back in full swing. Boy are we ready to party again, huh? Well here is an option – wine, music and getting a bit happy – Sula Fest is back. The reason why I’m so excited about it, is because I’ve never been to any of their fests in the past, and all my friends who have gone, say it was brilliant. Need more incentive? We, at MissMalini, are giving away one VIP couple pass that’s super exclusive (read: only Rajeev Samant, organiser of the fest, and his friends get these). Lucky you!

Gowri and Mad Maxx

To get everyone into the Sula Fest spirit, they held a pre-party at Blue Frog recently, with artists Gowri, Taal Inc., and Mad Maxx. I especially loved the band called Taal Inc. – they are an all Indian group, who play African percussion/ folk music; an odd mix but they’re so good. Check out all the pictures from that night.

Sula Fest

I’m personally looking forward to seeing Dualist Inquiry (he’s so cute) and Reggae Rajahs, as well as listening to Nikhil D’Souza (I’ve never seen heard him live before). Can’t wait for the weekend!  Will be sure to fill you in on all the celeb spotting and fashionable people, so be sure to check back.