Since Sven desperately wanted to order a magnum bottle of champagne, the atmosphere went in a jiffy from rather neat to rather gay. We decided to leave the restaurant with dignity and move over to an even more sinful place called Café Beveren, also located at the Ernest Van Dijckkaai.

Café Beveren is a cosy café with a more than darkbrown interior. Visitors and regulars are taken way back in time. The eye-catcher of this bar is the Decap organ that plays nostalgic music all night long.  For those who can’t seem to get enough of it all, there is also a regular jukebox with more “up to date” music. Believe it or not, but, in the middle of all the madness, the outcast characters, a bunch of polonaise dancing fellas and a slight hint of sad athmosphere, it was me who drew the attention of one of the regular customers. He came towards me, although I was hidden behind my male accompaniment, and gave me a genuine “Café Beveren” T-shirt. He was convinced I deserved it for being such “a good girl” :-). Most surprising birthday present ever… love it. Afterwards, while fitting at home, we realised, that my husband looked way much more sexy in the T-shirt than I did. Damnit.

Rutile is the most common form of titanium dioxide and well known for its habit of forming needle-like inclusions within other minerals, especially Quartz, in the form of long and slender yellow straw-like crystals. These inclusions can range from scattered needles to dense parallel fibers within a host mineral. A well-known form of Rutile is in the form of dense golden-yellow needles of Quartz included within transparent, colorless Quartz. This interesting combination is known as Rutilated Quartz, and is used both as a collectors mineral and gemstone. The name Rutile is derived from the Latin “Rutilus”, in reference to a common color habit of this mineral.

Pieter designed a graphic golden ring to make this stone radiate. Subtle, though, because of its size, quite a statement.

Picture by Cristina de la Madera.

I always feel like an inquisitive child when visiting an exhibition, absorbing the words of the guide as a spongue and scanning the rooms as if I was on a hunt for hidden treasures. Born and raised as an Antwerp fashion addict, I have to love the work of our Antwerp Six beacon Dries Van Noten. But I must admit, that I never fully understood the driving forces behind his collections. The exhibition gave me more than a simple satisfaction of my hunger for new insights. Mr Van Noten doesn’t consider the artwork in the exhibition as a simple decoration, but combined different elements to give us a grasp on his creative process. The combination of these elements and how they are composed behold an unaffectedness that seems über logic to me. The way in which the designer spins his creative web in his mind ressembles the feeling I have when creating a make-up, hairstyling or styling look. One can be inspired by a simple fragment of an image, a person, music, an utterance or even a smell, as long as you know your classical backgrounds pretty well.

Most enjoyable was the fact, that we -and of course a lot of other pursuers of beauty- share the same fascinations. Dries Van Noten is inspired by punk and Vivienne Westwood (who should be queen of Europia if you ask me), animals,  Hitchcock, Jimi Hendrickx, The Piano, olfactoric pleasures, Spanish kitsch and dance-dance-dance! I will try to highlight only my top three eye-openers of this exhibition, in an attempt to tame my well-known prolixity.

1. Etuis de trichoptères by Hubert Duprat. What a marvel. Duprat collaborates with Caddisfly Larvae to build aquatic cocoons from gold, pearls and turquoise gemstones. Unbeleavably beautiful.
2. The scented walls by Sissel Tolaas. Sissel Tolaas is a Norwegian researcher, chemist and artist who is fascinated by the science and art of fragrances. She impregnated two walls with the scent of the earth and the smell of a damp garden. I didn’t want to leave this space, it was too addictive.
3. Elsa Schiaparelli’s 1930’s evening gown and coats. I’m addicted to glamour and evening wear, so, what can I say. Elsa Schiaparelli forms one of the foundations of the idea we have now of what glamour and refinement should be.

Here we are, a fine selection of bloggers, at the new photowall at the entrance of the MoMu. Of course, I had to look up my favourite exhibition in this museum ever, “Birds of Paradise”, all about feathers in fashion, arts and performance. I’m wearing a backpack by MCM, got it at de Bijenkorf in Amsterdam. My cardigan is Karen Millen. I’m chatting with Ianthe De boeck, ‎Social Media Officer at BOZAR and Camille Pollie, host of “Weekend Camille” at MNM radio and fellow make-up artist, two delightful ladies who definitely share my idea of enjoying beauty, having fun and delight in nibbling on a fine Boule de New York, offered to us after the guided tour.

The class of 2015 :-). The long black dress with high split is vintage Mango, glitter shoes by Tamaris and necklaces, of course, by Pieter Nulens.

After this event, my father asked me to go get a little electric heater at the site where we are building our new home, very nearby the Momu, and bring it towards our place in Deurne, where we live temporarily during the renovations. The result of this request was a rather funny appearance of me sitting on the tram wearing my glittershoes, my backpack, extremely long false lashes, yellow acryl nails and this dust-covered heater by my side. A lot of curious glances fell to me.

If you think this post is taking you on a sentimental journey already, I have to warn you for what’s coming next. She also gave Lili, my daughter, a small version of this bracelet, since she is her godchild. On her first charm are engraved the letters “I” and “L”. You can imagine Lili’s radiating little face while wearing the same bracelet as her mummy when we are having a party or special event. Especially, since she realizes that she got it from her favourite “Tantinés”.

Ines intended the charm to be filled with other charms that remind us of special places step-by-step, but, to be honest, I like it very much as it is right know. In fact, I liked it so much, that I gave her and Michelle, her little daughter and my godchild, the same set half a year later. The only difference are the letters “E” and “M” on Michelles bracelet.

I got so many positive reactions, that Pieter is planning to create a whole new collection based on this jewel. The concept is still top secret, though

This is a 18k pink golden ring. It contains a pink moonstone and two diamonds on the sides.

Picture by Stany Dederen

This is a 18K palladium white golden ring, with tourmaline, sapphires and brown diamonds. On the underside, there are 4 hearts forming the structure in whitch the gems are placed.