Autumn Interview

I always love doing these interviews - this one marks that glorious time of the year, the smokey, dark nights of Autumn and involves a cool girl who has a very amusing blog.

I met Livvy through her boyfriend at a house (flat) party on Shoreditch High Street. Her tweets are some of my very favourites. Livvy is a student and lives between Essex and Hertfordshire and is a girl very much after my own heart - we share lots of likes including the 60s, cooking and BBC6 music. Below illustrates how she spends her days and what she has planned for the months ahead.. oh, and some great beauty advice too - Find her blog Thoughts of Olivia here and her twitter, here.


1.) How do you start your day?

I normally have to set my alarm about half an hour before I need to get up so I can snooze for a little bit. If I have lectures, I’ll get dressed, eat and do my hair and makeup in about 30 minutes, it doesn’t take me too long in the morning. If it’s the weekend, I’ll mooch around in my pyjamas for a bit, watching the news or a cookery show and eating peanut butter on toast before having a bath. I much prefer baths to showers, if I had the time I’d have one every day. Then I’ll get ready slowly listening to music, usually Radio 6.

2.) What/who inspires you?

My parents are amazing, generous people, not to mention great company. I can turn to them in any situation for a bit of advice, or tough love if I need it. I also love children. I’m training to be a teacher and I find kids a great source of inspiration; they’re so much more enthusiastic than adults are about the majority of things. Primary teaching isn’t for everyone, and people love to tell me their (very often negative) opinions on this, but it gives you the opportunity to be really creative and have a lot of fun which I think is pretty cool.

3.) Who are your style icons?

I generally look to decades past for style inspiration, everything comes back around anyway. I love the way women dressed in the 60’s; really feminine with big eyes and high waists. I’m not really into overtly sexy clothes, and I don’t really like anything too over-styled. I think Jane Birkin and Marianne Faithful were absolutely beautiful; true icons with amazing style. Nowadays, I think Alexa Chung, Chloe Sevingy and Zoe Deschenal always look great. My friend Carly also has a real knack of putting great outfits together on a very small budget, normally gold she’s sourced from charity or second hand shops, something which I’m always impressed by.

4.) How do you unwind?

This really depends which mood I’m in. I love to curl up and watch mindless TV or a really good film with my boyfriend Mitch and a big home cooked dinner. I also love to see my girl friends and catch up over tea and cake, or spending time at my friend Craig’s flat drinking and dancing with friends to great playlists before heading out. Whatever I’m doing, I always like to be with people. I get easily bored in my own company.

5.) The best things about Autumn?

I always think Autumn is a bit of an exciting time, with lots of things to look forward to. I love starting to think about cooking warming Winter food like pies, roasts, soups, casseroles… I could go on. I also love shopping for Christmas presents, pulling out my Winter coats and boots for the first time and planning my birthday celebrations. A lot of my friend’s birthdays also fall in Autumn, which is all the more excuse for a few big nights out.

6.) Your best piece of advice?

My Mum is full of great beauty advice. She used to be a beautician and has always looked after her skin, which has really paid off. So, if I could take one thing from her it would be to always wear plenty of sun cream, and moisturise your décolletage. No lady wants a wrinkly chest. She also always says “Never let the sun set on an argument” which I think is a really nice sentiment to live by. Life’s too short to hold a grudge.
(All photos are via Thoughts of Olivia)