Most famous for writing Lolita, that sordid tale of a precocious 12 year old girl and her lover, Humbert Humbert, Nabokov is one of my favourite writers.
I think the reason I like his work so much is a direct result of the way his synesthesia - "his mind's eye saw watercolour hues as the result of particular words", particularly in Pale Fire - best book ever.
Lolita has been referenced endlessly in fashion and film - the sweet, childlike aesthetic, with tunic dresses and stacked, wooden heels is particularly apparent in Phoebe Philo's collections for Chloe, bands such as Au Revoir Simone encapsulate the girlish aesthetic exactly - heartshaped sunglasses, vintage lace dresses, sunshine and naivety. Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver dons booty shorts and demure blouses, stacked heels and wide brim straw hats - although admittedly she's playing a baby hooker, she looks kind of cute.
Most of all though, Sofia Coppola's paean to dazed, ethereal fashion and lens flare, The Virgin Suicides, elicits that sort of hazy dreaminess that only naive spring crushes can inspire.
A little darker, but nevertheless along the same lines, Bertolucci's The Dreamers captures that teenage, endless summer, albeit with a little more blood, incest and angst.
Lula magazine, however, is the last word in all things whimsical and feminine, courtesy of British stylist Leith Clark.
