The real world can be pretty ugly, I think I have a duty to create some beauty.
Not just chocolate box beauty but thoughtful ideas that promote kindness and humanity.
All the things that inspired the Les Sylphides collection. Some a passing thoughts that stuck, some unconsciously, some obviously, some old, new, very late in the day and all worth sharing. There are so many inspiring, great human works out there.
The Cottingley Fairies - The photographs by Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths
Les Sylphides by Fokine - The Ballet Russe Costumes designed by Alexandre Benois
Alexandre Benois Les Sylphides costume 1916 V&A Museum
Fairy stories and passing comments from childhood in the garden. From my Mum, my Aunty Sylvia, from my Nana Mary.
Nana Mary's fairy poem -in the zine
Iridescent
Photograph of two girls Indira and Amrita 1923 by photographer Umrao Singh Sher-Gil
Photographs of dancer Dale Strong for life magazine by Lisa Larsen
Photograph of the Dolly Sisters by photographer Madame d’Ora
Melvin Braggs in our time on fairies
Media chatterings on ai and everything else a little hope here from Joseph Gordon-Levitt
My hopes for my nieces and cousins
The beauty and magic of the Queer community
My Old ballet books - The Wonderful World of Ballet 1965
Cecil Beaton everything
Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron ‘Portraits to Dream In’
Margot Fonteyn
Pina Baush Nelken - incredible, I had a little cry in the toilets afterwards it was so beautiful
Edgar Degas sketches from a calendar in my studio
Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty
FairyTale Film 1997
Disney's Sleeping Beauty
Disney's Cinderella
Disney's Fantasia
Polly Anna with Hayley Mills - better than being mean!
Erdem Moralioglu Pleasure Gardens photographs in Harpers Bazaar 2025
Violet Book Magazine by Leth Clark always
Lula Magazine
Ginza Tokyo - peoples bags and coats
The respect and appreciation of everything I felt on Tokyo this February
The roses in my garden
Roses from my Garden by Nick Knight
Lynnsey Kelly Photographer
Sachiko instagram
Jamie Beck Photographer
The sunlight flickering through the white muslin curtains projecting shadows of the garden.
The white curtains in the Fortuny Museum in Venice that made me weep from their beauty.
Tim Walker's photoshoot with Chappell Roan and all of Tim Walker's magical photography
Christian Dior's 1947 collection and the Bar suit. Always.
1770s women's jackets and imagining them around the world.
Alexey Brodovich's Ballet book 1945 - The movement.
West African Folk Tales - Farmer Mybrow an the Fairies
Tiktok account of West African culture and Aziza by Adwoa and Solomon
Georges Balbier Illustrations
Helen Dryden Illustrations (the best ever)
Langston Hughes Fairy poems and all works, a dream.
Langston Hughes academy of American poets
The Brownie Book 1920 -1921 Harlem W.E.B Dubois
The Brownie Book National Library of Congress
Sunbeams, Sunbeams, Sunbeams through leaves, grass, curtains, wings
The magic of the Last Showgirl Film and
The stunning Gordon Parks photographs that inspired the look of the film.
Gordon Parks photographs
Photographs by Laura Power from a ballet photoshoot in 2015
Cig Harvey Photographer
Nick Knight photographs of shadows and lace
Erwin Blumenfeld Photographs
Fashion and costume collections at the V&A
An old 1940s black tulle evening gown with metallic iridescent embroidery under layers of tulle.
The many 1930s - 1950s tulle gowns I've been lucky enough to see.
That old roll of rose print linen I didn't much like ; )
All the wonderful magical fairy godmothers at the UN, Medicine San Frontier, The Red Cross, in the NHS, In Care Homes, Social Care, the public sector .... all the good humanitarians with real compassion and kindness towards other human beings.
'Fairy' pronounced in languages around the world. It's a human thing.
Pari - India and Pakistan and the Middle East
Yosei - Japan
Tylwyth Teg - Welsh
Irish - Siog
Igbo - akuko ifo
Jania - Arabic
Piya - Hebrew
Zina - Romany
Feya - Ukranian
Skazochnyy - Russia
Keiju - Finnish
Fee - French
Wrozka - Polish
Iwin - Yoruba