Day spent relaxing in St James’ Park; Night spent drinking free champagne at gallery opening in Mayfair

Oral fixation

Upon spotting Bijou Phillips attending a recent film premiere I was struck by the sheer magnitude red hot lipstick can do for a girl. It commands attention. The look that I favour has always been when worn on blonde women. It is so visually striking and harks back to the glamorous Lauren Bacalls and Veronica Lakes of the 1940’s celluloid screen. The refined Slim Keiths of the 1950’s wasp era. Red lipstick of such impact must look imprinted and stained on the wearer’s lips, not painted on. It looks most fresh when worn on an almost bare face, nothing less than flawless and radiant skin to compliment the colour.

Girl en Vogue: Alexa Chung

Preppy chic with a twist is what 24 year old British TV presenter, Alexa Chung does best. She has managed to put loafers, barbour jackets and over-the-knee socks back on the fashion radar, but this time round they’re not frumpy. Mixing them all up with vintage rock t-shirts, heavy pendants, loose cotton dresses and her mile long legs give these items more of an edge. The most important factor of Alexa’s style is that without fail she always looks comfortable and at ease in her clothes. A quality which is elusive for most people but when harnessed is utterly alluring.

Covers to Covet

*M.I.A*

Yes, it has been a while since I last posted on this blog and I’m so sorry to the 0.1% of people who bother to read my blog on a regular basis. I was tempted to lie and say that I’ve been on holiday to some fabulous, exotic location with an eligible heir to a Greek shipping fortune/ Italian sports car dynasty. But alas my absence in the past few days has been down to the fact that I’ve started a new job with ungodly hours, and trying hard not to c**k up. I’m hoping my body clock will adjust to my new routine and as a result I’ll get back to blogging regularly again. But check out my blog at the weekend as I promise I will have updated by then. So I will say adieu for now and leave you with an image of how I wish I looked this week (care-free and chilled).

Yo-ho-ho and a Bottle of Rum…

Somehow the majority of us human beings are drawn to the sea - spending holidays on beaches and retiring to seaside resorts to be near the comforting and soothing sound of water lapping against the shore. Perhaps we are instinctively drawn to the sea as it is where we orginated from. Whatever the reason, our strong affiliation for the sea is undeniable and is most prominently shown through the perennial fashion trend of all things nautical.

 

For every S/S collection, designers will send down the catwalk sailor style wide-leg pants, blazers with anchors engraved on gold buttons, horizontal stripes and colour palettes of just navy, white and red. The classic tricolor. 

But the absolute emblem for all things nautical has to be Breton striped tops. They were first worn in the 19th Century by the fishermen of Brittany.

The unusually close-knit quality of the very fine double-twist cotton protected them against sudden gusts of wind and were sturdy enough to withstand work at sea. This fishermen’s uniform soon became adopted in the 20th century as the uniform of progressive arts.

Artists involved in the Surrealists and Cubism movements, such as Pablo Picasso were often seen wearing Breton stripes, whether at work in their studios or out and about in town. French poets and authors from the Left Bank in 1950’s Paris continued this trend. And the look went mainstream when actresses at the forefront of film’s ‘Nouvelle Vague’ movement in France (such as Anna Karina, Brigitte Bardot and Jean Seberg, pictured above) were photographed and filmed in Breton stripes. It’s entanglement with these various art forms have naturally given Breton stripes the natural air of underground culture cool.

As a bonified urbanite I can assure you that no wardrobe is complete until you have a few Breton tops. There are various colour combinations but the best and orignal has to be navy on white. The crisp lines and simple colour palette frames the face wonderfully. Slightly crumpled one looks relaxed and at ease. One can easily pair Breton stripes with jeans to hang out on Parliament Hill or waltz in the Wolsley for lunch without the maitre d’ blinking an eyelid. Wherever you go, Breton is your ticket to chicdom. An absolute classic staple. The only places I trust on getting perfect loose Breton tops are from the French labels APC, Petit Bateau, Comptoir des Cotonniers and Jean Paul Gaultier if you’ve got the cash. But Alexa Chung’s stylist has brought another source to my attention. A nautical sailor’s shop in Shaftesbury Avenue in London called Arthur Beale. Get down there before the other fashionistas beat you to it!

And here’s how the fashionistas wear their stripes; Helena Christensen looks sexy as heel in a Breton striped figure hugging dress. Geraldine Saglio from Vogue Paris looks wonderfully pulled together as she wears Breton under a white jacket and jeans. Coco Sumner does the dishevelled, rock chick look by clashing the stripes with a tartan scarf. Alexa Chung is music festival ready in baggy Breton teamed with costume jewellery. Girl with the golden hair lets her stripes do all the talking in an oversized shirt worn as a dress. The gorgeous Swede Linn is casual with faded denim jacket and high waisted miniskirt and Agyness Deyn works the androgynous look by wearing it under a sharp tailored men’s jacket.

Girl en Vogue : Julia Restoin-Roitfeld

Style really does run in the genes if Julia Restoin-Roitfeld is anything to go by. The 26 year old daughter of legendary French Vogue editor, Carine Roitfeld, uses clothes to celebrate her voluptous figure. Often seen wearing body conscious dresses, Julia is no fashion wallflower. With her green feline eyes flashing, this art director exudes confidence and her flirtatious style shows how she revels in her sexuality. Short hemlines, always in high heels and usually wearing one solid colour to emphasize her silhouette - Julia is one girl who certainly knows how to flaunt it!

Here I Am…

Those were the only words that the German model of the sixties Veruschka had to utter in the iconic film ‘Blow Up’ by Antonioni before being immortalized on celluloid. The film is famous for the image of Veruschka writhing on the floor posing for David Hemmings (playing a character based on David Bailey), who is hovering above her with his camera. And yesterday I found myself face to face with a life size flip version photograph of Veruschka stepping over a prostrate David Bailey. This photograph was taken some time before the 1966 film was made.

The photograph is part of the ‘Fashion in the mirror: Self-Reflection in fashion photography’ exhibition at the Photographers’ Gallery in London. Here are photographs ranging from the 1950’s to the present day, which reveal the process and preparation behind a fashion shoot. We observe mysterious hands clawing at the model to fix her hair and make-up, we glance at the photographer reflected in mirrors and the lengths they will go to to get the right shot (one photographer is observed shooting Raquel Zimmerman from a hole dug on a beach).

The illusion of glamour is removed but the photographs are no less compelling. My favourite pictures from the exhibition were the smallest ones. Terence Donovan photographing Celia Hammond who is clowning around whilst being primped. And images of Bob Richardson taking pictures of his then-girlfriend Anjelica Huston on the streets of London - there’s a clever pic in which we see Richardson reflected in a mirror held by Huston, but from how the mirror’s angled it appears that Richardson is standing next to Huston.

In this exhibition you can see works by Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Bert Stern, William Klein, Nick Knight, Tim Walker and many more. What stands out in this exhibition is fashion’s ability to look at itself in the mirror and laugh. And what better way to illustrate the point then these two photographs, monumental figures in fashion lampooning their self-image and omnipresence. 

Day spent browsing bookshops off Charing Cross Road ; Night spent trawling bars in Camden

So why don’t you come and take me home?

I was never one to flirt with gothism during my teenage angst years. The whole culture had very little appeal to me. The goths at my school were predictably boring with their incessant black wardrobe, greasy bizarrely coloured hair hung across their faces to avoid eye contact with the ‘outisde world’, which inevitably led to these teenagers sporting grim acne. A Manson girl I would never be. But then to my surprise, when watching the Fall 2008 RTW collections on style.com, I began to hanker after the Rodarte collection. It has the hallmarks of gothism and punk, laced together with romanticism (no-one does romanticism better than the Mulleavy sisters.) The vivid slashes of red, black and white on the dresses and the torn knitwear, allowing one to reveal snippets of naked skin, is the acceptable level of sluttiness. I find myself itching to get my hands on tights which’ll probably be itchy to wear, but I don’t care about discomfort, sometimes we have to suffer for fashion. But what has me really drooling about the collection is the footwear…the vertiginous heels, heavy studding and the back-off spikes at the tips…they are the ultimate f**k me pumps. A girl must possess at least one pair (just ask Kate Moss).

So I was already in love with the collection and then came across these photographs by Autumn de Wilde, of the fittings and preparations. They are beautiful and are reminiscent of the backstage scenes of ballerinas which Degas often painted. There are tons more photos to view if you click on the Rodarte link above.