Two Tims - Halloween Special

“One person's crazyness is another person's reality.” 

Tim Burton

Happy Halloween folks! Maybe not as big over here as it is in the States but still an excuse to get your spook on and dress up as fantastically as you wish. In honour of the most dark of holidays, here a selection of fabulous images Walker did a couple of years ago, inspired and featuring Tim Burton. Such an extraordinary blend of beauty and creativity with Gothic darkness creeping around the sides, I find them an endless source of inspiration. I'm sorry I've been off radar for a couple of weeks, there is a reason that shall be revealed next time.  In the meantime, enjoy these fabulous images! Mwahahahahahahahahahahaha!

“Any fable or fairytale has some sort of reality in it. That's why I think I love the form of fantasy or fairytale, is that you're able to kind of put things in there and let people sort of, discover their own emotion, discover their own sort of feelings about things. Or make their own lessons from it.' 

--Tim Burton 

At the Movies 

Nov. 17, 2005

To finish, one of my favourite moments of all time from Edward Scissorhands...

Classics - Leopard Print or Call of the Wild

"I don't want to be cool, I want to be Fashion" Anna Dello Russo

 I am of the belief that not all animal prints are created equal, that one stands shoulders above the rest in the fashion jungle.  Leopard.  A smattering of it can add glamour to the most normal day to day combination.  Looking stunning when worn with simple black, jeans and a t-shirt; as little as a scarf or going all out with a wild coat (or truly going for it..like Ms Dello Russo above!), leopard is one of the classics.  

Rosamund Pike and Carey Mulligan in An Education

There were two triggers for this post, firstly that it is now cold enough in London to dig out my beautiful fur (faux obviously!) leopard coat from Topshop last season (seen on Alexa below).  I teamed it with a black silk over sized shirt from Silence and Noise, black leggings with leather panels (ASOS), red quilted ballet flats (French Sole) and my black Chanel 2.55.

Secondly, all the beautiful 3.1 Phillip Lim pieces from Autumn/ Winter 10/11..which it must be said are in a variety of animal prints.  I'm particularly obsessed with the leopard print Derby Oxford and the Atomique mixed media trainer, oh and the stunning giraffe and leather biker jacket, but unfortunately do not have a spare £1085 at the moment so I'll be sticking with my vintage style Topshop coat for now.

3.1 Phillip Lim items from La Garconne, Browns Fashion, Neiman Marcus, Aloha Rag and Net a Porter.  With thanks to Susie Bubble for the collage.

I can even pinpoint when my love affair with leopard started, it was seeing Audrey in her perfect leopard pillar box hat in Charade, watching on a Sunday afternoon with my mother and I thought it was the most glamorous outfit I had ever seen....

For the best dressed bookworms

Piglet and Pooh discussed the merits of the jumpsuit.

When I was at university the subject of my Masters dissertation was on the significance of clothes in the Victorian novel.  Before you doze off..I LOVED doing that because it combined researching my two favourite things in the entire world, books and clothes.  All of you out there reading this may occasionally have come across the view from certain folk that fashion is frivolous, unimportant and shallow.  Yes it can be..but it can also be an art form, a defense (Lily Bart in the House of Mirth), a passport to a better life (Scarlett trying to fool Rhett by wearing a dress made out of curtains) or even your key to a double existence (Orlando). I find inspiration from everything around me so imagine my joy then when I discover this post on Flavorwire, Literature’s 10 Best-Dressed Authors. It got me a'thinking..who are some of the best dressed characters in literature that have inspired you? I'd love to know...

I could have put up any picture of Scarlett but I always adored her ruffled dress

Ben Barnes did not do adequate justice to Oscar Wilde's scintillating anti-hero Dorian Gray but that dapper dandy would always be in my list of inspirations.

Gillian Anderson in the lavish costumes for the most recent adaptations for The House Of Mirth (2000)

Jay Gatsby from The Great Gatsby, Theoni V Aldredge won the Best Costume Design Oscar at the 1974 ceremony and it's easy to see why.

The Montdores (Cedric included) in Nancy's Love in a Cold Climate.

Holly Gollightly because it was love at first read, compounded by the film.  The original novel is actually set in 1940's Manhattan.

 

Virginia Woolf's remarkable Orlando...

..and a remarkable portrayal by Tilda Swinton.

Lastly, Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome, always seemed to conjure up the perfect Summer holiday and      inspired a love of all things nautical, grey school jumpers, flannel shorts and Peter Pan collared dresses.                          I've never grown out of it!