Some Like It Hot

"I wish I could play her for the rest of my life" Michelle on Marilyn

This post was originally going to be about part two of my Autumn wardrobe but as I write this, it's currently 28 degrees in London and frankly, it's thrown me into a bit of a tizz. I was mentally prepared for nesting, wearing knitwear and tights and crunching through mounds of brightly coloured leaves in my Hunters...instead, I'm back in Summer.  Grooming has been shifted to top of the priority list and sundresses have been shaken out of storage.  My Autumn wardrobe post will have to wait.

However, there is nothing like a bit of style inspiration for a Friday and I was blown away seeing these pictures of Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe. It's been said that you can be divided into two camps of style, those fans of the gamine, beautiful Audrey or the megawatt smile and curves of Marilyn. I disagree, I love them both..two of my favourite films of all time are Some Like it Hot and Funny Face. I've day dreamed about being both, it depends on my mood and they are both captivating in their own way.

You can imagine my excitement when I heard about this film..Directed by Simon Curtis My Week With Marilyn is based on Colin Clark's diaries which depict the making of the 1957 film The Prince and the Showgirl which starred Marilyn Monroe and Laurence Olivier. The cast includes such stellar names as Kenneth Branagh as Olivier and Eddie Redmayne as Clark himself.

With Dougray Scott as Arthur Miller

It is Colin’s brief encounter with Monroe as her confidant, protector, and almost lover that gives My Week with Marilyn its tender heart. Dougray Scott stars as Monroe’s aloof husband, Arthur Miller; Dominic Cooper as her anxious business partner Milton Greene; and Zoë Wanamaker as her Svengali-like acting coach Paula Strasberg; there are also  stylish cameos by Simon Russell Beale, Sir Derek Jacobi, and, as Dame Sybil Thorndike, the great British treasure which is Dame Judi...or 'The Dench' as I recently heard Tom Wilkinson refer to her as.

All photographs by Annie Leibovitz and the full Vogue interview with Michelle Williams by Adam Green, here.  I'm off to sizzle and have a glass of champagne in honour of Marilyn/ Michelle, any excuse! It is Friday after all.

God Save Her!

Aaah her Majesty and some lovely black labs..Hold up! I think it's Helen Mirren

My goodness I have some explaining to do..What a long absence! Firstly I had a blissful ten days in the Shire thanks to a combination of Easter, the Royal Wedding and the May Bank Holiday before coming back to my busiest two work weeks of the entire year..then giving myself a weekend off! Many things have happened on Planet Fashion since I've been away, we've had the Wedding Dress (I loved it), Princess B and E's hats (hilarious), the beginning of Cannes and the melting away of the beautiful hot weather to be replaced by the Great British Public wondering around praying that the brief sojourn of sun we had wasn't actually all there was going to be this Summer, please? PLEASE?

I have two new addictions in my life, The West Wing and Lindt dark chocolate with sea salt and I'm considering making an investment purchase influenced, in part, by a rather key member of the Royal family and the unpredictable British weather.  A Barbour. "But" I hear you cry, "the Barbour is young and hip, it even comes with a Liberty lining for Pete's sake! Alexa Chung has one, Lily Allen has one, heck Gaga has probably eaten one..No drama!"

Well this decision was not influenced by the fash pack peeeps, it was..gulp...a practical call. I borrowed one from a friend at the prospect of a wee break on our beautiful but unpredictable coast. Given that it might be warm, it might be cool, it might be windy, it might be wet, it might, indeed, be all of those things at the same time, what, without wishing to travel with my entire wardrobe in tow, to wear?

A pair of jeans. Not too skinny. It's all a bit Boden around those parts and sticking out like the proverbial sore thumb is generally best avoided in order not to cause embarrassment to self or The Boy. A sun-dress. Cotton. Prints possibly..but nothing too loud. That would be ridiculous. And a Barbour jacket.

A classic man's Bedale. The women's jackets are too womanly – both in terms of cut and more

pastel-coloured tartans in their linings. True, the Bedale is the type La Chung likes to wear. But I'm not going to let going head to head with a fashion icon put me off (hello this month's Vogue cover) – there are so many of them now, after all. 

Having the hood up on the Barbour enhances the Bambi eyed look.

 Should a Barbour be green or black? "Green's a bit country on you, isn't it?" a colleague opines. I point out that I have been known to leave town, if only for a day or two at a time, thank you. Also black is perhaps overly masculine – and too flat in the rare event of blue sky.

And so I borrow a sage green Barbour. And wear it. For four days solid. Over everything. It's got massive pockets so I don't need a bag. It's waterproof so in a hail storm I stay dry. I even sling it on over my pyjamas when I wander outdoors on a particular evening I can't sleep because it's too quiet!!

Versatile doesn't cover it. And if, admittedly, on occasion I might look just a little like Her Majesty The Queen only with much, much messier hair, what's so very wrong with that?

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!