Pig Love

"I plan to write more books whenever I can find the appropriate writing attire and color-coordinated pen"

 Sometimes when you head into work or school on a Monday, a happy little buzz that appears sometime on a Friday afternoon can fade away..which is why the wonderful world of fashion is a great place to escape to.  When I was little and having a bad day (like throwing a tantrum in Marks and Spencers), one thing could always cheer me up and it proved the same this morning.  The Muppets! Kermit is still my favourite but his long time love is set to make quite a stir on Planet Fashion.

Front row, wearing Jullien Macdonald, between Tracey Emin and Margo Stilley

 I know that Emmanuelle Alt has stepped up as the new editor at French Vogue but to be honest, I'm rather excited about the fact that shortly they will be embracing the fuller figure.  Fashion icon Miss Piggy will appear in the new Muppet Movie as a plus-size fashion editor for Vogue Paris - and the famously formidable pig certainly won't be taking orders from anyone, even from Ms Alt.

A punked up vibe in a quilted Burberry trench.

The film, set for release in February 2012, sees the world's biggest Muppet fan and his friends (played by Jason Segel and Amy Adams), try to save the Muppet Theatre by encouraging the Muppets to reform.  Whilst Miss Piggy has been hard at work in the fashion world, Fozzie has formed a casino tribute band called the Moopets, Animal has been admitted to a Santa Barbara clinic for anger management and Gonzo has become a high-powered plumbing magnate.

Geisha style and wearing Jason Wu

 It's set to be one of the most fashionable films of 2012, since I'm sure Miss Piggy let loose in the Vogue sample cupboard will be a sight to behold, if only I could go with her..

Piggy does Prada

In Miu Miu at Selfridges, or should that be Moi Moi?

In Marc Jacobs with a Carrie Bradshaw style corsage

Piggy pals - with (and wearing) Marc Jacobs.

 

 

Oops a daisy!

Spot the similarity...no, it's not the skinny legs..

Confession time..I STILL haven't done any of my Ebay-ing. Not a single thing. Been rather snowed at work as our events season kicks off and I've also been de-camping to the Boy's at the weekend which is all the way South of the river and by the time I get back on Sunday evenings, it's time for trash television, magazine reading, baths and blog reading! (I know I sound like I'm making excuses by the way...)

I'm cross with myself as I'd sort of made a mental resolution that I wouldn't purchase anything else until I had begun my Ebay-ing mission but there were a few (largely SALES...come on, shopping in the sales doesn't count!!!) purchases that snuck under the radar.  Here we go..

These had to be bought. There is a TOAST very near where I live so it it a hazard walking past anytime but especially when there are mark-downs. Classic tan brogues that were £145 and are now £58. Absolute bargain.

Next up and also from TOAST, are these two incredibly useful basics. The perfect long v-neck cardigan. I wear them as jumper dresses with tights, a silk scarf and..ahem..my new brogues...Was £99, now £30!!

This is new season and hence, EXTRA naughty but I can justify this by saying that it's a classic - navy, polka dot, lovely shape. Yes it's sheer but I can slip a camisole under it for work or a plain black bra with a tux jacket and skinnies at night maybe. See, that's two uses already..

The Topshop habit is hard to kick...

Spring is feeling a long way off right now and here in London it has been grey skies and decidedly damp.  Not wet enough to justify me wearing my Hunters or even my lovely Vivienne Westwood ankle boot wellies.  I needed an 'in between' boot. My beautiful Clarks Suede Desert boots cannot be subjected to constant drizzle. The fallibility of suede is one of my biggest moans and another reason why, although I adore the Isabel Marant ankle boots, spending over £300 on something that I can't really wear out much due to our inclement weather is something I can't really justify.  I had seen these little beauties when they were full price  and when I spotted them in the my-wardrobe sale, I knew we were meant to be....

I loved the taupe/ grey colour, the heel height, the way they looked a bit like sexy hiking boots...

And finally, although this isn't a purchase, it really deserves an honourable mention, to my wonderful friend Muddles who brought her back from the Orient as an early birthday present to me. Over-sized, tan and totally unexpected. THANK YOU x

I love her.

UPDATE!! On my last post about wardobes, just to encourage the nosy amongst you, this sight is a GREAT find  http://closetvisit.com/. Go and have a peek!X

Milly and her wardrobe

 

Right folks, I know lots of my fellow bloggers have been making New Year's fashion resolutions.  I particularly liked Dead Fleurette's unflinching honesty about what can happen with clothes resolutions and also Miss Moll Cherie's 2011 list.  My first resolution of the New Year is this..a wardrobe cull. A brutal clear-out with the results going to charity shops and Ebay (to fund new purchases).

I'm sure you recognise this one..even without Carrie

I used to have a wardrobe organised in colour, shoes in labelled boxes and all  (ok..most) flats in the rack on my wardrobe door, coats were hung on the wall in the hall.  I still have two accessories bags..one is a large Anya Hindmarch weekend bag that I keep all my wool/ cashmere scarfs/ hats and gloves in and the other is a large Laduree bag which I keep all my silk scarfs in neat rolls.  These are the only two things that are still neat and orderly. I managed an underwear/ tights sort out before Christmas and that gave me a great sense of achievement.  The top two drawers in my chest of drawers, top left now has tights/ socks rolled up on their sides arranged by colour and fabric, the top right has pants rolled into neat curls and bras laid out by colour.

What I can only aspire to....regardless of organisation, I may have to move house first...and win the lottery.

My handbags are still organised, most in dust bags and arranged neatly on a shelf but there the wardrobe and drawers are descending into chaos.  I do still make a point of putting away all the clothes I've taken off at the end of each day into the wardrobe/ laundry/ dry cleaning pile, that's pretty good going right? 

I'd probably look as happy as she does if my wardrobe was in fact a room like Olivia Wilde's.

Essentially I don't mind too much doing the wardrobe cull, it's then summoning the energy to photograph everything and put it on Ebay and THEN you have to post everything off that gets to me.  There's always so many more interesting things to do in the evening or at the weekend but I must do it. Public promise right here, right now, I will do this before the beginning of February. I will also put a link up to the stuff on Ebay to prove that I've done it.  Wish me luck and let me know your fashion resolutions...X

Rachel Zoe..not as glam a closet as I'd thought..

Then you see this lady's..and it's only the shoes you can see in this picture!

A wardrobe that comes with a stepladder..um...and a child.

Back to life, back to reality

They kind of look like how I felt my first day back in the office..

So after the dramas of Heathrow (three days trapped there because of the snow!) we had another day in Mumbai before making it to the family home in Calcutta. Seeing the family was bliss but because of all the dramas, we only had three days with them and it was very hard to say goodbye.  I know the world is a much smaller place with sophisticated travel (in theory) and Internet but sometimes places feel very far away, especially when you have people you love there.

From Calcutta we went to Goa, which was utter bliss.  I literally wanted every pore on my body to absorb the sunshine and bring it back to England with me! Fresh fish, strolling on the beach and having some proper time with my parents and brother was a fantastic way to bring in the new year.  Then flying home to Heathrow where the wonderful Boy met me at the airport and we all went back to the Shire together for a few days of English countryside.  We had also planned the first weekend away together so we could have a little Christmas all of our own. We went to the wonderful Holm House in Penarth on the Welsh coast.. a review to follow at some point!

In the meantime, I needed some fashion inspiration to kickstart my way back to work, end my internet detox and generally get back on the radar again and where better to look than Emmanuelle Alt, who has a new job on her hands...you might have heard...

 The 45-year-old new editor-in-chief has a personal style characterized by androgynous French cool and her obsessions with "Saturday Night Fever", Michael Jackson, and the 1965-1975 era. Emmanuelle is known for her sharp Parisian style looking effortlessly chic all the time. Emmanuelle's husband, Franck Durand, is the artistic director at Isabel Marant...which must be a help when getting dressed in the morning.

All this being said I can hardly wait to see the April issue of the French Vogue which will be the first under Emmanuelle Alt's hands-on editorial leadership!

Indian Christmas

This is really a quick post to say thank you all so so much if you've taken the time to read my waffle this year as it's nearly at an end. I didn't think I'd have time to do a little Christmas post as it's been frantic this week at work and then today I was meant to be flying to India.  However thanks to the horrific British weather and the inadequacy of Heathrow (grrrr), I spent the entire day at the airport without getting off the ground and have to be back at 9am tomorrow. Giggles all round. I also will be away from the Boy for two weeks which is never fun but we're having a week in the Shire when I'm back and a weekend at a lovely little boutique hotel in Wales which I'll post a review of. In the meantime, I want to leave you with some beautiful images of India, in particular some featuring Lily Cole in South India for British Vogue, July 2005 and some by one of my favourite photographers (and also a lovely chap!) Steve McCurry.  See you on the other side!x

UPDATE!! Did I go to Heathrow this morning? Yes Did I manage to fly? Clearly no. So here is a little bonus of some uplifting Steve McCurry pictures for all my lovely suportive friends and the boy. In the words of Scarlett O'Hara, tomorrow is another day!

Hold a true friend with both your hands.  -  Nigerian Proverb

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is a friend?  A single soul dwelling in two bodies.  – Aristotle

Friendship is a slow-ripening fruit - Aristotle

Feathers

Natalie was wondering of she'd overdone the eyeliner...

Although Christmas is on the horizon, my excitement has not yet peaked.  This isn't because I'm being all bah humbug (well..not too much) but this year I will be India for the festive season and it will be a wonderful but very different experience. One of our family traditions has been to take in a pantomime or ballet or both! Ballet, especially leaves me awestruck. The athleticism, the grace and the costumes. Last year, The Boy took me to see Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake at Sadlers Wells, it was magical and he won a whole load of brownie points.  This year the performance that has got my pulse racing in anticipation is Natalie Portman's work in the new big-screen Black Swan. However before you start thinking I've wondered off the fashion piste, the film's forward-thinking ballet costumes by Rodarte, the insider-favourite label by sisters Laura and Kate Mulleavy.

Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky said he and the costume designer Amy Westcott wanted to use a contemporary fashion designer "to take it to a new level." "We wanted to reinvent the whole sense of 'Swan Lake,'" he said.  Portman, who has been spotted in the front row of Rodarte runway shows during New York Fashion Week, had a relationship with the designers.
"I remember seeing a dress of theirs at a photo shoot, and just going, 'What is that?'" recalled Portman. "I don't have that reaction to clothes very often. It is not something that I really pay attention to that much. But it was just so beautiful. When we were doing this film, I just knew how balletic their clothes were."

Rodarte had, coincidentally, already tapped into horror films and ballet - the same elements that are the foundation of "Black Swan" - as inspiration for past collections.

"We had an affinity for the subject matter," noted Kate Mulleavy. "We had never done a film. ... This would be a dream job in terms of just getting to make tutus. But, then we had, I think, something that allowed us to add to access the psychology of the film in a different way, which was understanding the darker nature and more of the twisted kind of underbelly of that world."

Nevertheless, producing fashion-forward ballet costumes proved a challenge. "Well, I think that the big question was, 'How do you make something look realistic as a tutu and function?'" explained Laura Mulleavy.
Sometimes style took precedence over function. "You would never go and do 'Swan Lake' and wear a full-on swan outfit without having a strap" to hold the outfit up, said actress Mila Kunis. "Given that it is in a movie and it is a certain form of disbelief. They had no straps. So, the busts kept constantly falling, you know. And so you make it work. You figure it out. But they were beautiful."

The film isn't out in the UK yet but if you've seen it already (I believe it's out in the States this weekend) let me know what you think! The trailer alone gave me chills....also have a slight crush on Mr Vincent Cassell..X

'Never Complain, Never Explain'

"If you're tired of shopping, you are using the wrong shops" 

 

 

The Duchess of Windsor

For my UK readers, I am sure you were aware of the lucsious Sunday evening drama that was Downton Abbey. Showing the upstairs/ downstairs class dynamic of early Edwardian life it was a feast for the eyes and ears and the perfect antidote to the dread of Mondays, work and real life in general. (For my foreign readers I would suggest visiting Amazon right now and trying to lay your hands on the box set!)

I was bereft when it finished so went to my local library in search of something to heal the wound.  I found it.  Edward and Mrs Simpson , a seven part drama from the late 70s/ early 80s that dramatises the events leading to the 1936 abdication of King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, who gave up his throne to marry the twice-divorced American Wallis Simpson.  The series won the 1980 Emmy award for Outstanding Limited Series, and BAFTA Awards in 1979 for Best Actor, Best Design, Best Costume Design, and Best Series or Serial..and I found a new style icon.  

The way the full-of-pep Simpson looked in London in the '30s — when she was secretly dating the Prince of Wales and future king — would be right on for Phoebe Philo's Céline vision in 2010. "As compact as a Vuitton traveling case," said society photographer Cecil Beaton, calling her "tidy, neat, immaculate." You would not have found this elegant, outgoing, married woman (thirtysomething when she met her prince) in provocative clothes, despite the raging affair that threatened to topple the British monarchy.

 The W and E style was the essence of chic. The duke's look was primarily English: three parts aristo to one part eccentric in his mad mix of Prince of Wales checks, baggy golfing plus fours, and Fair Isle sweaters. Meanwhile, Simpson's style was quintessentially French, from the time when haute couture ruled the fashion world. On friendly terms with designers like Hubert de Givenchy and Christian Dior's Marc Bohan, the duchess worked to reduce every outfit to its essence, even asking the couturiers to dispense with pockets.

A fraction of the Duchess's shoe collection!

"I began with my own personal ideas about style and I've never again felt correct in anything but the severe look I developed then," Simpson told her friend Fleur Cowles, the magazine editor and society hostess, in an interview for Bazaar in 1966. That pared-down, urban elegance of her early days remained her style until her death in 1986.

A rather wonderful montage from Net-a-Porter on we can achieve Wallis style

Her Madge-ness is apparently utterly obsessed with Wallis and frequently channels her style.  There are even rumours that she is directing a film about her life..Watch this space!

Gillian Anderson as Wallis in the current Channel 4 drama, Any Human Heart.

Lastly, I found this wonderful picture and had to include it..Have a wonderful weekend everyone X