Crushing on...

...these rings from Thoraval.

So sweet! I adore that they can be worn individually, in pairs or threes, or the whole lot at once. And also that you could spread them across your fingers/hands (size permitting.) And of course the French expressions add a delightful touch of whimsy.

Sorry for the long breath between posts - trying to get a lot of things sorted at the moment. But I'll try and pick up the pace again.

Diane Von Furstenberg: Anissa dress



Image from Net-A-Porter

I love the colours of this dress - I think the gold and blue together look gorgeous - so elegant and regal. That deep blue and gold together always remind me of the ceiling of the lower chapel at La Sainte Chapelle on the Île de la Cité in Paris.

I'm not sure how flattering the dress would be in person - it looks like it moves beautifully, but the drop waist on a dress with so much volume would probably make all but the thinnest of girls look a little bit like they were wearing a very expensive sack. Or that they were trying to do a Beyoncé and hide a small-but-growing baby bump...

Diane Von Furstenberg has a store a couple of blocks away from my office - I think I'll make the most of the sunshine we're getting at the moment and wander down there one lunch and try the dress on for myself to see how it looks. If they have it in stock I will report back!

Engagement gift

One of my best friends got engaged over the weekend. It's so exciting! but it's also making me miss home because I can't be there to celebrate with her, chat about her wedding plans over coffee, look at dresses/venues/everything else in the same way that I could, and undoubtedly would, if I was at home.

As soon as she told me I knew I wanted to get her something - something to show I recognise how important an occasion this is, to show how thrilled I am for her, to show I am thinking of her. But an engagement present should be for the couple, not just one party, so a lot of the usual things I might have got her for something like her birthday were out the window - no jewellery, no accessories, no body products, no cosmetics. So that left me thinking, what on earth is a good present for two people to share? The two best things I came up with were things for the home or 'experiences' for the two of them to do together, and since the couple in question bought a home together last year the choice was easy! Something for the home it is.

I wanted something that referenced the occasion and their commitment without being sappy or saccharine. So, after a few hours of searching around I decided on these two prints from B&A Prints via Etsy:




Pictures from B&A Prints.

 
I think they'll look gorgeous framed and hung in their apartment! I keep imagining them hung on the wall of a big walk-in wardrobe - one of those ones that is large enough to be a room in its own right, where the man has one side and the woman has the other. My friend's house isn't quite big enough to have one of those, so I'm looking forward to seeing where they decide to hang them. The works will arrived unframed which will allow my friend to choose a mount and frame to suit her home (although I think they look great in black and white - with something this graphic it's probably best to stick with simple framing.) They could hang them together just the two of them, or maybe get a black and white photograph of them together framed in the same way and hang that in between them.

I have my fingers crossed she loves them! And that he does too.

Ahh Miss T, I'm so happy for you xx

Mondrian shoes

A few months ago I decided I needed to inject some colour into my wardrobe after realising how often I was wearing all black to work.

And then I saw these vintage beauties on Etsy - how could I resist?

Wearing them with my blue velvetey Jack Wills jeans.

That thing I'm holding is a gorgeous super colourful mask my friend picked up in Mexico. It's made from staw with the face part woven quite tightly to give structure and then whiskers and eyebrows coming out in all directions!





Bought from Decades Baltimore on Etsy.



Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty in London?

It sounds like Londoners will get to experience Savage Beauty, the recent Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute's retrospective of Alexander McQueen's work.

YAY!

Representative at McQueen released a statement saying  "Alexander McQueen appreciates the huge amount of interest the public has shown towards the Savage Beauty exhibition. We have been in discussion with a number of major venues in London for some time now however nothing has been finalised. Please be assured that an official announcement will be made the moment we confirm our plans for London."

It's a show that feels like it belongs to London - McQueen trained on Savile Row and studied at Central Saint Martins, lived, worked, and became a success in London and his brand is still based in London under the stewardship of an English designer, Sarah Burton.

The V&A would be a natural choice given their design focus and their fashion collection (already home to several McQueen pieces.) Perhaps they could host Savage Beauty to coincide with the reopening of their renovated fashion rooms in Spring 2012? Or in 2013 to celebrate 20 years of the Alexander McQueen brand? Somerset House would also be a good choice - it's the home of London Fashion Week and a beautiful space and has successfully hosted fashion exhibitions in the past.

The show was curated especially for the Met, but I don't see that being a problem in bringing it to London - every travelling exhibition has to be tailored to its new home, that's part of the job of a curator at an institution which takes travelling shows.

Fingers crossed!

If you're in London and would love to see the exhibition there are several online petitions you can sign.

Alexander McQueen: Spring 2011 Ready-To-Wear

I just clicked through the style.com slideshow of the Alexander McQueen Spring 2011 Ready-To-Wear collection and, wow.

Here are some of my favourite looks:

Source: style.com

This is the third of three white looks that opened the show. An incredibly powerful way to open a show both because you need to look harder and more closely to pick out all the details on monochrome clothes (in particular black clothes or white clothes), and also because it symbolically conveys the idea that each show/season starts off with a tabula rasa that ideas are then built from. There are so many gorgeous details in this look - the slight opening at the shoulder which pulls the look back from approaching severe and masculine, the waving fabric on the lower portion skirt (don'tcha think it looks super fun to walk in? Swish! Swish!)

My absolute favourite part is the lace at the neck. It's so fine that it's hard to see where the fabric ends and skin begins. This delicacy makes it look organic and somehow simultaneously beautiful, like the model has a gorgeous moss or fern growing up her body, and threatening, like there's a vine encasing her, encircling her neck and creeping towards her face. A beautiful take from Sarah Burton on the play between life and death that McQueen was so famous for. A Savage Beauty indeed!

 

Source: style.com

I'm a fan of high necks with no sleeves - it makes an elongated and elegant shape. This has taken that idea further - the long skirt really pulls the eye up and down the body, emphasising height. The pleating on the chest, the drips of colour near the hem and the wide belt stop the dress looking like its someone wearing a bed sheet or dressed as a column. The belt itself is also gorgeous - it looks almost like moss, or copper developing its green patina. And the matching shoes are just gorgeous.



   Source: style.com  , source: style.com  

 

  



Source: style.com

This is exactly how I imagine Persephone to look in spring and summer. I love how the detailing at the bust is so fine that it looks like the dress is growing up her body.

Source: style.com

 I have no idea how so many of these pieces look like they've grown on the model. I'd love to see this one in person...are the black bits sewn onto fabric that was the exact shade of the models skin? Or are they mounted onto something sheer. If the latter, how do you avoid an awkward wardrobe malfunction if you turn to fast or move your arms to vigorously (or, for that matter, walk to stridently)?

Source: style.com

I bet that when this walked down the runway the movement of the feathers on the skirt looked just like the white crest of a crashing wave, or the white foam of water being pushed in and sucked back around rocks. What a beautiful contrast with the stiffer feathers of the waist, shoulders and neck. Almost like a water bird, or perhaps some flotsam bobbing on top of frenetic white water. I love this shoe choice with the dress too - a less solid shoe would've looked strange with the mullet hem of the dress and showing more leg would have drawn the eye down the body of the model, away from the details on the neck and shoulders. The introduction of any new colour to the ensemble (even nude) would also have proved a distraction.

Whitewash

Rihanna is on the cover of the November issue of U.K. Vogue:

But it kinda looks like they photoshopped her skin lighter? For comparison, here's a picture from her website.