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Last year the black Breakfast at Tiffany’s gown went for reams and reams of money – now come December 8th tons of iconic items from Audrey’s inimitable wardrobe will go under the hammer at the annual Passion for Fashion vintage auction ( along with Marie Helvin’s Studio 54 numbers).
In my neck of the woods we are suffering immensely as I fear that the budget does not stretch to vintage Givenchy with provenance.
Damn
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A book extracting all the marrow from the wacky, escapist world of Vogue and presenting it in one unrelenting tome seems perfect for a credit crunch Christmas – no?
After all if we cannot live the fashion dream let us page through its glossy pages. That is the editorial thesis behind The World in Vogue – see the Daily Beast slide show for a vicarious smattering, like this orphaned baby elephant draped in Louis Vuitton being fed by Keira Knightley and photographed by Arthur Elgort – all in a Vogue days work.
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Loving this girl – Alison Sudol whose band is called A Fine Frenzy a descriptive term for madness striking a poet in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
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Yay its almost Christmas, I bought a tree today. Stella McCartney switched on the Christmas lights in London last night to the sounds of the Mighty Boosh boys in drag. Yup it’s that crazy festive thing all over the place. Feeling super festive myself as I have just been appointed as editor of Marie Claire SA. Yay! I am so excited and thrilled and honored and, and, and….. But more on all of this later.
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I have spent years laughing at the amusing, wry observations of Ariel Levy. Her column Cassandra for the The Times is a staple of my reading diet. Here is a little animation she has developed to coincide with the publication of her book The Cassandra Chronicles
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Loving this blog – Nerd Boyfriend, each day a fine and upstanding member of the species ( Claude Chabrol, Werner Herzog, John Ford) is identified. Beneath his pic a supply of handy links to his primary sartorial choices is provided so that you can dress up your own version. Classic Saddle shoe anybody?
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I have been known to have small accidents in front of the Goodman gallery as I gaze on the delights in the windows. So I will have to take extra special driving care not to bash an innocent vehicle what with Michael Subotzky in the house. Here is Sean O’Toole’s Mahala review.
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Not only was African print all over Vivienne Westwood’s Anglomania Spring/Summer 2010 show this week as modeled here by Daisy Lowe, but Africa has imprinted itself on her social conscience. The designer has put her name and designs behind a women’s empowerment project in KZN – The Tapestry of Dreams -a non-profit project run by Heather Costaras and Roz Thomas, which has assisted 10 women from Khethani township, in the Drakensberg, KwaZulu-Natal who were making a difference in their community, to start their own businesses. Read the full Times story here , Costaras approached several South African and international designers to dress the women for their gala evening and Vivienne reposnded by offering to become a sponsor and patron of the initiative.
Viva Dame Vivienne Viva.
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One of the most fascinating people I have encountered is one Marije Vogelzang a Dutch food artist/innovator and designer. I met her at the Design Indaba, her company Proef plays with their food – all the time. “According to Marije , food is already perfectly designed by nature. Instead, her designs focus around the verb ‘to eat’. Vogelzang is inspired by the origin of food and the preparation, etiquette, history and culture around it. For this reason, she doesn’t associate as a ‘food designer’, but as the first ‘eating-designer’ in The Netherlands.” I was reminded of her experiments with the nature of food ( one of which is pictured above) and eating when I read this article about the ‘Restaurant of the Future’ at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Coming to food near you in the near future:
“Intelligent packaging: sensors in the wrappers of fresh meat and veg that will tell the retailer — or you — what the food’s temperature or state of freshness is. They could trigger the release of gases or chemicals such as nano-silver to change the internal climate or kill microbes.
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