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Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
2008-03-06 05:18:00
Four or five years ago I was browsing in blissful Daunt Books in Belsize Park when a wonderfully designed plain grey book cover caught my eye. It was a copy of Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson. This was the beginning of my love affair with Persephone Books, a privately owned imprint based in London’s Bloomsbury. They specialise in re-discovering out of print and forgotten classics by (mostly) women authors from the twentieth century, ranging from novels to cook books, memoirs to travel.Published in 1938, and set a few years earlier, Miss Pettigrew fits into the genre of gorgeously romantic, often bittersweet, beautifully written period literature that includes Nancy Mitford & Georgette Heyer’s entire oeuvre and The Making of a Marchioness by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The movie of the book opens here this week, and I attended a preview screening this evening. The casting is excellent,(Amy Adams is perfection as the ditzy co-lead, nightclub singer Delysia Lafosse)...

Project Runway final
2008-03-06 05:04:00
So Christian Siriano won Project Runway , He is the exemplar of everything that I dislike about the fashion industry: a toxic, cruel, sniping bitch, hiding his insecurities and youth under a veneer of obnoxious over-confidence. The fashion industry as a whole tolerates, encourages and nurtures this behaviour which is endemic and I am just so thoroughly fed up with it.
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Crossroads
2008-03-05 06:42:00
I'm all of a wibble right now. I had a job interview this week that came rather unexpectedly springing out of nowhere. (I thought I was pitching for some freelance work, but got called in for a proper job meeting.) If it happens, the job would upend my life in a difficult to comprehend fashion. Obviously I can't say where or what, but enough to say that the words 'director' & 'style' may be involved. I'm not a natural freelancer, being one of those people who operate brilliantly (!)under pressure and within boundaries. Having to continually sell myself and forage for work can be extremely wearing, but this is, of course, balanced by the extraordinary freedom I have to, say, I don't know, move to New York at two week's notice, or decide to go to Portland, Oregon on Thursday for the weekend, or just work from bed all day tomorrow. And, of course, in the way that these things always happen, my freelance career is more successful right now than it ever has been. I have new edit...
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Electric Fountain opens in Manhattan
2008-03-04 13:30:00
Manhattan never ceases to amaze me: just when I think it couldn't get more corporate, they go plonk a huge fairground inspired, LED sprinkled, 35 ft high installation in the middle of Rockefeller Plaza.What it is is an Electric Fountain , mimicing the tradition of fountains in public spaces, and one of the few major public art installations by the British artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster. My inner geek was particularly pleased to discover that it uses 3,390 LED bulbs and 527 meters of neon tubing.We trotted dutifully up to Midtown for the private view: somewhat of a contradiction in terms, as it's a piece of public art, easily viewed by anyone.Still, we appreciated the warming hot apple cider which perked us up enough for a late night shopping session in the Lord & Taylor sale, conveniently located a mere ten blocks from the Rockefeller.Oh and the on dit doing the party rounds was that it's up for sale for a mere £1 million/US$2 million.The Electric Fountain is in Rockefeller Pl...
More About: Manhattan

My new party frock
2008-03-04 13:29:00
This is the back view of the pretty black lace overlaid silk party dress by Anna Sui which I wore last night. It was reduced to $88 from $249 in the Lord & Taylor sale on Fifth Avenue. Even more pleasing to discover that it is currently for sale unreduced here at Netaporter for $249/£165.Sales over here are nothing like they are in London. Lord & Taylor has not just marked down a load of stuff by 30%, they've got another 50% off the already reduced stock, and the lovely assistant gave me a further 20% off the total. Remarkable. (I didn't mean to buy anything, honest guv.)But, somehow I ended up with a bronze shutter pleat, Hervé Leger-ish, body con cocktail dress by the pageant dress king, Tadashi, for $80 from $348, a dark cream Tara Jarmon coat for $120 from $510 and, bizarrely, a brown jersey princess line dress from a diffusion line called OC by Oleg Cassini. (A bargain $30). I had no idea one could still buy Oleg Cassini, much less that a (to be honest, gobsmackingly tacky)...
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I heart NYC
2008-03-04 04:42:00
Am feeling an excessive amount of New York love right now, but unfort am way too tipsy to actually articulate it properly. Suffice to say that (straight) boys stopping one at a fash party to say how gorgeous one looks is suitably spirit uplifting. This, combined with a new & splendid haircut, wonderful girlfriend company, a delicious supper and a new party frock, makes all seems right with the world.
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Gucci proves most popular global brand
2008-03-03 07:03:00
WGSN reports that Gucci remains the world's most coveted luxury brand, according to a recent market survey by research firm The Nielsen Group. In an online poll of 25,000 consumers in 48 countries said they would choose to buy Gucci over any other luxury brand if money were no object. Chanel and Calvin Klein tied for second place, followed by Louis Vuitton, Giorgio Armani, Christian Dior and Versace. Although Gucci came out first overall, regional results were fascinating: The Chinese picked Chanel, the Russians Christian Dior, whilst Giorgio Armani, Calvin Klein and Yves Saint Laurent were picked by Latin American consumers, and Hermès by the Japanese.
More About: Global , Popular , Brand

Brunch in the City
2008-03-03 05:51:00
Perfect Sunday. Rang my mother to wish her a good Mothering Sunday, to tell her how much I love her, and to apologise (hmm) for failing to produce a husband, grandchildren or any semblance of a stable life in my thirties.I followed this good daughterliness by hopping on Free Spirit to pedal like crazy down to brunch in Nolita at Bread with BA, F & J where we took two hours to work our way through the menu from fries to profiteroles, Prosecco to espresso. (Something I wouldn't be able to do with a husband & children. Blessings everywhere.)
More About: Brunch , City , In the City

Jonathan Rice at Soho House
2008-03-03 04:43:00
To Soho House for a low key performance by Jonathan Rice , organised by Artists’ Den, who specialise in tiny, secret gigs in unlikely locations by upcoming artists. There’s something very indulgent about watching a brilliant acoustic set from a genius singer songwriter, whilst ensconced in a deep velvet armchair, with a glass of Merlot on a Sunday evening. I’m not quite sure what scruffy, plaid shirt-wearing, baby-faced twenty-four year old Jonathan Rice thought of doing a showcase at Soho House. He opened with, “I’ve never done a gig in a place with moisturiser in the bathrooms”, before going on to ask the audience to rattle their jewellery if they enjoyed the set. Still, whether he was laughing at or with the audience, he sang an extraordinary set, packed with great deadpan lines, including “An investment banker started something so I broke his neck,” from his single, "We’re All Stuck Out in the Desert", which seemed particularly apt for the audience.He may look ...

Manhattan finally busts Canal Street counterfeiters
2008-02-27 15:37:00
Very pleased to see in the papers today that Mayor Bloomberg ordered a crackdown on the sale of counterfeit goods in Manhattan 's Chinatown. I'm always disgusted by the number of thoughless, sheep-like tourists for whom this seedy section of downtown is a Mecca. There is nothing clever about buying ridiculous aspirational fake goods, the profits of which go to fund organised crime, drug trafficking, prositution, child labour and sweatshops. The massive pre-dawn raid on the three-building strip along Canal Street resulted in the seizure of about $1 million worth of fake brand-name items, including sunglasses, watches and handbags with imitation Coach, Prada and Rolex labels from 32stores in what Mayor Bloomberg called "one of the most notorious knock-off shopping malls in the five boroughs."
More About: Finally

AUSTRALIA'S TARGET TO LAUNCH ZAC POSEN COLLECTION
2008-02-27 14:45:00
I have many Australian visitors to this blog (hello Caz & Gervy in partic), so this piece of news is for you all.Following in the steps of Stella McCartney's widely hyped line for Australian Target , WGSN reports that Zac Posen is the next international designer to create a discount range for the store. The autumn/winter range will arrive in selected Target stores from April 3. Posen described the 20 piece mini-collection as "colourful prints balanced with more architectural and structural pieces", with the price entry level fixed at AUS$49.99. There is also, in a somewhat tacky celeb-tastic move, a $299.99 copy of the fishtail hem evening dress created for Katherine Heigl's Emmy awards appearance last year.The collection also includes fitted high-waisted pants and asymmetrical skirts with matching suit jackets, cocktail dresses with brocade trim and elaborate shirts that echo the looks of his high-priced designer line. It remains to be seen whether Posen's usual reliance on expen...
More About: Launch

Laundry blues
2008-02-27 05:51:00
If I don’t find a few hours get to the launderette tomorrow, I’m going to be going to the gym in a leather pencil skirt, and hanging out in a floor length evening dress in my local dive bar.One of the most curious things about living in Manhattan is the lack of washing machines in the apartments. And I don’t just mean in Village walks up either. Even the ritziest buildings have laundry rooms in the basements - BA’s classy UES apartment is washer-less – although she does have a completely unnecessary dishwasher.I do get that laundry rooms in buildings are quite social, and a good way to meet your neighbours but, frankly, I don’t want to bond whilst I’m sorting through a basket of dirty knickers. And I can promise you that there are no Nick Kamen lookalikes in my local laundry.Whilst it’s true that many apartments are based on the shoe box principle, there’s no reason why a washing machine couldn’t be squeezed in somewhere. Hell, considering the woeful number of si...
More About: Blues , Laundry

Sex and the City movie full length trailer
2008-02-26 05:09:00
I could be all po-faced about the Sex & The City movie, pointing out that there isn't a lot to admire in a series that posited that a woman's main obsessions in life are shoes and finding a husband, that a woman must be judged solely on her fashion sense regardless of the arena she inhabits, that neuroticism is obligatory and anal-obsessed naval gazing is the norm.But that would be to imply that I didn't enjoy the series, which I did, enormously. What annoys me is that SATC has become another stick with which to beat thirty-something women. In an ideal world, men would never be allowed to watch it, to avoid them taking it seriously (why do men seem to treat it as a documentary?)Anyway, preamble over: here is the full-length trailer that was released on Friday. The movie is released May 30 in the USA.
More About: Movie , Trailer , Sex and the City , Full

Tatler appoints new fashion director
2008-02-26 00:32:00
Tatler has announced the promotion of Anna Bromilow to the role of Fashion Director with immediate effect; former fashion director Charlie Anderson has recently returned from maternity leave and has taken up a new role of Contributing Fashion Editor. Additionally, Olivia Falcon has been promoted from beauty editor to Beauty Director replacing Antonia Whyatt, and Deana Goldstein has joined the title as Watches and Jewellery Editor; Deana formerly worked with Lucinda Chambers, Fashion Director for Vogue.
More About: Tatler

Kate Beckinsale's stylist must really hate her...
2008-02-25 23:41:00
Three things go towards making a successful red carpet look: the dress, the actress and the stylist who oversees to the total look. Continuing with my bad styling theme for this year's Oscars, I present Kate Beckinsale: 1)beautiful actress, 2)interesting dress, 3) appalling styling.Pic: Style.com
More About: Hate , Stylist

Why Oscar red carpet fashion went low key in 2008
2008-02-25 16:22:00
This was a year of understated glamour, subtle embellishments and low key dresses at the Oscar s. If there were trains, they floated rather than swooshed, colours were muted and breasts were contained. These were dresses for actresses rather than models, and what a refreshing change this made.Sure, some commentators called this year’s red carpet ‘safe’ and ‘boring’, but we are in danger of forgetting one salient fact: these are professional woman who earn their living from acting rather than fashion, a truth that tends to get forgotten in today’s celebrity saturated culture.As the fiscal aftermath of the writer’s strike continues to hit home for many in the industry, provocative fashion choices would have been in bad taste, and most of the red carpet attendees seemed to have taken this on board. That is if they walked the red carpet. This was the year when eschewing the crowds seemed cooler than ever, with several presenters, including Penelope Cruz only appearing in fr...
More About: Fashion , Red Carpet , Carpet , 2008

Things I Learnt Last Night
2008-02-23 19:16:00
If your tights drawer is filled with pairs that you, um, liberated from shoots, then it's probably best to check to see if they are giraffe sized before you go dancing in them, otherwise you will spend your evening hoicking your tights up from around your ankles where they will be wrinkling in folds, just like Nora Batty's.Or maybe better still, get your assistant to tell a couple of the tights PRs that the model is abnormally short, say 5'6", and will require size medium, rather than size extra tall...(Only for the more amoral fashion editors out there...)Image: Nora Batty from Last of the Summer Wine
More About: Night , Things

The Oscars: Red Carpet Fashion 2008
2008-02-22 21:14:00
This is the first time that I’ve been in the US for the Oscars , and I’m amazed by the levels of excitement. I guess the time difference in England means it’s difficult for people to get worked up about a show that happens in the middle of the night. Back in London, I’m one of the only two people I know who actually stays up all night to watch it, usually snuggled under a duvet in my nightie and bedsocks, with lots of chocolate & popcorn supplies. The other is my film director friend, but she has a daughter now, and sleep is precious.Until this year, I've always been a guest on BBC network radio the next morning to discuss the red carpet fashion, so I’m rather looking forward to not having to pay such close attention this time. And, even though I do have some copy to file for Monday morning, at least I have ten hours to do so, rather than the five I get in England because of the time difference.There are so many Oscar parties here in Manhattan, but I’ve plumped for the S...
More About: Fashion , Red Carpet , Carpet , 2008

Bicycles are not always the answer
2008-02-22 05:14:00
Oh cobblers. It was dark & I was tired & hungry when I left St Vincent's, so I hopped into a yellow cab back to the East Village, leaving picking up my bike until tomorrow. (It's still chained to a lamp post in Soho). There is a massive storm warning for tomorrow, with up to four inches of snow expected. Sigh. That's going to be fun.
More About: Answer , Bicycles

We must do lunch, darling
2008-02-22 05:05:00
I spent the day with an old colleague, a friend from Vogue House. We met when we were very young, willowy blondes, rushing around in black twinsets, pencil skirts & high heels, tending with the fierce dedication of youth to the important needs of the Very Important Men whom we assisted. Now she is something Very Important at a Very Important magazine and I, well, I write.Today didn’t go quite as we had planned. Lunch was planned for 1pm at Mercer Kitchen in Soho. I chained up my bike around the corner from the restaurant, stumbling slightly over the cobbles in my heels as I stepped up to the entrance.Seated on a rather nice corner banquette, facing into the room, I could see the truncated legs of other diners through the banisters as they came down the two flights of stairs into the basement room.I thought I had spotted X’s glamorous legs when they suddenly disappeared; five seconds later there was a stupendous crash. The bottom of the stairs was hidden from view by staff, and I...
More About: Darling

Fraternal love
2008-02-21 16:57:00
Ten reasons why I love & worship my little sister:1. She lets me sleep on her sofa when I come back to London. even though I am super messy and it drives her bonkers2. Animals love her, and she brings out the best in them3. She lent me the money for my plane ticket when my credit card screwed up4. She’s not very well, but she’s the bravest person I’ve ever met5. She colour codes her sweater and T shirt shelves, just like Benetton6. She made me pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, just before I got on my plane7. She’s incredibly loyal, supportive, enormously kind, thoughtful & generous8. She loves Chinese takeaway almost as much as I do9. She tells me when my skirts are too short or my outfit sucks – I trust her taste implicitly10. She’s trained the babydog to roll over on our feet for tummy ticklesBut the most important reason of all is because she’s my best-est friend, not just my sister.
More About: Love

Gramercy Park
2008-02-20 23:37:00
Oh God it is soooo cold today. I looked out of the window, saw bright sunshine and assumed it was another warm-ish spring day. Nope. Got that one wrong. I was running a little late for an appointment with the PR for The Gramercy Park Hotel, so I didn't have time to run back (Run? Who am I kidding? Crawl) up the four flights of stairs to get my ear muffs & a sweater once I was outdoors, realising that a silk cami, lightweight frock and coat weren't really going to keep me that warm on a bike. By the time I'd got to Gramercy Park and was chaining up my wheels, I thought my ears might drop off from cold. Still, I whipped on my heels and tottered into the lovely warm hotel, past the ever present paparazzi (who ignored me, as usual). I was just on a reconaissance mission, but I swear if I had been reviewing it today, it would have got ten out of ten based purely on its central heating and open fires. (Actually it does get 10/10 for its fabulous and HUGE rooms, attention to detail, the...

Target
2008-02-20 23:00:00
One of my most intelligent readers, Suzanna Mars, commented on here earlier today that, "Blogging still hasn't quite come out from under the mantle of perceived amateurism. It also isn't largely understood and in many instances is seen as suspicious (as well as miasmatic)." Her comment came back to me when I read a New York Times article which concerned a Target 's PR's refusal to engage with a query from a blogger, and included this gem:“Unfortunately we are unable to respond to your inquiry because Target does not participate with non-traditional media outlets.” I do find this utterly extraordinary on many, many counts. This means that in one fell swoop Target are refusing a dialogue with the internet in all its forms: streaming, blogs, on-line versions of print magazines, forums, on-line radio & TV stations. Do they have any idea of the reach, both potential and actual of the 'non-traditional media' audience?In Target's case I find it more extraordinary in that their ke...

Comfort eating in Queens
2008-02-08 17:05:00
After a morning dealing with my backed up post, I foraged desperately in the kitchen for lunch. But as month old yoghurt and a couple of butternut squashes weren’t looking that appealing, I hopped to Queens on the V train, drawn by the siren call of inexpensive Indian food. (I’m fed up with paying Manhattan prices for my grocery shopping: real estate prices here mean that everything pretty much seems to double on this side of the East River.)Unlike in London, where council housing was built on bomb sites and on the foundations of Victorian housing stock throughout the inner city in the aftermath of the Second World War and the '60s slum clearances, (next to Harrods as well as in Dalston), Manhattan’s accommodation doesn't have an ethnically diverse occupancy. (In London I have Somali, Bangladeshi, Indian, Chinese and Ghanaian familes on my street, and my local supermarket stocks food from all these countries.)In the past thirty years, or so, recent immigrants from Asia & Cen...
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It's not just Kate Moss...
2008-02-08 16:24:00
Page Six.com reports today that Kirsten Dunst, the current face of Miu Miu, has checked into rehab at the Cirque Lodge in Utah, most recently home temporarily to Lindsay Lohan. She’ll be joining the new face of Calvin Klein, Eva Mendes, who checked in just last week.
More About: Kate Moss , Kate , Moss

NYFW parties
2008-02-07 18:16:00
So having slept all afternoon like a hibernating dormouse in a nest of cashmere shawls on my bed, I spent a glorious hour dancing between the bedroom & bathroom having an almighty primping session, the likes of which I haven’t indulged in since my birthday at the beginning of December. I'm not really engaging with NYFW, as I'm still not wholly well, & fashion weeks are a recipe for illness (you are continually hungry, tired & sore of foot)so only going to events where I personally know the PR, or designers.I wore this dress with my black suede and patent ankle boots, and 120 denier black Wolfords. And felt mighty glad of it when I arrived at Aziz, a Moroccan lounge in Midtown, for the Nanette Lepore after-show party. I always forget how badly the majority of fashion people dress, especially in New York. Waaaay too many sequins for my liking and everyone in dull colours. I may have looked like a rainbow threw up on my dress, but at least I was making a nod to current trends. I’...
More About: Parties

Back in the US(S)A
2008-02-06 22:45:00
i'm jetlagged, hungry, not yet unpacked, but very happy to be home. I got in at 11.30last night, but didn't hit my bed 'till 2am, as the combination of customs, a tortuous wait for baggage and an exruciating ride home took forever. My fault tho - owing to my new found notions of thrift, I decided to book myself on the door to door shuttle van ($24), rather than taking a cab ($70), which meant the journey took an hour instead of thirty-five minutes. Still, it's not like I was in a hurry. Yesterday really was the day for decrying being a single traveller: humping my 100lbs of luggage onto the check-in scales as my trolley tried to escape in the opposite direction, being asked (in all seriousness) by the customs guy where my husband was (I replied - that'll be the imaginary one then), and then having to scrimp on a cab as I was alone. Sigh.Added to which, I live in a fourth floor walk-up, and it took me another 20 minutes to lug my three bags up the stairs, as I cldn't bear to wa...
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It's a whole different world out there on-line...
2008-02-04 22:31:00
Today I’m feeling…confused. And not feeling the love for the corporate on-line world that is trying to infitrate the blogosphere. Received an email from some random guy at askmen (huge, nothing special, testosterone-filled, on-line mag) offering to trade links with my tiny fashion blog. Odd.They also wanted me to link to a news-y piece they were running, pegging Catherine McNeill as the upcoming model to watch. Apart from the fact that I ran a similar piece on Miss McNeill nearly a year on ago this blog (just before Testino put her under contract), why does a mid-market on-line magazine, aimed at men, with overtly male-friendly, women as objects, content, think I’d be interested in sending my readers to read an uninformed piece of page filler? My intelligent & informed bloggers are hardly going to consider them as an expert source of opinion, especially when it's not her work in the fashion industry that they are interested in...(They didn’t help their cause when, followi...
More About: World , On-line , Line , On Line

Fashion Blog Awards
2008-02-02 11:46:00
I'm continually amazed at how much work people put into the blog community. Props of the day to Jen @ Maholo Fashion , who is running this year's Fashion Blog ger Awards . The list of blogs nominated, and those you can vote on, makes for fascinating reading. It's also a little daunting to realise just how many splendid fashion blogs exist. So, if you read me regularly, I am super grateful, now I see how many of us there are out there! LLG xxPs Thank you everyone for nominating me for Best Fashion Insider's blog! Wow! I'm dead chuffed. And I'm in great company too.
More About: Blog Awards

The Jaeger Morgan bag
2008-02-02 00:57:00
Oh I am in two minds. I've had this Jaeger £100 voucher, (we were given them at a press day), kicking around for well over a year now, and I still haven't found anything I actually really want to buy. The collection seems to never quite hit the nail on the head, and most of the okay-ish pieces are about £250, and I'm certainly not spending £150 on something I'm not that bothered about. If I don't use the voucher, I'll inevitably lose it so I was thinking that maybe I'd buy this bag which is knocked down to £99 in the sale.I've already got my black Janet Collin Vivienne bag which is huge, so a smaller black bag could be useful for when I'm not carting my life around with me. Plus it's got no branding or logos on it, which is a very good thing. Hmmmmm. Of course, the real reason why I'm umming over this is in case something amazing appears down the line. But I've checked out the SS lookbook and I see nothing there...
More About: Morgan