Dear Diary

I’m a very lucky girl as I’m in New York for this week. I was supposed to be working out here but unfortunately that fell through so instead I’m just shopping and people watching! It’s a hard life. Haven’t brought my laptop with me this time so no photos until I return. Packing was a nightmare, the weather forecast varied from 6C – 14C- 20C all very different temperatures, practically three different seasons, requiring multiple clothing options! Have a good week.

Cover Try

V magazine’s ‘Summer Scorcher’ issue features Scarlett Johansson in a YSL strawberry pattern top. Shot by Inez Van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin and styled by Joe McKenna, I totally love it. So old school, the best a blow dry and Charlie’s Angels throwback can offer! Everyone knows what a sex bomb image Scarlett has and it’s so nice to see her looking like the magazine isn’t desperate to sell copies by offering ‘Scarlett as you’ve never seen her before’ or ‘Scarlett’s sexist ever shoot’…oh so boring and ever so predictable.  To be honest it is all about the hair in this shoot!

Source: Stlyleite.com

Grace Kelly

I went to see ‘Grace Kelly: Style Icon’ at the V&A yesterday. I love Grace Kelly and am a huge fan of her films. I think my two favourites are ‘High Society’ and Hitchcock’s ‘To Catch a Thief’, although a couple of years ago I saw ‘Rear Window’ at the outdoor cinema event Somerset House puts on in the summer, which was a pretty amazing experience. The building was beautifully lit and seagulls were wheeling in and out through the beams of light…very atmospheric. The V&A has staged this exhibition in a part of its permanent fashion hall and I have to say it was a tad confusing trying to follow the clothes chronologically around the showcases.  There are items on show from her early film career through the time when two different studios were competing to design for her and into her marriage to Prince Albert of Monaco and her life thereafter as a princess.  Her wedding dress itself is too fragile to travel and remains in a museum in Philadelphia but there is a film reel of the wedding and other archive footage of her onscreen and offscreen fashion moments.  It is very interesting to see up close the dress she wore, for example, in the pool scene in ‘High Society’ or the suit she wore when they embarked for their honeymoon cruise.  Overall I found the clothes are a little less magical, a little cruder in terms of cut and finish than I had expected them to be and I think this made you aware that it was Grace Kelly’s amazing presence itself that really transformed her into a style icon rather than the wardrobe itself.

On a different note, as you leave there is a single Alexander McQueen dress from the Plato’s Atlantis collection, displayed on its own  in a circular glass pillar like a monument and it is a poignant reminder that his tragic death has deprived fashion of an incredible talent.

Source: V&A

Meet you at the MET

It was the MET ball last night, full name The Costume Institute Gala Benefit and this year celebrating the opening of the “American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity” exhibition in New York.  All the guests are dressed by designers and it’s a real chance for the actresses and models to push the fashion boundaries and wear the most interesting and stunning clothes.  Some succeed and some bomb…

Starting with my hands-down favourite, Jessica Szohr in Versace. I love the beige, the pattern is flowery but not in a floral girly way, it’s got an added harshness which I like. The downward semi circles are super flattering on her body and I love the overlays at the bottom. So beautiful, she looks sexy and relaxed.

Kate Bosworth in Valentino. I love the water patterns in beautiful peaches and pinks, the shape is classic and classy and the hair is old Hollywood.

Naomi Watts in Lanvin, stunning colour and I like the slight clash in the lip colour. The gold accessories look great too.

Emma Watson in Burberry looks sassy and totally age appropriate. The angelic white looks simple and modern.

Marion Cotillard in Christian Dior. It’s a shame that it has full length sleeves as it is now May and warm in NYC but I love the sequins and the silvery colour, so scaley and stunning on the body.

Joy Bryant in Marchesa looked different and fresh. I like the tattooed quality of the flower details with the peachy overlay.

Thandi Newton in Vivienne Westwood: an amazing British designer on a stunning British actress. I love the purple and the texture of the fabric, so different.  The folds on the chest are typical Westwood and give a sharp silhouette.

Camille Belle in Jason Wu looking elegant and glamorous. The hint of pink lace around the bust in stunning.

Gwen Stefani in her own label L.A.M.B. I like the ethereal quailty, almost as though the fabric has drifted onto her body but then the black underwear gives it a harder more typically Gwen style quirk.

Lilly Donaldson looking simple and classic.  Simple make-up, simple dress but pulled together well.

Kerry Washington in Thakoon. I love the colour and the way the texture changes over the body with the smooth panel at the hip and the way the bodice is half-draped and half-corseted.  The sexy slit looks great, as do the dark eyes.

Changing tack here……..

Diana Kruger in Calvin Klein. Firstly it’s just too basic and it really doesn’t do anything for her amazing body. This is a winter white with the high neckline and long sleeves. It’s not flattering to her skin tone and it needs at least some  statement earrings or a necklace.

Elizabeth Banks in Gucci. Talk about killing a look! Now there isn’t a sentence I like more than ‘Gucci, gucci, gucci’, but this does not apply here. I like the dress but the tights and heavy shoes completely ruin it and I hate the curtains of hair. Just too heavy and maybe because I don’t really know who she is, it’s just too random.

Kristin Stewart in Chanel and it totally swamps her. Her shoulders are disappearing into the dress and the bizarre length of the see-through material is awful with the heavy shoes. It looks like two different dresses, neither of them good.

Gisele in Alexander Wang is the first of the model offenders. Now she looked so amazing last year this is a major disappointment. It’s tacky and looks like a raffia placemat and I hate the shoes!

Model offender number two, Bar Refaeli in Rag & Bone and it’s another tacky one. This is the MET ball, it’s high fashion and this looks like a dress you’d wear to a rom com premiere. She’s breaking the god given rule that if you go short on your hemline you need a more demure bust line and vice versa.

Claire Danes in Burberry, it looks like a cheap throw and the cups don’t seem to fit her properly. The necklace seems totally at odds with the slightly rockier make-up. It’s also a very harsh metallic against her skin.

Alexa Chung in Phillip Lim and I’m seriously unimpressed.  I love the make-up but wearing trousers  in a Diane Keaton throwback really doesn’t work for me. The jacket draped over the shoulders is so contrived. The Ball is a moment to go into fairy tale and be sexy and feminine.

January Jones inYSL. Mad Men has just finished in the UK so I’ve got withdrawal symptoms and I was tempted to go easy on the beautiful Betty Draper but I just can’t. She looks like a wrought iron gate fixed onto hot pink satin. The above the elbow gloves seem bizarre here and what’s with the star trek make-up? It looks like blue eye shadow and I don’t understand how that references anything she’s trying to do with her look. Awful, truly awful!

Maggie Gyllenhaal in Louis Vuitton and I can’t bear it.  I love her and this just doesn’t work! It just looks a little too goth bride and that’s before you get to the bin bag that appears to be attached to the skirt. I bet she would float in that dress, it definitely looks inflatable. I like the quiff in the hair though.

Malin Akerman in Temperley London is a perfect example of one thing completely throwing out the rest of your look. From the waist down the dress isn’t too bad but the thing that ruins the whole look is the hair. So messy, such a cheap blonde, the hair is pretty shameful.

Lastly, I really like these perspective photos from the event.

Source: Zimbio.com