All Hallows Eve

Who doesn’t love a novelty biscuit? Happy Halloween!

Rainbow over London

It’s been raining in London with intermittent sunshine and I came across this great picture of a stunningly clear rainbow over my great city.

London from Tate Modern

I went to see the current Gerhard Richter exhibition at Tate Modern this week, which was amazing and more of that in a later post. I took some photos across the river from the cafe near the top of the building; as often with the light in London it’s all quite grey but I quite like the way it creates atmosphere in the pictures and emphasises the graphic lines of the buildings and the cranes.

I have also put up a few photos from the Tacita Dean installation which is in the Turbine Hall at the moment. She has put together a seemingly unconnected and varied series of film clips playing with the idea of Time which are displayed as a continuous film reel within an imagined window space of the Hall itself.

Some Rafa to Help Kick Start Your Week

This is the film from the new A/W campaign for Armani Jeans and Emporio Armani underwear featuring Rafa Nadal.  The video was shot in Mallorca in an empty car park with Rafa undressing from a suit into a more casual denim look. He looks amazing and as you’ll know if you read this blog I love him, just a shame he’s not doing too well in the Masters out in Asia.

Partying with Uniqlo

I was at Wednesday night’s opening of the new Uniqlo shop on Regent’s Street  which celebrated ten years of the brand’s presence in the UK and which was timed to coincide with this week’s opening of their store on New York’s Fifth Avenue, and which in many ways London’s is designed to reflect. As well as the famous founder Tadashi Yanai, there was a packed crowd of fashion journalists, models and stylists, with Top Model judge Grace Woodward, Cara Delevingne, Jameela Jamil, Premier’s Carole White to name just a few. There was a sake ceremony and great music from international DJs. I didn’t take many photos because I was having too much fun.

I was doing some research on the brand and apparently Yanai was initially inspired by a photo he saw of a five storey London shopfront which had been literally covered in raincoats.  From that he went on to create stores which seem to offer a eye-poppingly vast quantity of choice and variety, even if in reality there is a lot of duplication in the display. The shops are all huge white boxes, deliberately avoiding any sense of reference to a particular customer or lifestyle. With the new store openings and Jamie Campbell Bower and Leah Weller heading their ad campaign, these are good times times for Uniqlo.

Adorn my Neck

At a time when the gloomy economic mood in the country makes me spend too much time worrying about the state of the NHS, as well as the increase in the number of shark attacks worldwide and the way forward for English rugby and football, one reliable source of solace is  jewellery. The jewellery section of any shop, stall or online website is where you will find me whenever possible. These five pieces are my new wish list favourites:

Erickson Beamon’s 22-karat gold plated necklace (£735) is a statement piece if ever I saw one. I usually go for longer necklaces or chains and this length is a departure for me, although I have worked myself in with a couple of great Mawi collars.  I love the curved bars of rectangular diamonds here and the broken symmetry.

I love how starkly angular these Roberto Cavalli fishbone earrings (£740) are. They have an almost beetle-like quality, spiky and architectural, with the gold being almost like a shell with the legs protruding out. I am also generally loving grey stones at the moment,  it’s my new obsession because it works so well with both gold and silver. I would definitely wear these with a messy pony tail.

I’ve posted a similar Aurelie Bidermann wheatear necklace before (£1,290) because I love the whole idea of the wheat theme.  This one is a more fragile version and keeps with its inherent organic lightness. I love how natural this looks and it has the great quality of being good to wear by day with a white t-shirt and then used at night as a statement peice.

Oscar de la Renta’s £467 gold necklace is perhaps a little flowery but somehow it works. I like the length and the casual way it looks quite Indian or something you’d pick up whilst travelling, so perhaps it’s not quite justified at that price tag, but I think it would add just the right amount of nonchalant drama.

More Roberto Cavalli, these leaf earrings (£400) are in a great dark metal and tailor down to a point, again very flattering on a jaw line and providing just the right combination of feminine and fashion. These don’t look super expensive to me but I like the downward turn of them and think the flash of purply blue would look great with loose hair.

Source: Net-a-Porter.com

Chanel S/S12 Paris

Karl Lagerfeld thinks on a large scale and for this collection of 85 looks, he had the Grand Palais transformed into a vast Neptune’s kingdom – yes, another designer looking underwater, though it’s actually quite hard to imagine him snorkelling…  There was a whole lot of shimmer, sheen and sparkle which conversely had the effect of making it seem quite a wintery collection; it felt like snowflakes should be falling. There were lots of whites and pale pink and blues, the traditional tweed, some fru fru skirts, some decoration that was a little too seaweedy.  It should also be noted that the Chanel girl will now be wearing her pearls around her waist. I liked the thin geometric black lines going from coat to skirt to connect the two. Horrible silver moon boots though, and I’m not looking forward to seeing them on the fashion front row next February.

Source: Style.com

Valentino S/S12 Paris

After a stunning Couture success, I was looking forward to this collection, even though I haven’t enjoyed the duo’s pret-a-perter runways since they took over from Valentino himself. This show was back to the formula of their previous shows: too feminine, too frilly, too flowery. One of the references was apparently Mexico in the 1900s and in all that lace, embroidery and hand-painting it was like a wardrobe full of clothes for first communions, weddings and funerals. I found these dresses shapeless and unflattering and the horrible bubblegum pink is an insult to the label’s heritage. Very disappointing.

Source: Style.com

Alexander McQueen S/S12 Paris

This looked like another conscious homage to Alexander McQueen but with a more feminine edgy (not necessarily a good thing). Sarah Burton was inspired by three Gs this season : Grès, Gaudí and Gaia. I found the references all rather contrived but the clothes were undeniably intricate and complex in their constructed detail and the highlight for me was the white dress, second to last look below. But all in all, if, as is being reported, Sarah Burton’s favourite look was the ‘apricot baby doll’ dress, that in itself is the most un McQueen statement I have ever heard.

Source: Style.com

Haider Ackermann S/S12 Paris

Haider Ackermann was my favourite collection last season so I had high hopes for this show. His name is hot property and is being whispered about for Dior. The colour palette, as you would expect, was absolutely lovely, full of khaki, teal, chocolate, taupe and wonderful crushed berries. His treatment of the pyjama trend was more literal than most, going into menswear territory with the addition of dressing gown coats, suit lapels, silk tie designs and huge poetic foulards.  Draped tailoring was the name of the game here, with masculine shapes loose over the models’ forms. I’m not a fan of the backless slipper-brogues; surely killer heels would have added a contrasting feminine edge to the theme. I also didn’t like the chiffon draped over some of the models’ heads which seemed totally pointless and at odds with the easy loose but luxurious style that this collection seemed to be about.

Source: Style.com