My life is now complete. Look who’s just appeared on my desk. My very own Tim Gunn talking bobblehead!
The Minx thinks my ‘funny man’ is quite hilarious and keeps sneaking up behind me and making him say ‘carry on’ or ‘FAB-U-LOUS’ or, of course, ‘make it work’.
His benign and smiling presence and inspirational catch phrases are actually strangely motivating. I think old age is getting to me.
Although the temperature is set to rise to the high 70s today, my mind is starting to turn to snuggly things, in particular these gorgeous knitted pieces in 100% merino wool from Italian online store Sartoria Vico (found via Not Martha).
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They have created a range of simple but interesting and often multifunctional knitted pieces, each available in a range of colours. I love the way the website is a arranged, with clear photos and simple illustrations.
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Incidentally ‘cappuccio’ – pronounced ‘ka-pu-cho – simply means hood and ‘sciarpone’ – pronounced ‘sharponay’ – means big scarf. I’m wondering whether these will be knitty overkill with last year’s knitted Uggs which had to be surgically removed from my feet come the end of winter.
I was amused to note from the recent Elle Deco feature that Englishman Simon Doonan, who is the Creative Director of Barneys New York and Jonathan Adler’s partner (and therefore, we must suppose, an International Design Guru of Some Standing) exhibits a very similar taste in clothes to the Minx.
Creative Director Barneys New York My daughter
Someone invite me to a wedding quick, so I can get one of these scrumptious hats.
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From British milliner Georgie Carss.
Things I Learned Last Night (Only Very Tiny Spoilers)
– The movie is like watching five previously undiscovered back-to-back episodes with a much bigger budget. No more. No less. Which is my idea of bliss. I note the reviewers who thought the movie was too long are mostly male.
– The plot is so creaky it should be in an old people’s home. I have no idea how they’re going to rehash things again to make a sequel. This doesn’t actually matter.
– Judging by the packed-out cinema and queue for tickets (in fabulous monsoon-like conditions – how I love Seattle in June), there will definitely be a sequel
– As we suspected from the photos which have been all over the Internet, green feathers and bright red lipstick (especially lipstick which is feathering round the edges – too much smoking Carrie!) does not work
– The blue Manolos in the lead role are totally upstaged by these fabulous Dior Extreme Gladiator Platforms, which I would buy tomorrow if they a) didn’t cost $770 b) wouldn’t cripple me in about 5 secs c) wouldn’t give me appalling cankles.
– J Hud is woefully underused
– As is Stanford. More Stanford please!
– Charlotte is fabulous when she’s angry
– The movie included a completely gratuitous trip to Mexico which suited me just fine
– I still think Miranda could do better than Steve
– However, Miranda and Steve made me cry
– As did Charlotte
– Carrie didn’t
– The interiors throughout the movie are fabbalicious. I may have to see the movie again to focus on them more closely 🙂
– Carrie’s iconic apartment gets a makeover. I’m not sure about it, but it deserves a post all of its own
– Samantha is a fool
– Cynthia Nixon is looking stunning
– Smash in Wallingford was a surprisingly great place for a pre-match cosmopolitan
– For all the critics bitching and moaning about the lack of reality in the film, this is PORN, girl porn, pure unadulterated fashion, accessories and interiors porn (and some lingering shots of hot Italian male totty which were not exactly unpleasant). And since when have porn films been realistic?
I know we’ve recently been very rude about US Vogue, but this month’s issue features one of the most gorgeous photoshoots I’ve ever seen in honour of the upcoming release of Sex and the City – The Movie. (All photos by Annie Liebowitz for US Vogue from Vogue.com).
Even though the cover is still pretty crap.
The gorgeous boys at Project Rungay (one of the all time great blogs) have done some great detective work tracking down the catwalk origins of most of the frocks. (They are so going to LOVE my Heidi Klum holiday goss).
I have just two questions. Why don’t we see epic dresses like these on the red carpet (including SJP to her own premieres) instead of all the boring fishtails we saw at the Oscars this year? (The green Nina Ricci is what I will wear when I win my Oscar and have extensive liposuction). And could Mr Big, whom I’ve always loved as a character, but who has never done it for me as a lustbunny, look any hotter?
Also check out this vid, via Perez Hilton, which conclusively proves that this is one of the biggest ever product placement opportunities for women (I’ve heard the movie called the ‘Superbowl for women’ in terms of its advertising potential). I just love how all the accessories are just piled up as if they were in the rummage bin at Primark.
The hot mamas of Seattle have booked out the evening of June 3rd to see the movie and drink too many cosmopolitans. Back with an actual film review then. (The only thing I don’t like is the fugly ass decor in that hotel bedroom).
Ever since I moved from London to Seattle, I’ve noticed that there is a very different design sensibility between Britain and the US, not just in interiors but in every aspect of life.
So I thought it would be fun to launch a series of posts where we can compare and contrast everyday elements of British and American design and just have a chat round the differences.
First up, here are the May 2008 covers for British and American Vogue, which to me exemplify the two different design aesthetics (even though American Vogue is famously edited by a Brit).
The cover of British Vogue is simpler and cleaner, with far fewer words and simple fonts (though note the use of the serif font). Colour though is brought into the typeface.
The focus is very much on the model. Note it’s a model not a celebrity – celebrities do appear on the cover of British Vogue but comparatively rarely. Though admittedly the lines get a bit blurred with celebrity models such as Kate Moss, who seems to be on the cover of British Vogue all the time. The colours are very bright, clean and fresh and to my eyes very English. The whole thing seems much more uncluttered and spare.
American magazine covers – and this is no exception – seem to have a lot more going on. There are more words and more different font sizes (though only one sans serif font is used throughout). There are more emphatic caps and italics and a quote is included. All the words mix lower case and upper case.
The image used is much busier (and more obviously photoshopped?) – more Gwyneth, more dress, more background. There’s a lot more Hollywood glamour – a movie actress, big hair, silver and sequins. And with the mask, even obvious movie product placement (for the Iron Man movie, starring, you guessed it, Gwyneth Paltrow). The colours, though, are more muted and soft than on the British cover.
So, which one do you like best? Which one would you buy? Do you prefer the cover from your ‘home’ country? Does the other cover seem very different and/or strange? Does the British cover seem scarily uninformative and gaudily bright? Does the US cover seem more old-fashioned (as it does to me)? Or does the serif font on the UK cover look old-fashioned to American eyes? If you’re neither British nor American which one stands out for you? Am I the only person who thinks Gwyneth look strangely like she’s been carved out of wax?
Discuss.
(Just adding a poll, because your answers are intriguing me.)
So the thing that’s intriguing me, is that not a single person has said they prefer the US cover, but surely Anna Wintour et al must do focus groups and stuff about this sort of thing? And must think that the US-style cover will sell best? Can anyone out there explain?
By the way is the poll working properly? I’ve had all sorts of trouble getting it up.
One of the nicest things about moving to the US is being able to watch the Oscars as they happen at a sensible time of the evening instead of pinching oneself to stay awake into the wee small hours. I do miss Jonathon Ross’s snark though.
I have to say though, that I’ve never seen such a boring collection of Oscar frocks in my life. Mile after mile of vacuous starlets parading in slimline silhouettes and fishtail trains, their breast implants squashed into strapless or assymetrical off- the-shoulder necklines.
And the colours – or lack thereof. Last night there were apparently only three choices available – black, red, or white/silver if you were really feeling rebellious. If you’re going to go to all the trouble of wearing a posh frock, then why would you choose black? However intricate the actual dress is, it’s never going to stand out in a crowd. And no, midnight blue is not really a much racier choice.
Though it did make me laugh to see all those girls who really thought they’d stand out by wearing red all queuing up in a long line like London buses.
If you must wear red, do it like Heidi Klum. Despite being completely addicted to Project Runway, I’m not a big fan of the robotic Frau Seal, but there’s no denying that her Galliano dress is absolutely spectacular. It’s apparently up for auction for charity, if you’ve still got some Christmas money left over.
Another contender for Best Dressed, despite being nearly three times the age of some of the vacuous starlets was Helen Mirren. Oh she makes me proud to be British.
If you’re going to do the fishtail look then why not go the whole hog and turn up dressed as a mermaid a la Best Actress Marion Cotillard in Gaultier. I was so thrilled with her win. La Vie En Rose was one of the few other movies I went to see last year and her acting was an absolute tour de force.
Worst dressed was difficult. Normally this would have been a slam dunk win for Tilda Swinton, who decided to turn up wearing a black bin liner.
However, it was such a relief to see something a bit different from all the strapless fishtails that I’ll give her a pass on this one, also because one has to respect her Bowie-esque fierceness and the fact that she manages to live with both the father of her children and her handsome toyboy. Though even given all those things, black really isn’t the right colour for you if your complexion is that pale.
The Husband, who saw Michael Clayton recently, reckoned she deserved her win, but I was sad that the Oscar didn’t go to 13-year-old Saiorse Ronan who managed to act everyone else off the screen in Atonement (not so difficult when you’re up against Keira Knightley, more so when it’s Vanessa Redgrave).
At least she managed to look ethereal and age appropriate (*cough* Miley Cyrus *cough*) in Alberta Ferretti, though the hair was a bit too severe. We will forgive her much for actually wearing a colour other than black red or white though.
One of the only people other than Tilda, who managed to stand out amongst the personality transplants was Diablo Cody, who won the original screen writing award. Again, I wouldn’t normally advocate tats and leopardskin, but it worked, because that is clearly who she is.
So who wins the mirrormirror Worst Dressed Award?
I’m sort of confused by Nicole Kidman’s effort. Pregnancy has clearly befuddled her brains sufficiently that she decided to turn up wearing a bib made of diamonds. It sort of looks OK here, but much worse when she was actually presenting her award as the necklace had got all askew and tangled by that stage. But at least she was trying something different.
She absolutely wins the ‘worst face’ award though. She really couldn’t move it for Botox when making her little speech. She appears to be morphing rapidly into Lady Penelope.
LADY PENELOPE
NICOLE KIDMAN
Sadly my girl Jennifer Hudson, of whom I have been a great fan since American Idol days and who quite often looks fab, was again let down badly by her Oscar stylist. After last years horrific bolero, she wore a frock that made her ample boobage look deformed. Even the Husband remarked upon it (we know now where he looks when it comes to clothes). It seems that designers and stylists are completely flummoxed when they have to confront a pair of real breasts. As a woman of ample boobage myself, I’d love to see her in something plunging and uplifting and in yer face which would get all the fishtailed starlets crying into their implants. But for the moment though, she’s a strong contender for Worst Dressed.
Editing to say that, now I’ve found a pict ure of it, this creation undoubtedly wins the Worst Dressed award. What on earth was Rebecca Miller thinking?
There are two things in this world that I would love to be able to do and that is sing and draw.
Those of you who can do the latter might like to see excerpts from a fabulous article which appeared in February’s Elle Deco UK, where they asked an illustrator to illustrate four rooms from literature.
It really makes me want to get reading and drawing and researching historic trends in interiors. And living in The Great Gatsby.
Images from Elle Decoration UK, February edition. Illustrations by Yoco. Click on the images to read the text.
I’d never heard of Yoco before, but here are some utterly gorgeous illustrations from her website.
