Fashion + Style Archives - Page 8 of 12

Things I Am Loving – Mary Katrantzou Spring 2011

September 21, 2010 By Paola 3 Comments

People often say that what’s seen on the catwalk will show up pretty soon in interiors, but it’s not so often that interiors inspiration shows up on the catwalk.

Greek designer Mary Katrantzou gave her first stand-alone collection at London Fashion Week, taking as her inspiration old pictures from The World of Interiors and Architectural Digest.

Katrantzou heightened the colour and symmetry of the images in creating her digital prints, ending up with surreal but stunning patterns, colour combinations and abstractions.

She then went a step further by embellishing her prints with interiors-inspired accessories – chandelier necklaces, pelmet shoulders and curtain-like drapery, though it does start getting a bit silly when she goes into lampshades-as-skirts.

I adore these to pieces and would wear one of those little suits in a heartbeat if I were much taller, younger and skinnier and had been invited to a swanky gallery opening or some such. I’d also love to be able to buy the prints themselves to hang on the wall, or maybe made into separates or bags. And I bet Katy Perry is wetting her knickers just looking at these pics.

Magical stuff.

The whole collection is worth looking at here. I first found it on my beloved TLo. {All images by Yannis Vlamos / GoRunway.com via Style.com}

Oh and it’s lovely to see from all the London Fashion Week reports, that the old Eurostar terminal at Waterloo is being put to good use. I loved that architecture.

Adventures in Knitting – Summery Things

August 17, 2010 By Paola 8 Comments

It’s that time of year, when I don’t get much else done – the Minx is in camp and it’s a struggle to fit everything in – but I do manage a ton of knitting.

Knitting is the perfect accompaniment to sitting by the playground or wading pool or beach while the Minx grubs about with her friends. Honestly I have no idea how other knittingless mothers cope the boredom. And it’s really interesting to see how fascinated kids are by knitting – they’re always coming up to see how it’s done and what I’m making.

First up is my ever project in a true laceweight yarn – an Abrazo wrap using SweetGeorgia Silk Merino with copper glass beads. This was my holiday knitting project, and after the first few rows, which were a complete nightmare (you start knitting from the bottom up and shape the top with short rows) it was extremely plain sailing and a very enjoyable knit. There’s more here (Ravelry link)

I love the finished product, which has been getting a lot of summer party action.

Here it is pinned out and ‘blocking’ on a towel.

This is what it looked like when it came off the needles

I also managed to complete a little somethin’ somethin’ for the Minx. I actually started this little cotton top last year and practically finished it except for the straps, but then it spent nearly a year languishing in my knitting basket. Yet another quick and enjoyable knit. Ravelry link here. If you’re on Ravelry, I’m mirrormirror, do come and be my friend.

And no, I have no idea when the Minx turned into Hannah Montana.

Go Fug Your Room – Carrie and Big’s Apartment

June 16, 2010 By Paola 5 Comments

Well, we all know the movie’s crap – two of the best reviews here and here – but what did we think of the set design? Most specifically what about Carrie and Big’s new grown-up married folks apartment?

Carrie confesses in the film that over the past year or two she’s been ‘cheating on fashion for furniture’ and she’s been working with same designer, Lydia Marks, who also revamped her apartment in the first movie.

So let’s take a tour.

One of my main bugbears with this new apartment is the colour scheme, which is basically blue and brown. I know Carrie is trying to create an environment that Big will also feel at home in, but it just makes everything seem rather dark and depressing and yet again very not Carrie. I know she’s grown up now, but where’s the fun, the liveliness, the inventiveness, the eccentricity and the bohemia?

The entrance way sets the tone for the whole, some great pieces – love the wallpaper and green glass bottle - but just a little too fussy and cluttered and somehow old fashioned. Would Carrie really have a glass case of dead butterflies on display?

Entering the living room, I like this view of it. The Rug Company rug is beautiful, as is the coffee table, though, as in her old apartment, the sofa and chairs still seem rather more for ‘perching’ than truly relaxing, though much is made in the movie of Big turning into a couch potato. I think I like the gold painting though I can’t help thinking that Big and Carrie would have a more striking piece of modern art.

Paul Smith got an excellent bit of product placement in here with his ‘Birdie Blossom’ cushion, which Carrie is seen cuddling like a new lover. It’s lovely, though I’m not sure the pattern really works here, but it does seem more authentically ‘Carrie’ than much of the rest of the stuff. It’s also great to see all the books everywhere. One of the things we all complained about last time was the lack of books in bookworm Carrie’s apartment.

From here though things go downhill faster than an Olympic skiier. This view of the sitting room is a cluttered and fussy as a pair of Queen Victoria’s bloomers. There are just too many little pieces of furniture, too many patterns and too many little splashes of colour against horribly dark and serious walls.

This little seating area seems especially ridiculous. Are Carrie and Big really going to sit here as if they were in doctor’s waiting room taking afternoon tea? Isn’t this the perfect spot for a huge comfortable reading chair facing out towards the view?

I like the lighter fresher feel in the formal dining area. The Lee Jofa fabric works well and the light fitting is wonderful, though shelves could do with a bit of editing. It goes through to what I think must be the kitchen, though it seems rather impractical to cook in, and I would never, ever, EVER put a rug, however pretty, in space for cooking. But maybe that’s just me.

Looking to the left from the entrance hall we catch a glimpse of the bedroom, with another fabulous light fitting in the small library and beautiful Cole & Son wallpaper on the bedroom walls, which echoes the paper in the hall.

Carrie makes a huge amount of fuss in this movie about Big’s purchase of a big TV for their bedroom, thus confirming a) that we were right that the big TV in Carrie’s old apartment was incongruous and out of character and b) the TV product placement people have a lot of money.

The bedroom feels a bit ‘hotelly’, but I do like the way they’ve echoed the pattern on the wallpaper with the headboard. And below we’ve got another lovely rug/useless seating area/boring artwork situation happening.

The piece de resistance is naturally the closet, with ridiculously twee ‘his and hers’ sides. I know people have been charmed by this conceit, but to me it looks as ludicrous as having two different his and hers sinks, one ‘feminine’ and one ‘masculine’ side by side in a bathroom.

Not bad shoe storage though.

(By the way Habitually Chic has put together a great post on where to source many of these pieces, including identifying the books that Carrie and Big are currently reading.)

So what do you think? Additional comments hugely encouraged.

poll by twiigs.com

Today I Am Mostly…

March 11, 2010 By Paola Leave a Comment

…admiring my new shoes.

Very happy with my new pink Birkies. I have recently been shopping until I drop at RueLaLa, a invitation-only website featuring 2-day designer boutiques at private sale prices.

I haven’t been given anything to shill for these guys (unfortunately as they’re backrupting me) but they do have some great names on here – homewares and menswear as well as womenswear and accessories - and the prices are amazing (I picked up a DwellStudio duvet set yesterday for $90). The good news is that I’m inviting you lovely blog friends.

Just click HERE, sign up and start shopping. The bad news is that you too will soon be bankrupt. The other bad news is that this appears to be US only for the time being.

Some Random Oscar Thoughts

March 8, 2010 By Paola 5 Comments

Since I spent five hours sitting on my couch yesterday until my backside was literally numb, I might as well get a blog post out of it, so here are some random Oscar thoughts.

Best bits of the night were Kathryn Bigelow’s win for Best Director – yet another big crack in the glass ceiling – and Meryl Streep proudly announcing that she was wearing Chris March. Yes, cuddly Chris March, my all-time favourite Project Runway alum.

She looked radiant and much better than she often does on the red carpet – the dress looked comfortable, age appropriate (take note James Cameron’s wife) and she looked like she was having a blast wearing it. And unlike many fair people she can really carry off white – it makes her flawless skin look like alabaster.

I thought it might be by him as it was reminiscent of the dress he designed for her for the Golden Globes, so I hope this is the beginning of a long and fruitful collaboration for both of them.

Last night the over-40s really schooled the ingenue crowd in how to take the red carpet by storm.

Sparkly, glowy Helen Mirren once again made me proud to be British and was once again one of the best dressed of the night. Demi Moore proved that Rachel Zoe really does know what she’s talking about, though I think that dress would have been nicer in a colour that didn’t so exactly match her own skintone.

Unfortunately SJP, having heard my comment last year that she was too old to dress like an ingenue, went completely the other way and decided to channel Nancy Reagan circa 1976 wth Barbra Streisand hair.

I was conflicted about the dress as I wanted so much to like it – it was unusual and different and pretty from the back – but in the end it was just too shapeless for her and it wasn’t really helped by the bits of tin foil stuck randomly all over it, nor by the enormous char sui bun made from mismatched hair pieces that she stuck on her head.

J Lo’s dress has been getting a lot of inexplicable praise this morning. Personally I thought it looked as if it had been put together in a Project Runway-esque challenge out of miles and miles of bubble wrap and staples, in order to hide the unfortunate stunted conjoined twin she has joined to her hip (I kept expecting to see a little face peeking out from under that side bustle). And isn’t it the convention that you go a little more understated if you’re only presenting?

She is, however, the only woman on the planet who can almost pull something like this off. And she has the sparkliest eyes I’ve ever seen, as if they’ve been embedded with diamonds or something. If anyone knows the makeup trick she uses to achieve that then I’m all ears.

Sandra Bullock (who gave a charming and touching speech and who this weekend also went in person to pick up her Razzie for worst actress – giving her thousands of kudos points in my eyes) decided to come dressed as an Oscar and looked better on the red carpet than she usually does.

Her hair is spectacularly glossy and shiny too, but if you’ve got big ears then the last thing you want to do is tuck your hair behind them and really show them off (take note also Kara DioGuardi and Ellen DeGeneres on American Idol, who have turned that show into a mesmerising big ear fest). So I shall cross my fingers and pretend that Sandra pulled her hair into a simple updo and wiped that eyeball-searing gunk off her lips at the same time.

Speaking of unfortunate hair, I did tweet last night that it was a shame Mo’Nique was wearing a cauliflower on her head.

I take that all back this morning as I learn that her electric blue dress and GARDENIA in her hair was her personal tribute to Hattie McDaniel, who also wore blue and gardenias as the first ever African-American winner of an Oscar back in 1939. (She was apparently forced to sit alone at a table next to the kitchen during that Oscar awards ceremony. SO glad things have moved on a bit since then.)

Frankly I do think Hattie McDaniel (see her acceptance speech here) wore it better and Mo’Nique would have looked a lot less severe with looser hair.

Speaking of larger black ladies in blue. I adored Gabby Sidibe’s infectious exuberance and excitement at being a part of the whole shebang, but her dress was utterly ruined by sticking that cheap-looking applique right over her stomach. Proving once again that designers don’t have a clue how to dress anyone over a size 0. Her upper arms could have done with a tad more draping as well.

Oprah gave us all a lesson in how to be a ‘larger black lady in blue’ but I can’t find a decent picture of her anywhere.

As for real howlers, disappointingly there were no really bad dresses aside from Charlize.

Miley Cyrus – would someone get her off my screen PLEASE? – had me screaming at my television all night in an effort to get her to stop slouching. I think she was afraid that her boobs would just pop out if she pulled her shoulders back. And visible tan lines is not a particularly classy look.

Vera Farmiga’s dress looked it was single-handedly doing one of those fan dances that strippers do and I kept on expecting a nude woman to jump out from behind it. The colour was absolutely glorious though.

Diane Kruger looked like she’d been through a shredder and was on the verge of being throttled by a boa constrictor. A traumatic evening.

Zoe Saldana looked like she was emerging from one of those retro three-dimensional fold out Christmas decoration thingies. I liked the top of the dress but all the can-can flounces were far too much. This dress was one of the Minx’s favourites, and if you’re one of the Minx’s favourites then you know you’re indeed on shakey ground tastewise.

And finally dear old Kate Winslet. Why do you always have to dress like a dowager duchess? I know you’re on a quest to be Britain’s next national treasure, but you’re still young. Would it really kill you to have a little fun with your clothes? Another dress that looks like armour, another bad case of helmet hair. And this time it looked like you’ve been visiting Madonna’s colourist, and we all know that’s not a good thing.

One final note for the Oscar producers. The show itself was as lame as centipede that’s had all its legs cut off. Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin were utterly AWFUL. And I speak as someone who’s just started watching 30 Rock on DVD and has turned into a raving Alec Baldwin fan.

However, a star double-act was born before our very eyes. Tina Fey and Robert Downey Jr. were hilarious while dishing out the award for Best Original Screenplay and should have been hired on the spot to present next year. I’d pay to watch that one.

Oh and one very last aside. Whatever happened to these two? Grizzly Adams and his partially melted blow-up doll.

A Right Charlize

March 8, 2010 By Paola 3 Comments

Off to bed. Where I shall be wondering why Charlize Theron thought it would be a good idea to wear giant unfurled violet condoms on her bosoms.

Maybe more Oscar thoughts tomorrow if the world and his wife hasn’t already said all there is to say (the perils of being based on the West Coast). I’m @mirrormirrorxx on Twitter if you want to check out my prime time tweeting.

Wrist Worms

November 6, 2009 By Paola 1 Comment

Aren’t these great? I so need a pair as I get cold sitting at my glass desk (who on earth thought a glass desk would be a good idea?) in winter. And yes, I should be able to crochet some myself but can’t find a pattern this cute anywhere.

Wrist Worms by Sandra Juto are available here

Psst! Guess Who?

October 15, 2009 By Paola 3 Comments

Yep, it’s our very favourite diabolical domestic goddess Martha Stewart – looking pretty good we have to admit – in her Mad Men era modelling days. From Tory Burch {via the Bubb Report}.

Go Love Your Room? – Lulu Guinness

October 7, 2009 By Paola 5 Comments

I’m a little bit on the fence about this one, as it’s a little too romantically girly for my taste, but there’s still a lot to love in Lulu Guinness’ Notting Hill house.

Love the refreshing colours, but there’s too much spindly furniture – which never looks comfortable and wallow-y

My least favourite room in the house. I love her bags, but I’m not a fan of LG’s bedding (it’s from her homewares range) and the mural commissioned from an art student doesn’t redeem things much. And I do wonder who dusts that collection of powder compacts.

First up the bones of the house are superb – the Victorian houses built in Notting Hill are larger and grander than in other parts of London, so the proportions are generally, as in this case, more splendid.

And there’s something about the quality of the light there, I lived in Notting Hill for twelve years and even on gloomy days it always seemed brighter and lighter than the rest of London – something to do with the white coloured houses and the sunset views to the west. But maybe it was just because I loved living there so much.

But I digress.

I love the eclecticism of the decor, the bold use of colour, the collections of objects which are clearly much loved and personal and the way the whole thing reflects LG’s own quirky feminine but slightly kitsch style. (Is she well known in the US? I haven’t come across her here. In the UK she is renowned as a handbag designer, but she also designs homewares.)

I ADORE the pearly queen wallhanging and her tchotchkes (one of my favourite American words) are mostly fab though wonder how practical it is to have everything lined up behind the banquette like that.

The other interesting aspect is how the house has evolved since it was last photographed in 2001 (seen here on Hidden in France) – LG has kept many of the same pieces but the style is a little more pared down and the colour palette more restrained, with much more use of white. It’s so refreshing to see a wealthy person who doesn’t throw everything out and start again every few years, but who keeps their house full of familiar, much-loved treasures.

Kitchen 2009

Kitchen 2001

Just loving all the perspex and the black and white

I’ve always loved her trademark perfume bottles

What do you think? {All images, by the way, from Living etc}

Viktor & Rolf – Spring 2010

October 5, 2009 By Paola 2 Comments

This post is for all Project Runway contestants (and judges) past and present, who have struggled with the concept of ‘avant garde’. Viktor & Rolf took saws to densely packed layers of tulle to create walking sculpture and the result is both strangely gorgeous and absolutely riveting.

Wouldn’t you just love to see some super brave starlet walking down the red carpet in one of these? (And she could always sweep the carpet at the same time.)