the boyfriend's back (redux)

I'm getting a weird kind of deja vu: I could swear I've done a post already titled 'the boyfriend's back' but that's probably only because, like any other good on/off love affair, the boyfriend has never really left us, has he?

I mean.. I think just about every year, they tell us 'the boyfriend jean is back' and we are all like, good. Because I'm just in the mood to wear my oldest, crappiest jeans, so thank you very much for giving me permission. This year, we're being told we can pair them with court shoes, bling up the top with blouses (I wish I remembered this lovely Italian photographer's name: she shoots for Grazia, among other publications, and was just so nice).

And that doesn't even count the 'Mom jeans.' Not mUM, but mOm - which, in the UK, it's been explained to us in magazines, is being ironic. They're like the boyfriend jean, but higher waisted - like the 80s. Like someone who was cool in the 80s, but is now, you know.. someone's mother.

It's almost nearly too late to post fur coat shots, but just before we enter spring good and proper here in London, I wanted to show you a juxtaposition: I shot these consecutively, minutes apart (possibly less than a minute), from the same spot. Both women facing the street, in front of the Albert Memorial, after the Burberry show. Having grown up with Pantone colours - in the pre-digital, print design world - I didn't even realise til after, and I looked closely at the shot, what these leggings were all about.

And here, for your listening pleasure, something to sing along to. Has anyone seen Baroness Thatcher's funeral? It was absolutely beautiful. Regardless of one's politics, I felt it was the most civilised, spiritual tribute to a human being, who paved the way for women. Whatever you're doing today, girls, whatever rights, career wise, you are entitled to, whatever opportunities are coming your way, chances are Margaret Thatcher busting through the glass ceiling back then.. it didn't hurt, let's put it that way.

three camels and a bit of tomato

The only time I like red is when it's tomato red, used ideally with some hot pink, and camel.

These are three of my favourite camel looks, all shot within minutes, after the Burberrys show this season. Which (if any) is your favourite?

unendangered

I didn't think it was possible, but Leopard Print is still the new black.

It's been years now.

I mean, it's gone back and back - to caveman days, I suppose (can't you just see the women around the fire, one-upping each other on whose man got them a better quality skin), but it really did seem, back in around 2010, that the look had been done to death.

But even on the catwalk at Burberry last week: it's still there (second to last shot, above). *

So once again, I am wrong.

The print is here, bigger and bolder and more witty than ever. Best worn in spring, I feel, with your own bare skin.

Shown from top: my friend Natayla, in a shoot I did for My Wardrobe in - wow, I think Dec 2010, then a girl at Somerset House this week (as before), Hayley in also about 2010, me, a guest from the Burberry show this week, a girl in about 2011, the Burberry coat a/w 2013 and last but never least, Carine Roitfeld in 2011.

Better run: we're off to see Zero Dark Thirty. It's effing freezing, and I'm pulling out my old leopard print teddy bear coat.

* And - thank you Jessie of Fashion Limbo - also at the Moshino Cheap & Chic show, which my other friend Jessi went to (she was my assistant this season!) but it was on the day we landed and I missed it (see comments). I love what I'm seeing tho - esp. looks 12 & 13. That's the new twist on the print: pattern on pattern, bigger & bolder. As Jessi said, it's a love it or hate it thing. Leopard is the Marmite (or Bovril) of prints.

your beating heart

So: fashion week is over, in London at least. I'm not chasing the circus to Paris or Milan, but I've gotta say: I LOVED it this year. Flew in from Miami on Day Two, slept thru that, and waltzed in on Day Three with my amazing, Amazonian friend Jessi Lindstrom (top shot), California blonde Homecoming Queen, mother of Jasper, wife of Thorsten, lived in Paris, now in London. What I love about her - and there's so much to choose from - is the REASON she was Homecoming Queen. Not because she was bitchy or competitive - or even had any desire to be - but for the freak reason that she had this habit, in high school, of noticing if someone was sitting by themselves in the cafeteria, and sitting down and getting to know the people who didn't have a lot of friends.

And they all ended up voting for her. Because she's got such a big heart.

It feels like a metaphor for me. For all my life.

Lots of photos to show you, and I'm actually a bit overwhelmed where to start, so I'll take it a day at a time. Go with Burberry again. And work my way through the colour theme spectrum. And what better place to start than cool, electric, cobalt blue. True Blue.

Oh! And re: yesterday's post, the mystery girl singing Happy Together at the Burberry Show is Misty Miller. But now - before I go out and resume my previous life, which includes adapting my novel to a screenplay, I've got to find out who played live at the end of the show. The song about 'your beating heart'. When you hold me in your arms.

So far, I can't find this song, so if anyone has a clue, please let me know.

That's what I love about Christopher Bailey: the way he, like Jessi, has the generosity of spirit to showcase new talent. But it's not just him, the Chief Creative Director at Burberry. It's Angela Ahrendts, the American businesswoman who took the helm of Burberry as CEO in 2006. I've not had the privilege of meeting her - yet. Or Mr. Bailey. But I feel what they've done with the brand is incredible. Not a trace of the iconic plaid in this show. This was a more sexed up version: 'trench-kissing', Bailey calls it. Great piece in the Telegraph, by Lisa Armstrong.

Yes, there was tan. And trenches. But rarely both. We saw it all tighter, trimmer, Christine Keeler circa early 60s, 'one part sex kitten and two parts Little Miss Prim.' Lots of black, and burgundy, and leopard print pencil skirts. And shine.

And hearts. Lots of heart.

@burberry: what's your name

We were driving up, in Jessi's car, parking near the Albert Memorial - knowing we were running late for the Burberry show. It was cold, the light getting low in the sky after a beautiful sunny day, and suddenly we see this huge glass pavilion, as we're walking - Jessi, who used to model before she moved to Paris and got married and had her darling son, Jasper. Jessi, tall and California blonde, statuesque in killer heels.

This unbelievably gorgeous, spiritual music, was pouring out, as if from the heavens. WOW. We could see the show going on, through the glass. The guards directed us where to get in to the show, but you know what? It was nearly over, and it felt right to be outside. With the crowd. Watching Jessi get papp'd, watching the blogger/celebs who didn't get Burberry invites get papp'd.. and then, as the guests poured out, watching the circus go by. Fame. What's your name.

I am a firm believer that where we are is where we're meant to be. I don't mind not being inside the show, because the people I met and the photos I took.. I'd not have had any of that experience otherwise. This is now my philosophy of life: wherever I am, I try to be present.

I'll be posting more, but I need to get over to Somerset House now. If you want to see what we didn't, here's the show in its entirety. It's really worth playing all the way thru - I've got Happy Together running through my head (& p.s.: LeahB, I found the version! It's Misty Miller singing it, thank you Eleanor Frost) - but the end.. man, oh man, is Christopher Bailey an artist, or what.

tali ho!

When I first met Tali Lennox (her model name: her dad is Israeli film and record producer Uli Fruchtman, and her mom is Annie Lennox, so she goes by both), it was at a fashion week, and I took her photos and she liked them so much she used them as her facebook profile, so we became facebook friends.

I didn't know who she was, just thought she was really nice.



Now she's like, everywhere: Burberry campaign, blah blah blah, but the thing is, she's still really, really nice. Normal: a real girl's girl. The other thing about her is she is an absolute chameleon: she looks totally different all the time. So you might think you don't know her, but you do, trust me.

I saw her at Vogue's Fashion Night Out last Thursday night, at the private Juicy Couture party: she was guest DJing, along with a guy who seemed to be an actual DJ. (I have just been informed by Elise @Juicy Couture: that regular DJ was Johnny Borrell, lead singer of Razorlight. KICKING MYSELF for being such an idiot, ignoring him, not taking his photo, and so on, but I was too busy chatting with Tali).







'Do you have to learn how to do this?' I asked. 'Not really,', said Tali, as she kind of wiggled the thingys on the board around, to show me how easy it is. Not rocket science, clearly.






Champagne and killer Cornish frozen yogurt in rose or elderflower, by HedgeRow: as Sabine said, those Juicy girls really know how to throw a party.

tali's in style!

When I met Tali in September, I didn't know 'who she is' (Annie Lennox's younger daughter, after Lola) and a real rising star as a model. I just thought she was really sweet, and I took a few shots and she used mine as her facebook portrait and friended me.

So lo and behold, what a treat to be lying in bed with the cat and Mr. Dot on Day Two of 2011, reading my favourite Style section in the Times, drinking coffee, and who should I see in a feature as the next rising star, but Tali Lennox! She's the new face of Topshop and Burberry and my new New Year's Resolution is do to a fashion shoot with her.

mystery blonde

Anyone know who this girl is? Craig said she's an ex model turned blogger. She told me her name but I shot so many people.. help! All I know is her dress and trench look like the real deal: Burberry. And she's really sweet. I love these shades with fair skin and hair and pale blue eyes. And she's wearing simple brown leather loafers: a breath of fresh air among all those heels.

. . . .

Big thank you to Craig who took the time in between shooting Natalia Vodianova, Karolina Kurkova, Roberto Cavalli and Agyness Deyn (and that's just the top two posts) to solve the mystery: she is Candice Lake, and her work looks absolutely gorgeous. Beyond what I'd have expected. A beautiful talent. Or is it talented beauty.

the emperor's new sublime plum coloured aviator jacket, with feathers

Last night I had started a post about Burberry and didn't get round to posting it, then a remark that Looking Fab in Your Forties made today, about getting nabbed by the Burberry Police @ their Puerto Banus branch, for trying to photograph a 'sublime' plum coloured aviator jacket, reminded me that I'd dropped the ball.

The thing about Burberry as a brand, and Christopher Bailey as a creative force, is - this is strictly my own opinion, mind you - the way he can take a theme and just expand it, play around with it.. it's really worth looking round the site or better yet, if you can get to a store, just spend some time absorbed in his head. It must be quite a magnificent head.

For example: take these three looks, above. It's almost Emperor's New Clothes the way every brand, from high end to high street, took his aviator jacket as shown on the top left and scrambled to get their own version made - took the khaki & brown palette - and yet, when I was walking round the store, what captured my imagination was the SAME PLUM COLOURED AVIATOR JACKET - with the softest feathery 'shearling' collar - that Looking Fab almost got nabbed in a resort on the Costa del Sol, for trying to photograph.

And I don't feel he always gets it right. The top right one, for example. He's trying an idea, playing around with quilted parka material, which is going to be huge this winter, but it just doesn't do it for me, in that shape, with that dress. Is it just me? I mean, even the model doesn't seem comfortable in it, and no matter how thin one is, it's bound to chop them in half and making them look and feel.. chunky.



But then again, these jackets... I didn't dare try anything on, but I just stood there a while like a toddler, transfixed with playing with the zipper. I didn't even try to take the jacket apart into two pieces, just marvelled at the idea: for the mere price of £1,295 (over $2000.00!) you actually get two jackets in one: a short cropped navy, and a longer shapely silhouette (or, conversely, you could simply appreciate the craftsmanship and creative genius, then go on said holiday to the Costa del Sol for a week).


You know (or perhaps you don't) that pretty much everything on my post is my own photography (apart from recent self portraits which are usually from my non-photographer husband, Mr. Dot, who seems to like to start shooting before I'm actually ready to pose).

This time I'm making an exception, using photography from Burberry's own site. Thanks Burberry!




I guess what I"m trying to say is, from everything I've read and heard about the man, he lives quite simply, he's delightful, warm, friendly, not remotely a diva, and clearly has such fun and takes such joy in taking themes and just playing around with the ideas. He inherited a brand known for two things: tan trench style raincoats, and a certain plaid check pattern in rather dated colour scheme. He's almost made us forget it was All About the Trench, and now that it's All About the Aviator, what I'm getting all excited about is midnight blue wool pea coats, or again, that sublime Burgundy wool felt number. In one room, I was in the colour scheme I got all psyched for while on holiday in the Dominican Republic: the cool jewel like colours of the purples, with navy, olive green..



And while I know for most of us it's all about the shoes, I'm not even going to go there in this post. For once, altho I am so not an It bag girl - I haven't bought anything over £100 since my Coach days back in NY - I still have to marvel at the way he's kind of exploded the iconic check into all directions. He's like the Picasso of the fashion industry for me.



Perhaps his piece de resistence for me at the moment, tho, goes back to his Burberry roots. A trench. In white. MADE OF FREAKING FEATHERS. This is, for me, what it's all about. (And at nearly £3000, or $5000 USD, one could go on QUITE the holiday). He's taking a RAINCOAT, for goodness sake, and making it out of feathers. He's taking the piss out of himself, in a sense, and of his brand, while at the same time, making us look twice, and appreciate the beauty, the craft. I just can't wait to see what he does next!

sheep in wolf's clothing

Am I a sheep? I ask myself that question on this grey and listless morning. (Morning? Who am I kidding? As of typing this, in two minutes it shall be NOON, my dear fashionistas. I am a lazy, lazy cow).

Here's the thing: I didn't start this blog because I had any particular interest in the fashion world (I'd never been to a fashion week and assumed they were vile things filled with vile creatures: having only been to two so far, both in London, I can absolutely say hand on heart that is SO NOT TRUE, thanks mostly to the beautiful people at the BFC). I didn't 'want', 'need', of 'die for' any particular item of clothing.

I wasn't 'jealous' of someone's shoes.

Most of what I wore was either cheap, used, occasionally custom made (I found a great dress-maker years ago, in the Herefordshire countryside, and I'd design the Jackie O type dresses), or handed down. Sometimes, like in the case of my ex It Girl friend Nicole in NY, she'd literally borrow $100 from me and 'repay' me in discarded designer goods I did not want. I've probably posted about this before but this is one of the things she gave me (the others, I gave away, like a pair of never worn navy blue leather heeled Mary Janes by someone her mum was friends with named Manolo Blahnik). This jacket, which was so totally naff and dated at the time, with its big 70s collar and studs and bright purple leather, was designed by Claude Montana, before he was famous, from his first collection.



Why am I bringing this up today? Because it seems that all 'everyone' wants is a shearling aviator jacket (and by 'everyone' I even include stylish friends who I love and respect - I'm sure there are people around the world whose wants are more basic: freedom, for example, or food, clothing - any clothing - shelter. Good health. Their life.).

But as for the rest: they want a Shearling leather aviator jacket. The Burberry one, of course (specifically, the Burberry Prorsum Shearling leather jacket, shown above, left: £1895.00, or $2,961.58, but tough toodles, girls: it's already sold out. You can add it to your 'wish list' to 'see if more stock becomes available'.

Even 'wish list' is a phrase that makes me cringe.

Please don't get me wrong. I have nothing against Burberry - god knows, I love the brand and feel Christopher Bailey is a genius. But I bet even he is starting to feel a bit like 'hey, Dude, I'm not the Messiah. I put a girl in a lace dress and, on a whim, because I love that casual 'dress it up, dress it down' feel, I threw a Shearling and leather aviator jacket over her. I was bored with trenches, OKAY? I could just as easily have thrown a gas station attendant's greasy cotton poplar zippered windbreaker - you know the type, with the name embroidered on the breast pocket - over her delicate shoulders, and it would have worked just as well.' Actually.. not a bad idea. Are you reading this, Chris? I'm thinking, dunno, S/S 2011.. over a nice lime green silk and lace tea dress..

And yet: I love the look. What is not to like about a masculine, tough boy's leather shearling jacket, especially over a flirty feminine dress? And I've even dug out my purple leather motorcycle jacket and thought, hmm, if I added some cotton wool dipped in tea and attached with gaffer's tape, would that achieve the same look?

I'm just throwing it out there: I might, just might, be a slave to fashion. I'm not saying I can't live without it, but let's put it this way: I wouldn't kick a Burberry Shearling Leather Aviator Jacket out of bed.

I might, just might, be a Sheep, after all. I'm just saying.

Well, here's a comfort: ASOS is selling a very similar look, above right. Using real leather, but fake fur (okay, so a cow died to make the jacket, but at least the sheep was spared). And, at £120.00, it's not just one tenth the cost, but about one SIXTEENTH the cost.

OR, I simply could wait six months, and snap up one of those BAAAd babies on eBay. Because by then, Mr. Bailey will have moved on, and so, one assumes, will we. Ah, the fickle finger of fashion.

Are you a Sheep? In the meadow of life, which side of the Shearling fence to YOU stand?

roz, on primrose hill, sunday morning in spring

Sunday morning: while the rest of London slept, Mr. Dot and I made our way in our lovely old car to Primrose HIll, to meet Roz, of Clothes, Cameras and Coffee, and her very cool, yet very warm, mum. (She doesn't name her in her blog so I won't either).

While Mr. Dot waited in the car, reading the paper, I scooted up the hill, breathless, a few minutes late. They were already there. And they are absolutely delightful: even more wonderfully wonderful than I had imagined. We'd actually tried a previous weekend, and couldn't get a plan, but this one fell together easily.



Roz is just extraordinary to photograph: she brings something to the moment that feels so quintessentially English: she is Alice in Wonderland, she's grown up, sophisticated and brilliant, yet with that sense of childish wonder that I hope to feel forever. It was just a brief visit - half an hour, maybe a bit more - then we all went on our way. We met a friend in Primrose Hill (the town) and I just felt so buzzed by the meeting - as I sense they did, too. I'm sure- I certainly hope - that we'll hang out again, either here or the countryside. We're just all so on the same page.



The wonderful thing about Roz's style is it is so uniquely, creatively, her own. And her 'sourcing' never actually involves anything you can find online. In fact, her descriptions of her outfits on her blog are probably the most wonderfully whimsical prose I've come across, so that's what I'm giving you, my gift from Roz, today. Her image, and her words:

'The dusky pink 'dress' is actually a pleated skirt from a charity shop that I just pulled up and pinned. Tied around it is a sash my grandma gave me. The trench coat was also from a charity shop - I'd like to say it's Burberry, but unfortunately it's not. Oh well, I live in hope! The top underneath is from Next and the necklace was also given to me by my grandma. I'm wearing my old favourite loafers (charity shopped!) and I 'appropriated' the leather bag from my mum.'



There was something about Primrose HIll on a Sunday morning, the air still cool, fresh, spring like, people arriving, dogs, children, the city below.. from that lofty place.. it feels like in Athens, at the Acropolis: you could almost believe you're dancing among the Gods. That anything is possible.

fluff

There was a girl in our school - a friend, actually - named Pam, who, in a sea of rich, thin, spoiled, beautiful girls, was particularly rich, thin, and spoiled (I remember, for example, her dad gave her an orange Porsche for her 16th birthday. She had the cutest boyfriend in the school, and when he accidentally totalled it, her dad simply gave her another one, also in orange: just a different model). She was still a perfectly nice girl, and, like most style icons, was shrouded in mystery because she rarely spoke. She had a bedroom so vast, in hot pink and lime green, that one of her walk-in closets, larger than some people's bedrooms, was devoted to just her handbags and shoes.



I thought of Pam when I met this sweet model, because Pam had a coat just like this one. Her brother brought it back from someplace exotic, like Afghanistan or Uzbekestan, and she was wearing it one time, in 'the city' (NY, that is) at a store like Bergdorf's, or was it Bloomingdales, and a buyer spotted her and asked to borrow the coat to copy it, and it became a whole line that season. Pam was that kind of girl.



Christopher Kane, as you're probably all quite aware by now, showed a lot of beautiful ethnic flowered embroidery, in his case on black (leather, knitwear), and of course, the other genius that is Christopher, Bailey, did some wonderfully unexpected turns with leather, Shearling, and fur, at Burberry. I mean, can we possibly get anything more perfectly yin/yang than this?



That same year, btw, I had that exact same mohair hat, in the same shade of beige. There was a girl named Maxine who couldn't have been more opposite to Pam. She nicknamed me Fluff and ribbed me mercilessly, but I loved that hat and wish I had it, still. Funny, the things you remember. Do you have a favourite item of clothing that has disappeared? Or, while we're at it: has any major department store copied your coat?