editor's choice

Kate Lanphear, in my humble opinion, is one of the most talented style icons alive. She is also the style director of Elle USA. She seems, in style, in nature, the antithesis of one of my other favourite style editor/icons, Anna Della Russo. Anna Della Rosso, for example, has a blog. A great blog. Kate Lanphear, on the other hand, does not have her own blog. The thought is laughable. She just has a ton of Kate Lanphear tribute blogs. If Kate Lanphear had her own blog, I bet it would be totally white.

Kate is unique. I have the utmost respect for someone who never, ever, wears colour. Who has the balls to cut her hair short, and keep it short: it is the most iconic haircut, short of Anna Wintour's, another of my favourite editors. It takes confidence - and beauty - to be able to keep a cut that short.

And her style. So simple. A similar white jacket to the one Anna Della Russo wore ('Anna Della Russomania'), but look at the lace texture. And while with ADR it was all about the fedora, the hair, Kate's accessories are her iconic white hair, like Andy Warhol or Edie Sedgwick, and her trademark silver jewelry.

And I've just realised who she reminds me of: my beautiful friend Stephanie, of Style Odyssey. She is warm and talented and chatty in real life, as I'm sure Kate is. But in her wonderful self style posts, she's doing the same minimal, slightly androgynous thing in neutral tones. And when she's just being herself, like in this post: that's channeling Kate.

Kate is an enigma. I have no stories about Kate Lanphear because, while I've met and shot her a few times, we have never had a conversation. I can see her talk and laugh to her friends and colleagues, but when I see her, she is as silent and still as an alpine lake. It's always the same thing: I smile and say hi and quickly - camera ready - ask to take her photo. She always says yes. Or, I think she says yes. She doesn't say no, and she doesn't run off, but I don't know if she actually uses the word, yes. She simply chooses her pose - it's always different - and holds it very still. In this case - also at the Topshop Unique show, which is an ongoing series (and I have so many other shows to get to!), I took the shot, and then, because it's silly to just take one shot with digital cameras, I shot again. She held the pose, like a statue. And held it. We did this four times, and as you can see by the last shot, below, apart from changes in the background, there is no visible change in her pose. Just her eyes, which are getting slightly more annoyed. Her eyes are saying: Jill. Enough. EDIT. Please, go away now.



I have always admired the women who are beautiful, and do not speak. And when they do, they choose their words well. The Greta Garbo thing. There is no greater mystery than to be beautiful, and silent. There is huge power in having the confidence to just shut the f**k up. In my next life, I want to be like that. But it's too late for me in this one. That ship, alas, has sailed.

silence is golden: portrait of kate lanphear, in coat worn as cape

When I saw Kate Lamphear in London recently for fashion week, I wanted to respect her time. After all, I'd already asked to shoot her in February ('don't you know who i am?'). This time, other people were shooting her and I just piggy backed along. (People did it with my shots, too: it was weird. You'd ask to shoot someone, set up a shot, and suddenly, a flock of other people with cameras - bloggers, mostly, bless them - would gather around. I've seen several of 'my shots' up on blogs - shots I haven't even got round to posting yet).

I was actually contacted by the NY Daily News, for that post on Kate. They wanted to know my thoughts and experience meeting Kate Lanphear, and I replied that I was sorry, but for once, I really didn't have a story. They quoted my blog anyway, verbatim, but instead of crediting my name, as they did the others, I was simply 'a London blogger'. What can you do.

Notice how, in the nice weather, Kate was rocking a trend that's been going around: coat worn as cape. It looked like a clearly deliberate choice, too.




Curious to learn more about her then, I tried googling around. It unnerved me a bit that two sources of information about Kate Lanphear led to my own blog.. she's not in Wikipedia, I can't find anything that talks of a private life, even the word 'boyfriend' brings up 'boyfriend jackets' or someone else's boyfriend.. but I did find this one piece which really says it all, titled 'Kate Lanphear fed her interns pizza'. One was quoted as saying: "The editor also treated her underlings like real, sustenance-needing human beings: “She is honestly one of the nicest people that I’ve met in the industry..."




A friend, who shall remain anonymous as she works for a high profile fashion company, also shot her during LFW, and she said Kate was cool about having her photo done. Of course. But when she realised that she was actually filming the conversation, she put her hand up - politely, almost wistfully, and said 'Sorry, I don't do videos'.

There is something incredibly powerful about a beautiful woman who never seems to speak. Look at the Mona Lisa, for example. Remember how enigmatic the other Kate, i.e. Moss, seemed, back before we heard her wonderful Croydon accent? The idea of a woman who lets her image speak for her, absolutely fascinates me. I'd love to be like that. I should try it, for a week. Go on a verbal diet. Do all my posts with just images. No long comments on people's posts, either. I bet I wouldn't last an hour.

Whenever I see Kate Lanphear, she is almost always alone, being mobbed by people who want to take her photo. It's as if they want to solve that mystery. There is something vulnerable about her, I feel: that slightly haunted, hunted look. She reminds me of another beautiful icon who also fiercely guarded her privacy, who famously wanted to be alone: Greta Garbo.

let's play.. spot the celebrity!

It was such a fun game last time, so here goes: how many can you name in one row? Shot at the Mark Fast show: after all the hoo-hah last February about plus sized models, staff storming out, it was interesting to see this show (which I loved, btw) that he only had one 'curvy' girl, but she was gorgeous: very Mad Men with red hair in a turquoise dress.


Can you spot which yummy celebrity mum is in this shot, below? (hint: I've featured her daughter on my blog once already. Oh and she's got a really cool job).




But some, like this girl, I felt was too thin: that is not a good message to send out in terms of what is beautiful. Anyone recognise the style icon in the audience? Hint: initials KL.





There's a story behind Carine sitting on the end of this row (there's always a story!). That will be my next post.

Actually.. I'm really torn. I've got tons of model shots, catwalk shots, celebs, stylish civilians.. it's really hard to choose what to post. Some blog friends have said they're afraid to keep posting London Fashion Week shots after a few weeks - as if, like wearing white after Labour Day, it's a big fashion faux pas. But I don't want to cram a ton of posts into one day.. you tell me. What do you want? We aim to please here at Polka Dot Inc.

So.. your thoughts on Mark Fast's collection this season. Fingers on buzzers please.

don't you know who I am? (shooting kate lanphear)

I can't tell you how many times recently I've seen on the streetstyle news twitter thing, a post titled 'Kate Lanphear'. And the funny thing is, she's not famous to most people. My husband, Mr. Dot, for one.

'Honey, do you know who Kate Lanphear is?'
'Kate Lanphear? No. Why?'
'Never mind.'



If you're reading this blog, I don't need to explain who she is. (Sorry: Mr. Dot was just asking me 'So who's Kate Lanphear.') I saw her @ LFW.. I think this was her Day Three outfit? She was running into the Somerset House tent thingy, and I ran up to her and, breathless, asked if I could take her photo. (I didn't mention that I joined the Cult of Kate Lanphear facebook group ages ago, and just discovered she's also got a fan club, too. I'm her 1863rd fan).



There isn't much of a story here, I'm afraid. She struck me as polite and ladylike. Her hair is blonder than I expected, somehow I thought it would be white. We didn't exactly have a conversation. In fact I don't think she spoke at all. Just stopped, posed, two clicks*, and she was off in her pixie like hooded platinum coloured coat and iconic black stiletto Loubs.

*Believe it or not, the first two are separate shots. They look identical but when I looked carefully thru her sunglasses (I wear the same ones btw) in one shot she's looking at me - but not seeing me, if you know what I mean - and in the other, she's looking away. But her head never moves. She was very still, for that brief moment. Very still, and serene. It was quite amazing actually.

Just saw a gorgeous shot of her on Easy Fashion (Paris Fashion Week). Boy does that icon get around.