pandemonium ensued

First off: I didn't take these photos. I was not there.

Hang on, I should back up to where the story started, in 1988.

At the age of 14, a girl from Croydon named Kate Moss was discovered at JFK airport by Sarah Doukas, head of Storm, the model agency. Two years later, the brilliant photographer, late Corinne Day, who tragically died last year, took the most beautiful photos of her, and a star was born.

How random is this: when I started doing street style photography, started my blog, the spring before last, I spotted and dotted a cute, petite blonde in Primrose Hill, and I never do this, but I asked what she did for work. She said she did PR for Topshop. I laughed. While I have in general - as most of us bloggers do - a kind of love/hate relationship with the idea of PR, Liz is just so gosh darn nice, and usually I'll go to an event and have a great time & take pictures and hey, why not. I only 'promote' what I like. I don't get paid, I don't even get free stuff. But the beauty, for me, is it is my blog and I can say whatever I like.



Tonight, she had invited me to Oxford Street to see Kate Moss launch her last collection for Topshop, but I stayed home with the cat and Mr. Dot, to watch the 2nd to last night of Professional Masterchef. And I never do this - I really tear into PR people who send me shots by other photographers of parties I didn't attend - but there was something kind of 'hot off the press' about these shots Liz just sent me, by a photographer I don't know, of a woman I don't know either.

To quote the press release: "Pandemonium ensued as the queue for those waiting to catch a glimpse of Kate and shop the collection snaked all the way around the store. At 7.00pm Kate arrived with Sir Philip and Chloe Green, posing for the cameras and the customers, and the barriers were lifted to allow a shopping frenzy to commence. Customers were buying armfuls of pieces.. Kate wore a one-off jumpsuit in black lurex with art deco tulip detailing on the neckline, custom made by Topshop. One lucky Kate fan will have the chance to win the outfit (go to the Topshop blog to enter)..."

Of the ten shots I received, I chose these two: when shooting in this kind of madness, it's impossible to control the background, but I like these compositions. Although Kate chose only two photographers to shoot her, clearly that restriction was out of control as well: EVERYONE was playing photographer tonight.

Ah, the crazy cult of celebrity. Because, after all, when all is said and done, Kate Moss really is just a normal, nice girl from Croydon with an innate, natural, uncanny sense of her own style. That said, I do think this is the best I've seen her in a long time: pale blonde hair, long fringe, red lips. Glamour with a capital G.

And so, Miss Moss and Sir Green are thus parted, on the friendliest of terms. And everyone lives happily ever after.

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.

dress me up in elber albaz

Those of you who knew me way back in November 2009 might remember how excited I was about the Dress Me Up charity thingy at Topshop. I posted on it a few times (for example: here). Our favourite celebrities and designers donated their dresses for charity, and people were able to rent them for their Christmas parties, with the idea that later, the dresses would be auctioned off.





Anyway, the auction is now happening, thru the wonderful Kerry Taylor Auctions. (The Christopher Kane 'Atomic Bomb' resort dress, for example, starts @ £50). By bizarre coincidence, I went to their Audrey Hepburn pre-auction viewing. Which I posted about a few times. I didn't realise that Kerry Taylor was doing the auction for Dress Me Up as well.



(I should add: Topshop doesn't get anything for this, and neither do I: it all goes to charity for Age Concern, and since we're all headed in that direction if we don't manage to get ourselves killed first, I feel it's a pretty good cause).




The auction is Tuesday March 16th at 10.30am, with viewing open to the public on Sunday 14th 12-4.30pm and Monday 15th 9.30-5pm. It's too large to be held in their Pall Mall space, so it's out in Dulwich at their warehouse: 40 Martell Road, West Dulwich, London, SE21 8EN
Just go to their site, or via Invaluable. Should be great fun, I'm going to try to make it on Monday, so maybe I'll see you there. If not, please spread the word!




As you can see I'm in a kind of sea green/nudes sort of colour mood today, altho I've shot a ton more than I'm showing here. From top to bottom: Patricia in Kate Moss's Lanvin by Elber Albaz, Nicola Robert's custom made tour dress, Olivia Palermo's Armani frock, Kimberly Stewart's beaded number by Antik Batik, Richard Nicholl's print dress + Christopher Kane's Atomic Bomb resort dress (starting price: only £50!!), Jourdan Dunne's Herve Leger, me trying to stuff myself into said Leger, and back full circle to Patricia in Kate's Lanvin dress.



No wonder she's smiling. I bet Kate's got plenty of happy memories in this dress. Have a lovely weekend, everyone. Hope you're busy making your own happy memories.