on nudity (no offense)

File it under G (for 'Oh for Goodness Sake'), or F, for What the F?

Or, where the real blame lies: under N for Nude, this season's must have colour. If you're in the States, this news is probably as old as yesterday's fish and chips wrapper, but I just read in the Telegraph that Michelle Obama's 'nude' dress by Naeem Khan, has offended some people because - catch this - it's not HER shade of nude. AND to pour salt on the wound, the designer himself, of Indian nationality and born in Mumbai has had the affront to call his own dress 'streling-silver sequin, abstract floral, NUDE strapless gown.' (the context being, he's not 'nude' coloured, either): article here.

It reminded me of a running commentary Pearl and I have held over the true 'griege' (beige and grey) which has emerged this spring via Chanel, but which I first read about as a colour Jackie Kennedy was partial to while in the White House (which, come to think of it: is the White House really, technically, white? I mean, is anything White White anymore. Or, these days, is it a bit more.. cream? Off-white? Magnolia?)




I shot this at Uniqlo's Press Day not that long ago. I especially loved a new line commissioned from the creative duo from NY, COSTELLO TAGLIAPIETRA. The company is named after their grandmother's surnames: both women taught them tailoring, and worked for Norman Norell in the 1960s.




I love this stuff. I mean, look at this gorgeous, drapey number in palest lilac. (sorry: I mean lavender. Or do I mean heather? Or is it more of a greyish pink?)

My theory about the Nude thing is, peach is so passe,. As a colour word, I mean. (As a fruit, ripe in the summer, it's divine, especially with yogurt, or in a pie. Except of course in England, where peaches are always disappointing.)

Besides, real peaches are too orange, too bright to describe the colour nude. It's not quite 'ballet pink'. Seashell pink, perhaps, but real sea shells are anywhere from dirty white to the blue black of mussels, and rarely pink. And beige is so.. beige. I don't know why the word Nude has captured our imagination, but maybe it's because the 'underwear as outerwear' trend is so potent right now. (And I know Mr. Dot is so tired of hearing me say this, but every time I see those three words in print, I wish I was getting royalties because I'm sure I've coined the phrase, and will cling to that belief til the day I die: hopefully, clad in elegant lingerie, in the open air, so they can say in my obituary 'she was wearing underwear as..')




Anyway, doncha just love this pretty blue dress? It's kind of a steel grey blue.. a bit indigo, actually. You couldn't call it sky blue. Well, you could... it's the blue of a summer sky just before a tropical storm. It's the colour of the sea on a choppy day. Not a tranquil, Carribean sea, which is really more like aqua, or turquoise. Or, in Chanel-speak, VAGUE. Ironic, as the colour is anything but.

Richard E. Grant did a great show recently for the BBC, on the history of the safari, in his continent of birth, Africa. He was talking with a group of Massai, who had a beautiful safari lodge, about how they felt when their first White guests came to visit. Apparently it upset the staff at first: they were a bit afraid of the 'Pink People'.

I don't know what colour I am: I swim so much, that in warm weather, I'm kind of latte coloured. Double shot, that is. Between holidays, my skin has a slightly olive hue. So I guess you could call me Green. As my dad would say, 'You can call me anything you want, just don't call me late for dinner.'

Loathe to post anything on top of yesterday's shots of Roz. But that's the nature of a blog: time must move on, and if you want to see them, you'll just have to scroll down. It's worth the effort. I can't take any credit for the beauty of that post: shooting Roz is like shooting fish.

LFW Day One: nudes, nudes, nudes!

It's after midnight, Mr. Dot is asleep, I'm going thru a few hundred photos, have seen three catwalk shows, gave away my ticket to a fourth, and saw a great talk @ Topshop. So I'm going to just post a few shots (these are models from one of the first shows) and tomorrow, I'll show you stuff from the shows, which were just unbelievably gorgeous.



In general, my feeling was there were two (no, three) ways to go: go for attention, have fun with patterns & kooky, unexpected fun stuff (lots o'patterned, flowery tights - it's COLD here, and we all know we'd rather go bare legged, but if we did, we wouldn't live to see Day Two).



Second choice: NUDE (or, as we used to call the colour, beige). Neutral. With black. With pale rose. With grey. But definitely, beige & black.

The third choice: neither of the first two. In other words: honestly, mon petit choufluers: anything goes. But for the first post, I"m going with the neutral theme, and let the wacky stuff wait.



As we expected, fur, fuzzy and faux, was everywhere. Gilets or jacks, layered with black leather, layered with unexpected things. As Garance has already noted in NY, and as we've seen on the street all winter: the key to layering is, make sure the top thing is shorter than the thing under it.

A look I have been perfecting all my life, just not necessarily on purpose.

I don't have a self portrait for my Day One outfit, but I wore: chocolate brown fur jacket over pale pink Gap cardigan, pearls & Laura's lovely 'drink me' necklace, tan - I mean, nude- half slip that I've been wearing for over a year, over my American Apparel grey mini sweater dress, for warmth. Over black opaque tights & black Oxfords (sorry, brogues), for speed. I can't do crazy heels & get these photos snapped, alas. And the beauty of being an old married lady is, I go right under the photo radar. I am invisible. I am just an Eye. Altho: someone did actually ask me to pose. Actually, come to think of it, so did someone else. Okay, maybe not totally transparent: more like translucent. But still: I'm here to see more than be seen.



Surprisingly, leopard spots were still seen: but less so. I love Venka's look, and she's just such a charming, delightful girl. These shoes are by Ashish, for Topshop. I don't think she set out to match her shoes to her bag, I get the feeling this one, by Mulberry, was a freebie, just judging by how I've seen it around. (Turns out, it's the bag they give when we get our badges: hopefully they'll still have one left tomorrow ; )





The other thing, which is part of the whole underwear-as-outerwear thing, is floaty, gauzy, light sheer fabrics (or lace), paired in interesting ways, because of the weather factor. Shin's shoes are from Office, tights from Wolford.



Isn't she fabulous? We met early in the day: she's a fellow blogger, and I hope to see her again.* Her necklace is from H&M. So far, nothing I've seen, and loved, (apart from one the catwalk, of course) has been remotely expensive.

*(and I've just discovered: her blog, Park & Cube, is excellent. In every way. Beautiful. clever, AND funny. I'm a total fan).



So much more to show you. Pink, for example. Pale rose, or hot fuchsia.

But first, while the strange larks sing outside (they start at midnight, and have the loveliest sound), this is Polka Dot, signing off. Because, as Scarlett O'Hara would say, tomorrow is, after all, another day.