crafty

images: vogue us, vogue australia, harper's uk, harper's australia,

Stella Tennant in floaty Chanel Haute Couture, Repossi rings, vintage Jackie O and JFK, the alligator backpack from The Row, fabric swatches from Isabel Marant Etoile's resort collection and a few other things. Still working on my daily diary/inspiration notebook.

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cut and paste

One of my favourite things to do is to cut out my favourite pictures from magazines and paste them into the front of my daily diary, so everywhere I go I can have a little bit of inspiration. 

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light reading

Early finishes at work call for celebratory magazines. From the sublime to the ridiculous - Vogue Paris' mammoth 90th birthday celebration issue and the January/February light as a feather Harpers Bazaar Australia. One is weighed down with lace masks and androgynous pantsuits and the other with so many gratuitous shots of Sydney beaches that you could mistake it as a tourism Australia ad campaign. Both of them have a bit of youthful vigour - Vogue Paris used Ines de la Fressange's 11 year old daughter in an editorial, Pierre Toussaint's 6 year old son Ollie was a feature in another in HB Aus (and bewitchingly listed "swordfights, Robin Hood, archery and the beach" as his favourite things in the contributors section). I'm sort of on a magazine buying moratorium considering my impending trip overseas and the need to conserve funds. But hey, I finished work early, I've been working straight for the past 5 days, and I needed a little pick me up. Nothing simpler, cheaper and quicker than a hit of Emmanuelle Alt's rock and roll glamour or the high sheen stylings of Jillian Davison and Christine Centenera. 

These are two of my favourite pictures. The first is Celine's birthday message to Vogue Paris. With my own anniversary looming in a matter of 11 days (11 days! wow! that sneaked up on me), I like to think this is a birthday cake that Phoebe Philo has baked especially for me. Why thank you, Phoebe. And the other shot? Well, it's just so ridiculous that it becomes sublime. Maybe because I've actually seen women walking along the main strip of Bronte Beach - or actually, more likely Parsley Bay or Neilson's Park, but who's counting - dressed up in their designer exercise gear, dripping in diamonds, pushing prams and keeping an eye on their long-haired children. This shot is so very Sydney it hurts, and I love it.

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instant chic

team peter stigter

There are long skirts and there are long skirts and this is of the latter. This is an outfit I would actually wear, this is an outfit that I do actually wear. I wore it yesterday. I'm wearing it today. Let's be honest - I'm probably going to wear it tomorrow. Long, column-like black skirt, slightly mannish overcoat with colour upturned, simple buttoned top tucked slightly into the skirt. Coffee cup and hair in a top know optional - to be honest I'd prefer a bottle of vitamin water and my hair half up half down. What's not to like about this outfit? It creates all the illusion of long, sweeping lines without there ever being anything of the sort. As a short person you can wear this and let your skirt and coat do all the talking for you - even without heels you will seem taller, providing that you coat ends right at the knees and your skirt touches the ground. But it is also instant, immediate chic. Natalia Alaverdian from Harper's Russia is actually not wearing anything spectacular in the Anna Dello Russo sense of the word. But for me this outfit was instantly, heart-rushingly exciting, more so than the pictures of ADR, or Giovanna, or Catherine Baba, or any other fash maverick. This outfit is so strikingly simple that it becomes spectacular, without ever aiming to do so. And that is the point of minimal dressing. Because amidst all the severity of cut, the simplicity of silhouette, the brevity of line, there can be very, very, real fireworks. 

Here's one right now.

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bambi!

love magazine twitter

I still am a bit in shock as to just how well Bambi Northwood-Blyth has done on the international fashion circuit. With an impish grin, thick, sculpted eyebrows and a boyish physique she has captivated the local fashion season since RAFW in May, scoring dozens of lookbooks, campaigns and gigs for both high street and high fashion australian brands as well as  harpers bazaar australia cover and editorials in every cool magazine like Russh. But did we really think she could make it overseas? I'm not going to lie, I had my doubts. For one thing, she is not tall and willowy - not like Gemma, or Abbey Lee - and she's not va-va-voom like Cat McNeil. She is short (for a model), hitting 5'9" according to her showcard, but more like 5'7" according to sources and her body is quite androgynous. Her walk is not great. But she proves that a captivating face and a fascinating personality can make up for all manner of sins. Australia's next top model (or, all model shows), like to crow about how height is everything in the model world. Well, Bambi has single-handedly (with some help from Kate Moss, natch), proved them wrong. You don't need the height to succeed, but if you don't have it you better hope you've got something better - personality and charm - which is something you're born with, it can't be taught.

She has this mischievous glint to her eye, and has clearly left the international fashion world in raptures, walking for heavyweights like Chanel, Balenciaga, Emmanuel Ungaro and Giambattista Vali in Paris, Topshop Unique and Giles Deacon in London and Joseph Altuzarra, Diesel Black and Gold and Jen Kao in New York. I am surprised, but I am glad, I always feel really proud of the Aussie models, I think what we have going for us, unlike scandinavian stature, eastern european blankness or english cool is a real laid-black easy-going nature. You can see it in Abbey-Lee and Julia Nobis, two of our biggest current model exports, who display a sort of carefree nonchalance to the way they model. I especially love Julia Nobis, who is such a tomboy she wears her doc martens to castings. I think our Australian models bring this same roll-with the punches sensibility to their modelling.

I think Bambi is a bit of a breath of fresh air, all strong brows, knocking knees and coltishly unsure - just like her namesake.

style.com and nowfashion.com

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oh dear

 winner Amanda

L: runner up Kelsey, R: second runner up Sophie

Ah next top model. Can't make it through one season without drama. Last year was Cassi's "boganista" antics, the season before that it was the horrible tall poppy syndrome regarding "real" model Alice. And this season, well, let's say it has been a cock up of epic proportions. That recurring dream where you read the wrong name out in competitions actually came true for host Sarah Murdoch last night, when she read out "Kelsey" as in the winner, when in fact it was "Amanda". After about 20 seconds of Kelsey's elation and thank you speech Sarah started murmuring "Oh no, Oh no". You could see on Kelsey's face the moment she realised she hadn't won, and it was crushing. But, as a credit to both Sarah and Kelsey, both handled the situation with grace and professionalism. Kelsey supported Sarah while she, i believe the technical term is, FREAKED OUT over this colossal mistake, and then Amanda while she disbelievingly received her crown. The whole thing was just ridiculous, and I'm not just saying this because I'm a Kelsey fan. Amanda was my second choice, and I didn't want her to win like this, and I didn't want Kelsey to lose like this either.

Foxtel agrees. They've dug deep into their pockets to find a prize for Kelsey too, $25 000 in cash and a trip to New York to meet with modelling agencies. It's the least they could do. It was just human error, but it was human error on a ben hur scale, and it was a potentially upsetting thing for all involved. There is even talk now of running both kelsey's and Amanda's harpers bazaar covers next week. I would actually want to buy Kelsey's i think it practically sings of November, but I am torn because I feel that it doesn't really make it fair to Amanda, who won (despite everything) and therefore deserves the spoils of her prize, including the Harpers cover. Here are all three of the finalist's covers. Which one would you buy?

With the election, the AFL grand final draw, and now this, it hasn't been a great month or so for Australian competitions, has it?

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wanna be on top?

australia's next top model

Australia's next top model is my guilty pleasure. I love nothing better - nothing better at all - than to sit in front of next top model with a cup of tea, my mum, and gab about who we like better and whether the whole thing is a bit farcical. I have to say, the photoshoot this week was gorgeous though. Photographer Jez Smith used low exposure to capture the girls on the streets of Tokyo so that the background - busy, frantic and on its feet - slowed down and the girls took centre stage against a city that, for a while at least, was quiet. The styling was supposed to be over the top, in the mood of japanese street style, taking the central ideas - fur, volume, texture, silhouette, colour and embellishment - and channeling it into a high fashion urban environment. My favourite at this stage is Kelsey (photo number one), she is very beautiful and a great commercial model and she seems like a lot of fun. She's the one I'd like to see in harper's Bazaar next month as the winner! But hey, it's just a television show.

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the age of innocence

Harpers Bazaar March 2003 

"Age of Innocence"

Peter Lindbergh

Natalia Vodianova

In the spirit of all things clean and refreshing, here is an editorial from 2003 that perfectly sums up the fashion mood right now. Simple, and clear but shot through every now and then with a hint of the wild. A deconstructed Alexander McQueen dress that seems to be coming apart as Natalia is wearing it - seams flying in the wind, bunches of fabric hanging off.  'The oyster dress', McQueen termed it, one of the most beautiful dresses I have ever seen in my life, and to this day never modeled as perfectly as it was here. Nestled, surprisingly, amongst the cheese-cloth peasant blouses and the canvas overalls sat real, living couture. It was arresting.This is arresting.

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