hotel california

Chateau California

Vogue US May 2011

Natalia Vodianova and Young Hollywood

Bruce Weber

Grace Coddington

  Another Grace Coddington winner. Bruce Weber never fails to make fashion look so natural and real. That Celine denim shirt and pink pants seems to fit perfectly onto the balcony of the Chateau Marmont, that Balenciaga dog sweater never looked cuter. It goes to show that you don't need "glamour" to be glamorous. It helps if you look like Natalia, of course, and if you have the cast of young hollywood to help you. There is something very cinematic about this shoot. Cinematic in a way that isn't about placing horses in weird settings (I'm looking at you Mario Testino), cinematic in that old hollywood kind of way, which is I guess kind of the point. Them bright young things running riot around a real institution of the hills - didn't you know that grace kelly and marilyn monroe used to party here? - it's a little bit tongue in cheek and very clever. It's almost as if Jean Harlow is looking down and shaking her head. Jumping on beds? Running through the hallways? Cooking pasta sauce? Is that the best you can do? All the excitement happens behind closed doors, doesn't it?

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everytime we say goodbye

Vogue US January 2011

Ph: Peter Lindbergh

St: Grace Coddington

 

How beautiful was Daria Werbowy in January's Vogue US? That european brow, that full-skirted loveliness, that longing gaze, (those crazy shoes!). This editorial managed to be cinematic and exciting without resorting to theatrics and celebrity (hello, natalia vodianova and puff daddy (!!) in the feb issue last year). Just good old-fashioned retro clothes, one hell of a storyline, and the world-weary, totally believable figure of David Strathairn playing off against slightly naive, but oh!-so-stunning Daria.

Every goodbye should look like this.

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return to the fold

maybe i've been drinking the US of A kool aid, maybe my run in with anna wintour (more on that later) has changed my mind, or maybe this publication is genuinely getting better and better... but if i have one message to send you back from new york through the ether, it is this:

PURCHASE VOGUE US MARCH 2010 WITH TINA FEY ON THE COVER, AND YOU SHALL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.

there are so many editorials that as you keep turning pages you just can't take it all in, there's enough diversity of models to make you cry BY ZEUS! IS THAT LARA STONE, FREJA BEHA, ABBEY LEE KERSHAW AND/OR RIANNE TEN HANKEN side by side with RACQUEL ZIMMERMAN, CARO TRENTINI AND KARLIE KLOSS? there is avatar themed fash modelled to absolute ferocious potential by daria werbowy, there is grace coddington's typical light, romantic touch and her theatrical touch, all at the same time. there is elgort doing what ELGORT DOES BEST - beautiful girls in exotic situations with an air of mysterys surrounding them. there is a front of book that i actually looked forward to reading... twice - including a section entitled PARIS that really was written with me in mind, i think. there is a touching tribute to IRVING PENN. that i also read... twice. there are features with heart on everything from the 9 designers to look out for - think KANE, the MULLEAVY SISTERS, TISCI and SIMONs. there is even the 'edit' back of book section focussing on... my heart swells.. BLOGGERS (garance dore looking every inch the superstar she is). there is a feature on street-style dressing, the model as muse and how personal style is influencing the runways that i absolutely LOVED. i didn't even care when there was yet ANOTHER article on BLAKE LIVELY (of all people) because it was actually fun to read and made me chuckle a bit when they referenced the UES.

i really can only express myself through these awkward sentences and capital letters. but i mean it, this issue is incredible. american vogue has returned to the fold and boy... with a vengeance. they are taking up their mantle, again. some say that anna has lost her touch, but this year we've had 3 cover stars never seen before who, if not actually talented (and, you know what, since when has that been a pre-requisite for a vogue cover?) are great to look at and if nothing else are FRESH. we've had editorials that showcase the very best of american photographers (weber, elgort, mcdean) and american actresses and american stylists and american designers in that patriotic way that americans do better than anyone else. vogue us is going from strength to strength, and with no sign of slowing down.

welcome back.

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in regards to my 'run in with anna wintour' -- first i got an INCREDIBLE shot of her on my film camera that i hope to god turns out because it is truly epic. then i went into the dennis basso show. after it finished I exited quickly as I was close to the door and was outside within minutes. i then hesitated about what to do next and thought, i think i will go back inside the tents and grab one of the free magazines. i went to open the door and there was a HUUUUGEEE burly body guard blocking me from anna wintour who was exiting as i was entering. he pushed me out of the way so that anna could come through and then apologised quickly to me and escorted her to the car. IT WAS AWESOME. hahahhaa it just reminded me so much of the september issue ' anna is like madonna'. LOVE IT!

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that's amore!

"You may have the universe if I may have Italy."

Giuseppe Verdi

Vogue US 2006 (?)

Grace Coddington, Natalia Vodianova, Mario Testino.

This editorial is just too good not to share. Sure, it's all a huge cliche - the pigeons, the prada, the peach bellinis. But who says that cliche's can't be lovely? often, that's all that cliches are. Lovely, lovely, lovely.

Doesn't it make you yearn for baskets full of apricots and walking barefoot across the Via San Marco in a circle skirt and costume jewelry? I love Italy for it's voluptuous, full-bodied beauty. Italy is ripe, for me. That's the word i would use to describe it. Nothing is done in a half-baked way. Everything is full, rich, almost creamy in its vivdness.

Luscious.

I suppose it's because I always equate a place with its food, and then the sensation of that food with what to wear. In France the food is sophisticated, clever and delicious. In Italy the food is simple, rich and vivacious. Think about it, all those Italian staples - pizza, pasta, panna cotta - are so ripe and full of life. Tomatoes bursting with flavour, the tangy green of basil, plump rounds of oozing bocconcini, the wobbling mass of the most voluptuous panna cotta cream, lemons bursting with juice, the rising crusts of a floury pizza. That lusciousness is extravagance through and through. You can't be on a diet in Italy. (you certainly can't be gluten free in Italy). Who would want to miss those bowls of pasta, glistening with olive oil, or the cakes piled high with summer fruits?

The full skirts and ruffled shoulders of Italian dress simply mirror that aspect of their culture. Whenever i thinko of Italy i see thick tumbling locks of hair, hourglass figures and tomato red suede heels. It's tied up, of course, to Roman Holiday and Fellini and The talented mr Ripley - 50s-style sillhouettes and vespas and the like. But, then, it has some grounding in reality. I've never met an Italian who doesn't live life to the absolute fullest, whether it be through food, leisure or clothes. They are renowned for high quality, for luxury and glamour. But there is an earthy sensuality that pierces everything Italian. As if the leather of your gucci bag has just been tanned by grimy hand, or the dirt just been brushed from the stalks of your basilico. They are a people who, quite simply, know how to live, and love. And it's not just any kind of life, oh no. It's La Dolce Vita.

Here's the rub, though. Why can't real life be just as beautiful as the magazines, the movies, the 'magination? (nice alliteration). Don't answer that question.

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mad about you

Sorry for the blogging absence, I'm trying to navigate how to use the internet at my uncle's house and my computer which has chosen the most inconvenient time to break. I'm back at home now, and couldn't resist sharing this gorgeous editorial by none other than Grace Coddington. Inexplicably I found Vogue US October 2009 with Michelle Williams on the cover 2 weeks before they normally air freight it, and I was overjoyed. It had 2 beautiful shoots by Grace in there, including a whimsical couture one with Karlie and a Gael Monfils (A french tennis player) cavorting through the streets of Paris in Chanel, Armani Prive and lots of Lacroix (naturellement).

But, as witty and wily as that editorial is I want to share a different one today from an October issue more than 5 years ago. This is the first time I really saw Grace's shoots and appreciated them for the romance, the glamour and the shambolic eclecticism that they embody. Grace is a true fashion maverick, her wild mane of red hair and her eschewing of heels flies in the face of the stick-thin brigade in every way imaginable. Her vision for fashion is always superbly executed, hers is a world where the girls prance around to jazzy beats before throwing on everything under the sun - bottoms, tops, jackets, shoes, beads and baubles, chapeaus and feathers - and they don't take a thing off before they leave the house, they add a few more.

She's not perfectly turned out and impeccably groomed, but she is charming. And I am definitely charmed.


Vogue US October 2003
'Mad about you'
Models: Stella Tennant and Eugenia Volidova
Fashion Editor: Grace Coddington
Photographer: Steven Meisel














foto_decadent


fashion week's been pretty great so far, I loved Rodarte's tribal, almost animalistic beauty, and some of proenza's hip little dresses were very nice. Calvin Klein was a real highlight for me, Costa is the master at the moment of the minimal, although I do like me a bit of all out glamour sometimes a simple, voluminous shift is all you need to get through the day.


And aren't we all just a little bit jealous of tavi here? that dress is incredible. Sofia looks great too, naturally.

style.com

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field of dreams

Today I finally saw the September Issue with friends, and it was every bit as fun and frivolous as i hoped it would be! It's no Devil Wears Prada, even though the editors and writers of the script have clearly revelled in the drama and tension created by Anna Wintour/Miranda Priestly comparisons, but the Vogue offices are certainly no playground either. In fact, it's a little bit scary the awe and horror that Wintour manages to cause in her fellow colleagues on a daily basis. Watching these grown women and men cower before her was fascinating, if a little uncomfortable to watch. 

What was the most interesting, though, was to see Wintour in a different light. She's witty, very witty, with a sharp sense of humour that is incredibly British. Her interaction with Bee Schaffer provide some of the most touching moments of the film, there is unbridled mother devotion and adoration in her gaze, and her unrelenting desire to get Bee to enter into the world of fashion. I loved how Bee is resolutely against it, I have always dismissed her as a vacuous socialite and freeloading off her mother's success. But it is clear that she is both aware of this stereotype and willing to work hard against it. People automatically assume because she's young, pretty and thin she must want to follow in her mother's footsteps, but she's dedicated to the law (or she was in 2007, feel free to correct me if she's changed career paths since then, i know very little about her). She emerges as a real interesting character. 

And finally, most importantly, most incredibly, is Grace Coddington. A tour de force in the fashion industry, universally esteemed and respected, her insights into the world of styling, her thoughts about fashion and beauty and clothes and history are so eloquent and touching that it really did bring a tear to the eye. She is the real star of the film, so immensely talented and so incredibly passionate about her work, willing to stand up for what she believes in and fight for her shoots, despite opposition from all sides. And as the film develops you come to learn more about her relationship with Anna as well, the climax of the film revealing it to be a strong one indeed, despite everything. 

In celebration of Grace and her vision for fashion I've decided to show a few of her editorials over the next couple of weeks. Starting with this one, not a classic or deemed one of her most profound (i'm saving those for a little later) but nonetheless powerfully evocative of the magical dreamlike quality of fashion that she, and I, so adore. She is a romantic at heart, she says in the film, and so am I. Like I always say, i just want to be inspired. I just want to see beauty. When i write, i want to write about heart-beating life and all of its loveliness. I think we are very similar in that way. 

Field of Dreams

Photographer: Mario Testino

Model: Natalia Vodianova and Family (too cute!)

Stylist: Grace Coddington

tfs

don't you think that there is something both dream like and real, both magical and earthly, both fantasy and reality about this shoot? Like the fact that they're wearing pirate hats and converse shoes? It's just perfect, i think. 

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