The coat search continues....

...and so does the Eva adoration.

Someone please, please find me a passable, affordable replica of this coat:

Contemporary Wardrobe Collection sale

The Contemporary Wardrobe Collection are having a sale this weekend. They're a specialist hire company, set up in 1978 by stylist/costumier Roger K Burton, that provide film/tv/fashion bods with vintage and contemporary street fashion. As a fundraiser for the Horse Hospital Gallery's 15th anniversary, they'll be selling off tons of clothing - it's advertised as 1940s-2007, but a quick phonecall to them suggested it's more likely to be 1950s onwards. They've also got lots of memorabilia onsale - posters, magazines, records, postcards, collectable toys & all sorts. By the sound of it, it'll be the best jumble sale around and the prices are low - most things'll be between £5 and £40.

It's at the The Horse Hospital, Colonnade, Bloomsbury, London WC1N 1HX. It's open to the public from 29th-31st March, midday-6pm, and the preview is tonight.

Two people who never age

[Image: Ellen von Unwerth, US GQ, April 2008]

40 year old Claudia Schiffer evidently made some kind of Dorian Gray pact in her late 20s, and Joseph Gordon Levitt, bless his heart, still looks about sixteen.

They're great photos though. Someone on thefashionspot forums scanned them here [scroll to the end of the page].

Osman Yousefzada

Everytime I've gone shopping lately, I've come home with a new black dress. It's not intentional, it just keeps happening. With that in mind, I like Osman Yousefzada's capsule collection for Mango. I like him generally but didn't think it would appeal - black dresses one and all, highlighted with plasticky looking gold or dull metallic ultramarine, didn't sound the most inspiring thing. Looking at them the other day though, they're pretty good, albeit overpriced [£80 is too much for dresses like these - nice as they are, they look very high street]. Really, really well-cut. Actually, one of the cheapest ones is the most attractive, a terrifically sharp black racerback column with a tiny waist accentuated by ruffles. Getting the thing on is rather like reverse escapology, but it's worth it.

His main A/W 08 collection upsets me though. It ranges from the uncomfortable to the unspeakable. He's gone and decided that matadors and Latvian figure skaters are the thing, and the clothes are horribly literal. Oh god.








[Images: Kirk McCoy, LA Times]

The best of the collection is uninspired and dated looking, and some of it is deeply, deeply unattractive. Not a fan of the cheap-looking satin. I hate the palette - and I suspect there will be a lot of these awful salmon and aqua colours around in the coming months.

Eva Green - Mont Blanc

How amazing does Eva Green look in this Mont Blanc ad? I saw one of the watches ads a few weeks back, didn't make much impression on me, but this one [for their jewellery] is stunning. Very Bond-esque. Way better than that ill advised dark lipstick and hippy/witch look she was given for Dior Midnight Poison.


[Image: scanned from April Harper's Bazaar]

I could pretty much look at Eva Green all day. I think she and Justine Frischmann are the only two women in the world who could turn me.

Hendricks Spring Masked Ball

To celebrate the Spring Equinox, The Last Tuesday Society convened in Covent Garden's Historic Arts Theatre for an incognito night of music, food, alcohol, and unabashed glamour. Among others, The Broken Hearts spun the tunes while an eclectic and gloriously clothed crowd danced, posed and cavorted the night away. And they all looked bloody wonderful.

Among the revellers was Lucy Wills from Glamour Kitten, selling a selection of her vintage jewellery. I bought these earrings for £15 [they're £12 on the website]:


Love the fastenings on them - much more comfortable than normal clip-ons. Lucy also has a couture/ethical/reused jewels service called Seraglia - more details here.

Here's more photos from the night.



















And this is my mask. Made from a scrap of lace and two chocolate box giftwrap ribbons. I wore it with this tasselled black dress.

The odd couple

Never thought I'd see this [before January of this year, anyway]. Eyewear shot from the Burberry S/S 08 campaign. Most over-exposed model ever - she of the 'kooky' wonky limbs and slack-jawed angry-eyebrowed perma-pose... draped around Martin of Selfish Cunt [alias Best Rock 'n' Roll Frontman In London], the pair of them decked out in posh togs.

Every cloud has a silver lining.

At least Peaches Geldof isn't in the photo.

Question: If Agyness had long hair, how much attention/how many bookings would she get?

And ALSO

Well done Jasper [Project Catwalk]. I'm dead pleased he got it.

I know when the judges are doing their thing, they're supposed to be harsh, but their comments about the 'impracticality' of his collection were absurd. No-one accuses our favourite inventive designers of being absurd [hello John, Miuccia and Jean-Paul, for three really no-brainer examples] - they send magical creations down the runway, and they get interpreted into versions we can actually wear. The work involved in his collection - and the professionality with which he produced it - really didn't leave room for anyone else to win.

Thank God Chelsey didn't get it.

Actually looking forward to seeing what he produces for Oli.

Also

I really like Leona Lewis. Like Girls Aloud [and yet.. er.. so not] she's one of those freakish examples of Re-ally-dee Teevee actually producing something of worth. This doesn't happen often, and it should be clung to passionately, as a talisman against the rest of the crap that Pop-Idol-Factor usually excretes. Like her songs - just the right side of epic, clutch-your-heart sentiment. Like her videos - colourful but not garish... she looks great in each [the sparkly gown in Bleeding Love, the white silver-screen style silk dressing gown in the new one]. Like her - she comes across as really likeable. Keep it up, Leona. Far rather see and hear you than the crop of boring, dull-eyed Amy MacDonald types that are everywhere right now.

Project

This is what I spent tonight doing. Once a big crinkly Indian silk scarf of my mother's. A slit across the middle, and some strategic pinning later, and this is where it's going. I guess I'm aiming for somewhere between Prada's liquid prints and green and purple S/S 08 palette, and Marios Schwab's soft structural shapes.


Marios Schwab S/S 08


Prada S/S 08

Haven't sewn it together yet, so that's work for tonight and the weekend.

Runway images: Style.com

P.S. It goes without saying I will be finding some kind of under-dress option once this is done. Tempted to cut wide stripes out of a black vest for graphic, sheer/not-sheer approach.