Tomorrow I head for the sunnier climes of Barcelona and the Auvergne in France, so if over the next couple of weeks you are wondering why I am not posting, it is because I am away relaxing and soaking up the rays. I hope to be inspired by the French women and come back looking slightly more like these women than I already do:
Emmanuelle Alt
Carine Roitfeld
Caroline Sieber
Ines De La Fressange
Classic Parisian Style
Bonnes vacances à tout!
Lace has been around for ages, and frankly, I’m bored of it. It all looks the same and you can guarantee that at any wedding you attend this summer, there are bound to be throngs of women dressed just like this (incidentally, nude dress, hat, bag and shoes is not a good look):
Been there, done that, got the picture quite a few years ago now. Although it is the trend that will not go away, there are some designers and shops savvy enough to rework it into a fresh look. They have revived lace and made it exciting and stylish again, not passé and predictable. Preen, for example, have the Ingrid pencil dress, featuring the standard lace you see everywhere but in metallic blue over an orange silk background. Unexpected and refreshing. The flashes of orange at the neck, waistline and knee break it up perfectly.
Stella McCartney as always is way ahead of the game and has taken the lace look to a whole new level by printing it onto silk. This is a completely new and exciting idea which I certainly haven’t seen before. The silk print is used for trousers, a t-shirt, a shirt and a dress.
Unfortunately, such ideas haven’t made it onto the high street yet but there are still different ways to work lace out there. Richard Nicholl’s bridal collection for Topshop features lace in a different way, not the usual flowery type we are now used to seeing everywhere. The lace on the dress below reminds me of a something a child produces when they have just discovered pencils and paper.
Hopefully more designers will start to realise that many of us are over the lace dresses that have been around for years, and will follow suit to bring about a new era for this delicate fabric.
Costume jewellery – it’s big, it’s bold and it’s brilliant. There’s nowhere quite like Butler & Wilson where you can find big, sparkling, over-the-top jewels and wacky, ever so slightly creepy jewellery. Not for the faint hearted, the majority of their pieces are eye-catching but luckily not eye-wateringly expensive. A win win situation. Such jewellery can be worn with anything but its real strength lies in taking a plain outfit from the everyday to a much higher level. Below are my favourite pieces at the moment.
Crystal Art Deco Pendant on Double Chain Necklace – £58
Is this not the most perfect dress for the Duchess of Cambridge? It comes from Roksanda Ilincic’s Pre Fall 2012 Collection and it has everything Kate loves – a nude tone, appropriate knee-length, long sleeves, form-fitting but in a classy way and an accentuated waist. Better than that, it has some fashion potential! The blue frilled cuff adds a much-needed shot of electric colour into an otherwise drab dress. Kate could wear what she’s most comfortable in whilst giving us an unexpected dose of fashion detailing. The only small problem is that Princess Beatrice has already worn this dress, but having said that, Kate was happy to don a dress for the Jubilee pageant which had already been worn by Tulisa and Kim Kardashian. Somehow I think sharing a dress with Beatrice would not seem too dreadful to the Duchess.
Whilst browsing the Tatler Russia site, these photos of 4 impossibly beautiful women popped up and grabbed my attention. With the exception of one, who is sporting a strange choice of accessories (more on that later), they are all impeccably dressed and enviously stylish. What’s more, their styles are all completely individual of one another. The four women are (l-r): Miroslava Duma, Ulyana Sergeenko (who showed a collection in Paris herself this week), Elena Perminova and Vika Gazinskaya. All were photographed on their way into the Jean Paul Gaultier show. Be warned, this is just a glimpse into what these girls are capable of. They have serious style and they aren’t afraid to show it.
Earlier last week, Blake Lively arrived at the Good Morning America studios wearing a striking red suit by Michael Kors. She would have looked chic and fresh, had it not been for a bad choice of accessories. People often underestimate the effect which shoes can have on an outfit, and in this case the effect was one of cheapening the look.
Fashion(Ed) in London 