My Grandmother's Ring

Recently, I've been thinking a lot about vintage rings. Most of my truly fabulous ones come from my grandmother's closet. And, honestly, Gran had great taste. Most of her day to day rings were big bejewelled glamourous cocktail rings.

Turquoise surrounded by diamonds, amethyst surrounded by diamonds, Pearls and diamonds. Basically take what you like and surround it with cubic zirconia. One day I'll make myself one; coral - surrounded by diamonds.

(Not my grandmothers ring but seriously beautiful. Found here.)

There's nothing better than your grandmothers closet for big beautiful vintage jewellery - rings, necklaces, earrings. Admittedly, wearing the full sets might be a bit much day to day - but just take one piece, wear it sparingly and simply and feel like a cool fifties movie star...

Bratz

In a master-stroke of what I hope will be a new line of children's plaything - artist Andrew Yang was commissioned by Barney's NY to make Anna Wintour and Grace Coddington dolls! They look AMAZING! You can see them here.  They're to celebrate Vogue's Fashion's Night Out on September 10 and my aren't they just doing the job. 

How much would you prefer to give these to your niece or daughter than yet another Bratz doll? Then when she turns 16 you get her a copy of The September Issue and a subscription to Vogue. It's a lifetime's worth of presents sorted! 

Knock-off's, Fakes and Fashion

Seriously great article by The New York Times on the knock-off industry. Takes you to the factories where they produce them and to the police trying to stop them. You'll never think the same way about fashion again.

Dame Edith Sitwell

Why not be oneself? That is the whole secret of a successful appearance. If one is a greyhound, why try to look like a Pekingese?

Dame Edith Sitwell

Water & Oil

There’s been a lot of internet white noise about something recently – Stephen Meisel’s Water and Oil shoot for vogue iTalia. 

The shoot was basically models playing out animals dying of oil exposure from the BP oil spill. The models are splayed on rocks, wearing black clothes, smeared in oil.

Some people have been saying this shoot glamourizes a tragedy – some people its the fashion world getting a conscience.

To be honest, I’m not so sure about this one. The BP oil spill was a tragedy – the hubris of a large company resulted in massive amounts of environmental damage and destroyed thousands of peoples livelihoods. It shouldn’t be treated lightly.

My thing is – this is a commercial shoot. It was done to display clothes which are for sale, in a magazine which is also for sale. The shoot was not a work of art. It tried to express artistically a point – but essentially it’s a commercial enterprise. And I don’t think it’s okay to use such a tragedy for commercial profit.

Would I have problem if this were done in Stephen Meisel’s spare time solely as an artistic project? With no commercial gain on his part? Maybe – But I think I probably would have to address the problem of glamourizing such a tragedy then.

It’s tricky. You have to admit it’s a good shoot – visually amazing. But yes, undecided on this one. 

You can see NY magazines behind the scenes video of the shoot here. And some of the pictures themselves here (with a few different viewpoints for you to look at before you decide). 

Dorothy Parker

'Brevity is the soul of lingerie'

Inspiration - Irene Adler

Man Rachel McAdam's makeup in Sherlock Holmes was just fantastic. Nearly as good as her three peice suit at the end. Victorian fashion = style. 
Adler had "the face of the most beautiful of women and the mind of the most resolute of men," according to the King.

"To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex....”

Michael Kors 2010 Autumn/Winter

All I'm going to say is this is THE look for autumn/winter. Camel and grey are so stylish and feminine. And the cut of that skirt is AMAZING. Fur...well only if its fake.

Lilly Dache

'Glamour is what makes a man ask for your telephone number. But it is also what makes a woman ask for the name of your dressmaker.'

Lilly Dache, Talking Through My Hats.

Harper's Bazaar Australia (September 2010 issue)

Okay so first off, what do we think of the 2010 September issues?

Starting with Harper's Bazaar this week (and then the other's next week if I can afford it. Man magazine prices these days...But hey thats a completely different post. Series of posts. Book.)

Well first off, check out the LV dress and The Body on the cover. Elle wearing the original is next to the cover and I think everyone can see the one teeny tiny mistake Edwina Mccan (The Editor) made. She appears to have lost Elle's skirt. In the words of the immortal Bridget - Is Skirt Off Sick? I did think it was a bit riske for LV when I saw the cover - you kinda have to look at the original for the dress to make sense.

I dont know that lopping off the front improves it but, yes, it still looks good. As do Elle's legs. And her hair. Sigh. But no the shot is eye-catching (It drew me from across the newsagents) and it's a beautiful girl/dress. Good Cover Elle.

But what's in the box? Well, to be honest, I was not super impressed with the 520 looks to love. It bothers me when magazine make this promise, you expect 520 pages of fashion ( high, low, entertaining). What you usually get is 520 looks spread over little different peices inside. And they're the same segments they have every month. So there isn't a huge amount more fashion than you would usually get in the magazine.

The spreads inside weren't amazing - apart from the Mark Vassallo embellishment shoot. The Jewellery Was Amazing. He styled it well. Loved it. Everything else (yes, including the Elle shoots) were just boring.

I personally have a pet peeve against the big name fashion magazines making what I think of as totally generic fashion shoots.

You can generally see the checklist; a) put a sulky girl in a dress, b) go for the angle-y shoulder vs hip pose and c) stick her in a desert/against a rock/before a white wall. Its just...vapid.

There is a really nice Slate/Minimalist shoot with Emma Balfour ( Love Love Love. She's about to hit 40! She looks great! Better than that she looks stylish! More please!) which would be lovely if we all hadn't seen this shoot like 5 times since the start of the year.

There's also some nice pieces inside. Eugenie Kelly's piece on finding happiness I thought was interesting (women set too high standards for themselves, cut yourself some slack). It has been said before but definitely needs saying again (especially in such a witty way).

A few good pieces also on ozzie ballet dancers Leanne Benjamin and Steven McRae and an interesting bit on younger jewelry designers (Gaia Repossi, Aurelie Bidermann and Delfina Delettrez). Admittedly, most of these girls got started due to their famous dads but unlike Paloma (see below) they've got some juice. Particularly Gaia Repossi.

Some nice stuff on Carey Mulligan, some more on Paloma Picasso (Why is she famous? Why is she a jewelry designer? Why?!) and the obligatory style-for-every-age section. Which I loved. Because their sets ARE fabulous at every age.

BUT (ignoring the boring Elle interview) the must-see is a hilarious interview with Valentino (whose doco and show in Brizzie will be blogged about later). Put simply I haven't read a funnier interview in years. I'm so glad they left it as a transcript because Valentino is just so entertaining talking about his pugs, his 'famous actress' friends and the inteviewer Marion Humes's voice ('It is very nice to hear from the phone a beautiful voice that can caress your ear'). Buy the mag just for this. Its worth it.

Look HB does a great job lets be honest. It's entertaining, had great style and (which is what I love most about HB) really brought in other elements of style - art, ballet, film and home stuff (I love reading the art pages just because I don't know that much ABOUT art. Sometimes it's nice to read an informed opinion to bounce off before you look for yourself.).

Happy in post-reading fug.