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22 July, 2013

caroline sieber & fritz von westenholz' wedding in vienna


Now that the wedding has been featured on vogue.com & will 
appear in Vogue's September issue, plus all the Instagram pictures floating around,
I'm putting my pictures back up.

Caroline Sieber & Fritz von Westenholz, with Hamish Bowles & Virginie Courtin-Clarins

16 July, 2013

to catch a thief: the french riviera, part 1


Some of the best costume designers out there these days are in my opinion Jacqueline Durran (Anna Karenina; Atonement; Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy) and Colleen Atwood (Chicago, Alice in Wonderland).

However, back in the days of ye olde Hollywood glamour Edith Head was both of these costume designers combined, and more. She was the costume designer - none other need apply. Winning eight Academy Awards, more than any other woman ever. (With 35 nominations, she also leads the most nominated category.)

Amongst others (Rear Window, Sabrina, Roman Holiday a.k.a. all those fashion favorites) she was responsible for Alfred Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief.

Plot summary for those of you who didn't receive this on DVD on their 16th birthday because they weren't a precocious movie buff:
"When a reformed jewel thief (Cary Grant) is suspected of returning to his former occupation, he must ferret out the real thief in order to prove his innocence." (x) Scene of the crime: The south of France.

The guys who walked out with a whole safe of Chopard jewellery worth $1 million at the Cannes Film Festival say hello. Not that the people at Chopard cared: “We have plenty of insurance. It’s great publicity. It’s no big deal.” (x)

Back to the clothes in the movie, however.
Cary Grant wore his own clothes in this movie, as he did in most of his movies.
I think it's safe to say that not a lot of man would get away with a red/white dotted foulard tied around their neck, but, of course, CG somehow does.
And don't the loafers just look like they were made of the supplest leather from here to Milan?
(Tailor-made for Grant by Maxwell's on Dover Street in London.)
Anyway, A+ for appropriate French Riviera attire.

The general feeling of this look reminds me somewhat of the brilliant Hermès Spring/Summer 2014 men's collection.


"You are a man of obvious good taste in everything. Why did you..."
"Why did I take up stealing? To live better, to own things I couldn't afford, to acquire this good taste that you now enjoy and which I should be very reluctant to give up."


With the glacial blue débutante dress Grace Kelly wears in only her second scene, quite some time into the movie, Edith Head was referencing Dior's New Look, which kissed goodbye to the 'make do and mend' mentality of WWII and once again embraced busts and voluminous skirts. (x) It seems to me, however, that the dress with its Grecian roots bears much more of a resemblance to the designs of Madame Grès

In any case, the dress sets up Frances Stevens (Grace Kelly) in just one shot: here's someone made of money & not afraid to talk about it. A little bit spoiled, a little detached, but maturer than all the other minxes traipsing around the Riviera and trying to hook their claws into John Robie (Cary Grant). Mind you, despite her mother's preference of cuddling up with her jewellery in bed, Frances is initially seen as wearing no jewellery whatsoever. (A hint as to the real thief?) Only her coiled updo reveals her slender neck and straight posture.

"And so to bed, where I can cuddle up to my jewellery."

While the scarf here is a wonderful addition to the outfit, a little less tan wouldn't have hurt. 


In case you are an oil heiress: here's what to wear to the beach.


"You're here in Europe to buy a husband."
"The man I want doesn't have a price."
"That eliminates me."


[In reference to a beautiful villa they are visiting
"Why don't you own a place like this?"
"Palaces are for royalty. We're just common people with a bank account."


Wearing driving gloves these days is sadly about as pretentious as using a cigarette holder. (Can cigarette holders come back in style, please? Would be wonderful if my fingers didn't smell quite so bad whenever I smoke the occasional cigarette. Plus, it classes up inhaling cancer a whole lot.)


And with a heartfelt apology to Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant considered Grace Kelly his favorite female co-star. "I always went to work whistling." (x) Of course, if my day included sharing lunch with Grace Kelly overlooking Monaco, I would as well.

Part 2 to follow.

15 July, 2013

designer profiles

(x)

Vanessa Friedman from the Financial Times is one of my favorite fashion journalists out there. Very simply because her coverage is an in-depth analysis of the fashion business. It's no accident she was just awarded 'Fashion Journalist of the Year' by the Fashion Monitor Journalism Awards.

She has done a bunch of wonderful, well-written as well as well-researched designer profiles for the FT's online luxury magazine How To Spend It. I would recommend everyone who shows even the slightest interest in the brand or the person behind it to read these wonderful pieces of journalism whenever they find the time.

  1. Raf Simons: Working a new look
  2. Sarah Burton: McQueen and I
  3. Haider Ackermann: Ackermann of the moment
  4. Alber Elbaz: More Mister Nice Guy
  5. Riccardo Tisci: A new romantic lead
  6. Stella McCartney: A Stella Performance
  7. Rick Owens: His dark materials
  8. Stefano Pilato: Pilat's class

"Karl Lagerfeld, for example, told Numéro magazine in late 2010 that, as far as he was concerned, the person to succeed him at Chanel was Haider Ackermann. This followed the revelation that the reclusive Martin Margiela, a notably different sort of designer from Lagerfeld, had already asked Ackermann to take over when he retired from his brand in 2009 (an offer Ackermann turned down)." (x)


"The story of how a young designer remade an old house is not a new one, of course, especially not in the current fashion world, where Galliano revamped Dior, Tom Ford recreated Gucci, and Karl Lagerfeld reinvented Chanel. The difference between this story and those, however, is the fact that Givenchy was a more complicated proposition than Gucci or Chanel: other than its association with Audrey Hepburn, who famously wore Givenchy in almost all her films, including Sabrina and Funny Face, most people didn’t really have an image in mind when they thought of the house, and it didn’t have any obvious shorthand “codes”, such as New Look silhouettes or camellias and pearls, that a designer could build on. Not to mention the fact that Tisci was, when he took the helm, almost entirely unknown." (x)


“He sent a letter, and it was on red stationery, with Alber at the top and Elbaz at the bottom, both in black, and I thought, ‘but why has he taken the “t” off Albert?’ And then I realised that both first and last name had five letters, and he was already thinking about what a label of his own might look like, if it ever happened. Then I met him and saw his portfolio; it was like a coup de foudre.” (x)


“She can say, ‘I will work, and have a family, and I will not eat meat, and you shouldn’t eat it either, and I’ll tell you why,’ – and she can take all that and make it into a brand, which is really an achievement." (x)


"At a time when the gilded cages of designers seem to be sequestering them further and further away from reality, the fact that Elbaz is so articulate about his own neuroses is key to his success. If every designer ultimately creates a public role for themselves Tom Ford is the stubbled sex god; Rick Owens, the punk; John Galliano, the eccentric genius; Stella McCartney, the coolest girl next door Elbaz is the angst-ridden, empathetic best friend; the one with whom you want to share a tub of Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Fudge Brownie." (x)

13 July, 2013

shoes & louis v.


Bought two new pair of shoes. 
One pair of Jimmy Choo's at The 6th Floor at Steffl,
and the most comfortable shoes by Gianvito Rossi at Denkstein.

And how lovely is Dree Hemingway in this new Louis Vuitton booklet?!