Pretty for the weekend

Photographer Amber Grey for Marie Claire China, the styling is uniquely modern but the composition recalls fashion photos from the 50s and 60s. Can anyone tell me who the designer is of those lovely floral frocks? Dolce & Gabbana maybe?

Some new pretty for the weekend ...

I am loving these photos of actress Carey Mulligan in the latest issue of W Magazine, all in service of promoting her new movie Shame. Carey has such an expressive face and I love the clothing selection and the retro styling, which seems to suit Carey's off-duty style too. I'm still crushing hard on those hot rod print dresses from Prada.
Carey's been in Sydney for the last few months shooting The Great Gatsby. You can throw rocks at me if you like but I'm not a big Baz Luhrmann fan. It's safe to say that I'm nervous. Having said that his wife Catherine Martin gives great costume; check out the blog A Wild Tea Party for a sneak peek at some of the duds on the forthcoming flick.

But wait, there is more Elizabeth ...

I've been collecting quite a few old magazines, especially those with interviews and photo-shoots with Elizabeth Taylor. These photos are from the March 1957 edition of Coronet, an American magazine - a bit like a Reader's Digest style mag - from the same people that published Esquire, I think. Calling her 'The Most Beautiful Girl in the World' the writer waxes lyrical on that face: 'a strange combination of aloofness and sensuousness, she walks in beauty as few others.'
The photos have been collated from a number of different shoots and the photographers credited are Bob Willoughby (famous for photographing movie stars on set) and Sanford Roth. The last picture I recognise from a shoot with her then husband Michael Wilding, and the cute picture of her winking is from the set of Raintree Country (an imperfect film that is nonetheless worth seeing if you are at all a fan of Elizabeth and Montgomery Clift. Elizabeth's performance in particular is excellent).

I'll also try and scan another great story from the magazine for you, about teenagers hanging out in 'milk bars' all Happy Days style. And this really was the 1950s, not the 1970s pretending to be the 1950s. Also quite cool is an advertisement for the Relax-a-cizor, a weight-loss machine so brilliantly parodied in the last couple of episodes of Season 1 of Mad Men.

Transformers

I'm enamoured of this editorial from the September issue of W Magazine, shot by Steven Meisel and styled by Edward Enninful. The models have been styled in barely there make-up as 'themselves' in clothes that they'd be comfortable wearing in their day to day lives. Then their entire looks have been completely transformed to help them channel style icons from the past including Gala Dali, Babe Paley, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland and Dovima. This editorial, entitled 'Transformers' is as good a demonstration as any of the transforming powers of fashion and the art form that is getting dressed. Love.

Vintage Covers

It's a lazy Sunday night of TV ahead of my last week at Pan Macmillan, and my last author tour for them. What a better way to wile away some time than a trip down magazine cover lane. I'm loving these Harper's Bazaar covers from the 40s, 50s and 60s. I'm intrigued by covers where the model is facing away from the camera, they are playing with props or even when there is no model at all. The cover at the top is all about that glamorous earring. And there are so many gorgeous ways to photograph hats.
The covers of the 70s and early to mid 80s became very commercial and samey, until picking up again in the supermodel era of the late 80s. I might revisit those next, but in the meantime how cute does Audrey look in top to toe floral?

Cleopatra & Liz

At US$194,800, Elizabeth Taylor's costume budget on Cleopatra was the biggest ever for a single actor, and the designer Renie must have been kept very busy as she had to come up with 64 outfit changes! The costumes, while not necessarily authentic to the period, were lavish and beautiful and set trends in the early 60s. Its not hard to see why they won an Oscar.

The latest issue of US Harper's Bazaar has reality TV star Kim Kardashian trying to replicate Elizabeth's glamorous turn as Cleopatra. I must be getting old as I open the gossip mags these days and I don't know who half the people are, Kim and her sisters included. She's certainly beautiful, but I'm not sure why she is famous?

Anyway, I digress. Not only does Kim actually wear one of the original costumes from Cleopatra, she also engages in a Q&A with the one and only Dame herself. She is all class, as per usual, and she says that, apart from her Cleopatra duds, her favourite frock of all time is the lavender Edith Head gown she wore to the Oscars in 1970.

Dame Elizabeth is currently in hospital struggling with congestive heart failure. I hope she gets better and makes it home to her friends and family and jewels soon. I don't think any other actress could ever look as ravishing draped in genuine gold.

The Colour Issue

I adore colour and so when I saw Aussie Vogue's new 'colour issue' hit the newsstands the other day, I knew I had to grab it. For the lead editorial Vogue travelled to Mexico, the flavour of the shoot dictated somewhat by Prada's lushly eccentric Spring 2011 collection (I love this collection so much). Miucci Prada just keeps setting the trends, doesn't she?

I love the embroidered Prada shift dress in the fourth pic, stylist Meg Gray has used a vintage dress to gorgeous effect in the fifth pic, and the Mulberry silk dress in the last image is to die for. Shot by Nicole Bentley, this pretty pictures give me some idea why everyone I know seems to be coming and going from Mexico at the moment.

Oh, and you know what I lust for most of all from the latest colour-tastic Prada collection? The shoes, oh golly gosh, the shoes. I'd quite like the blue and white pair, thanks.

Retro Retrospective

Miuccia Prada has been setting trends since the early 90s so when she sent mid century influenced designs down the runway this year, the whole fashion world went a little retro mad. The result was one fashion editorial after another referencing the 50s in particular - some better than others - and here are selections from three that I particularly liked but haven't got around to posting earlier.

Lara Stone looked breathtaking - and a little Veronica Lake like - in the September issue of US Vogue, photographed by Mert & Marcus. This spread makes me want to go out and buy a cable knit sweater.

The September issue of Aussie Vogue was all retro fantastic too, with this very pretty cover shoot by Nicole Bentley with Catherine McNeil modelling by the side of my beloved Sydney harbour. I love the use of genuine vintage jewellery in the balcony shot + that's a vintage frock Catherine is wearing in the photo on the lawn too.

I've long been lusting after an antique pink phone at the Sydney Antiques Centre not dissimilar to the phone used in this Vogue Nippon shoot by Solve Sundsbo. The luggage, the chairs and oh, the clothes, aren't bad too. I especially love the ribbon tie peep toes in the last photo.

Enjoy!