Frock of the Week

This week has seen the beginning of the Toronto International Film Festival + New York Fashion Week so the inter webs have been all aflutter with many a designer gown.

My pick for this week is Amanda Seyfried's Valentino Couture gown, which she wore to the premiere of her new film Jennifer's Body. I realise that it looks like her bra is poking out from the front of her dress, but as Red Carpet Fashion Awards pointed out, the peek-a-boo lingerie is actually an element of the design (see runway version).

The deceptively simple form of this dress really appeals to me. The skirt is stiff, while giving the illusion of movement, and the texture of the fabric adds glamour. Amanda looks very pretty indeed.

Julianne Moore also looks very pretty indeed in this plunging jade goddess gown by Tom Ford. Julianne is such a timeless beauty and I seriously love her as an actress.

Julianne wore this gown for the premiere of Tom Ford's directorial debut A Single Man which, lo and behold, is not about fashion at all, although apparently he brings a designers aesthetic to the look and feel of the movie. I can't wait to see it, not least because the whole cast looks very, very attractive. Did he cast it as though he was picking models for a runway show?

I couldn't resist posting this photo of Julianne and the other members of the cast, including the scrumptious Colin Firth. If I was in Julianne's position, I'd be smiling from ear to ear too!

Books on Fashion and Books with Fashion

I discovered the other day that Australia has it's very own book dedicated to vintage clothing about to hit bookshelves. Love Vintage: A Passion for Collecting Fashion is out in late October (maybe in time for the bi-annual Sydney vintage fair?) and is written by Nicole Jenkins, costume designer and owner of premier Melbourne vintage store CIRCA.

The blurb about the book says:
'Love Vintage covers both the glamorous and everyday garments of the past and, despite the apparent complexity of some, shows how each was perfectly designed to suit the occasion for which it was worn. They were ultimately so much more functional, wearable and sustainable than the clothing of today.
The book also contains a wealth of information about fashion design, of high value to both the experienced and novice collector, together with an inspirational collection of photography that helps describe each piece to its full. Also included are valuable notes on dress construction, vintage designers, and fabrics.'

I love the cover and am so excited I'm putting my pre-order in now.

In a highly imperfect segue, my post on books about fashion is turning into one about fashion in books. A fellow blogger - the lovely Franca over at Oranges and Apples - alerted me to this fabulous Guardian photo-shoot with actress Emily Mortimer. In a stroke of divine inspiration, Emily is dressed as a number of famous literary heroines.

‘I should put on my red dress and it would be thin as a veil ... It would make a flower shape as I sank down, in the middle of the room, on a gilt chair’ - The Waves, Virginia Woolf

‘They hadn’t tampered with her natural beauty, yet somehow they had succeeded in heightening it ... She wore eye make-up and her hair was fuller, like a lion’s mane. She still looked every inch the lady, but she was exciting now’ - Valley of the Dolls, Jacqueline Susann

'A woman can never be too fine while she is all in white. No, I see no finery about you; nothing but what is perfectly proper’ - Mansfield Park, Jane Austen

‘Her dress was richly trimmed with Venetian lace. In her black hair, all her own, she wore a little garland of pansies’ - Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy

'She wore a slim, cool black dress, black sandals, a pearl choker ... Her mouth was large, her nose upturned. A pair of dark glasses blotted out her eyes’ - Breakfast at Tiffanys, Truman Capote*

*Of course Emily looks distinctly like the Audrey Hepburn version of Holly Golightly rather than the Truman Capote Holly Golightly, although I guess the film version of the character is so iconic now she has rather eclipsed the original. Truman Capote envisaged Marilyn Monroe for the film role but when I was reading it - and I must admit I stopped seeing Audrey after a while as the book has such a different flavour - I imagined someone who looked like a blonde Natalie Wood.

At the moment I'm reading, for the first time, the classic I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith. It's the kind of book you want to crawl up and read in an old chair in a cold room, smothered by a big rug and with a dog at your feet. Come to think of it, not unlike the narrator Cassandra. As I mused on clothes within literature today, these lines in the book particularly caught my attention:

'Then my brain began to pick out the bits it wanted to think about and I realised the day made a pattern of clothes - first our white dresses in the early morning, then the consciousness of what people were wearing in London, then Aunt Millicent's poor dead clothes, then all the exquisite things in the shop, then our furs. And I thought how important clothes were to women and always had been.'

Well said Cassandra, and now it is time for bed and the next exciting chapter!

Mad Men Media Blitz

It is rather fitting that I posted about Sex and the City this week as I believe Mad Men has replaced SATC as the TV show for fashion obsessives. Gossip Girl might be a runner-up, but I must confess I haven't watched it.

Now that Season 3 has kicked off in the US Mad Men is everywhere, including the September issue of Vanity Fair magazine. Not only are the costumes and set direction in Mad Men magnificent, the writing and performances are truly amazing too. While I love True Blood for its non-stop action plot developments, hysterically lovable characters and it's hotness quotient (see Eric the brooding and bad vampire), Mad Men has captured my imagination with it's subtle, mood evoking vignettes on the fractured lives of status anxiety gripped 1960's New Yorkers.

Bruce Handy writes in Vanity Fair that "if you like high modernism, narrow lapels, bullet bras, smoking, heavy drinking at lunch, good hotel sex, and bad office sex, this is the series for you ... at its core Mad Men is a moving and sometimes profound meditation on the deceptive allure of surface, and on the deeper mysteries of identity."

The photo-shoot with Jon Hamm and January Jones has the two of them posing, cigarette invariably in hand, in a variety of languid poses. January is dressed as Betty Draper, but for Vanity Fair her clothes are 50's inspired designer rather than beloved items sent to Mad Men costume designer Janie Bryant by super enthusiastic fans (and yes, apparently this does happen).

Jones blue and white number is Carolina Herrara. Love the gloves.

And the gold brocade cocktail frock is Dior.

The September issue of Nylon has an interview with Janie Bryant, the first costume designer to become a star in her own right, I think, since Patricia Field. There has been talk for at least a year now of Janie releasing her own original collection, but considering the attention the shows executive producer requires of her, I don't know how she'd find the time.

In Nylon Janie says she that while she designs some of the clothes - including many of the sexy secretary clothes worn by voluptuous office manager Joan Holloway - she also sources outfits for the men and women of ad land from vintage shops, rental houses and even her mother and grandmothers things.

Now that the latest series has moved into 1963 the crinolines are gradually being subsumed by a more streamlined look and mod elements are beginning to appear. Betty Draper is also rocking some seriously gorgeous maternity-wear.

What I wouldn't give for a day playing dress-ups in the Mad Men wardrobe department.

The September "Style" issue of Vanity Fair also has a story on the history of haute couture with lots of pretty pictures. I'm off to bed to read it right now.

Thanks to AMC for the pic of the Mad Men ladies.

Wedding Inspiration from a Vintage Vixen

I'm completely addicted to Solanah's blog Vixen Vintage. Solanah, who lives in Washington State in the US, is a vintage seller on Etsy, vintage hat aficionado and all-round stylish lady. She has close to 500 followers and you can see why.

Solanah just got married and her gorgeous wedding pics are providing me with lots of inspiration for my own 50's themed wedding. As my do is going to be in a surf club on the cliffs of Tamarama Beach, I'm going for a bit more of a tropical vibe, but don't she and her husband look gorgeous? And her dress only cost US75 cents! Check out her blog for the amazing story behind the dress.

Dress of the Week

If you've been reading my blog for a while you'll know that I've been lately enamoured of floral and lace appliques. Dita Von Teese looked gorgeous this week at some alcohol related event (ugh) in this heavily appliqued Fendi dress. I've never quite understood why Dita is so famous - taking your clothes off and being married to a pop star is all it takes these days to score magazine covers and couture it seems - but I can't deny that she knows how to pick a frock. She is always immaculately put together. The pink satin shoes are pretty too.

Thanks to Pro Fashion Elle for the pic!

Cruising the inter webs to check out what the celebs are wearing for Frock of the Week, I was both saddened and delighted to see SJP back on the fashion radar. Filming has begun on the second Sex and the City film and so I was saddened because I wish they weren't making it (apart from the gratuitous clothes porn I thought the first film had virtually no substance and was but a pale ghost of one of my favourite series) and delighted because I'm an admirer of both Sarah-Jessica Parker's and Carrie Bradshaw's style.

This white dress and the summer breezy purple one below are both Halston Heritage; a just released capsule collection from Halston based on classic silhouettes from the label's heyday.

With all these pap pics from the set being released on a daily basis with any luck I can get my SJP style fix without having to see them screw up the SATC brand even more.

Remember how edgy the original series was? Ah, those were the days.

The Joys of Pink

In the July issue of UK Vogue Plum Sykes writes about her enduring love affair with everything pink. She's drawn to pink dresses, pink lingerie, pink furnishings and even pink houses.

Plum writes "is there any point to all this pinkness in my life? I suspect there is. The truth is, I find real life - putting out the rubbish, work going wrong, people getting ill, friends dying - pretty gruelling. If I think about it all too much, I get pretty down pretty quickly. I believe that anything that can cheer you up is incredibly valuable, and there's nothing like pink to do that."

Anyone that has known me for any length of time would have to surmise that I agree. Pink is by far and away my favourite colour. My wardrobe is practically heaving with it and I'm drawn to pink knick-knacks for around my flat too: cushions, vases, cups and saucers, flowers - I've got the lot.

I think I've been in love with pink from the day dot, and although little girls these days seemed to be groomed for a life lived in pink (shopping for my 9 month old niece I can barely find another colour), that wasn't so much the case in my childhood. I believe I've always associated pink with femininity, luxury and contentment. Plum writes that during the Golden Age of Couture Dior and Balenciaga used pink in every collection as the designers knew it was flattering to pretty much every woman.

Dior said "every woman should have something pink in her wardrobe."

I must admit that I have more than something. My old colleague and friend Jane used to throw up her hands in exasperation when she'd see me return from my lunch-hour with yet another pink dress as a result of a retail rummage.




This is a hot pink 1980's knit dress that I bought from an online seller based out of New York. The dress was originally a midi but I shortened it to a mini to update it and make it a bit more flattering.

The pink suede booties are by Mogil.

This is one of my most beloved dresses. The dealer I bought it from is pretty sure it is early 1960's (Mad Men era!). This was a designer dress - it has a label that says "A La Mode" and the construction is truly divine. The skirt is starched and sits nice and stiff. Not the best dress to sit down in but it is a joy for dancing.

The shoes are Melissa and I'm holding a jewelled pink clutch I thrifted from Rozelle Markets.

This dress is a vintage Ralph Lauren number which is perfect for absolutely everywhere; beach, work, nights out. You name it, I've worn it there. The shade is that really delectable candy pink that conjures cupcakes and edible lolly necklaces. It is a little reminiscent of the pink Ralph Lauren dress Gwyneth Paltrow famously wore when she won her Best Actress Oscar.

The bracelet is pink and vintage and covered in four-leaf clovers. I love it.

Jacket - vintage, handmade and part of a skirt suit set. The print looks like balloons and makes me joyously happy.

Singlet - Cheap Monday.

Shorts - picked up from the now sadly departed Ra Ra Superstar in Bondi (sob). They might not be pink, but my modesty is preserved by a pastel pink button.

Bag - thrifted.

Bracelets - all plastic, all pink, all thrifted.

Shoes - hot pink leather brogues from Topshop.

And I think I've posted this clip before but while I'm in a pink mood I just can't resist a revisit of one of my favourite classic movie scenes.

Think Pink! says the fashion editor in Funny Face.

Costume Jewellery Fantastic

Lovely blogger Andi B Goode is hosting her first giveaway. All you have to do is leave a comment, and you'll go into the draw to win these two gorgeous items of vintage costume jewellery. Andi is celebrating her 100 follower milestone and it isn't hard to see why she has managed to reach that number.

I'd love to know where she got the surfboard brooch. I want one!