August 22: The week in pictures
Monday
Started a new job. Wore my new Isabel Marant necklace for good luck. -Read more>
Month: August 2011
Let’s Dance
When Stevie Dance left Russh earlier this year, many of her readers and admirers wondered what she would do next. Having been with the magazine since its launch – she joined as journalist, before becoming fashion director and most recently, editor – Stevie (above, centre) had almost become synonymous with the title. She certainly helped to shape its effortlessly cool style, a signature mix of dreamy and gritty, and gained countless fans in the process. And then she left.
“Of course, the decision to move on was a difficult one but creative renewal I think is key, as is following your dreams,” she says. “There is a season for everything and it feels so very exciting to be starting a new journey!”
Part of the “new journey” has involved a move to New York – though she hasn’t exactly been enjoying a lazy summer. “I’m writing a film, launching a creative consultancy firm and have contributed to i-D magazine, V magazine, Vogue China, Details magazine and Oyster.”
She’s also been flying home a bit over the past few weeks to work with Melbourne’s GPO centre, where she’s just started a year-long role as fashion ambassador. The project will see her contribute to four seasonal editorial campaigns, the first of which will be unveiled at the GPO tomorrow (see details below). – Read more>
No 19 revisited
Born August 19, 1883, today would have been Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel’s 128th birthday. To commemorate the occasion, Chanel is launching No 19 Poudré, a new interpretation of the classic No 19 scent that was famously named for the date of Chanel’s birth and created just one year before her death in 1971.
I always think that the most memorable fragrances are three parts “notes” to one part mythology and Chanel certainly understood the power of a great story. And if the facts were sometimes embellished? Well, that only added to the glamour!
In recounting the effects of No 19, for example, she once told her friend Carmen Tessier about the time she was stopped by an American man as she left the Ritz Hotel in Paris. “‘Excuse me,’” he said. “‘I’m with two ladies who would like to know what perfume you are wearing’.
“I told him: ‘Why don’t you all follow me.’ And I took them to the Chanel boutique, where – once we arrived – they realised who I was (…).”
Et voila! Who could resist buying a perfume personally pointed out by mademoiselle herself? – Read more>
Wardrobe 101: the wide-leg pants
When a pair of bright orange silk palazzo pants turned up at the 3.1 Phillip Lim resort 2012 show (above left) and in Nicola Finetti’s summer 2011 lookbook (above right), I had to ask: was this a happy coincidence or an example of some Jungian collective unconscious at work? This question was swiftly followed by another: exactly how does one make bright orange silk palazzo pants work for the real world?
So I went to the source.
“Anyone can wear wide-leg pants,” Finetti told me, dispelling the myth that the style is only for the vertically blessed. “A girl that works for me is short and she looks great in them. They are fitted here [he gestured around the hips and thighs] and wide at the bottom.”
The trick to making this silhouette work, as both Lim and Finetti well know, is to tuck your top in to keep the style fitted and defined – a loose top plus billowing pants can render one waste-less. Heels are non-negotiable with pants like these, but, Finetti pointed out with a shrug, “today, everybody wears heels”. This includes wedges, which lend the look a Coco-Chanel-swanning-about-Deauville-in-the-1920s vibe – even if you’re just swanning from your desk to the photocopier. Because yes, orange silk palazzo pants can work for workplace, with a simple white blouse or tank. (Phillip Lim’s sequinned numbers, on the other hand, are super-chic for cocktails.) – Read more>
Insider Knowledge: how to wear a statement lip colour
Electric lip colours – neon pink, hot orange – were big news last summer and show all the signs of returning this season. It’s a fun look for the party season and they look fantastic with a (fake) tan.
It’s also something I’ve never been comfortable pulling off, no matter how many gorgeous examples I see, partly I’m sure because I lack the requisite tanned complexion. The few times I’ve attempted the look have generally gone like this: leave home grimly determined to push through my discomfort; walk to work feeling increasingly self-conscious and refusing to make eye contact with anyone; arrive at the office and immediately wipe the offending colour right off my face.
That was until I met Nars’s lead make-up stylist Uzo, who visited Sydney for Mecca Cosmetica a couple of months ago. She not only coaxed me into trying hot pink lips, she actually gave me the tools and the confidence to properly replicate the look myself. The secret, she explained, is “warming” the skin so the hot lip colour doesn’t feel like such a beacon. – Read more>
Taking flight
One of the reasons I started this blog was to share some of the many interesting people that I meet every day as a freelance journalist. And one of the best things about having it has been the opportunity to cross paths with even more wonderful creative types. A couple of weeks ago, I interviewed the fashion illustrator Kerrie Hess, who mentioned a recent project working with fashion designer Jo Scahill on a range of scarves for Jo’s brand L’avion. Kerrie later emailed me to suggest I get in touch with Jo, and after checking out her capsule collection of travel-inspired pieces, I immediately did exactly that.
Jo got her start in fashion 14 years ago, working in the buying office at Esprit. “After my first trip to LA and New York I was hooked on the industry,” she tells me. Stints at Arcadia Group (which owns Top Shop, among other brands) and Saba followed, before she started L’avion a year ago. “L’avion is a combination of my three great loves: fashion, art and travel.”
At the moment, the brand produces cosmetic bags, stationery and those scarves, which Kerrie has illustrated with a “cities of the world” theme (Tokyo, Melbourne and New York are pictured above). They’re beautiful and a bit whimsical, and would look as lovely framed on a wall they would tied around your neck or the strap of your handbag. -Read more>
Jean-ious
Not since those two-tone black-and-white jeans of the 1990s has building a denim wardrobe been as much fun as it is right now. The last two pairs I bought were cream with a hint of palest apricot, and olive corduroy with a paint-splattered print. I’ve recently brought out of storage both a cropped skinny capri and a dark blue wide-leg style, and have been eye-balling J Brand’s red pair for what feels like months.
Because I’m also a faithful wearer of basic black and blue skinnies, I’ve found that the easiest way to pull off what I like to think of as “novelty” jeans is by wearing them with their opposite – that is, easy, classic pieces or, in the case of the wide-leg pair, a really fitted top half such as a silk shirt, a la Tom Ford’s 1990s Gucci. Here are three of my new favourites, plus how I’m wearing them. – Read more>
Oh, Porto
Fancy soaps are a dime a dozen these days but with a heritage that dates back to 1887, you could say that Claus Porto was ahead of the curve. I discovered this Portuguese brand recently and now can’t imagine starting the day with anything else. Because I (sometimes) do judge a book by its cover, I was immediately struck by the beautiful packaging of the Deco bar – blue and gold, and graphically emblazoned with the signature geometric style of that era – plus the vivid turquoise shade of the bar itself, and its clean, fresh smell. Made with a lime and basil scent, Deco is evocative of an old-fashioned Italian gentleman, who’s splashed on some cologne on a hot mid-summer’s afternoon. (At least this is what I imagine he would smell like.) – Read more>
The Modernity Project 