Luella shuts down!

What a terrible week so far. First Lucie went home on the X Factor (TRAVESTY) and now Luella has shut down. The whole thing, shop and all.

No heart-neckline dresses. My hairbows now feel like bad luck. Get all the details from Liberty London Girl because I am too lamed out to copy them.

I’m going to go and look at some bluebirds or something to stem the bad thoughts.

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Frou frou and fabric and frills oh my

This frills trend is fabulous and I am so tremendously bored of everything I own I want to tear everything into rags, sell the rags and buy a sequinned zip-frill dress from Primark with the resulting £4. I will have to wear it every day because I’ll own no other clothes but as long as I retain some woollen tights and my duffle coat I won’t die of exposure.

 A better option for my party-season pennies might be this good look-alike of the Lanvin dress, above, from Asos., whose magazine I have started receiving in the post against my will but which I find strangely good reading. I do wonder how it is that Asos can get their magazine to me but Elle, which I actually want, has still failed to turn up.

I’m in the mood to look more glamorous than my duffle coat allows me to and as soon as I have clothes funds, I am going to go and buy a feel-good dress. I have been fantasising about something like the Oscar de la Renta dress Carrie wears in season 6 of Sex and the City. Hopefully you remember that big shiny box because this picture really doesn’t do the feeling justice. I would like my dress to come in big black shiny box too.

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Make Up Monday – Feathers, Flappers and Frivolity

I was very excited to receive an invitation last week for a 1920s-inspired ‘Feathers, Flappers and Frivolity’ party. For once I didn’t have the usual feeling of dread I get when I think about fancy dress. It is a theme that is instantaneously glamorous, filling my mind with images from The Great Gatsby, Bright Young Things and Brideshead Revisited. I already know that I want a drop-waisted dress, mary-janes and to adorn myself with pearls, creating a gorgeous up-do like Kate Bosworth achieved here, but I want to be authentic with my make-up as well.

Courtesy popsugar.com

Before the 1920s women wore make-up but were much more reserved in their application, however when the 20s hit so did their cosmetic freedom of expression. In its rawest form, make-up from this era did not evoke much variety, but it was the stars of the silent movies such as Louse Brooks (below) that provided the inspiration for porcelain-white skin, bee-sting red lips with a highly defined cupids bow and blackened eyes. So far, it all sounds wonderful, but when you think of the ingredients of these cosmetics it is incredible what lengths the ladies would go to.

 

Mascara in its earliest incantation was melted wax that was applied to the lashes. The ‘kohl’ in the eye make-up consisted of either soot, lead or goose grease that was deeply smudged into the socket area to create the ‘vamp’ look. The powder to even out the skin tone was made up of rice powder in its palest form, and there was little variety in the shade of lipstick, with a red stain for all. I can’t wait to embrace all of the above (with modern products of course) however if I was to truly adhere to the era I would need to pluck my eyebrows painfully thin, drawing them in higher on my face, which just feels like a step too far!

I adore the glamour of the 20s, and cannot wait for the opportunity to relive it, if only for one night. It seems like modern women do not have the time, nor perhaps the inclination to express themselves through make-up as they once did, opting for the more natural look on a daily basis. Although of course it must be celebrated that we do now have more choice about whether we actually want to or not.

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Sequinned snood

I saw this and immediately felt drawn to it. It’s from Wallis, a shop I have never given the first thought to, but which is stocking a variety of snoods. Whence this sudden high street enthusiasm?

Snoods make you look like a hermit, forever roaming the dusty paths of 7th century Britain, or something. Sequins are always a good addition. So my new favourite look is Disco Hermit. If only I could find a picture of myself dressed as a wizard because that particular fancy dress costume had quite a lot in common with a 7th century hermit.

Speaking of costumes, I’m off to try and find my Hallowe’en costume.

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A new autumn coat

I went to Kennington yesterday to the teeny-tiny gallery space of The Camera Club, a members-only photography club where you can hire studios and dark rooms, to see an exhibition of fashion photography. It slightly reignited my desire to do photography myself, as I used to really enjoy developing pictures back in the pre-digital days. I’m more designed to sit around in cafes reading Look magazine than I am to dedicate myself to art but regrettably the Club is too serious to have a cafe.

Kennington turned out to be pretty posh. I was under the impression it would contain mainly tower blocks and an air of menace but in fact it had a Pizza Express.

I mainly post in order to show you my new coat, brought all the way from New York’s Banana Republic. I know we have one here now but it’s quintessentially American y’all! It has a Mad Men/Gossip Girl feel because of the “bracelet-length” sleeves and lack of collar. My posing and British wintertime does its niceness no justice. I wanted to wear some original 60s vintage under it but it’s really hard to wear calf-length skirts in 2009 without feeling terribly frumpy.

The addition of some gloves would make this outfit the business. I already felt like an old lady from the 50s when I was tottering around Kennington with the coat buttoned up and with my Lulu Guinness cameo lady bag ramping up the twee factor. Buttoned-up old ladies are my idols. The brooch and the lace top are needed to stop this being gloomy. Maybe some silver lurex tights are what this outfit is really hankering after – something to reflect some light!

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Vintage hair

Last night I watched a film called San Francisco, which featured Clark Gable and the winsome Jeanette MacDonald, who my IMDB research reveals was one of most popular filmstars in America in the1930s and 40s. I love how enthusiastic the public were about stars back then – a nationwide poll elected a “King and Queen of Hollywood” every year and in 1939 Jeanette won; her king was Tyrone Power, another star whose fame doesn’t seem to have lasted.

It’s not often I go back and watch a film from as long ago as 1936 and I was intrigued by the hair and the clothes (check out her cute black bow with painter shirt combo). It’s a major Hollywood film and not the everyday hair of a 1930s woman but even by those standards, this curled style must have taken a ridiculous amount of time to achieve, hours and hours every day.

There must be a hundred tiny little curls in this hairdo, with intricate little combings around the ears, topped off with a ribbon. Although the film’s in black and white, we learn that the character is a redhead so the effect must have been lovely in real life.

In the 2000s, hair has been very low-maintenance relative to previously. Yes, blow-drying and straightening take effort and if you colour your hair that will always take a lot of work, but in comparison to using pins, paper, rollers and rags we have it easy, or at least that’s how it’s supposed to look. The style of the last decade or so has mainly been “just rolled out of bed”.

Compare and contrast the amazing 1960s style of Betty Draper’s hair from Mad Men, a program I trust to get the details right. Even the less high-maintenance look involves walking around all day with contraptions wound into her hair.

I really like these over-the-top hairdos. Hair seems to be dominated by a “sexy” aesthetic that you’re allowed to reject if you’re into fashion. Other than the bleached white pixie cut, we still go for long, smooth, flowing hair that is mainly designed to appeal to men – every time I suggest chopping off my hair to my boyfriend or best male friend they complain.

I don’t want us to be slaves to looks but I know women who spend hours on their hair to achieve a uniform straight texture so why not show off all the effort? Maybe for special occasions, we could bust out a whole different set of hair expectations and start doing elaborate up-dos like Bettty’s, or a La Roux diagonal hair spike. I am a big fan of the Luella hairbun with bow. It really doesn’t take a long time if you have willing hair or a big pot of hair gel.

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What to do with old tights?

Tights, once laddered or with a hole in the crotch, tend to get thrown straight in the bin. I always feel bad about it because there’s nothing else really wrong with them but what on earth can you actually do with them? This useful video from the Guardian website’s green section says that the lycra from tights can be used in bandages for women living in the developing world who need to be bandaged in the pelvic region.

It also explains that old bras might look ropey but as long as they are still actual bras, it’s worth taking them to the charity shop because they are very useful to women in places without Marks and Spencers.

Make sure your old tights are washed and clean, then send them to:

Ethiopia Tights Appeal, Tightsplease
2nd Floor Albion Court
18-20 Frederick street
Hockley
Birmingham B1 3HE.

Candy

I mentioned before that my parents were going to America and there was a strong chance of my getting presents. Well, this prophecy turned out to be correct but halfway through photographing some goodies to show you, my camera gave up. So I can’t show you my new clothes but I will show you this bag of sweets, which my mum bought from an old lady who makes bags for each decade with themed sweets.

I’ve never even heard of these sweets:

There were also Pixy Stx, Starbursts and Jelly Belly beans, as well as various things that may or may not be gum.

Cherry seems to be a typical sweet flavour in the US and I was quite surprised to find that the default flavour of the “Now and Later” sweet is watermelon. In Britain, you’d expect it to be strawberry. In addition, nothing tastes remotely like the fruit it is pretending to be, but in a different way from here. Millions of people on either side of the Atlantic have completely different views of what artificial strawberry should taste like. It’s a wonder we’re not at war.

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Hallowe’en

I didn’t actually get to go out on Hallowe’en last year so there wasn’t much call for a costume, but I did go to an 80s party not long afterwards and this is what I wore. Guess what it is?

This year me and the London contingent of Sparkling Whine are thinking of going as either John and Edward from X Factor, or Salt ‘n’ Pepa (“ah, push it, push it good” etc). We may have to take a tape with us and bust out some moves if the latter. Here is us busting out some moves to “Push It” on a previous occasion.

Salt ‘n’ Pepa are here in effect. The effect being half robot, half…actually I have no idea what my friend here is doing.

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French Vogue

This is the, now infamous, shot of Lara Stone ‘blacked up’ in October’s French Vogue. I was shocked when I first heard about this, and even more so when I saw it. Carine Roitfeld styled the shoot and the model was blacked up in one picture of a shoot.

This is especially shocking in an industry which has been heavily criticised for racism with particular focus on the problem following Italian Vogue’s ‘All Black’  issue. This was symbolic but did little to actually tackle racism in the industry. The image above does little to help us believe that much is being done now.

I know that fashion is a fickle friend with much done in the name of ‘art’ but surely, it is universally understood that ‘blacking up’ is deeply offensive? It smacks of an era where it was unacceptable to have a black person in the room but much better if you coloured in a white person. Why not just use a black model? Women often put up with a lot about being slim/a certain shape/tanned enough/pale enough but surely this is one step much too far?

Ultimately magazines need to sell, and perhaps this controversy has helped shift a few extra copies of French Vogue, but at what price?

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