Working with colour

This is a new highlight in film and television costuming for me: Blair’s Gossip Girl finale outfit. Even if you don’t like GG or the outfit itself, you can’t deny the work that has gone into it. The colour combo is so unlikely, it had to be designed and worn with the utmost confidence, a quality that Blair usually has in spades.

When you pull each element out, it doesn’t seem to make any sense. Blair is 18 years old, albeit a very conservative teenager - why would she wear an embellished cardigan and a gold lame shirt and skirt? Because she is a titan. It’s hard to convey in the screen cap how beautifully the dark gold of the shirt complements the acidic yellow of the cardigan. It just works beautifully, every single aspect working hard together to make this what it is.

Milly cardigan, David Szeto blouse

I love thoughtfully coordinated colour in an outfit, the execution of which is a skill that I don’t seem to possess. I’ll let Rothko make my point for me:

Thanks Rothko. Wearing yellow isn’t for the faint-hearted or coordination blind like myself  and it’s fiendishly difficult to do on the cheap – pale yellow cotton vests don’t have the same impact and while you’d think they’d work with denim, in my experience this fails.

I will leave you with a final yellow and gold-themed thought.

P.s. this website will help you find out which designer made everyone’s clothes on Gossip Girl.

Asos outlet

How did I not hear about this? I’m not a dedicated Asos shopper but recently I have been hearing more and more about it and I eventually cottoned on the fact that it is BRILLIANT – the whole concept of slavishly copying celebrity fashion appeals to the stylistically lazy part of me that just wants to be able to copy a beautiful person’s look and therefore somehow paste some of their beauty onto myself.

It has also been made clear to me that they have a designer section, but I didn’t know they had an outlet – essentially a sale section, where 70% knockdowns on their designers, for example Twenty8Twelve, Splendid, April 77 etc, can be found.

On a tangent, I was snooping around this new Outlet when I accidentally tripped and fell into the jewellery section and was overjoyed to discover they have the necklace I have been thinking about for weeks after an “I saw you” moment – it was around the neck of a mannequin in Oasis of all places. I have ordered it, despite serious lack of funds, because when you have been thinking about something for weeks and then it suddenly comes back into your life and only costs £16, this is an OMEN.

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The Met dresses and etc

The Costume Institute Ball was last night and I’ve been enjoying flicking through Fashionologie’s gallery of all the outfits from the night. These are the ones that really stood out for me, even though I’m sure at least one will inspire severe hate in almost everyone else.

There used to be so much love for Kirsten Dunst. She and Mischa should have a support group. I enjoy this weirdly magical dress with its feather sleeves.

Kirsten Dunst in Chanel.

I know this is disgusting. But it’s on Leighton and she has such a cool cheeky look on her face. Okay so she looks mad but if you want to do the inevitable GG girls comparison, look at what Blake Lively wore – at least Leighton’s outfit fits and is…memorable.

Leighton Meester in Louis Vuitton.

 This is simply a beautiful dress with this lovely stuctured cut-out effect. This is the only “sexy” outfit of the night I actually liked.

Claudia Schiffer in Atelier Versace.

There were a few androgynous looks on the night but Rihanna’s wins for the mega-sleeves. Once again, I salute a look that isn’t pretty-pretty and therefore is worn with intent.

 

Rihanna in Dolce & Gabbana.

I think it’s compulsory to mention Kate’s turban. Turbans are pretty great in theory – they make one think of Joan Crawford. I’m not set alight by this outfit but when I tried to post without mentioning it, the blog burst into flames.

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Kate Moss in Marc Jacobs and Stephen Jones turban.

Assistance please

Do I want this bag? It is the Ymail bag I have been lusting after for infinity and it is in the sale at mytheresa.com at what is quite a reasonable price for a practically-sized YSL leather bag. But guys, it’s not the black with gold lettering…it’s the gold with black lettering. I just don’t know if I feel the same way…help. I just got some unexpected money and if it was the gold I would probably buy it as I have had too many near-misses with her, my dear Ymail.

I think I’ve answered my question during this post, and decided that gold bags just aren’t me anymore. That money should stay in the account until some hideously expensive purchase I am certain about pops up. Keep thinking: APC trench; Ferragamo flats; Miu Miu bag that isn’t gold. Okay, I am calm. I will post this ramble so you can see what happens to my brain when it comes to Ymail. I know it’s wrong but I just can’t walk away.

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Gold sequins and shoes

As requested by Rebecca on our New Year’s Eve outfit posts, I will now explain the thinking behind my NYE outfit, with my magical Windows Paint skillz.

1. I wanted to make a matte black/shiny texture sort of outfit and so this deeply unarresting black scoop-neck woollen top from Zara was called up. You can just about seeing that I’m wearing a very simple necklace, just one stone on a chain. This part of my outfit is uncharacteristically restrained.

2. This is a beautiful gold sequinned skirt from a shop in Spain. There are both shiny and matte sequins embroidered all over and it seemed fitting for celebrating the new year. I would like to wear it with something less basic up top, possible a grey chiffon top that buttons up to the neck that I already own, but the skirt has a black waistband for some reason and I’m not sure it will work. I’ll have to try it and see!

3. This was a small dinner party so I didn’t wear much makeup and just piled my hair up; I did have a temptation to do a big Cheryl Cole blowdry to match the sparkly skirt.

4. I love these shoes, even though I normally don’t favour peeptoes (I heard a while ago that Anna Wintour said tights and peeptoes were okay again!) I like the elasticated part and the gold stripe down the nice chunky heel, and the general structuralness of the whole. The only criteria they needed to fulfil on this night was goldness.

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