Disconnected thoughts on the theme of White

Image courtesy justjared.com

January Jones from Mad Men at the Emmy’s t’other day finally lifted me out of my bored state of mind when it comes to the red carpet. Clearly what we need is more “pretty robot” style. After Christina Hendricks, January Jones is my new Prettiest Girl in the World. Mad Men is superlative and she just looks more and more beautiful as episodes go on.

Obviously I won’t be popping out to the shops in white robo-gowns but there is something beautiful about an all white, snuggly wool outfit in the gloom of winter. I saw a girl last year in white and gold with beautiful cream-coloured hair done in a crown of plaits. She was standing at Lewisham bus station but really deserved to be going to the Crillon ball, dressed by Chanel.

Image courtesy justjared.com

At the other end of the scale of amazing TV, Leighton Meester of Gossip Girl is in white too. COINCIDENCE? Yes.

I wish designers would hem everything though as I am very tired of the deconstructed, flyaway threads look.

Osman

I went to this show but decided not to review it as I wasn’t very inspired by it other than this look, although I sat next to a really nice girl who was in raptures. You can read my burblings on it over at Amelia’s Magazine. It did show that white isn’t just for little girls or the bridal look you often see on American TV actors. I personally have an absolute yen for white cotton frocks, although this is a summer past-time so I am safe for the minute.

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Glamour

As I mentioned before, I really liked the fashion spreads in this month’s Glamour, and here is how the styled the lovely Malene Birger dress (above). Other chiffon-y, angelic items came from Reiss and Stella McCartney (I thought these knickers were expensive until I saw the ones Natalia Vodianova wore in this month’s Vogue).

I also really liked this shoot revolving around casual items, with the youngest, glossiest-looking model imaginable. Glamour is always about smooth edges and clean styling but I like the look – I’ve always liked primary colours and boxing things up, and hated crinkled textures, raggedness and muddy colours. I’m not really a rock chick sort of person, as my devotion to chiffon makes clear.

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The most beautiful dress

 

I spotted this Malene Birger dress in Glamour, the fashion pages of which have really improved in quality lately. It’s about the most ethereal, beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. I seriously want to spend £190 on it and wear it all the time, maybe even with the cut-out latex leggings that also featured in her catwalk show (not featured on Style.com, who apparently didn’t attend Copenhagen fashion week). Really I would want to wear tiny shoes and a silk slip underneath and just be as chiffon-y and dainty as humanly possible, wafting around in a flurry of pleats. I really have a soft spot for romantic looks.

I really like the whole collection, which is worth looking at on the website. It’s basically a more modern take on the Day Birger Mikkelson vision, with large-scale prints and a whole mix of influences – it reminds me a little of Marni, but with a Scandinavian twist – by which I mean that slightly unworldly, quirky edge, but a Danish devotion to good times, which shows in the beachwear. I also think that the range is at the top end of the affordable middle-ground.

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Dressing for your shape

Silk dress, £55

The old magazine trope of “dressing for your shape” can be a bit too general to really help anyone decide what to buy, and also assumes that everyone wants to look one way, usually very slim with strategically placed curves, but only the ones pre-ratified by the fashion industry.

However, it is true that when one has curves, even the pre-ratified kind, it is best to dress in more fitted clothes and not to attempt anything too baggy – if you actually care about what you look like to others. I am often trying to explain to others that I don’t need to look like Cheryl Cole every day because I dress for comfort and for how I feel as well as to look as hot as possible.

I have found a dress that loves me. Not my usual style at all, but when I saw it in Marks & Spencers today on my way to buy a sandwich, I was drawn to it and tried it on. Do not discount M&S clothing for fashion snob reasons, especially the new dresses; although it is not Topshop, I think that when it comes to looking slinky, a tiny bit of tailoring can make you feel like a bombshell rather than the overgrown kid you feel like in leggings.

I didn’t buy the dress but the instant I am invited to an event or get more money, I think I will – I love how Mad Men it made me feel. It might not look like much to you in the picture but slipping it on was one of those moments where you realise how you could look, if you dressed the way your body is begging you to.

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House of Fraser

I generally do not go in House of Fraser unless it is to seek out the Benefit counter, partly due to a brief but traumatic experience working there. I was vaguely aware it sold brands and I think I went into the one on Oxford Street looking for Elle McPherson lingerie a while ago but in the main I give very little thought to HoF.

But with some time on my hands yesterday before meeting friends I went and had a look around the one at Bank and Monument and it turned out to be awesome! It must be new because it is small but perfectly formed, with a sort of art deco vibe. I scooted round the beauty hall and will have to come back for some supplies that ran out while I was jobless, but the best bit was a really excellent clothes department, which basically comprised the obvious Coast and Oasis sections as well as designer bags from Chloe, Marc Jacobs, Anya Hindmarch and Mulberry, and then a D&G, See by Chloe, Marc by Marc Jacobs and Day Birger and Mikkelson section. Joy! Just my level, especially if they have a sale… Shoes came courtesy of Kurt Geiger and French Connection.

I now have a little shopping list of things that I shall enjoy buying in this mini-HoF, which was the perfect amount of busy, i.e. just enough people to distract the perfume ladies but not heaving.

• Benefit Coralista blusher
• Lancome Adaptive foundation
• Black bow sandals from KG
• Yellow ultra-padded wooden heels from French Connection (I need a manicure before I can enjoy wearing either of these new sets of shoes)
• And this perfect white summer dress from Day Birger, which fulfils all my frolicking in the pastures dreams. When you see it in real life, it is that perfect white cotton dress.

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p.s. I have not been able to find a picture of the bow sandals so this is my MS Paint interpretation for you.

 

Lyell

 

I love this label Lyell, based in the US but available at Couverture in London. When it is summer, I get a mania for white lace/cotton/crochet dresses and tops and this is probably the sweetest, daintiest one I’ve ever seen. I love the look of the shop as well – I love the idea of a few, perfect items bought from a minimalist, old-fashioned place like this. I don’t look like a miniscule ballerina like all the models but I think this kind of basics line could be worked into anyone’s look. Providing you want to dress like a flower fairy.

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A NaP day for a white wedding

I am not getting married but do like wedding dresses – spending ludicrous amounts of money on a really special dress pushes my buttons. Net a Porter now has a “wedding boutique” that gathers together appropriate dresses and accessories for the bride, bridesmaids, mother of the bride etc. I think the bridesmaids get the best loot but there are some beautiful dresses that someone might appreciate on there for their own wedding. I am keen to be invited to weddings as, after many years of being critical of people’s attitudes to  marriage I have realised I have been jeopardising my access to free cake. NOT ACCEPTABLE.

This lovely lace-necked gown is from the wedding boutique but I had a peek around for white dresses and found this lovely white cotton dress that would work for someone’s lowkey summer wedding, and then this fierce Balmain £6000+ embroidered cap sleeved uber-frock.

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Smocked necklace

Look at this cool textural necklace from Etsy designer Tinctory. I am really into plain but structured black blouses at the moment and I can just see a nice statement item like this resting on top being monochromatic.

Dream dresses

Somewhere, deep in my heart, all I really want is to dress like a queen trapped in a castle somewhere, or alternatively a lovely little fairy in the woods. When I wrote stories as a kid, the queen was always in charge so clearly her clothes would need to be a bit more practical than these, but…look how beautiful these dresses from Etsy designer Sarah Seven are. I especially love the white dresses, which tick a lot of dream dress boxes for me, because I still want to dress the way I hoped I would when I was 10. Pure indulgence.

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White cut-out flowers…

A pouffe

Coincidence or conspiracy? When I clocked this beautiful “pouffe” my first thought was about how lovely it would look in my boudoir. Sadly a quick bit of research revealed that it costs over £300 and is made in America. If I see anything similar I am definitely bagging it for sitting on while I tie my shoes.

But then I realised I had seen the concept somewhere else recently. Cheryl Cole’s very “early-90s Miss Selfridge” look at the Brits has the same sort of style going on. Elsewhere in fashion, there is a lot of white flowery embellishment going on so maybe in 2 months’ time Cheryl’s look will make perfect sense and she will turn out to have been ahead of mere plebians like me in her fashion thinking. Certainly D&G think the look is a winner, although I prefer their gorgeous camelia-embroidered gown.

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Cheryl Cole's legs.