Iconoclast

You may remember that one golden time when I was inconceivably bestowed with three mint condition, 100 % silk, vintage Hermes scarves all in one go… and how the following week I realised that another scarf that I had just found at a thrift shop in Knysna and had been good naturedly calling ‘the wannabe Hermes scarf’ also (Lord help us) turned out to be genuine Hermes.

Well, I still can’t believe it, and I routinely caress them with reverent fingertips as I sway on by. My nod to good vintage karma (and to my ailing bank balance) was to part with the final one, which I sold to a friend’s amazingly thoughtful husband as a surprise gift for her (yes, we all need one of those… ‘SURPRISE! It’s vintage Hermes…’)

Since then, I routinely find myself going into a kind of trance as I browse through the thousands of silky, patterned varieties that have helped make the scarves iconic over time. For something that is symbol of the ultimate luxury, good taste and timelessness, some of them certainly are quite irreverent. My favourite is the classic ‘de Passementerie’ – the scarves featuring legions of regal, overly embellished tassels.

[PS - This book, Le Carré Hermes, a catalogue and commemoration of the classic silken square is officially on my birthday wishlist]

Preview

Something unprecedented happened this weekend.

I was given this handmade, full-skirted, tight-waisted, oxblood leather dream to babysit for a little while. My fingertips are still tingling.

When I first started my blog, almost a year ago, I approached Amanda-Leigh O’Connell, the visionary behind local leather label, eponymous, and in a very thinly veiled way, I implied that I would happily blog about her beauteous collection if she’d let me spend a night with one of her dresses.

Months later, emails, tweets and Facebook friendships have ensued, and Amanda has graciously given me this beauty to care for while she is gallivanting in Europe, no doubt sipping fine wines, fondling off cuts of nappa leather and contemplating, generally.

We met at Deluxe on Saturday. Amidst the bustle of ancient punks, smiling Death Racers and the aroma of coffee and rum, Amanda handed me an A1-sized white box. I got my first look at the frock in the boot of a friend’s car, and, yes, I gasped. This is the dress that was featured in the May issue of ELLE, fresh from the shoot and straight into my quivering palms. Worries that it wouldn’t fit were soon allayed, when it zipped up exquisitely to reveal that it was practically made for me. Of course. A year’s worth of fantasizing is clearly worth something.

I will be on the hunt for the right occasions to which to don this here piece of scarlet-lined love. Did I mention that it has pockets?

Secret Garden

These jewel-hued, flora-fangled scenes from the Topshop Secret Store opening on Oxford Street have me mooning around like a teenage girl.

Set up as the complete antithesis to a normal Topshop store, the two-week pop-up gem is a working florist, featuring gloriousness by Meadham Kirchhoff, Nasir Mazhar, Michael Van Der Ham and Pamela Love, amongst others.

The collections were produced in limited runs, which only makes me morbid, because I will never be able to have one of those pom-pom-encrusted, spangle-spangled, Fantasia tiara’s alight upon my apex. You feel my pain. And let’s not even mention the Nicholas Kirkwood-esque blue velveteens.

It’s all glorious, and it’s all available online. Some of the ranges have already sold out, so if you want to cash in, get movin’! I love how the online store is laid out – very clever.

Images by Saga Sig via Style Bubble

Girl Friday: Vanessa Paradis

I spent last night paging through Marie Claire‘s June issue, the Earth Issue. Their feature on Johnny’s long-time girl and all-round beauty, Vanessa Paradis, had me hearkening back to her early hit, ‘Joe le taxi’ (which you may be lucky enough to catch on VH1 once in a blue moon).

Featuring a 16 year Vanessa in über 80′s jeans and a sweatshirt, her trademark gap temptingly on display, the video catapulted her to fame (and a measure of notoriety, for the simple fact that her deeply 1980′s gyration had some eyebrows raised). Despite this Lolita-esque start, Vanessa has had huge success in France with her singing career since, and is, to date, one of the country’s most successful female singer songwriters.

She was the face of Chanel’s Coco fragrance in the 90′s, and her friendship with Karl Lagerfeld led to another recent collaboration with the iconic fashion house as the face of Chanel’s new Rouge Coco lipstick (see videos below).

Despite being really just impossible beautiful, she also comes across as both eloquent and lyrical in the Marie Claire feature. Fiercely private about her and Johnny’s reclusive life on a farm in France, she refuses to let on when questioned about their relationship, stating that she finds him ‘truly magnificent’. Well, um, so do we… but I also loved her descriptions of him – how she loves to watch him talk to people, think, puzzle over something, muse.

I found her way with words so gentle and considered. She has a truly lyrical quality to her, a seamless fit for her flyaway locks, dreamy eyes and willowy ways. And her style is the perfect compliment to this aesthetic – earthy, dreamy, sometimes with a slightly gothic edge – never trendy, always timeless. Timeless, as in, not of any particular era – a style unto itself.

Gemini

I found this June 2010 editorial whilst browsing through old Vogue Nippon images last night, and thought it pretty appropriate, considering we are currently in real Gemini territory, astrologically speaking.

I’m not a starsign diehard, but I do make the Sunday Times horoscope my Sabbath ritual, and really revel in it when it rings true. I am also a committed Cancerian. After many years of resisting the urge to slot into any kind of mould, I was forced to concede that my temperament and tastes are indeed characteristic of a typically Cancerian shape. Destined to be hypersensitive, home-loving, sentimental and über romantic, as well as in possession of an eye for the unsual (my favourite part). So far this year my starsign has been spot on – career changes, huge opportunities and recognition have all rung true, and in various ways. I have also befriended some fellow Cancerians of late, something which, in the past, was a rarity.

But I digress. Enormously so. This shoot, featuring models Sigred Agren and Patricia van der Vliet, was photographed by Glen Luchford, and I love the huge spectrum of styles. Each image is like its own archetype – the courtesans, the coquettes, the virgins, the vixens. And this, in itself, plays right back into the title of this post, Gemini.

The legend of the constellation Gemini has always held a special fascination for me. I was once doing research and I came across it – the story of two brothers in Greek mythology, Castor and Pollux. Such fascinating names. Born to the same mother but different fathers (one of them Zeus), Pollux was immortal and Castor, mortal. When Castor died, Pollux asked Zeus to allow him to share his immortality with his twin. And so the constellation, Gemini, was born.

Beautiful, huh? I find the twin archetype – so potent in literature, psychology and pop culture – to be particularly interesting. To be so connected to someone that shares your face, and in many cases, your life and your tastes?

A surreal thought. Especially for a fiercely individualistic Cancerian.

High Places

Having talented and like-minded friends is so underrated. Yesterday I posted about Kate and Alix-Rose’s City Hall ball, and today I get to post about Crystal’s deliciously dark styling collaboration with local photographer, Kristin-Lee Moolman.

The pair have worked their asses off on a number of breathtaking shoots of late, of which this one, Carmen, is a great example. It was published just yesterday by online magazine, Hellion. Their model, Carmen-Lee Solomons, is evidently so compelling that the editorial needed only bear her name. And you can see why – her cultishly lush features are reminiscent of anime heroines – cartoon cute charged with about a million volts of hot. Add to that a parade of luxe, stand-out designer pieces and a gloriously noir texture and you’ve got some real drama.

A number of the designer pieces are from Afraid of Mice, who stock pre-owned vintage the likes of Chanel, Marc Jacobs and Miu Miu that make my erratic Biscuit Mill trips just slightly painful. The real scene-stealers, though, are Oriel Barnard’s ultra glamorous Lisp pieces. The catsuit is my personal favourite – it’s Gaga meets Rihanna meets Jack White’s fantasy girl – auburn-haired, doe-eyed and nothing but black, white and red.

Crystal and Kristin-Lee are also due to style and photograph Stiaan Louw’s new online store images in the next few weeks before Crystal embarks on her transatlantic adventure.

Go go go, girls.

Pants of Fancy

Feast your eyes on this recent shoot photographed by the lovely Alix-Rose Cowie, styled by Kate Desmarais and featuring model Lee-Anne Johnson.

Shot on location at the Cape Town’s gloriously iconic City Hall, the flashes of primary colour and the vintage bent are right up my alley and also right on trend for Winter. Two pairs of my shoes are also featured in the shoot – the vintage men’s Crockett & Jones monk shoes pictured above, and the sky high ruby reds (Woolworths) in the brilliant blue catsuit shot.

I collaborated with Alix, Kate and Ane Strydom on a previous shoot, the Madness of Madeline, that featured a selection of Rah-Rah Room gems. When Kate sent me the link to Fancy Pants on Miss Moss, she also suggested that we do a Rah-Rah lookbook sometime soon.

Now why didn’t I think of that? We plan to muse on said lookbook over a pot of Turkish tea, so I’ll keep you posted.

031

Mr Price‘s much anticipated new range, 031, looks set to take the brand to new heights, with high fashion nods and street cred second to none.

This acid yellow fringe-athon had me at the word go. It’d be the perfect accompaniment for my new big stripe, were it ever so slightly less fringed. I may just have to buy two and execute a little snip here and there (that’s if there are any left in the store after their impressive launch campaign).

Take a look at the 031 runway looks, styled by the gloriously edgy Agyness Deyn. Cool move, Mr P.

Lush

These two images have been languishing on my desktop for all too long now. I’m not sure where they’re from, but I love the haunting combination of the lush and the barren.

Visual references to decay and excess take me back to my Art History days: mooning over feminist symbolism and discussing things like aureoles, pudenda and phalluses, all whilst taking ourselves oh so seriously. Heady times.

The styling in these images makes me want to curl up in amongst the funereal lilies at Nirvana’s final MTV Unplugged gig and close my eyes for a while.

S T R I P E

Yesterday I took the edge off my post-Gazelle hangover with a little visit to Miss Crystal Birch‘s farewell sale at her house in Vredehoek.

Crystal is a great friend of mine and she also happens to be a totally visionary stylist and milliner. She’s jetting off to Hamburg at the beginning of June on a whirlwind styling jaunt, followed by another in New York. The past few months have been spent clocking up more shoots than you can count with amazing photographers and models from all over the world, and always in true Crystal style: haphazard, high speed, transcendent. One afternoon she’d have a trio of topless Dutch and Estonian waifs jumping on her unmade bed, the next she’d be scooting around the city in search of pirate boots, tassels or fake fruit. The girl is a miracle. And our fortuitous meeting has been mutually beneficial to us both on so many levels – as friends, as fashion lovers, and as sisters who are doin’ it for themselves. Yes, I just said that.

Keen to offload some of the many mad things she accumulates through her styling, she hosted a sale (featuring a rail of gems from The Rah-Rah Room). I popped by to say hello and show my moral support, but inevitably, I ended up departing with a few things for myself. Including this epic darling of a striped sweatshirt, which has enough personality for fifteen sweatshirts! Super wide and cropped with tight sleeves and an irresistible funnel neck, it’s so visually witty, I just had to have it. I want to wear it over my new red and white striped H&M frock – a beauteous stripe overload. Its width calls for something really sleek, so the uber fitted H&M stripe will be perfect. I also like the idea of the two primary colours together, as well as the profusion of different stripes. There’s nothing like print with print, right?

I also left with a black mesh dress that is entirely transparent and which no doubt had a pair of glorious Brazilian breasts pressed against it quite recently… I don’t plan to wear it like that, but I do think it will work well with some interesting layers. My final purchase was a little white blouse with geometric cut outs and an unusual hemline. The pictures I took of them didn’t do them justice, so I will post them once they have been incorporated into an ensemble.

PS: I had a request from a reader to do more outfit posts, so this is me trying to do just that. I do feel slightly awkward about things like the truly 21st century ‘self photo’, but I am unfortunately mired with a flatmate who also happens to be my brother. The same brother that rolls his eyes when I ask him to take a snapshot of me, and whose idea of a good angle is my idea of hideous. I really need a gung-ho, snaphappy friend with an epic camera permanently on hand, like all those other bloggers out there! Until then I will surrender to being a 97% 21st century kind of a girl (in 20th century vintage).

Buffed up

Your eyes doth not deceive you.

These chunky, Amazonian creatures are indeed the descendants of those iconic 1990′s giants, the Buffalo platform. The result of a collaboration between Monspoon Saloon and Buffalo, they’re the latest in the towering tumble of platforms to clunk on by.

Thoughts? I spied them on Style Bubble, and I’m almost ashamed to admit they arouse an inkling of Spice World nostalgia in me (sans compulsory Union Jack motif).

Check out the rest of the precarious parade here.

Rose Rouge

Images courtesy of The Sartorialist and Jak & Jil 

Red is big this Winter, and I’ve been loving all these little hints of ruby, merlot and maroon cropping up on cuffs, collars and lips (always lips). I’ve never been a huge ruby wearer because, in my opinion, too much red next to my complexion makes me look like I’m about to break into a flamenco. All I’d need is a pair of castanets and I’d be in business.

My MAC Russian Red, however, is my consistent concession to the powerful allure of red. I carry it on me at all times and it makes me feel like myself. While I was in London I surprised myself by being seduced by three all-out red items. It started with a pair of crayon-red tapered pants at Topshop – here they are in 3d glory:

 

Before I knew it I had a fuzzy little red letterman jacket and a very sexy red stripe stashed away in my luggage.

The stripe was on sale at H&M and it was the last one – a tight, long-sleeved dress to just below the knee; broad red and cream stripes, a criss-crossed back and a Dita Von Teese-esque shape. Risque, but it was only £10. And for some reason I was clearly craving red – a daring ruby flash in the middle of all the Winter drabness, perhaps?

ANTI

I am still totally in love with ANT!PODIUM. They automatically supply you with the link to this video when you access their site – pretty progressive huh? Fashion goes social.

Go Wide

I recently entered the Vogue New Talent Competition, a contest for aspiring fashion writers under the age of 25. It really is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for someone like me to tentatively place an ankle-booted toe in the door at Vogue House, London. I’m still holding thumbs that I miraculously (even though I’m not British and am merely in possession of a UK ancestral visa) make it to the illustrious top 10.

The top 10 appear before a panel of judges (including British Vogue editor, Alexandra Shulman) and are whittled down to one lucky, lucky, lucky (and talented) individual. The contest has produced some of the world’s finest fashion creatives. The best part? The winner gets to take up a month-long paid internship at Vogue in London. And £1000 prize money (Topshop, babyyyy!) But it is, of course, the internship that I have my heart set on.

Candidates were asked to write three pieces for submission – 800 words on a personal memory; a 500 word feature article (fashion or culture related) and a 500 word polemic or opinion piece. Two of my pieces were elaborations on two of my most favourite blog posts thus far, The New Critics and Leatherette)… the other, the feature article, was a lighter, more snappy piece on a trend that we’re seeing evolve this Winter – the wide leg trouser. This is the piece that I am sharing with you today:

For some time now, we’ve been obsessed with skinniness. Sleek shapes and straight lines – the opposite of fullness. We compare our legs to those of our friends, applying a beady eye in search of that rare gap between the thighs. Narrow enough ankles, some might moan, are hard to come by. And a perfectly shaped derriere? The holy grail.

You’d be forgiven for thinking I was talking about every woman’s’ lifelong fixation – her weight – but I’m actually talking about a different kind of yardstick. And it’s one that is currently experiencing a refreshing fashion revival:

The wide leg trouser.

The past few years have been dominated by a quest to find the skinniest pair of skinnies. Spurred on by Kate and Alexa’s glorious ankles and barely-there behinds, we’ve seen shapely women pour themselves into pants meant for much slighter patrons. Studded, bleached and bejewelled versions added insult to injury, as girls not shaped for the skinny were left feeling that they’d have to suck it up or be left out in the (untrendy) cold. Bootlegs, palazzos and straight legs would simply no longer do. It was skinny or scram.

Slowly but surely, the more non-conformist of those among us have started to experiment again: a peg leg here and a carrot leg there. Flirting with the flare, one might say. Others still clung to their skinnies, and even took to wearing leggings as pants, a no-no for many. What were we to do? Being naturally predisposed towards things that are svelte and simple. But there’s nothing simple about concealing curves in a pair of skinnies, is there?

The return of the wide leg trouser marks an important revival for women everywhere; a reclamation of roominess and a statement in the name of shape. Not since the days of Farrah Fawcett cruising the streets on a banana board in billowing blue jeans have we seen such a liberation of the trouser leg. Okay, so maybe there was a brief homage to the palazzo pant in the mid 1990’s, but most will agree that it was an aberration, fuelled by The Spice Girls and misguided boy bands alike.

This season’s wide leg is much more Birkin or Fawcett. It’s about freedom, confidence and feeling comfortable. The skinny, whether it suited you or not, was a self-conscious declaration of sexiness. The wide leg is its cooler, more carefree successor. Wide legs conjure images of Jane and Serge, striding down the street, eyes squinted in smile, Je t’aime moi non plus lilting on the breeze. Wide legs are 70’s career women crossing courtyards in matching wool waistcoats, and hitching free-love girls, bra-less and blithe.

Whichever image you choose as your inspiration for the season, just know that it is your right to go wide. It’s time to embrace the liberty that the wide leg provides; to say screw the skinny and go big, while we’re at it.

Love Letter

Last year saw the return of the vintage-style letterman jacket to the catwalks – a truly American symbol of youthful vigour and freedom, mixed up with hyper-luxe fabrics and evening wear on boys and girls alike.

Letterman jackets are first love, heart-shaped candy, Danny Zuko, synchronised choreography and kisses behind the bleachers fare. They’re a boyfriend’s jacket round your shoulders when it gets cold; sweet-hearted chivalry and hormones deluxe. Sure, it’s an American thing. We didn’t exactly grow up with lettermans, in fact, we were probably more likely to be wearing bad polymix jumpers behind the netball shed, but you get the picture. It’s appealing.

So appealing that on my recent London jaunt I bought one for myself – a classic little red and cream sweetheart with a Scottie motif and an extra-warm dose of fuzziness – and one for my brother – the classic letterman, reworked with grownup toggle buttons and a slightly rolled collar. Tyler loves his and has been wearing it a lot – layering it up with plain hoodies and T’s to great effect. I have yet to wear mine out and about in Cape Town, because I really want to switch it up and wear it with a party outfit. In the first place I don’t even own a pair of sneakers, but I just think the uber-casual girl-next-door thing is too easy. Too expected.

It needs to be high drama meets highschool! I have struggled to find images of girls wearing it well. And so I put my styling powers to the test today… I’m thinking quarterback’s girlfriend nursing a secret crush on the debate team captain. Or the band. Preppy with a punch; peppy with some punk. I’ll do an outfit post this evening to show you how I paired double denim with letterman love and a little bit of height. Well, a lot.

Gimme an L!