COCO AVANT CHANEL

It's pretty outrageous that a Francophile such as myself let the film Coco Avant Chanel sit on my shelf for A WHOLE YEAR, still in its wrapper. I don't know why I never felt like watching it, but I'm glad over Christmas I found the time to. The whole thing had me captivated from beginning to end, the story, the dialogue and of course, the clothes. The film really brought home how revolutionary Coco Chanel was, introducing a more androgynous and needless to say more comfortable way of dressing for women.
I love love loved every outfit Audrey Tatou wore in the film. In an interview I read she sounded pretty nonchalant about the costumes and said she didn't keep a thing. I would have fought for the dress on the bottom left (unfortunately I couldn't find a better image, you'll have to watch the film) which was made from the dress on the bottom right and a mans shirt. Also loved the breton stripes, classic but they never get old.


On the subject of France, in little over a week I will be in Paris! I cannot believe it has been two years since my last trip. I am extremely excited to speak French, lunch in Le Loir Dans La Théière and drink lots of vin rouge. I used to know Paris so well, but I'm sure so much has changed and I can't wait to explore and find new haunts. The lovely Kristina has already provided me with an great list of recommendations which I'm working my way through with the help of Time Out Paris and google maps.

Please share your favourite Paris hang outs!

FILM LIST 2011

Somewhere
& Black Swan
& The Kings Speech
& now this...

BLACK SWAN

Just spent about half an hour freaking myself out with clips on IMDb. It looks AMAZING

SOMEWHERE

I wasn't a big fan of Lost in Translation but I loved the Virgin Suicides and Marie Antoinette. Something tells me I'm going to love Sofia Coppola's latest. Phoenix on the soundtrack? Yes please.

WATCH THE TRAILER HERE

ME WITHOUT YOU

All time fave.

pics from allmoviephoto.com, weheartit.com

A MOMENT OF GRACE

"That was a stroke of genius on my side I think. I turned the cameras on you. And it just came to me, like I was walking along the corridor and I was like 'oh my god they're looking at my rack again, I can't'...Hang on a minute. I'll teach them"
Grace Codddington in The September Issue



I watched The September Issue again this evening and it's true what everyone has said, Grace Coddington really is the star of the show. I love her and her work!







Styling - Grace Coddington.
Photography - Steven Meisel
Images from style.com

THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE

I was watching reruns of The Hills last week and Kelly Cutrone made a comment along the lines of 'any serious fashion girl would have received that phone call and run straight back to the office, even if she was getting engaged she would have been like "nice ring, I have to go"'. You would be forgiven for thinking that perhaps the phone call in question was the Red Cross calling in from some war torn location for emergency life saving medication, but actually no it was just Lauren calling from a Smashbox shoot looking for a box nude clothing it would appear had accidentally been left behind (of course said box of clothing being the only clothing that could possibly work for the shoot, despite the fact they had several other boxes of clothing to choose from). I started thinking, what makes fashion so important to so many people? Everyone I know in fashion works really hard, often long hours, not very often well paid, all in the hope of one day reaching the great heights of Buying Director/Fashion Editor/Head of PR. Everyone I know who doesn't work in fashion but wants to will do pretty much anything to get that foot in the door.

11th September marks the release of The September Issue which goes behind the scenes at Vogue and exposes the reality of one of fashion's most coveted jobs, Fashion Editor at Vogue. The strapline "Fashion is a religion. Vogue is the bible" would be funny if it wasn't true. I've just spent the best part of an hour reading about it on the TFS and watching clips and I'm as intrigued as the next person as to whether Anna Wintour is the dragon she is perceived to be - To be honest from the numerous clips I've watched so far, she doesn't seem that bad? Critical, tough, opinionated yes, but wouldn't you expect that from someone at the top of their industry? Or maybe I've just been working in Fashion for too long. I'll reserve judgement until I've seen the film in its entirety.

Watch the trailer here: