Granny chic

Accuse me of living in the dark ages, but I stand by my (old-fashioned) word: they just don't make clothes like they used to.  I know I'm at risk of looking like a granny: my glasses are from the 1950s, my capes are from the 1960s and my blouses are 1930s silk (when I can find them). But I don't care. Which is probably why being paid a compliment by Julia McKenzie today was so much nicer than anything any  tanorexic little tart off t'telly could have said. And now I do sound old.

Julia and I were discussing the outfits she wears as Miss Marple (her next film is due out later in the summer) at which point she was admiring my black and white Biba blouse and my Mary Quant cape (one I bargained for at Hammersmith Vintage Fair for 30 quid). She said she'd quite like to steal it for the character. Ahh! She's so lovely, I probably should have let her. The cape she wears in the next film was one she picked up in Gray's Antique Fair . So thanks for the shopping tip, Ms McKenzie, or should I say Miss Marple. Might have known nothing would get past you...

Hope springs

When you're going through a really tough time, when food doesn't taste the same, music doesn't sound the same, and fashion doesn't feel the same, it's hard to get excited about anything. I'm not going to use my blog as a journal (despite how cathartic it can be) but I will just say one thing on the matter: there's no cure for heartbreak, but shopping can really help. 

It's not for everyone, obviously, but I just think throwing yourself into doing something you love can make the world of difference. I had my light at the end of the tunnel moment at the weekend, pottering around the vintage shops on Stoke Newington's Church Street followed by Brick Lane. 

I found this baby blue lace blouse/cardie/jacket (my favourite items of clothing are the ones that are difficult to define) in Rokit where I also picked up some new white peep toes (with a carved pattern in the heels). The lace perfectly complements the floral 1960s mini dress with ruffled sleeves from Little Red.  

This was the first time I had properly got dressed up and wore makeup in two weeks, for my friend's erm, World Cup BBQ. Because it's not easy doing that when you don't even feel like getting out of bed, (there's certainly nothing beautiful enough in the game to lift my head off a pillow) but now, after Saturday's Eureka moment, I'm going to do that every day. The perfect antidote to football. Give it a go.

BAFTA, you beauty

One journalist commented that the TV BAFTA Awards dresses were like a human chess board. Yes, there was a lot of black, white and on-trend nudes, but I don't think there's anything wrong with taking 'Black Tie' literally for an occasion like this. Not when you look this hot...

Ruth Wilson, undoubtedly one of my favourite young actresses on t'telly opted for Armani. While you could argue that such a starlet could have her pick of any up-and-coming designers (Erdem can do no wrong in my eyes right now) and her look is a smudge too gothic for a June awards do, I just think the ruffles, waist band and asymmetrical cut piss all over what you'd normally call an LBD (little boring dress). Yes, she's played it safe with a classic designer, but there's a subtle edginess to the gown and coupled with her tousled hair, she looks comfortable in her own skin.

So a thumbs up to Ruth, and an even bigger thumbs up to (at the risk of sounding like Gok Wan) my girl Vicky! My lovely house mate wore a beautiful royal blue dress that belonged to her mum in the 1970s and doesn't she look stunning, amazing and gorgeous... I'm hoping the more flattering adjectives I use, the more likely it is she'll let me borrow it one day.

In New York...

I never intended this to be one of those blogs that rips celebrities to shreds because of what they wear, but today I'm making an exception. I'm unashamedly looking forward to Sex & The City 2 despite its bad press (mentioning no names, Hadley Freeman ). I'm not getting into a debate about it's superficiality and shallowness and the fact that in the films the characters go against everything they set out to achieve in the series (I am definitely with Hadley on that), I'm talking clothes. Because I still get excited about what Carrie and co are wearing (even though, as Hadley rightly points out in The Mail they're mainly clad in Halston Heritage thanks to SJP's chief creative officer role...) and equally excited at what the actresses choose to wear when the film premieres, as it did last night in New York.

Except, I was distracted away from SJP's sherbet yellow Valentino dress, barely glanced at Kristin Davis' vintage candy pink Jean Desses gown - for all the wrong reasons, I couldn't take my eyes off this...

If you were a rising Brit star with a cameo in one of the most anticipated movies of the year, why would you choose a matron-style dress that looks so stiff it might cut off your circulation, on the red carpet?? I know Alice Eve plays a nanny, but she doesn't have to dress like one. There's nothing wrong with the design, by L'Wren Scott and there's certainly nothing wrong with Alice Eve, she's gorgeous, I just think if I was 28 and about to potentially break Hollywood, I would wear something uber glamorous to make SJP quiver in her Halston boots (or at least trip over her Valentino). Hang about, I am 28. I don't have a burgeoning film career and now I just sound like a green eyed monster. Damn.

There's something about Mary

 

Ignore the enormous 'Living & Giving' sign above the first rail of clothes you're drawn to on entering and Mary's Living & Giving Shop for Save the Children (catchy title, Ms Portas) could be any other exclusive high fashion boutique on London's effortlessly stylish Westbourne Grove.  Only it's not. And precisely because it's the latest charity-chic shop in the retail guru's drive to get everyone (yep, even you, sloane ranger) erm, living and giving, there's nothing, thankfully, snootily exclusive about it. At its launch on Saturday, the place was awash with people who had heard about it and those who just stumbled across it. The volunteers were friendly and welcoming and the stock, largely donated from designers and fashion magazines like Grazia, was plentiful, making high-end labels accessible to the masses. There was something for everyone. And if all proceeds go to a charity like Save The Children, then all that's left to say is, why hasn't this been done before?

It follows the success of Mary's pop-up shop in Westfield last year and she's also launched one in Edinburgh. I've not checked out that one (it was hard enough going all the way from North to West London in the sweltering heat) but had been looking forward to this opening for some time. Especially after enduring my boyfriend's moans that it was 'just another shop for rich f**ks to spend more of their f**king money.' I was determined to prove him wrong. I didn't get to see Mary at the launch but I interviewed her a few weeks ago for TV Times. 'They’re the most profitable of the Save The Children shops,' she said. 'The one in Orpington is looking fabulous (the one featured in BBC2's Mary Queen of Charity Shops) they’re taking from £900 a week sometimes up to £4000!’ I hope I've proved him wrong. 

As someone whose only hope of owning designer clothes is to buy them cut-price from a vintage shop, or better still a charity shop, the pieces on offer didn't disappoint. Among the rails, I spied sparkling new Chloe, Acne, Betsey Johnson, Marc Jacobs, Vivienne Westwood, among high street brands like Coast and French Connection. Shoes ranged from Miu Miu to erm, Red Herring as did handbags, save for the emaculate cabinet filled with vintage Chanel handbags (sigh), many still in their original boxes. Oh and this Burberry trench, that failed to be snapped up. I blame the aforementioned weather...

My favourite sighting of the day though had to be the jumpsuit in the window. Mannequin look familiar? It's Erin O'Connor. Well if she came alive a la Kim Cattrall in the 1980s movie, it would be. She was brought in especially for the launch, and when the volunteers told me that the printed maxi jumpsuit (in my size) wasn't actually for sale today (so as not to ruin the window display, duh) I was quite relieved. Not because I didn't think it was beautiful - Mauvette Philips designed it exclusively for the shop - but because it was ever-so-slightly over my budget. So I'll leave that one to the sloane rangers. I just hope, in some way, I haven't just proved my boyfriend right...

Not-so-great escape

I'm all for escapism but The Great Escape, naeeeeh, not so great. And I will put on my best ever cynical/never impressed Larry David voice, because this year, it was shocking. Admittedly I only had a ticket for the Friday and arrived late, but I only wanted to see Fiery Furnaces followed by Wild Beasts who weren't on until 10.30pm. Is that too much to ask? Well, yes, since we didn't get in. We didn't see a single band. I think that's a record. I had hoped to blog some pictures of Eleanor Friedberger on stage at the Brighton Pavillion. Instead, I give you Sunday Girl (in the toilets at The Coalition)...

Real name, Jade Williams, 21, and certainly one of the best dressed on Friday night. I want to say that isn't hard in Brighton, but I'm convinced there's more sartorial prowess in that town yet to be uncovered. And, well, Jade, sorry, Sunday Girl, is a good start.  Except she's not from Brighton, she's from Hertfordshire. Anyway. Didn't realise she'd been performing at the festival when I approached her, not that I would have got into the venue to see her...

Here's the fashion bit: jacket, French Connection; trousers, Zara; shirt, her mum's; over-sized pendant, charity shop.

Having done my research post-encounter (maybe that's the way forward), I see she's been likened to Alison Goldfrapp and Bat for Lashes. She's already done press for The Observer, where she described her style as 'scruffy Chanel' and already has a Dazed shoot in the bag. Nice. I detect another little fashion icon in the making. Just don't start selling lipbalms at your gigs, not a good look. Yes, Bat, I'm referring to you.

A New Look

Prada did it for A/W09. John Galliano for Dior followed suit in S/S10. From Land Girls to Film Noir, 1940s style never seems to go out of fashion – which is why you don’t need the excuse of a Blitz Party to set your hair in rollers or paint your lips pillar-box red. Although it doesn’t do any harm… 

Ahead of this weekend’s monthly East End Blitz Party, UKTV threw a Blitz Party to launch their Yesterday channel’s ‘Spirit of 1940’ season. The dresses. The diamonds. The coiffure. The pork pies. It’s not very often that fashion and TV collide, and when you spy an enormous hog roast being carved into a white bun with lashings of stuffing and apple sauce for a long line of hungry journos (with platters of ‘wartime’ doorstop sandwiches and scotch eggs if you’re still hungry) you can kind of see why. Rationing? We’ll leave that to the catwalk.   

In the foyer of the Shoreditch studios there was a dressing box full of pearls and costume jewellery, an assortment of hats, dainty gloves, military jackets, scarves and erm, novelty moustaches.

The crowd was a real mixture of people who had turned up kitted out and those who created an outfit on arrival... Lucy (top left) fished her five-year-old Primark skirt out of the bin for the occasion, having recently chucked it. You'd never believe Sarah (above right) was wearing jeans and a t-shirt minutes before this picture was taken. Or maybe you would.

I gambled on wearing my navy dress, t-bars and fur coat that could easily pass for 1940s but picking up the first hat I could find when I got there. As more than one person observed through the evening, ‘but you’re just wearing what you always do!’

But that was before I realised that UKTV had employed The Powderpuff Girls for the evening, at which I hastily threw off the hat, as hastily as I had put it on...

Et voila. 

The End.