Fake Fur, Films And French 75s

I like staying up late. I like sleeping late. I like two-hour lunches with wine.*
- Joan Collins 

So this is the one you've all been waiting for...I know, I know, since October. The Premiere, the new release, the opening act, top of the bill, talk of the town (I don't think so), king of the hill, top of the heap etc. When one consciously uncouples with ones clothes, one has to consciously recouple you know! My mind was a blue screen. To casually quote Baudelaire 'Nothing can be done except little by little'... So it's been a work in progress, this epic, montage, storyboard, flash-frame, cinema-scope, whiplash of clothes, swirling about in my head for these past weeks. So, please excuse the proverbial spewing of thoughts on to the (digital) page but here goes: often off script, 
definitely off auto-cue. 

I'd like to thank the Academy..........of friends for the, often aggressive, occasionally threatening, emails of encouragement, each one would leave me thinking You like me! You really like me! Sally Field style. I'd like to thank one friend in particular who said she wouldn't speak to me until I'd written my next instalment. 
(Happy now Kate?? Call me.)

Excuses out the way - OK so we've done January and some of February. Phew. But we still have some dark days ahead people. I am sure I've said this before but my friend says she prescribes herself fur and fake tan for these dreary winter months and I quite agree.  Except I am going to prescribe myself a tan and fake fur....oh and French 75s - but more on that later. I want to focus on fun February things not fitness things! I've thrown out the spirulina and the spiralizer, I have been intentionally careless with my gym kit. What follows are the contenders for the lovely things that have lifted my spirits during the colder months. I've cracked open the champagne, I'm opening the golden envelope.  I'm letting down the fourth wall. I'm ready for my close up Mr DeMille!

The nominations are:

Best New Arrivals

Fake Fur Coats

My main fashion joy in the past months has been fake, colourful fur, unreal fur, fashion fur or whatever you want to call it. It ticks all my boxes so I have been busy expanding my collection. Its warm, it doesn't hurt the little animals, it doesn't moult and (sometimes) it's cheaper. Obviously it all began with my Shrimps clutch (reminisce here) and then the obsession spiralized out of control. I'm 5 and counting. If you asked me if you could borrow my fake fur coat I genuinely, guiltily wouldn't know which one you were talking about.

I would also say no, FYI.

It's become a bit of an obsession. But the thing is doesn't matter what you wear underneath (I suggest pyjamas or nothing ooh la la - not really) they complete your outfit, make you feel like a movie star. They also cover up a multitude of sins and they make you wear colour in the winter. And people want to stroke you. Which is nice, depending who it is. So it's just all great really. There are lots of nice ones left in the dregs of the sales...so all that money you've saved on doing boring dry January, spend it on something that will bring you unremitting joy and warmth in these long chilly months.

Coat from Ainea

For those of you who follow me on Instagram, you will have seen my
Dulcie coat from Shrimps. It's my favourite, Kapow!

Coat from Story of Lola available at ASOS. Slightly bonkers.

Best Supporting Category:

French 75s
(nb. They absolutely will not support you if you drink more than 2)

I have also discovered French 75s! I was always aware of their existence but they've reared their rather beautiful French heads more recently. New Years Day was made A LOT easier with these wonders.  After seeing off  3 rather quickly though we were calling them Turkish 97s  and sluuuuring frankly my dear I don't give a damn! But everything and everyone starts to look rosy and attractive. Here is ze recipe from Simon Hopkinsons wonderful book (best person). SO easy! Best drink after a drought I say. Mix up a few of these darlings and drape yourself on the casting couch.

Best Trousers

Vintage. Tick! Moschino. Tick! Casino related. Tick!

Feather bra-let from Topshop. Vintage Moschino Casino Pants
from Lime Green Bow. Always, always bet on red. Shut up and deal.

Best Dresses

Notable costume performances have come from the following:

Malene Birger Silk Dress with jewelled pockets.

Vintage dress from Lime Green Bow. It's like a firework.
 It satisfies my inner magpie!

Lime Green Bow has a pop up shop at 201 Portobello Road right NOW!
Open for the next two weeks. Info here.

Best Score/Soundtrack

I Love You, Honeybear by Father John Misty. Splendid. Just splendid in every single way. 

Download it here.

An album about musician John Tillman's life, most songs are about him 'engaging in all sorts of regrettable behaviour.'
I like him already.

Best Item To Wear Even Though People Love To Comment On It In An Annoying Way:

Kate Moss for Topshop Silk Day Pyjamas
Cut to Christmas day 2014. INT. old house in the countryside - KITCHEN - DAYTIME - people shouting...My Kate Moss for Topshop Pyjamas. Worn on Christmas Day...you can imagine the jibes I got from the grown-ups. Going back to bed Grace? Forgot to get dressed Grace? etc etc. I pointed out that as long as I was wearing underwear it was all fine.

Best Shoes, Accessories and Headgear

Paul Andrew Velvet Fume Loafer from Avenue 32 sale.
The perfect smart shoe.

Charlotte Simone Popsicle. Love this. Although it should probably go in to the
Best Item To Wear Even Though People Love To Comment On It In An Annoying Way category.
 People like to tug on it and say 'What's this?'

Eugenia Kim Headband. Reminds me of Spring. Hurry up Spring!

And...THE WINNER IS my Victoria Grant wonder. Cocktail anyone? Don't mind if I do. This makes me happier than a seagull with a French 75....oh wait sorry a French fry.

Of all the gin joints in all the world....

Lifetime Achievement Award

You can read about when I first acquired this coat here. It can't be put in any other category - it stands alone. Slightly makes all the banging on about my other coats a bit defunct but hey! It's a star not a starlet. It's Oscar worthy. It's an old-hander. It's Meryl Streep, not Kiera Knightly. It's Robert De Nero, not Eddie Redmayne. It makes me feel like Marilyn when I look like Shrek. It's Gone With The Wind, not Fifty Shades of Grey. Its raindrops on roses. It's whiskers on kittens. It's the meet cute, it's when Harry met Sally, it's Casablanca! When I saw it for the first time I knew it was going to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

That's a wrap folks. Don't hold your breath for the sequel.

The End.

Fade out. Roll credits.

*This quote bears absolutely no relevance to the blog post apart from the fact that I like it. February Vibes. Joan Collins gets my vote.

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Grace Wore - An Obituary For Some Of My Favourite Clothes

I write this with a heavy heart. My original post was going to be about what I wore to a wedding in Switzerland last weekend - not madly exciting but still - just a couple of outfits I had put together for a magical moment in the snow. I had intended to document what I wore but ended up having SO much fun (and a SO much Gluhwein) that this was the extent of the photographs:
Well done.

 Thanks to some thieving gypsies this post is now a lament for clothes I have loved and lost.

Due to baggage restrictions each item of clothing had been carefully thought through and considered. There was no space for anything I didn't like. I thought it was the perfect occasion to wear a few things that I don't often get the opportunity to. SO I took all my favourite clothes. Of course I did. 

 Unfortunately also due to baggage restrictions my clothes got a lift back to London in a car which was broken in to on Sunday evening and my bursting suit bag was swiped along with various things that hold huge sentimental value.

I felt a bit guilty for feeling so bereft about material goods, for as we all know there are much more important things in life, but it's strange how one has an emotional attachment to clothes. Certain pieces can trigger recollections and happy thoughts - I have a peach coloured tie dye dress (sounds monstrous!) which I wore nearly every day during the funnest summer of my life and I can't bring myself to wear it ever again because I don't want it to remind me of anything else. It's now scrunched up in the back of a drawer at my parents house making all the other clothes jealous. 

I have a library of occasions and outfits in my mind and have always remembered life events by what I was wearing rather than what I was doing. There is a lovely book by Justine Picardie called 'My Mothers Wedding Dress: The Life and Afterlife of Clothes' which was one of the things that inspired me to start writing. A memoir in which she relays stories behind particular bits of clothing and how evocative they can be of a time, place or person.  It is funny how something so seemingly trivial or ephemeral as clothes and fashion can mean so much and hold so many memories. Some of my most precious possessions are items of clothing or jewellery left to me. It's never the financial value but more the sentimental one. 

Chinese Vintage Beaded Coat

 This was my Mums vintage coat which would probably be the one thing I would rescue from my wardrobe in a fire. (It's probably now been burnt anyway sob sob.) It was exquisitely embroidered with scenes from a Chinese water garden with little bridges, dragons and men in hats. It weighed a ton and always reminded me of the photo of Diana Vreeland in her New York apartment - I used to wear it with heavy white bracelets as a homage to her. I miss it so!

Feather Cape(s) from Malene Birger

 I remember seeing this Chanel dress in a magazine once upon a time, not so long ago and consequently ended up with a feather OBSESSION. My mother said it was a wonder there are any birds left in the sky. Very greedily I had not one but two feather capes. One was a gift and the other was a gift...to myself.

Cape #1 - My Birthday Suit 

I had the best night EVER wearing this along with my Zimmerman Splatter dress (it's the design, not red wine)

Cape #2

This rather depressing photo below (the first practice shot on my iPad) is the only one I have of cape number 2 (which I also mentioned here).  The blue dress underneath the feathers was a vintage pastel two-tone Jean Varon dress which was also nicked. A beauty. A very light silk with a thin veil of net petticoat and pistachio bodice with straps. I had visions of wearing it barefoot,running through a field, flowers in my hair tra la laaaaa. Now that's not going to happen. 

The Dream Dress

A wonderful dress from a mysterious company called Rare Opulence. Trawling through the ground floor of some strange shop it appeared like a ruby in the rubble -  complete genius...it was a copy of the Gucci Fall 2011 gown. The most magical thing to wear. It had a ruched top and lengths of silk chiffon with fluttery pink petal sleeve-lets. It had a very fun last hurrah at the wedding. So that's nice.

This is the last known photograph of me in it - teaching the younger generation how to use disposable cameras.

After lots of effing and blinding I called the council to see if anything had turned up and the computer-says-no-lady told me with (I detected a hint of glee in her voice) that the H&F rubbish isn't sifted through but instead piled onto BARGES, sent down the Thames and BURNT. Which is exactly what happened to my mothers cat when it was run over.

So on the off chance that you happen to come across any opportunist skanks dressed to the nines in feathers and fur or see something glittering in a flowerbed around Kempson Road in Fulham, please holla. 

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Spring Wish List

Anya Hindmarch Crisp Packet Clutch

By Malene Birger Silk Scarf

ASOS 3D Earrings

By Malene Birger Satin Trim Coat

Aperlai Metallic Mules 

Eugenia Kim Sylvie Headband

Kotur Margo Floral Tulle Clutch

Topshop Embroidered Satin Shift

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