The Glass Darkly

The Wallace Collection, London

Hertford House is an oasis of peace and history in central London. The paintings, furniture and town house setting of the Wallace Collection make a soothing change of scene from the bustle of Oxford Street.

 A delight for the senses, stepping into the town house is a ticket back in time, to rural France in particular. Set amongst the opulent interiors, many famous and important pieces can be viewed in comfort and calm. Memories of Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette abound, pastel colours and history.

 Each room of the house has a different colour and theme, compartmentalising the objects and images for the visitor. As you meander through the house, the intimate hospitality of the setting is an experience in itself. This is not a musty museum experience – you are not on a tourist conveyor belt.

 Some of the paintings will be familiar – Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s The Swing (1767) is the gallery’s most famous piece, placed opposite Francois Boucher’s Madame de Pompadour (1759). The subjects are ladies in divine peach pink dresses, every fold and detail of the garments captured forever. For me, these paintings define the collection, along with the Marie Antoinette boudoir, the largest collection of the French queen’s furniture in the world. The Study, a long, tiny room, contains beautiful miniatures, as well as jewelled boxes and cases. Ornamental and delicate, the sights in this room alone could be examined for hours.

Vivienne Westwood has been known to grace the collection with her presence, seeking inspiration from the canvasses.

 Although heavy on the rococo style and French painting, if you enjoy history and art in any way, it would be difficult to find fault with the Wallace collection. A new favourite discovery, the gallery is strong on substance and aesthetic delight. It is nourishment for the eyes and mind.

-Sarah Diana

*****

 

 

Inez Van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin | Blake Lively for ‘W’ magazine

Those stars and stripes, the halo of gold hair, the arrogant smoulder. Beauty, sex and America means power. In Patriotism We Trust.

 

The perfect image of a wholesome, all American girl, Lively has been photographed for the cover of W magazine. Presented and packaged as the USA’s national treasure.  Unconventionally beautiful in her face, the photographers have made a point of her exquisite body. Her waist and bust the focal point in red, her waves of hair pop with yellow. It is a primal picture in primary colours. She says “Look what I’ve got – don’t you want a piece of me?”

 

Inez Van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin have captured Gossip Girl star Blake Lively at a powerful moment in her career. With a leading role in a hit show and two independent films under her belt, the actress’ star is in the ascendant. Wearing a tiny flame red dress with a cheerleader-short skirt, Lively assumes a posture of absolute control. The viewer is eating out of her hand. And why shouldn’t they? Aged 21 in 2008, a very bright future lies ahead for the young actress. She possesses all the ingredients for success.

 

Memories of the 1980s film Supergirl and Wonder woman abound. The red, white and blue of the US flag. Loud and confident, the picture stimulates and excites. The perfect photograph for a magazine cover. Inez Van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin have played upon Lively’s bombshell beauty. She has a look that is all about fertility, youth and colour, not an enduring bone structure or strange prettiness. She is all about the power of now.

 

With heavy lidded eyes looking down and towards the camera, Lively is not flirting with the viewer. There is no need for coquetry; she does not even have to try. Like moths to the flame, her body and clothes ensure all eyes are on her.

-Sarah Diana

*****

 

 

Valentino Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2011/12

Models floated down the runway in subtle, unadventurous yet undeniably beautiful Valentino couture.

 

The collection was grown up and tasteful, with Valentino utilising nudes, blacks, whites and subtle greens. The injection of a red dress amongst the muted tones was strange, but striking. The silhouette was lengthy, with well-defined boxy shoulders contrasting with soft sleeves and textural embellishment.

Their makeup was dewy and glowing, their hair in middle-parted, low-slung buns entwined with glittering hair adornments. For some of the couture, notably the grown up suits, this hairstyle proved a mistake, but with the ethereal dresses it was exquisite.

There was romantic gauze, in tawny brown, black and ethereal white. Too conventional perhaps, with the flushed lips and ballerina hair. A satin tube dress in palest chartreuse recalled memories of 1930s Hollywood, of pre-war cocktail parties and aristocratic grandeur.

Grown-up shapes, class and dignity. The collection is all about the height of society and the magic of the autumnal equinox. Sparkle broke up the pieces and contrasted with the gauze and clean lines. Nothing out of the ordinary for a winter collection, but then, Valentino is relentlessly conventional.

The simplicity of a long black dress with filigree cut out of the bodice broke up the show, along with the red. It was welcome, and offset by a fairytale garment of pale brown gauze, spangled with gold. Light as the texture of a skeleton leaf and glimmering with its metallic sheen. For me, the stand-out piece in terms of its fresh silhouette. The shoulders were defined and balanced with long sleeves and a low waist. The length was dramatic.

The middle-aged, shimmering suits were tedious in terms of their Mad-men era inspiration. But the shape of the coats called to mind Victorian soldiers and added to the aristocratic mood.

Restrained femininity and use of colour, clean lines and the romance of autumn. Dusk and twilight, the closing in of the day. The twinkle of excitement as the party season approaches. A fall collection of conventional beauty.

 

 

 

-Sarah Diana

*****

Emmanuelle Seigner as Mimi in Bitter Moon (1992)

 

Super sexy and devastating, you either love or hate 1992's Bitter Moon. Its star (and wife of director Roman Polanski) Emmanuelle Seigner is a luscious French beauty, and her character's wardrobe is filled with velvets and evocative colours, worn with parisian panache. The film is about an american writer in Paris, striving to complete his first novel and understand the complexities of an intensely passionate relationship gone awry. Seigner is Mimi, the girl who he simultaneously loves and despises. Initially the object of the writer's obsession and desire, she slowly becomes a receptacle for his cruelty and disdain. They share a sweet relationship turned sour, through greed and depravity. 

Bitter Moon divides critics but I love it. It's very funny, sad and sick - a heady bittersweet cocktail. Just like the way that Mimi's character is written. It might be the fact that the film is approaching 20 years old, but the fashion in the film now appears very fresh. I think the world is ready for a full-on 90's fashion resurgence. Yes, even the frosted pink lipstick, heavy eyebrows and velvet body-con. 

-Sarah Diana

*****

 

 

 

About tie dye...

 

Previously the staple garment of hippies and lazy art students, tie-dye is back, and it’s adorning the bodies of the rich and successful. Pioneered by the LA celebrity circuit, and more glamorous than its original incarnation, the streaky colours and bleeding lines have been seen on the likes of Kate Bosworth, Hayden Panettiere and Ashley Tisdale.

 

The garish white circles emblazoned in amateurish fashion are no more. The multicolour of the 1970s has also been disbanded. Instead, colours blend seamlessly together on well-made garments, and the look is beachy, youthful and slightly risky. It is worn well by the young.

 No one wears the look like Lauren Conrad, with her watercolour maxi dresses complimenting golden skin and that California glow. But the trend has also been seen in the UK, on Welsh glamour model Imogen Thomas and Fearne Cotton. Wearing more grungy, less feminine versions Thomas’s is a splashed jumpsuit in marine blue. Conversely, Cotton harks back to the ‘90s with her grunge-influenced baggy t-shirt.

 Nicole Richie favours Love Tanjane by Sonia Erneux, the feminine marble effects taking the dye to a new level. Notably, Love Tanjane is exclusively about tie-dye.  Forging it’s way since 2008, with Matthew Williamson’s Spring collection, the trend has been seen in the Proenza  Schoeller 2011 shows, in lady-like incarnations and also in Whitney Eve, in blended candy pastels. It’s not just about Summer, either. The Fall/Winter 2011 shows also contained many examples of tie dye, most notably Emilio Pucci’s designs in appropriate autumnal colours.

 Telegraph fashion writer Lucy Jones says: “People are drawn to tie dye as it is youthful, fun and doesn't take itself too seriously. Besides, any trend that's been around since 500 AD deserves a try. If it's worked for the Incas, Japanese (who use a method called "shibori"), Nigerians, Indonesians and Indians for centuries, there's a good chance you'll find something that'll suit you.”

 And why not? With its new subtlety and grown up colour palette, designers have instigated a tie dye renaissance. Isn't fashion all about fun, after all?

-Sarah Diana

*****

 

 

Favourite Vogue covers

 
 






 
 
 

I love how each image looks so right for its era. Vogue covers are timeless works of art! Coincidentally, Kate Moss seemed to recreate Twiggy's look for her 30th birthday party back in 2004...

-Sarah Diana

*****

 

The polka dot Peter Pan dress

I am on a continuous quest for the perfect statement dress. When I was four years old, I had a wonderfully comfortable, knitted royal blue dress that was the only thing I would ever wear. Ever since I saw Judy Garland wearing her pinafore dress in The Wizard of Oz, the perfect blue dress has been a continual passion of mine.

A garment that sits perfectly on your frame, is comfortable, and in a complimentary colour or pattern is often effective at commanding attention. The simplicity of a dress appeals to the emotions, and can be a very romantic gift. I long to receive a dress from a lover, to open the garment’s box and slip it on before a date at the opera. Spotting the delights of the Chloe Sevigny’s collection for Opening Ceremony, I came across a navy blue polka dot wonder.

A short shirt dress with a flared skirt, medium cream polka dots are scattered in the usual fashion; classic, yet also feminine and inspired by vintage. There is lace at the collar and pockets, beautiful navy blue buttons. The quality and the way the dress fits will skim over feminine curves so that you are wearing the dress, not the other way around. Named the Lesley Peter Pan Collar Dress, it is not old-fashioned enough to look like vintage, but it is a homage to 1940s tea dresses.

Those who meditate assert that blue is the colour of bliss. It is a colour that I never tire of, especially being a blonde. Artists seem to love a fair-haired girl in blue (just look at Alice in Wonderland, and Aurora in Disney’s Sleeping Beauty). But the colour works equally well on red-heads and brunettes. Navy blue especially, is a practical and softer alternative to black. The Lesley dress is kooky classic to wear on any occasion. Whoever wears the dress would make it thoroughly their own.

 Chloe Sevigny for Opening Ceremony

-Sarah Diana

*****

 

Arietty

I saw Studio Ghibli's Arietty this weekend. The animation is so delicate, the story so quietly beautiful. Takes you straight back to childhood. I think the film could inspire a fashion story or lookbook on Arietty's 'little people chic'!    

-Sarah Diana

*****