I was trapped in a cab headed to a hip-hop dancing class in Chelsea. I do not dance. Also, I was deeply terrified of a changing room full of gay men. Who else would take a class like this I thought? Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t that I thought anyone would take a fancy to me; far from it in fact, what terrified me was imagining how my feeble frame would measure up against so many well-tended physiques. I could picture them with their pronounced abs and their shiny golden pectorals. I look like a plump shaved albino ferret. With fluff stuck on.
Matthew Williamson Sample Sale – 13 to 15 December
Up to 70% off womenswear, shoes and accessories. Not to be missed!
New stock delivered every day. 13 December (1pm to 9pm), 14 December (11am to 7pm) and 15 December (11am to 5pm). The 20th Century Theatre, 291 Westbourne Grove, Notting Hill.
English Eccentrics Warehouse Sale - 13 December
Samples, seconds, one-offs and old season stock...
13 December (8am to 8pm); Postmen's Office, 30 Leighton Road, Kentish Town, London, NW5 2QE.
Biba Christmas Sale – 14 to 15 December
Bella Freud's final collection for Biba (A/W 2007) at 80-90% discount.
Shirts from £50, knitwear from £60, evening dresses from £50 to £95 and jewellery from £25. 14 December (11am to 10.30pm) and 15 December (11am to 6pm); The Music Rooms, 26 South Molton Lane, Mayfair, W1. Mention you are from Fashion Confidential to gain entry.
Penfield Sample Sale - 14 to 16 December
One off sample sale with 70% off the retail price...
14 December (10am to 6pm), 15 December (10am to 6pm) 16 December (10am to 4pm); The Old Truman Brewery, 4-5 Dray Wlak, 91 Brick Lane, London, E1 6QL.
Temperley Sample Sale Somerset - 15 and 16 December
Fabulous samples inlcuding dresses and accessories. Not to be missed!
VIP Brunch 15 December (11am to 1pm). RSVP to editor@fashionconfidential.co.uk9. Open day 16 December. Strode Theatre, Street , Somerset, BA16 0AB
Tabitha Sample Sale - 18 December
Up to 50% off new and past stock....
Items include handbags, clutches, wallets, wash bags, make-up bags, travel wallets, luggage tags, visitors books, notebooks and much much more. It's the perfect opportunity for some last minute Christmas shopping. 18 December (11am to 8pm) Chelsea Old Town Hall, Kings Road, SW3 5EE.
Patrick Cox – Pre-Sale Invitation – 19 to 23 December
Enjoy an exclusive Pre-Sale discount of up to 50% on current men’s and women’s styles.
Patrick Cox has invited Fashion Confidential members to his Sloane Street store to enjoy an exclusive Pre-Sale discount of up to 50% on current men’s and women’s styles. This is the place to stock up on great party shoes for Xmas and New Year as well as chic work wear staples for the guys. 19 December (10am to 7pm), 20 to 23 December (10am to 6pm); 129 Sloane Street, London, SW1X 9AT. Mention you are from Fashion Confidential to receive your discount.
Kaiser Karl held a dinner at Nobu in London last night to celebrate his 25 years with Chanel, and his first ever London catwalk show. He was interviewed on the news last night, and I rather thought the old pot belly was reforming itself over the ribs.
Here he is with Kylie
The talons of death clutch at the arm of the living
In my day there were two royals, Prince Charles and Princess Anne and then the two little boys, you know, Andrew and Edward. We wore mini-skirts, they wore tweed hacking-jackets; we went to Rolling Stones concerts, they played polo.
Then . . . Princess Diana RIP, may the heavens weep, who single-handedly brought style and glamour to the royal family (the Bruce Oldfield dresses!) Hadley Freeman has a piece today on the younger royals, as photographed in the family snaps for the Queen's 60th wedding anniversary, featured in Hello:
Zara Phillips, on the other hand, was the first to catch my eye on the magazine cover, mainly because she was wearing an empire-line silver coat with white buttons and collar from Paul and Joe's diffusion range, Paul and Joe Sister, that I had just that week tried on but rejected as too expensive, so, obviously, I was filled with a mix of both approval and murderous hatred. Perhaps that coat is slightly infantalising, a bit too Bonpoint for adults, but it's certainly an improvement on the sweeping pale tweed numbers favoured by most female royals, to say nothing of the sludgy fare generally sported by her mother, Princess Anne. Moreover, she wore it with a short dress, black tights, black shoes and black gloves, which is just how I was planning to wear it (the witch), which obviously makes it good, and, impressively, she also managed to find a hat that was suitably respectful but neither hideous nor laughable.
Pucci?
. . . Her brother, on the other hand, is a different story. Even if Peter Phillips wasn't officially royal, with his penchant for badly fitted brass-buttoned blazers, bagging jeans and a hairline that recedes in direct correlation to his advancing paunch, I would assume that he was the product of youthful sowing of the royal oaks by any of Elizabeth's children if I bumped into him on the tube. Such is the strength of his royal style genes that he, like his cousin William, has managed to Sloanify his girlfriend. In the most recent pictures of the soon-to-be-married couple, Autumn Kelly has comfortably shifted from her former life as what one newspaper has intriguingly described as a "Canadian former air hostess, bartender and model" into a fully paid-up kitten-heel-wearing, sunglasses-as-alice-band-adorned Sloane, with a fondness for pastel wraparound cardigans. Well, they go so well with one's boyfriend's broad-shouldered blazers.
I cannot see why a person should be esteemed haughty on account of his taste for fine clothes, any more than one who discovers a fondness for birds, moths or butterflies. William Shenstone 1714- 1763
In the coming days you will start to see some advertising on this site. I have added Amazon. If you were to be so inclined to wish to purchase any books, by clicking on the link at the side, Jeff Bezos and his shareholders are deprived of five per cent of the income from the sale which comes to me instead. But please don't let that stop you from patronising any excellent independent bookshop near you. At the moment the link is only to my own books, but that will change in a day or so, when I can work out how to do it or get Camelmeister to do it for me.
UPDATE The books listed in the Amazon Box My favourites are books I have read and loved. They have the Thoughtful Dresser seal of approval. You, of course, may disagree.
I have added several coffee table books about the great designers. I have reviewed all of them in the Telegraph. All highly recommended
Courtesy of that Manchester fashionista Norm, comes this business-based analysis of US retail trends for womenswear:
- buying off-mall - less apparel, more accessories - more spending on electronics than clothes - companies like Gap's failed Forth and Towne and Chico's which sell clothes for the 'older woman' are getting it wrong
Looking further into the failure of Forth and Towne, I find this interesting report:
The truth is that age is the last remaining taboo in American marketing. It's okay for manufacturers and retailers to target based on every conceivable demographic and psychographic slice of the market. In this post-feminism age is perfect fine to reach out to women as women. You can target gays. You can put Latinos in the marketing cross-hairs.
But for millions of Americans, any reference to age is dicey. And Forth & Towne wasn't exactly subtle; their website proclaims that they were created for "a new generation of women, determined to find current, wearable fashions in fits that flatter. Women who have grown-up, grown into themselves, and want to look as fabulous as they feel."
That kind of ill-disguised, in-your-face-appeal to the older crowd is bound to backfire. Blame AARP for that. Their ham-handed, stereotypical representations of mindless, happy retirees have made most people over 50 await the arrival of their membership package with the joy that awaits an IRS audit notice.
The Times also pointed out that department stores have experienced something of a resurgence, and that their growth "has overtaken that of specialty clothing chains." That's not a surprise. A 42-year old woman who walks into a department store isn't making a public branding statement about her being 42, as she does when she walks into Forth & Towne. Hence the plug-pulling.
A couple of conversations with men in the past two days have raised significant variations on the mutton question.
One points out that forty-something men do not think about, let alone obsess about or wish to wear what men in their twenties do, having (with the usual Rod Stewart exceptions) accepted that they are no longer gilded youth.
Another questions whether it is acceptable for a man in his fifties to have long hair.
Perhaps some male readers would like to contribute to this question.
Lisa Goldman draws to my attention a site called Street Clash, where photographers and bloggers are pitted against each other in the contest for most stylish city. Check it out, here
I went to a couple more parties last night, and have observations both fashionable and literary.
As far as the eye could see were women in little black dresses, almost no colour at all. A woman in a red suit, and an utterly delightful 14-year-old in a gold dress, broke up the gloom. One literary agent was wearing a black dress with gold shoes, but how ordinary everyone looked. I say that because in a crowd of people, one LBD looks much like any other and without some very strong interest such as cut, or a stand-out piece of jewellery, you really don't focus on what anyone is wearing, because it has turned into a uniform.
The first party was held at the October Gallery by my literary agents, A.P Watt. There, as ever, one of the nicest men in Britain, Philip Pullman, the film of whose children's novel Northern Lights renamed The Golden Compass opens this week, starring Nicole Kidman. I asked him if he was happy with it, and he said he was, particularly with Kidman. But already in America and Canada Catholic fundamentalists are organising a boycott of the film, claiming that it will lead young, impressionable souls to atheism. Normally, these boycotts backfire, but the worry is that because it is a family film, the campaign may well do a lot of damage. It opens this week so go and see it if you don't like Puritan busybodies and want to put their noses out of joint.
Five minutes walk away in some cavernous space in Bloomsbury, was the Guardian First Book Prize, won this year by Ethiopian-American Dinaw Mengestu. You can read an extract, here. And a Washington Post interview with him here.
On leaving, we were handed goodie bags with a silver-wrapped copy of each shortlisted book, and mine was A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam. I can't help but be struck by the numbers of novels set during civil wars and the births of nations that are being published right now, as history bears down so hard upon us, penetrating our inner lives.
Nearly two years after the internationally acclaimed author Orhan Pamuk narrowly escaped imprisonment for statements that were thought to "insult Turkishness", the publisher of a British writer goes on trial today accused of the same charge.
Ragip Zarakolu is facing up to three years in prison for publishing a book - promoting reconciliation between Turks and Armenians - by George Jerjian, a writer living in London.
Jerjian's book, The Truth Will Set Us Free, which was translated into Turkish in 2005, chronicles the life of his Armenian grandmother who survived the early 20th century massacres of Armenians thanks to an Ottoman soldier. The historical account has prompted as much controversy among the Armenian diaspora, not least in the US, as it has in Turkey.
. . .
But while Turkish diplomats admit the contentious law has probably done more damage to Ankara's efforts to join the EU than any other single piece of legislation, observers say there has been little headway made over reforming the spirit and letter of the law.
In a climate of unabated nationalism, state prosecutors and police officials continue to level charges against artists, musicians and writers perceived to publicly denigrate Turkishness.
I assume that PEN and Index on Censorship will shortly be launching campaigns against these assaults on freedom of expression.
I went to a party last night and was introduced to a woman,who, I was told, was a make-up artist. This turned out to be akin to being told, this is Saul Bellow, he's a novelist, or this is Christian Dior, he's a dress designer, or this is Nelson Mandela, he's a politician. For Mary Greenwell is not a make-up artist, she is the make-up artist, whose celebrity clients include Uma Thurman, Cate Blanchet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Keira Knightly, Kate Moss and Gisele Bundchen.
She began her career in Paris in the 80s working with Christy Turlington, Stephanie Seymour, Tatiana Patitz, Linda Evangelista and Cindy Crawford. By 1985 she was working for all five Vogues on a weekly basis and created the no make-up look we all work so hard to achieve. Today she runs a course where for £1000 you will be taught how to do your own make-up but last night she was tired and wanted to sit down, so in exchange for keeping her company on the sofa instead of making bright chit-chat standing on my high heels, I received a half hour ruthless re-appraisal of my make-up, writing down the new rules and products on the back of the invitation while balancing a glass of champagne on my knee.
Look, where make-up is concerned I genuinely thought I was at the top of my game. She shockingly told me that there are women who won't wear foundation because it is 'dishonest' ie it covers flaws. Yes? You don't want your flaws concealed? But it seems I was using the wrong type of foundation, the wrong shade of blush, an insufficiently volumising mascara, was applying my lipstick wrongly on the lower lip. She took out her make-up bag and redid me. Then she jabbed at three or four points on my face around the jaw and upper lip and told me what Botox would do and gave me the number of her botox man. The idea lurks in a corner of my mind like a little curled up kitten, sleeping.
Meanwhile I am off to buy several new products, chief of which will be Chanel lipstick in Silhouette and Chanel's Teint innocence in cream to powder formula instead of the liquid I'm using right now.
Predictably, he likes the notion of despot, indeed, has fostered it, adopting a uniform of white shirt (he has more than 1,000, mostly from Hilditch & Key), drainpipe trousers, frock coat, white ponytail, omnipresent sunglasses and a carapace of rings (he has hundreds) that garland his knuckles like armour. What he dislikes about going to Germany, which he does as rarely as he visits Britain, is the Teutonic habit of calling him Karli, or Karlchen. Anyone would think he preferred his more common nickname of Kaiser Karl.
The Kaiser persona is so recognisable that it has become a Hallowe’en staple in New York; recently Roberto Cavalli attended a party in Lagerfeld fancy dress. “An act of courage, no?” retorts Lagerfeld. “His silhouette is a little . . . just say I think I look better.” Since his dramatic weight loss seven years ago (he says that he keeps in shape by foxtrotting with Oscar de la Renta), The Look can border on the demonic or, on milder days, on the vestments of a malevolent Dickensian priest – “defrocked” as he puts it with relish.
I have 20 of those items, lacking, among other things, a crisp white shirt, a blazer and kirby grips. But I do have a cocktail ring, in fact I have two.
The Thoughtful Dresser poll asks which are the best dressed women in the world - American, British, French, Italian, Japanese or Russian (in alphabetical order and with apologies for those countries not included.) Vote on the right
Recovering himself in a minute he opened for us two hulking patent cabinets which held his massed suits and dressing-gowns and ties, and his shirts, piled like bricks in stacks a dozen high.
Linda Grant is a novelist and journalist. She won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2000 and the Lettre Ulysses Prize for Literary Reportage in 2006. She writes for the Guardian, Telegraph and Vogue. Her latest novel, The Clothes on Their Backs was shortlisted for the 2008 Man Booker Prize. For further information including upcoming literary festivals bookstore readings etc see her website at www.lindagrant.co.uk
The People on the Street (Winner of the Lettre Ulysses Prize for Literary Reportage 2006)
Still Here (Fiction 2002)
When I Lived in Modern Times (Winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction 2000)
Remind Me Who I Am Again (Non-fiction 1998)
The Cast Iron Shore (Fiction 1996)
Sexing the Millenium (Non-Fiction 1993)
This blog believes
'A good handbag makes the outfit.'
'Only the rich can afford cheap shoes'
'The only thing worse than being skint is looking as if you're skint.'
'A new dress is a great help in all circumstances.' (Noel Streatfeild)
'The only true and lasting meaning of the struggle for life lies in the individual, in his modest peculiarities and his right to these peculiarities.' (Vasily Grossman, Life and Fate.)
