Fashion Galore - Isabella Blow Exhibtion

My hubby and I had an early start on Saturday as we headed to London to Somerset House to see the Isabella Blow exhibition - it was a collection of her clothes, shoes, and hats.

As a fashion stylist working for Vogue, Tatler and Sunday Times Style Magazine she discovered Alexander McQueen, Philip Treacy - extensive collections from these designers were on show along with many pairs of Manolo Blahniks - fashion heaven!! Many of the other people must have thought me slightly mad when I uncontrollably squealed numerous times on walking around!!

Mannequin after mannequin dressed in the most divine fashions, hats and shoes along side a few of her personal items - her note book with her contacts and ideas in pink ink - my hubby reminded me that when we first met I used to sign everything with pink ink - I'd forgotten that - note to self - buy pink ink!!

 

 

Suitable headwear had to be worn in honour of Issie!!

 

 

We headed to the gift shop and drooled over limited edition fashion books and treated myself to the book to go with the exhibition and the cutest little badges with cartoon images of Issie.

 

 

 

 

After a spot of lunch we made our way to Harvey Nicks - I haven't been there for ages and it used to be my old haunt - hubby and I used to sit and chat all afternoon in the 5th floor bar sipping champagne so we thought we had to visit again for old times sake.  One of the barmen that we knew from our first visit was still there and recognised us which was amazing with the amount of people that go through the door everyday!! It mad us feel quite special.

 

My favourite barman!!

 

 

Tired but inspired we left for home - ideas for NFW 2015 running around in my brain!!!!

 

 

 

 



Style Icons - C Z Guest

There are certain women past (and present  but not quite so many?) who had a certain something that stands the test of time in the style stakes one of my favourite is .............

C Z Guest was an American lady from an extremely rich old Boston banking family but she didn't act like one!! When she died in her 80's still popular, beautifully dressed and Time magazine featured on the cover and said she "was a legend even in her lifetime".

At 19 see appeared as a showgirl on Broadway and after a short stint as an actress in Hollywood, she moved to Mexico and had herself painted in the nude by the socialist artist Diego Rivera (scandal in the 40's).  She married totally out of her "class" in Havana with Ernest Hemingway as a witness.

But throughout her life she was always one thing that remained her style.

Later in life she was a socialite, and an accomplished rider.  Her gardening column was syndicated in 350 newspapers.

C Z had firm views on how to dress - trousers were for sport and hunting, she ignored trends and choose styles that flattered her figure.  She preferred the Palm Beach style that that was defined by heavy fabrics, clean cut lines and pastel shades.

C Z's signature style was a slim fit dress with matching gloves or a pencil skirt teamed with an elegant sweater which was initially taken as an insult in American society but then copied many times over.

I love her simple, elegant style and one of the outfits picked up at Hepcats a few weekends ago has a little of her look going on so watch out for my tribute to her look (when the weather gets a little warmer).