When I was at Fenwicks in London (which is such a great store!) recently, trying on whimsical hat after whimsical hat, I wished we wore hats more often. They are like candy for the head and whose head could not use a little candy : )
One of my favorite lines in one of the The Thin Man movies is when someone shouts out to Mrs. Nora Charles, "look at the screwy hat on that dame!"
To all dames with screwy hats... Happy Easter!
Madonna at the premiere of Evita in John Galliano:
Marlene Dietrich in a hat looking fabulous:
Audrey Hepburn in a hat - could not choose just one:
Not technically a hat but a head scarf on Jackie Kennedy Onassis:
Hats at the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton:
Sarah Jessica Parker has worn some fun hats:
and who can forget the late, great Isabella Blow...
Couture is dead. Couture isn't relevant. Yawn. Every couture season, we hear the same old same old about the haute couture collections. It does not seem to be about what the designers are doing but why they are doing it. They are doing it because they can. And sometimes they do it magnificently.
Giambattista Valli was unanimously voted into the exclusive Chambre Syndicale de la Mode and showed his first haute couture collection on Monday. We had already had a sneak peek of what the collection might look like over the weekend when Charlotte Casiraghi wore a "Princess Grace blue" chiffon gown with a long cape over her shoulders and a jeweled belt at the waist.
Photo: Fred Dufour/AFP/Getty Images
But it still did not prepare me for just how beautiful, modern and relevant Valli's first full fledged couture show would be. It was not a performance with costume-y make up and unnecessary theatrics. It was a show of totally gorgeous, wearable pieces. I was enchanted from the first look which was inspired by the blouse de cabine, the white smock worn by the atelier workers (and worn by Christian Dior and Hubert de Givenchy). Valli pulled it down into a monogrammed skirt with a black bow, a simple black sweater and Giambattista Valli's trademark pearls.
There was a lot of minimalist black and white but with fluffy and yet still restrained details.
Then a burst of red and one of those pretty, feminine frothy dresses that Valli excels at.
And then there was some grrrr in the couture.
There is that long cape again. Makes me regret not buying the long black chiffon cape that was on sale at Celine :(
So there! Take that all those who made mockery of Princess Beatrice's much maligned bow hat. Sold for more then $130,000 on Ebay for the charity United Nations Children's Fund. Just the little bow hat that could...
"Isabella was an otherwordly creature of mythical proportions." Ebe Oke
We are a day away from the opening of Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty at the Met and the windows at Barneys which, besides having Daphne Guiness getting dressed for the Met Gala behind a screen, will also have pieces from the Isabella Blow collection, hats by Philip Treacy and objects by the jeweler Shaun Leane in the windows. Daphne Guiness swooped in and bought the entirety of Isabella Blow's collection from the family before it went to auction in 2010. But there was one piece that got away and its owner was kind enough to share images of it with us.
Isabella Blow's unique way with fashion and the ability to be able to wear absolutely any kind of hat or head gear cleared the way for some of the hats we saw at this weeks Royal Wedding. I do not believe that we would have seen Princess Beatrice in her much panned Philip Treacy Bow hat (though I thought she looked sweet and young in it - Princess Eugenie? Well, poor thing, that was not a good look...) or any of the more whimsical hats if not for Isabella Blow.
Princess Eugenie of York and Princess Beatrice of York:
Santa Montefiore and Tara Palmer-Tomkinson:
Miriam Gonzalez:
When Phillip met Isabella. Weekend reading for you from RARE vintage. Read on...
Philip Treacy on Isabella Blow:
"Her fearlessness in an industry that runs on fear is legendary; she was a champion of young creative people without a voice. While she endeavored to work within today's world of corporate fashion cannibalism, her ultimate ethos was a passionate belief that fashion is about the pursuit of beauty, elegance and creativity."
"I was so inspired by the way she wore my hats. She wore them like she was not wearing them - like they happened to be there."
And of Philip, Isabella said, "He's like a cosmetic surgeon for your face. Your face has a different personality for each one you're wearing."
The hats she wore did go beyond normal expectations, bringing to life visions of extraordinary and unexpected detail, whether it was a jewel encrusted lobster for Julian Macdonald's fashion show in 1998,
or a Japanese garden complete with temples and tress for Alexander McQueen.
"Fashion is a vampiric thing. It's the hoover on your brain. That's why I wear the hats, to keep everyone away from me." Isabella Blow
The one Daphne Guiness did not get:
She gave this hat to someone while in the Goa hospital after trying to overdose on sleeping pills and walking into the Indian Ocean.
Isabella's hats in her Entrance hall of her Eaton Square apartment:
This is a wonderful tribute video to Isabella Blow:
Some text and images from Isabella Blow by Martina Rink.
And as Mrs. Archer remarked when the Windsors (oops I mean the Van der Luyens) chose, they knew how to give a lesson. Edith Wharton. The Age of Innocence.
Sarah Burton it is!! Catherine Middleton, about to become Duchess of Cambridge. Lucky girl!! I mean the dress of course!
From the official Royal Wedding website: Miss Catherine Middleton's Wedding Dress has been designed by Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen.
Miss Middleton chose British brand Alexander McQueen for the beauty of its craftsmanship and its respect for traditional workmanship and the technical construction of clothing. Miss Middleton wished for her dress to combine tradition and modernity with the artistic vision that characterises Alexander McQueen's work. Miss Middleton worked closely with Sarah Burton in formulating the design of her dress.
From the Telegraph.co.uk by Hilary Alexander: Ms Middleton stepped out of the vintage Rolls Royce Phantom VI and into the pages of royal and fashion history.
Fabulous, fashionable and fairytale, it featured a high-necked, sculpted long-sleeved bodice in lace which contoured the waist and hips. The long, medieval-style sleeves and ultra-long train enhanced Ms Middleton's regal bearing as she made her way, on the arm of her father, to the Abbey's Great West Door.The design of the long-awaited wedding-dress combined majesty and modernity, royal heritage and romantic history, passion and pageantry.
Underneath the long lace-trimmed veil, Ms. Middleton wore a small pearl and diamond tiara.
The dress featured a lace appliquéd bodice and skirt, along with long lace sleeves and a high lace collar. The lace was hand-made at London’s Royal School of Needlework based at Hampton Court Palace.
The design was appliquéd with individual flowers that were hand cut from lace, and then hand engineered onto ivory silk tulle. The bodice and skirt were made from hand-cut English lace and French Chantilly lace, while ivory and white satin gazar was also used in the body of the dress and its skirts. The ivory satin bodice, narrowed at the waist and padded at the hips, drew on the tradition of Victorian corsetry. The train measured eight feet long.
Middleton also wore a full veil, made from layers of soft ivory silk tulle with a trim of hand-embroidered flowers. The veil was held in place with a Cartier halo tiara, lent to Middleton by Queen Elizabeth. The tiara was made by Cartier in 1936, and was presented to the Queen on her 18th birthday, when she was still Princess Elizabeth.
It was presented to her by her mother, who originally owned the tiara. Middleton wore earrings in the design of diamond-set oak leaves, designed by Robinson Pelham, a gift to Middleton from her parents.
Her shoes were hand-made by the team at Alexander McQueen, in ivory duchesse satin with hand embroidered lace. Middleton’s bouquet, meanwhile, was made up of myrtle, lily of the valley, sweet William and hyacinth.
