Best Dressed at the Oscars

The Academy Awards Red Carpet last night was filled with beautifully dressed stars, from archival Valentino to fresh Armani. Let's start with the beautiful co-host, Anne Hathaway, who wore a red floor-length archival Valentino dress from 1981. She paired it with bright red lipstick, a loose chignon, and a diamond necklace from Tiffany & Co. Then there was Cate Blanchett, a beautiful and talented woman with taste as well. She wore a pale pink Givenchy gown that looked like it could have come straight off the runway. It was original and different from anything else on the red carpet, and still very classy.

Academy Award Winner for Best Actress and Mommy-to-be, Natalie Portman, looked radiant in her deep purple Rodarte gown paired with Tiffany jewels. And her supporting actress in Black Swan, Mila Kunis, wore an elegant light purple gown with delicate lace detail and a plunging neckline by Elie Saab.

And last, but certainly not least, Reese Witherspoon wearing a simple, yet classy black and white dress by Armani Prive. Long and elegant, it reminds me of the simplicity of fashion in the 1960s, which, as you know, is my favorite era of fashion.

My Favorite Era of Fashion

Everyone has a favorite fashion era.  Some may like the flapper styles of the 1920s, others the neon colors of the 1980s, but, personally, I like the color blocks of the 1960s.  Think Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's, standing in front of the store window wearing a simple black dress, a pearl necklace, black elbow-length gloves, large black sunglasses, a high bun in her hair, and a coffee and pastry in her hands.  Think Twiggy, with her short blond hair and big eyelashes, wearing a white babydoll dress and knee-high socks.  Or think Jackie Kennedy, First Lady to the United States of America, style icon to the women of America, and the epitome of what we now think of as American Sportswear.  And let us not forget about the fringe-bearing, tye-dye clad, and peace oriented hippies.  They were the inspiration for the hippie fashion that recently rose up yet again, complete with headbands and peace signs galore.
 
My second favorite era would have to be the 1980s, but I'll save that for another time...

Love?

With Valentine's Day a week behind us, you would think that love would be far behind us as well. But I still find it lurking in the corners, jumping out in Vogue and my weekly horoscope telling me to either commit or run for the hills of independence. But why do I have to choose between one or the other?

It's like a clothing item, let's say a jacket. Most of us have many different kinds of jackets, a trench coat, a blazer, a pea coat, a hoodie. I like all of them, so why would I choose to commit to just one? I'm not going to wear a trench coat in the summer or a blazer with my sweatpants. And if I "run for the hills of independence," does that mean I swear off jackets completely? It's February, it's cold, and there's no way I'm walking around without a jacket. There has got to be some kind of in between where you can wear whatever jacket you like whenever you want to wear it. But then the question is: can I treat love this way?

Maybe you don't have to either commit or run for the hills; love isn't that easy. Make too rash of a decision and you could end up with the wrong jacket or no jacket at all.

An Ode to the Blazer

I sadly lost my Michael Kors blazer this weekend.  Tears filled my eyes as I realized it must have slipped off my bag on my walk home Friday night.  It was black, it had three-quarter length sleeves, and it was absolutely gorgeous.  My favorite clothing item is gone and I don't know how I will go on.  I searched the streets but had no luck.  Now some fortunate other person is enjoying my beauteous blazer.  To all of you that still have your blazers, hold on to them tightly.  Cherish them.  Love them.

Oh sweet blazer I loved you deeply, and I hope your new owner will care more for your safety than I.

Oh the memories....

My blazer and I at the Thames River Festival in London

There we are with friends in Canterbury

And there we are with Italian Elle and a bottle of wine in Milan

Vivienne

Vivienne Westwood.  A name that every girl should know.  She and Malcolm McLaren began their career in the '70s by opening their shop, Let It Rock, at 430 Kings Road in London in 1971.  Back then, Westwood and McLaren were the epitome of Punk Rock, literally.  They designed the leather- and zipper-clad outfits for the Sex Pistols in 1976, which the media named Punk Rock.  Once the style became mainstream, Westwood was out.  In 1981, she and McLaren debuted the Pirate Collection at their first catwalk.  For this collection Westwood researched into the historical dress of pirates, and based her designs off of this.  She developed ethnic cutting techniques based on rectangles that was different from anything anyone had seen before.

The image quality isn't great, but it gives you an idea

In 1987, her Harris Tweed collection was inspired by a little girl she saw on the Tube, wearing a bun in her hair, a Harris Tweed jacket, and a bag with ballet shoes in it.  This collection was Westwood's break from punks and into designing clothes that parodied the upper class.  She began to pick models who had hips and boobs, unlike the stick-thin models we see today.

This is from another collection, Voyage to Cythera, in 1989

From there she continued to design with an historical inspiration, combining the fine tailoring of the English and the design and proportions of the French.  She continued to embellish the models' figures, making the ultimate hourglass figure by padding busts and bustles and even using wire cages underneath the clothes.

More recently, Westwood has put historicism aside and focused on a more asexual cut, exploring the dynamics of the fabric.  She designed the wedding dress that Sarah Jessica Parker wore in the Sex and the City movie.