Marant for Huh and Muh

Yes, it's going to be a total bun fight. Yes you should probably start camping outside. Yes, you'll probably get a sharp, fashionista elbow to the face but get ready because it's nearly here - Isabel Marant for H&M. From a first look at the pictures over at Vogue, the collection does not disappoint although I will be interested in the quality of the pieces, previous collections (I'm talking about YOU Margiela) have really disappointed in that area.  'I am creating something real, that women want to wear in their everyday lives, with a certain carelessness, which I think is very Parisian,' Ms Marant said in a statement when the collaboration was first announced.

WANT - of course it's one of the most expensive pieces!

In the lookbook, I for one was very pleased to see the beautiful face of  Alek Wek again - a model who has been less on the scene of late.  Accompanied by Lou Doillon, Milla Jovovich and Constance Jablonski the models lounge in pieces that echo Marant's Parisian bohemian aesthetic perfectly. An embellished trophy jacket is worn with leather cropped trousers; a loose peasant top with printed jeans; and mannish outerwear with white trousers and slouchy boots with fringed detailing.

It's landing in stores on November 14. Forget doing it online, the website crashes EVERY time one of these collections launches. Go and get in the queue.

Breakfast With Charles

"Dinner parties are mere formalities. You invite a man to dinner because you must; but you invite a man to breakfast because you want to see him"

Is there anything more lovely than getting to stuff your face lazily on a Sunday morning? A dear friend of mine has been running a fantastic breakfast club for a few months and now, it's hitting the big time! Below are a few images of previous BWC delicacies. Tomorrow I shall be snaffling down a delicious menu of breakfast bites and cocktails at rooftop location somewhere near London Bridge at his new pop-up venture. Unfortunately all the spaces are now taken but like the Facebook page, join the mailing list and keep your ear to the ground for future pop-ups. Breakfast just got serious.

Light and Fluffy Wholegrain Blueberry Pancakes with Grilled Figs, Caramelised Cherries, Plum Compote and "Maple Syruped" Creme Fraiche.

Chorizo with Roasted Sweet Potatoes, Yellow Courgettes and Cherry Tomatoes, the "Perfect" Egg with Paprika and a Roasted Red Pepper Puree

Eggs Royale with Gravadlax and Smoked Salmon

The Blow Show

She was the muse and fashion stylist who inspired a generation of British designers, now a new exhibition is to chronicle the life - and wardrobe - of Isabella Blow, from her childhood at her family's estate in Cheshire to her suicide in 2007.

The show will feature more than 100 items of clothing and accessories owned by Blow, who is credited with discovering Sophie Dahl and the late Alexander McQueen.  The collection includes pieces by McQueen as well as Blow's wedding headdress, designed by milliner Philip Treacy while he was a student at The Royal College of Art.

They were bought by Daphne Guinness, the heiress and socialite, after Blow's death at the age of 48.
Blow, who was unable to have children with her husband, art dealer Detmar Blow, and was later diagnosed with ovarian cancer, had suffered from depression.

Miss Guinness is mounting the exhibition at Somerset House in London with the Isabella Blow Foundation and Central Saint Martins art college. She said the show was "bittersweet" but that she was putting it on for a "dear friend, in the hope that her legacy may continue to aid and inspire generations of designers to come".
"Isabella Blow made our world more vivid, trailing colour with every pace she took. It is a sorrier place for her absence," she said.
"When I visited her beloved clothes in a storage room in South Kensington, it seemed quite clear the collection would be of immense value to a great many people. I do believe that in choosing to exhibit them we've done the right thing - and that it is what she would have wanted."

Born Isabella Delves Broughton, Blow's father Sir Evelyn Delves Broughton was an Army major and her mother Helen Shore, a barrister. In the Eighties she worked in America as an assistant to Anna Wintour, the editor of Vogue, before returning to the UK to work at Tatler magazine and then British Vogue.

As part of the exhibition, mannequins will be dressed in outfits worn by Blow. Stylists have studied archived photographs to recreate her look, which often included a McQueen outfit, Treacy hat and Manolo Blahnik shoes.

Isabella Blow: Fashion Galore! runs from November 20 to March 2, 2014.

Mademoiselle C - review

For anyone who watched “The September Issue” and loved the romanticism of Grace Coddington more than the business of being Anna Wintour, the just-released Mademoiselle C will be of interest. I would be lying if I said that I enjoyed it as much as the professional tussle between Anna and Grace but Carine Roitfield has always seemed something of an enigma and I was intrigued to know if we would actually get a proper glimpse into her life.

What we get is a pulsating 90 minutes into the rarefied world of Carine – former editor-in-chief of French Vogue, muse to Tom Ford, and as she calls herself, “queen of porno chic”. Director Fabien Constant chronicles the period between 2011 and 2012 as Roitfeld creates and launches her highly anticipated CR Fashion Book..an item which I did not move fast enough to get my hands on, grrrrr.

Constant, the mastermind behind the riveting Marc Jacobs & Louis Vuitton documentary and Sundance Channel’s “The Day Before” series, was given open access to both the professional and personal life of Roitfeld and the quiet, voyeuristic style he employed in his previous work comes across here in a big way. Whereas many fashion docs feature a series of talking heads interspersed with live footage, Mademoiselle C plays as if Roitfeld had invited you to join her group of style bandits in their quest for the fashion dreamworld – photographers, models, fashion designers, staff, and even family. As she prepares to “give birth” to the publication, her daughter Julia is also preparing to give birth to her first grandchild, we even get a sneak look at THAT famous pregnancy photo shoot. The idea of rebirth is alluded to often in both the film and the magazine, from a Bruce Weber photo shoot with model Kate Upton clutching baby chicks to her not insubstantial bosom, to a Tom Ford directed fairy-tale version of Sleeping Beauty complete with his actually housekeeper dragged into a starring role! Besides Ford, Roitfeld supporters Karl Lagerfeld and Givenchy’s Riccardo Tisci make memorable appearances – one that particularly stands out is a scene of Lagerfeld pushing a stroller containing Roitfeld’s new granddaughter, Romy. For me that was worth the price of the ticket alone - Kaiser Karl's version of Daddy Daycare - his comment on the newborn by the way, "She doesn't have much conversation yet does she?"

“Mademoiselle C” captures the excitement and relentless of Roitfeld’s world – escorting Tisci to the Met Ball, producing a black-wardrobe only fashion show for the amfAR Gala at Cannes, taking private ballet lessons, OUCH – but it also portrays the less glamorous side of the publishing industry. Editors will appreciate the moment before launch when CR Fashion Book business partner and design director Steven Gan informs the team they are six pages over and the decision comes down to cutting words or images. The viewer never finds out what happens and I wanted more.  Also during a crisis where the model for that night’s couture shoot has unexpectedly been called to Poland, Constant fixes his camera on the publication’s fashion editor, who works her phones for a solution while Roitfeld calmly sips her espresso and waits. These moments, as ordinary as they might seem, actually provide a more humanistic dimension to fashion publishing – something often missing from “The September Issue” or “The Devil Wears Prada.” Roitfeld always appears calm, gracious, warm, completely unconcerned with commerce – and refreshing although I did feel for her assistant trying desperately to fix a variety of problems. Perhaps it is easier to stay calm when one has a dedicated minion to hand?

As Roitfeld says in the beginning of the film, French Vogue was her “crown.” What comes next is entirely up to her. Lucky for me, through this film, I got to go along for a bit of the ride.