Just come back from dipping into London Fashion Week, where I saw Kinder Aggugini's show, which was inspired by Juliette Récamier,an elegant icon of French neoclassicism who married a rich banker (he also happened to be her natural father, according to rumour) and entertained tout le Paris at her literary salon. She left a formidable reputation, and a legacy of lovely portraits.
Anyway, Kinder's show included a beautifully draped full length black Empire-line evening gown that looked suitably Napoleonic (although as it happens, Napoleon was said to have disapproved of Madame Recamier). I wasn't sitting close enough to see the shoes on the catwalk, but have discovered a picture (above) of her beautiful pale lavender coloured slippers... (Très chic, non?)
Elsewhere at London Fashion Week today: antlers and fox ears on the models' heads at Topshop Unique (wild women in sheepskins? Some sort of metaphor here?); also a great many woolly legwarmers, furry gilets and a squirrel jumper, but not much in the way of cocktail dresses, so if one subscribes to the view that fashion is an indicator of economic trends, then perhaps Topshop was suggesting that the chill winds of recession are still whipping at our necks. Meanwhile, the PM's wife Sarah Brown was wearing what I think was an M&S jumper, for which I commend her.
I've just come home, and it seems to me that the time has come for Horlicks and ginger biscuits, accessorised with my ancient pink paisley eiderdown (bliss...)
11 comments:
All that fur and wool makes me so uncomfortable as it is so hot here. Those lovely shoes are indeed gorgeous. I feel that we are being hoodwinked by designers.My stylish friend says wear simple plain clothes with a gorgeous scarf or jewellery and have a great hair cut. What are you reading ? I reread Mrs Harris and loved it and then reread The Snow Goose.
The Snow Goose always makes me cry. It's so cold here -- sleeting again -- so we need lots of layers of wool.
As for reading: well, prompted by Kinder's fashion show, I've just been reading about Madame Recamier. And I think I should re-read Nancy Mitford on Madame de Pompadour.
If those shoes could talk.....
I love Nancy Mitford's writing. I would have loved to have known her, although I am sure I would have been classed as hopelessly non-U!
I'm one of 4 girls and a boy, whereas she was one of 5 girls and a boy (although Tom died young) and I am fascinated by the dynamics of the family that produced so many strong yet wildly differing female characters.
Must go, my fluffy socks are calling me..
It is sunny and warm here in Seattle - I have shed my sleeping-bag coat and am going about in a cardigan.
I love those lavender slippers. The modern-day equivalent would be a pair of Lanvin satin ballet flats, perhaps.
I think I have the Mitford on Madame de Pompadour somewhere. You mentioned it before, I believe.
BTW Did you know those classical Empire tunics and ballet slippers were a consequence of Emma Hamilton's "Attitudes"? She designed tunics to pose in so that she looked like a classical statue and of course, wore dancing slippers. She also wrapped her hair in a scarf and the whole outfit was so outre and chic that it took Europe by storm and became the Regency style we are so familiar with.
I went back and looked at the Aggugini show, and immediately wanted just about everything on that runway, especially the short dresses (more suitable for my life than the long ones), and the black coat with the red-lined pockets. Want, want, want.
I love the sheepskin look. Yesterday in the Times magazine there was a picture of Angie Best in a beautiful shearling jacket I was coveting whilst flicking through the Boden catalogue full of impossibly summery things which will only get a three week window on wear sometime in July! So I am sticking to the layers, polo necks and today a lovely Primark roll neck. As for reading I have started To the Lighthouse in an attempt to bring on the summer.
Talking of Nancy Mitford, by coincidence she was last week's featured author on the Radio Four panel show "The Write Stuff", where one of the challenges the guest writers were set was to come up with a passage in the style of Nancy Mitford about the very non-U world of Irvine Welsh. Some of them were very good. The link is as follows - not sure how long it will be available for:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00qpq1x/The_Write_Stuff_Series_9_Nancy_Mitford/
Sadly the regular panellist Sebastian Faulks, who is always particularly good at these witty pastiches, is not there this season. Come to think of it, Justine, can we look forward to you as a guest sometime?
Lazywell, thanks for the link -- and I recommend it to Mitford fans everywhere.
Good faux sheepskin and shearling at Topshop Unique show -- there were jerkins and coats that I'd very much like to wear now, as it's freezing outside, but they won't be available for ages. And Kinder's clothes are tremendously covetable -- I love the splashes of red, and the immaculate tailoring. Far too expensive for me, sadly... Ditto the Lanvin ballet slippers, which are indisputably lovely.
V. interested to hear about Emma Hamilton -- to use a (ghastly) fashion phrase, who knew?
Justine - my info came from the Kate Williams bio "England's Mistress." Many influential ladies attended Emma's "performances" of the classical attitudes of ancient statues and they copied her.
I wanted to go see the Kinder Aggugini's show, but I could no to go and some of my friends that went told me it was rather cool. I had to go to a Sildenafil presentation and I missed my chance
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