Friday 3 September 2010

Wearing another hat...


Here is the new Telegraph fashion website, where you can read my weekly column, The Closet Thinker. Here's one I wrote earlier... I wish I could show you a picture of Charlotte Bronte's ring, but it vanished into a bag of swag (the ring, that is; hence the invisibility of it now).
Meanwhile, have been filming at home today, talking about different aspects of Coco Chanel -- the story behind the book, the view from my bedroom (hope it doesn't look too messy). Will post when the film is finished, but in the meantime, can I offer a small suggestion (hint hint) about the benefits of ordering early on amazon? There is a very special, limited edition book bag for those who pre-order... I can say no more, but truly, it is really rather lovely.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

You had me at "limited edition book bag".

Jeanne Henriques said...

I am off to Amazon as I have been quietly waiting for your next book.
So glad it is nearly here!

Justine Picardie said...

Glad to hear it. The bag is really nice -- it might even qualify as a collector's item...

Unknown said...

I just placed my order... I am so excited!

Justine Picardie said...

Thank you! It's really exciting as a writer, knowing that people are going to read one's book, and give it a life of its own in the world.

kairu said...

Ooh, now I am even more excited to get my own copy of Coco Chanel. And your Telegraph columns are very timely, as I'm off to a wedding this afternoon! Wearing a soft black shift, belted low on the hips, with a purple Dries van Noten scarf patterned with white sequins. The silhouette is a bit 20's, as the theme for the wedding is Roaring Twenties, the brides in vintage beaded flapper dresses rented from a costumer's. And last summer's lightweight navy trench to ward off the chill...

enid said...

Amazon won't post books to SA I feel so sad as I sooooooooooooooo want the book and the bag

GlassCurls said...

I echo Amy's sentiments!

Rings are an important part of my jewellery too. I own a lot of necklaces and dangly things, but very few rings. Like you, they all have a story behind them (although not as exciting as Russian ancestresses). My most cherished is the Alexandrite that belonged to my maternal grandmother which I covted for years before my mother finally gave in, because as I pointed out, she never wore it.

I've just returned from a wedding (where I was a bridesmaid), and the bride wore her engagement ring as her 'something blue', so now it's even more special than it was before.

kairu said...

I love rings and earrings, although my most cherished pieces are my parents' watches from the 70's.

Justine, your aviator jacket column was very timely, as a friend dressed as Amelia Earhart for our friends' wedding yesterday! Complete w/baggy-seated pants, knee-high laced boots, leather jacket, and fur-lined cap AND goggles w/fur trim. She won "most authentic costume." It was a very low-key wedding in terms of decor and other trappings of formality, but we were in a field surrounded by blackberry brambles, Madrona trees, and in the distance, the open Puget Sound and the mountains beyond. There were wildflowers in vintage tins and beautiful women in beaded flapper dresses, like dazzling butterflies with ropes of rhinestones and feathered headbands. Some men and several women opted for fedoras and pin-striped zoot suits, and the rest of us were just in our gladdest rags.

Justine Picardie said...

What lovely clothes and jewels are appearing here -- Dries van Noten, Alexandrite (just had to look that one up, as I'd never come across it before).
First extract of Coco appeared in the Sunday Telegraph today. V. sorry to hear amazon won't dispatch to South Africa; we must find a way of getting to book and the bag to Enid...

jaywalker said...

And I've ordered mine. Amazon posts to Oz so it's strange that they don't to SA. I'm addicted to amazon.uk as the exchange rate to here is currently so good and books and DVDs are cheaper in the UK anyway so I end up paying much less than in the shops here. I just received a 2nd hand copy of A Passionate Woman, the biography of E Nesbit which I was inspired to order by having seen a very old TV documentary of her life. An amazing woman for her era.

Lilacs said...

ordered. waiting. impatient.

Justine Picardie said...

E. Nesbit -- v. intriguing woman (I wrote a long piece about her last year, which I posted here: http://justine-picardie.blogspot.com/2008/12/enesbit.html). And the biography of her by Julia Briggs is excellent.
Just back from the (real life) launch of the Telegraph fashion website. I spent quite a lot of time talking to people about the importance of blogs. I wonder if readers feel more attached to a blog if they discover it for themselves, or whether it helps to be under the umbrella of a bigger website (like the New York Times or Vogue)? What does everyone here think? There's something intimate about writing this kind of blog -- it has its own secret inner life, floating in the vast aether of the outer blogosphere -- but I wonder if is it harder to discover than if it were somewhere more obvious?

kairu said...

I am not sure how I discovered you, Justine, whether it was through Blogger's Blogs of Note function or a link elsewhere. I know many of the blogs I read for a while, back then, came from Blogs of Note. Now I find new blogs through people I meet on Twitter, which I discovered about a year and a half ago and which has changed my life in ways I can't begin to explain. That's a topic for another time.

When you have a blog that is away from the "umbrella" of a bigger publication, there is more of a sense of intimacy, of that secret feeling that someone is opening their heart and mind to you. That the blog is something personal, done with love, and not a corporate shill. This is what blogging is about for me: expressing love for something - food, literature, art, a beautiful moment in life - not making money. About creating dialogue, which you do so well here.

jaywalker said...

Yes, completely agree with kairu. I found it through googling "Daphne" after I read it.

Justine Picardie said...

Thanks for the responses -- so wise, as always! Just about to post the first extract of Coco -- it's a very cut and edited version from the Sunday Telegraph, but you will get the beginnings of an idea about the book...