Warehouse - Loving The Prints

I grew out of Warehouse clothing, (literally - an increasing bust size does that for you), a good few years ago.  But they have consistently produced some interesting garments that are both edgy and yet glamorous.  Using silks and linens in the summer and wools and satins in the winter, they provide glamorous seasonal fabrics to young, co-ordinated women.  This season they have experimented with different collections within their stores.

Walking into Warehouse this week, I was struck by the brilliant prints of their "Wonderland" collection. The Swallow blouse (left) and the floral waterfall shift dress (right) are especially nice.  Very Erdem!  If you're looking for a little bit of vintage style, but not from a charity shop, then I would recommend these. Find them at: http://www.warehouse.co.uk/

Kate Middleton - The Myths Begin

The wait is over.  'Waity Katie' has bagged her prince.  Waity Katie? Is this too harsh?  Not really.  Would you wait for over eight years for your boyfriend to propose? Especially if he had dumped you at some point in the middle?  Well, you might do, if you were going to be made a Princess and in all probability, a Queen.  But it is not this that bothers me about the couples engagement.  It is the media's obsession with headlines, bylines and name tags that astounds me.
Several journalists have started dubbing Kate Middleton as a "fashion icon".  This is blatantly untrue. As is a number of other 'claims' in the media. Let's look at just a few of these...

Claim 1. "Kate is a fashion icon" - No, she's not.  We haven't all gone mad to wear what she has worn over the last 8 years. If she becomes a fashion or any other kind of icon, (a possibility over time), then that will be because we have bought into her style.  This hasn't happened as yet.  I suspect it will though. Business is business.

Claim 2. "Kate is the new People's Princess" - No, she's not.  That position, if it is one, has to be earned. She has done nothing to earn this so called acolade. She is middle class, so not aristocracy like Lady Diana Spencer.  Kate found work through a friend of the family, as did Diana, and now Kate 'works' for her own family firm.  This is nothing like the experience of job hunting for the majority of the 'people' in the UK. Most of whom have had to go through copious amounts of letter and CV/Resume writing and a rigorous interview process, before holding down the said job for years.  And all this without the cushion of a wealthy family behind them. But this is not the reason why Diana was called the People's Princess. It was because of her affinity with the public and her spearheading certain causes that were overlooked by the rest of the Royal Family.
But Kate doesn't champion the needy - purely because she hasn't had to and has never been asked to. Let's see what causes she chooses to support first, before we give her a populist title.
 
Claim 3. "Kate has had the same pressure from the tabloids and paparazzi as Lady Diana Spencer had" - Not quite. Kate has had it for longer. Diana had it for 6 months.  But Kate had help from the Buckingham Palace Press Office and a team of advisers. Not to mention her own personal bodyguard and legal team. Diana had none of this. She had no help or advice from anyone professional or official before she was engaged.

Claim 4. "Kate is just like Diana and is her natural successor" - Blatantly untrue. It is pointless to claim this and it's quite damaging to Kate.  There will never be another Diana. There were, however, some similarities  between them, that I spotted during the engagement interview.  Her choice of words for example, such as "daunting", were ones used by Diana on her engagement.  But this is to be expected perhaps. It IS daunting!

Clearly there will be more myths to dispel as the weeks and months go on. But from what I saw yesterday, a few questions were answered. Here was a woman who knew her own mind, who was not going to bow down for her prince, who was not happy that they split up a few years ago (THAT tells its own story), and had wondered if marriage had actually been in William's mind at all.  Consequently, with all the easy rhetoric used by the media, there is only one tag that does seem to be extraordinarily accurate.  Waity Katie indeed.

Carven - Architecturally Sound

Carmen de Tommaso was a French couturier who founded the house of Carven in 1945 at the age of 36.  Petite, at just over 5 feet tall, she continued to design until she was 84.  Last year, she celebrated her 100th birthday with a party, the invitation list reading as a 'who's who' of the fashion elite.

Dressing European royalty, Hollywood actresses and the chic inhabitants of Paris, her business grew steadily over the decades.  She excelled at making the diminutive look tall and elegant and brought an innovative thread to the French fashion scene. 

Her designs featured architectural prints, including some using trompe l'oeil, the art of making an image appear three dimensionally.  No doubt, these ideas came from Madame Carven's background of study in interior design and architecture. 

But it is this inventive streak and other Carven signatures, that have been recreated by the House's current creative director, Guillaume Henry.  Spring Summer 2011 is shaping up to be as statuesque as Madame Carven herself.