LAST NIGHTS FASHION AWARDS

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

Me in my Meadham Kirchhoff

Last nights British Fashion awards was an intimate affair held at the Savoy hotel. The awards took place in the Savoy Theatre and we were all cooped up in our finery in tiny seats holding our plastic glasses of Champagne.

Things improved greatly once the awards got underway and Meadham Kirchhoff won best new emerging designer. Spent the rest of the evening feeling pleased with myself that I drummed up the guts to step away from my usual formal evening look - leather trousers, Celine jacket and spike-heeled Kirkwoods - to wear the magnificent red chiffon and lace dress from Meadham Kirchoff's Autumn Winter collection.

This look is a huge leap from my usual formal evening wear. I told my friend Justine Fairgrieve I was channelling an aristocratic woman fallen on hard times who has resurrected and dusted off her finery from various eras. She said she was too. I saw her across the room and she looked like Little Edie.
Jewels were important with this; the neckpiece is late 50s Dior costume jewellery.  

Anyway, wearing this outfit gave a sense of a whole new sartorial chapter opening up.   

Following the awards there was an elegant dinner in the Savoy proper, and it was exquisite from the table settings to the food and company. I was a guest of ASOS, and sat next to the young Canadian designer Thomas Tait. Interesting guy. Then it was a quick scoot with Henry Holland, Erdem, Richard Nicoll, Peter Pilotto, Christopher de Vos, Sarah Mower, Katie Hillier and Charlie Harrington for late night drinks at Soho House.

Fun times.

The most deserving winners on the night were
1. Phoebe Philo for Designer of the Year
2. Husam el Odeh for Emerging Accessories Designer
3. Patrick Grant of E. Tautz for Menswear
4. Mulberry for British Brand
5. Naomi Campbell for Outstanding Achievement
6. Last but NOT at all least the totally brilliant Ben Kirchhoff and Ed Meadham. I don't think they even know how great they are. Hopefully this award will go some way to make them believe it.
Find all the rest of the fun and frolics on Grazia Daily
Photo of me by the ever wonderful Mr Dave Bennett

IN THIS WEEK'S GRAZIA...

Posted by Fashion Junior at Large

...we round up the very chic-est headwear to protect your ears during the cold snap. We've identified the four coolest styles to be seen out and about in, proving that you can be stylish and practical at the same time. Personally I think Paloma wins best headwear for her lovely furry Cossack effort, but decide for yourself in this week's issue.

New Dresses at Kiki's Fashion,Mikocheni,Karibu

Handbags available at Kiki's Fashion

New shoes available at KIki's Fashion

A NEW (old) MUSE: TINA CHOW

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

Tina Chow by Bob Colacello

There are very few well-known women walking around in the world today whose style and modus operandi I genuinely admire. We fill our magazines up with celebrities who gad around in lovely clothes, and I happily share that information with our readers. For me personally, though, I find fashion inspiration wanting from today's crop of young style icons.

Tina Chow with Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol by Bob Colacello

I admire Alexa Chung's style; its cute and boyish and young. But where does it go from here? Can Alexa move it on? Kate Moss was someone who I once felt could do no wrong in the area of personal style, but she has, seemingly happily stagnated around a pair of grey skinny jeans, Alaia ballet pumps, and an old fox fur. Not to mention her increasing dalliances with peroxide.

Tina Chow by Andy Warhol

In the last few months I've been finding myself being drawn to iconic women from days gone by. One of them is Tina Chow, a beautiful former model who, through marriage to restauranteur Michael Chow became a fashion icon in New York during the 70s and 80s, as well known for her simple elegance and beauty as she was for her charm and ability to make people feel special. Tina was from Cleveland, Ohio the daughter of a german father and japanese mother and the Eurasian clash resulted in startling green eyes and an impish face that could be as boyish as it was beautiful, especially in conjunction with her signature crop.  Most people assumed she was chinese.

Eventually Tina became a couture collector  She had the best: Mariano Fortuny, Alix, Elsa Schiaparelli, Cristobal Balenciaga. She called her collection a "mad passion". She also said that "dedication and the pursuit of craft with integrity are the only values of life and cloth".  I couldn't agree more with that approach.

Tina Chow and the Kyoto bracelet

Her love of jewellery - she was rarely seen without an armful of Chanel or Cartier - led her to design her own and she created simple and instantly iconic work which today are collectors items. If you know me well and are reading this there is a Christmas hint in there.

After the Vuitton show in Paris I knew that Marc must have be having a Tina Chow moment too.

Backstage at Vuitton by Jason Lloyd Evans And the Tina-alike is wearing MY suit!

Tina with her husband Michael Chow

There is a sad end to the Tina Chow story. Following a separation from her husband, she embarked on a couple of affairs - apparently Richard Gere was a lover - which led to Tina contracting HIV, and in 1992 she died of an AIDS related illness at her home in California. She was only 41. Tina was one of the first heterosexual women in the public eye to be open about her HIV status, and her story was told by the New Yorker with an indepth profile by Michael Gross.

Tina Chow by David Seidner

To see more of Tina Chow's jewellery go to http://www.rarevintage.blogspot.com/

TOM FORD DEBUT: WOW, JUST WOW

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

If there is one happening I wished I'd attended last fashion week it was Tom Ford's debut own label womenswear show held in New York. Sadly, I didn't make the cut of the 80 most important fashion editors in the world, and was denied the thrill of seeing Beyonce on the runway. Still, there is always next season.

The irony is not lost on me or anyone else in the luxury fashion business that Tom Ford timed the release of his images in print and online (they hit the web in a big way today, courtesy of Harpers Bazaar and the Daily Telegraph), to minimise the possibility of the clothes being copied by the high street.

There wasn't even a chance for a sneaky peek at the clothes in advance of the publication of the images shown here because Ford banned the audience from taking pictures. Ford's closed door approach to publicising his collection is the opposite to Marc Jacobs, who welcomes all comers. Marc Jacobs Spring/Summer 2011 collection is the most copied by the British high street, a fact I am sure he loves.  Tom Ford on the other hand is making super-expensive dresses for very wealthy women, and tightly controlling how and where we see the work, exactly how it worked in the old days of Haute Couture.

 He explained his thinking to US Vogue: "I do not understand everyone's need to see everything online the day after a show. I don't think it ultimately serves the customer, which is the whole point of my business--not to serve journalists or the fashion system. To put something out that's going to be in a store in six months, and to see it on a starlet, ranked in US magazine next week? My customer doesn't want to wear the same thing she saw on a starlet!"

Hmm. Wonder if he has a list of people he won't sell to?

Or Or maybe the animal print suit?

Tom Ford has really taken his time to build his own brand. First scent. Then sunglasses. Next some verrry high end menswear, and finally...finally he asks his friends Beyonce, Lauren Hutton and Daphne Guinness as well as woman supermodels to walk in a salon show which he comperes like a beauty pageant caller.

'It’s about individuality. Real clothes, real women. For a fashionable woman aged 25 to 75. That’s why I literally put many of my own muses in the show. I hear them say, "God, I can’t find that anywhere!"

‘There used to be a look for women who were older,' he told Harpers Bazaar, published next week. 'You didn’t wear certain things, you did your hair a certain way – but today, 70-year-old women who keep themselves together want to look just like their 25 [year-old] counterpart."

'I want this to be somewhere a woman knows she can go when she wants a great jacket—not a fake expensive jacket, something that has intrinsic value.

'I don’t think fashion has to change every five minutes. I’d like these to be clothes you can wear for a long time—ten, 20 years; pass on to your daughter. Why buy vintage when you can open your own closet!'


I say why buy Tom Ford when you can buy vintage?
My favourites are the animal print trouser suit and the sequin jacket and pendant on Stella Tennant.

All quotes from US Vogue/Harpers Bazaar UK.