Wednesday, 13 April 2011

Audrey Tautou as modern Audrey Hepburn

With luminous hazelnut eyes and endless charm, Audrey Tautou could be our modern Audrey Hepburn.
Hepburn captured the nation’s heart with her acting skills, classy intelligence and European sophisticated looks. No one can ever replace this great actress and her iconic style. However, we can be fascinated by the beauty, charm and mystique of young Audrey Tautou.

Both actresses seem closest when comparing Holly with the mysterious Amelie Poulain from Amelie. Tautou plays a young French girl who lives half in and half out of reality, often imagining alternate realities or wondrous events in her own somewhat mundane life. Like in many of the roles Hepburn played before her, the appearance of a man in her world shakes things up and pulls her out of her sleepy existence.
Both are impulsive, even careless at times; even though they were acting in these films, it is the women behind these roles that brought the depth to these characters. They are very alike, as both have cats they deeply love, both reach out as best they can to the men around them, and both are seemingly strong and headstrong women, who prove to be somewhat fragile in the end.
Both are charming and glamour…

Not so little black dress and modern Hepburn

Saturday, 2 April 2011

Breakfast At Tiffany’s - 50th birthday



Breakfast At Tiffany’s (1961) is undoubtedly a polarised view of New York love and style… Less clear-cut than a modern update and yet, because of this ambiguity, all the more moving. Nearly fifty years on, Holly’s Givenchy fashions are still a talking point. Hubert de Givenchy was well known as being Audrey Hepburn’s favourite designer and she was his muse.
The outfits are distinctly Givenchy: satin, big hats and buttons. However,  Audrey Hepburn bestows distinctly “the touches”, like the tight wrapping and not fastening of her belts. Emphasising her tiny waist, she knew how to spotlight herself on film without altering character or narrative. Clothes are employed as a separate discourse for Holly, like during the party sequence when she wears a white silk wrap and then minutes later changes into a plain black evening gown with upswept hair, huge jewelled necklace and ludicrous cigarette holder, which informs her transformation from lucid and charming to a tipsy man-eater.
Recently designer outfits belonging to Audrey Hepburn went under the hammer in London raising £268,320 with half the proceeds going to charity. A considerable portion of the lots were either Givenchy; frocks, suits and accessories, or Rose Bertin, consisting of slacks, some cute mini-dresses and day wear.




Thursday, 31 March 2011

Trench-mania

The Prince Trech in Polish Elle has had many incarnations...
Gant, Christian Dior, Michael Kors, Tod's, Tommy Hilfiger.





Monday, 28 March 2011

Trench today

Dries Van Notten, Burberry... even H&M





Humphrey Bogart and trench

Invention of the trench coat is claimed by both Burberry and Aquascutum. Thomas Burberry, the inventor of gabardine fabric, submitted a design for an army officer's raincoat to the United Kingdom War Office in 1901, Aquascutum's claim dating back to the 1850s. Then it was developed as an alternative to the heavy serge greatcoats worn by British and French soldiers in the First World War and during the Second World War, officers of the United Kingdom continued to use the trench coat on the battlefield in inclement weather. A typical trench coat by this period was a ten-buttoned, double-breasted long coat made with tan, khaki, beige or black fabric.


Undoubtedly it has remained fashionable in the decades following World War II. Its original role as part of an army officer's uniform lent the trench coat a businesslike respectability, whilst fictional heroes as diverse as the Dick Tracy, Mike Hammer, Jack Harkness and of course Humphrey Bogart's Rick Blaine and Peter Sellers' Inspector Clouseau kept the coat in the public eye….

Wednesday, 9 March 2011

Casablanca



"Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine."
(Humphrey Bogart)

Tuesday, 8 March 2011

PS. Glamorous 10 years - happy birthday!

Happy Birthday the British edition of Glamour!
Cannot it be any more glamourous ... and Happy International Women's Day

L'amour toujours

To love and be loved...
To be passionate...
To inspire and be inspired, by great people and little things...

My little guilty pleasures,
Always, often, or at least sometimes,
Film, fashion, travelling.