Support Women Designers This Christmas

Tom Ford gave a fascinating interview to GQ Magazine last month.  After his husband's death (fashion journalist Richard Buckley) the erstwhile Gucci designer needed to have surgery for a knee injury.  Before the procedure Mr Ford was asked for his emergency contact.  He recalls:  "I literally had no one.  So I put my PA."

The apparently lonely world of Tom Ford always felt more exclusionary than aspirational to me, ever since he became celebrated for his Gucci revamp.  The interview reveals what he expected from the models showing his nineties clothes:  “When you walk down this runway, everyone in this room should want to fuck you. Everyone.”

Amber Valletta in Gucci

Although he adds that he "didn't do that same speech for the last five years, I can't say that to models anymore" it's hard to forget these were also the days when Harvey Weinstein was a celebrated film producer.  A few paragraphs later Ford goes off on a tangent about how to make his manhood look bigger in underwear or clothes.

As much as Tom Ford's fashion aesthetic is memorable, it sounds like he's stuck in a moment.  Another of his accomplishments is to be present at the birth of Kering (the fashion conglomerate he helped build to counter Bernard Arnault's LVMH) which has been in the news recently for having only white male creative directors leading its brands.  Perhaps oblivious to the criticism, Ford explains he's just sold his eponymous company because fashion is "a younger man's game".

Enough of the men already!  I would love a world in which women's fashion routinely is a younger woman's game.  Or older, for that matter.

Hello from New York.  I'm constantly craving new fashion content, and always wish there was more fashion for women by women.  If I'm looking for more, there must be others.

She never gets old or boring

I'm doing my personal expat best to support the female fashion community here in New York City, with regular trips to the INA consignment shops founded by Ina Bernstein,  Tibi's shop in Soho (designed by Amy Smilovic), my local J.Crew (designed by Olympia Gayot),  

It's inspired me to put a Christmas wish list together to support female design in 2023.

Tibi textured Victor slingbacks in gold or silver, here

J.Crew cashmere jumper, here and here

Isabel Marant belt, here or here

Métier handbag, here

Aeyde boots, here

Khaite jeans, here

Completedworks rings, here

Dior jacket, here

lemlem bathing suit, here

Sandy Liang shoes, here

Loquet customisable charm necklace, here

Totême jumper, here

Wales Bonner x Adidas tracksuit and trainers, here

Stella McCartney blazer, here

La DoubleJ plates, here

Lots of love from New York,

xxx Dianne

Floral Dresses and Trainers

During last year's Chelsea Flower Show, the invasion of floral ladies into the neighbourhood annoyed me to no end. Thousands of metres of printed viscose seated at my favourite restaurants in Sloane Square, swarming my tube station and monopolising my cabs.

From a fashion point of view, I wondered why we are all looking exactly the same at a certain age. I had plenty of flowing colourful polyester myself, but after encountering so many women looking so much like everyone else, I embarked on a ruthless spring clean this year.

I was feeling majorly judgmental.

Then last week I had the pleasure of experiencing Jodie Comer's performance in Prima Facie, her one-woman play at the Harold Pinter Theatre. The tickets are all sold out, but there is a line for people seeking unused tickets, so it may still be worth trying if you want to see it.

It's all about judgments. Assumptions, prejudices, dismissals. 

Jodie's barrister character is clever and strong and successful, but when confronted with sexual assault by a friend, her anguish has nowhere to hide.

I took the train home after the play and walked a short cut to my house. It was dark and unsettlingly quiet. I froze for a second wondering if I should walk the long way home. But suddenly I heard chatter and laughter - a group of floral viscose dresses with cheerful red cheeks from corner pub wine twittering in my direction. Of course... the Chelsea Flower show had kicked off again.

One of the ladies in front seemed to notice my moment of doubt, and gave me a comforting smile. I was so grateful for their presence, and immediately all my horrible judgment washed away.

It's kindness that makes a person beautiful, and style simply has nothing to do with that at all.

Teenage Fashion Gambles and Mr Willy van der Kuijlen (Topscorer of all time in the Dutch football league)

                                                                                 RIP Willy van der Kuijlen 
 

This morning I received the sad news of the death of a Dutch hero, Mr Willy van der Kuijlen, a friend of my father's and the top scorer of all time in Holland's football league.

All during my childhood I thought of Willy as the most important man in Holland, who always made everyone happy on football days with his amazing talent.  On other days, I sometimes had the honour of being around Willy and his beautiful family, and it always struck me this famous footballer had such kind eyes - hooded eyes with a soft, shy confidence, possibly not what you'd expect from an athlete with such killer instincts on the field.

Maybe that's what made him one of PSV's most beloved players ever - a once-in-a-lifetime talent magnified by the character of a great human being.

If you read about my youthful fashion dreams in my previous post, you may have concluded I dressed quite conservatively as teenager.

One day, however, I was spending the weekend at my far more adventurous cousin Ine's house.  We were due to go to the kermis, and annual outdoor traveling fairground.  Ine had all sorts of experimental clothes, and in preparation for going we tried on countless exciting combos.  In the end, I decided on a long white eyelet skirt, with pink satin high top trainers, and a bright pink patterned jumper.  My hair was huge and teased and I had clumsily applied far too much blush and lip goop.

I thought I was cooler than Molly Ringwald walking around that fair in Eindhoven, enjoying stares from the people who did not look like a mad peacock. The key to my confidence was in the fact that I didn't live in this town, and anyone who knew me was 30 kilometres south in a little village far far away.

It was great fun pretending to be someone outrageous and daring for an afternoon... until from the corner of my eye I spotted Mrs Nel van der Kuijlen, wife of famous Willy.  I turned around and there was the whole family, including their lovely daughter Wendy, who was a bit younger than I was.

I froze and waited for a moment to speak, then uttered the words I've lost my cousin, and ran in the other direction faster than I had ever run before.  As I thought of that moment this morning upon hearing the news of Willy's death, I wondered whether I ever told my parents about this, or if Mrs Van der Kuijlen had mentioned to my mum she'd seen me looking slightly unrecognisable.

My cousin and I walked home soon after and I turned back into the Dianne with the safe bourgeois clothes.  Not quite ready yet to show off the other, more exuberant personality that was emerging somewhere inside of me.

                                      My dad, Willy's biggest fan, and me at the PSV Stadium for a pre-match dinner.

Rest in Peace, Willy.  Thank you for all the joy you have given to the world.

xxx

Finding Your Style: Is it Even Necessary?

Is this my style?

Andersson Bell jacket, HERE or HERE in a darker colour.

Uniqlo cashmere jumper, no longer in stock, but you probably have a grey jumper already.

J.Crew trousers, HERE.

Isabel Marant Bryce trainers, from last season, HERE is one left, and a blue version HERE, and a website called Fashionette that I do not know, has new versions HERE.

Ray-Ban Caravan sunglasses, HERE.

When I first watched Hedi Slimane's Fall 2020 show for Celine, I had this euphoric feeling that this is exactly who I wanted to be.  I started a cumbersome long post trying to use my own wardrobe to turn myself into a Celine amazon super model.  If you can be bothered, read what I came up with so far.

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For a person who has written a fashion blog for over ten years I have at times been a bit clueless about my style. Ten years in a tropical climate did not help either. Summer clothes are not inspiring to me.

Some years ago a very cool woman described my clothes as bohemian and I thought that was the strangest thing I ever heard - because the only thing I knew for sure was what I did not want to be.

I used to crave a style I thought of as Belgian-girl-from-a-good-family*. My mum and I would regularly travel from Holland to shop in Antwerp, and the well-to-do conservative Belgian girls always appealed to me.  There were a lot of slim knee length coats, inspired by English riding coats, or French redingotes, combined with white shirts, straight leg trousers, patent shoes with buckles and Chanel ballet flats.

The coats had narrow shoulders and very fitted sleeves, and would become slightly fuller from the waist to the knees. Even the Chanel sales assistants wore coats like that as their store uniform.

About two months ago I finally took the time to watch Celine's full Autumn Winter 2020-2021 show and there she was, my Belgian girl... possibly after a detour through New York and London where she picked up an edge, but yes there she was.  Vogue described the collection as seventies French bourgeois, and that matches up pretty closely with my trips to Belgium in the early eighties.

Although I feel I have never consistently stuck to a style, I do know that I've always felt most attractive wearing a blazer or coat with slim trousers over a medium block heel, and seeing this collection has inspired me to finally get my act together and keep this fashion ideal in mind when buying more clothes.

(Until I get seduced by a lavender ball skirt with green ruffles. 

But I'll cross that bridge when I inevitably find myself standing in front of it).

So this is what I have been doing next:

1) I broke down the elements of the Celine looks I liked and picked some clothes out of my wardrobe which matched these characteristics.

Blouses with frills or bows

Short jackets with neat shoulders

Straight leg trousers with the slightest flare

Long sleek skirts or culottes

Demure knee length shirt style dresses

Chanel style jackets and jackets with seventies collars

Peacoats

Tuxedo jackets

Softly pointed western boots or knee high boots

I've been working on this post for a while now, and it's taught me quite a few things about my wardrobe.  It wasn't easy to find the right pieces for copying these looks because I own too many very colourful clothes.  The other problem is the general quality of my clothes.  For most of my life I have bought designer shoes and bags, but for clothes I rely mostly on the high street or mid-range collections. 

I also have far too many clothes stuffed in my wardrobe resulting in everything being wrinkly. To pull off the chic simplicity of the Celine looks above, the clothes needs to be impeccable.  This is going to be harder than I thought.

Here are some of the things I pulled:

Not super promising so far, but in the next step I will be wearing the outfits and taking pictures.

* If you are not from continental Europe or middle aged like me, you may wonder what the hell I am talking about.  Apologies, I know this sounds so antiquated, but when I was growing up "a good family" was a class distinction, a lawyer or conservative business owner possibly, and they would probably dress in slightly boring mostly navy blue clothes. There was a style of clothes in the Dutch early eighties called "college" which was probably similar to that of the British "sloane ranger", and that was my earliest fashion love.

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If you read that you will have seen I mentioned the likelihood of being seduced by a lavender ball skirt and going off course again - well it wasn't exactly a skirt that moved me right off my Celine girl track, it was actually the style chats by fashion brand Tibi's owner Amy Smilovic on Tibi's IGTV channel.

Amy does weekly chats at 2 PM New York time, and she talks about a style she has baptised Creative Pragmatist.

If you have time, do have a look HERE.

I wanted to be that Celine girl, but I'm not a metre eighty, I'm not young, and I am not thin. I also don't have the life for those clothes, nor the discipline needed to wear them - as the pandemic has pointed out to me in a rather harsh way.

The temporary rush of excitement over those glam clothes was useful in the sense that I took a really long hard look at every piece of clothing I owned.  The conclusion that I have way too many printed colourful clothes was long overdue.  I still love many of those things, but without some plainer pieces to balance the whole, it was never easy to get dressed in the morning.

Amy's chats focus not on individual pieces, but on how your clothes should work for you.  Even if you don't adhere to the Creative Pragmatist style she advocates, her advice on proportions, colour combinations, and fabrics is beyond helpful.  I love that she constantly tells the viewer to wear the hell out of your clothes.  I don't know why I had never thought of this but she advises to buy mostly clothes in year-round fabrics like virgin wool mixes.  I had so many winter trousers and blazers in super heavy tweeds, and just as many summer dresses in lightweight linens and voiles.  They were all just hanging there staring at me, too extreme for nine months of the British year.

Wearing the hell out of my clothes after listening to Amy Smilovic's advice.

(Tibi summer blazer in a viscose mix, winterised with a giant scarf)

Tibi blazer, from last summer, similar HERE.

Mango scarf, from last season, similar colour but not that similar HERE.

(I was going for a cool pink and warmer salmon pink mix).

H&M imitation leather skirt, similar HERE, and same style but in black HERE.

Zara ballet flats, HERE.

I shouldn't have focused on a particular style to fix my wardrobe, I should have focused on my personal life needs.  All I have done for the past year is go on long walks, shop for groceries and have outdoors drinks on my roof or the local neighbourhood square with friends (when allowed).

All those things require flat comfortable shoes, yet I was dreaming of high heeled boots and buying Miu Miu crystal embellished heels. 

The Celine dream hit me so hard over my feeble head because I miss my very exciting social life in Hong Kong.  A life full of lunches in glam places, air conditioned malls with easily walkable marble floors. 

Back with both my vaccinated feet firmly on the streets of London, I'm thinking who cares about finding one's style.  I need to find what works for my life.  And if I can combine that with some style and grace while I'm at it, well hallelujah for that.

We women are so tough on ourselves all the time.  It's exhausting!

Embracing life in leggings just because I can.

Zadig & Voltaire coat from last season, one small size left HERE.

J.Crew old cashmere jumper, similar HERE.

Gap leggings, but I am sure you have some black leggings.

Stella McCartney old bag, similar HERE.

Bass loafers, HERE.

Ray-Ban Caravan sunglasses, HERE.

Chelsea Bridge on a sunny evening's walk.

Lots of love from London, 

xxx Dianne

Christmas in Tier 4 London

 

The white cliffs of Dover

Boris desperately wanted his Brexit, and now, before he's even managed to negotiate the final terms, we find ourselves literally cut off from Europe and the world.

Panic is the mood of the day in London with long lines at supermarkets even after half my neighbourhood cleared out on Sunday evening just after the Tier 4 announcement.

The escapees will be merrily spreading their mutant London Covid in the rest of the country, and soon we'll all be toast.

So what do we do?  In my case I dream of fashion and drink.  Or rather I drink and dream of fashion, and very often of California too.

Somewhere between Santa Barbara and San Francisco in July 2016.

One of the outfits I wore on this Californian trip.

The pool at the Oceana Hotel in Santa Monica, 2016.

But just as I enviously imagine friends in the Golden State dipping their toes in azure blue pools, I remember the wildfires this year - and have to accept there aren't many places where one could feel safe in 2020.

In the meantime, let's think of home Christmas outfits just for the hell of it.

Not likely we'll be wearing anything like this Miu Miu or the dress below while sitting on our sofa.

So fashionwise, how can you still feel life is fun and christmassy in Tier 4?

1) A cheap and cheerful printed dress.

The same H&M dress I wore in the last post, HERE

This time with THE best festive indoor shoes from Malone Souliers, HERE

It's wrong to buy cheap fast fashion and throw it out after a few wears.  However, if you buy it because you truly loved it, and if you can imagine wearing it for a long time to come, I think it's okay.  H&M employs a great number of people, and they too have to feed, clothe and educate their kids.

If you know you are buying it just for one Friday night, then you probably shouldn't. That said, here are some pretty dresses I think you could wear for years to come:

Zara dress, find it HERE

Red and pink floral dress by Mango, HERE

Petite dress by New Look on Asos, HERE

2) Pretty flat shoes with some sparkle and shine.

Once you have a festive yet sofa comfortable dress, all you need is some flats with a bit of glam.  These are super pretty:

Giuseppe Zanotti slingback flats, HERE.

Satin flats by Aquazzura, HERE.

Or here are the new Rockstuds with giant studs that I am frankly way too obsessed with for a person living in a Tier 4 lockdown during a worldwide pandemic, HERE.  Divine, I want these so bad. (ly)

I hope you are all well.  If you can, please stay inside as much as you can.  Remember how we managed to control the virus after the March lockdown - it will be worth it in the end.

After all, staying inside is not just meant to keep yourself safe, but more importantly it helps our hero nurses and doctors of the NHS, who put their lives on the line for all of us every single day.

They too have to feed, clothe and educate their children, so let's make sure they are still here after this horrid pandemic is gone.

Much love,

xxx Dianne