Audrey and Mel

Audrey Hepburn and Mel Ferrer in Rome, May 1955.

Forza Azzurri

Forza Azzurri! Best dressed. Who needs actual football attire when you can just play in a Dolce & Gabbana suit.

Pretty Hurts

This song has possibly just converted me into a Beyonce fan. Recently, I heard people talking about a ‘stiletto camp’ that was being run by a beauty pageant, which I found out later was Miss Universe New Zealand. I’m shocked that these competitions still exist. It’s great that there is a little more emphasis on the minds and intellectual thoughts of the entrants than there was before, but there is nothing empowering in beauty pageantry.

Fashion, beautiful clothes, heels, and make-up are all so much fun, and I love them, but not when they start to define us. Of course, intellectualism and physical beauty are not mutually exclusive, but we have to wonder, as women are reaching higher levels of education than ever before, why are we still continuing to rely on and resort to physical beauty? We want respect and equality, but when we support and praise conventional ideals of beauty, what message are we actually sending?

The awful tragedy in Isla Vista last week reveals just how detrimental the idea of ‘perfection’ is when it infiltrates our psyche. It’s astounding that any self-respecting woman would put herself up to be judged and objectified in such a manner, or pay any attention to a competition that has made ‘Keep Calm and Wear a Tiara’ its slogan. A couple of years ago there was also talk of an American company looking to bring child pageantry to NZ. Why any parent would even consider entering their child is beyond me.

And we wonder why insecurity, over-sexualisation, misogyny, eating disorders, and depression continue to plague society. As a nation that became the first to give women the vote, why are we still entering and supporting such ridiculous competitions?

I’m not saying that we should disregard ‘fashion’ altogether, but I think it’s important to be critical of what we are feeding our minds.

Dolce & Gabbana x Magnum

For Magnum's 25th anniversary Dolce & Gabbana have created a Sicilian themed ice cream bar; vanilla ice cream with dark chocolate bits and crushed pistachios, covered in white chocolate. I want it to come to New Zealand so bad! They should also make a cassata flavoured one.

Master of Couture

Valentino Exhibition in London on Euromaxx, Deustche Welle

'Master of Couture is the name of an exhibition in London's Somerset House that is dedicated to Italian fashion designer Valentino.'

Chanel Exhibition

Chanel Exhibition on Euromaxx, Deutsche Welle

The first exhibition ever dedicated to a perfume is for Chanel No. 5, at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris

Paris women finally allowed to wear trousers

Article from BBC

Paris women finally allowed to wear trousers

The French government has overturned a 200-year-old ban on women wearing trousers.

The Minister of Women's Rights, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, said that the ban was incompatible with modern French values and laws.

She said the law, imposed on November 17, 1800, had in effect already been rescinded because of incompatibility.

The move to formally repeal the law followed a parliamentary question asked last year.

According to the law, women needed to have the permission of local police if they wanted to "dress like a man" and wear trousers.

Though it has been ignored for decades, formally it remained on the statute books.

Ms Vallaud-Belkacem said the original law had been intended to prevent women doing certain jobs.

"This order was aimed first of all at limiting the access of women to certain offices or occupations by preventing them from dressing in the manner of men," she said.

It was modified in 1892 and 1909 to allow women to wear trousers if they were "holding a bicycle handlebar or the reins of a horse".

During the French Revolution, Parisian women had requested the right to wear trousers and working-class revolutionaries became known as "sans-culottes" for wearing trousers instead of the silk-knee breeches preferred by the bourgeoisie.

Dior Noël au Printemps

Dior Noël au Printemps - Christmas Windows

One day I will have to return to Paris in December to see all the enchanting window displays.

Vogue

Piazza San Marco, Venezia

Vogue Australia, 1966

Rome by Valentino

Palazzo Mignanelli, Valentino at his atelier, Palazzo Mignanelli in the centre of Rome

In an article for The Telegraph Travel, Italian fashion designer Valentino writes about the city of Rome.

Rome by Valentino

The fashion designer Valentino pays homage to Rome, the Italian city that inspired him.

Valentino Garavani

30 November 2012

'I moved to Rome in 1958. It’s become my city; it’s as if I was born there. I loved it right from the start. One of the things I like most about it is that it’s the perfect passeggiata city — a city you can get the measure of by simply walking around.

Its monuments, its churches, its streets and piazzas and cobbled lanes unroll before you; you’re surrounded by movement and colour. You go to Trastevere and everyone’s talking in broad Roman dialect, as if in a film starring Alberto Sordi about la vecchia Roma. The whole of humanity is here; in the same street you’ll find shopkeepers alongside aristocrats in their grand, crumbling palazzos. This contrast has an incredible charm, and it’s something you don’t find everywhere in Italy.

So I was immediately fascinated by the city. And of course it has a marvellous climate, and a special quality of light. For a fashion designer, Rome is full of inspiration: there’s a special feeling in the light, the colours, the art, the architecture. I don’t know if the warm reds and oranges that we associate with Roman exteriors influenced my famous “rosso Valentino” shade — they may well have done so subconsciously. But one thing that is undeniable is that I’ve always been obsessed by the search for classical beauty. How could it be otherwise, living in a place like Rome?

One thing I love in clothes, and try to reproduce in my work, is sinuosity: by which I mean clothes that caress the body but also move and float with the person who’s wearing them. Rome is full of movement – it’s a very sinuous city. Think of the Roman Baroque: all those curls and curves that you find carved on church facades. If you transport that into a different medium, a lighter medium, you can create marvellous forms.

I’ve always had my main atelier right in the centre of Rome, a stone’s throw from the Spanish Steps. When I arrived from my apprenticeship in Paris, I had a couture house in Via Condotti. When my business partner Giancarlo Giammetti started helping me we moved into an apartment in Via Gregoriana, then a few years later when space got too tight we moved around the corner into the 16th-century Palazzo Mignanelli.

First we took the whole top floor, then the floor below, then the floor below that – until we’d occupied the whole palazzo, which people now call Palazzo Valentino.

I get out and about in Rome less than I used to, but over the 50 years I’ve been there I’ve covered the length and breadth of the city. One street I love is Via Giulia and the lanes and squares that give on to it, like Renaissance-era Piazza Farnese, which is now the French Embassy. It’s such an elegant street, with its aristocratic palazzos and antique shops and boutiques.

Then there are the consular roads of Ancient Rome. My house is on the corner of the Appia Pignatelli and the Appia Antica, which went all the way down to Brindisi. When I moved there, Appia Pignatelli was a country lane; today it’s a busy road encroached on by ugly blocks of flats. But part of the Roman stretch of the Appia Antica is a no-traffic zone, and with its huge, worn paving stones it’s still a fascinating place where you really feel the spirit of Classical Rome. Maybe that’s why Elizabeth Taylor rented a house there when shooting Cleopatra at the Cinecittà film studios. Today it belongs to Franco Zeffirelli; we’re practically next-door neighbours.

I also love the sweeping view of the centro storico from the Gianicolo hill. And of course the Spanish Steps, which are simply extraordinary, with Bernini’s lovely Barcaccia fountain at the bottom.

I suppose all the places I’ve mentioned are very scenographic, sets just waiting for their actors. Which is why the haute couture fashion shows I organised for three years running on the Spanish Steps and in Piazza Mignanelli were so right for the location. The whole area between Via del Babuino and the Spanish Steps was packed with people; there were cameras swooping around on cranes, beautiful girls were making their entrances from piazza doors and gliding up and down the steps. I was proud to give this to Rome. If you think of those Baroque pageants they used to put on in Roman piazzas, it’s not that different.

But the show to end all shows was in 2007 for the 45th anniversary of my life in fashion. The mayor of Rome allowed us to use the Temple of Venus in the Forum, which is usually off limits to everyone but the Pope, who addresses the crowds from there during the Easter Via Crucis procession.

There were fireworks over the Colosseum and an aerial ballet. Dante Ferretti, who has won three Oscars for his production design, did the lighting, and helped build a Chinese pavilion in the Borghese Gardens for a dinner for 700 people. And we staged an unforgettable show in the old pilgrim hospital of Santo Spirito in Sassia, near the Vatican. The three-day extravaganza was my thank-you to the city; I wanted to give something back.

One of my favourite Roman restaurants – a real classic – is Al Moro, near the Trevi Fountain. It was one of Fellini’s favourite places to eat, too; he even gave the former owner a walk-on part in one of his films. I’m not a huge restaurant person – I’m just as happy eating at home or with friends – but when I do go I love these old-fashioned Roman restaurants with old-fashioned service; two others in the same style are Dal Bolognese in Piazza del Popolo and Nino in Via Borgognona, which is just along the road from my atelier.

Romans have always been happy-go-lucky types, good talkers, good eaters and drinkers. They’re more stressed than they used to be – but this is a worldwide thing. At heart, Rome is a vibrant, happy place.'

L'Invitation Au Voyage

Louis Vuitton's campaign video, L'Invitation Au Voyage, stars Arizona Muse and Musee du Louvre

Magic Collant

Magic Collant advertisement for tights that do not run.

This is one of the most ridiculous advertisements I have ever seen. My friend linked this infomercial to me on Facebook for the fact that tights without ladders would be an incredible invention, but also just because the video is all in Italian. Fifteen minutes of hilarity.

500 by Gucci

One of my all time favourite cars is one of the most well-designed small cars ever to be made, the Fiat 500. Last year, for the 150th anniversary of Italy and the 90th anniversary of the fashion house Gucci, Fiat collaborated with the fashion company to create an elegant edition of the Fiat 500, which was first brought onto the market in the 1950's. The design of '500 by Gucci' was inspired by monochromatic films, and will be available in white and black only; along with the green and red detailing of Gucci, the former features chrome plating and a white interior, while the latter will have satin elements and an interior of black and ivory. Creative director Frida Gianinni says of the collaboration, 'When the Fiat 500 first hit the road in the fifties it created a style revolution. Gucci's history has always been about travelling in style so when this collaboration came up, it struck me as the perfect opportunity to create a new modern travel statement.' With the popularity of the 500 by Gucci, the 500C by Gucci was created, a cabriolet version with a convertible soft-top.

 

La Marinière - The Breton Shirt

Audrey Hepburn

La Marinière, also known as the Breton Shirt, is a must-have for any wardrobe. It is simple yet elegant and sophisticated, gracing both fashion runways and the racks of generic clothing stores, but the French icon had very modest beginnings. The contrasting blue and white striped design was first worn as cotton sweaters by the fishermen of the Breton coastline, hence the name. Not only woven tightly to combat the weather conditions out at sea, it was believed that the contrast of the colours made it easier to spot overboard men at sea. On the 27th of March 1858, the Breton Shirt was officiated as the uniform requirement of the French navy. The original design featured twenty-one stripes, one for each of Napoleon's victories.

However, it would be many years before the stripes would enter the fashion world. When walking along the beach in Deauville, Normandy, Coco Chanel saw many local sailors and fisherman wearing the Breton Shirt. Inspired by its purity of style, she adapted the shirt in her own designs of 1917, introducing carefree clothing that was inspired by menswear but tailored for women, freeing them from corsets and excessive decoration. Soon, la Marinière became very popular for both women and men. Synonymous with French chic, the design continues to be a staple look to this very day.

French sailors

Coco Chanel

Audrey Hepburn

Brigitte Bardot

Andy Warhol

James Dean

Kate Middleton

Miranda Kerr

Repetto

Repetto come in many variations of style and in numerous shades of colour

One can never go wrong with ballet flats. They have an ability to be worn with day-wear or evening-wear, dresses and skirts, pants and shorts, they can be casual or formal, dressed-up and dressed-down. 

It is believed that the ballet flat style has been in existence since at least the 16th Century, when it seems men had similar shoes named pompes. Ballet flats were popular with both men and women during the medieval times, but during the 17th and 18th Centuries, the fashion of the ballet flats were overshadowed by the high-heeled shoes; brought into vogue by the two inch heels of Catherine de' Medici's wedding shoes. However, for a time, heels also left the high-fashion scene when Marie Antoinette walked to the guillotine in high-heeled shoes. The appearance of both ballet flats and high-heels were somewhat quiet during the 19th Century; it wasn't until the 1950's that actresses like Audrey Hepburn and Brigitte Bardot popularised the ballet-flat style again.

Perhaps the most famous brand of ballet flats is the French brand Repetto. Rose Repetto founded the company in 1947 after her son Roland Petit, a dancer and choreographer, mentioned the difficulty he had in finding the perfect ballet shoes. Repetto developed their line in 1956, at the request of Brigitte Bardot, to also include la ballerine cendrillon; ballet-slipper styled shoes for street-wear.

The simplicity and the elegance of the ballet flat enhances and suits every figure and every height. Out of any shoe style, it is the ballet flat which I could never do without.

Rose Repetto

Rose Repetto with her son Roland Petit

Brigitte Bardot

Audrey Hepburn

Reliquary

This lid of an Italian pendant reliquary is from the 1350's, made from silver, silver gilt, and enamel. It would have opened to reveal a small personal holy relic. So beautiful.

Oro, granato, e perla.

This vintage Italian pendant is dated back to the 1800's. Gold, garnet, and pearl crosses such as this were popular for women who would wear them around the neck on a ribbon, often with matching earrings.

Italian Family: Dolce & Gabbana

Italian Family the video for the Dolce & Gabbana Spring 2012 campaign, starring Monica Bellucci and Bianca Balti.

Valentino: The Last Emperor

Valentino: The Last Emperor is a documentary directed by Matt Tyrnauer, focused on the life of Italian fashion designer, Valentino Garavani. It follows his career and explores the glamourous fashion world of couture with beautiful behind-the-scenes footage. I've now watched this film three times, and each time have found something different to love. The clothing is magical, and the exclusive access into Valentino's creative and personal domains are unprecedented. He remains one of my favourite, if not the favourite, fashion designer of all time, his style and vision are impeccable.