Erdem Wins the BFC / Vogue Designer Fashion Fund

Ok so I'm being really naughty here since I'm really supposed to be compiling our annual It Guide to the hottest places to be / things to do etc, but I'm just so excited (I just can't hide it) and I wanted to share! Half Turkish, half Brit designer Erdem Moralioglu has just been announced as the very first winner of the Vogue / British Fashion Council Fashion Fund prize, which gives him GBP 200,000 (much needed for a young up-and-coming designer like him) and "access to direct level mentors across the industry", although I'm not entirely sure what that bit means. Either way, it's sure to bring him much attention and the added credentials won't hurt either.

He beat out some incredibly stiff competition, fighting off the likes of Nicholas Kirkwood and Marios Schwab for the title. I'm so pleased he won because to me this marks the triumph of beautiful, well tailored clothes that can be both otherworldly and inherently wearable at the same time. I say this with no exaggeration - every time I see someone wearing Erdem, my breath catches a hitch. His clothes have this way of making a statement for the wearer without swallowing them up or allowing them to hide behind them. It's the sort of beauty that enhances, not conceals, and I aim to one day have a few pieces by Erdem hanging in my wardrobe.

Oh, and click here for a lovely piece in The Telegraph on Erdem's (much deserved) growing popularity.

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The Marquess of Dreams - Marchesa Fall / Winter 2010

I know it's been a while since I've posted on here - this is mainly because I've been practically incapable of doing anything productive since I got back from Malaysia a week ago and partly because all potential subsequent posts after the last one just seemed too frivolous for me to not be a little embarassed about having them up here.

Still, New York Fashion Week has been raging forth in full force, although I must admit that I haven't followed each collection as religiously as I probably should have. Maybe it's just that nothing really inspired me, although I think it's just that Fall / Winter collections rarely do. I love winter dressing, of course - but it can be a little difficult to get excited about pictures of layers and layers of clothing, especially when you're looking at them in the midst of an unrelenting Indian heat spell.

All that changed for me after Marchesa's presentation yesterday. They're one of my favourite design houses - I love their attention to detail, the fabulous textiles they use and the sheer beauty of their clothes. Notte by Marchesa is great too, but when it comes to the stuff little girls' dreams are made of, there's very little that beats Marchesa. I am also very envious of co-founder Georgina Chapman and harbour a secret desire to be her, even if for a day - all translucent skin and flowing chestnut locks. She looks like how I want to when I'm her age, which is - early 30s? That sounds about fair.

I fell in love with the very first image I saw from the collection:

And really, could you blame me?

As the collection went on however, I grew a little confused:

What on earth's going on here? It's way too fussy, the ruffles look like they're made from the sort of material that would ignite in the heat, and thanks to the length, the dress has accomplished the seemingly insurmountable task of making a 5'11'' model look like a dumpy Eastern European woman who seems to have just emerged, judging by the look on her face, from Dracula's castle. The latter is no reflection on the dress of course, but come on, Irina Vodolozova - it's not like you've had to parade down the catwalk in those godawful heels - it's a presentation, for god's sake. If you can't just stand around looking happy (or at least ever so slightly stand-offish) for a camera then I have no hope left in modelkind.

Then of course there was this:

Once again: What on earth's going on here? This is how I imagine Christian Audigier (designer for Ed Hardy, keep up) would imagine haute couture. I like the delicacy of the print, call me a snob however but the idea of a nude tattoo bodice just doesn't appeal to me. This look also marked the first of the white patterned tights, which I still have very mixed feelings about. They seem to be a growing trend though, unfortunately.

I love this one. The pleats and jacket look like they're made out of some kind of armour, and I love the delicacy of the pattern traced onto the jacket. Beautiful!

Some of the outfits reminded me a bit of Prabal Gurung's Spring/Summer 10 collection, like this one.

It's like the dress (which was actually a top and a skirt from the Gurung's collection) Becki Newton wore recently to an Ugly Betty benefit. Especially the aesthetics of the top half:

See what I mean?

I am going absolutely insane for this dress. Even the white hose doesn't ruin it for me, which is the mark of true greatness. Honestly, this is perfection. I'm a sucker for all things black, this is true, and I love the rosettes and the perfectly sculpted silhouette and oh my god, that model's collarbones are making me a little green.

Then began the barrage of red carpet hopefuls, dresses so beautiful that I'd almost be willing to sell up and buy a ticket to Los Angeles and wait tables at a French restaurant while making lifelong friends with my boss who is kind enough to get someone to cover my shift while I sneak away to auditions (and who I will thank in my first acceptance speech at the MTV Video Movie Awards and the audience will laugh - oh, how they'll laugh!) and am finally discovered by a sleazy producer who I dislike because he leaves small tips but he's willing to bet that I'm the next big thing so what the hell and who introduces me to Michael Bay who casts me as a sexpot in his next film which catapults me to starletdom JUST so I can wear one of these creations on the red carpet. Because honestly, if the whole world isn't looking on in awe while you strut these beauties down the red carpet, you may as well be wearing them by yourself in your bathroom as you brush your teeth before you go to bed with your cats. These dresses are all or nothing dresses.

The sheerness on the last one does seem a bit unnecessary, making it my least favourite of all the gowns from this collection - still, if someone held a gun to my head and forced me to wear this, I can't say I'd refuse, even if I don't really like dresses that can't make up their mind - saucy or sophisticated? Actually, it's the perfect little starlet's dress, come to think of it.

The more I look at this collection, the more I feel like this is the perfect party collection for every budding young starlet - there's something here for all her needs. There are the red carpet dresses, of course, which we've just seen.

Then there are the clothes that would fit so well into a budding actress' quotidian wardrobe. This, for example, would be perfect for an autumn fundraiser lunch. The skirt is one of the few examples of feathers not going horribly wrong, because it's been paired with that sharp jacket in a richer, darker colour.

This reminds me a little too much of Balmain over the last couple of seasons (while I loved it at first, that whole 80s power-partygirl thing got a bit old a bit fast) but it's the perfect look for a fun, casusal red carpet event. It's the sort of dress that almost expects its wearer to stumble out of the place five hours later, hair ever so askew (the stylists at Marchesa seem to agree), cigarette in hand, bouncers / leery boyfriends in tow. The model's even got the pouty expression of self-entitlement down pat.

Similar event, although perhaps slightly less boozey. The CDFA awards perhaps? No better way to prove your fashion savvy than by mixing a heady cocktail of trends together. Ruffles? Check! Muted colours? Check! White lederhosen? Check!

Dinner with friends at a pap-infested restaurant. I love it.

The jewel that crowned the presentation, however, was this gorgeous dress, all origami and ruffles (which should technically spell disaster, but it so doesn't), a dress I can imagine someone like Cameron Diaz or Diane Kruger wearing while the Fug Girls have a field day trying to think of fresh table napkin jokes. I don't care though: this is sheer glory.

When I grow up, I will wear Marchesa, even if I'm not famous. I'll put red carpeting in a strip down my bedroom if I have to.

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Wangs of Desire

I am totally crushing on these ridiculous glasses by Alexander Wang for Linda Farrow. They remind me of a pair of red ones I saw at a Ray Ban in Houston once but I didn't buy them because I thought, "Well, what am I going to wear them with?" Everything is the correct answer, but it's too late now.

I love the retro frames, the signature Wang fetishistic zippers, those steel-tipped frames. Not so hot for the third pair, but I'll take the top two any day!

While we're on the subject of Alexander Wang, I've just got to say I love his clothes. They're edgy and stylish and while I guess you could in all fairness say that those two terms are synonymous with pretty much every designer these days, it really is true with Wang's clothes.

I was on the Saks 5th Avenue website yesterday and it turns out that they've now got international delivery (which means India too!) and they were happy to display all the prices in rupees, which I thought was very nice of them.

I had three pieces in my basket, this gorgeous Alexander McQueen jacket:

and two dresses, both Alexander Wang:

and another one that I can't find anymore, but it was gorgeous, one-shouldered with a big billowing sleeve, orange silk, oh my...

And then I whipped my card out and clicked on checkout, and they told me that the dress wasn't approved for international delivery yet and would I please select something else.

No I bloody well would not! Why on earth would they lure you in with promises of international shipping and instant currency conversions only to turn you away at the zippered gates at the very last minute? It's atrocious.

Shame on you Saks. I shan't visit your website again.

p.s. call me when you've got your delivery options sorted out.

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Hello, Jane Lynch

You are also very funny and I love you in pretty much everything you're in although if pressed I would say you were the very best in The 40 Year Old Virgin although I loved you in Role Models too and yes let's get baked together and re-watch Gandhi and please teach me how to do deadpan humour like you do and olive is totally your colour and I love you.

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Hello, Jane Krakowski

You are so funny on 30 Rock (funnier than Tracy Morgan) and you provide me with several hours of bewilderment seeing as how you clearly don't have a tiny waspish waist but always manage to look slim somehow, and please would you divulge those magic powers to me since I would also like to look slim without having to lose an inch off my 27-inch waist and I think you always have the nicest eyeshadow and even though it was a front I think you and James Franco would have made a great couple and oh yeah, you are gorgeous.

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Holy Cougar, Batman!

Courtney Cox is almost like the Demi Moore of her generation, given how freaking GOOD she looks at her age. I don't care how much work she's had done, she looks fresh, happy and she wears her skin well, unlike so many other celebrities who look like they've had the whole thing surgically removed, stretched on one of those wooden ringed boards women in the Austen novels used to embroider on, and plastered back on to their faces. I absolutely love her in this Victoria Beckham dress - she's glowing, and the colour suits her so well.

Also, how cool is it that brands like Victoria Bekham and Christian Siriano are now on the red carpet? And to think that just a few years ago Bekham was all fake tan, fake boobs and fake hair. Two of those things may still remain (I always feel like the reason she seems so aloof in pictures is because if she so much as brushes against someone they'll end up covered in orange spots and coral lip gloss) but at least she can turn a decent hand to design now, which is all I care about.

Oh yeah, Christian Siriano. I don't love this dress on Christina Hendricks (although I do love the pillowy, pillarbox red lips) but I'm still just pleased to see Siriano's designs on the red carpet. Hurrah!

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And speaking of Marchesa...

This is so gorgeous! Kate Hudson in Marchesa brings to mind marzipan frosting on Christmas cake, which as separate entities constitute a few of my favourite things, but together? Oh my! This dress can do no wrong. The girls at Marchesa truly are the reigning queens of red carpet fashion.

Let's talk about the shoes though. What on earth is going on here? It could be the angle but they look ludicrously small and remind me of a weird Chinese-bound-shoe-modern-Venetian-chopine-Vivienne-Westwood hybrid, which is making my head spin when I'd much rather be thinking about marzipan frosting on Christmas cake. If ever I see the person who designed these shoes on the street, I'll be sure to stop them and tell them as much.

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Speaking of Jennifers...

How cute is Jennifer Westfeldt in this dress? With a bearded John Hamm, too. I never got past the pilot episode of Mad Men but Hamm ranks high within my top three reasons to watch the show - my love for vintage fashion and fascination with the cultural norms of decades gone by being the other two.

Westfeldt is gorgeous in an instantly recognisable Marchesa gown (just for one day I'd like to be Georgina Chapman - although that does mean I'd have to share a bed with Harvey Weinstein and his belly - on second thought, maybe not. I just want her clothes). I loved her in Kissing Jessica Stein, which I just watched for the first time a couple of days ago. If ever I was to be a lesbian, lipstick lesbianism would be the way I'd go, I'm sure. I'm also certain that my relationship would take the exact same route hers did in the movie and I saw a lot of myself in her character, so I feel like I know her now, you know?

Also, how cute is it that she's been with Hamm since 1997?

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What Certain Beauty is This - Givenchy Pre-Fall 2010

I spoke to Prabal Gurung, one of my very favourite fashion designers, the other day for over an hour while he was getting coffee, sorting out his schedule, hailing cabs, having a "very New York day", as he put it. I was a little starstruck - OK, incredibly starstruck - and I am so worried that he now thinks I'm a total freak because when he very graciously told me at the end of our conversation that he hoped our paths would cross again one day, I, in a fit of nervous blubbering that always leads to an almost hysterical blurring of the lines between funny and freakish, blurted out that yes, I would be visiting New York in March and yes, I might just stalk him.

Yeah, I don't know. I'm still cringing about it two days later and will probably continue to do so for a while to come.

Nevertheless, I'll post the entire interview up shortly, as soon as I can think about that particular instance without turning red.

During our chat he told me about how he was introduced to Audrey Hepburn movies when he was very young, and how he fell in love with her, and with Givenchy.

60 years after Givenchy became inextricably linked to Audrey Hepburn and classic, understated style, little has changed at this fashion house, as the pre-fall collection lays testament to. The collection is full of looks like this one, hearbreaking in their simplicity.

Solid, clean lines, colours muted yet rich, ay dios mio! This is just heaven.

Architectural stylings add a bit of frivolity and the shoes, while not a colour I'd ever pick, shouldn't really match the outfit, but the look works somehow. Although there is no forgiving that model's hair.

I love the crisp box pleats on this skirt. I'd wear it with about a million different things.

My quiche is here, dinner awaits!

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Simplicity

This image from The Sartorialist, one of my favourite blogs for armchair sartorialism, as I like to call it, is such a breath of fresh air. While I don't think that it's fair to stuff our lives into little boxes with labels and what not and hence I don't think I have one particular style - sometimes dramatic, sometimes minimalist - this is an outfit I would wear any day, any time.

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