French style

At ShopCurious, we've created a little enclave of French fancies to delight you, as we transport you in style on our alternative Silk Route. Le style francais is often talked about in relation to furniture, food and fashion. Where better to start than with a vintage silk scarf depicting the world famous city of fashion and romance itself, and les ponts de Paris: bridges to time honoured passion, style, art and culture...






Of course, you might also be interested in an earlier history of Paris, where the ideals of liberte, egalite and fraternite first emerged during the Age of the Enlightenment. We've also got an original limited edition Hermes silk scarf commemorating the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution in 1989.




For more recent evidence of the art of fashion from the French capital, take a look at these wonderfully elegant silk dresses by Madame a Paris for autumn/winter 2008: Simple, chic, sophisticated, curiously French and newly available from our eclectic online emporium.


In a city where fashion and art vie for premiere position, how appropriate that the elusive French designer, Monsieur Bonnet ,should have combined the two in this fitting Eiffel Tower dress (below left). How stylish! We're veering off the Silk Route a bit with this cotton number and, likewise, with this amazing hand painted, carved acacia wood sculpture of the great French monument by Timmy Woods (below right) - which is in fact a handbag that originates from Beverly Hills and was worn by Carrie in the Sex and the City film. It's currently available in the UK exclusively at ShopCurious.


Our journey to Paris has almost come to an end and I'm feeling in need of a little rest before our next adventure, so I don't think I'll be sampling the delights of Parisien nightlife. I'll be off to bed now, but I'm already looking forward to the next stage of our travels...
Are you?

Hot lips

Girls, it doesn't really matter whether you're braving out the depressingly damp weather in the UK for your hols, or searching for sunshine elsewhere, so long as you look glam and have fun. Here's Diana Dors looking curiously chic in Cannes - a rather stylish place to hang out. And Marilyn Monroe, romping amidst the waves, definitely appears to be enjoying herself.



The 1950s was a very glamorous era, when the fashion was for ladies to look like film stars at all times. Hollywood sirens of the day probably knew about the original colour change longstay lipstick called Magic Lips - a secret formula lipstain that changes colour according to your individual pH level. It's been available to the public now for over 20 years, but how it exactly works remains a mystery. If you're curious to discover what hot colour they'll make your lips, I suggest you invest in a set of 8 colour matching lipsticks from ShopCurious, where they're available at a very special price.


Believe me, this rather eclectic mix of colours will turn into hot shades of pink, red, peach or plum when applied to your lips - and will make them curiously kissable too - what fun!



We've got another magic pair of lips as well, in the form of this unusual red lips bag by Timmy Woods of Beverly Hills. At the moment ShopCurious is the exclusive UK stockist of this uniquely pouty party piece, which was carried by Carrie (excuse the cheesy pun) in an episode of Sex and the City.




Talking of movie stars, I think that Sex and the City's Samantha could also do with a red lips bag - when she's on holiday in the film she looks ever glamorous in her vintage style swimsuit, but she could definitely do with a bit of cheering up.

Smile and say cheese...
Will you?

The fashion of art

Last night I went to the preview of the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. The dress code was 'glamorous'. Did it live up to expectations? I snapped Grayson Perry looking curiously quirky in a Little Bo Peep number, Virginia Bates looking amazingly svelte, youthful and curiously chic in vintage c.1922 and the utterly charming Erin O'Connor looking curiously cool in tiered and floaty Ashley Isham.













Meantime, five minutes prior to leaving the house I threw together this outfit consisting of vintage Voyage, a cocktail of ruby red feathers and a telephone handbag that is available at ShopCurious (if you are impressed by celebrity endorsements, apparently something that once appeared in an episode of Sex and the City).













Sir Stuart Rose (who hot-footed it from Buckingham Palace) was certainly very impressed by my vintage Dior hold-up stocking shoes - so much so that he felt compelled to run his hand down my lower leg. I'm sure this was only a matter of professional curiosity, though I can't envisage this trend being that easy to sell to the usual M&S clientele.

Then of course there was the art. Counter to the recession and judging by the rapidly burgeoning number of orange dots, the exhibits seemed to be selling very well indeed. I really like the large naked lady canvases - postcard collages Big Blue and Golden Delicious II by David Mach at £25,000 a pop and Julian Schnabel's simply gorgeous oriental lady who was NFS, though a friend mentioned that he would mortgage his house if she were.

There is some intriguing pottery too, like the gigantic tutti fruiti ceramic pot by Kate Malone (below left) - not quite to my taste, but interesting. There are also the usual exhibits guaranteed to elicit a reaction such as the video of a barbed wire hoola hoop (Barbed Hula by Sigalit Landau) and the zebra sex installation by Matt Collishaw (if installation is an appropriate word to use?) curiously entitled 'In the Old Fashioned Way' - the fully functioning mechanics of which were thankfully switched off for the duration of the preview at least.












The food was as arty and alluring as everything else with this messy mushroom melange (left) vying for attention with the scrambled egg in this painting (right).

My verdict: this is a show that is well worth a visit. I will certainly be going back to spend more time exploring the wonderful array of curiosities on offer. Will you?

Accessories and the City

I went to the opening night of Sex and the City - the early showing as the later one was fully booked. Mine was full of teenage girls, which made me feel rather old. But seeing the characters in the film made me feel a lot better - or was that just because I laughed so much? Have you seen it yet, what do you think?

My thoughts are as follows:
This is a modern day fable from our fashionably fickle world raising big questions like: Are you a believer in girl power or are you a slave to fashion?Do you believe that 'love' conquers all or are you a slave to men?

This is also a film about the constraints of real life in the city - which is probably why the girls are seen wearing the most curiously fabulous belts. And then of course there are the other accessories - the bags, the shoes, the dogs AND THE MEN!

Accessories are everything in the city, but thankfully so is laughter. This is a tale about what it is to be human, to have good friends and to discover that laughter is actually the best medicine (so perhaps we should be subscribing to the Readers' Digest instead of logging onto Carrie Bradshaw's Diary?)

Above all, this is a film about not taking anything too seriously, especially not designer brands. It's also a lesson in true taste and discernment and a salutary warning, not to let your clothes - or your accessories (!) - wear you. Choose your accessories carefully, mix and match them with style, take good care of them and they should be around to love and cherish for many years to come...
Do you?

Power dressing - A matter of taste?

What happened to the hotly predicted revival of power dressing? Remember those curiously scary shoulder pads? The American footballer look brought to the office... What if they really were to become a fashionable every day reality again? Would you? Could you?

Might we be influenced by Kim Cattrall's penchant for accentuating her curves in the new Sex and the City film, inspired by the forthcoming release of Dallas, or perhaps the recent revival of the Conservatives to get out those shoulder pads (if indeed we are old enough to remember them, or haven't already removed and thrown them away?)



Isn't it funny how taste develops over time - what's quite acceptable, even aesthetically pleasing one moment suddenly becomes outrageously naff the next - like figurative art and mahogany furniture.

But what goes around usually comes around.. which is always a good excuse for recycling. Take a look at some of our vintage gems - a remarkably stylish looking Celine power dress that might just clinch the job at an interview, an Isabell Kristensen lime green satin number that would grace any aspiring rock star's wardrobe, or an Alexis style suit that would definitely get you noticed in the office this summer. Will you?