A winning wardrobe

I haven’t watched any of the Paralympic Games yet, but I hear we’re winning lots of medals. On the night of the opening ceremony, I was out at an event launching something entirely different – the new BuyMyWardrobe pre-loved luxury designer fashion website.

I stayed long enough to hear owner, Kai's speech about the "luxe recycling revolution," and to do a little bit of networking.

I met the lovely shoe blogger Sabrina Johnson of Sabrina Suggests and bumped into Stella of Stella’s Wardrobe (check out the cute new illustrations on her blog).
 

 

In honour of our paralympic athletes, I thought I’d wear my Union Jack dress, teamed up with a recycled vintage bag from ShopCurious. I wasn’t the only one dressed patriotically: A curiously charming kilt-wearing milliner insisted on having his photograph taken with me.

Then I dashed home to catch the remainder of the Paralympics opening ceremony. Read my review (including views on the Paralympic uniforms) in today’s post at The Dabbler.

Will you?

Biba's everlasting appeal

Little did the architects of the Big Biba store in London’s Kensington High Street know they were helping to create a legend. During its brief existence from 1973-75, the opulent emporium was hailed as ‘the most beautiful store in the world’.










Even Mr Al Fayed would have been impressed with the shop’s extravagant Art Deco interior, which was reminiscent of the glamorous, golden age of Hollywood.



Big Biba wasn’t just about style – it was the first lifestyle store. Here a young girl could “buy not only a new wardrobe, fully co-ordinated from head to toe, but also a complete range of cosmetics and soft furnishings, together with the washing powder to care for her clothes, and food to go with it, all presented in the distinctive Biba packaging.”

Alternatively, she could lounge around in the shop-windows (as Biba didn't have window-displays), or sip cocktails upstairs amongst the flamingos that lived in the Roof Garden, or in the Rainbow Room, where live music was performed.








'Biba style' was characterised by flowing lines, floppy hats and… pickled onions! For all it’s curiously cool, stylish charm – Biba was peculiarly quirky and eccentric: Even the food hall displays were in the shape of baked bean tins and Campbells soup cans. But it was the Biba logo that was immediately recognizable on the vast majority of the products.


Biba also produced a mail order catalogue, with girls wearing the complete Biba look – from clothing to makeup and accessories. The Biba look consisted of what Hulanicki called "Auntie colours" - which she said ‘look like a funeral.’ The predominant shades were blackish mulberries, blueberries, rusts and plums.



























































































































If you’d like to see more of images of the store and Biba’s designs, how about this fabulous, collectable coffee table book from ShopCurious. ‘Welcome to Big Biba’ features over 150 colour photographs from the seven storey department and is signed by designer, Barbara Hulanicki herself, as well as the book’s creators.











In addition to selling stylish fashion, Big Biba was a social network and curiosity shop all rolled into one. I have a feeling the legend will live on and on... I'm curious to experience Biba’s next incarnation – and see the website.

Are you?

Wardrobe scents make style sense

You might leave clothes in your wardrobe thinking they’re perfectly okay, but it takes a surprisingly short time for pesky little moths to nibble their way through rails of expensive woollen coats and layers of fine quality knits. I’m not sure that anyone really likes the moth-eaten look, though apparently filigree designs are destined to be a major new fashion trend.




I was planning to show you some pictures of the sneaky flying creatures at work, but they look so disgusting - and they make me feel rather sick, so I decided it’s probably not the best idea. In London, we have a particular problem with moths – they’re an unavoidable hazard and you’re well advised to learn how to deal with them effectively - especially if you want to wear that beautiful vintage silk dress next year too. It’s curious that something so innocent looking can be so scarily invasive - and most annoying when, somehow, unobtrusively, it manages to gnaw a tiny hole in the sleeve of a beautiful jacket or jumper, rendering a treasured, luxury item unwearable.




I’ve tried most things to combat marauding moths, but remain convinced that good old fashioned floral scents like lavender are the most effective, and by far the most natural way to ward off the fateful, fluttering pests. Just fill a few gauze bags (the sort sometimes supplied as dust covers for jewellery are perfect) with dried lavender flowers and hang them in your wardrobe.






If you haven’t the or the time or the inclination to grow and make your own lavender bags, I can recommend another really stylish way to fragrance your wardrobes, drawers and anywhere else that the disagreeable flying foes may be lurking:







I suggest you try these beautifully presented Catherine Masson scented parcels, available from ShopCurious – each adorned with a pretty floral embellishment, and supplied with a divinely perfumed, top-up room spray.









They’re great as gifts too. What’s more they seem to charm the moths into abeyance, so you can bring out your favourite cashmere cardie year after year - and indulge in the sensible practice of seasonless style.

Do you?

Classic twist

The best vintage clothing is typical of its era, but also has timeless appeal. The sort of things that are always useful to have in your wardrobe are well made garments with enduring quality and investment potential. You will need to consider the designer, the rarity of the item, the condition of the fabric, the workmanship and the provenance of each piece. There's also the wearability factor to take into account ... and some items of clothing simply never seem to go out of fashion. So long as your weight doesn't fluctuate, you observe the washing instructions and protect garments properly, you can go on wearing them until they fall to bits - like Mrs Haversham.




At ShopCurious, you'll find classic vintage clothing that is worth its weight in wool, silk and velvet. Take this fabulously stylish Jackie O-style suit, with its beautifully tailored velvet trimmed dress coat and matching figure hugging shift dress. The tweedy fabric looks like a sort of Prince of Wales check to me, but if you're knowledgeable about such sartorial details, perhaps you'd be so kind as to offer your expert opinion. I did read somewhere that the Prince of Wales check is a name often wrongly attributed to the Glen Urquhart check?








We've also got some wonderful 1980s vintage Celine - like this rear-buttoning printed silk top and a very fine wool double breasted trench coat with ample shoulder pads (for those into power dressing). Neither would look out of place today...








Nor would this glamorous Yves Saint Laurent sequined suede wrap skirt of a similiar vintage, or this forever classic vintage Hermes silk scarf.








There are other things that you can keep in the wardrobe for a few years and then bring out again... like this classy ladybird spotted silk 1980s Georges Rech cocktail dress. Perfect for Sloane Rangers wanting to save their pennies for other essentials - like champagne cocktails and seats at the opera.

Will you dahling?

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?

The eye of the beholder

Is the fact that something's new, quirky and individual enough to make it desirable? I think not. Ultimately, it's all a matter of taste.

Putting together a load of innovative and unusual pieces of clothing or furniture isn't necessarily going to make for a stylish or harmonious look. Creating something that's unique and beautiful has much more to do with having a flair for fashion, an eye for aesthetics and to being able to mix and match chain store pieces with designer, vintage and antique one-offs in a very clever way. It's about looking much more carefully at the way we buy, collect, wear or display things for our wardrobe, home and lifestyle. It's not about buying what's new and different, but about a new and different approach to buying.



Sarah Mower writing for the Sunday Telegraph (fashion supplement, March 2008) says, “This emerging pattern is more akin to the way wine connoisseurs operate: the idea of ‘laying down’ a smart buy to wear later – at the exact moment when its attractiveness is at its optimum… What this kind of purchasing entails is regarding your clothes as a personal collection, an in-depth, stylistic work-in-progress rather than a quick in-and-out medium slavishly reflecting every passing trend.” She adds, “Having looked at all of the shows, the one thing that struck me as transformative was the creativity that has suddenly broken out in jewellery: necklaces, pendants, brooches, bangles and hair ornaments…


An extraordinary, well-chosen chunk of jewellery can stretch a wardrobe, change the sense of clothes you already own, go back into its box, hibernate and then come out to perform again years later. In other words, it meets all the criteria for fashion that is special, surprising, long-lasting and personal – an ideal addition to a lifetime’s collection.”

As Vivienne Westwood says in her World's End Manifesto :"We have a choice to become more cultivated and therefore more human...In pursuit of culture you will start to think. If you change your life, you change the world.”

Will you?