My interview with paris premiere

BACK IN LONDON TO G20 Conference, and the world upside down. The streets will be full of black masks and banners, fake faces of Gordon Brown, Park Lane should be avoided, and the world at a standstill.. we will see.

FLOWER AND BIRD MARKET

Sunday in Paris has wonderful surprises on every corner, from the antique market which offers dream furniture, that belong to film sets, to The Flower and Bird Market, and there is nothing better than to visit Notredame followed by lunch in a restaurant nearby. The Chatelet has wonderful concerts every Sunday lasting for an hour, so every pore of your body can be fulfilled.

PICTURES AT THE RESTAURANT BEHIND NOTRE DAME

Restaurant Au vieux Paris

We had a taste of Medieval Paris, with authentic dishes.

KELLY HOPPEN

I have huge admiration for friends when they have success, I love it, it gives me hope.. Kelly is one of the most prolific interior designers. She has the ability to turn to render the inaccessible accessible. Having been one of the very few women designers to be awarded an MBE. Kelly is a brand a household name, associating herself with household paint, Wedgewood, Furniture etc. Her Mother is also talented, with a shop in Walton Street whilst her brother has an incredible Photographic Gallery in Jubilee Place. A clever interesting bunch. A step mother to Sienna Miller, and girl friends to Nicky Clarke the Hairdresser, lovely Kelly is on a winning streak.

NOTHING TO SAY

GOOD NIGHT SWEET DREAMS

DUGGIE FIELDS

I love this artists work.. I have an incredible painting in Los Angeles.. full of colour and enlightenment.
A man with huge amount of style...

A PIN PRICK KISS

I skate on ice
thin ice but never
fall
I just have to keep
my sanity
not wanting
to
but having to
so cut my hand
on glass to remember
the pain I have for
you
The blood drips but
there are no tears
I keep moving
touching new things
running rushing
not to think
but still thinking
climbing to new heights
trying to raise
mountains, failing to
but trying
I get attached to other
things but try to stay
clean
In your absence I never
think you are away
I know you are here
your silence
is only for a second
but a pin drop
on the planet earth
a kiss from you
is the true kiss I
need
its medicine
for a broken
soul

ARTHUR MURRAY SCHOOL OF DANCE..

HOW CAN YOU BE THE CENTRE OF ATTENTION AND A WALLFLOWER ALL AT THE SAME TIME, the answer is you can't, so if true 1950's is back in fashion then you have to do all the glamorous things a real diva would do.. I have decided that I have to learn to dance, and if Belinda Carlisle is doing it, then its good enough for me. I have just had one of the best afternoons of my life.

ALIA FORTE

BROWNS HOTEL in Dover Street, threw open their doors, and showed a stunning collection of blouses, beautiful chiffon, organza, in rare exotic colours. Alia has amazing taste and will custom make anything to her own designs. Book in and have a wonderful afternoon in her charming salon, filled with her beautiful creations, made in her home town, Rome.

BELINDA CARLISLE

IT is with devastating regret that my lovely friend was voted out of Dancing with the Stars, with the dedication of a ballerina and the passion of a show girl she thrashed the floor with those fabulous pins, giving good shoulder line, pretty arms, and full hollywood eyes and teeth all at the same time. Belinda is the only girl I know who can lift one leg in the air and touch the floor with her head at the same time.

RIDLEY SCOTT AT THE BFI

Looking him up on google when I got home proved to be more enlightening than the Q and A session at the end of this evening. Ridley Scott doesn't put sex in films, he says, because "sex is boring unless you're doing it". But you do wonder when he's doing "it", as he watches one film a night before he goes to bed. Anyway, to the main event...

It's tricky to see somebody's true character when there are so many experts in one room that know him better than he does himself. The humour sort of goes out of it. Although interesting, it becomes a school lecture. So it wasn't until Stephen Frears took the stage, to present Ridley with the 63rd-ever BFI fellowship, that the human being really emerged. One suddenly understood the stature of the man - a stature even greater than that of his work. If one film were to survive, the geeks voted that it should be BLADE RUNNER.

Ridley was educated at Art School outside London and then studied at the Royal College of Art, set design. His first film was about a boy who plays hooky and was very much a family affair with his mother and father helping out, and his brother acting in it. He had a fascination with Bergman movies, and to this day manages to watch one film every night, covering all types of film ever made. Never wanting to repeat himself, he has worked from television's Softly Softly, to Blade Runner, to Thelma and Louise to Gladiator.

So many different genres and stretching himself in every way. Loving a script writer and believing it to be the most important person on a film, when teased about being difficult to actors, he professed to adore them.. As a set designer he was able to see every side of film making and wanted them to be as realistic as possible. He has admiration for composers and believes that they are vital to the success of his movies.

I have only ever managed to watch half of Alien. I couldn't stand the suspense. And after the clip was shown of the creature's first appearance, I'm kind of glad. Ridley told us that the baby Alien had the same effect on the actors on the day of filming, it was brought onto the set in a plastic bag, and when it popped out of Hurt's (prosthettic) stomach, there was complete silence - until one of the actors started laughing hysterically.

MATT COLLISHAW's BEAUTIFUL ART PIECE AT THE HAUNCH OF VENISON, 6 BURLINGTON GARDENS, W1

A collection of wonderful pieces. Rachel Howard has included two erotic paintings, Paul Fryer an egg suspended over a nest, Matt Collishaw, Polly Morgan, Damian Hirst, Sophie Calle and many others contributed. Enter this stunning building off Bond Street, and indulge in contemporary art fantasies, I had a lovely afternoon walking through this exhibition. Of course I wanted the skull with household glass by Damian Hirst, but at 800,000 pounds its not quite the right moment to have such extravagant taste buds. Matt Collishaw had done some beautfiul work with insects and I love Polly's coffin built for her with little chicks on each corner, giving death a vitality, out of a crisis comes life sort of look. Well worth a visit and maybe if you are not escaping financial suicide, put your hand in your pocket.

MARILYN MONROE

"Don't you know that a man being rich is like a girl being pretty, you wouldn't marry a girl because she was just pretty but my goodness doesn't it help"I

I don't agree with this at all, but I prefer my friends to be pretty.

I prefer " I don't know who invented high heels but all women owe him a lot"

HEATHER KERZNER'S 40th BIRTHDAY

I sneaked in to have a preview of the party room, a powder puff of pretty pink feathers and marshmallows, fluffy dreams, happy times, a video of her exciting life during these drab and scary times.. I floated through watching the stunning go go girls dance , lovely things said and felt from all of us. The rooms were perfect, and photograph machine working at double time, everybody elegant in Galliano dresses, coiffed to perfection. A film sequence for a truly stunning person.Natalie Cole and Shirley Bassey sang.

BY FANNY KEMBLE

"A good many causes tend to make good masters and mistresses quite as rare as good servants.. The large and rapid fortunes by which vulgar and ignorant people become possessed of splendid houses,splendidly furnished, do not, of course, give them the feelings and manners of gentle folks or in any way raise them above the servants they employ, who are quite aware of this fact, and that the possession of wealth is literally the only superiority their employers have over them".

THE WEAR AND TEAR OF FASHION WEEK

I was exhausted after fashion week and so were all my clothes.. They now need delicate cleaning and tender love and care as I do, everything feels like its been in the spin dryer, and has that rather unappealing fragrance of fatigue. I can go and meditate in a darkened room, unfortunately they will need to go to the dry cleaner, who is liable to ruin everything. There is an onus on you to be perfect at all times, you can look like an old bag women.... I am Benjamin Button and this won't be happening to me.. The solution is good hair and make up. Without these you look ordinary and invisible. Without this help you might look as if you stole the clothes.. Embellish everything so that by the end of the day you will be glad that there is a small residue of the 6.30 am call. Hair needs a lot of lacquer and I shall probably choke to death from inhaling cans of hairspray, but at least I will be a groomed corpse... As for foundation it is a necessity, try building a house without one. I became very fussy and a perfectionist, and after 25 it is the only way to get a flawless complexion. Favorite brands of the moment are Sisley and Metier, a clear non propellent hair spray, I love Stephen Knoll's products. John Barrett's are also good. As I require Monroe looks I have to tong my hair viciously everyday at the highest heat setting, cooking it into curls...
Over do the clothes because you may want to get to places that are as difficult to enter as the Oscars, it could be your passport to success. there is your answer, life may change... Try it and let me know what happens... Remember nails and underwear.. you can't be a vixen without perfect talons, or a seductress without uber underwear.. preen to your particular mood.......

THE YOUNG VICTORIA

Spent the afternoon with two men who interviewed me for a part in their film who had read this blog, so there is some point to doing this... I am interested, and if I do it there will have been some reason for spending seven years at Drama School, before I became a photographer...

I then dashed off to see The Young Victoria, I don't know what I imagined it to be about, but it wasn't as bad as everybody had said it was n'or as good as it could have been. It is basically about her early love story with Albert, and it was convincing. The one thing I found interesting because I had never thought about it before was that Victoria was the first person to have lived in Buckingham Palace according to the film. So I shall check this out tomorrow.

LOUIS VUITTON - MARC JACOBS

Go to the mirror check your bosoms. If they are still up, you can wear the lace shirts with poof petal skirts, ribbons, ruffles, and lace. Little girl with big girl ideas...

This fashion week was about swapping places - so Mui Mui became YSL. Best of Breed goes to Alexander McQueen and Best in Show goes to Lanvin. Best Trenchcoat (with see-through latticework at the back) goes to Jean Paul Gaultier, Best Hair goes to GUIDO PALAU's team, and make-up to PAT McGRATH. Think RED/PLUM SHINY LIPS with BLACK EYESHADOW, and lashings of mascara.

LAST DAY OF THE SHOWS AND RUSHING HOME TO SEE MEREDITH OSTROMS ART SHOW.

Thank goodness its Thursday - the GENLUX Fashionista has to go home. After a sunbed, my hair dyed - Snowden putting it up outside Mui Mui's show in the rain - I had to dash back to London for Meredith Ostrom's show, which she has had put on above the Phillips du Pury Gallery, in a fabulous space that I want to iive in. Splatter paintings of her body are being shown, so all you boys can fantasise about her rolling around in paint on her canvases. I bought a delicious red number and can only imagine where it has been.

Do you prefer the
way I dress or the
way I undress

MORAL OF THE DAY

Unhappiness
Is a stronger
glue than happiness
Guilt is
a bigger motivator than
honesty
Committed is something
you do in an asylum
Freedom is the
only thing
you can do for yourself and
nobody ever does

ALEXANDER MCQUEEN

I felt the love in this show for Alexander Mcqueen, the hard men and women of fashion, were still awake, despite their very long day, and they applauded and called out for this avant guarde designer.. Rubbish was the theme, a huge mound of all his odds and sods was center stage, 100's of painted coke tins were sprayed and put as head pieces on the models, in strange ultra futuristic shapes. The make-up was white with lipstick, shiny almost clown like. The clothes were exagerated into 1950's austere shapes, the women on stilts, were superhuman, alien creatures, a species from another planet. Clown like puppets with lampshades and umbrellas on their head. Two huge birds with wings one white and one black, posed for the massive bank of camera men. Red, black and white were the colour themes, a red hue with blue enhanced the whole spectacle. Even when exhaustion had spread to every part of my body, I felt elated, and this is what fashion is about, and why we have to see the shows and not just watch them on style.com.. Alexander Mcqueen takes us always on a magical journey, how lucky we are. As does John Galliano..

CHANEL, so STUNNING IN THE GRAND PALAIS, PARIS

A huge show, with about 200 photographers pushing and shoving for their top shot.. A strange spectacle in a way because I felt I was taken back in time to ruffles in Amsterdam, Edwardian England, Punk and wandering puritanical Priests... Part of it I really loved and could imagine wearing. Long slimline coats over black chiffon on cream silk, and flat round hats. With his huge clientele it is probably impossible to keep everybody happy, but at least Karl Largerfeld, still can be applauded, and comes out with some successful surprises. Baby pink linings, baby pink tights, black jackets, ruffles on sleeves and the neck. The sage green trimmings looked great. At the end out Karl comes with his girls, looking fantastic as do the other men in the show..The very beautiful Amanda Harlech got me my invitation from their press office so I am a lucky girl.

Gossip with the hairdressers is that VICTOR AND ROLF did an incredible show yesterday stunning, sadly I didn't have an invitation or the connections to wing getting in.

STELLA MCCARTNEY and GIAMBATISTA VALLE

STELLA McCARTNEY

First thing this morning I went to the Stella McCartney Show, she showed lace with the lightest of silks. Light happy playful clothes, as the models skipped down the run way they looked comfortable and free. The show was thoroughly glamorous and there was her Father with his girlfriend who added that feeling of stardom that you need at the shows. Behind the scenes Pat Mgrath was chirpily pinching Snowden's cheaks as we sneaked in to see the models getting ready.. A very relaxed atmosphere, and no doubt I will go down Conduit Street in August to get one of her evening dresses.

GIAMBATISTA VALLE

I felt I had slipped back to 1968 and was in Rome having a drink with the late Princess Pignatelli.. She had such enormous style and would have loved Giamba's clothes today... Long dresses that go from morning to the evening, stunning peacock coats, flashes of peacock green, elegant trousers and structured 1960's jackets.. somewhere in my childhood I had seen women look like that, now photographs torn at the corners, just before everybody went wild.. Of course I might be wrong with my dates, but it was nostalgic, beautiful and in the days when women definitely changed for dinner and the cocktail trolley was in fashion..

BALENCIEGA SHOW WITH SNOWDEN

IN THE SUMMER OF 1980

My Grandmother said to 

me

"I have done everything

in my life that I have wanted to"

It stuck in my head

and that is why I am busy.

JEAN PAUL GAULTIER SHOW

FLYING LIZZARDS VERSION OF MONEY ROXANNE PINK FLOYD's MONEY opened the Lesbian Sado Masochistic salon in red velvet, Betony Vernon dressed as a Bondage Queen with a whip fighting with models, elegant clothes against cat burglars, visa's on hats and masks, high hair, broad shoulders, red roses, a black and white floor in the atelier of Gaultier. Backless trench coats, tights with horizontal stripes, red lips, slick back hair, glossy and gorgeous. Acting was required and for once the models were believable.  Nothing very new, but thank god for that, at least we won't have to try on Balenciaga's new wierdo skirts with too much material that makes us all look porky... I love Gaultier's straight elegant look, so him and so dramatic.. I bought a coat the other day and the wow factor is incredibly sexy...I long to be his MADAME, he can kiss my booties.

BEHIND THE SCENES AS A FASHION EDITOR FOR GENLUX

Don't think for one moment it's easy going round the shows... My hats are off the Editors.. Outside we were greeted by hecklers accusing us of using fur, assuming that we all do when we don't and really behaving in an aggressive manner.. I am not sure what I think about fur, I personally don't like the feel of it against my skin but I suppose in a freezing cold climate we could need one.. I am also a vegetarian almost these days, every time I see beef on my plate I see the animal before me, so I am the same about fur, rather alive than dead on my back..

If I am ever given first row tickets to shows it will feel an anti climax, I have so much fun climbing the stairs, chatting up hairdressers, bluffing that to enter with an invitation could ruin my excitement.

I THINK I CAN 

LOVE 

EVERYONE

AND 

ANYONE

BUT 

WON'T 

SOMEONE

LOVE ME

LANVIN AND VIVIENNE WESTWOOD,6th March 2009, PARIS FASHION WEEK.

Where do I start these two designers are so very different that I think its difficult to put them into the same sentence, but I am going to, because I have found a similarity... Its the clever useage of fabrics...however, they won't want to be in the same sentence so here I am  I will start with

VIVIENNE WESTWOOD

Her show looked like she had raided the toy box, Pamela Anderson wearing wings, and managing to look angelic, Scottish Highland Music turned disco night classical bop Bach, played to full effect. Cloaks, plaids, chiffon, tutus at an angle ready for the wedding jumble sale, and you know you will find every teenager wanting to look like this.  Long rugby like socks warn over patterned black tights.. we really don't need to buy any more clothes, because Vivienne has found a solution: use imagination, pick out the worst thing in the wardrobe, and give it a funky beauty.... But one drawback, you must be pretty, and skinny, because this look would be dreadful if you don't have the vision to properly put it together..

If on the other hand you want to look like an old fashioned movie star, as I definitely do, then LANVIN is the one to go for.  I imagined myself in these 1950's black clothes, with feathers around my hairline, red lips, fur  draped across my shoulders, high heels, with a low dark husky voice. "I shall be in my trailer if you need me", sort of look.  These are easy clothes for the chic chic, and our daughters can wear Vivienne Westwood.. I want to be an old fashioned sort of girl, in a black and white movie, a Hitchcock Blonde.. just give me the lines... Everybody backstage looked ravishing... even the hairdressers and make up artists.. One story I must tell you about is how adorable Lanvin's Alber Elbaz is... Once in the Dover Street Market, he may remember, he helped me get dresse - but not in his own clothes. He chose, without hesitation, a Daphne Guinness gold shirt for me and an Alaia suit with some fabulous platforms, so he was very fair to the competition.

Travelling with Sophie Nails was quite something. She is boasting that you can get a Amy Winehouse hairdo at TOP SHOP for twenty one pounds, but I am staying faithful to my Snowden Hill.

2nd DAY OF SHOWS IN PARIS

It is a miracle that I managed to see three shows and do one meeting. I had to leave one show early and be fashionably late at the next, and almost diabolical for the third.. Manifestations e.g strikes are so common place in Paris, that I am surprised that, they have any effect at all. Last time I was here there were fireworks along the pavements, and a rocket went passed my door.  

BALENCIAGA

I started  with the very regal Balenciaga, darling, Rushka's favorite, and I don't think she would have been disappointed. Nicholas Ghesquiere, had designed  woven satin bustiers, over chiffon black shirts, satin drain pipe trousers, with stripey bottoms, very 1980's disco, not many familiar shapes, but some delicious new ones to try.Vertical dashes of colour. Tall models with straight hair, looking as approachable as a model can, not exactly the girl next door, but I got the idea. Simple makeup. 

I left early so I could concentrate on my friend the magnificent

MICHEL KLEIN

Le Petit Palace, houses some of the most exciting collections, and so it was a clever choice of Michel's, in this economic climate to show courage under Magenta filters. Mad Max meets Disco Diva cyber ball Queen.  Fabulous figure hugging, buttock perfecting, leather trousers with studs and jewels. Sexy touchable quilting, with his unmistakeable trademark, beautiful waisted shapes, giving the most imperfect woman a enviable groovy uber chick look.

NINA RICCI

The designer is Olivier Theyskens, and what a show.. All I can is at last I have found my Oscar, or my Award Ceremony dress.  The show started following a similar trend to the others, 1980 shoulders were back and tails in leather.  Disco Queen you had better get out there. I loved the platforms, I want to be a giant. Sequined pink, platform booties, the gossamer wings of butterflies and dragonflies, unfurled and flew into exquisitely formed  delicious wearable concoctions, mini skirts with organza trains, and beautiful encrusted, structured jackets. I want everything..purples, emeralds, reds, blacks.. This man is a genius.. and I want to greet my Oscar swathed in all his creations. 

During the day I went also to THE COSTES HOTEL for lunch, a wonderful place for social cosiness at the back by the fireplace and met JENNIFER ROUSELET, who deals with the VIP of Paris for Montcler, and the accessory line. Went off to my favorite corset store CHANTAL THOMAS, full of delicate spring underwear, beautifully and amusingly constructed to give women the best shape possible, sexy, but not tarty.

After Nina Ricci went to Virginie Mouzat's book launch at Louis Vuitton, with Isobel Capece supporting yet another intellectual pursuit.. She helped me when she was at Fendi to do a book launch for British Artists At Work.. I so wanted to see Virginie and felt closer than she would have liked having read the book!

FASHION WEEK PARIS, GENLUX, AUTUMN 2009

Through the streets of Paris, I arrived by Black Mercedez to the shows, my first day as Fashion Editor for GENLUX.  Tilla Rudel, took me, my wonderful Parisian friend to see Anne Valerie Hash, one of the first shows to open  pret a porter.  From her magnificent atelier in the 10th arrondisement she showed her usual imagination this time with a mixture of fur and chiffon. Her colours were  muted mauves, pales dusky pinks, greys, and browns, with the girls wearing sparkling tights. and strappy platform shoes, and a chic variation of  Amy Winehouse's punky hair. I have a passion for Hash's thin delicate lace shirts, and now she adapted the idea into dresses with panels of fur.  This was set against  the medieval backdrop of a room in her Atelier. The room with gold miniature tiles, radiated a beautiful light which complimented the clothes. Her slouchy suits are little too comfortable for me, as I like to live in a corset to give myself good posture.  

Afterwards I went for lunch at the Costes, perfect for a rainy day...

Unless you are part of the fashion family it is as difficult to get into shows, as are the Oscars, no amount of compliments, money, or begging will get you a ticket... After chatting up all the men in Balenciaga and Jean Paul Gaultier, and spending a fortune, good old Snowden Hill, my lovely hairdresser from London, is luckily doing the shows, and is dragging me through models in various positions, from one show to the next.. Actually a more interesting way to see the mechanics of fashion week.

I LOVE MY PHOTOGRAPHS