Showing posts with label Vivienne Westwood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vivienne Westwood. Show all posts

OTT fashion icons

Wednesday, 4 November 2009



Following on from my post yesterday, I thought I'd do a post on some of my favourite eccentric fashion icons - people who dare to wear whatever they like with flair and a sense of fun. So of course I had to start with Vivienne Westwood.


and continue with Isabella Blow.


Nice to see a picture of her in her youth I think. I remember seeing Isabella Blow resplendent in a Prada jewelled coat and Philip Treacy hat whilst shopping in the Belgravia Waitrose.


When she wore this hat above, she noticed that there was a terrible smell at the party she attended, but on reaching home she could still smell it. It turned out that the milliner had forgotten to fully scoop out out the remains of the lobster!


Fashion iconoclast Iris Apfel, a distinguished collector and authority on antique textiles as reflected in her elaborate, often ethnic style outfits.


This chinoiserie style outfit, was photographed in a book on her clothes 'Rare bird of fashion'. It's a beautiful book.


Mexican artist Frida Kahlo wearing traditional Mexican dress at a time when it wasn't fashionable, combined with elaborate and large floral headdresses and Tehuana ribbons in her hair.


The next icon I would pick would be Elsa Schiaperelli, pictured below.


So ahead of her time - practically the inventor of shocking pink, such an irreverent witty approach to fashion, and the creator of truly eccentric hats.

This is her stiletto shoe hat!


And finally I had to finish with poetess Edith Sitwell, famous for her often medieval style of dressing and the many large rings that she would wear on her extremely long fingers.

British Style Genius

Tuesday, 28 October 2008



I am really enjoying the British Style genius series. It is inspiring and entertaining and I won't be missing tonight's episode on bbc2 at 9. If you've missed the earlier ones, don't worry you can watch them on www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer or have a look at the website www.bbc.co.uk/britishstylegenius/ The last one looked at the rebel and covered the designers Alexander McQueen, John Galliano (Dior) and Vivienne Westwood. I find all of them completely inspiring.


I love Alexander McQueen's tailoring. For his breathtaking Autumn/Winter collection this year(see 2 photos above) McQueen looked to the Raj and Coronation regalia.

Dior in Vogue

I think John Galliano is the master of colour, I love his painterly approach.

For me, Galliano seems to look at the Orient more for his inspiration, although for one collection he was inspired by Princess Margaret!

A Cecil Beaton photograph of Princess Margaret

I have been coveting Vivienne Westwood's Sex pistols t-shirt designs in my vintage t-shirt book recently.




I always find what Westwood has to say thought provoking and it is amazing to think she was at the forefront of both the punk and the new romantic looks.

Tonight's episode focuses on the country look, so I imagine it's going to look pretty much like this. Judging from the surprising amount of wellington boots I've seen lately, and no this is not on the Yorkshire moors but in Notting Hill, it probably won't be long before this bag from Saskia Marcotti is everywhere too!

Images courtesy of Vogue.co.uk