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Source: Glamour UK 2006

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Photo source: Vanity Fair Italy September 2010 via here

Selma Blair: Cool Maternity Style

I am not sure I have ever seen a woman who has looked this cool, pregnant. Selma Blair is near full term right now, and in the last three months has schooled all the other (millions of) celebrities in how to do maternity in style. These pics at the top are from the past two weeks alone.

She is probably not the smartest or best dressed preggie around (Vicky Becks? Rachel Zoe?), but she certainly is the coolest. Who knew that this is how it could be done?

Even her dress at the Grammy Awards was awesome. And not short, tight and shiny like women twice her age and not swanger. And she still looked cooler.
I think I may have a style-crush on her. How about you?

Old Age is New Age: Advanced Style

There is a street style photographer called Ari Seth Cohen who shoots the streets of New York City. But only men and women of a certain age. His blog is called Advanced Style and I came across it this morning whilst perusing a Nowness.com.
You know how it is. Ulrich Knoblauch, a fashion photographer we work with, told me to check Nowness out. And it is brilliant. And then that takes you to another blog which you fall in love with and then before you know it, you have spent two hours checking out new blogs and you have missed your deadline. Sigh.

Anyhoodle, back to Advanced Style. There is a great little video that you can watch that just makes you want to be an old lady with crazy hair and have the most delicious collection of brooches and hats. I can't wait to be them. They are what is truly cool.
Watch the Advanced Style video on Nowness here.

Nairobi The New Fashion Capital?

There are a few people that I would like to be when I grown up. A few people I really, really admire. Hillary Alexander is one of those people. And this week she totes hearts Africa. Not only did she publish a piece on the winners of the ARISE Magazine Fashion Week showcase for New York Fashion Week, but her paper The Telegraph, has also published a great round-up piece about how Kenya has become a place of influence in the western experience of fashion - called Into Africa.
Nairobi is at the centre of a bunch of fashion developments. I posted a while ago about the label Suno, that is part-based in Kenya and shows at New York Fashion Week. I have also posted several times about Edun, the LVMH owned project by Bono and his wife, Ali Hewson, that also does some business there.
Now there are new projects by the great Dame Vivienne Westwood like this bag, and UK high street store Whistles who are producing these accessories in Kenya. There is so much going on it begs the question, is Nairobi the new Istanbul? Ah, the vagaries of fashion. And this time it works for us!
Read the full article on Into Africa here.

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Photo source: Stradivarius Spring/Summer 2011

The Classic Trench Style: From Royalty, um, to WAG?

Royal bride-to-be, Kate Middleton, sold out that £650 Burberry trench in a day. Well, let's be honest, it looked fantastic. And obviously her cousin-to-be and also Royal bride-in-waiting, Zara Phillips thought so too as she decided to make a thing of the trench last week at the posh horsey event, the Cheltenham Festival.
She wore some kind of plain affair the first day, but bust out the latest in Burberry the following day as she donned the leather-inset coat and paired it with hard-core ankle boots and a special-forces-style beret. I'm not completely convinced, but I think it heads in a well-intended direction. I like that it is a considered 'look' and has her own personality stamped all over it. Isn't it interesting that two girls, with so much in common, can occupy such different places on the trend map?
Of course, anything the Royals can do, the WAGs are sure to try and do better. Just a day later, Christine Bleakley, TV presenter and girlfriend of Chelsea footballer Frank Lampard, was spotted in the exact same Burberry trench. And while I super-love her handbag, I think that those boots are kinda weird. I was just about to like that she played the whole thing differently, using the trench as an actual coat with a retro vibe underneath, and then the footwear felled me. But I may be wrng. What do you guys think of the trench trend? How would you wear it? Let me know.