the eye has to travel

One chilly Saturday when Lol and I were feeling jaded with the London party scene, we took our danced out feet off to one of our favourite spots: The Curzon Mayfair. Armed with cosy snacks of the sweet and salty variety we went to watch one of our beloved fashion documentaries. The Eye has to Travel is the story of Diana Vreeland, my new favourite Grande-Dame of fashion since Grace Coddington. Similar to Grace Coddington, Vreeland had a wonderful creative eye and was responsible for many legendary fashion spreads. An incredibly larger than life character bursting with humor and charm, her interviews were laugh-out-loud funny but also interspersed with incredible original footage and some very famous talking heads. Born in Belle Epoque Paris, she lived through some of the most glamorous stylish eras in all of the worlds most fashion forward cities. She started her career as a columnist at Harper's Bazaar and went on to become editor-in-chief at Vogue. Vreeland reinvented herself as this darling of the fashion crowd and had a huge celebrity following which went from fashion to Hollywood. Full off beautiful imagery and witty one-liners the film is a must see and a reminder of all the fabulous people and trends in past decades!

fashionable forgiveness

Taylor Swift always seemed a nice girl in full of feminine innocence with her Prairie style. Neither her music, nor personal style are my cup of tea but she always seems a nice girl. This is why my jaw hit the floor with shock, horror and sympathy while watching the Kanye West fiasco at the 2009 VMAs. My huge wave of mortification for her moment being so publicly snatched was counter balanced with Kanye-cringe for the spectacle he made of himself as well as the Beyonce butt-kissing. It was one of those notorious showbiz moment that has become an example of Live TV gold. It can be seen as a cautionary tale that fame + too much alcohol + a platform in a room full of celebs = ego explosion. Kanye mistakenly thought he had the right to play music God deeming the little country girl less worthy/talented than Bey the soul goddess, and was technically sucking up to his best mate's bird. Thus embarrassing himself, falling out of favour with the very star he tried to defend (as if Beyonce 'Independent Woman' Knowles needed his help). In his favour, in many ways I think this was probably the most interesting thing to happen to Taylor Swift's otherwise vanilla career. I'm sure they have since made up (maybe he sent her a weighty gold pendant and some Hennessy in the mail) but nonetheless seeing Swift wear Kanye's KW range in Harper's Bazaar made me smile to myself. This was a smart editorial, PR stunty move - Kanye wants the fashion honchos he so admires to know that the VMA debacle is water under the bridge and relieve his coscience, and Taylor can show she is a classy lady who doesn't hold a grudge.

FROM THIS

TO THIS

It's Not Fair and I think you're Really Mean

May I start by saying that I am not a Lily Allen fan. She has a habit of wearing clothes that don't suit her and her music grates on my ears. I think for the most part she is classic of today's talentless and gobby youth who got her big break by being the daughter of someone vaguely famous who was equally gobby and talentless. Yet here at LolitaLoves I tell it like it is and whilst I was not enjoying her recent fore into pantless territory (which should be monopolised by Gaga). And I also felt slightly embittered given her recent position as the face of Chanel. But this post is to acknowledge her ever-evolving style. I did quite enjoy her tongue in cheek experimentation at Glasto '09 with purple and bleach blonde wigs. And she has worn some killer jumpsuits recently. In the January 2010 issue of Russian Harper's Bazaar, (photographed by Alan Gelati) I think she looks amazing! Check her out doing 'sexy' and see what you think: