Fabfrocks reads: Ralph Lauren

I think i've mentioned before that less than 20 miles from my parents house is a town called Horncastle which is famed for its antique shops, junk-antique shops, and second hand book shops. On Friday we went for a walk round: it is one of my favourite things to do when go home!

In one of the book shops I picked up a couple of novels for a pound a piece, and this incredible massive hardback coffee table book about Ralph Lauren for just £20:

It's so big and heavy I can't lift it on my own, but it is a truly beautiful book. It contains images of Ralph alongside pictures of his fashion and homewear campaigns, from his sketches to high profile campaigns, and frank biographic text about his life and his work. I was so pleased to have found it. I love reading about where designers have come from, their vision, and how both these things inform where they're going. Also, without sounding too much like the girls from Friends, Ralph is a somewhat attractive man!

It's visually spectacular, and luxurious and one of those books that you keep going back to and finding new images to become obsessed with:

When i'm looking at the book I can't help but run my hands over the pages Although it isn't a style I adopt myself, I love the clean and preppy Ralph Lauren aesthetic especially the homewears; I have RL sheets, and they are so soft and pretty. I think I also have a soft spot for Ralph because he is my Grandad's favourite designer and he wears him always; from his jackets to his pajamas. He loved the book too when I showed it him on Saturday.

I had scheduled posts over the weekend but now i'm back on real-time, and posting should resume as normal. Hope you all had a good break!

Love Tor xx

Fabfrocks reviews: The little guide to vintage shopping

I don't usually do book reviews here (other than occassionally insist that Nell Dunn is a queen and you all go and read Up the Junction immediately!) but maybe I should: fashion and literature are my two biggest passions and I spend my BA and MA dissertations combining the two. I don't know why I haven't done it before, but i've decided that (very occassionally) I will: only books about fashion of course (or books with interesting fashion overtones). I'll leave the serious book reviews to WendyB!


When the little guide to vintage shopping by Melody Fortier arrived on my doorstep a couple of weeks ago, I was immediately impressed by how it looked and felt. I know you can't judge a book by its cover, but if you could then this one would be a winner: it looks like the cover has been made from a very beautiful vintage fabric which has been embroidered: the photo really doesn't do it justice!
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Melody Fortier is a lifelong vintage enthusiast, as well as a vintage buyer and seller, and her knowledge and passion for the subject is immediate from the very first page. She has a shop, a website, a blog, and is clearly in love with what she does!
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I love buying vintage and owning unique pieces, but because of the long and busy hours I work, I find I rarely have the time to do it. (Note to most London vintage stores: please don't close at 5.30pm when most people are still slaving away in their offices!) I also find that I struggle to value the pieces i'm looking at: is that dress really worth £50, or is it a 80s piece from Marks and Spencers (still good, but plentiful on a car boot sale for a couple of pounds!) This book answers all those questions and more. The knowledge the book imparts ranges from how to decide how old a garment is to how to tell if it will fit you; how to care for the garment once you've purchased it to how to alter and modernise your new purchases.


The text is also interspered with some fabulous illustrations of any kind of vintage garment you can imagine; from shoes and hats to underwear and jewellery.
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The book is informative as well as a pretty good read (particularly if you have an interest in history and the history of clothes - it isn't a novel!), and perfect for dipping in and out of whenever you need to know anything about your vintage shopping: The measuring illustrations and guides for prices and eras in table form are particularly useful. There is also a pretty useful section on buying on eBay: perfect for webheads like us (well, like me at least!)
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Overall I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in shopping vintage and wants to know more or as a go-to guide for somebody already dabbling in the vintage game. As it is an overview though, I wouldn't recommend it for someone who is already serious and knowledgable about their vintage! As a casual vintage partaker, it is definitely a book I am happy to have on my shelf.
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Love, Tor x

Style, naturally....

Wowzers, I can't believe I took a 12 day blogging hiatus without even intending to; so unlike me! (cue loud guffaw!)

Basically, I took a week off work to sort out our lovely new house; painting everything brilliant white, building endless flatpack, hemming tableclothes and taking up curtains (it's an exciting life isn't it?) and during all this activity BT were supposed to connect my internet. Only they didn't; Damn you BT! Damn you to the burning fires! This means that I am internet free until February 25th. Who would've thought just a few years ago that being without internet for a couple of weeks would feel like having your arms cut off?? However, despite the lack of internet at home, I am going to try to persevere and blog everyday. I love it!

Also this week, amist the homebuilding activity (photos to follow when i'm happy with everything, honest!) I received an invitation. Telling you about this will form the basis of this post....is the suspense building yet?!

Well if it hasn't, tough, because i'm going to tell you anyway! On Friday 20th February (this Friday in fact) Myself and my sister Amie, whom as always is designated guest, are going to the launch of Summer Rayne Oakes book Style, Naturally. And suddenly the post title made sense!

As well as a book launch, the event is a fashion show as it will encorporate prophetik designs A/W 09 runway show. Prophetik are a sustainable fashion company, and most of there designs are in fairtrade cotton; they seem nicely made, and there message is admirable, but the designs themselves are very mainstream for my personal tastes (although I do like that Chanel style cardigan!):

Still; I'm soo excited!

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I haven't read the book, so I have no idea how good it is, and I would never lie to you about these things dear reader! However, as it launched in New York last week (the launch party was held at the Stella MacCartney boutique!) if you have read it, let me know what you thought! And if you're based in London and you'd like to read it, see below:

Oh and as an aside, Summer Rayne has a really good website and blog if your interested in sustainable fashion. Which I am, provided it still looks good: looking good is king! But if you can look good and not add to global warming or rely on child labour then all the better.

Oh and another aside (the final one, I promise!) is it just me or is Summer Rayne too good to be true?? She's stunningly gorgeous, and a model and she does charity work, and promotes sustainablity. So she's beautiful and a good and selfless person!? If I wasn't invited to her party I might jealously hate her a little bit....

Love Tor

PS - What the hell does one wear to a book launch party!??

xx

Reasons to be cheerful....One, Two, Three!

Hello all,

Still no internet connection in Chateux de Tor, so I am squirrelling this down in my lunch hour. Mostly because I want to cheer everyone up! Winter is fast approaching, and everyone seems pretty SAD about it (see what I did there?)

When I got out of bed this morning it was still dark. It will be heading towards darkness when I finally make my way home tonight. And to top it all off I finally packed away all my pretty summer dresses last night and buried them in a suitcase under my bed, never to see light again (until next spring, anyway!) But is this making me blue? Am I sitting frantically under a sun lamp or applying fake tan in fever pitch denial? No I am not. And here are my 3 reasons why:

1. Winter is cold.

Yup, and that's a good thing. The colder it is the more clothes you have to wear to keep warm. And more clothes mean coats, glorious coats. And fashion layering potential galore.

Love the masculine oversized cut of this quadruple breasted (!) burberry coat.

Baggy, shapeless, it shouldn't work: but I love the cocoon coat!

Layer it up like a gossip girl. So preppy and cute: those pom pom ice skates will be mine!!

2. Winter is dark


The nights of sitting outside in beer gardens are over my friends. But i've got a better way for you to spend your winter evenings. Oh yes! Read books, lots of books.....books about fashion (no, not Tranny and Susannah) Here are the ones I want to get my mitts on:


Out Now: ABC of Mens Fashion, Hardy Amies

03/11/08: Fashion: Concept to catwalk-Studies in fashion, Olivier Gerval

07/11/08:Fashion victims: The catty catalogue of stylish casualties, from a-z, Micheal Roberts


3. Winter means Christmas!!

And halloween, and bonfire night, the 4 nights of advent, and lots of other reasons to get dressed up, dressed down, wrap up warm and hang out with your friends and family. This Wednesday my Mum and sister are coming down to the big smoke for a soujourn around Harrods Christmas world.

We're going to hit the shops (all wrapped up warm) escape the cold with gallons of tea and scones, and look forward to the long Christmas holidays, when we all get to be together again.


Santa, presents, and snuggling under a blanket with a good book whilst it snows. If those aren't reasons to be cheerful then I don't know what are!



Love,

Tor

Dresses, Books, and Books about Dresses.......

I’ve always hated the phrase ‘Chick lit’. Originally I think it was intended to make reading women authors the new ‘rock n roll’ but to me all it does is tie up women into a ball off fluffy confused unintelligent material that conforms to the cliché of what women read and write. And anyway, there’s nothing wrong with the old rock n roll. To be engulfed in a genre which is dominated by your gender and not your material (it’s always Chick before Lit) is scary and overbearing. Women are pigeon-holed in a way that just doesn’t happen to men: how often do you hear anyone use the phrase ‘Dick Lit’? As a female writer you don’t just represent yourself: you represent everyone who doesn’t have a penis.



Similarly condemned as an awkward subsector of ‘Chick Lit’ (kind of like Chick Lit’s uncomfortable socially unaware cousins) are books about fashion. They are rarely reviewed; treated like Prince Phillips indiscretions and never discussed in polite company; dismissed as frivolous, picture heavy tomes of insignificance for vapid girls. What makes things even worse is that sometimes, more than sometimes, it’s true. That extra half inch by Victoria Beckham anyone? Perhaps if she actually lost that extra half inch she’d disappear, leaving only a pair of Louboutin stilettos and a cloud of make up. Maybe she could take everyone that bought the book with her. We can only hope.



Fashion is my passion (I’m a poet and I know it) but that doesn’t mean I want to read about how Trinny and Susannah would dress my body. (And no, I don’t want to be called pear shaped!) Those two creatures are constantly on the bestsellers list with their hardbacks full of insults and bad advice, and it gives fashion publications a bad name. Scouring through my local Waterstone’s (or any other reputable book store,of course!) for something fashion related and yet not mind-numbing to read, I was beginning to despair that fashion had finally forsaken me. And then I discovered Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution by Caroline Weber.



Don’t worry, this isn’t about to turn into a condescending book review (It was supposed to be another of my famous rants) but this book does represent everything a good fashion tome should be. Intelligent, historically grounded, interesting and beautiful! The book focuses on what the Queen wore from the day she left Austria to the day she put her head on the block. The attention to detail is a wonderful surprise with fabric, texture and pattern described in almost reconstructable detail. Her love of fashion and dressing up and dressing down and, well, dressing, is opulently documented and lusciously illustrated- Masked balls, high hair, faux country girl clothes: enough unintentional style tips to ‘do’ regency glam for a month!



Weber demonstrates that Marie Antoinette’s fashion obsession was for the sake of self assertion, and her unique point of view on the rise and fall of an original style icon is intelligent, well researched and exciting to read. She also asks some pretty key questions: Was Marie Antoinette more than elaborate dresses and very white powder? (The answer by the way is Yes) and do clothes make a woman? (I know the answer is no but secretly want it to be yes!). Maybe ask me next week once by brocade coat has arrived and I’ve perfected the high hair and powder look!