Vogue's Fashion Night Out Moves to Manchester

Hi guys,
I have been attending Vogue's Fashion Night Out for years: hitting the shops of Bond Street and fingering clothes I couldn't afford whilst dancing to trendy DJs. Eating candyfloss in River Island. Drinking endless delicious free cocktails: it's a great night out for fashion addicts, and a great time to go shopping if you're looking to make some new purchases and want to bag some decent discounts. But until this year it was an event that always held it's UK night out in London: not this year though. This year Vogue's Fashion Night Out is moving to Manchester!

So what's happening in Manchester on Fashion Night Out this year? Well, more than 160 city centre shops, bars, galleries and restaurants have signed-up and will be open late into the night, offering exclusive trend parties, designer personal appearances, customisations, fashion shows, celebrity appearances and much more. I would've liked to head up and check it out myself, but I am going to be on holiday.
So if you're heading up and looking for bargains/freebies what will you find? Cath Kidston is hosting a 20th birthday cocktail tea party with a free tea leaf reading with every purchase, while Whistles will be offering clutch bag monogramming. Guests can enjoy exfoliating hand and arm massages at Molton Brown. ‘Wreck My Dress’ will also be positioned at Molton Brown’s St. Ann’s store to take snapshots of guests at a mini photo shoot.

There will be a live pop-up photo shoot in store at H&M, as well as a high street A/W fashion show and super-sized digital tweet wall within Manchester Arndale. Keep a look out around the city for a Selfridges host giving out gift cards loaded with a mystery amount from £5-£50. Oh, and my favourite standard London event will be making the move, as M&S offer their free proscecco bar. Yummy!

Will you be at Vogue's Fashion Night Out this year? And what do you think about the move 'up north'?

Love Tor x

Shop: Celebrate Vogue's Online Fashion Week with big discounts!

Hi guys,
Vogue's Online Fashion Week started today, and runs until Friday 7th December. Loads of big brands are getting involved in the event and offering big discounts just perfect for either Christmas shopping or (even better) picking out that perfect Christmas party dress. Here are some of the great deals available this week:

- Baukjen are offering 50% off the top two LBD’s on their site: The Sleeveless Drape Dress and The Asymmetric Neck Dress perfect for the party season. They're also offering 25% off the category ‘Vogue Online Fashion Week’ on their website and Free Delivery with the code VOGUE25. You can take advantage of these fantastic offers by visiting Baukjen.com and entering the code VOGUE25 at the checkout.

- Henry Holland are offering 15% off their winter wardobe essentials: think cozy scarfs and chunky knits (view the collection here.) To take advantage of this offer just enter the code VOGUEOFW in at the checkout. The deal is running all the way through until Friday.

-  This is a deal you'll have to act fast on if you want to take advantage of it, as it isn't running all week. But Jigsaw is offering 10 per cent off all online orders until midnight tonight as part of Online Fashion Week by entering VOGUEOFW at the checkout when you pay. Every shopper will also be automatically entered into a prize draw to win a cashmere scarf.

- Finally, that online favourite ASOS is offering 20 per cent off their ASOS Collection range by entering the code PARTY20 at check out. This is my favourite offer of all of the ones I've found so far (I really like the ASOS Collection stuff) and again, this deal runs until Friday, giving you plenty of time to pick the pieces you want.

I'm sure loads of other great deals will also pop us as the week progresses: I'll be tweeting all of the best ones, so make sure you're following me on twitter to keep up to date with all the Online Fashion Week bargains.

Love Tor xx

Vogue's Fashion Night Out: Two days to go!

Hi guys,
For the third year in a row,Thursday marks the latest of Vogue Fashion's Night's out. These have been a great success in recent years, and let's face it, if our high streets needed a little helping hand at any time, then it's now. And the evening supports the charity Kids Company, so it's a win-win situation really!

Vogue's Fashion Night out gives shoppers the chance to take part in exclusive events, mingle with celebs and watch great entertainment, and snap up some special designs, made just for the event. The events will be happening in cities around the world, but the focus of the UK's efforts will be in London.

Looking for a fun event to go to? Here's a list of some of my faves:

7 For All Mankind: Cocktail Party and DJ Set, 7 For All Mankind store, 171 Regent Street, from 6pm.

Etro: Cocktail Party and exclusive Paisley T-Shirt, Etro store, 14 Old Bond Street, from 6pm.

Nails Inc: New product Showcase at the South Molton Street flagship store, and special offers including free mini manicure and mini polish collection with purchases at Nails Inc House of Fraser Oxford Street Fenwick Bond Street, Debenhams and John Lewis Oxford Street.

Twenty8Twelve: Prize draw to win a Twenty8Twelve dress. Twenty8Twelve store, St Martin's Courtyard, from 6pm

Uniqlo: Launch of the final +J collection for AW11, with +J goody bags to the first 100 customers. Uniqlo flagship store, 311 Oxford Street, from 6pm.

Topshop and Marks & Spencers are always keen supporters of the event, and always have lots going on in store too, so I think they're definitely worth checking out!

I'm so gutted that I'm going to have to miss it, but I have a work event that I just have to attend. Rub it in though, and tell me all about the fun you have on Friday! In the meantime, you can read about all the fun I had at Vogue's Fashion night out last year.

Love, Tor xx

My Vogue's Fashion Night Out

Hi Guys,
It was Vogue's fashion night out last night, and shops all over London were holding events for the occasion. I met with Jenny from The Style PA, and we started from Oxford Circus and worked our way around the shops; it was quite a mission! We started on the high street (Oxford Street) before heading to Bond Street, where they really know how to throw a party!

Most of the high street stores were hosting instore events; Oasis were holding a night of a thousand prizes, Warehouse were giving customers the opportunity to style models and win the outfits they picked, and River Island (shown above) had make up stands, a photo booth, and nail bar.

Pull and Bear embraced social media in a popular window display in which two bloggers were pitched against each other to style an outfit on models in the window, whilst the public looked on. The crowd were then given X stickers to put on the window of the bloggers outfit that they preferred. Of all the shops of Oxford Street I think this drew the biggest crowd.


In a moment of real surreality, one minute we were wandering along eating the most delicious cake pops I had ever tasted (courtesy of the gorgeous girl in Next, above) the next moment Jedward were running passed us at quite a speed: they were so quick I could only photograph the backs of their head (and I felt like a sad teenage fan doing it!) I have no idea which event they were heading too. After this we heading to Selfridges where we drank mini bottles of Champagne, and had our photos taken in the Chanel photo booth. (Click the link to see the photos!)


Both high street and high end stores opted for "living mannequins" as their window displays, with both Zara and Daks choosing this for their entertainment (shown above). We also went to Burberry (where we lusted after several coats), McQueen (where we lusted after everything), and DKNY, where we reminisced about the terrible DKNY purchases of our youth, and drank the most delicious cocktails; however by this stage I was having too much fun to remember to take photos! It was a great night out, and i'm already looking forward to next year.

What did you guys do for Fashion Night Out? Do you have any fun stories to share?

Love, Tor xx

Vogue's fashion night out: Marks and Spencer style!

If you would like to read about what went on in the fancy pants stores of London Town on Vogue's fashion night out, then I would suggest you checked here, here, or here.

.

I'm more of a highstreet kind of girl myself, and because the details of the topshop event didn't hold much interest, I spent most of my evening with the store that could arguably be described as the queen of the British high street: Marks and Spencer.

.

M&S went all out, and put on quite a show: you could enter the store through a special red carpeted catwalk entrance (see below) and the evening saw catwalk shows (with goody bags for the VIPs that won tickets with their shopping) trend workshops, champagne and nibbles and little boots behind the DJ booth; quite a lot of entertainment from one store, i'm sure you'll agree!!

.

I exhausted my camera by taking photographs in Primark (see yesterdays posts) so I didn't get any images of the best of the action, but here is the entrance, the catwalk primed for action and the free champagne bar:

I also fell in love with this barbie pink leather dress from the new M&S limited collection. The colour is awesome, it had a leopard print lining and it was as soft as butter. I think I could rock it! If only £149 could magically land in my lap....

The rest of the night was equally fun; the whole of Oxford Street had an unusual air of excitement about it. As I walked past La Senza I realised the mannequin in the window had been replaced by a model: I only realised this when she frightened the life out of me by winking at me! Outside Selfridges was a freezing cold looking (but very beautiful!) Agent Provocateur model drawing quite a crowd and I had one of those surreal "zoolander" moments, because just yards away from her was a crowd of protestors. It's not for me to say whether they were wrong or right, but I did snigger to myself as the line "it's not right at these events; ugly protesters bothing beautiful people" popped into my head. It really is one of my favourite films! I then popped down to topshop for a handful of yummy cadburys chocolates (and to return a torn dress- boo!) before heading home.

Anyway there it is; my fashion night out in all of its glory. It might not have been full of glamour, but it was full of fun!!

Love, Tor xxxx

Only two weeks to go.....

...until we can all rush to the cinema to see the September Issue (yay)....unless of course you're reading this in America (or at least New York) where you get to see it much sooner. Grrrr, damn you all (i'm shaking my fist angrily!)
.
I saw the trailer for the first time today and it looks like it's going to be awesome; reality tv that is actually real, a sneak peek in the most important magazine and the most important person in fashion, and lots of laughs (because you have to laugh at all these people who take themselves sooo seriously!)
.
Check it out for yourself:

.
I love the way the movie unquestioningly positions AW (yup, i'm giving her initials!) as a demi-god; all together now, swoop and bow! Oh, and what the hell does "September is the January of Fashion" actually mean??? Either way, I can't wait to watch the movie and find out!
.
Love, Tor x

ASOS have taken over the world!

Hi Guys,

First we fell in love with the cheap celebrity copies on "as seen on screen" (the quality wasn't that great though) then those clever folks over there at the as seen building started a blog, they changed the company name into into simply ASOS and introduced more premium brands and great designer ranges that made them a first-stop online shopping experience. THEN.....

they followed net-a-porter who introduced the outnet by introducing "ASOS red", the ASOS outlet with up to 70% off not just their own stuff, but top brands too (that is where the Irregular Choice tassled shoes of yesterday's post came from, if you're interested. Then finally...

...today, when i thought they couldn't do anymore, I noticed a banner ad on vogue.co.uk for ASOS kids (!) A new collection of high street and designer wear for babies, boys, and girls.

.

The range features my least favourite thing in the world (little girls dressed provocatively as tiny little hookers) but with some of these ranges, I suppose that can't be helped. I'm no expert on baby or children's wear, so i'm not about to review, but the range seemed fairly extensive, so it might be worth checking out.

.

Meanwhile ASOS are in their evil ASOS tower plotting to take over Starbucks, MacDonalds.... and create a whole new website called ASOS Pets. And the scary thing is, i'm probably not joking. Tiny chihuahua, here I come...

.

Love, Tor

It never rains, it pours.

This is the view from my bedroom window and bedroom windows all over the country this morning. When I was at uni, we would've called this a snow day and abandoned all lectures in order to slide down a hill on a binliner or make a pornographic snowman. However, sadly it isn't the snow that has stopped me from blogging this weekend.

On Friday I went down with the flu. And I don't mean a cold masquerading as the flu. I mean a dehabilitating, lying in bed feeling like I might die kind of flu. So while children and students everywhere are outside enjoying the snow, i'm looking out of my window wishing the aching would stop and generally feeling sorry for myself. I have a backlog of sales photos to upload and analyse, so bear with me, and hopefully i'll feel well enough to write coherently this afternoon or tomorrow.

In the meantime, here's the cover of Vogue from June 1934 to remind us of summer and warm us all up:

I wish I could say I feel a little bit better already!

Love Tor x

Street Eeek!

Is it just me, or has the quality of vogue.co.uk's street chic daily wear feature gone, well, really really down hill?

Now I know that style is subjective, and one woman's 'blah' is another woman's dream come true. But it seems like the criteria for being featured has stopped being "must be wearing a really great outfit" and started being "must have legs like a new born colt".

Take the following as prime examples each taken from vogue.co.uk this week; all nice outfits and i'm sure wonderful women wearing them (if this is you, please don't send me any hate mail!) but not exactly what you would call vogue worthy, fashion forward outfits:

I know vogue.com isn't famed for its love of street stylings ala the facehunter, but that doesn't mean that season old styles worn in unimaginative ways should grace their site, does it? There are hundreds of women wearing these outfits heading in and out of my office every day, and i'm sure most of them don't give two hoots about fashion! (oh dear! minor bitchy moment it seems!)

.

Who knows, maybe, like me the vogue photographer hasn't quite got round to buying their new winter coat yet, and they're covering this feature guerilla style (straight in and straight out, as quick as you can!) until the sun comes out again. I'd rather believe this than that the fashion magazine i've trusted since my youth has started (say it quietly..) getting it wrong!

I just hope that doesn't mean I have to keep waiting for the quality of my daily fix to improve until spring, or more realistically if we're waiting for some sunshine, July!

Lots of love,

Tor xx

Once upon a time....

Fashion has become a fairytale. Of course, it always was one to me, but this is my headline and i'm sticking to it!

In my 7, 123, 398 point list about why I love fashion, over the past month especially I have noticed another point to stick on the list; fashion always makes everything a little bit better. Take todays economic climate for example; people are losing their jobs, worried about how to pay their electricity bills and whether they'll be able to put a turkey on the table on December 25th. Can fashion take away these worries? Make couture free to boost moral? No it can't. So how is that weird and wonderful world we call fashion making everything seem better? By encouraging us to forget. To enter another world where everything is OK, and only beautiful things exist. No more black or utilitarian for us: Alice in Wonderland, Snow white and cinderella is where fashion is channelling itself now, and all to make us feel better. Now that's what I call selfless!

Take Nick Knights unbelieveable fashion photoshoot for Decembers Vogue as a prime example:

In amongst the fluff and froff I am seeing ladies dressed up for the mad hatter's tea party, cinderella's ball, and snow white's wedding to the handsome prince.

Still not convinced? Try Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton's upcoming offering Alice in Wonderland:

OK, so he looks as gothic as usual, but who can resist a chance to look at photos of Johnny Depp?

I'm still not giving up on the fairytale thing though! This phenomena has even spread to the highstreet! Last night I dragged the boyfriend begrudgingly down to topshop for a glimpse of the Gareth Pugh Christmas trees promised on topshop.com (which was not there but you can see it below!)...

...and whilst pointing at the things i'd quite like in my Christmas stocking instead (mostly sparkles and sequins and shiny shiny gold!) I took these photographs of the the latest window displays in topshop: OK, so I got the angles all wrong, but they are gorgeous mannequins perched on the Lion, the witch, and the wardrobe-style furniture which has been painted like a forest inhabited by an evil witch.

You can even play a topshop christmas fairytale game, and are pretty much guarenteed to win 10% off at the store I can't stop talking about (dear god, someone help me stop!) Who says there's no such thing as a fashion fairy god mother?

See? Fairytales and fantasy as far as the eye can see! Now lets all listen to fashion, stick our fingers in our ears chanting "lalala I can't hear you" and pretend to be princesses whilst waiting for this credit crunch "blip" to blow over. After all, i'm sure that's how they got through the recession in the twenties...Isn't it?!

Lots of love,

Tor x

Hero: Isabella Rossellini

Hello blogosphere,

I've been preparing this post for a little while because I wanted to do justice to my subject. Isabella Rossellini is beautiful, no duh. She's a wonderful actress with an eclectic career and she was a successful model with a famous Lancome contract and a bazillion Vogue covers to her name. This is not why I'm featuring her. No, Isabella Rossellini gets a whole post to herself not just because she's super stylish but because she is batshit crazy in the acest possible way.

Not in the diva way, unfortunately. This is an old Dolce and Gabbana campaign.

I am always on the lookout for obscure fashion-related literature so when Francine Prose alerted me to Rosellini's autobiography in her neato how-to book "Reading Like a Writer" (books about writing/reading are my porn), I cyber-schlepped over to Amazon Marketplace, paid a teeny £3 fee and lo! "Some of Me" appeared on my doormat two weeks later.

"Some of Me" as any person of substance will, know, is a play on Katherine Hepburn's autobiography "All of Me." It's so called because the author acknowledges, she ain't telling the truth for no-one:

It's a habit of mine to embellish and colour events until I lose sight of what really happened. Even when I was a child my grandmother had to say: "Verita o fantasia?" ---- "Truth or fantast?" If you want to eliminate my grandmother's kindness and to put it more bluntly, I lie. I always did.

Friends, this is the finest celebrity memoir I have ever encountered. Better then that one Groucho Marx tried to ban because he was old and drunk and bitched and libelled up the ying-yang. This book is chock full of glossy photos, famous ex-boyfriends, philosophy and batshit conversations she has with her dead father.

Even the glossy stuff of Rossellini as super-gorgeous model is undercut by humour and a sense of the macabre.

Caption: The first advert where I did not have to use the wax from the undertakers to fix my broken teeth.

Oh god, oh god, I love the beauty industry. And I love Isabella Rossellini even more. On reading in the New York Times about the pristine condition of Lenin's head as preserved by Doctor Sergei Lubov (the doctor was quoted: "If a pathologist looked at samples of skin from Lenin and a fresh corpse, he could not tell which is which, it is so well preserved."), Rossellini cut out the article and sent it Lancome with a note: "Doctor Debov may be of some use to us." But, she adds, I got no response.

Bitch has 28 Vogue covers to her name. 78% have surprised eyes.

And have we even talked about Martin Scorsese and David Lynch? She married Scorsese and dated Lynch for about 7 years. How would we even deal with that in our celebrity-obsessed culture? If it happened today, we'd be forced to refer to them by some awful amalgamation of their names. Scor-bella or Isnch or some shit.

Scorbella

Isnch

I really really have to do a "David Lynch Women" post - there's an insane amount of fashiony stuff to talk about in his films, his collaboration with Christian Louboutin and his latest adverts for Gucci perfumes. Still, this ain't his post, it's Isabella's and that bastard broke her heart. However, h did give her a couple of kick-ass roles in the meantime.

Dorothy in Blue Velvet - the film with "the severed ear in the heart of suburbia" as my A-Level film studies tutors were fond of saying INCESSANTLY

Perdita Durango in Wild At Heart

In addition to all of this eyebrow work, Lynch also gave Rossellini several pieces of his art. This one is my favourite - it's called "How to Assemble a Chicken"

I mean, don't you instinctively warm to a women who lovingly displays a rotted chicken carcass in her home? THAT'S frickin' style in my book.

However, among the many awesome attributes of "Some of Me,' one of the standout chapters concerns Isabella's obsession with insects' sex lives. Truly, I was edu-tained reading about spider masturbation, earthworm self-impregnation and snails that change gender.

"Don't think it was the frequent divorces, the homosexuality, the extra marital affais with the creation of half-brothers and sisters around the world all taking place within my family that forceme into being disrespectful of tradition and adopting unconventional attitudes. My pets helped a great deal. Once you've lived with dogs, cats, rabbits, birds, pig, you've seen it all.... Pets make you face the darkest, most hidden facts of nature. There have been sex crossings, species crossings, even sex with inanimate objects. Spanky, my pig, humped the living room furniture every night."

Isabella with Spanky and his canine companion.

This obsession this the sex lives of animals has taken a completely ace turn recently as Rossellini has just turned director and produced a number of shorts subtitled 'Green Porno' where she stars as a series of insects looking for love. The entire shorts aren't online but you can see an interview with clips here:

If this doesn't convince you that this woman is worthy of worship, then I don't know what to say to you. She dresses as a giant spider and simulates sex with a paper cut-out. What moe do you want? She's fearless, weird, cinema royalty* and she has a sensible haircut. A total out-and-out style hero.

Bug-out, friends,
Becky.


*if I have to tell you she's Ingrid Bergman's daughter, I'll cry.

Be on the cover of Vogue

OK, so it's only a bit of fun, but it strokes my ego and suits my vanity to show you my latest "kill some time" website. The internet really is an amazing invention: you can design your own frock, dress up a virtual character that looks just like you, and now appear on the cover of Vogue.



Magmypic.com does exactly what it says on the tin! You upload any picture you like and it is transformed, as if by magic, into the cover of your favourite magazine. And the best bit is, you can be the star!


You can choose from fashion bibles Vogue, Cosmo and (to a lesser extent) Seventeen, be a rock and roll star on the cover of Rollingstone, or appear on the front of loads of other magazines that i don't read: Time, Sports Illustrated, People, Fortune, the list goes on.

I always knew I had the potential to be a cover girl; if only someone had realised and picked me off the street ala Sophie Dahl. (sigh!)

I admit it might not be high-fashion or a completely grown-up pursuit, but it is a fun way to kill 10 minutes on a Sunday morning: I promise.

Love Tor

Liberal Media Conspiracy (plus ruffles)

Hello blogosphere,

Bloody The Guardian, bloody The Observer. I tell you there's nothing more pathetic than a grown woman with flu speedwalking the streets at 6.30 on a Sunday eve, glistening with snot and desperate to find one newsagent open that still has an Observer on sale. Usually, I wouldn't touch it or even think of putting myself in such a situation - the only good bits of The Guardian are Charlie Brooker and the Book section and I can read them online - but I was on a mission for fashion.

Now, as I've said before, The Guardian/Observer is also almost comically shit for fashion but, on my daily click to Style Bubble, I was greeted with news of February's fabled Topshop Diffusion range with Christopher Kane, Marios Schwab, Jonathan Saunders et al. More than news, friends - scans from the Observer Woman supplement. Much undignified soiling occurred.

However, I grew anxious - what if Susie Bubbl;e had only shown us an edited look at the page? I must! I must! see the whole thing, I cried! I rang round my hippie liberal friends to see if any of them had bought The Observer and disgustingly, none of them had. This includes Tor, by the way, who lists her political leanings on Facebook as "Very Liberal". No Observer on Sunday, Tor? Very Liberal? Hah! You are "Very LIES" and now everybody knows.

After a cold spasm-y run, I retrieved my prize from my favourite newsagent that never closes - Sunday trading laws can go to hell! Victory and glory await! I thought as I slumped on the sofa. But no. The shitty magazine and its shitty cheap paper gave us only 5 exclusive items and I had seen them all online. Susie Bubble has already scanned them but I'm doing it here on principle, because I bought the bloody bastard arse-face thing:

Top row,
Ugly ass glitter blazer with pockets that makes a mockery of all that is good and pure (£65)
Leather hooded jacket by Christopher Kane for Topshop (£250)
Grey Bodice front dress by Christopher Kane for Topshop (£85)
Bottom Row
Ruffle Dress by Richard Nicholl for Topshop (£75)
Black skirt with leather bodice belt by Christopher Kane for Topshop (£95)
Black Dress with Awesome Coloured Panel by Jonathan Saunders for Topshop (£75)

As always, click the pic to make it big. You'll enjoy better detail and the chance to see just how see-through the paper Observer Woman prints on happens to be. Scandal.

A publication with thicker shinier paper is in order, I think. February's British Vogue had the thoughtfulness to give us a catwalk supplement which held photographs of each of the Topshop Diffusion designers with their chosen model wearing one of their Topshop outfits. It's not much but it's at least a glimpse of the fabric texture:

Marios Schwab w/Clemence Posey
Hey, Schwab. Nobody spoons with Fleur Delacour except Bill Weasley (That was a courtesy to you, Harry Potter geeks - I had to look that shit up). It's a big shame we can't see more of the denim coat dress she's wearing. This is the only Marios Schwab for TS image I can find and I'm a bit disappointed with this, especially considering his dazzling insect-y S/S 08 collection .


Todd Lynn
Hmm. Shiny high street tuxedo jackets. It'll all depend on the quality of the material....Shirt's cute, however. Love me a pleat.


Louise Goldin
OB-sessed. I want this dress with my whole heart. Look at those dainty straps! Look!
It says here that this dress is supposed to be instore already....hm. No-show at topshop.com. Worrisome.



Christopher Kane
His little face. It's a nice close-up look at the jacket featured in the Observer spread - it looks a lot classier when you see it up close. I'm also delighted Sir Kane chose a girl who isn't a very slender nymphy model type. It's just like when he dressed Beth Ditto for Fashion Rocks. He's ace that way - now if only Browns.com stocked his main line in a size above 10...


Richard Nicoll
Very cute little dress in the pinstripe and although the ruffle design is somewhat similar to a Viktor & Rolf for H&M dress, the chiffon lifts it into a slightly more elegant, less whimsical place. Looks so much better than in the Observer picture, right? Right.

So there you have it. I am spent, visually at least.

Becky's picks:
The Christopher Kane bodice dress (no duh) - CK cuts for my body and I am well up for a little kinky medieval action.
Jonathan Saunders dress - Just because I think I deserve to wear the colours you see when you look at the sun too long.
Louise Goldin dress - Did you not see it? It's so rare the high street customer gets access to that kind of flair with colour. Gotta jump.

Okay, so let the donations and charity car-washing begin!

Your pal,
B.

Weeny-tiny New Year Vogue

Hello friends,

Eva Green came through my letter-box this morning. It was a cheering thing, her all decked in new season Prada and whatnot. Trouble is, she was looking a bit slim for my liking though of course I don't blame her. Movie stars are beyond reproach in all matters - the US court system has proved this time and again. Nah, it ain't Eva Green's fault her issue is so slender - this wussy New Years edition of Vogue comes in at 201 pages and a featherweight 500g/1lb 40z.

This is disastrous news in a world where a successful fashion magazine needs enough advert-stuffed heft to make it uncomfortable to read in the bath and robust enough to kill an average rodent at close-range. As is always the case, Conde Nast shot its editorial wad on the Christmas issue (Sienna Miller - super sparkly) and all that's left for new years is the leftovers from the "Glamourous One-Name Models and their Glamourous Lives" photoseries (Dec was Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Lily Cole and Sasha Pivovarova and for Jan we get Agyness Deyn, Lily Donaldson and Lily Cole *again*). No real articles of note - "Can you Buy Sleep?" *that's* your cover line, Vogue? Well, yeah. Apparently I can buy sleep for £3.70 at all good newsagents and a bog standard year's round-up.

Still, at least we get some Gallic pouting. Look at that lovely sulky gothy French face. Eva Green is one of my favourite event dressers. She is invariably styled like a haute couture crazy cat lady and I love her tenderly for that.

-- at the BAFTAs in Dior with awesome witch hair.

Still, this cover is a little disappointment. I super dig the Prada floral action but the pose is so Hollywood generic and she looks, frankly, a little uncomfortable. I think this shot from her photoshot is easily the one in which she looks most at ease and it's also a genuine departure from the glam-goth thing that magazine stylists usually do for her.

She's got a naughty 50s farm girl thing going on that everyone can enjoy. That is, until I get the cease and desist order from the publishers. Like pixellated scans could even come close to a magazine copy. I'm not ashamed to admit that I get a little Proustian rush when my copy galumphs on the doormat, whether it's a vintage issue or not. Today, my copy smells of faded Flowerbomb, expensive paper and spilt tea. Surely surely surely February will reward our ongoing special relationship.

Also, can I have this?

Louise Gray, my snotty tissues and small change would never be so stylishly held but for a garment such as this. Plus, pink - am I right?

I'm right.

Your pal,
Becky.