Nov 10

2015

While I’m a fan of men in tweed jackets virtually anywhere I see them, as a woman I always felt that wearing tweed in the city was just too rustic a look for me. I indulged my attraction to them once or twice – I remember picking up a brown and cream herringbone one at the flea market about ten years ago, but it just sat there in my closet untouched until I admitted defeat and gave it away. Now that I live in the countryside however, I am free to move full steam ahead in my enthusiasm for tweed. For my 40th birthday last year, Christopher gave me a custom-made hacking jacking. Slightly intimidated by the expense, I went fully classic – a black and grey Harris tweed in a slightly feminized version of a traditionally masculine style. She is a thing of beauty – my jacket, that is – beautiful shape, perfect fit, well-considered details. But I am now craving something less conventional to add to the mix – maybe an oversized mens-style jacket with the sleeves rolled up? Or perhaps something even more fitted and feminine and stylised? When I’m on the farm I’d like something roomy enough that I can throw on over a sweater and drive in comfortably. But then when I join my husband to go on the occasional shooting weekend, I love the thought of channelling the more retro girly shapes from the 1930’s – matching jacket and skirt with maybe a bit of a hairstyle and some makeup. You get the look, right? As I want something authentic and non-fashion-y I’m determined to find something at a vintage shop. We’ll see what I come up with.


Sep 17

2012

I ♥ Your Style: Princess Diana, part 4

Chances are you’ve all seen these photos many times, as have I. But in the context of looking at Diana’s style over her lifetime, they are a very important conclusion. The way I see it, these photos, taken just 5 months before she passed away, were a hint of what we would have seen next in Diana’s life: a happier, independent and grown up woman who was finally free from the life that so rigidly defined her. It’s as if in the photos from the decade before she was playing a role, and in these pictures she is finally able to just be herself...


Sep 13

2012

I ♥ Your Style: Princess Diana, part 3

So the third significant phase of Diana’s fashion legacy is definitely questionable to some. But this is how I see it: Everyone has a very personal relationship to personal style. We all have our own tastes, experiences, physical features, ambitions and life circumstances that heavily impact the way we present ourselves to the world. Would I ever want to dress the way Princess Diana did in the 80’s. NO WAY!! Do I think she created a signature look that worked for her life as a princess and entertained the rest of us all at once...


Sep 12

2012

I ♥ Your Style: Princess Diana, part 2

I most personally relate to Princess Diana when she was newly married. Her style was still classic English but she was just starting to elevate her look a bit with a puffed sleeve shoulder, oversized sunglasses, a rather large hat, or bolder patterns. There is also a bohemian feeling in her clothes at this moment (inevitably left over from the 70’s) that fades out later on in her life. But it’s the softness of her look during this time – her shaggier hair, her relaxed body language, her shy but sincere smile that moves me the most...


Sep 11

2012

I ♥ Your Style: Princess Diana, Part 1

Princess Diana has been a style icon of mine since she married Prince Charles in 1981 and remained so until her very sad and premature death. She started off as a young natural beauty, typically English in every way. I think my attraction to her began because she actually looked very much like my mother – in coloring, in bone structure and in hairstyle. There was also the fact that she was a princess, and what 7 year old girl can resist a princess?..