The Hip Report

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The New York Metropolitan Museum of Art’s annual Gala was held this past week with the most interesting part of it always being the red carpet procession in to the event. Hollywood royalty, designers, models, members of the fashion media and who knows who else with a pedigree, convened to enjoy a night, that Gwyneth Paltrow described as ‘…boiling, unfun, and crowded’ and one she firmly stated that– ‘she is never going to again.’

Wow. Guess you and I didn’t miss much, what with our invitations apparently being lost in the mail…

All that aside, the theme if you haven’t heard already, was “Punk: Chaos to Couture.” If you ask me, this year’s theme had great potential to be a serious fashion disaster for the attendees. And it was.

I do think this gala had the ugliest red carpet looks of any to date. Problem is, punk isn’t necessary attractive and trying to make oneself look beautiful, photogenic, stylish, sexy and high fashion with that as the theme–well, it’s pretty tough without turning to Alexander Mc Queen for some help. It’s ironic Anna Wintour  as the grand dame of the evening, completely wimped out. She wore a flowered pink Chanel couture gown, saying that she represented the punk theme via the hot pink flowers in the dress ‘because hot pink was a big color in the punk world.’ Is she serious? Omg. That woman. She is a nutter.

Of course you’ve heard how dreadful Kim Kardashian looked in her Givenchy. She looked like the flowered bolts of fabric I used to see (and rejected)  in the ’70′s at JoAnn Fabric with my mom when we’d go to select material for the school dresses she made me. I’m not even going to waste my time nominating her.

There were so, so many hideous dresses that night, I just don’t even know where to start. And I won’t. And wouldn’t you know,  Gwyneth, our one sure bet, the one girl on the red carpet we can usually always count on for a pleasurable sigh when we see what she’s wearing, looked dowdy in that boring, boxy gown by Valentino. (Go to her blog www.goop.com to see her saga of ‘the dress.’) Anyway, even she let us down.

So because I have no idea where to start, I will just present simply, the best and worst dressed for the night:

Worst dressed for the night goes to the Beyonce, Honorary Chairperson of the event. Her Givenchy gown looked like draperies for a mob wife’s gaudy house. The gold, yellow and orange (???)  baroque pattern smattered on her dress, boots and gloves were so far from Sid Vicious it was non sensical. I can end this right now by saying it was a non-punk, ugly dress on a beautiful woman.

The Best Dressed award enthusiastically goes to Sarah Jessica Parker whose ensemble was as close to the intent of the evening as you could get without looking like a complete nit wit. A gorgeous Mohawk headpiece by Phillip Treacy, perfectly punk-inspired Giles Deacon gown, Louboutin plaid boots (a nod Parker said, to the plaid and flannel look of that era) jewels by Fred Leighton and ‘old junk she had around the house’ made her a feast for the eyes. Sarah gets a lot of heat about not being a classic beauty but your Hip Reporter thinks otherwise–she uses all she has to sublime effect.  She is made for couture–it’s often attitude, not just delicate, symmetrical looks–that make a woman a stunner in a couture gown. Her appropriate risk-taking in this instance made her memorable and the fashion star of the night.

Other hit and miss looks from the Gala, follow. Be careful some of these get-ups might burn your corneas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve been deciding lately that I love reading blogs that tell me something about the blogger and not just reporting on style trends they find compelling. So I decided to post my own questionnaire about yeah, me. I won’t subject you to barf overload but I thought it’d be fun for you to see what (useless?)  thoughts lurk deep in my mind other than reporting to about the best lipstick.  I’ll keep it short. (I know you want to go shine your shoes or clean the lint trap in your dryer.)

(Pictured: Me and hubby. Only he doesn’t want to be a blog star.)

Who has got the worst taste going today?

Kim Kardashian because there’s so much potential, so much money for so many beautiful clothes, so many red carpet chances, yet she consistently insists on being over the top with too tight clothes, dresses cut too low, too much leg, too much sequins and studs, too high shoes, too many cutouts–I could keep going but the picture below, speaks for itself.  She  just can’t leave anything to our imaginations and reel her impulses in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where am I most inspired?

Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia and at my friend Kelly’s home in Ohio.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who do I think is the most stylish woman in the world?

I have to plead two. Can I? It’s my questionnaire so yes I can.

My choices are on two ends of the spectrum–a safe one and a risk taker and surprisingly both are from England. The ‘safe’ choice is Kate Middleton. I love her restraint. In a world of Kei$has, Miley Cyrus’, and Rhiannas, Kate shines like a lighthouse beacon in the stormy, miserable, deep, deep sea of bad taste. Her proper (sometimes nerdy dare I say), dresses with those goofy LK Bennett nude pumps are just demure, ladylike heaven. Her make up is never garish even when she wears black eyeliner and her hair is always to die for except when she got those ‘fail’ bangs. I think what I love most about Kate is she’s true to herself as much as she can be in her restrictive position. The one thing I most wish to see her in: a sexy pair of high heeled sandals.

My risk taker is Poppy Delevigne, an English girl too. She’s just about the best mix-master out there with her skinnier than skinny pants, high heels, statement furs and jackets and the BEST shoe collection ever–evah! She can do what my girl Kate can’t: be daring because the Queen isn’t breathing down her back to represent the monarchy in a slightly musty, dowdy way. Poppy has all the best labels at her disposal but she’s no fashion victim. The way she can style an outfit puts even Rachel Zoe to some shame. And always to her credit, she keeps the girls and tush nicely covered.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who would I like to play me in a film about my life?

Kristen Wiig. She plays ‘hot messes’ with such hilarity and endearing charm. If she’d channel that playing me, she’d get me spot on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What’s my biggest fashion regret?

I am realllllly embarrassed to put this out there. But remember when Laura Ashley was big in the 80′s? I had Laura Ashley fever. I walked around from 1987 to 1989 looking like a chintz bedspread. And and a real nob.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What one thing would I like to wear but don’t have the courage?

An Alexander Mc Queen gown. I just don’t have the ‘big’ personality needed to pull off one of his couture pieces. And I’m thinking they’re really itchy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who do I think is the most stylish man?

Oh please. That requires no pause for thought. Tom Ford. Could there ever be any competition for this man while he’s alive?

I read where he walked in to a taco eatery in London and actually asked them to turn down the lights, then said, “Great. Now we all look more beautiful.”

He’s just it. That’s all. He’s just it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What one thing would I like to take with me when I die?

Other than my family, definitely my Ralph Lauren Home highboy. I cried when I got it. Yes, I did cry.

Sometimes I go in to my living room where it sits and I talk to it. It’s that beautiful. It just needs personally complimented now and then.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whose closet would you like to raid?

I actually have to go way, way back almost thirty years to a fellow dorm mate in college. Her name was Dana and she had fabulous taste. Hers was a cultivated, old money East Coast kind of taste, the kind that’s pretty hard to pull off without looking like a poser unless you’ve grown up in it all. I don’t know…it’s hard to explain. She just wore it all ‘different’ than anyone else. She moved ‘different’ in it.

Her ‘uniform’ most days included a Ralph Lauren throw away wool sweater (I loved her lime green or hot pink ones), a white button down underneath (Ralph Lauren)–untucked and hanging out, khakis, Maud Frizon flats from Paris (www.maudfrizon.com), some Barry Kieselstein-Cord jewelry and Opium perfume. In the spring months, the sweater was replaced by a Ralph Lauren polo in the brightest colors, never tucked in.

Back in 1981, she was impossible to beat. Thirty years later, no one I’ve ever met, has.

(By the way, in the picture up there of me, I have on a Kieselstein-Cord alligator ring, completely inspired by Dana back in the day.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who is my favorite designer?

You know, I asked my husband this question recently…who he’d say is my favorite designer. I thought hands down his answer would be Marc Jacobs. But it wasn’t.

He said, ‘Ralph Lauren’ and I asked him why he thought that since I am bonkers for Marc. His answer: ‘You’ve been in love with the Ralph Lauren lifestyle since you were in college. Thirty some years later, go look at your closet. Tell me who’s hanging in there.’

I did. He’s right. My answer: Ralph Lauren. He’s taken my wonderful America and all her lifestyles–the East Coast prep, the country dandy, the American West cowboy/Indian, the desert sojourner, nautical sailor, the leathered-up biker chick, the 1920′s flapper–you name it and he’s done a collection inspired by it all.

And I wanted to be Clotilde (below), Ralph’s 1980′s model. Up until that point in my life, she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. Other than my mom. x

I have taken great delight in reading lately, about Bergdorf Goodman’s preeminent personal shopper, Betty Halbreich who runs ‘Betty Halbreich Solutions’ on Bergdorf’s Third Floor.

A failing marriage proved to be a fortuitous catalyst for a budding career in fashion  in her 40′s. (She’s now 85.) Betty started working in the Geoffrey Bean boutique at Bergdorfs and eventually became a personal shopper to the stars and not so famous alike.

Her style is modern, appropriately tasteful and very enviably chic with a capital C-H-I-C. Think about it…how many 85 year olds’ taste do you actually envy? She gives inspiration to aging women– which come on ladies, really, isn’t that ALL of us? At a time when many women her age are acquiescing to orthopedic shoes, ill-fitting bras, elastic waistband pants and wearing prints bigger and quite frankly uglier than any human should be allowed to wear, Betty mixes high and low–a designer jacket with a $2 bracelet.

Just released in NYC and LA markets is the documentary,”Scatter My Ashes At Bergdorfs” featuring Halbreich and her inimitable career dressing women who arrive at her office with hang ups, body loathing, personal baggage, egos, and sometimes very questionable taste–even though Hollywood has crowned them a ‘star.’

As well, Lena Durham of “Girls” fame is currently developing a show for HBO about Betty and Bergdorfs. Here follow some “Betty-isms”– delivered with the wisdom and endearing honesty only an 85 year old style icon could get away with.

Lastly, I beg of you to take about two minutes to watch this interview of her by American designer Issac Mizrahi. You just can’t get enough of Betty. What woman at her age when asked by designer Issac Mizrahi what to pack on a trip to Paris, says, “Mc Queen.”

Go to:

http://www.frequency.com/video/get-scattered-isaac-mizrahi-betty/93296762/-/5-2014

Betty: “I don’t see the beauty [in the way people dress] I saw ten years ago but then again, all I see in my Park Avenue apartment is people in running clothes.”

Betty: “I walk to work part of the way and walk behind women in heels (the sky high ones) and I often wish I could go up and tap them on the backside and ask them, ‘Do you really know what you look like in those heels?’ I like kitten heels and a longer skirt.”

Betty: “You can’t find clothes today [made like they used to be made when I was younger]. All the beautiful fabrics don’t exist anymore, the artisans don’t exist any more. I can’t say that something was more beautiful today than before, when there are also beautiful, innovative things today. Otherwise I wouldn’t be in business.”

Betty: “I never name designers [I love] because otherwise I am a prostitute that way. Everybody does something good or we wouldn’t be carrying it. If they don’t they would fade away. You don’t know until you try them on [the designer clothes]. What’s on a hanger is not what you get on the body.”

Betty; “I get my hair cut at the cheapest place uptown.”

Betty: Favorite perfumes–Coty’s Lily of the Valley (available online at www.amazon.com)  and Eau La La by Edward Bess. (Available at www.edwardbess.com) Edward by the way, is a beautiful young man Betty took under her wing. He subsequently developed his own makeup, beauty and fragrance collection. It’s offered online and Neiman Marcus and Bergdorfs, of course. When Betty saw Edward for the first time in the aisles of Bergdorfs, she said to him, “Can I say something to you? You are the best looking human being I have ever seen.”

Betty: She’d tell a younger version of herself, “You have to get through the tough parts to get to the good place you are today.”

 

 

 

I first read The Great Gatsby in college back in the mid 1980′s. It really could not have been a more perfect setting to read this iconic F Scott Fitzgerald novel because like Gatsby’s world, mine at college in Michigan was full of very good looking people many of whom came from money by various means, most notably from the motor cars that drove the Motor City’s economy.  I felt a bit in my own ‘East Egg’ of sorts and understood what emotions were involved when you figured yourself to be an observer to the status and wealth around you. I felt like Nick, as he watched the East ‘Eggers’ doing their thing with their big lives and big bank accounts and good looks.

As it was, I devoured the book imagining the world of old money and exclusivity and flawed characters. I  saw through Fitzgerald’s mind what happens when there are undercurrents of dissatisfaction even a wealthy lifestyle cannot eradicate and the repercussions and chaos of sagging character and morality– no matter what one’s net worth might be.

I have always thought that it was very brave for Fitzgerald to pen The Great Gatsby.  It really exposed his own deep insecurities: never feeling he measured up, trying to be accepted, wanting to catch the eye of the most beautiful girl, never feeling he had enough money.

I have read The Great Gatsby a several times and every time I do, I love Fitzgerald more and more. He saw clearly that money and looks and notoriety were often a nonsensical pursuit, like playing with fire–but it was often too compelling to walk away from. And if you know about Fitzgerald’s life he got burned in real life wildly pursuing it all,  just like Gatsby.

I love nothing more than the 1920′s with the style and carefree swing of hips Charleston-ing, champagne glasses spilling,  drop waisted dresses glittering with crystals and sequins catching the evening moonlight on a mansion’s vast terrace and the chic simplicity of smoothed, bobbed hair. It’s a place in time to me that was visual and style perfection.

Not too long ago, I was invited to a 1920′s themed birthday party to honor a friend and I fancied myself Daisy (quit laughing) as I chose to wear a beautiful Gucci flapper inspired dress, Gucci cougar gold strappy sandals with  deco heel and Alexis Bittar jewelry. I had a ball applying the dark eyeliner, wearing a flapper-like head band and feeling a bit like she must have felt, if only for a night.

I was enchanted with the look of the whole evening. And I remain enchanted forever, with The Great Gatsby. It comes out in theaters May 10th. You’ll find me there for the first night’s release, melting in to my seat, lost in Fitzgerald’s brilliance and director Baz Lurhmann’s vision of it all.

And in case you’re curious, I am the flapper in the center with the white dress and a very, very big smile.

 

 

Originally, it was  a little disconcerting to me to hear that Prada, an Italian designer was chosen to create the costumes for The Great Gatsby. (Fitzgerald is surely rolling and rolling over in his grave over that decision–and Italian designer chosen to design 1920′s American flapper dresses.)

In 1974, starring Mia Farrow and Robert Redford (two freaks of DNA and who in my opinion had absolutely no chemistry together in the movie) were outfitted by Ralph Lauren. Lauren’s vision in the 70′s version emphasized lace, voile, chiffon, delicate scarves, wide-brimmed hats and soft, pastel colors. Even Redford, masculine as his persona was, was outfitted in creams, baby blue, and pink for his role (yes, pink).

I had always pictured Gatsby as the epitome of breathlessly dashing and charismatic and while I did love Ralph Lauren’s interpretation almost forty years ago, I think Miuccia Prada nailed it this time– perfectly. Prada was chosen to design the costumes because inadvertently Prada was worn for a few test scenes and was decided that those real Prada dresses off the runway actually worked very well on camera.  The goal according to Catherine Martin costume designer, was not to be excruciatingly historically accurate rather for Prada to convey a modernity, an opulence and a ‘movement’ with the dresses. Also of top priority in Baz Lurhmann’s version was to demonstrate such extreme wealth, it would pop the corneas of the movie goer. While the 1970′s costume versions of Gatsby were fairly void of crystals and sequins and embellishments, Prada’s are dripping in as many furs, diamonds, sparkles, pearls and feathers as possible. These dresses are quite simply magnificence and I suspect it will be challenging for your Hip Reporter to even focus on the characters and plot. I will be hypnotized by the costumes. Expect an Academy Award nomination for costumes. It’s a no-brainer.

In creating the designs for the movies, Muccia Prada reviewed her past collections and found so many of her archived designs were actually infused with a very distinct ’20′s vibe which rather surprised her, she confessed.  It was all about the money in this movie– and making Daisy Buchanan look like the most beautiful, wealthiest woman in the world was the creative goal. The luxury brand of Prada was actually a sensical choice when I think about it more and more for her runway designs always feature embellishments and really shocking opulence. Imagine Michael Kors designing the wardrobe. While a designer of terrific talent, this movie’s costumes called for every button being pushed and quite honestly, its the European designers who do over the top so consistently and adeptly. Visit the Prada website for a short and very cool movie about The Great Gatsby collection. www.prada.com

And what would Daisy be without the jewels? Tiffany and Company was called on to collaborate a collection of jewelry to be worn by the cast. Carey Mulligan has said she was followed around by a security guard, the net worth of the gems she wore was so great. The Tiffany Savoy headpiece featured below is available for purchase for $200,000 and is bejeweled in 25 carats of diamonds and freshwater cultured pearls. The Daisy hand ornament features almost 9 carats of diamonds and freshwater cultured pearls as well. It sells for $75,000. The Ziegfield Collection Daisy ring (worn by Leonardo Di Caprio) is carved in black onyx and is offered at $550. www.tiffany.com

Also of note are the men’s costumes. Brooks Brother’s, America’s oldest clothier, was called on to design the slick tuxes and preppy East Coast suits for Gatsby and the others. The Great Gatsby Collection by Brooks Brothers is available for the man in your life at www.brooksbrothers.com. It’s a simply stunning collection complete with a straw boater hat for $198, tipped blazers (and a pink suit–Kentucky Derby any one?) as well as striped ties, cuff links and  spectator loafers. I can’t imagine my husband in any one of these pieces Italian that he is, but for the guy who is just fine with his inner prepster, it’s timeless cool and reminiscent to me of my college days so many years ago when the guys actually ‘dressed’ for parties and yes, even classes.

The Great Gatsby’s 2013 version already appears to me, to be most in line aesthetically with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s vision. The stories he imagined and the novels he subsequently wrote often involved incredible wealth, opulent surroundings beyond any normal imagination and beautiful people. It brings to mind a comment Toby Mc Guire said about being a part of the movie–that during the filming of the party scenes, the extras, even the stars–no one could believe any of it, for the costumes were so over the top, no detail was left ignored on the lavish sets. Everyone was so shell shocked by it all, iPhones were everywhere snapping pictures as quick as they could to record the other-worldliness of it, all before Lurhmann called out, “Action!”

Visually, The Great Gatsby is going to be one very, very great ride.