Sunday 22 November 2009

party planning

"i was ecstatic they re-named 'french fries' as 'freedom fries'. grown men and women in positions of power in the u.s. government showing themselves as idiots."
- johnny depp

french connection ribbon dress
hkd999

getting your party wardrobe ready for this year's round of christmas cocktails? french connection has this fabulous hervé léger-inspired knit number in electric blue (also available in black) for under hkd1,000. and great quality too. hurry while stocks last - S is already out.

belle du jour

"wore a victoria beckham dress for the first time yesterday - the derizet in black - and good lord, is that thing figure magic. not sure if it's worth the pricetag, but if anyone has a spare grand around and happens to be feeling generous.... a pair of red louboutins wouldn't go amiss either...."
- belle du jour





dr brooke magnanti (aka belle du jour) on no longer being anonymous: "looking back over my diaries is sometimes embarrassing, sometimes hilarious (often unintentionally so). after a page or two i'm right back there – living in london, keeping up a double life, with all the effort that entails.... which is just too difficult to do long-term. i suppose i always thought that the part of my life i wrote about would fade away, that i could stick it in a box and move on. totally separate it from the ‘real me’. what it took me years to realise is that while i've changed a lot since writing these diaries – my life has moved on so much, in part thanks to the things that happened then – belle will always be a part of me. she doesn't belong in a little box, but as a fully acknowledged side of a real person. the non-belle part of my life isn't the only ‘real’ bit, it’s ALL real. belle and the person who wrote her had been apart too long. i had to bring them back together. so a perfect storm of feelings and circumstances drew me out of hiding. and do you know what? it feels so much better on this side. not to have to tell lies, hide things from the people i care about. to be able to defend what my experience of sex work is like to all the sceptics and doubters. anonymity had a purpose then – it will always have a reason to exist, for writers whose work is too damaging or too controversial to put their names on. but for me, it became important to acknowledge that aspect of my life and my personality to the world at large. i am a woman. i lived in london. i was a call girl. the people, the places, the actions and feelings are as true now as they were then, and i stand behind every word with pride. thank you for reading and following my adventures. love, belle."

calendar girls

"i'd consider it - why not? i don't know if it would be very impressive, though."
- james blunt on posing for the pirelli calendar


the infamous calendar, now in it's 37th year, is only available as a corporate gift to pirelli's exclusive customers and vips each year. 2010's version was launched in london on friday and now the images are available to you via
get away nasty baby. the sloth is actually kind of cute.

your signature pose

"actually, my grandma's brother's name was blake, and my sister wrote it down when she was reading a family tree. and they said, 'if it's a boy, we'll name him blake, and if it's a girl, we'll name her blakely.' and everybody thought i was going to be a boy, and then i came out and i was a girl. and they had already been calling me blake for months because they were positive i was going to be a boy. and they had been calling me blake for so long, they just kept it."
- blake lively on the origins of her name








just like your chicken scratch defines who you are on paper to the legal world, your stance on the red carpet/at company annual dinners/during random drunk nights out is the photographic characterization and record of who you are. blake has fine-tuned hers to T - legs shoulder-width apart, hand on hip, slight tilt of the head. this is great for showing of her toned, endless pins, keeping the upper arms flab-free and using her long, blonde mane to best effect. in addition to all this, it makes for an interesting photograph as she is not simply symmetrical from top to bottom (which is traditionally what the human eye finds
attractive). have you got one? you need one. go and get one today.
all runway photographs care of style.com