Bloomin' lovely

I'd been so caught up in all the fabulous Resort shows that had been happening recently, that I hadn't even noticed that the Fall Couture shows had started. Silly Franki. Fortunately, my beautious friend Lauren brought this fact to my attention - thanks Lauren. (Lauren also has a blog, which can be read here, but she hasn't posted anything in a LONG time. Everyone, I think you should join me in saying "Lauren, please blog again. You are funny and the world needs funny. Do it for the good of the world!")

Of course, as soon as I heard about the Dior show, I knew I had to post about it because, as previous posts on here may suggest, I FRIKKIN LOVE DIOR!

I think part of the reason why I love Dior so much, is that the shows never fail to surprise me. When everyone else is doing dark, muted colours and subtle tailoring, John Galliano wraps the models heads up in cellophane, goes completely mental with a pair of pinking shears and then, just to make things REALLY CRAZY, comes out at the end of the show in what I can only imagine is a couture version of an Edwardian beekeeping suit. It's just so exciting!

Inspired, quite obviously, by flowers, this show was literally an explosion of colours and textures. Rather than focusing solely on floral prints, which we've been seeing everywhere since...well...since forever, Galliano actually created pieces that looked like they were made from flowers - the colours, the shapes, the textures, every garment had some kind of clear reference to a particular type of flower. I especially love the strapless white dress (third photo down) that has a splash of deep blue, which kind of fades out at the edges; it really reminds me of how lilies have the same kind of thing - really deep pink in the centre of the flower that fades out onto the petals. They also pointed out on Style.com how the cellophane headpieces and raffia belts seem to be inspired by the wrappings you get on bouquets. It was like the Chelsea Flower Show does Couture! I always say this when I post on Dior, but just go to Style.com and have a look at the full collection; I've posted a selection but you really need to seem them all!

As usual, they've also done crazy amazing hair and makeup - does anyone else find the hairstyles remind them a bit of something from Dr Seuss?!

A dress of petals!

Venus-fly-trap-tulle-dress-creation-madness

All images from Style.com

Oh beauty!

Also, can I just say thank you to everyone who commented on my last post - I'm glad I got such a positive response, was a bit worried I'd get a load of Twilight fans cursing me and burning curly haired effegies of me as a sacrifice to Edward Cullen... and quite frankly, I just don't need that...

Whiter shade of pale

Bonjour mes petites chatons!

To those of you who don't randomly break into French every now and then just to make yourselves sound a bit more exciting (not that I'd ever do that...), that means "hello my little kittens!"

Lesson over.

Anyway, feeling a bit French tonight as I've just been looking back over the photos from the Dior Couture show. I meant to post this over a week ago but then I got distracted by the colourful hair over at Chanel. Je suis desolee...

Now, don't get me wrong, the clothes over at Dior were stunning, in fact, I pretty much would have eaten some of them because they were just so ridiculously beautiful (and it's not often I consider eating clothing, contrary to popular belief), I mean look at this, THIS was the final piece;

Aaaaaaaaaaargh!!! "You are so beautiful to meeeeeeee"

However, as with the Chanel show, I actually got a bit more excited about the hair and makeup than the clothes, which seems insane considering, well just look at THAT dress!!! But you have to understand, the models just looked so PRETTY and I'm a big fan of pretty. I hold my hands up, I'm not really as edgy as I like to think I am; when it all comes down to it, I do like things to look girlie and pretty and well, sometimes, SOMETIMES (Jesus H Christ it is ALL coming out tonight) I like pastels ok?!

So I think you need to just take a look for yourselves;

Magdalena, this is getting silly. Stop being so damn beautiful!!!

Look at the hair! Will you just LOOK at the hair! Are you looking? I mean REALLY looking? With your eyes?

You see? Pretty right? I literally want to touch their faces. Just touch them a little bit. Gently, so as not to smudge the makeup. Oh and the hair! Even though those coiffs have probably been backcombed and sprayed like crazy, they just look all soft and whispy and well, yeah, I want to touch them too. Basically if we've learnt anything here it's that I want to touch the models at Dior. Now I never really had high hopes of ever actually being invited to a Dior show, but I think I've pretty much ruined my chances now haven't I? Nobody wants to be strutting down a runway, all fabulous and Dior-ified only to be accosted by a curly scouser who proceeds to stroke their face do they? Well they don't do they?

But all I can say to that is that the folks over at Dior shouldn't make their models look so touchable. I'm sure I'm not the only one who wants to touch them. In fact, I'm certain of it.

Actually, the person who was responsible for all this touchability (well the makeup part anyway, I've no idea who did the hair - they should really put show credits somewhere) was makeup artist extraordinaire, Pat McGrath. Now I've only just learned about the existence of this woman, but she is seriously AM-UH-ZING. It appears that she does a hell of a lot of the big fashion shows, and she actually created this look for Dior Fall RTW 2008 which I've been a tad obsessed with ever since I first saw it two years ago;

I like to call this look 60s-drag-queen-o-rama

So yeah, Pat McGrath = very good. Pat, you've got The Little Curly Girl's seal of approval. You'll go far my friend.

While the general styling of the Dior show was leaning more towards Edwardian, those white powdered faces and big bouffant-y hair dos, combined with all the pretty pastels, reminded me of Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette;

I'll be honest, Kirsten, I don't really understand why you're famous because to me you are just very boring, but I did like this film. And I liked Bring It On. And Interview with the Vampire. And Little Women. Ok, so I like a lot of your films, but I do not particularly rate you Kirsten, I'm sorry, but I just don't. And Mona Lisa Smile.

Funnily enough, last Halloween I went to a fancy dress party as Marie Antoinette and I won best costume! It was pretty much the highlight of my year. Fairly easy costume actually - old dress from a ball I went to at uni, bouffanty hair with lots of talc in it, white face powder, a few little accessories etc SORTED.

Looking back, I think I could have afforded to have gone even bigger with the hair. I'll bear that in mind for the next time I dress up as a dead french queen.

Here I am with my award - I was so happy!

Weirdly, I actually really enjoyed having a super white face. Considering I'm usually the queen of bronzer (not literally, that title clearly would go to Donatella Versace), it was quite refreshing to look in the mirror and see a ghostly-white reflection staring back. Maybe it's because white powder actually makes your skin look really good - it kind of covers everything up and gives you a really smooth, even base. Plus, I loved having a beauty spot. Anyway, if that kind of makeup suddenly became a big trend (fingers crossed that it does!!!) I would be very much in support of it!

In the words of Art Attack's Neil Buchanan - "try it yourself" - white powder. It's the past future.

(all images from style.com, except the ones of me, obviously)

I don't see what anyone can see, in anyone else but you

Yesterday I had a little look-see at the Chanel Spring 2010 Couture collection, which is an interesting one for Karl Lagerfeld, who is quoted as saying "It's the first time in my whole career I've done a collection without black or navy. There's not one gold button."

Hang on, hang on; not ONE gold button?! The man's clearly a psychopath!

Don't worry, he's onto something, I promise.

Indeed, the collection, which consisted of the usual tailored shorts suits and classic, yet decadent eveningwear, was given an edgy twist with a combination of delicate pastels and punchy silver accessories.

Chan-ELLO!

I think there might be a little bit of self-referencing going on there with the shirt collar and tie, eh Karl?

Loving the mille-feuille, loving the little fingerless gloves, loving the sparkly, sparkly tights. It's a bit space-age, even a bit futuristic (only, don't tell Karl I said that, because apparently, when someone backstage at the show suggested it was futuristic, he snapped "I hate that". And then killed them. Probably).

However, if I had to say what my favourite thing was from this show, it'd have to be... the HAIR!!! Oh my goodness will you just look at it???

I think Magdalena Frackowiak has become one of my favourite models. Her face is exquisite.

Oh, wait, that one's not from the Chanel show, that's Gary Oldman as Dracula. Clearly, vampires are always one step ahead in the fashion stakes...

(hahaha I didn't even notice that pun at first!)

Aaaaaaaaaaaah! Just gorgeous! Also, I know I'm a bit late blogging about this because I've been reading about it for months, but pastel coloured/streaked hair is EVERYWHERE at the moment! I'll do a big post about this later in the week because I have lots of pictures to share, but I'm seriously thinking about buying some kind of coloured hair gel or spray or clip in coloured extensions or something, because the very pale blue in Isabeli Fontana's dark hair (first hair picture) looks fabulous! Obviously I couldn't actually dye my hair because I'd have to bleach it first and I'd clearly destroy it and curly hair is dry enough without adding bleach to the equation...

One final thing, not related to the Chanel show. I've just been online, reading an awful lot of comments and articles about this photo;

So here's the situation; Tavi Gevinson is a 13 year old girl who writes a fashion blog called Style Rookie. She started writing when she was 11 and her blog has been a huge (I mean HUGE) success - people love her, she gets sent all kind of free stuff from designers, she's been featured in magazines, she was even on the cover of Pop, and now, from what I can gather, she also occasionally writes for Pop. Anyway, her knowledge of fashion is incredible, she's clearly very passionate about it (read some of her blog and you'll see straight away) and she expresses this through her crazy way of dressing, which, whether you love it or hate, is completely unique (and I think, very brave, considering she's only 13 and has to deal with constant stupid remarks from kids at her school ). Anyway, this image, from the Dior Couture show, was Tweeted by a reporter for Grazia who was "Not best pleased to be watching couture through 13 year old Tavi's hat". Now, I have to say, common decency and sense do dictate that if you're going to any kind of seated event, fashion show, play, press conference etc, it's probably best not to wear a large hat as you'll be obscuring the views of the people behind you. However, Tavi is under 5 foot tall, so even with the hat, she's probably not much taller than an average person. Also, the hat is hardly a hat, more like an oversized piece of ribbon (let's be honest, in the image above, it's probably obscuring about 8 per cent of the gown). And it was given to her by Dior atelier, Stephen Jones. Of course she's going to wear it to the Dior show - she's a 13 year old kid! Hell, if I was going to the Dior couture show and was then given a piece of Dior couture, I'd definitely wear it and I'd attach a big neon sign to it saying "hey, have you noticed my hat? it's Dior frikkin' couture!"

Also, if the Grazia reporter had such a problem with the hat, she could have asked Tavi to take it off, instead of passive-aggressively Tweeting about it. I can only wonder whether she was more miffed about being seated behind Tavi's hat, or behind Tavi herself, a 13 year old blogger...

The thing is, regardless of whether or not she should have worn the hat, the thing that really got me about this whole incident is how many hateful, nasty comments have since been made about Tavi. The mix of comments included outraged statements about how she should have been in school at the time/she's growing up too fast/she knows nothing about fashion in the first place/a 13 year old has no right to be at a Dior Couture show/her parents have a lot to answer for etc etc moan moan moan blah blah blah. Regardless of what you may think about her, Tavi is a child and a lot of the people who made those comments (some of the worst ones were here) should hang their heads in shame as they are clearly adults. While it may seem a little precocious for a 13 year old to be attending a Paris Couture show, is it any worse than people like Dakota Fanning and Abigail Breslin and all the other zillions of child stars out there, who have pretty much grown up in the spotlight, surrounded by adults, learning God knows what on film sets and generally living a very different life to that of other children their age? From what I can gather from her blog, Tavi seems like a very intelligent, if a little eccentric, down to earth kid, who goes to school and watches cartoons and acts silly, just like other kids her age. She just happens to have an obsession with fashion that has led to a lot of doors being opened to her at a very young age. And quite, frankly, if she's causing such a stir in the fashion world at 13, think what she could do when she's actually old enough to cause some real damage. Tavi, you have the little curly girl's backing all the way! I salute you!

...although, she did meet James Franco at a party which means I have to hate her a little bit...