Grace Kelly Teaches Me How to Wear a Hat

Detail of Howell Conant photo of Grace Kelly, 1956. Drop dead gorgeous!

This is how you do it.

The above photo is a detail of a picture by Howell Conant from the book Grace of her looking so very beautiful the day she pulled into the harbor in Monaco, to meet and marry her prince and become a princess. Conant says in the book that he thought the hat looked great and told Grace as much, but was embarrassed to later learn the Monégaques complained that they couldn’t see her face. I’m with Conant on this one. Grace looks amazing in this combination of hat and glasses.

Consider this your invitation to join Adrienne and me in our “How I Wear My: Hat” roundup by sending me a picture of yourself in a hat by November 1.

How do you wear a hat?

Completely unrelated side note: By time you read this we may have no power in NYC because of Hurricane Sandy. If this is the case I will publish the post as soon as I can! If you are in the way of this storm, stay safe.

How to Look Expensive

As soon as I saw not only the title but the cover picture for How To Look Expensive: A Beauty Editor’s Guide to Getting Gorgeous Without Breaking the Bank, I knew I had to read this book. How to Look Expensive? How Can I Resist? I put it on hold at the library, joining an already long line, and then thought, No, I need to own this one, I can tell this will be a reference book, in the same way that my books on Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent and Valentino are reference books. I’m glad I plunked down the very reasonable $15 or so for this because I’ve read it cover to cover and will be taking a shopping list with me based on Lustig’s suggestions next time I go to Sephora or—and this is the best part—CVS.

Lustig, the former beauty editor at Glamour, gives you options for either high-end makeup brands or the inexpensive stuff at CVS and Rite Aid and she names names and shares tips that professional makeup artists use and love. I have already got out my Revlon Age Defying Spa Face Illuminator, based on her tip that using an illuminizer under foundation can give you a luminosity similar to a candlelight glow and God knows I could use more luminosity in my life. I also have been using my Yves Saint Laurent Touche Éclat Radiant Touch brightener under my eyes more than I had been. Based on Lustig’s suggestions, I’m sticking with my L’Oréal Paris Voluminous Million lashes mascara and now want to try the NYX line, which she says you can buy at Rite Aid. I think I may have seen this brand and passed it by, thinking it was the equivalent of Wet n’Wild.

Revlon illuminator (I think this product has been discontinued) and a brightener from YSL.

Lustig says she is often asked whether expensive makeup is worth it. I love her answer:

“Sometimes a Dior compact is the little luxury that lifts your mood and lets you indulge without taking out a loan.”

Girl, I so hear you. Call me shallow but I do get a little thrill when I pick up my Chanel pressed powder compact and see those interlocking C’s. That being said, most of my cosmetics are from Revlon, L’Oréal Paris, CoverGirl and Essie so it’s nice to read that a beauty editor’s take on the best products available at drugstores includes these brands.

Both high-end and drugstore brands are in my makeup bag, which is what Lustig recommends.

I love me some nail polish so these were some of my favorite pages in the book.

The illustrations by Dallas Shaw are delightful, adding whimsy and charm to a helpful and honest beauty book.

I love this illustration of Andrea.

Don’t wait for it at the library. This one is worth owning. And do stop by Lustig’s website for more tips, trends, giveaways and news!

Grace Kelly: The Hermès Collector

Grace Kelly with Edith Head, 1955. © Rex Features

I’m reading the book Grace Kelly Style by H. Kristina Haugland, the catalog that accompanied the exhibit Grace Kelly: Style Icon that was at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 2010. Oh how I wish I could’ve seen this show! The book does a nice job of combining the main biographical facts of Kelly’s life and the contributions made to her iconic style by designers like Edith Head, Helen Rose, Oleg Cassini, and others, with the addition of fun little facts you might not turn up in a standard biography. To wit:

There’s a great picture in the book of Grace Kelly with Edith Head, the legendary Hollywood costume designer, who created the looks for two of Grace’s most famous roles: Lisa Fremont in Rear Window and Frances Stevens in To Catch a Thief.

Here’s what the caption says: “Paramount sent Edith Head on location for the filming of To Catch a Thief; en route, the costume designer and Grace Kelly went shopping in Paris, where the actress indulged her weakness for buying gloves at Hermès to such an extent that she had to send for more money.”

When I read this my first thought was, Come again? A weakness for buying gloves at Hermès? Had to send for more money? I love it! I feel the same way about their scarves as she did about their gloves (and I get the feeling she had a similar affinity for their silks too). For some reason I thought Grace didn’t start carrying her haut à courroies bag, which Hermès eventually renamed a Kelly in her honor, until after she married Prince Rainier III in 1956. But apparently she was already into Hermès before she even met him.

Grace and Rainier (and her Kelly!) on the day they announced their engagement in 1956.

The same day. I love Rainier helping Grace and her bag out of the car! © Bettmann/Corbis

How big was her Hermès collection? Did she have a closet full of it? I’m thinking maybe not (but will get back to you on this). The book says Grace didn’t actually buy that much in the way of clothes and she got a lot of use out of what she did own. I remember reading an online review of the Grace Kelly exhibit and the writer noted how well-used her Kelly was. There’s also this quote from Grace herself that she gave to a Saturday Evening Post journalist in 1960:

“I am not eager to give away my things just because they’re worn. I keep my things longer than most people.”

From the book. Grace in 1958 with her man and her bag! © Rex Features

Grace’s Kelly.

So I’m thinking maybe she just had a small Hermès collection. As for her namesake bag I don’t know how many Kellys Grace owned but I do know I have seen pictures of her with at least 3—one a Retourne of brown leather (is this Box Calf or Barenia, any of you H babes who know better than me feel free to clarify), a Barenia leather and Toile version, and a white Kelly with a flat handle that I don’t think Hermès even makes anymore.

Detail of a Howell Conant photo of Grace in Jamaica in 1967, using her white Kelly.

In any event, Hermès or not, it’s nice to read that somebody who could’ve had anything, and lots of anything, bought a few nice things and then used them again and again and again, for the whole of her life.

Would You Rock This?

Vogue Christmas Advertorial, Anja Kroencke, 2008, for Nippon Vogue.

One of the great things about getting a chance to interview Brandon Graham, curator of the exhibit Fashion Illustration: A Contemporary Look, now on view at the Brooklyn Public Library, was the bonus of learning about the website he created, Would You Rock This? The site allows fashion illustrators to upload their work and have people vote on whether they would either rock that look or say it’s not their particular style. Helpful information, Graham says, to help artists (and designers) hone their work and test out their ideas.

What a fabulous idea. It’s good for artists and it’s been good for Graham (a fashion illustrator himself), and explains why the Fashion Illustration exhibit is so well done: the curator has a great and experienced eye!

Vogue Christmas Advertorial, Anja Kroencke, 2008, for Nippon Vogue.

These pictures are from the Brooklyn Public Library exhibit but in every instance why yes, I would rock that look. I am particularly smitten with the two pictures above. I’m glad to have become acquainted with Anja’s prints because I am now a huge fan of her work.

Alice Revisits Wonderland, Samantha Hahn, 2011.

A design for Ruffian, Fall 2011. Yes please to this coat!

Fashionistas, Izak Zenous, 2010, for Henri Bendel.

Whether you’d like to submit illustrations or, like me, admire, vote on, or even buy the work of others, won’t you check out Would You Rock This?

All the artwork featured above is from the exhibit Fashion Illustration: A Contemporary Look, on view at the Central Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library until December 1, 2012.

DIY Chanel Jacket: Mishaps in Muslin

When one is working on a muslin of one’s DIY Chanel jacket and a terrible case of sewing dyslexia has set in and because a muslin doesn’t have a “right” side or “wrong” side per se, the dyslexia comes worse, and one then realizes that if one can’t even put the muslin together one is completely crazy to think of doing this jacket in $40 a yard (or more) bouclé, it is helpful to remember that Mademoiselle was not sewing her famous jacket herself.

She could sew, of course, she worked at a military tailor’s shop as a seamstress when she was a young woman in Moulins, it’s how she got her start in fashion, you see, but atelier-level seamstress she was not and by time the company bearing her name was making the jackets we know and love, in the 1960s, (and Coco was in her 70s) she was not doing the grunt work (although I understand she loved to work and rework the placement of a sleeve).

I am trying to take comfort in this.

This is looking too smock-like for my taste.

I don’t know if I’d call my muslin a disaster, it is my very first one after all, and it’s really to check fit, but I don’t know if I’m feeling super confident after making it either. I don’t like the fit at all, to tell you the truth, I want it to be shorter, tighter, more form-fitting, which may mean using a completely different pattern, not just cutting a smaller size—though the 3-piece sleeve in this pattern is divine. Even if I use an alternate pattern for the body of the jacket, the sleeves are staying!

The sleeves and pockets I like. The sleeves and pockets can stay!

I’m hoping to come across a pithy quote from Coco re the difficulty of making clothes. Until then, watching episodes of Signé Chanel, which shows the Chanel atelier seamstresses struggling with the construction of an entire collection, makes me feel less alone.

I also like this quote of Coco’s, from Paul Morand’s L’Allure de Chanel:

“I was self-taught; I learned badly, haphazardly. And yet, when life put me in touch with those who were the most delightful and brilliant people of my age, a Stravinsky, or a Picasso, I neither felt stupid, nor embarrassed. I had worked out on my own that which cannot be taught…It is with this that one succeeds.”

This is what I want my DIY Chanel jacket to look like when I’m done.

Any of you sewing babes out there have any words of wisdom for me?

How I Wear My: Burgundy and Bordeaux

It’s finally starting to feel like fall and that has Adrienne of The Rich Life (on a budget) and me thinking of autumn colors, so for this month’s “How I Wear My” post we decided to focus on two of them, Burgundy and Bordeaux. Both seem poised to be big hits this season.

I got several emails from ladies who said they don’t have either of these shades in their closet. This goes for me as well! When that happens I usually turn to nail polish, because I think of it and use it as an accessory and it’s an easy way to add a particular color to a look without spending very much.

Which is how I ended up with this Tom Ford nail polish called “Bordeaux Lust” that I bought at Bergdorf’s at this year’s Fashion’s Night Out. Okay, at $30 a bottle, Tom is not budget friendly, at all, but the formula applies so well, this is such a gorgeous classic shade, and has been very long-lasting, so I can’t work up the guilt. I will get my money’s worth out of this polish!

Bordeaux Lust meets Draper Tweed.

This is the “Hayley” in Draper Tweed by MZ Wallace.

I also remembered that I bought these great Tahari patent loafers last year and I definitely file them in the Bordeaux category (though they photographed bright red).

I love me a penny loafer.

If it’s starting to cool off where you are and you need some autumn inspiration, check out these Burgundy & Bordeaux looks:

Pam of Over 50 Feeling 40 mixes it up with burgundy and aubergine!

Jane of The Navy Blue of India in a jacket that’s like burgundy steeped in chocolate.

Amy of Denim & Dots. What a great sweater jacket!

Barbara looks so romantic in this ensemble. And is that the lushest basil ever or what?

Jeannie of Gracefully 50 in burgundy flower-print pants. Divine!

Hang of POUM! La Mode. I love the burgundy paisley pants and bag!

I am fascinated by this amazing Alexander Wang Mini Golf bag.

Heather of Vintage French Chic with a vintage Koret bag I now covet.

No matter if it’s paired with denim or leopard, Heather’s Koret bag is so versatile and beautiful.

Marina of Antares: Alfa Scorpii wearing a lovely bordeaux pashmina. I love this look!

Here’s Adrienne walking through vineyards wearing a fine-wale corduroy shirt dress. Gorgeous!

For November Adrienne and I will tip our hats to hats. So find your favorite chapeau and join us for “How I Wear My: Hat.” Send either of us a picture of yourself in your hat by November 1 and we will include you in our post on November 2.

Do stop by Adrienne’s to see what other Burgundy/Bordeaux looks she has put together. I can’t believe it’s been a year since she and I started the “How I Wear My” series and may I say what a complete delight it’s been getting to know her and all of you? Thank you to the fine foxes who make these posts so fun. I raise my glasses of Burgundy and Bordeaux to you!