Magazines, Chocolate and Sketches - Pure Escapism!

For me not much beats buying a new magazine, bar of chocolate and settling down for an hour or two pouring over fashion I’m unlikely to ever be able to afford and outfits I’m unlikely to have occasions to wear to or, depending on the magazine, working out what high street shops I’m next going to hit. I openly admit that sometimes a book just won’t do it and I need a magazine, judge me if you like! Some people literally do, during exam time at Uni the library is a sea of stressed people and when I visited the shop to get myself the latest episode of Company, alongside all the chemistry students firing equations at each other in the queue, I have to admit I felt slightly out of place.

I had an interesting exchange with the guy at the till –

Shop Guy - “You study here?”

Me – “Yes” 

Shop Guy – “Why are you buying a magazine?

Me – “Ummm”

Shop Guy – “You don’t have exams?”

Me – “Well … no … I like magazines, ok?”

Talk about judging me! I went back to my room and savoured being able to pour over the pages in peace.  I don’t have a favourite magazine; it varies from Cosmo, Company and Glamour to Elle and Vogue. It depends if I want to be slightly more realistic or experience pure escapism into a world of luxury! 

My favourite thing about reading magazines like Vogue or Elle is the gorgeous fashion shoots – I love making sketches from the images in the magazines.  There’s something therapeutic for me in choosing my favourite images and trying to recreate them.  Here are some examples:

Fashion, Fairytales and Beatles

I love going to exhibitions on my own, today I had some time to kill around Waterloo and so happened to walk past Somerset House and remembered hearing about an exhibition there. I went to see Tim Walker: Story Teller, the exhibition showed the fashion photographers work alongside some of the props used in his shoots including a giant spitfire, oversized insects playing musical instruments and a huge doll (which may now occur in my nightmares).  

My worse nightmare!
http://timwalkerphotography.com/recent_work.php

The exhibition was really well done, with each room showing fantastically surreal and breath-taking images of gorgeous clothes.  There was also a series of short films showing fashion shoots taking place with accompanying music, which made for a slightly surreal viewing experience as they were shot in quite a grainy quality.   I love the stories that are told through his photography and how the fashion is not necessary the focal point of the photo, the whole scene compliments the fashion and creates a magically world you want a part of. The best thing about visiting an exhibition on your own is that you can completely immerse yourself in what you are looking at and have an inner dialogue to accompany the visuals you are seeing. 

I also visited Valentino: Master of Couture which featured over 130 of his couture dresses – heaven.  I stumbled upon the exhibition completely by chance and loved every second.  The highlight may well have been eavesdropping on other peoples conversations though.   In the first room were documents and press cuttings from Valentinos career including letters from various celebrities. One of the letters was from Anna Wintour, she did admittedly have very large hand writing however a woman next to me commented to her friend that no one with handwriting like that should be successful, how could someone with handwriting like that actually achieve anything … about Anna Wintour! They wouldn’t dare say that to her face.  

The Corridor of Dresses!
http://www.ella-lapetiteanglaise.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/157210057PM00006_Valentino_.jpg

The exhibition was stunning, with the dresses all assembled in a long corridor as though at a red-carpet event. My only criticism would be that you are given a booklet with numbers and details about each dress however sometimes it is not always mentioned when a famous figure has worn the dress, which was a shame. I only discovered when doing some online research back home that one of my favourite pieces in the exhibition had been worn by Jennifer Aniston for the Along Came Polly premier. The booklet did however point out the gown that Julia Roberts wore to the Oscars. It was interesting to guess the time period for the dresses as sometimes it was very hard to figure out, styles did not necessarily dictate the era expected. One very Doris Day like outfit was actually from the 90s!

http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/157210057PM00008_Valentino_-550x359.jpg

One dress received it’s own space, deservedly, and this was the wedding dress of Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece. It was stunning, you felt as though you were in the presence of something truly exquisite and approaching it from above on a staircase gave justice to the detailing on the veil.

The last space in the exhibition showed how different techniques used in the dresses displayed were created with videos and small samples.  This only furthered increased my awe at the dresses and they hours of hard work that go to create such beautiful masterpieces!

As well as Somerset House I also found myself outside the National Portrait Gallery so decided to pop in and say hello to my favourite painting.  It is a portrait of Paul McCartney, painted by Sam Walsh entitled Mikes Brother. I love this painting because of the way it looks as if one brush has just been stroked across the canvas and Paul face appeared – I think it really captures one moment and has so much energy to it! 

http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw08201/Paul-McCartney-Mikes-Brother?LinkID=mp05537&search=sas&sText=mccartney&OConly=true&role=sit&rNo=1

Although to my dismay yesterday the gallery displaying the painting was shut. A woman started talking to me in the queue for the toilets asking if I’d seen everything yet and she looked slightly bemused when I said “Oh no, I just popped in to say hi to Paul”. 

10 Reasons Why I Love Doris Day

1. Her wardrobe is amazing; I would happily dress like she does in her films all the time (apart from maybe Calamity Jane – not sure the cowgirl look is acceptable on a daily basis). I love how everything matches, the coat, shoes and bag all effortlessly coordinating, particularly in Pillow Talk.

Maybe I wouldn't wear this ...

If only people still got this dressed up for drinks!

2. Not only is her day wardrobe amazing, but even her nightwear is always gorgeous, she wouldn’t be caught dead in an old t-shirt and mis-matched shorts.

Check out that nightie! Not many people could pull that off

3. Her voice is effortlessly stunning, she never sounds likes she’s straining her voice and her songs immediately put me in a good mood. The lush, soaring strings in most of them help too!

4. She gets to co-star with Cary Grant, Rock Hudson and Frank Sinatra – no further explanation needed.

                                     

5. Her characters are always such strong-headed women with hearts, from Calamity Jane to housewife/soap spokeswoman Beverly Boyer in The Thrill of it All.  

6. Her apartments and houses always seem to be so cool with all the latest gadgets and are also tastefully colour coordinated.  I want a kitchen with turquoise cupboards now.

7. She throws the best stroppy tantrums, any woman should master her storming out of a room sequence as seen in Pillow Talk.

8. I love how she totters about in her shoes and pencil skirts – she somehow makes it look so sophisticated.

Moving away from the rom coms!

9. She may come across as quite typecast however Midnight Lace and Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much show her as a brilliant actress away from the typical rom-coms she is best known for.  A bit of a surprise to suddenly find yourself watching a Doris Day film from behind a cushion when you're used to the usual rom-coms. 

10. She left the glamour of Hollywood many years ago and set up an animal welfare charity which is still overseen by Miss Day to this day –  further to endearing her to her fans. 

Saying all this, in reality her life was far from the 'girl next door' persona reflected in many of her films. She has gone through many personal challenges which makes you appreciate her movies even more, and how she could bring such optimism to the roles despite the difficulties in her personal life. 

The Paradise Vs. Mr Selfridge

I love a good period drama, ‘Downton Abbey’ made me crave Sunday nights, Sally Hawkins in ‘Persuasion’ never fails to give me goose bumps and moving to the 60s ‘The Hour’ was absolutely brilliant (although slightly more challenging). However I’m slightly confused about ITV’s new show ‘Mr Selfridge’, mainly because it seems to be pretty much the same show as BBC’s ‘The Paradise’. 

I loved ‘The Paradise’ as it was seemed to me to be something quite new, showing woman actually working and having some power during that time rather than running on hills in the rain, twisting their ankles and waiting for a potential husband to rush to their side on a horse.  The costumes and colours were sumptuous and there was just the right mix of mystery (did Moray really kill his own wife?) against the slightly more trivial plot lines. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00vhpsv/
characters/moray

So, initially, when I heard that ITV were filling the period drama slot left by Downton on Sunday nights I was pretty excited yet it does seem to me that it is just not different enough from ‘The Paradise’.  Moray and Mr Selfridge are incredibly similar characters, both driven men who strive for success and don’t seem to mind trampling a few toes in the process (and who are a hit with the girls!) While Moray was a believable character with obvious issues, I feel that Mr Selfridge is very hard to believe, ironic seeing as he is based on a real person.  I’m not sure if it’s the acting skills or the plot but there is just something about him that doesn’t sit right with me, many of his lines sound quite insincere.  They also both look incredibly similar! 

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2013-01-11/mr-selfridge-episode-two-preview-pictures-and-predictions

Also, Denise and Agnes are almost the same character, the slightly lowly girl given an opportunity to succeed and becoming very headstrong in the process and attracting attention from male colleagues in the shop while also seeming to alienate herself from female colleagues. 

While I am enjoying the show for it’s costumes and the way that the era is presented, it has just come too soon after the Paradise so that comparisons are inevitable and I find myself making these comparisons while watching the show which is a real shame.   Although last night I loved the cute artist picking up Mrs Selfridge in the National Gallery, a perfect ‘meet cute’ – that never happens in real life does it?

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2013-01-11/mr-selfridge-episode-two-preview-pictures-and-predictions