Sophie Ellis-Bextor Photographed by Rankin

Sophie Ellis-Bextor is the face behind the campaign Hundreds and Thousands of Childhood Memories, the first independent inquiry from Britain into what makes a good childhood.

I’m delighted to support The Children’s Society’s campaign to make childhood better for all children in the UK today. As a mum, I want my children to have some fantastic memories. Being covered in hundreds and thousands is much more fun than I imagined but the serious message is we really need hundreds and thousands of childhood memories – please share yours.

Rankin was the celebrity lens who took the picture of Sophie and other public personalities involved in the campaign (Bernie Nolan, Cliff Richard, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Chris Tarrant) and hereby are some of the incredible images of actors and actresses he made for the British Independent Film Awards.

I love this kind of pictures – pictures telling a story, speaking about emotions, about humans. Not perfection, not cosmetics, not purses or shoes but human faces showing off humans emotions. What do you prefer? Fashion pictures of products or “beautiful persons” (make-up enhanced or photoshopped) or pictures looking every bit alive, expressing emotions?

Definitely I can’t get enough of “let it bling over me” today! This is the new Louis Vuitton Ad Campaign for Blason Jewelry line.

Trying to be hip (that’s for Louis Vuitton) and trying to be deep (that’s for Pharrell), the two names get together to form Blason LV. Sadly enough for me, I used to enjoy N.E.R.D. Now I’m asking myself who’s really the nerd when watching a hybrid music video-ad campaign for a jewelry line.

Will it be a success? Maybe a bit more than Ends, but it’s still bling! Bling with two letters on it. Pharrell saw the opportunity to pull a Sean John and he did it? Or is he truly innovating by giving us a real style lesson with LV?

Enjoy this deeply fashionable commercial!

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Word is the Skinny Era is long over. Now if Scientologists have their own better reality where skinny trend is still high in power, it’s only fair that Katie shows her figure embracing jeans in town.

She matched her outfit tip to toes but it’s still something there bothering me and can’t really put my finger on.

Whether is that black sixties inspired wind jacket or that long black t-shirt from underneath, Katie’s outfit looks ordinary (to be nice about it) and dull.

Do you think it’s a modesty number meant to hide the baby rumors? Or Katie’s plain lovely as usual?
Update: I changed the picture with a better quality one and I’ve also added another angle. Enjoy!

Today’s “let it bling over me” – Van Cleef & Arpels and Earnest Sewn created a limited edition jeans. Limited as in 10 pairs of each jean in “Zazo” style, high-rise, slim straight leg fit with Alhambra jewelry design to be auctioned at Christie’s.

The first style, in dark indigo with a white mother-of-pearl and yellow gold Alhambra button is about $9.700. The second style, in soft light grey with black onyx and white gold Alhambra motifs costs about $11.300.

If wearing bling around your jean isn’t your thing, then know that you can also wear the Van Cleef & Arpels as a necklace or around your wrist as a bracelet.

I’m declaring myself against this trend (if ever it settles to be one). I can only imagine my kids joyfully tearing off my precious Van Cleef just to innocently play with mum’s new bling and it makes me shiver!

I see nothing practical in wearing that precious chain around my jean and since that unhappy style of showing off your belly is everything but glam, I don’t recommend it either. So what use in wearing a painfully expensive chain if none can see it? Plus, even if I do enjoy listening to Ministry (especially “Bad Blood”) from time to time, my hard-rock days are a bit behind me.

What do you think? It’s the promise of a trend? Or just one sparkle in the ocean of useless creations?

Le Musée de la Mode from Paris is hosting until the 20th of April an important event for fashion – “Histoires de Mode”. It’s Christian Lacroix who put together the result of two years of research in over 150 years of style.

Wherever you go, whatever you do, it’s always important knowing where you’re coming from. It’s the same for fashion. If you’re taking a real interest in style, then it’s as important as present day trends to know where it’s all coming from and what a journey it has been up until now.

From 1850s through 1940s and 1960s, not forgetting the 1980s until present times, from Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent to our day’s designers, this new kind of project features three coordinates: a selection of historical outfits, models designed by Christian Lacroix himself showing his 20years of creation and a direct and innovative intervention putting together certain pieces from the museum and few items designed by Christian Lacroix in order to invent a new silhouette.

It’s about assembling/disassembling the mechanism of the creation process, chosing and assembling the ingredients, the data and the documents of patrimony with a certain look from today and the immediate future in perspective.

Said Christian Lacroix about the Histoires de Mode.

The exhibition will be exported (first of all in London) after closing in April in Paris.

What do you say? It’s worth to effort in a bit of history in order to better understand fashion?

If you ever feel lost in fashion, then Chloe Sevigny is the one to ask! She’s got her very own style column “Ask Chloe”. Miss Sevigny is the Style Advisor for Elle Magazine starting out with the March Issue of the world respected magazine (of which she’s doing the cover too).

If I was to be nasty, I’d say Elle‘s running out of editors and cover models, but today I’ll go mild.

How about that? If I’ll be a fashion destroyer for a few years, can I get like a tiny square in New York Times Style Magazine? Teeny tiny?

I doubt it gets any crazier than that! But then again, every passing day proves me wrong! Ends is a new line of gold and diamond-encrusted capsules. (sounds about normal, right?!)

Ends capsules cost between $399 and $4.999. What are they for? Well, believe or not, these capsules screw onto the ends of shoelaces! Now that’s high end fashion in the most realistic way of speaking! Whitney and Greg Lucci founded Ends company with Leon and Jessica Cohen.

Whether it’s the best prank ever played to celebrities or the perfect way to snob when spending money, Ends products do attract! Number one fans – Dave and Victoria Beckham and Will.i.am (from the Black Eyed Peas).

Now get this – when asked what the best-seller product was, the overwhelming answer came like a dong : “The ones with the most diamonds, of course!”

World, my finger is on the button! (thus spoke a song from nearly 2 years ago) – I’m preparing a massive mind blowing bomb! What are they thinking, anyway?
This is one screwed up reality where one can find fashion at the end of the shoelaces, no matter the cost or the overall impression. What do you think? Fashion or snobshion?

Supermodels era is long gone. The good old times when Cindy, Christy, Linda, Naomi, Tatjana, rocked the runways. Now it’s a fashion industry spawning hundred of new faces per season.

Good or bad it’s for those who have the time to judge. Since we live at light speed, we only have a moment to see the fresh faces and pass on to the next show.

The British Fashion Council, however, took things to the next level, stating via its chairman, Harold Tillman: “These are women that younger models admire. We should get these original supermodels on board and get them more involved. Many girls are looking after themselves but there is unfortunately a minority that isn’t. We need the rest of Europe and the rest of the world on board.”

Without starting a rhetorical debate on model’s health (or related topics) I wonder why in the world we complain so much and don’t do something about education? It’s clearly there that all starts. Not on the runway, not with every passing fashion season. Girls don’t need a commission over their heads, or the public opinion putting the finger on them. They need good education.

Role models that run their life just like every other human being does and make mistakes like every one of us don’t make much of an education (or maybe it’s each her specialty – like Naomi is in abusive conduct).

What do you think? Is the British Fashion Council’s initiative to board the world on a hunting party against all evil on the runway bliss from heaven? Or it’s just another move to paint the surface and keep the roots rotten?