Caught the last day of The Years of La Dolce Vita at The Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, celebrating in mono-magic, the heyday of Italian cinema. The pictures, from the '50s and '60s, captured glamour and fashion in equal measure as well as the emerging phenomenon of the 'paparazzo' here exemplified by the snapshots taken by the prolific photojournalist, Marcello Geppetti, who notched up more than a million images. A winning shot: the blonde and voluptuous Anita Ekberg, Swedish star of Fellini's La Dolce Vita, immaculate in sheath dress and... stockinged feet, bow and arrow in hand, ready to ward off approaching paparazzi!
In homage, I wore a pretty, floral-sprigged vintage corset, with a great label, Roulette. It gives me a head-turning 'profile' which could rival any '50s starlet and I brought it into the next century with a pair of impeccably Italian navy pinstriped trousers by Emporio Armani. The little Indian basket was bought at Gabriel's Wharf, the '80s earrings are by Erickson Beamon, the sunnies are vintage and the wedges are by Topshop. And my lipstick, for the day, Dior's Dolce Vita, naturalmente!
My old vintage fur, from the '40s, keeps going strong, especially around Mayfair. On this occasion worn with a pair of low-key palazzo-style pants from Topshop, an Oriental-print silk bag and some old leather boots. The cornelian and silver pendants, and cuff, add a little exoticism: out of Afghanistan and purchased a long while back on Islington Green, from a shop called Rau.
Pit stops can in themselves offer up picture opportunities, particularly if you're wearing a photogenically purple dress. This one has little provenance... a no-label, floor-length woven raffia piece, purchased at Past Caring, an old shopping haunt of mine on Essex Road, Islington. I can't even recall its price but it certainly was not expensive. All I know is I still love wearing it - most memorably one evening at a French wedding. Today it is a dress in transit - on a bus - enjoying a breakfast of coffee and a croissant, a sit-down pause, and a powder-my-nose moment. Worn with some Gucci sunglasses, a trio of vintage amethyst necklaces and a pair of earrings from Istanbul, the dress requires no further ornamentation. The shoes (worn recently) are by Pons Quintana, and the bag, by Emma Bernhardt, is in the borough of kitsch but that's fine by me!
http://www.timeout.com/london/shopping/past-caring
https://plus.google.com/102326411293031965781/about?gl=uk&hl=en
http://www.gucci.com/uk/home
http://www.ponsquintana.com/en
http://london.yalwa.co.uk/ID_118851592/Emma-Bernhardt-Designs-Portobello-Road.html
I do not know how long I have owned this dress but I know where I bought it... Past Caring on Essex Road, Islington, and probably after a slap-up breakfast at nearby Alfredo's. Both these favourites are still going strong (although the latter is now known as S&M Cafe). The dress is equally evergreen, probably older than me, with no discernible label. It is plain-cut in black and white printed cotton, with a floral refrain. And it fits as only dresses of a certain era did, when figures were fulsome. It never fails to celebrate summer with me... and I can wear it with any amount of different accessories. This time: modern mono Ray-Bans, African livid-green beads and enamel ring, and perspex... both with my beach bag and on my Paul Smith strappy heels. I am about to have a recuperative cuppa in the members' room, at another favourite of mine: the one-and-only V&A.
http://www.timeout.com/london/shopping/past-caring
http://www.classiccafes.co.uk/Best.html
http://www.ray-ban.com/uk
http://www.paulsmith.co.uk/uk-en/shop/
http://www.vam.ac.uk/
