Partycore

It's the season... for popping out to parties. Going for totally different looks, whether it's a tie-dye loose silk top, from Paraphernalia, and a pair of vintage Jaeger pants, partied up by vintage yellow earrings, silver jewellery and my only sporran! Or enjoying a few shades of grey in a silk Stills top and chiffon floor-length skirt by Lynn Lugo, and my daughter's flirty waistcoast by River Island. Jewellery is piled on for drama: chain necklace, pearl ring, silver bangles, studded leather bracelet and trusty Angel Jackson bag. The latter is starting to look magnificently wasted... but not this party animal!

Quaglino's

Where to go for a celebratory supper? Quaglino's, of course, which positively pulsates with glamour. Secreted away in St James', at 16 Bury Street, the sweeping staircase to the restaurant is like descending the stairs of a great ocean liner, albeit one anchored in Mayfair. For the occasion, there was only one dress to wear: a mid-century satin number weighed down with beads and pearls. A hand-made piece, purchased in Pimlico's Cornucopia (long-gone but one of my very favourite shopping haunts), this gown never fails to make me feel that I'm "Puttin' On the Ritz" - coincidentally just around the corner. Worn with brown satin heels, a deep-red vintage fur, and a statement pearl ring from Jessica Walker, plus a perfect dining companion (my daughter), in an Isabel Marant for H&M metallic dress. 

Tate Modern

Tate Modern is always good for a stroll through its magnificent Turbine Hall: Richard Tuttle's 'I Don't Know'. The Weave of Textile Language is the largest installation by this renowned American sculptor, and the newly commissioned piece thoroughly suits the space. Its arrival coincides with a retrospective of the artist's work at the Whitechapel Gallery. I couldn't resist the chrome yellow walls on the second floor - a sharp contrast to all the black and white I'm wearing - top by Jesiré with sequinned collar and cuffs; Italian trousers by Massimo Rebecchi, with more sequins; and silk sling-backs by Dolce & Gabbana. The vintage fur is from the '70s and the velvet bag, with cane handle, is even older. Up on the second floor at Tate Modern, a retrospective, Alibis: Sigmar Polke 1963-2010 highlights the work of one of the most radical and original artists of the past 50 years, who used an unlikely array of materials and media to work with - from soot and bubble wrap, to potatoes and python, as well as ground dust from a Chilean meteor! This true astronaut of the experimental was also given to wearing his own art - note the image at the entrance to the show - of Polke draped in a litany of archaic German insults called: 'The Large Cloth of Abuse'.

A pearl preview

It was pearls galore at Friday night's preview of the eponymous exhibition at the V&A. I passed under a dazzling custom-made chandelier by designer, Omer Arbel, in the Grand Entrance. Keeping it all vintage and black, I wore a mid-century lace dress, carried a Cordé bag from the same era, and wrapped myself in swansdown by Lois Jaffé. The Azzedine Alaïa heels came out to bring the costume firmly into the 21st century. And, of course, I had to wear pearls: a pretty string of modern kidney-shaped pinks together with a one-off 'sputnik of pearls' ring by the estimable Lisa E Moss. The exhibition, Pearls, runs into next year - until January 19. In the words of Jackie Kennedy: 'Pearls are always appropriate' and I would add... a little Prosecco, too.

http://www.vam.ac.uk/
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/exhibition-pearls/
http://www.omerarbel.com/
http://www.vam.ac.uk/users/node/18654
http://www.alaia.fr/
http://www.lisaemoss.com/Lisa_E_Moss_website/Home.html
https://www.lovethepearls.com/about-pearls/famous-quotes.asp
http://www.carluccios.com/

Chinoiserie - on a bench

Chinoiserie - in the shade. Dressed in embroidered silk and fringes the colour of toffee, dusky pink pearls at my neck, and a trio of bangles at my wrist. Both the bangles and ring are from Jessica Walker, Dulwich Village. The silver Angel Jackson bag matches the similarly distressed shoes (from the '30s) which were bought in Stockholm, Sweden.

http://www.angeljackson.com/
http://www.farfetch.com/shopping/women/angel-jackson/items.aspx?gclid=CJy2ouK2tLgCFcLHtAodDngAqg&oby=5&cur=GBP&bfdqbt=angel%20jackson&campaign=Designer%20Names%20UK#ps=1&pv=60&oby=5
http://jessicawalkerjewellery.co.uk/

For more chic chinoiserie visit: http://chinoiseriechic.blogspot.co.uk/