The BAFTAs 2012 Red Carpet Illustrated

I love a bit of red carpet frock watching as much as the next fashion fan, but I get a bit sick of the same bunch of photos doing the rounds every year when awards season rolls round. So to try something a bit different, for the 2012 BAFTA Awards, which took place in London last night, I asked a group of  artists to choose their favourite red carpet look and create a fashion illustration. I’m thrilled with the results, I love how the illustrators have interpreted the actresses outfits so creatively. Here’s what they came up with.

Meryl Streep in Vivienne Westwood by Amber Grayson. Visit Amber’s website.

Meryl Streep took home the best actress BAFTA for her performance as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. She wore Vivienne Westwood, and with her reddish hair and this classic corseted number I think she actually looked quite like Dame Westwood herself, in a good way though.

Bonnie Wright in vintage by Naomi Austin. Visit Naomi’s Facebook page.

Harry Potter actress Bonnie Wright looked quite dressed down in comparison to some of the other glammed up guests but I really like this navy vintage polka dot dress which she teamed with Prada accessories. And she gets points for sensibleness, keeping out the cold with those black tights – temperatures weren’t much above freezing in London last night.

Gillian Anderson in Sybil Connolly by Naomi Austin. Visit Naomi’s Facebook page.

Gillian Anderson, on the other hand, admitted she was totally freezing in her strapless gown. It’s a beauty though, by Irish designer Sybil Connolly.

Fearne Cotton in Moschino by Hilary Killam. Visit Hilary’s website.

Fearne Cotton took a quick turn on the red carpet before taking her place to interview the nominees. I’m a big fan of Moschino and I think this dress is pretty perfect for her – it’s glamorous enough for an awards event but it’s still got a hint of whimsy with the little black bow, and she’s well covered up which is sensible (is it weird that I’m so worried about these girls being cold? Maybe it’s cos they’re all so skinny, with no flesh to keep them warm!).

Miss Piggy in Louis Vuitton by Hilary Killam. Visit Hilary’s website.

The Muppet matriarch Miss Piggy was interviewing stars as they arrived on the red carpet but she managed to give them a run for their money fashion wise in her custom Louis Vuitton dress.

Tilda Swinton in Celine by Gareth A Hopkins. Visit Gareth’s website.

You can always expect something brilliant and unusual from Tilda Swinton at an awards do and she didn’t disappoint last night. Not quite as fiercely androgynous as usual, she went for a stark white Celine maxi skirt and crop top combination. Good work Swinton.

Michelle Williams in H&M by Lizzie Donegan. Visit Lizzie’s website.

Fashion folk on Twitter were getting very excited at the fact that there was going to be a high street brand on the red carpet. But Michelle Williams outdid plenty of other designer-clad A-listers in her dress from H&M Conscious, the Swedish retailer’s ethical range. Nothing sure what she carrying though – is it a book? Is it a bag? Maybe we’ll never know.

Gillian Anderson in Sybil Connolly by Jo Ley. Visit Jo’s website.

Gillian Anderson was a popular choice amongst the illustrators because Jo Ley also chose to illustrate the actress in her delicate Sybil Connolly dress with mille-feuille pleats. ‘I’m not surprised, everyone loves Scully,’ Jo said. I totally agree, she looked amazing.

Marie Laurencin at L’Orangerie, Paris

Sick of this late winter? Tube delays and leaky shoes? Me too. It seems that with every fresh sprinkling of snow, I’m forced to don yet another layer of mismatched knitwear and navigate through the streets of London, looking like a demented Russian doll. Suspicious looks tell me it’s not a hot look.

Deciding that enough is enough, I booked a last minute Eurostar to Paris last week, hoping that that a few spontaneous (and slightly warmer) days in a foreign country, complete with vin chauds, might help to charge up my batteries like an injection of Vitamin C. And the one place I find myself drawn to each time I visit the city is L’Orangerie – the beautiful museum situated just beyond the Louvre and home to eight spectacular Monet water-lily paintings.

But this time, my pilgrimage to the museum held less charm than it had in past years. Teeming with students and pensioners, the atmosphere was more manic than meditative. I decided to leave the Monet behind and ventured into the museum’s underbelly to explore a temporary exhibit instead – dedicated to a man named Paul Guillame, one of Paris’ most famed art collectors and cultural patrons.

Looking at the works on display, Guillame’s collection is prolific. There’s a Picasso here and a Gaugin there. A healthy smattering of impressionists too. All fairly dull fare because of their ubiquitous presence on Paris postcards and guide books. No, what truly left me reeling was discovering a tiny display of work by Marie Laurencin.

This series of pastel portraits – some of women dancing, others playing with flowers and dogs – were quite simply stunning. With their candy-coloured hues and exclusively female subject matter, I would have thought her work would be more well known over here in the UK, or more widely discussed in art history books. It turns out her largest body of work is currently housed in the Musée Marie Laurencin in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. Handy that.

Reading up on her back at home, I soon found that Laurencin was also a pioneer of sorts: a close friend of Pablo Picasso,you can see influences of Cubism throughout her art – albeit a more feminine and refreshing take. It was also rumored she was a sometime lover of the poet Apollinaire and the closest thing he had to a muse. She designed costumes for the Ballet Russes in the mid-twenties and became famed for her society portraits (her painting of Coco Chanel formed part of L’Orangerie’s current exhibition).

I am always sceptical when people recommend art or artists to me. Call it the effect of verbose press releases or some seriously crap modern art exhibits, I rarely come across something that really moves me. But this did. And standing in the corner of the temporary exhibition, I found that unexpected burst of sunshine I was looking for

What do you think of Laurencin’s work? Give us a tweet @Style_ThenSome to let us know your thoughts

Picture Credit: L’Orangerie/ ADAGP Paris

Virtual Changing rooms: The future of online shopping?

No, don’t panic dear readers, Carol Smilie is not returning in some new BBC 3D decorating experience.  The ‘Virtual Changing Rooms’ I am referring to is something that seems to be popping up all over online shopping websites.  Now, I know that to most people this isn’t ‘ground breaking’ news, or worthy of Sir Trevor McDonald’s airtime, but it is somewhat of a technology trend worth monitoring. 

If you haven’t noticed already, any new high-street chain store you walk in to will be equipped with access to computers linked up to it’s slick on-line store.  That is because they know that the majority of people now scout out what they want to buy before they try, online.  Been the Westfield lately?  Notice the ipad bench in Topshop?  I read a fascinating article recently on consumer trends in Draper’s Record (The retail Bible, if you will) predicting that by approx. 2014 for young professionals more online shopping will be done on our SMARTPHONES than on computers or in-store.  Their findings are only backed up by the Government’s attempts at High Street regeneration and hiring Queen of Shops Mary Portas to spearhead their campaign.  And boy, she is going to have her work cut out for her.

Now, I am not saying that people don’t love to shop anymore, but more and more people are doing it online, and any technology which makes this an easier experience is now at the for-front of development for many major online retailers.  For internet based companies such as asos.com, boohoo.com and the like, who clearly need no bricks and mortar to see their profits soar (Boohoo’s parent company saw their turnover shoot up by 85% in 2011 to £24.5m) the only logical next step would be developing virtual changing rooms, and cutting edge tools to make your online experience better, and as realistic as physical shopping.  They may be biding their time, and only in the development stages, but it would be silly to imagine the future of online retail without virtual changing rooms. Check out Love Rococo and have a play around with their version, known as the Webcam Social Shopper, a great little tool to get to grips with Virtual changing rooms.

 The only way is up for this type of technology,  and if done well, and done right, it has the potential to revolutionise online shopping further.  So how do you feel about this?  Do you think it has the potential to seriously catch on, or is it just another gimmick?  Would you use it?  Let me know your thoughts y’all!