With the New Year always comes lots of new letters, I mean recognition, from her Royal Highness (or whichever title she prefers these days; Ma’am? Mam? Mirren?) and 2012 saw a flurry of Honours divvied out among members of the great British Fash-Pack.
While the likes of British fashion heavyweights such as Lulu Kennedy MBE (rightly dubbed fashion’s ‘fairy Godmother’) and Biba founder Barbara Hulanicki OBE were both awarded for their services toward Britain’s fashion industry, there were some more ‘under the radar’ names that were also recognised. For instance, Luskentyre Harris Tweed founder Donald John MacKay was OBE’d while an MBE was thrown at the founders of the cult jewellery store, Links of London, John and Annoushka Ayton. Now, I understand how the Queen is probably a Harris Tweed fan, but I didn’t ever suppose she would favour the ‘charming’ delights of Links of London…Perhaps they made her a royal-themed charm bracelet to mark the occasion?
While strictly speaking, she did not receive her MBE for fashion-related purposes (that would be ridiculous), my favourite honour was bestowed to the lovely Helena Bonham Carter, who was given a Commander of the Order of the British Empire award, for her role of a lifetime playing the Queen’s mum (mam? ma’am?! It’s just impossible) in the King’s Speech. Alas, her dedication to pulling up the standard of acting in the Harry Potter saga was sorely overlooked.
Yours sincerely, Helen Coakley G.C.S.E.
