Sitting in a Hampstead coffee shop today, I overheard this conversation between a bored teenage Claudia Schiffer look-alike and her mom.
Mom: Wouldn't you like to be someone's muse?
Daughter: What's a muse?
Mom: It's a person who inspires an artist.
Daughter: Oh! You mean like Victoria Beckham and the way she inspires Marc Jacobs?
It's been quite a while since I posted an Object of Desire. It might be that I've been more focused on the mind and the spirit than the body, but it's more likely because I blog all day about fashion for work here and here. However, these repurposed cashmere pieces by Linda Zimmermann are just too gorgeous and unique to go unmentioned. And, though certain monks and other religious types may beg to differ, the spirit (or at least my spirit) is more creative, contemplative, and productive when the body is being gently caressed by soft fabric.
Photo credit: Natalie Flemming
From 'Style Bubble': "I've been re-reading (for the gazillionth time) The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy and in the third book 'To Let', there is a passage which has long been noted as one of my many literary costume fantasies..."
The Forsyte Saga also happens to be one of Amy's favorite adaptations.
"Dashing passementerie and bold brass buttons come marching in." (Style.com)
Image: 3.1 Philip Lim two-toned leather band jacket
Related: "It's Napoleon and His Lovers"
Okay, so I would never buy these items I really, really desire. They're ridiculously expensive, of course, and it's against my personal values to spend that much on a fashion item(s). Drama Queen Boots, $468. Book Bag, $698.
Damn you, Anthropologie. I curse the day I ever set foot in your chandeliered, two-story pleasure dome. Maybe now that I've blogged about you, I can forget you...
From the Archives: Maggie the Cat and Lord Byron
This weekend while on the hunt for new additions to my vintage slip collection (inspired by la Liz in Butterfield 8 and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), I picked up a deliciously threadbare biography on Lord Byron for $10. What I wouldn't give to check out the collection of 155,000 rare letters and manuscripts by the likes of Byron, Coleridge, and Sir Walter Scott that the National Library of Scotland just purchased for £31 million. Alas, the documents are going to be kept in a steel cage in Edinburgh. (Suddenly imagining myself in a black leather cat burglar suit, scaling the roof of the library and then neatly somersaulting through a maze of blue laser beams... )
"The Byron material is... enormously valuable and includes the manuscript of Childe Harold and love letters from Lady Caroline Lamb,
as well as letters from a mystery love. Other figures who feature in the archive are Benjamin Disraeli, Jane Austen, Mary Shelley 
and the explorer Isabella Bird." (via TEV)
"It's Napoleon and his lovers," Gabbana said. "It's about him and all of the women around him during his life--Marie Antoinette, Pauline, Josephine." The Napoleonic theme continued with British fashion house Burberry which celebrated its 150th anniversary with a celebrity-packed catwalk show at Palazzo Serbelloni, Napoleon's Milanese residence.
(Zeenews.com)
Images: Dolce & Gabbana Fall Ready-to-Wear Collection on Style.com
Sofia Coppola's upcoming Marie-Antoinette biopic is already inspiring fashion's royalty:
"Guillotine Chic a Slice of Excess" (The Age)
"From Paris, Revolution and Roses" (NYT)
"Moss Missing as Galliano Rolls Out Revolution" (Entertainment)
"Viva la Revolution as Galliano Lets Blood Flow across Catwalk" (Telegraph)
"...a cross between the Crusaders and Marie-Antoinette" (Bucharest Daily News)
It may not be haute couture, but the t-shirt I happen to be wearing (a gift from Amy) has a picture of Marie-Antoinette and reads, "I was a queen, and they took my crown."
Also posted at FIDM Style Scoop.
In the spirit of the season, I've purchased these two gorgeous necklaces from Alex + Chloe as gifts for... myself. It toook me about half an hour to narrow my choices down to two. Other favorites are the talon, the anchor, and the antler.
I'm supposed to be packing because my flight is scheduled for departure at 7:45 a.m. Instead I've been seeing movies, ordering tights, downloading music, catching up on my favorite blogs, and reading one of my birthday presents (thanks, Scott). Will it be worth the chaos that will ensue tomorrow morning at around six? Probably. 
