Now my rather public stint at the Wellcome is over (I think they're scrubbing it off today) I've decided to start showing more of my work process.
In my fashion work, my biggest inspiration is never the catwalk but everyday style. I'm always stunned when an outfit that surprises me but that also works on the street (as Gabrielle Chanel said, "An elegant woman should be able to do her marketing without making housewives laugh").
I saw this woman sitting in the Blanc Brasserie restaurant in Oxford yesterday, and made a quick sketch.
She must have been in her 50s or possibly even early 60s, her beautiful tanned and lined heart-shaped face sporting a permanent private-joke grin. She was dressed in a cobalt sweater that fitted her neat figure perfectly, and a brown felt fedora over her grey-tone wrap-around glasses, which she didn't take off all lunch.
In an industry where most models and many garments (minishorts, platform heels, anyone?) seen designed for the very young, it's easy for an older woman to feel lost. With a nod to the currently fashionable (that hat, the cobalt of the sweater) this woman preserved her identity along with a strong sense of style, it seemed, effortlessly.
Find it hard to visualise Chanel doing any shopping (presumably this is what she means by"marketing" ),so her advice is a tad academic.I'm surprised she did n't design a special shopping suit leaving hands and arms free to load up her attendant male trotting obediently behind to carry stuff and pay.
Posted by: DBC Reed | March 23, 2011 at 09:56 AM
Hmmm - though I won't say she liked to pick out her own potatoes, Chanel did champion practical features in women's clothing - like patch pockets, and trousers. Maybe you're thinking of the post-war Chanel - she of the hobble-skirted sack suit - who seems a completely different animal from the designer of the 20s.
Posted by: badaude | March 23, 2011 at 10:03 AM
You're probably right: I am thinking of the post-war Chanel but its hard to find any era when she did n't have some rich geezer in tow.Quite why did the American press do so much to rehabilitate her after the War? There seems to have been a joint effort to boost Paris at the time: Edith Piaf got some very good press in the US post-war;she hardly needed it: Les Trois Cloches which she sang on her post-war US tour was her best song IMO (on YouTube).The Americans pinched it later.
Posted by: DBC Reed | March 24, 2011 at 06:28 PM
I love this sketch. None of us are getting younger and it's lovely to see inspiring women like this!
Posted by: Coquette (Elisabeth) | March 25, 2011 at 11:18 AM
Hey, Coquette, I just discovered http://advancedstyle.blogspot.com. (They should have been there to shoot her). And if I could find a hat like that, I'd buy it in a second.
Posted by: badaude | April 07, 2011 at 11:45 PM