Real Fever Pitch

Folks I lost a week. Last week passed me by as after Olympic fever I had a real fever and although it wasn't scarlet fever I did at one point think I was fading away in the style of Beth from Little Women. I was sure Jo was at my bedside mopping my brow.

I will spare you dear readers the detail but suffice to say I have lost 10lbs in weight and it was not pleasant. A sample is with the path lab to determine if my illness was viral or parasitic. I believe people were complaining about the heat on Saturday but the heat warmed my bones and helped to clear the lingering elements of the illness.

In the midst of all this I awoke from my stupor to the unbelievable spectacle of Assange preaching from a low balcony to a media throng in Knightsbridge. Having escaped the jaws of whatever and being of sound mind and body again, I thought a new fever was upon me such was the ridiculous speech and demeanour of the man or as we like to think of him in this household the rat 'wikileaks' from South Park. If only Lemmiwinks could come along and deal with him. My boiling blood did manage to get me going and I nearly leapt out of bed today as finally, although weakened, I felt normal again. And please I have a whole post brewing on Dame Viv and her involvement!!

Mind you the amount of water I need to drink each day to replenish my body is ridiculous. I actually scared a shopper in the supermarket car park today as I swigged from a bottle of water, standing outside the car and then gaily got in and drove off. I realised when I got home it must have looked like I casually sunk some vodka and then drove off. I only buy (very occasionally) glass bottles of water not plastic ones and from a distance I can see that maybe it was quite vodka bottle like.

As well as a few groceries, I bought a heap of magazines as we are off on holiday to Pembrokeshire next week and the weather in Wales is mainly on the wet side. It is an eclectic mix and I am only missing a copy of Elle to add to the pile, which handily has a free eye pencil too.

I also had to pick up something from Mr MDS in M&S and after a week in bed felt the need for some new items not associated with fever and ruination. I opted for that Carrie Bradshaw look from SATC the HBO series of vest top and boy shorts to be worn with black bra and pearls of course.

lingerie vest tops & shorts from M&S

I was actually grateful to Sky Moives one afternoon last week as I hauled myself onto the sofa, had tons of cushions and a blanket to snuggle under and watched SATC2. It was the easiest viewing ever and my only moment of elation was when Wendy Brandes earrings made their appearance.

Shortly I will be rebooted sufficiently to get to grips with the forth coming season and pick out some winners for your budgets.

Jumper love

If I could have two jumpers then these are my top choices. The first one I have coveted for years. Oh I wish it was mine.



The second is recent discovery via a fabulous series of posts by PennyDreadful Vintage on 50s supermodel Suzy Parker. Now I so want a yellow jumper - exactly like this.

Costume analysis

InStyle feature a great retrospective of Carrie's Sex and the City costumes plus a feature of the ones in the forthcoming SATC2 The Movie. I always think of the outfits as costume because Carrie is fictional. I wasted a lot of money and time on creating my own fictional Carrie lifestyle/performance but it was worth it!

Image: InStyle from new forthcoming SATC movie

I have to confess to being a bigger fan of the TV series and the more eccentric Carrie outfits from it. The movie costumes are too polished and contrived. Does this reflect the lifestyle development of Carrie's story? Remember how her style changed when she met the Russian! Oh well I will no doubt bustle along to the cinema to watch it ....

Reminisce of a bygone time at InStyle
And get to see the credits for WendyB's Cleopatra earrings oh and few outfits too.

Last week, UK Grazia did a hilarious little piece about unanswered questions in SATC: The Movie. My favourite was why had Harry become almost mute, followed by why did Stamford and Anthony kiss at New Year’s Eve?

The one question they didn’t ask was why hadn’t Carrie got herself a pair of glasses if she couldn’t see without them? Now, it was a sweet scene of her in bed borrowing Big’s pair but surely a successful forty something girl would have her own.

There is a fashion for frames and many a person has taken to pretending their need glasses for a geek chic look. WendyB of Wendy Brandes Jewelry posted a gorgeous cat like pair she’s sourced for someone.

Upon further investigation into this matter I worked out why Carrie hadn’t gotten around to buying a pair – it would eat into her shoe budget. The cost of investing in glasses that look good is enormous. You need a few pairs for working with different outfits. Then there is the awful fact of do you suit glasses. Now I do not. I have proven this on several occasions to hoots of derision. I suit a nice pair of sunnies but put me in spectacles and well geek chic it ain’t.

Luckily I don’t need to wear a pair yet but I’m undertaking forward planning now and have realised that in order to preserve the shoe budget, still look ok and be able to see, it’s got to be contact lenses. So, to help Carrie and myself I’ve sourced a useful site called lensshopper.com. It does all the work and has a host of information I hadn’t even thought about – like contacts with UVA and UVB protection!

I know lots of you will have views on contacts but in short I’m too vain to look bad in glasses and I don’t have Patricia Field on speed dial to make me look good if I did wear them. I’ve added a new column to my spreadsheet to budget for contacts and if I don’t call upon the services of LensShopper in the next 12 months, I’ll be buying those Manolo’s I’ve been eying up ever since seeing the movie.

The Answer

Do you remember the blog post that wanted to know about certain clothes in SATC:The Movie...well I now have the answer.

It's a book! "Sex and the City":The Movie by Amy Sohn. The blurb reads like a blah blah blah until the bit which says 'including notes from costume designers that guide readers through the movie's two-million-dollar fashion closet'. Oh yes.

Get it for £11.99 at Amazon .co.uk or $19.77 from Amazon .com.

Wish list...information

Hm, not the greatest of images but I lack a certain apptitude when it comes to digital enhancing etc. Not my fortay. I've been helped in the past by the wonderful Observationmode and made much progress indeed.

Now I'm looking for help of a different kind - identfying SATC items. Jen from Mahalo Fashion is usually whizz at this.

I'm being dreadfully lazy and have made some effort to trawl style.com, but what I really really want....is to know the designer of a couple of evening style coats Carrie wore during her personal assistant period and brunette hair. One is picture above and the other is equally divine with its wide 3/4 length sleeves. Help pretty please.....

Grown up fash pash.

I've realised that I need to adopt a more grown up look. I'm not quite ready to consign myself to Anna Wintour's ubiquitous chic - nor will I don a fur!

Which reminds me, now quite a few of you will have seen SATC:the movie, and as there are images galore, I feel ok to comment on the only bit I winced at was the display of fur.


I've never been comfortable with it but harbour no desire to throw paint. I'm not against fur per se but the indulgence of it. Perhaps I was heavily influenced by Dodie Smith's 101 Dalmations as a child! My bf who moved to NY had to phone me to confess her fur coat purchase on the basis of need 'it gets so cold' she moaned.


That aside, it was Carrie in her long Argyle socks that made me think. You see I happily don my long Prinlge ones and jaunt about with them over my knees with flats or heels. In fact I strolled in to Gucci on 5th, four years ago on a cold November day in said pair.
But Grazia magazine sort of dissed the look and in some respects rightly so when seen on a grown woman. Plus, now they've made such a public viewing I might look like a copy cat.

I decided to ignore Mr de la Renta's fall items with fur and selected a grown up day look and an evening one for me to aspire to.....so sadly from now on I'll be wearing my socks under my jeans on a cold day.

Images style.com


My rash of blogs today (see 2 more below) are due to visiting friends for the weekend so tomorrow I'll be donning a pinnie with my pearls and whipping up a cup cake or two before preparing a hearty supper of spaghetti bolognese and salad. Then on Sunday I'll be wearing an eye mask to stop the light from coming in if I've overdone it on the chianti.
Look forward to catching up on all your blogs next week xxxx.

What inspires a stylist

I don't know where I found this but I'd stored the picture in my inspiration file.

The upload doesn't do it justice but if you click on it, it enlarges the image to its true splendour.

I wonder if Patricia Fields saw this at some point too, as the first dress we see Carrie in SATC the movie is almost the walking version of this old print.

Boo hoo Noth enough

I can't tell you enough what a fab evening it was. London town, blue skies, nice breeze and a late start oh must be a premier. Kim Cattrall looked the most gorgeous, partly because she excudes womenhood. They all looked amazing but the evening was not an A list frenzy apart from the girls themselves, the only other mentionable is Patricia Fields who to my complete joy did turn up. But no Mr Big! I really wanted to see Chris Noth.

I failed miserably in sneaky photo taking - in fairness I would have looked a) a dork and b) had it confiscated!

Gok Wan was outside trying to get interviews (amongst others) and there was a general flash frenzy for anyone vaguely 'known'. I escaped with a forlorn walk, with my plus one friend, we did take a funny pic of me with a board before we entered but I can't get it from my phone to my computer currently!

Most of the other celebs were of no interest but Kelly Rowlands (ex-Destiny's Child)looked great and was lovely, she also had plus one friend who had to step aside for the photo calls.

Just compare Kelly with a couple of Brits on right Michelle Ryan, Jenny Faulkner.

Kelly's dress was stunning. A deeper bolder purple than reflected in the photo.

Oh and the film - well Sarah Jessica Parker and the cast pleaded for secrecy, mouths buttoned etc. It is so hard for me not to be a BIG mouth!!

I wore cream cotton Primark dress, Gap's Pierre Hardy black patent platforms, silver clutch from Blommingdales, Soho ( I bought it last September when they were filiming SATC) and a pale blue pashmina with silver studs from http://www.doushala.co.uk/ (worn as scarf thing not shawl!). I knew it would be cold inside the cinema with the air con and it was.......Hardly top drawer stuff but I did tube it! I wasn't gonna waste my Blahnik's on the Bakerloo