I ♥ Your Style: Bonnie Morrison

Ran into my friend Bonnie on the street the other day. She always does classic style so well, in fact she's one of the featured girls in the classic chapter of my book. Anyway, she also has the BEST vintage finds - check out her old school Gucci loafers (don't overlook the green and red ribbon under the buckle) and primary blue Hermes Birkin she was wearing when I saw her. Chic as hell.

Printed Matter: Cheap Chic

Vintage books are probably the greatest source of inspiration in my creative life. I look for them wherever I go. The best vintage bookstore is Glenn Horowitz Booksellers in East Hampton. I could go broke there. In fact Glenn Horowitz is where I found my all time favorite fashion how-to guide, Cheap Chic. It heavily inspired my own book, I Love Your Style. In fact, the greatest compliment I got on my book was from Carol Troy, the Cheap Chic author herself, who posted on my Facebook page that my book was "a terrific cheap chic update, high low and everything in between." Anyway, the good news is that many highly collective old books are easy to find and less expensive online (you can even find them on Amazon). I am so excited to share my favorite books with you. And there's no better way to start than with Cheap Chic itself.

Buy it here

I love how Carol calls this woman a "ragpicker deluxe."  Not to mention the pictures - I love how unpretentiously stylish she is.

 An athletic-chic Antonio Lopez illustration.

 I also love how Carol incorporates all cultures and ethnicities in her appreciation of style.

 Not only do I love these clothes, but also the style of the illustrations. I wish I could draw like this.

This is a page from a chapter called "Wrappings" which shows you dozens of ways to wrap fabric around your body. Love it!

Doesn't this girl look like a young Sonia Rykiel?  Shows you how much impact hair and make up can have on your overall look. Perfect for creating a big impact on a little budget.

I ♥ Your Style: Gia Coppola

There's no question that Gia Coppola has the Coppola cool gene. She's a talented photographer and now a budding filmmaker - she shot a charming and girly short film for Zac Posen's collection for Target and also - my favorite - a video of an installation Opening Ceremony did in LA called "You and Me on La Cienega." I love the way she dresses too - that kind of California laid-back school girl style - making the most out of basics like t-shirts and tank tops and white Wayfarers, but also amping it up a bit for night in classic black dresses (often Chanel). I'm excited to see what she makes of herself.

Travel: Taverna Flavia, Rome

While I was in Rome last week (working on the next Tod's ad campaign), Emanuele Della Valle took us to Taverna Flavia one night for dinner. As soon as we walked in I was charmed by its old school neighborhood restaurant-type feel and the charm of the waiters who greeted us. I was further impressed by the floor to ceiling photos of celebrities from all decades. But I was actually floored when we got to the private dining room and noticed that the entire room was a museum's worth of photos and articfacts dedicated to the owner Mimmo Cavicchi's infatuation and long standing friendship with Liz Taylor, dating back to her days on the set of Cleopatra shot in Rome in 1961.

I took some photos (sorry for the poor lighting) and found the below interview which I found online. Its worth a vist for the photos alone, but the food is excellent too. 

How did you know Elizabeth Taylor?

I met her in Rome in August 1961 during the shooting of the film Cleopatra. A series of fortuitous events had made me become not only the official supplier of her meals, but also and above all a great friend. We are still on the phone and each time is always exciting. I am madly in love with her, she is a myth, a special woman, both strong and fragile. I have hundreds of beautiful photos. 

Is that why you have dedicated a museum?

I have dedicated a room in the Taverna Flavia called "Little Liz", where you can find not only photos but also telegrams, letters that I send and the famous Queen Cleopatra sandals which are authentic.  

What did Liz love to eat?

San Daniele ham, mozzarella, spinach cannelloni. She loved exotic fruit. She hated grapes. 

Have you ever done something crazy for her?

More than once. One evening I filled the entire room with hundreds of white roses. She hated red roses. I asked her at the telephone: "What you'd like to find here tonight?" She said: "A garden." Every wish of her was a order for me. 

Elizabeth Taylor has been the success of Taverna Flavia?

Surely she helped. In America, she used to repeat to her friends: "When you go to Rome consult Mimmo. Then Tony Curtis, Brigitte Bardot, Burt Reynolds, Burt Lancaster, Roger Vadim, Jane Fonda, Kirk Douglas and many others arrived. 

In Bloom

I don't like taking jewelry with me when I travel. Despite the sartorial payoff, the burden of worrying about losing it always seems greater. This is usually fine except when I am traveling somewhere to go to a dressy party or a wedding. I discovered a solution in 2002 when I went to the Dominican Republic for a friend's wedding that was not only formal but also being photographed by Vogue. As I was getting dressed for the rehearsal dinner I grabbed a handful of bougainvillea that had been placed as a welcoming decoration in the bedroom of our hotel. It worked so well to make my outfit a little more special that the next night I went out into the garden and picked some gardenias to wear in my hair for the wedding. They looked good AND smelled good! I'm not always so lucky to have a garden of fresh flowers to pick from. I once bought a hideous bouquet in the Munich airport and picked out the pink roses to work into my braids for another wedding the next night. This is a great traveling trick but also good for dressing yourself up on home turf too. And even though I'm partial to flowers in the hair they also work in a lapel or on a hat as evidenced below, or in Jane Birkin's case even held in your hand. And although you might shudder at the idea, I once even made a corsage - a gardenia on a thick black grosgrain ribbon tied around my wrist - and wore it to the Met Ball. It worked, I swear.

Clockwise from top: Catherine Deneuve & Francoise Dorleac, Jacqueline Bisset, David Hamilton photograph, Charlotte Rampling, Jerry Hall, Me, Kate Moss, unknown, Gwenyth Paltrow, Joni  Mitchell, Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin.

Snapshot: Perfect Hermès Boots

Travel: Mattituck, NY

One of the only consolations about the end of summer is looking forward to apple and pumpkin picking at Wickham's farm in Mattituck, NY. In our family we have made a tradition out of climbing aboard Mr. Wickham's red vintage tractor and trolley to ride through the peach orchards, past the blueberry net, beyond the farmhouse and down to the bayside plot where the pumpkins are waiting to be carefully chosen and taken home and the apples are ready to be eaten on the spot and collected into giant bushel bags. We always end up with way too many apples resulting in not only every variation of sliced apples (with cheddar cheese or peanut butter) for after school snacks but also apple pie, apple crisp, apple sauce, even apple butter. After three trips to Wickham's this fall, I'm pretty sure I'm ready to wait until next Fall for apple season to come again.

I ♥ Your Style: Lauren Hutton

Is there anyone more American than Lauren Hutton?

Light as a Feather

Especially on a short little evening jacket. The first one I got was from my friend Duro Olowu - he's an amazing designer and he also has an incredible eye (and nose!) for vintage. His wife Thelma is one lucky woman. Anyway, whenever I go to his studio he brings out little treasures from a back closet to show me. They are always impressive historical pieces (a 60's Balenciaga coat made from rubber!), but not always something I must have or that he wants to neccessarily part with. Its more like show and tell. One day, however, he brought out this 70's YSL sequin bolero with Maribou sleeves and I just plotzed, as my buddy Josh would say. I'd never seen anything that felt more like me, and I HAD to have it. What's more, if you look at the closeup below you can see the sequins are sewn onto lace tulle, which makes it shimmer even more. It was perfect because Duro had been coveting a painting of my husbands and so we did an even trade. I wear it every year at least once or twice, I never get tired of it. I even wore it to The Met Ball one year with a white silk tank top and sharply tailored black trousers. I never thought about owning a second Maribou evening jacket until I saw one go down the runway at Phillip Lim a few seasons back. The color was stunning - very dark hunter green - and when the model walked past me and I saw the gunmetal sequins on the back I knew it was going to soon be in my closet. I'm so happy when I wear it, and I'm even happy just to see it hanging there in my closet when I'm not wearing it.