And If You Don't Mind, As This Is Fantasy After All, I Will Also Be...

...Anna

Ah!

And most of all...Anna with Karl.
It's bended knee time Lady Gaga; Anna was first.

Who Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?

Me? I want to be Iris Apfel, no contest. Here's some of the New York socialite, textile and tribal jewellery collector and brave fashion warrior's most cheer-inducing looks. I defy you not to smile.
With love,
Mrs. Press
xxx

P.s. Is that red petal cape number knitted?! I hope so!

TEN TO TAKE NOTES FROM

Posting about Quentin Bryce got me thinking about style icons and who qualifies, in my mind, and in Australia. So I came up with a Top Ten Most Inspiring Dressers at Home list. So here it is (hurrah!) in no particular order:

10. La Gov Gen (see Thursday's post)
9. Lee Lin Chin - exotic and exciting, J'adore this journo's take on Japanese and Belgian design
8. Emily McGregor - this fashion editor flies under the radar but her wonderfully eccentric wardrobe is worth writing home about
7. Christine Centenera - a jewel in the Harper's Bazaar crown, this one invented the modern fashionista look; the rest are mere copycats
6. Michelle Jank - brave and beautiful, this stylist/designer/creative force is always delightful to look at
5. Jenny Kee - wacky and wondrous, Kee is my favourite architect of the Australian fashion vernacular
4. Rose Byrne - lovely in Lanvin, her n' Cate are rare red carpet masters
3. Cate Blanchett - obviously. But you have got to love her, no? That frame, those cheek bones, those Romance Was Born risks
2. Louise Olsen - classically beautiful with a quirky, arty elegance
1. Alexandra Keating - willowy and clever, I love how this proto-business dynamo can work a Willow frock or a vintage Victorian capelet

From top: Portrait of Jank from Sunday Life; Chin; Byrne in Lanvin at the Golden Globes; Olsen pic by Susie Hogan; Centenera at the shows.

Museworthy: Quentin Bryce, 1942 -

It's no secret that I love glamorous grown-ups, preferring a smartly turned out septugenarian socialite to a Gen Y hipster any day. I love the old ways of doing things - gloves at the races, adhering to dress codes, grooming, diamonds, ballgowns and all that - but for some reason I had failed to clock that our Governor General Quentin Bryce is clearly the chicest woman on the planet, until her svelte form stole the Master Chef show last night. (And you thought it was sad that a cooking shows could beat the election debate...)

The Gov Gen was hosting a dinner for volunteers at Government House, clad in an LBD cut so sharply it verily sliced off my sofa dwelling fashion apathy and sent me scurrying upstairs to shed my suddenly shameful sweat pants. Who cares if no-one could see me?

What self respecting style fan could watch Bryce, her blond coif shining against the brilliance of her regal smile, in that Paris frock with the cut-away triangle in the back, and stay dressed like a slob? Bryce could give Carla Bruni and Samantha Cameron a run for the public appearance money. Aren't we lucky to have her?

Clutter Love

I know mess is supposed to be bad for us. One of the battle cries of modern life is "De-clutter!" (your brain, your love life, your kitchen...go forth and throw stuff out; order your closets; and put the cutlery away for heaven's sake!). But guess what? I like my spoons and forks on display. I love a bit of artful mess. It inspires me.

Anyway, I don't trust people who are too clean and tidy. My mum had a friend who used to bleach her wheelie bins - every single day. I'll bet this particular friend never fed her kids a peck of dirt to keep the immune system healthy (yeah, thanks for that Mum), but I'll wager too that those kids never knew the unparalleled joy of tipping out the button tin all over the sofa in order that they might spend a whole rainy day hunting them back, but instead finding pennies and lipsticks, postcards and, once, a door mouse (true story) deep within its dusty depths. I never did recover all those buttons - I like to think of them living happily somewhere nice in the sun, tending geraniums in their button-y backyard. Mess is good for the imagination.

My friend Daniel just sent me some snaps he took at our last fashion show. There were lovely shots of the models and the clothes but it was the tiny, wacky details that caught my eye - the ones we'd spent ages dreaming up, then promptly forgot. It's mess, yes, but not as we know it.

Oh, the final picture stars some of my spoons. It'd be criminal to hide these beauties in a drawer, no?

WHAT, THIS OLD THING?

Not all vintage is created equal. The evil polyester patio dress, exuding the faint whiff of armpits past, for example, has zip in common with the diaphanous silk chiffon 1930s tea dress, the one with the lace trimmed petal sleeve.

There are all sorts of rules and distinctions about what should be termed vintage and what antique, what designer second-hand and what just plain out of date, but I think the main point, for me anyway, is that whatever it is, this faded relic of fashion's history that you've decided to rescue and introduce into your own style future, it must be beautiful and very old indeed.

I rarely meet 1970s vintage to salivate over, although I do possess a precious Chantilly lace Thea Porter blouse (though lesser known, Thea was a London style set peer of Ossie Clarke and Bill Gibb). My personal tastes tend towards the 1920s and 30s. But I wouldn't kick an Edwardian blouse out of bed, would you?

So it was with a glad heart that I went to visit the actor, director, and vintage hoarder Beth Armstrong in her elegant Annandale abode. Beth collects, and sells by appointment, antique and vintage treasures under the banner of The Travelling Dress. These treats take the form of unbelievably beautifully preserved and wearable art deco evening dresses, slips and robes; natty little 1940s suits, jawdropping beaded belle epoche accessories and a whole range of blouses from the 1850s to the 1930s.

All Beth's pieces, which mostly come from Europe (it helps to have antiques dealer parents) have been carefully selected, are in fabbo top notch nick and have been washed, mended and handled with love and magic so you can pop them on right away with your favourite jeans and look the bee's knees, and not costume-y at all. For looking like an extra from Little Dorrit is as much Beth's pet hate as it is mine. Get vintage right, and you look fiercely modern.

I didn't mean to spend the mortgage money at Beth's but it was hard to resist. To make me feel better, she agreed to hand over a collection of her spoils each season for us to sell at Mrs. Press. Hurrah.

From top: Victorian cotton blouse; 1930s peach silk slip and piano shawl; 1920s lace petticoat; 1930s silk top and art deco purse; hand-beaded Victorian cape. All by The Travelling Dress - selected pieces now available at Mrs. Press.

www.thetravellingdress.com

Brooke's Recipe for Banana Bread Joy

There's nothing like the fun that comes for free. When short of the funds for a champagne supper, my stylist friend Viva Vayspap and I used to amuse ourselves with a game of "If you were a vegetable, what sort of vegetable would you be?" Being smooth and darkly exotic, Viva liked to see herself as an aubergine. Me? She insisted I'd be a yellow courgette. The skinny blond I got, but good in ratatoui? I didn't relate. If only said zucchini could've been sweet and chic...Herewith, a recipe for just such a happiness, by our fabulous baking beauty of a fashion assistant, Brooke Hart.
(So anyway, what sort of vegetable would you be?)


Brooke’s Banana Bread recipe:

This one is such an upstanding citizen of the cake world, you’d think he was hiding something horrible. But he contains no butter and is packed full of healthy ingredients and slow-release energy. The Mrs. Press girls enjoyed it thoroughly with morning cups of tea and coffee!

2 eggs (free range please!)
150g wholemeal self-raising flour
120g caster sugar (1/2 cup)
1tbsp honey
1 large banana, mashed up very well
1tsp vanilla essence
1tsp cinnamon
140g zucchini (yes, really!), topped, tailed and peeled, then finely grated.
A small handful of finely chopped pecans


Spray the inside of a loaf tin with some cooking oil (a good one like light olive, if you’re feeling especially virtuous), and preheat the oven to 180C.

Mash the banana thoroughly and mix the tablespoon of honey in with it.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs and sugar for 3 minutes – they will triple in size and be pale and light.

Add the mashed banana and beat for a few seconds to incorporate – then the same with the zucchini.

Lastly, add the flour, vanilla extract and cinnamon, and mix again until completely blended.

Pour the mixture into the loaf tin and sprinkle the pecans on top. Bake for 45 minutes, until risen and golden.

Cool in its tin for 10 minutes after baking.

HELLO! AMAZING! 1950S DIOR...

What with Louis Vuitton getting all full skirted on us, I've been mugging up on the master, reading an old Penguin copy of the fantabulous Dior By Dior. Such a neat and unassuming looking man is he in photographs, doffing his hat to the press in that smart but quiet grey suit or contemplating his garden near Milly in Normandy, but what he did for womankind! Oh my!

His autobiography is full of intriguing insights into what made him tick. My favourite today? His musings on self-doubt, for, you see, even geniuses worry about the efficacy of their art

He writes:"One visualises the dress in grey, in pink, in green, first in mat, then in shiny black...No, none of them will do! The only thing that has been decided so far is the weight of the material, for the shape of the toile has decided that in advance. The bales of cloth mount up on the floor; they seem to get uglier and uglier; time passe; silence falls...

Once at home, I find myself thinking about the delectable toile in the middle of the night - those collection-haunted nights which turn into days in a feverish sarabande. The next day I do actually manage to reach a decision.

In spite of all this concentration, it does sometimes happen that materials which have been chosen with the greatest possible care are found to have kept some unexpected revelation in reserve when the dress is sewn together. Couture is the perfect marriage of design and material. There are many instances of perfect harmony - and there are few of disaster."

None I've seen Christian. I bow to you.