VALENTINO VAMPIRE PART II

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

Keira 4 Valentino

Keira Knightley always looks alright. I often feel her fashion choices are a bit odd, though, and that some of the designers she wears don't suit her as much as they could. But that's just splitting hairs.
ANYWAY.

The initial impulse for this post is that Keira looks outrageously stunning in this Valentino dress from the Spring 2011 collection. The best she has ever looked. Regular readers of this blog will know I have a penchant for the way Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli the creative directors of Valentino are refreshing the codes of the house.

You ought to know, too, that the Valentino showing for Spring/Summer 2011 was the highlight of the season for just about every woman in the fashion media and more besides. So expect profiles of the designers, and lots of Valentino love and red carpet action next season.

Luckily for me, I got to spend time with the designers during Couture week in July, and wrote up my interview for POP's current issue. MC and PP as they are known are funny and fabulous, and doing such a great job. Here's ten reasons why I'm still a Valentino Vampire.

Read more about my Valentino obsession here.

ANNA DELLO RUSSO APPRECIATION SOCIETY

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

She was obscure in her career for so long. Not any more. Anna Dello Russo's moment has arrived. And long may she enjoy the fame, fortune - (she is currently inking a perfume deal) - and admiration of both her peers and the world at large.

There is an excellent interview with Anna in this weeks Grazia written by Paula Reed, with a line in it that made me wish for a moment I could give up all other work and just focus solely on my blog.

"I reinvented myself through my blog. Its been slow progress. Through my blog I find I can express myself better than I was ever able to on a magazine. The Internet has freed me."

I like that. Though magazine work is as essential to me as it is to Anna, having a personal blog is, as Anna says below to models.com (via The Cut) about "my own expression."

She goes onto say, "Of course I love Japanese Vogue, but in any case, I was thinking to express myself. I thought, I should really jump in this world and have a voice to really express myself. With magazines, you don’t really express yourself; you express a corporate vision, you express the vision of Condé Nast. It’s not really your point of view. You can’t say in the magazine what you really like, it’s all a very political vision. So I thought, maybe I should spend some time and energy to finally have my little voice, and now it’s happening."

Viva ADR! Buy the new edition of TEN Magazine, with Anna on the cover. It came out yesterday. They're having a party tonight, and ADR is to be the guest of honour.