Style PS - Times Online - WBLG

Nicole Kidman's red carpet make-up

Like the classically glam make-up Nicole Kidman wore to the premiere of The Golden Compass this week? You can easily get the look if you pick up Chanel's Rouge a levres in Enigma and the silvery grey eyeshadows in the Les 4 Ombres in Bleu Celestes palette - our spies tell us they're what her make-up artist Angela Levin used on her. Alright you won't have your own make-up artist to make you red carpet perfect but its as good a place to start as any.

Elephantitis

Homeware and animals have never mixed well - how many leopard print cushions does the non-WAG world really need? However, this season designers have all been answering the call to the wild in a much more graphic way, using actual animal shapes in designs rather than just striping a vase in black and white and calling it "zebra". Andrew Martin's diffusion line for John Lewis features cartoon-like elephants gallumphing over Union Jack motifs, and his spring summer continuation (of which we had a sneak preview yesterday) takes the theme even further.

But this new candle holder is making the Style Interiors Desk come over all herd-like and rush as one to buy our own:

Only £14.95 at www.designmyworld.net it's Christmassy (in that it'll cast a flickering glow around the room) without being covered in dreaded holly berries.

Style PS email 29 November 2007

Agyness Deyn's dress by Giles

Stella McCartney accepts her award

Satsuki Mitchell with Daniel Craig

Bag the best buys at Koodos.com

www.koodos.com is an online retailer offering men's and women's clothing and accessories at up to 80% off!  Pick from labels such as Chloe, Balenciaga, Cavalli, YSL....all you have to do is sign up FOR FREE and you then get access to exclusive private sales before anyone else.  I love these Marc Jacobs studded courts with an original price of £275...can you believe Koodos are selling them for £190! Superfine jeans too will be coming soon to the site,...but you have to hurry as stock is limited!  For more information, visit www.koodos.com. By Sara Hassan

Our favourite eco-friendly footwear

Fretting about your environmental footprint? Worried your shoes aint got no soul? Low impact footwear seems to have come a long way since the day I swapped the walking boots off my feet in Nairobi in exchange for a soapstone chessboard and a pair of flipflops recycled (and barely disguised) from freshly wrecked car tyres (which caused near instant bleeding of the foot and a barefoot walk home).

Top of our Pops for eco footwear are:

1. Beyond Skin: "Dorothy", £187

Why? Suitable for vegans, made with vintage fabric sourced from the UK and handmade in England. From www.beyondskin.co.uk

2. Earth & Wear's Mojo boots, £55

Why: All boots come with a disclosure form detailing information about the people who made the shoes (and their wages and benefits). Registered with the Vegan Society. Tel: 01745 571881

3.

Worn Again, made from recycled tyres, car seat belts and e-leather and

made by Terra Plana (aka the Clarks heir Galahad Clark)

4. Go barefoot for proper footloose and fancy free frolicks.

Question: How do you ruin a pretty face?....

  Ans: Grow a beard like Robbie Williams.   

Let the jewellery come to you!

Cartier have come up with an ingenious idea to help city workers.  To accomodate their hard-working, high earning city folk they have introduced a service called 'Cartier Comes to You' where Cartier come to your desk over the Christmas period.  Once you have informed them as to what designs you like and who you are buying for, a personal shopper then brings a selection to your desk...Once a selection is made, a salesperson will then bring your chosen gift, wrapped and delivered to your office within 24hrs.  Treat yourself to this new charity 'LOVE' bracelet...a fab stocking filler!  All you need to do is e-mail cartiercomestoyou@cartier.com or call 0207 408 9191

By Sara Hassan 

Bummed? Noooo. Style gets on the blower to Shaun Ryder

Brring brring! By lucky chance, Style has grizzly old 24 hour party person Shaun Ryder of the Happy Mondays, on the line. Mr Ryder, who has a new album out, and whose seminal albums Pills, Thrills and Bellyaches, and Bummed are re-released as collector's editions* this week, is sitting out his post-1990s comedown in the Peak District. The conversation goes thus:

Hello Shaun, how you are doing? I'm doing well mate. I'm watching Danny Boyle's Sunshine with a cup of tea.

Are you proud of your new album? It's pretty good, yeah. But I'm not going to talk about it. I don't sell cars, I only make 'em.

And you've got two of your best re-released this week. What do you think of them these days? I listened to "Bummed..." only the other week. I hadn't heard it since '88. I thought it sounded alright. I couldn't believe what I was writing about then though. I think about exactly the same stuff but I wouldn't write about it now.

Everyone's on about nu rave these days. Could old rave happen now? Well it was all about youth and ecstasy and they're still around so ... yeah. 

You're 45. Do you feel old yet? I still feel young. I'm trying to grow up! Something in my genes won't let me. It's all in the mind, it's how you feel. My old bloke is 65 but he acts like a child, and Bez still thinks he's 19 even when we say, you old bastard, you look 90!

What's the most middle-aged thing you ever do then? I watch the news all the time. And snooker.

What do you think about hard partying stars like Amy Winehouse getting such a hard time from the press? It's terrible! It's outrageous! They get called junkies, not musicians. There's nothing going on with musicians now that hasn't been happening since musicians played in Sherwood Forest, know what I mean?

I take it you aren't a rehab fan ... It's big business, in't it? And it's all a load of bollocks. There are some tricks you can learn but if you're going to kick all that shit, you just do it, don't yer?

Thanks Shaun. It's been fine talking to you.

* Ryder knew nothing of the re-releases until the record company who own the original recordings mentioned it in passing a few weeks back. You suspect Ryder won't be seeing much of the treasure.   

(Picture via Shirlaine)

life is shit

it really is. goodbye world.

it really is. goodbye world.

Chic new label exclusive to Selfridges!

Heimstone is the brainchild of parisian twentysomethings Alex Petit and Delphine Delafon.  Alix and Delphine collectively cut their teeth working with some top French designers such as Vanessa Bruno and Chere Michel Klein before deciding to go it alone.  Having showed their first collection at TRANOI, last March, the line is launching in Selfridges, London as well as their stand alone boutique in Paris.  The tres chic collection includes baby doll, shift dresses in silks and velvets and linens.  Prices start at £200 and I personally love it!!! Pop to the new Womens Designer Room on 2 at Selfridges.  By Sara Hassan

KJ's Laundry

Want to know a secret? 

kjslaundry.com has just launched its new online boutique.  Check it out its a secret address book find. A favourite with fashion editors. Kiera Knightley has been in a few times and Shirley Bassey even popped in just before going to Glastonbury.

The shop has an impressive line-up of interesting international labels as well as british ones.  Mike and Chris, Cacharel, Carl, Alice McCall, Rebecca Taylor, Suzannah and Young Fabulous and Broke (Sienna is a fan) are just a few of the labels you can find there. All cool and stylish fashion labels with an edge but also wearbale.

The only trouble is it will be hard keeping it a secret - cause everyone's gonna want to know where you got your gear from.

Get discounts on top Fashion brands!

Check out this new shopping website...it's called www.giveortake.com and offers discounts of 5% to 10% off on some great fashion brands like All Saints, My Wardrobe, Miss Selfridge, Dorothy Perkins and Yoox.  At the end of the month, you can decide whether you want to keep your savings in the form of a cheque or donate that money to one of the 60 charities that Give or Take work with.  by Sara Hassan

Fab new tongue-in-cheek accessories!

Jean-Charles Castelbajac, the french fashion designer with an ironic sense of humour has designed a range of luggage that will no doubt start up some good old fashioned moral debates.  The range is for Toy + Toy and includes an iPod an cigarette holder, weekend holdall, and suitcase.  The range starts at  £45 and goes up to £140.  Call 0207 908 7777 to place an order. 

Do French and be Dior'd

Adore Dior but just too poor?  Fear not all would be fashionistas, French Connection have a fabulous solution to your problem.  This bow tie jacket retails at just £140 which is a mere snippet of the price Dior's lookalike.  Ok so it's not a coat but the vibrant colour is the same as is the elegant bow.  No one will miss your entrance and the colour will add an instant uplift to a pair of boring jeans.  Of course you could team it with a tight pencil skirt and go for full on 1940s glamour. This will free up the cash to buy the Dior Samaurai bag - which you will need as it starts from £2,000.

If it's good enough for your shoes, it's should be good enough for you.

We lavish endless time and money on our shoes - well, some of us do anyway. So why expect them to suffer the kind of toxic substances you wouldn't dream of massaging into your own skin. Enter the new shoe wonder product - edible coconut shoe cream. Yes, cult eco shoe designers Po-zu have come up with a coconut substance that cleans shoes and can also be used as a lip blam, hair conditioner, skin moisturiser, cooking oil or even just a snack.  We think this win's best prize so far for, "pot of strange coconut stuff with most possible functions."

PO-ZU’s ‘edible shoe cream’ goes on sale 26th November at Terra Plana and The Natural Store, RRP £5.00

http://www.po-zu.com/english.html

Style PS email 15 Nov

Joseph chunky knit

Buy your J Brand Jeans from America, and save yourself a small fortune. Well, 60 quid.

So. Everyone wants a pair of J Brand Love Story jeans - you know, the ones that Kate wears...

The trouble though, is twofold.  Firstly, they're almost impossible to get hold of. And secondly, they're dead expensive (£155).  Don't panic. Head stateside.  Thanks to the weak dollar (hang on in there, this gets interesting, I promise) the same jeans cost just under £90 on websites over there.  So much chepaer, you might as well buy the indigo and the black.

Head to www.revolveclothing.com to bag yourself a pair to strut forever smugly around in. 

Marios Schwab 1 Gareth Pugh 0

Or to be precise, Marios is now 100,000 Euros richer, Gareth - sadly - is not, thanks to the Swiss Textiles Federation who this weekend awarded Marios the Swiss Textiles Award (and the opportunity to get his hands on 10,000 Euros' worth of Swiss fabrics). Swiss textiles, you might well ask - wassall that about, then? Well, superior silks, cottons and lace are one of Switzerland's biggest exports (lots of them head straight to the couture houses), along with watches and precision instruments (and, probably, bored Swiss people).

So, up against Pugh, plus Ann-Sofie Back, Bless, Ute Ploier and Felipe Oliveira Baptista, Marios ably fought off the competition, as well as the models' "Swiss bumps" that some designers complained about (caused possibly by the country's other big export, Emmental), and even the rival PR's threat to pepper his collection with itching powder. And his five co-competitors were just the finalists - he was originally up against over 100 designers, who were whittled down to six by a seriously powerful committee of fashion industry bigwigs including Suzy Menkes and Jane Shepherdson. He did however have Swiss efficiency on his side, as the catwalk show that re-aired the six designers' S/S08 collections was - fittingly - so precisely on time you could set your Rolex by it. But key for Marios was getting his hands on some quality textiles: "Fabrics aren't very accessible to younger designers - they're very expensive and it's really hard to buy small quantities. Fabrics is what I really wanted from this." Watch for the fruits of his courtship with the Swiss Textiles industry in his next collection...

Flannels Fashion

Flannels' immaculate selection of designer Men's and Women's clothing and accessories are now available online so you can shop anytime, anywhere.  With Marc Jacobs, Sonia Rykiel, Malene Berger and D&G as just a sprinkling of the big name brands, this one stop shop is set to rival the Browns and Net-a-porter monopoly in the months to come.

The website which was launched a week ago presents a capsule collection of Flannels' latest designer selection. So check it out before all the best pieces go!

This Marc By Marc jacket at £250 is mine.  Race you to it!

Giles shops

So im running to my next press day and spot Giles Deacon coming out the Ipod shop on Regent Street, so I stop running and try to walk coolly but then we make eye contact and I nearly fall over.  He's now taking the padlock off his bike, its nothing too special not what I'd expect a hot fashion designer to have.  And why is he doing his own shopping? it's just too real, shouldn't some-one do that sort of thing for him?  What's worse, no-one recognised him and I felt someone should have.  So why didn't you go up to him? I hear you say. Simple, I just didn't want to be another fashion groupie. Anyway by this time I'd missed my turning and lost my bearings and had other things to worry about.

Style PS email for 8 Nov

Cointreau and Dita Von Teese, together

Urban Street skates

FOOTNOTE ON EYEBROWS

My medical mole tells me that eyebrows do have a purpose beyond expression: they serve as a kind of dam for dust and sweat from the brow. Dangerous when coloured hot pink....

YIKES! Coloured eyebrows

What purpose do eyebrows serve exactly? Errr, quite. That means that till now, people have never quite known what to do with their own odd little strips of facial hair. All we can apparently think of is neatening and defining them and asking them to behave. Now though, it seems that people are getting a bit more creative - perhaps because they've worked out that the only possible purpose of these furry little kittens is actually expression. Look here - this is the LA-born drag dame Jeffree Star (I'm sure he's joking about killing you), who's DJing at Jodie Harsh's club night Circus this Friday.

Meanwhile the clubkid photographer Alistair Allen has found a few at Boombox...

What will you do with yours?

How to get tickets to the sell-out production of Punchdrunk

"The Masque of the Red Death is now sold out completely" is what you'll get if you try and buy tickets for the pioneering theatre company Punchdrunk's latest foray into theatrical reinvention and the dusty corners of your mind. But don't worry - so that you can remain afloat in dinner party conversations, there is also Red Death Lates also at the Battersea Arts Centre - the Edgar Allen Poe play's "grand finale" (i.e. a cabaret/club night with all of the Punchdrunk players let loose and on the sherry). Red Death Lates marks the transition of theatre into nightclub - it's a moment! And what to expect when you mix alcohol with naughty actors on the prowl and dress-up (yes, slap on a tache, some latex gloves, a mask, of course; there's also a gore make-up artist on hand to ply you with bullet wounds and seeping cysts)? Well, at the very least, a major departure from your average night out. It's as Punchdrunk quotes Oedipus: "These things are mysteries, not to be explained. But you will understand when you get there alone." Niche night clubbing  - so very now. Tickets £15, Fridays and Saturdays, 9pm -1am till Jan 11th from Battersea Arts Centre (020 7223 2223).

LOVE LOVE LOVE new season YSL!!

YSL have done it again and created some fab separates for spring summer.  Check out Sarah Jessica Parker wearing the YSL Spring Summer orient blue light wool sleeveless jacket and pearl beige wool wide pants on the set of her Sex in the City movie in New York.  No doubt set to be sell outs, and I personally can't wait to get my hands on the tailoring.  A true investment for chic girls who like longevity.

NB. Shoes by Gucci

By Sara Hassan

My-Wardrobe sets out to find hot new British Fashion talent

My Wardrobe, the online fashion boutique has launched a search to find the next big designer in British Fashion and the winnner will see their collection produced and sold on the my-wardrobe.com site next year!  The panel includes Telegraph's Hilary Alexander, The Clothes Show's Louise Redkapp, Lauretta Roberts from Drapers, designers Nargess Gharani and Vanya Strok, Sarah Curran, My-Wardrobe's founder and yours truly, Sara Hassan from Sunday Times Style.  Three finalists will be selected and given a budget of one thousand pounds to produce prototype with the hope of being announced at a star-studded event at the beginning of January! All entries must be submitted to the site http:// www.thedesignerincubator.com by the 14th November 2007.  BY Sara Hassan

Gap and Pierre Hardy - a match made in heaven!

Pierre Hardy, one of the most celebrated international accessories designers, whose career began with Christian Dior's footwear collection in the early Nineties has teamed up with Gap and created a tres chic capsule collection of shoes.  There are three styles: a slim-line flat with a low cut pointed toe, a ballet flat with a Mary Jane vibe and the most popular, a strappy cone heel black patent sandal...Our very own Wardrobe Mistress was rocking them yesterday styled with black opaque tights and a black shift dress.   The flats are £55 and the high heeled sandals are £70.  Go to Gap now as they will be a sell-out! By Sara Hassan

FUR ME UP!

You don't have to be cruel to keep warm this season as there is loads of the fake stuff on the market.  Sara and Sharon, up to mischief in the fashion cupboard, have styled themselves up with some of the best fake fur around.  Pop to Fenwick and check out the La Maison de La Fausse Fourrure label (their black jacket is £169 and worn by Sharon) while the grey fake fur bolero, at £99 (worn by Sara) is by Marks and Spencer.  The hats, perfect for skiing are from TopShop and the other is from Warehouse.

PS Style email: 2 November

M&S cashmere tracksuit