Festive Rykiel

Paris is going stripy for the festive season with the Les Arts Decoratifs (Paris's Decorative Arts Museum) teaming up with French designer, Sonia Rykiel, to create fashionable gifts.

The display windows are set up with myriads of items, from a teddy bear to sequin bags, all in limited edition.

The Museum is celebrating its 40th birthday by showcasing the Sonia Rykiel Exhibition (running from the 20th of November to the 19th of April 2009).

The Queen of Knitwear invented the "un-fashion" by working in favour of women's individual personality.

The exhibition follows Rykiel's signature styles: lace, stripes, rhinestones, black and slouchy pantsuits to name but a few.

If you are in Paris for the festive season, it is well worth checking it out. It could make for an original Christmas present.

The Devil does not wear Prada

Yesterday, London-born, American fashion Royalty Anna Wintour, met the head of British Royalty at Buckingham Palace.

As an early Christmas present, the head of fashion bible Vogue, was named in the Queen's 2008 Birthday Honours for services to the industry.

The fashion Queen was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to the industry.

Wintour was beaming at the honour.

The perfectionist editor showed off her impeccable dress sense, as she paused to show off her award in a Chanel suit straight off the autumn/winter 2008 catwalk.

Although she rules American and International fashion she always remembers her creative roots. She once said:

"People constantly make the mistake of comparing London with New York, Milan and Paris and that's not what it's about. London has its own fashion identity. You come to London to find the next Alexander McQueen or John Galliano,"

Stephen Jones, The Outstanding Milliner

Milliner extraordinaire, Stephen Jones, received this year's Outstanding Achievement Award at the BFAs on Tuesday.

It seems only right that he should wear the crown: Stephen Jones is a master in his craft.

On the night, Suzy Menkes, Fashion Editor of the International Herald Tribune commented:

'There are only a few people from any given generation in fashion who transform the territory and Stephen is one of those. His work often defies categorisation and surpasses imagination - his hats inhabit that rarefied land where fashion meets art.'

The statement says it all: Stephen Jones and hats have enjoyed a winning 30year old working relationship.

He has contributed to British fashion in a unique and innovative way, working with Jean Paul Gaultier, Vivienne Westwood, Comme des Garcons and Marc Jacobs to name only a few.

The skilled hatter has also turned to films from Elizabeth, The Golden Age, Atonement and more currently, Coco avant Chanel.

This is one man who we hope will never stop designing.

What is sure, is that the next fashion week (to be held in February 2009) will be all about hats: the V&A is awaiting the event to present ‘Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones'.

Creme of Fashion: The British Fashion Awards 2008

Yesterday Jourdan Dunn was crowned model of the year, Luella Bartley was named Designer of the year and Louise Goldin was offered the Swarovski Emerging Talent Awards for ready-to-wear.

But the 2008 British Fashion Awards did not only make for speeches and new talent.

It is fashion, which means a party to celebrate style talent is about who wore what.

First of all, there was Jourdan Dunn's white knitted Stella McCartney dress, and Luella was in her own lilac designs.

There were some interesting choices but overall the awards lacked the eccentricity of other creme-of-fashion parties.

The best style must have been Stephen Jones who wore his black crown all evening after being crowned for Outstanding Achievement In Fashion Design by Erin O'Connor.

The full list of the winners:

• DESIGNER OF THE YEAR: Luella Bartley
  

• OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN FASHION DESIGN: Stephen Jones

• ACCESSORY DESIGNER: Rupert Sanderson
  

• MENSWEAR DESIGNER: Christopher Bailey for Burberry
  

• MODEL OF THE YEAR: Jourdan Dunn

• RED CARPET DESIGNER: Matthew Williamson
  

• SPECIAL AWARD FOR BESPOKE: Richard James

• ISABELLA BLOW AWARD FOR FASHION CREATOR: Tim Walker

• DESIGNER BRAND: Jimmy Choo
  

• SWAROVSKI EMERGING TALENT AWARD ACCESSORIES: Nicholas Kirkwood

• SWAROVSKI EMERGING TALENT AWARD READY TO WEAR: Louise Goldin

Hat it up: the new hair

I spent the weekend in Brighton and it made me realise the importance of hats.

First of all, the temperature dropped to some ice-age digits, which meant that even though I do not usually wear winter hats, my ears did not leave me the choice.

Luckily I had thoughtfully packed a black woolen hat.

I am not the first one to be taken by the trend, Samantha Ronson never goes out without a hat, and in Brighton it seems to be just as popular as seagulls and gale (the gale might actually be the reason for wearing hats).

Hats and hair accessories are making a huge breakthrough in fashion, from tiaras to bowler hats or fur caps and hoods.

It's nothing like eighties or nineties hats with an excess of feathers, pearls and other decorations.

The purpose of the hats have changed: hats are not to cover the head so much as an accessorise statement.

The best of all is that they match everything, I am personally looking forward to increasing my collection.

Avoiding the chill in style: winter coats

There is no escaping it now, winter has arrived and autumn jackets no longer suffice to block out the chill.

Winter coats are everywhere in magazines at this time of the year. It is all about the 10 best buys, or the 10 cheapest warm coats.

However people stay away from statement coats. The catwalks are full of them but it is easier to pull off a Russian inspired, encrusted coat with fur trims, when you are wearing it inside for the eyes of the camera.

It looks gorgeous but is it warm enough? A winter coat must not be on the bulky or the heavy side (unpractical when living in London and the top layer goes on/off/on/off as you move from bitter cold to overheated tube station).

I hate having to hide under layers and layers of jumpers and wool until I look more like a sheep than a person.

I personally would hibernate if I had the choice.

Unfortunately - and I am not the only one - I cannot stay indoors all day feeding on steaming drinks and radiators. But I cannot walk out looking like a grizzly either.

So what is the magical solution to all of this?

I power-layer - some days it goes up to five.

It is only a matter of finding thin but warm under-layers, then adding a jumper and finishing off with a large woolen dress cinched at the waist. Over that of course comes your habitual autumn coat or warm jacket.

If that sounds a little uncomfortable (it all depends if you are used to loose clothing or not), the statement fake-fur coat is the best option: it's OK if it's bulky, it was styled to look that way.

It is also a perfect way to show off legs in quirky tights.

A day at TiGi

After 5 hours of head nudging, mild colour burns and intoxication due to inhaling too much hair spray, I am finally free to show off my new cut and let out some of the hair and beauty gossip I overheard (as a hair model for TiGi you hear a lot while your hair suffers hardship for - free - beauty).

A lot of people go for a haircut when the colder months start. It is probably the shorter days and the chill that make us crave that little extra confidence.

Also, hair is the tip of your style-iceberg: it is the only paranetre that stands out from under a huge warm but often boring, winter coat.

Like shoes, hair creates style

Hair is all about personality this season. Nick Irwin, TiGi's European creative director was saying that many clients ask for a lot of warm shades at the moment.

The reason for this come from the catwalks: multicoloured eye make-up has been taking centre stage lately, but it's harder to pull off a cyan blue mask on an every day basis (unless your life revolves around rave club nights...), so hair is the easy option.

There is also the return of the classic cut with a quirky edge: a lot of new trend revolve around structural, almost sculpted designs. Vidal Sassoon invented the sharp cut in the late 1950s/early 1960s, and like everything in fashion, it is coming back.

With haircuts, outdated is irrelevant.

I went for a short cut with an 80s vibe and dark warm colours - there is no denying that red is on top of the game at the moment. Three of the models asked for some shade of fire in their hair today.

The conclusion of my day: an excruciatingly long wait - the good thing is that I had time to read Vogue from cover to cover - a quirky look and free hair smoothing products.

What has a girl got to complain about!