What a swell party this is

 

Jessica Stam & Erin Wasson for Roberto Cavalli for H&M 

Happy New Year all! I can barely believe we are now into 2012! I hope you all had a fabulous NYE. Mine are now a little more sedate now that I am a more mature vintage, however with good friends around me, a view of the Auckland skyline and a bottle of Grey Goose Pear Vodka it was perfectly sublime! Here are a few pics of some fabulous parties past and present that I would have loved to be in attendance at.

Ziggy Stardust's farewell party - Ziggy/David Bowie with Mick Jagger

Angie Bowie and Bianca Jagger at Ziggy's farewell party

Vogue's Millennium Party 1999 with Vivienne Westwood, Helena Christensen & then husband Norman Reedus, Fatboy Sim, Tracey Emin, Paul Smith, Blur's Alex James, milliner Stephen Jones & others

Sadie and Jude,The Party's Just Begun, millennium issue of Vogue

Kate Moss by Mario Testino, The Party's Just Begun, millennium issue of Vogue

Mia Farrow and Frank Sinatra at Truman Capote's Black & White Ball 

 Bianca Jagger at her birthday at Studio 54

Halston, Bianca Jagger, Liza Minelli and Michael Jackson at Studio 54

Jerry Hall, Andy Warhol, Debbie Harry, Truman Capote, Paloma Picasso at Studio 54

 Andy Warhol and Jerry Hall at Studio 54

Grace Jones holds court at Studio 54

Kate Moss, Johnny Depp & Iggy Pop, London 1996

Robyn, Katy Perry, Jeremy Scott at Katy's Ho-Down Throwdown Birthday Party

  Jessica Stam, Erin Wasson & Theodora Richards by Terry Richardson party shots for H&M

Dita Von Teese, Scarlett Johansson, and Christian Louboutin

 

Sasha Pivovarova & Maryna Linchuk at Vogue's 90th Birthday Party, Paris

Rihanna at the Kadoomant Day Parade In Barbados

Daisy Lowe at her 21st

 Duran Duran's Girl Panic video

 Domenico Dolce, Cindy, Helena, Eva, Stefano Gabbana, Naomi and Yasmin on the Girl Panic set

 Suitably debauched after the Party! (Girl Panic video)

Wedding Fever

Paula Yates marries Bob Geldof in 1986. Spot the rockers in the wedding party!

My sister, Banana meet-Cute is staying with me from Melbourne and is quite the royalist, so we are preparing for the royal wedding on Friday night. When I say prepare, I mean fully stocked with bubbly (I'm thinking Prosecco) and have requested wedding themed cup-cakes, as she is quite the baker. I'm not really into the royal family, was never interested in Diana (although did watch her wedding in 1982 - only because I was promised Charles & Di chocolates) - but lately I've been caught up in the "Who will Kate wear?" hoopla. My personal fave would be Alexander McQueen, but I'm thinking McQueen may be too edgy. Stella? I have a feeling Kate will accentuate those shoulders and go strapless, bias cut or drop waist in a fairly tailored design - mind you Bruce Oldfield has said that you can't go sleeveless in Westminster Abbey? "'It will have sleeves, it has to have sleeves. You can't walk down Westminster Abbey in a strapless dress. It just wouldn't happen. It has to suit the grandeur of that aisle, it's enormous." Oh well - time will tell! More importantly - who will KATE MOSS be wearing next month? Now that Galliano is vetoed....In the meantime, here are a few of my favourite wedding dresses of all time.

Unmarried Helena Bonham Carter & Tim Burton in a fantasy wedding shot,
from Vivienne Westwood's book 'Vivienne Westwood Opus'

Dita Von Teese marries Marilyn Manson Goth-style in electric violet Vivienne Westwood, 2005 (Milliner Stephen Jones is holding her train).

A classic. Bianca Jagger marries Mick Jagger in a YSL suit. The jacket (and lack of a shirt caused quite the stir back in 1971

Gwen Stefani in Avant Garde, pink dip-dyed Galliano. This dress blew me away, it is so Gwen, and I love the structure and the colour.
Rock star wedding! The inimitable Paula Yates marries Bob Geldof at 26 in a blo0d-red satin dress, a gift from Jasper Conran. I met her when I was working at Harrods - she seemed very shy, very sweet.

Carolyn Besette Kennedy marries JFK Jnr in Narcisco Rodriguez in 1996- a classic in bias cut cool. This was one of my favourites and captured the zeitgeist of 90's minimalism and fitted tailoring.

Carrie Bradshaw in Westwood for the long awaited wedding to Big. If only the makeup and hair was softer though. the red lips & scraped back hair look too harsh.

Another rock star wedding. I love Pearl Lowe. Here she is marrying Danny Goffey with gorgeous Daisy Lowe. look at that cake! Dark chocolate strewn with rose petals, mmm.

Pammy and Tommy get hitched in Cancun in 1995 within days of meeting, after Tommy stalked Pam and followed her to Cancun where she was working on a shoot. I'm sorry but I love that she got hitched in a white bikini - Rock & roll!

Like a Rolling Stone

I love these new (old) shots from a new book, The Lost Rolling Stones Photographs: The Bob Bonis Archive, 1964-1966. While my sister Banana Meet-cute is Beatles, I am Stones! Interestingly, Bob Bonis also captured some rather cool pictures of the Fab Four as well. These muso types do get around!

"The Lost Rolling Stones Photographs. captures the seminal period when the Rolling Stones made their transformation into the world's greatest rock n' roll band. And during that time, few were closer to the Stones than Bob Bonis, the tour manager for their U.S. tours between 1964 and 1966. While on the road with the Stones, Bonis, a passionate amateur photographer with a keen eye, an innate sense of composition, and a deep love for his subjects, snapped some 2,700 photographs of the band – a remarkable collection that until now has only been known to family and friends."
It's amazing how not only the music but the sartorial style of the Stones resonates today! Fab Kiwi band The Checks remind me of the Stones. If you ever get a chance to see them live - do it! Check it out. Oops - no pun intended!

David Bailey - King of cool

Shoot, 1967

The irreverent, irrepressible David Bailey features in a great article in UK Vogue June, 2010 to celebrate 50 years in which David Bailey has worked with Vogue.

David Bailey - known as 'Bailey' - is one the the most famous fashion photographers in the world. More fascinating is the fact that he was straight, rather attractive and wooed & wed a plethora of beautiful, fascinating and iconic women. He married actress Catherine Deneuve (on "a whim" - or some say, on a bet with fellow photog Brian Duffy), model Marie Helvin (1975), and in 1986 actress Catherine Dyer to whom he is still married. He romanced models Jean Shrimpton & Penelope Tree among arguable 100s of others. In the buttoned up Sixties, Bailey's sexually provocative images stirred up controversy and heralded the birth of 'Swinging London'. He loved women, they loved them, and it showed on celluloid.

Bailey & Catherine Deneuve

With Jean Shrimpton

Bailey & Marie Helvin

"A Bailey woman has a distinct look. A Bailey woman is a real woman of flesh and blood and sex...I always tried to make my fashion photographs more like Cole Porter songs in my mind, and my portraits more like the blues." The Times, August 2009

Jean ShrimptonMarianne Faithfull

Bailey's images of Marianne Faithfull, the Beatles, Twiggy, Mick Jagger & The Rolling Stones, Michael Caine and East End gangsters the Krays cemented his celebrity status. He was as rock & roll as the subjects he shot and became part of the "Black trinity', or the 'Terrible Trio', running riot in society circles with photographers Terence Donovan and Brian Duffy.

Mick Jagger, 1964

Also featured in The Independent, 28 February 2010 - I love the opening lines:"I was young and foolish...': The truth behind David Bailey's legendary way with women. As his iconic 1960s portraits go on sale at Bonhams, David Bailey, the man who made photography glamorous, reflects on five decades of louche living"

The film Blowup (1966), directed by Michelangelo Antonioni depicts a wayward young fashion photographer in Swinging London played by David Hemmings, who is largely based upon Bailey. Funnily enough, I've had the poster on my wall for years - but still not managed to watch the entire movie!