NYT: Catching up with Jane Birkin

New York Times' T Magazine has an interview today with Birkin about music (two of her old albums are being released on CD) and about style (what it was like to be an Hermès muse.)

From the NYT story: “I was on an airplane,” Birkin said, explaining the bag’s genesis, “when a plastic bag holding all my things broke and everything fell out — my date book, papers, everything. Just as I was saying how I wish Hermès would make a bag that could fit all my things, the man sitting next to me happened to work for Hermès — it was Jean-Louis Dumas, the head designer! They already had the Kelly bag, named after Grace Kelly, so he began work on the Birkin bag. I went down to the atelier, and he had made it in cardboard. And we talked about it, and I said they should make some changes, like making pockets bigger. And that’s how it was made.”

Just like that!

Prada

It's nearly midnight here in Los Angeles and I'm up, combing the wires for every image I can find from the Prada show in Milan. I'm just going to say it straight out: I'm a Prada junkie. Not that I can afford it. I can't. But Miuccia captured my heart when she rolled out that 1950s Ivy League, college girl collection a few years back. (I drove 120 mph to Beverly Hills when I got the call that there was still one Milano souvenir skirt in stock.)

Prada had me through the jewel brooch stage, the robot stage and now this: the bad-ass boot stage. I guess they're called waders, these gigantic boots. They look big enough to eat a Mack Truck.

I don't care. It's all beautiful. I just wished the models looked happier. Maybe the actresses donning the new collection will be more cheerful.

Cathy Horyn, as always, is brilliant on the subject in the NYT {here}.

Holly Golightly

The Cherry Blossom Girl has done a fabulous  job of capturing Holly Golightly's  life at the make-shift  New York City apartment she shared with the nameless cat.  I've often thought about the tasseled earplugs and satin eye mask and wondered where to get replicas. Here are Blossom Girl's suggestions :  Fredflair sleep mask, JenGen tasselled earplugs. (So much nicer than florescent orange foam) and 3.1 Phillip Lim white shirt.

Style Icons?

For reasons I can't entirely explain, I find Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen fascinating.  Maybe it's the Wallis Simpson motto:  A woman can't be too rich or too thin.  Or maybe I've watched too many Full House reruns. I always look forward to the various fashion weeks to see how the twins will turn up. Here's a review from last year.

 

(Photos from People, Instyle, Justjared and Elle.)