Friday's Top Style Quotes

This Friday's 70 - 61...

70

A gracious manner, timeless elegance, that comes from

the inner woman, the true essence of style.

Michael Kors

69

Style is knowing who you are.

Gore Vidal

68

Put the style in lifestyle.

Be modest, be cheerful, be positive, be charitable.

Good manners are golden: they make you shine

like a diamond pendant.

Style isn't always about what you're wearing:

it's about who you are.

Pamela Keogh

67

Elegance is an attitude.

Anonymous

66

Inner peace is what I find

amazingly stylish in a woman.

Christopher Bailey

65

A woman who takes care of her appearance

at every age

is eternally stylish.

Roberto Cavalli

64

It's not money that makes you well dressed

it's understanding.

Christian Dior

63

I firmly believe that the most beautiful women

are those who remain true to themselves.

Isabella Rossellini

62

You must have manners 

of the heart.

Oleg Cassini

61

She has often been referred to as the most elegant, 

the most stylish woman in the world.

But that elegance had its roots in both their inner values.

It wasn't a way to be noticed

but a way to be humble.

Sean Ferrer about his Mother, Audrey Hepburn

Fashion Illustrator: David Downton

David Downton

As a fashion lover, the sketches by David Downton

are my favourite.

The classical elegance and beauty of his illustrations are breathtaking.

He is one of the world's leading fashion artists...

Vogue.. 'A master fashion illustrator'

In an extract from Amelia's magazine

he explains how he became a fashion illustrator...

"In a way, I was 'mugged' by fashion.  I was fairly well-established

as an all-round commercial illustrator - who occasionally took on

fashion commissions - when the Financial Times sent me to

Paris to draw at the couture shows.

That was in July 1996 and I felt like I'd been given

the keys to a magic kingdom"

Read more from this interview 

@

www.ameliasmagazine.com

He has worked with during his hugely successful career...

Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Chanel, Tiffany & Co New York, Van Cleef & Arpels,

Harrods, Lancome...the list is endless...

His book entitled...

Masters of Fashion Illustration

Is simply beautiful, he celebrates the work of the 

great fashion illustrators since the beginning of the 20th Century.

For further reading about this man and his work

please go to...

http://www.daviddownton.com/index.html

Photographer's Spot: Herb Ritts

Herb Ritts

(1952 - 2002)

Herb Ritts was a master of art and commercial photography,

essentially self-taught he produced hugely successful advertising campaigns

for Calvin Klein, Chanel, Donna Karan, Levis, Gap...

to name just a few.

He was known for his graphic simplicity in black and white photography.

He began his photographic career in the late 70's.

He photographed the actress, Brooke Shields for the

Elle cover in 1981 and the same year photographed

Olivia Newton John for her best selling album

Physical.

He was a close friend of the actor, Richard Gere and it's

believed to be Ritts that introduced Cindy Crawford to her first husband.

He took several fashion and nude photographs of

Cindy Crawford in the 80's.

An extract from the book

Herb Ritts: Work, said of his own style...

"Coming from California and growing up where I did,

I've always had a fondness for and innate sensitivity to light, texture and warmth.

I abstract it in my photographs:

I like large planes and spaces, areas of texture and light,

like deserts or oceans or monumental places."

He excelled at capturing perfection as these two serene

moments at the desert illustrate...

He became one of the best celebrity photographers

and his subjects would do anything for him...

In an American Vogue shot with Michelle Pfeiffer,

he dressed her as a man wearing a Giorgio Armani tux.

In the book Herb Ritts: Work, he explains...

"She wasn't comfortable with being herself and doing pictures

in front of a still camera.  I think she wanted to break the stigma

of being so beautiful.

I decided to do her playing different roles, thinking this was a way

of taking her out of herself.

The photograph we are speaking of is actually a

character from a Noel Coward play.

I suggested that it would be interesting if she played a man.

We literally wet her hair and parted it and drew on a little moustache.

She walked down the step and sat down and she was

suddenly Clark Gable."

His style is instantly recognisable...

they are classic photographs that will stand for decades to come.

For further reading about Herb Ritts...

http://www.herbritts.com/

Suggested reading...

Both books available 

@

www.amazon.co.uk

Things I Wish My Mother had told me...

Things I Wish My Mother had told me is a book written by

Lucia Van Der Post.

A book in lessons in grace and elegance.

Lucia Van Der Post is the original fashionista and Queen of Style,

founding editor of the Financial Times, How To Spend It Magazine

and Times columnist.

A brilliant piece of advice I picked up on...

the amazing Italian outlet stores,

you can check them all out 

@

www.FactoryOutletsItaly.com/

You can even join the Factory Outlet Shopping Club

giving you instant access to over 2,000 outlets

complete with email address, phone numbers and

maps with directions...

I'm a lover of Italy, so this is perfect for me!

An extract from the book,

"Of all the things I've learned, it is that grace and generosity of spirit

are essential ingredients to the well-lived life.

They add a certain elegance to the most mundane encounter, 

let alone to life's more major dramas.

I don't mean elegance of the merely superficial kind - though that too

is not without its charms.

I mean the sort of elegance that, if we looked into it,

we would discover is rooted in some moral code.

Kindness is elegant.

Malice and cruelty are not.

Warmth and generosity are elegant.

Coldness and jealousy are not.

Touchiness and being quick to take offence isn't elegant either.

Nor is the sort of behaviour that finds it acceptable

to be rude to those who cannot answer back

whilst simultaneously being charming

to those from whom 

favours may be expected."

Book available from,

www.amazon.co.uk