2011 British Fashion Awards

Emerging Talent Award — Ready-to-Wear – Mary Katrantzou

Emerging Talent Award — Accessories: Tabitha Simmons

Emerging Talent Award — Menswear: Christopher Raeburn

Model: Stella Tennant

Designer Brand: Victoria Beckham

Menswear Designer: Kim Jones

British Style Award: Alexa Chung

Isabella Blow Award for Fashion Creator: Sam Gainsbury

Red Carpet Award: Stella McCartney

BFC Outstanding Achievement in Fashion: Sir Paul Smith

Accessory Designer: Charlotte Olympia

New Establishment: Christopher Kane

Designer of the Year: Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen

[Link Love: BFA / Vogue UK]

North America : Canada

Jessica Stam

Coco Rocha

Shalom Harlow

Linda Evangelista

Friends in Reich Places: Diana Mitford with Hitler

Daphne’s grandparents, Diana Mitford* and Sir Oswald Mosley, were fascists till the very end. Diana went to Germany in 1934 to visit her younger sister, Unity. There they attended the first Nuremberg rally and the following year, Unity introduced Diana to Hitler, with whom she was very good friends. Diana also chummed it up with the Führer, who in 1936, generously provided a Mercedes-Benz to chauffeur her to the Berlin Olympics.

That same year, Diana married British aristocrat and founder of the British Union of Fascists, Oswald Mosley  – after abandoning first husband Byron Guinness for him – at the home of the Nazi’s Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels with Hitler in attendance. I wonder if the bride wore Christian Dior or if she just wrapped herself in a giant Swastika and called it a day?

Life was just peachy for the Grandparents Guinness until over lunch in 1939, Hitler confided in Diana that war was inevitable. In September of that year, Britain declared war on Germany, prompting Unity Mitford to shoot herself in the head. Daphne wondered aloud, in her brilliant profile in The New Yorker, ”Why didn’t Unity shoot Hitler instead of herself? Then we’d be descended from heroes instead of from villains.” Unity survived the suicide attempt but doctors thought it too dangerous to remove the bullet and she subsequently died of meningitis caused by the cerebral swelling around it in 1948.

In 1940, Oswald was arrested, along with other English fascists, and the British Union of Fascists was outlawed. After the birth of her fourth son, Diana was also arrested and interned in London’s Holloway Prison for women. The couple was initially held separately, but thanks to Winston Churchill‘s intervention — Churchill seems to have intervened a lot on behalf of the Nazis — both Diana and Oswald spent their time locked up together at Holloway. Oswald fell ill during their imprisonment and the Mosleys were released from there in November 1943, to spend the rest of the war under house arrest.

Daphne was close to both her grands, remembering “fascinating conversations around the dinner table about books, politics, art, whatever” with her grandfather. She did, however, try to get to the heart of her grandmother’s fascination with Hitler: “I said, ‘Granny, it just can’t be right,’ and she just said, ‘He didn’t photograph well.’ She said he was very, very funny.” True to form, Diana Mitford was a Nazi-lover til the day she died. Among her personal effects discovered after her death was a diamond swastika. No word if Daphne was bequeathed it in the will. [Jezebel]

*Besides Daphne, Diana’s fashionable descendants include models Stella Tennant and Tom Guinness. 

- Gemma Ward will step into some literary loafers when she co-stars in Baz Lurhman‘s Great Gatsby alongside Carey Mulligan, Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire. [Refinery29]

- Emmanuelle Alt and Kate Moss love to do karaoke to Barbra Streisand‘s and Donna Summer‘s “No More Tears (Enough Is Enough).” The best part is I’m not even making that up. [Fashionologie]

The clothes are classic Tom Ford: a glittery mix of sophisticated sex appeal and high-voltage glamor. But who can look at the clothes when the women modeling them are just as stunning?

Julianne Moore, Natalia Vodianova, Carolyn Murphy, Lauren Hutton, Karlie Kloss, Chanel Iman, Daphne Guinness, Rinko Kikuchi, Lakshmi Menon, Daria Werbowy, Rita Wilson, Stella Tennant, Lou Doillon, Amber Valletta, Liya Kebede, Du Juan, Anja Rubik, Abby Lee Kershaw, Edita Vilkeviciute, Joan Smalls, Liu Wen, Freja Beha Erichsen, Julia Reston-Roitfeld, Jac Jagaciak, and the Queen of World, Beyoncé all stomped and vamped their way down the runway, flanked by the Anna Wintours of the world to the tune of fellow hoofer Karen Elson‘s “Pretty Babies.”

Needless to say, it requires multiple viewings.

The Pipeline got an inside look at the Met’s Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion exhibit which is set to open TODAY!!! We are totally heading there this weekend to check this out. Kate Moss, Karen Elson, Stella Tennant, and the Supers all get there moment to shine.

LINKAGE: The Pipeline: Model as Muse: A Sneak Preview of the Met Exhibit Opening Tomorrow

These sunglasses are out of control! The new ad campaign for Vera Wang S/S 09 shot by photographer Collier Schorr have an early nineties look and feel. The juxtaposition of the bold, almost harsh looking, sunglasses and the thin, delicate top/dress Tennant is wearing is surprisingly appealing to the eye. I wonder if Elton John is going to snag a pair of these?

Thanks to Fashion Copious for the photo.

For the March issue of i-D you’ll have your choice of 12 cover girls, all English models: Kate Moss, Yasmin Le Bon, Alice Delllal, Lily Donaldson, Naomi Campbell, Eliza Cummings, Twiggy, Susie Bick, Daisy Lowe, Jourdan Dunn, Agyness Deyn, Stella Tennant.

Working with stylist Edward Enninful, Solve Sundsbo photographed each model completely differently (but all with the trademark wink), and each girl has her own cover quote.

From Fashion Copious.

Kirsten Owen

Stella Tennant

Let’s call this the return of the model.

Marc Jacobs has dropped the celebrity thing and has opted for actual models.  Kirsten Owen and Stella Tennant have been chosen as the faces of his forthcoming fall-winter campaigns.

Thank Jebus we’re getting the models back. When ever  I saw the Victoria Beckham campaigns I felt the need to “Spice Up My Life”.