Green Wing

Greetings gentle reader. The weekend is again upon us, and today I will recommend to you one of my all-time favourite TV-shows, Green Wing (2004-6).

Starring such brilliant actors and comedians as Tamsin Greig, Mark Heap, Stephen Mangan, Julian Rhind-Tutt and Sarah Alexander, this British show is a very strange take on the hospital genre. Despite its slightly overdone setting (seriously, how many hospital shows do we really need?) it is nothing like its American counterparts. Check out some clips:

Also, the insanity of the characters is beyond most shows you’ll ever see. While none of them can be called normal or sane in any way, none can beat the wonder and sheer madness of staff liaison Sue White. Oh, Sue White!

Such a lovely bag of Scottish crazy!

Love, Mari

Anthony Eden

So, no, we are not going to become a history blog (we are going down in history, though), but a few weeks ago I was at a lecture where the teacher called Anthony Eden (1897-1977) one of the glamour boys in Parliament, and that immediately caught my attention.

I want to be a glamour boy (girl) in Parliament. What a cool epithet! Of course, when I say glamour girl, I do not mean our contemporary definition of glamour girls, cause hello, how would they get a seat in parliament? But a glamour boy (girl) in Parliament? In the 1930’s? I’m there! And yeah, I get that politics in the 1930s perhaps wasn’t all fun and games, but I’m just gonna sit there and be glamourous with my boy Anthony.

Anyway, I thought it’d be interesting to have a looksie at our, so far, favorite glamour boy, so without much further ado, I bring to you: Anthony Eden!

So what if he’s ranked among the least successful British Prime Ministers of the twentieth century – the man’s got style!

So much style that the silk-brimmed, black felt Homburg became known (and is still called) the Anthony Eden hat. Nice. There is, in comparison, no Hanna Volle hat. But just you wait, Henry Higgins!

Some of his contemporaries didn’t, for some reason or other (I’m gonna go with jealousy or ignorance or both), appreciate Eden’s awesome style. Let me give you some quotes on how they perceived him: “vain as a peacock and all the mannerisms of a petit maître”,  “a poor feeble little pansy”, “smoothie”, “not a gentleman” because he dressed “too well”, “that’s Anthony — half mad baronet, half beautiful woman”.

I’m gonna go with dashingly dapper. Well done, glamour boy!

Love, Hanna

The last from London Fashion Week

Burberry Prorsum

Roksanda Ilinic

Roksanda Ilinic

Roksanda Ilinic

Guillaume Henry

Allow me to introduce a relatively new Parisian fashion designer – the promising young (how young I actually do not know, since there is nothing on him on Wikipedia) Guillaume Henry (misspelling of name will most probably occur throughout the post).

Guillaume Henry is one of those who has had a quick rise to fame and career and fortune and all that jazz. Basically a guy we would totally hate, if only he didn’t make such fabulous clothes. But now I guess we kinda love him, since he does make those.

Henry did a twelve month’s course in fashion at the Institut Français de la Mode, before leaving to work as a trainee at Givenchy in 2003.

From Givenchy (’cause who stays at Givenchy, really?) he went on to Riccardo Tisci and Paule KA. But then, in 2009, his phone rang. The caller was, of course, the French fashion house Carven, asking him what he thought of them. When answering that they should concentrate on dressing real women, he suddenly found himself with a new job. As creative director (yes, that is jealousy you see, dripping between the lines).

Since Henry is still pretty new to the fashion world, he hasn’t too many collections to show for yet. But I have a pretty good feeling about the upcoming ones.

Love, Hanna

More LFW

Mulberry

 

The first from London Fashion Week

Daks

Daks

Ashish

Jasper Conran

Jonathan Saunders

Vivienne Westwood Red Label

Vivienne Westwood Red Label

 

Almost Home

Following the insanely great news that the West Memphis Three are finally released (if you’re unfamiliar with the case, I suggest you check out wm3.org or watch the HBO documentary Paradise Lost [1996]), this week’s recommended book is Damien Echols’ (1974-) autobiography Almost Home (2005).

Almost Home was written on Death Row in an Arkansas prison, and it chronicles Echols’ life from birth to the present (well, 2004/5 at least). It is an intelligent and very well written account of a young man in search of identity, and the tragic events which led to his imprisonment. It highlights how in an intolerant society, the outsider easily becomes the scapegoat.

I read this book when it first came out several years ago, and it affected me greatly. Now, with its author safely out of prison (as he was 18 at the time of the murders, he was the only of the three who was sentenced to death), it is very much due for a reread.

Additionally, I recommend the aforementioned documentary Paradise Lost – it may be slightly in the Michael Moore school of documentary-making (i.e. it occasionally overstates some facts while underplaying others), but despite that, its well worth a watch, and I dare you not to let the American judicial system (at least in this case) provoke and anger you.

Love, Mari

PS. For the record, I do believe the boys were wrongly imprisoned, and that the real killer got away with it.

One last goodie from a (if you ask me) rather disappointing NY fashion week

Good coat from Marc Jacobs

But despite a lot of ugly and boring stuff from the coming spring collection, I just have to say that I do like that many of the NY designers have used awesome hats and accessories in their showings.

London next!

Capote

So to follow up on yesterday’s post, this Friday’s film suggestion is Capote (2005).

The story is partly biographical and depicts the writer Truman Capote’s investigation into the murder of a family in Kansas, with the intention of turning the story into a novel called In Cold Blood. Despite being an arrogant, flamboyant outsider, he manages to get the locals to open up to him and reveal information, and he even develops a close relationship with one of the killers. However, as he digs deeper into the story, he finds himself struggling with his own emotions and reactions.

 The real Truman Capote

The film is shocking, sad, funny and, I think, quite honest regarding the tension between Truman’s sympathy for the killers and his need for a closure to the novel, which only an execution can provide. Capote is beautifully portrayed by Philip Seymour Hoffman, who won several awards, including the Academy Award for Best Actor, for his work.

So go watch it, people!

Love, Elin

Philip Seymour Hoffman

Ok, so he might not be the hunkiest hunk in hunksville, but damn, is this man talented! And I quote shamelessly from Wikipedia: “Philip Seymour Hoffman (born July 23, 1967) is an American actor and director. Hoffman began acting in television in 1991, and the following year started to appear in films. He gradually gained recognition for his supporting work in a series of notable films, including Scent of a Woman (1992), Boogie Nights (1997), Happiness (1998), The Big Lebowski (1998), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Almost Famous (2000), 25^th Hour (2002), and Cold Mountain (2003). In 2005, Hoffman played the title role in the biographical film Capote (2005), for which he won multiple acting awards including an Academy Award for Best Actor. He received another two Academy Award nominations for his supporting work in Charlie Wilson’s War (2007) and Doubt (2008). Other critically acclaimed films in recent years have included Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007) and The Savages (2007). In 2010, Hoffman made his feature film directorial debut with Jack Goes Boating.”

Hoffman is also an accomplished theater actor and director, and has directed and performed in numerous Off-Broadway productions. He has been nominated for two Tony Awards, one for Best Leading Actor in True West (2000) and one for Best Featured Actor in Long Day’s Journey Into Night (2003), both on Broadway. He also had the voice of Max Jerry Horovitz in the aforementioned Mary and Max (2009), one of the most beautiful animated films ever!

He is truly an accomplished and talented actor well worth checking out if you’re not already familiar with him.

Love, Elin