Be My Valentine

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! My gift to you? A collection of the finest males known to mankind. Enjoy!

Everbody Needs An Education

Today I'll show you some lovely images from the delightful new film, An Education. Set in the early 60's, the story is set around sixteen year old Jenny, played by promising new comer Carey Mulligan. Jenny is interested in good books, music and all things French, yet her parents are pushing her towards Oxford. She is bored beyond belief until and a handsome - and much older! - suitor comes along, and her life is turned upside down... but I shan't spoil it for you! My personal highlight of the film was the Parisian sequence, which reminded me of a cross between A Bout De Souffle and Funny Face... wonderful, non?

Aside from an intriguing coming of age story, a witty script written by the excellent Nick Hornby and some Lula magazine-worthy imagery, it features some absoloutely beautiful costumes. Jenny transforms from a pretty school girl to an Audrey Hepburn-esque stunner before our very eyes, in brocade shift dresses and chic up-do's courtesy of the equally well-dressed, loveably dim-witted Helen. It's not just the girls, either; the gents are equally dressed to the nines. Anyway, I hope you are inspired to go and see this film, it is well worth the hype it is recieving, not just from yours truly but everyone coming out the cinema! Enjoy.

Like A Virgin

The Virgin Suicides is Sofia Coppola's first full length feature, and one of my favourite films of all time. It's an almost Grimm-esque fairytale about the five beautiful Lisbon sisters, in the prime of their lives but trapped by their... well, not evil, let's say over-protective, parents. Set in 1970's suburban America, the girls sport some rather lovely, floaty, romantic creations that wouldn't look out of place trotting down the Chloe runway today. Lux, the most rebellious of the sisters, favours high waisted shorts and flowery cheesecloth tops for sunbathing in the garden, and dresses skimpy enough to bring her strict Catholic mother out in sweats! Meanwhile Cecelia, the youngest, prefers to float around in a 1920's wedding dress with the hem ripped off to the knees. And Lux's love interest, the divine Tripp Fontaine, wears some impressively kitsch corduroy suits and paisley shirts, not forgetting his signature aviators to make the girls swoon. 

Along with the costumes, Sofia has thought of everything to really make this film's aesthetic so ethereal. Special lighting techniques ensured the girls hair and skin were positively glowing, giving them an angelic, surreal look. Realistically depicting a house full of teenage girls, the Lisbon's bedrooms are over-the-top feminine and charmingly cluttered, with everything from empty perfume bottles to Catholic memorabilia. The score of the film is spot on, fusing nostalgic seventies numbers such as Heart's 'Magic Man' with the eery, electronic sounds of the french band Air, who composed a whole album especially for the film. Overall, this film is an excellent introduction to Coppola's films yet to come. Enjoy... 

Sofia, You've Got to See Her!

Sofia Coppola is the actress turned designer/ model/ muse responsible for some of the prettiest, dreamiest films around, her most prolific yet being The Virgin Suicides, Lost In Translation and Marie Antionette. She also bought us THAT White Stripes video featuring Kate Moss. The black and white video for 'I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself' showed the world's most famous super model writhing, cavorting and dancing around, ricocheting the band, the model and the director to further international fame. And you've no doubt found yourself humming along to the 'day in the (fabulous) life of' style ad for Miss Dior Cherie, featuring Bridgit Bardot's Moi Je Joue. 

Coppola's professional trademarks are sun-bleached, sugar-coated but haunting imagery juxtaposed with modern, punchy music, and Sofia is her own best advertisement, rubbing shoulders with some of the biggest names in fashion and music. Her own personal style fits the aesthetics of her films, favouring girly, elegant garments, and she has become a style icon of down town, New York style, and is regularly featured in best dressed lists. I suppose it can't hurt being Marc Jacob's best friend. Here are a few of my favourite outfits of hers, as well as a some images from her work... 

P.S. The Virgin Suicides and Marie Antionette are so wonderful that they require their own posts... watch this space.

Mag Of My Dreams.

Lula is by far the most aesthetically pleasing magazine I have ever had the good fortune to lay my hands upon. Everything, from the gorgeous clothes featured to the especially-designed font, is dreamy and beautiful! With the whimsical styling, pastel colours galore and stunning settings, it is a bit like a Sophia Coppola film in magazine format, and has been known to feature articles on The Virgin Suicides and Coppola's muse and regular leading lady, Kirsten Dunst. It has also featured such other lovely dressed ladies such as Natasha Khan, Keira Knightley and Zooey Deschanel. 

Since I am relatively late to jump on the bandwagon and only have a few issues to my name, I recently looked into buying past issues on Ebay and certain ones are going for as much as £95! Granted it is wonderful, very thick and on good quality paper and - here's the best bit - features very few ads indeed, but even I would say that is excessive. Now I am very glad that, as a testamant to my reverence of this magazine, I refuse to chop inspiring images out... if times get hard I can sell 'em on Ebay! Apologies in advance that this post is very image heavy, but there are so many stunning editorials I want to share...