BitchBuzz: The Perfect Hat

You know this was inevitable, right?

Three Easy Steps to Finding the Perfect Hat

By K. A. Laity

If you live in the west of Ireland, you discover quickly why hats are a better idea than brollies; the gales in Galway are powerful! Most blustery days the wreckage of ruined umbrellas becomes a common sight. My visitors last weekend discovered this quickly, one of whom used our lazy morning to buy a nice new hat.

The other refused, saying, "I don't look good in hats."

I realise I'm a bit prejudiced here, but hats are good. Hats make you look good. People who claim not to look good in hats haven't tried the right hat. It's like trying on a bubble skirt then claiming "I just don't look good in skirts." Well, no one looks good in a bubble skirt (no, no one) and no one looks good in a baseball cap (which doesn't really count as a hat because it's equipment), which is probably the hat most people have tried on.
—or some kind of uniform (shudder).

I know better: as a sufferer of perpetual bad hair days, I am completely in love with hats...

Read the rest at BBHQ as always!

Good news! I've finally begun the overhaul of the website. After a disastrous move that lost most of my connectivity, I have finally just moved the website to a Wordpress blog. The URL should point there now (or very soon) and I am slowly reconstructing the info. Tell me what you think of the new design. I kind of miss Kali, but change is good. Lots of tweaking to do, but you know how I am with tedious work, so it may take a little time. And I have a lot of idling around Galway to do!

Jane Quiet at Coilhouse

Drop over to Coilhouse.net to see Elizabeth S.'s write up on Jane Quiet; I love the serendipity of the internet! It's what brought this about. Please, leave a comment to let Elizabeth and Coilhouse know you stopped by; this is how we measure success on the 'net.

Back from my travels: Friday I went down to Connecticut for Miss Wendy's birthday and had fun with the whole gang. How gorgeous that giant wolf moon looked hanging over the harbour! If only it hadn't been subzero temps, we could have enjoyed the veranda of the Alumni House a bit more. Fabulous food and lots of laughs: only Perilous Cheryl could have made a remark like that about the centerpieces ;-) It was a distinct pleasure to blast Lady Gaga at the Coast Guard Academy.

All right, yes -- it's true: I accidentally stuck my fingers in the birthday cake while moving it. I was a spaz all night (yes, to beat you to the punch, why should that night be any different than any other?).

Stayed up late watching bad movies, woke up far too early with a sore throat. Just too cold and dry. After a relaxing start to the day -- leftover cheese and cake! -- I headed out because I had another birthday party last night. Didn't Angela look fabulous with her spanking new haircut? Much merriment and fabulous food -- mmm, BBQ. I was feeling a bit poorly though, so I came home for tea and the last episode of North and South. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend the miniseries; you can't go far wrong with Elizabeth Gaskell as your source (though Wives and Daughters remains my fave).

I've got a two volume Faustus book to review, so I better get cracking. I slept until nearly eleven, but I'm still feeling poorly. Sinuses and chest -- no fun. Considering the speed with which this cold has moved, maybe it'll be gone by tomorrow. I can hope.

Jane Quiet: Fashion Icon?

Ah, the randomness of the internet! This post on Polyvore showed up on my Google search for Jane Quiet. No idea who this user is or what prompted them to choose Jane, but it's kind of cool (especially the raven ring!), though Jane would never wear those shoes. You can't chase demons in those heels.

Jane Quiet : Occult Investigator by mangoweb featuring Yves Saint Laurent

Items in this set:
M. MARANI M17006 BLACK WOOL -, 255 GBP
Underwear - Boyshorts - New - Gift Guide - Cooler Than You - Elle..., $35
Tribute Suede Pumps, 485 GBP
Crocodile Scarf, Yves Saint Laurent, 450 GBP
Clay-Pot - PYRRHA- Truth Pendant, $125

Review: Coco Before Chanel

Thanks to my pal Peg, I got to see Coco avant Chanel for free, which is particularly wonderful for a film that I would have paid to see. I have a love/hate relationship with fashion: it can be such a wonderful and practical art, yet so often the practitioners show little imagination when it comes to actually making the body more beautiful.

Not surprisingly, this was a very beautiful film. Audrey Tautou is of course wonderful, but the child they got to play Chanel in the first part of the film was very well chosen: her intense gaze was unnerving. The bitter little orphan grows into a rather prim young woman who is unimpressed by the world and particularly by love. She's ambitious but unfocused; unlike her sister Adrienne (Marie Gillain), who is madly in love with her duke, whom she's convinced will marry her. The sisters work as seamstresses and singers, but Gabrielle (AKA Coco) knows it is a dead end and surprises the baron (Benoît Poelvoorde) who took a shine to her by visiting his palatial country estate. The two eventually achieve a sort of grudging intimacy, that he comes to depend upon while Coco begins to develop her signature style in response to the frivolous frippery of the baron's loutish friends, particularly the dramatic diva who takes a fancy to her straw hats.

Everything changes when the hard-nosed Coco falls for Boy Capel, but in the end, it is her ambition that sustains her -- and that's the best thing about the film. While it tries to shoehorn this love affair into providing the impetus for Chanel's eventual triumph, what comes through clearly is that she was someone with vision and ambition who followed them both unapologetically. It's rare yet to see a film that shows a woman as ambitious without having to soften it somehow and make her more "acceptable" somehow. While the weird telescoping of time that ends the film made us both go "wha?!", in the end the gorgeous look of it, Tautou's and the other fine performances and the unapologetic ambition of Chanel made the film worthwhile.