When I first read the press release that came into my inbox about Kate Winslet’s Oscars jewels, I skimmed it and binned it. But there was something that stuck in my mind, so I dug it out of my email trash. That thing that stuck in my mind is 2.5 million. That’s not the number of viewers, or the fee Kate Winslet got paid for her last film, its the price tag of the necklace she was wearing on Sunday at the Academy Awards.

Kate Winslet is featured wearing an Art-Deco inspired Yellow Diamond Necklace costing $2,500,000 by Tiffany & Co.

My immediate thoughts were about the business aspects: How many security guards did Tiffany & Co. send to accompany her with the jewelry? How many of these do they expect to sell? What is the insurance premium on lending out this type of jewelry? Is the exposure worth all these costs?

But then I got thinking about the real value of this necklace. What can you get for 2.5 million dollars? A lot. I’d find a way so that I’d never have to work again. Some people would buy a house, or four. You could build a school, or make a very big difference in a town in a third world country. In fashion perspectives, its more than 1,000 Chanel 2.55 bags. Can anyone justify spending that much on a piece of jewelry?

I love luxury goods and I’d love to have the money to buy more. But I’m embarrassed by the level of conspicuous consumption that exists in this world. A pair of shoes that costs $1,000 is excessive, but you would need to buy 2,500 pairs to hit the 2.5 million dollar mark. The only single item I could ever justify spending 2.5 million dollars on, aside from a house, would be a piece of artwork. But a beautiful piece of art could be enjoyed by hundreds of people, and should increase in value. Does a necklace do that? How much is that item worth, once its “off the lot”?

I'll take the two thousand pairs of shoes instead.

Perhaps I am being hypocritical in thinking that its almost unethical to have a piece of jewelry that costs that much. I’d gladly spend $20,000 on am Hermes Birkin bag if I could comfortably afford it (and it doesn’t lose much value when its driven off the lot…) But then again Tiffany & Co. may have just made that necklace so that people like me would write blog posts about the shocking price tag. Let’s face it, Tiffany’s jewelry is about accessible luxury jewelry (and by that I mean, expensive, but not out of this world) so I guess they probably need those fantastic necklaces to remind people the brand isn’t all about chain bracelets with engraved silver hearts.

A final thought, how does it feel to wear something of that value? Is it any different than something a fraction of its price? I imagine its about the emotional attachment to an item that makes it feel good to wear, and Kate Winslet probably didn’t have much of an attachment to a necklace that was lent to her for a few hours, with a bunch of security guards in tow.

Before I start this post, I just want to say that I am devastated about the death of Lee Alexander McQueen. I have decided to wait a few days to write a post about it, as I’d like to hear a bit more about the circumstances and the reactions, before I write.  I’ll post something in the next week or so. R.I.P. Lee Alexander McQueen.

It is hard now to go on and talk about fun fashion things, but I feel I am long overdue for a post about the Sonia Rykiel collections for H&M. I never wrote anything about the lingerie (I had a draft written for ages, and then it was too late,) so I definitely need to comment on that, and the knitwear coming out next week.

This body suit is pretty cool.

Not exactly a t-shirt bra, but very cute.

One of my students asked me if I was going to buy anything from the upcoming collection, and, unless I get the opportunity to do so with the least amount of effort, the answer is no. It is not because I don’t like the collection, on the contrary, it looks great but I have a lot of the real thing, so I don’t intend on buying the cheaper version.

But it looks pretty cool!

I had a look in my closet to see if I could show you all some of my fantastic Sonia Rykiel collection, and I realised that my collection consists of bags, shoes, and jewelry, I barely have any clothing at all. My Sonia Rykiel shoe collection is PHENOMENAL, with a lot of pieces that were never commercialised or that were produced in very limited quantities. My bags are mighty cool too. And the costume jewelry is fantastic. There is way too much of it to photograph tonight, so here are a few good bits.

Rhinestones, or "strass" as its called in French, are one of the key elements in all of Sonia Rykiel's collections.

My time at Sonia Rykiel was amazing, and I know I was fortunate to have worked with one of the fashion greats. She is a pretty amazing woman, and she was very invovled in all of the collections, which was rare because she was in her early seventies at the time. I can’t possibly describe the entire experience in one, or several, blog posts, but here are a few short stories that might make you smile.

My beautiful ribbon sandals.

One day Sonia took the design team to lunch at the Cafe Flore, which was across the street from the flagship store and the offices. She is known for being a bit of a swinger, and let’s just say, her love life certainly hadn’t caught up to her age. We were sitting upstairs, and a man came over to the table, which was filled with young fashion designers, good looking gays and girls, eating lunch, and right away he started chatting up Sonia. She didn’t even seem surprised. I was pretty impressed, and hope that I will still be receiving fancy pick up lines when I am 70.

These don't look like much, but the trim is real fur. And I love real fur.

If you work for Sonia Rykiel, and your name is Sonia or Nathalie, you need to adopt a new name while you are working in the company. They don’t want anyone to have the same name as the founder or her daughter. The even weirder thing was that our studio director was named Antoinette, but Sonia hated that name, so she was referred to as Louise while she worked there. Louise wasn’t her middle name or anything, it was a name assigned to her, because Sonia “liked” it.

Sonia Rykiel was not the most generous of brands when it came to giving freebies, particularly to the models. We always told the dressers to make sure that the models didn’t steal the clothing. At one show, I was helping someone dress Alek Wek, and she said she loved the shoes (I think those were the ribbon sandals shown above.) One of the senior designers said to me, “Give her the shoes! Give her the shoes!” We gave her the shoes, and what happened? A few weeks later she is photographed wearing them out, and of course they become one of the “shoes of the season.”

Yes, these ankle boots are amazing...

but even more amazing when you fold down the top and expose the pink lining. Notice the "strass" all down the side.

My favourite one-on-one Sonia Rykiel moment was when she called me in to help her tidy up the studio. I had just started there, so I felt pretty intimidated by her. Our fur supplier had dropped off some colour samples and they needed to be tidied. Now, this didn’t mean they dropped off a few bits of dyed fur, this meant we had about thirty top grade fox skins, dyed in the most beautiful colours (which, once lined with satin, sold as scarves for about $2,000 each.) She was shoving them into garage bags, and asked me to help her with it. She said they were in the way. Here I was, 20 years old, a little Vancouver girl, shoving $40,000 dollars worth of fox skins into a garbage bag with one of the most famous French fashion designers. Welcome to Paris.

My "Glam Star" strass pins.

All Sonia Rykiel for H&M images courtesy of H&M.

I’ve had some very good and some very bad shopping experiences this week in Vancouver. You can read about my bad ones here and here. But yesterday I had the pleasure of discovering some very cool retailers for a Vancouver shopping guide I am doing for my friend’s London website, Urban Junkies. I’ll be mentioning a lot of them over the next few weeks, but today I’d like to show you some photos of a really cool store on Main and 8th called Lark.

The concept is heritage brands and classic clothing, but with an edge. It seems they get a lot of people coming in to buy the traditional French Saint James nautical sweaters and tees, but they also carry really beautiful european brands like Bruuns Bazaar, by Malene Birger, Frank Leder (who was in my gradaute class at Saint Martins), Barbour, and Mackintosh. They also sell Chimala jeans and Yoshi Kondo.

I bought this Bruuns Bazaar top at Lark yesterday, I am trying to get more colour into my wardrobe at the moment.

Bruuns Bazaar is a Danish brand. I have a minor obsession with clothing that makes neat geometric shapes when they are flat.

Part of the shopping trip also involved a trip to Gastown, and I bought this diamond ring napkin ring from Parliament. I am going to wear it as a pendant. They do the usual modern furniture and homewares, which you find a lot of in Gastown, but their selection is very affordable, which makes a nice contrast to somewhere like Inform across the street (which, by the way, has extremly cold and uninterested sales people.) Parliament also has a very beautiful and soft shop dog. It is taking me a while to get used to the concept of going into a shop and meeting a dog, but I love it.

I haven’t had the opportunity to do much diamond shopping, not because I don’t want to , but because I have a strict diamond policy with my husband. He isn’t allowed to buy me a diamond unless it is from a brand that has a store on the Place Vendome. (this is a very fancy shopping are in Paris.) I’d rather wait 20 years so he can afford a proper Van Cleef and Arpels, than settle for Freddy Diamond. So we don’t do much diamond shopping, but if I were to go diamond shopping, I can tell you right now I wouldn’t go here.

In fact, who shops here at all? I complain quite a bit about the visual merchandising in Vancouver, but this is something else. I think the picture says it all.

(by the way, this store is on Robson street, Vancouver’s most popular shopping street.)

I was so wrapped up with my Decade Summary Posts (Remembering the Noughties Parts 1, 2, and 3) that I didn’t really upload many of my photos from the holidays. Here’s a couple of the parties and stuff. Christmas was low key this year, with presents mostly revolving around the home: a few French tapestries, antique silverware, money towards a Dyson Animal vacuum cleaner, and a giant plastic rabbit toy with a cigarette in his mouth.

My Christmas shoes, old Sonia Rykiel press pieces.

What is a better present than a book about shoes?

A book about shoes that is hand drawn by an artist.

Girls who love Shoes 2009 by Dougal Graham. I hope there’s a 2010 version coming soon.

Douglas Coupland’s City of Glass was one of the secret Santa presents.

It is all about Vancouver.

This list of top ten surnames in Vancouver was, well, interesting.

Thanks to Kendra, Tara and Neil for throwing a great New Years Eve Party. A house party is always good, there are no variables…you know there will be a toilet, your shoes aren’t going to get ruined, and you probably won’t be cold either.

The pom pom wreath

I like their house

Happy New Year!

The NYE aftermath: my D&G shoes, Sonia Rykiel diamante anchor, Vivienne Westwood rings, money left over (a very pleasant surprise) and a midnight snack of Lindt chocolate.

Last night we went to my friend Maria’s house for drinks. Her husband, Gregory Kenny, is a furniture designer, so there was high expectations with regards to their house. It was beautiful, but unfortunately my photos didn’t turn out that great since it was dark.

I love the painted radiators

Greg’s work is modern, and they have done a great job mixing modern and old in their home.

Here’s a few pictures from Greg’s website.

Back to school and work tomorrow everyone! Good luck…

I had a really interesting conversation with my friends on Saturday night, about fashion and brands. The subject turned to Hermes, which I believe is an untouchable brand, despite the fact that it has become a lot more mainstream in recent years. We then disucssed the fact that many brands have been “ruined” when they hit the mainstream. As far as I am concerned, when Victoria Beckham wears it, or when it is mentioned in a rap song, the brand is over. Hermes is an exception.

Even Victoria Beckham can't ruin Hermes (images from www.pursepage.com)

Why is this? How has Hermes managed to maintain this powerful brand position? They have superior quality, longevity, classic pieces, and waiting lists, but so do many other brands. On the other hand, Balmain (ruined by the “Russians” apparently), Jimmy Choo, Herve Leger, and Christian Louboutin have been tainted by over exposure on celebrities.

Another thing we discussed is the power of the handbag. For some ridiculous, unexplainable reason I always feel I need to buy a handbag from a well-known luxury brand, however, I am happy to spend fortunes on clothing or shoes from smaller luxury brands that are not very mainstream at all (Finsk being my main example.) I don’t understand why I feel that way… Maybe because I use a handbag everyday for two years, whereas I don’t wear the same shoes more than once a week. Maybe because a great luxury handbag can make a 20 dollar outfit look like a 2000 dollar outfit.

I don’t have the answers, but here are some of the Hermes pieces I wouldn’t mind finding underneath my Christmas tree (hint hint husband.)

Images from www.hermes.com

Asprey, the British luxury jewelry company, has just announced a collaboration with Brangelina. Boring…. There is no doubt Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie command some respect, I am impressed by the amount of work and donations they give to charity, and for that they deserve to be commended. However, this snake-inspired collection just looks boring. The snakes, sorry “serpents,” are considered a talisman for the Brangelina family. I guess its good that the proceeds are going to a charity co-founded by Angelina Jolie, the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict, but the pieces look so uninteresting. They could be using their A-lister status to get involved in a more exciting collaboration, make something more interesting and way more affordable, which would mean more money earned to donate to charity.

Earrings from the collection

Pendants

Rings. Mickey and Mallory Knox's snake rings in Natural Born Killers were way cooler than these.

Even less exciting than the ones above.

Images from WWD.

Going to a rock concert is always an excuse to accessorize, especially the KISS concert I went to last night at GM Place.

Necklace: Butler and Wilson. Rings: Vivienne Westwood, Harley Davidson, Dougal Graham, and one I found at Value Village. Bracelet: Hermes. Cuffs: part of a Burberry trench, vintage 80s leather cuff. Earrings: can't remember.

These guys know how to put on a show, and their outfits are fantastic. I remember seeing the outfits at an exhibition called Rock Style at the Barbican a few years ago, the KISS costumes were the highlight (Bjork, Madonna, Sex Pistols, and the Supremes outfits  were also amazing.)

Look at all the studs!

Find me one band that has a better outfits than these guys… (Lady Gaga does not count as a band.)

The cover of Love Gun. Look at those shoes!

They are jumping around on stage with eight inch platforms!

Last night's concert