Cruising altitudes and collections
whilst bopping/living ss26.
Greetings from a bum numbingly long journey by way of Utah>Denver>London> Totnes>Salcombe. I WILL get there but for now I write to you from seat 65 on a South Western train pondering over my flash in the pan trip to America’s mid west and of course (perpetually) over clothes too. Did I sleep much on this mammoth trip? Nope. Why? Because Charli xcx’s Rock Music was on repeat in my consciousness/AirPods. Aidan Zamiri’s video is chefs kiss. It harks back to a noughties iD or NME editorial.
It has the same brash lyrics and chaotic beats of brat but this time around she’s swapped itty bitty grotty garms with a smudge of indie sleaze. I’m talking knit dresses, tights under everything, towering round toe platforms with spindly heels, tight leather jackets and silver chains that all feel very reminiscent of my brief attempt at punk during prepubescence-my inspiration? Mary Kate Olsen in New York Minute via Topshop x Kate Moss.
The twangy and catchy guitar riffs are very 1975 which makes sense as hubby George is on the drums in Rock Music. As you can definitely tell I know f*** all about music genres but I am here for Charli’s new era. She’s clearly still having FUN with it because of course once a 365 party girl, always a 365 party girl. “Yeh we’re so inspired basically all the time”.
Kinda sad that all of the brat posts have been removed from Charli’s Instagram but she’s the queen of marketing so I also applaud her self imposed rebranding. Here for the new era hun and for anyone who dares question your genius, let me point you to the og Substack muse Miss Carrie B…
Flash forward, come with me, I’m now back at home in London. I had to take a pause from writing whilst I squeezed my nephews and multiple sachets of tartare sauce to accompany fish n chips in Devon.
Since the above five paragraphs, our prolific Charli xcx has released yet another sassy single and accompanying music video SS26 from her hyped new album Music, Fashion, Film. I mean yes, yes and yes. Roll on July 24th when we can hear this bad bitch album in full. In the meantime I shall be attempting to recreate her variety of fierce catwalks. I voraciously consume her music videos like I did the MTV channel after school in the early 2000s whilst scoffing a packet of digestives with half of my school uniform crumpled in a heap on the floor. Very brat. That’s one of my childhood happy places. Thank you Charli for returning this slovenly hedonism to me.
My job consists of a lot of this ^ and a lot of travelling. One of the things I love most about my job as a model is the blend of people, places and cultures I meet on set. Last month I flew to a really terrible named town called Hurricane in Utah for a job and it was full of surprises.
The landscape? Stunning. The weather? Scorching. The people? Mormons. The bars? Non existent—it was all soda and syrup instead of alcohol. The cafés? Didn’t sell caffeine. Umm. I’m not dissing on peoples religion but the town itself wasn’t my cup of tea. When I did finally source a café serving actual coffee they asked me if I would like my cappuccino “wet or dry?” SOS.
Other observations I noted:
All American tweens wear athleisure 99.9% of the time and it makes me disproportionately sad.
Mormon women are uber glam and groomed within an inch of their lives. Is that because they’re vying for their husband’s attention who is allowed multiple wives? Before I arrived, naïve little me assumed they would dress conservatively. Oh no, their bountiful cleavage was presented in a sharp Roland Mouret Galaxy style dress. Chuck them a mini wheelie suitcase and they could walk straight into an episode of The Apprentice.
The younger American team members on this shoot were obsessed with marriage, kept asking me questions about what it’s like to be “the chosen one”. I was shocked and afraid of their trad wife goals.
Without sounding like a pompous Brit, vocabulary was lacking out there. Absolutely everything was described as “pretty” from the epic skyline, to the majestic cows, to the glassy still lake waters, to the teeny weeny prairie dresses I was modelling. Let’s revive adjectives for ss26.
When solo travelling I find it deeply important to stay distracted from the impending boredom/loneliness/rage. If I can’t buy a Gucci Jackie bag or the two-tone Chanel pumps in the airport (sadly no longer duty free) then I have to get my dopamine hit elsewhere. Enter the internet. Pre and post flight you’ll find me madly browsing internet shops, screenshooting, adding to basket whilst waiting in snaking queues. Is it the possibility of a new destination, a new adventure, a new me that inspires a new wardrobe? Or is just quelling the dullness? Probably the latter. In my basket you’ll find the majority of Gimaguas’ bag and dress collection, Eckhaus Latta for Mango and an on going love affair with M & S.
Next up is hydration. I’m that mad diva who slaps on a facemask whilst your sleeping and makes you jump out of your skin when you slip your eye mask up for the naughty mid flight snacks wheeling past. My favourite is British Airways two pack of chocolate Hobnobs. This is an elite snack.
I can hear my Mum barking, “don’t forget your neck pillow!” These aren’t chic in the slightest, but they are essential long haul travel companions. Not only does it aid sleep but it also adds an extra barricade to your already too close neighbours. Eyemask + facemask = don’t even go there. I massively judge the people who insist on travelling with a neck pillow for short haul flights. Is this because I’m secretly jealous of their dedication to comfort or is it plain naff?
Unless you’re a very important person with a very important job, I strongly believe in keeping inflight time a sacred offline space. So stay off that pricey in flight wifi folks and guzzle up all the entertainment you can. On the flight home from Denver I watched the brilliant documentary Thom Browne: The Man Who Tailors Dreams directed by Reiner Holzemer. I’ve no idea how this slipped my radar but I loved revisiting the theatre of his runways. I write a lot, I cry a lot, I read a lot on planes. It all feels extremely important and profound when you’re cruising at an altitude of 30,000 feet but I assure you when you pop down to land you won’t remember a thing. It’s very cathartic, it’s also very toddler tantrum in a tin can energy.
From cruising altitudes to cruise collections (sexy segue I know)…
Cruise (or resort) collections are the wild card of the luxury brand yearly collections. They’re free of weather restraints (you see a cruise customer could be going on holiday somewhere hot or cold in this in-between season) and more wearable than the spectacle of couture. Whilst the autumn/winter and spring/summer collections might dictate trends, I like to think of cruise collections as a pointer on how to live and that is fabulously. When packing for holiday it’s never about practicality it’s about dressing for fun.
Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel is cited as having invented the cruise collection way back in 1915 when she debuted a wearable collection in Paris. The press hated it but the jet set loved it and so 111 years later we still find ourselves delighted and thrilled by our fantasy holiday wardrobe. Here’s my summary of the 2027 cruise collections.
The Row was all Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy. Timeless, desirable and suitably unobtainable. I loved their use of transparency and the way the models nonchalantly scrunched up a coat in their hand-the only vaguely civilian touch to untouchably priced clothes.
People love to hate Demna’s Gucci and yet they can’t help but stop and gawk at the haughtiness of it all. I want to be one of those bad bitches, stomping down the runway, clutching my big ass/big pay cheque bag, phone in hand. Also the casting was delicious. Paris Hilton, Cindy Crawford and Tom Brady? “That’s hot.”
Sam Visser’s make up for Gucci is so terrifyingly beautiful. It’s extreme and hypnotic and a joy to behold. Yes we all want that healthy, dewy, ‘barely there’ beauty for ourselves irl but I love to see art on the catwalk, not somewhat achievable make up. I hope all the models went on a rager that night, their make up alone demands it.
With more room to play, designers turned to art when seeking inspiration for their cruise ss2 collection. Nicolas Ghesquière’s New York based and inspired cruise collection for Louis Vuitton revived a collaboration with the late American Pop Artist Keith Haring. Meanwhile Jonathan Anderson’s Dior cruise collection was dripping in culture. Set in the Los Angeles Museum of Art, Anderson paid homage to the house’s historic relationship with Hollywood (spy the models’s Hitchcock style looming shadows that creeped along the walls of the runway) and nodded to iconic American exports including fellow American Pop Artist Ed Ruscha and vintage cars. I keep thinking about the models parked on the runway who sat watching and gossiping throughout the show. What were they talking about? Part of me wishes it was Kate Moss instead, sat languorously in the car, smoking à la the collections muses: Marlene Dietrich, Elizabeth Taylor and Ingrid Bergman.
It seems collectively designers have caught the bedazzle/vajazzle bug. Florals, beading and texture is IN and I for one am thrilled. It tickles my florist fancy.
This collection marked the return of Stephen Jones OBE signature feathered word hats which are an engineering marvel. They further nod to British director Andrew Haigh’s upcoming short film on the late designer Alexander McQueen (played by Russel Tovey) and his late patron Isabella Blow (played by Olivia Coleman) whose signature eccentric style was always crowned with a hat. Could the casting be more perfect?
Little old me, a muggle, of course wasn’t actually at the show but I thoroughly enjoyed reading iD editor, Thom Bettridge’s review of the show and the craziness that is cruise.
Please read this next bit in a whisper for I’m being a filthy gossip here, but dare I say it, was Anderson’s 2027 Cruise distinguishable from Matthieu Blazey’s dazzling new direction at Chanel? I think not…
For Chanel’s Cruise 27 collection, Blazey showed in Biarritz, a favourite of Coco’s stomping grounds. Whilst this collection didn’t have me drooling as much as his others for Chanel the casting still slaps. A pregnant model, models with braids, with grey hairs! Hurrah! I did however enjoy his interpretation of the newspaper dress. Blazey acknowledged:
“The first to do this kind of dress with newspaper were the suffragettes. Then, of course, Schiaparelli, John Galliano, one of my favourites Per Spook , and Jean Paul Gaultier…But the thing that made me want to do it was a beautiful quote by Gabrielle Chanel. She said ‘I love to read newspapers, like men.’”
Sorry to be a neggy cow but the flowers at this show were très, très mal. Step in moi. Envy is definitely served in shades of green. See my recent floral arrangements below.
I was in floral and artistic heaven at two museums recently. The first time was at the Louisiana Museum in Denmark which is now my favourite museum location ever, sat within a luscious forest and perched aside a pebble beach. Pure bliss. The other was at Kettles Yard in Cambridge where art meets interiors. Their current exhibition Handpicked: Painting Flowers from 1900 to Today was a gem of a show, plus it’s free. Catch it before it closes on the 6th of September.
Meanwhile, window porn in Kettles Yard…
Closer to home, London’s parks are fizzing with florals at the moment. Last week I plodded to Regents Park during a great big whopping thunderstorm in an attempt at training for the Lady Garden Foundation’s Family Challenge this Sunday. The heady scent from the roses and the cheerful sight of blooming lily pads definitely helped. I know Emily would have liked it here. She’s the reason me and three girlfriends are running this 10k charity race. If you can, please donate whatever you can here and read about her story here.
Signing off with a question: Where on earth was Lily Allen at the Met Gala? Her choice of fashion for the West End Girl music videos and tour is art.
And finally, sharing the wise lyrics of Ivor award winning lyricist, Charli xcx:
“Spring, Summer 26
When the world is gonna end, no hope for any of it
Yeah, we’re walking on a runway that goes straight to hell
Nothing’s gonna save us, not music, fashion or film.”
Oh the sass! Love love LOVE!