Life Has Rushed Away «

Life Has Rushed Away

Monday 6th March 2017

Events are slipping away, not grasped; fashion crowds in and we must all unite to fight, once again, a dastardly move to make the silhouette ‘soft and draped.’ Did you see the FT on Saturday? I read with horror on the way back from Dublin. Rest assured, I’m moving privately to get it put a stop to. I’m sure Cousin Barley will be able to do something. She’s just taken over one of London’s greatest stores, where Lord Arrowby rarely pays the full price.

Reggie Cresswell and I flew back from Dublin with a world-class performer, who’d performed with Harry Rollo the night before. He said he’s desperate to buy a camper van although death at the hands of his wife might be a drawback.

But I’m getting ahead. At the last PV at the Royal Academy (Aunt Lavinia didn’t want to face the Private Breakfast for the Russian Revolution exhib last Thursday while I was away in Dublin wearing outfits: oh dear! I hope we won’t get knocked off the list) for the American Show, Genevieve Suzy posed before ‘American Gothic’, one of the world’s most famous paintings (not sure why, but it’s v. good) or rather superimposed herself upon the woman in the picture. So it was that the grim old gothic puritan woman was replaced by the Anna Wintour de nos jours. Howard Jacobson was huffy though about the attitude to one of the world’s most famous paintings. ‘I’ve had dinner with him,’ Genevieve screamed as he cut her dead. ‘Several times.’

That night, at the Royal Academy PV, my white Dior scarf sloughed off fluff all over my Topman grey flannel school suitlette (keep the silhouette slim and flattering) and I hadn’t got my clothes brush with me. The next morning for the PV of the Diana frock show at KP (can you imagine the outfit pressure?) my Zara Limited Edition Hussar jacket (with frogging) somehow rubbed off black dye onto the fly of my Topman suede-effect light bone spray-on slacks.

Absolute disaster. I had to hold my Visconti bag over the scene throughout.

I had low outfit satisfaction on both occasions. Barely 6/10.

The Diana frocks are huge. Don’t misunderstand. For some reason we’re used to looking at frocks in museums (mainly belonging to the Queen) that are very small. So the Diana frocks look huge. Kazudout, who made Diana’s iconic late spray-ons, gave notice to me privately that he was to be on Breakfast TV that morning, but none of his pieces are on show yet. There are 19 garments approx: amazing how blasting world coverage commanded by only 19 pieces. The Catherine Walker pink suit had a tiny mark on the breast. The anyway hideous Emanuelle blue coat was falling apart. I raised Val on the phone: he mentioned the wedding dress, which is not shown, being imprisoned at Althrop. Which is for the best, because he said it resembled a crumpled paper bag. Helpful labels tell where each item was worn. The occasion for a Catherine Walker blue tube dress, was ‘Shopping in Bond Street, 1997.’