The EE BAFTAs with CÎROC

There is being invited to celebrate the EE BAFTAs, and then there is being asked to celebrate the EE BAFTAS with CÎROC, the well-known (and I freely admit, well loved by me!) vodka brand!   Knowing that delicious CÎROC cocktails would be a’flowing provided new levels of theatrical appreciation... January, with all it’s associated detoxing and sombre behaviour, was truly about to end, and not a minute too soon! 

Wearing a dream of a Matthew Williamson cocktail dress, with Malone Soulier shoes, a Natalie Trad clutch and Monica Vinader Baja jewellery, I headed to the STUNNING Berners Tavern, alongside Ella Catliff (La Petite Anglaise), designer Charlie May and Doina Ciobanu (The Golden Diamonds). Ella and I had not planned on being feathery, sequined sisters that night (above), but fully embraced the sparkling situation (obviously read that as, 'took lots of sparkly selfies together!') 

After a delicious meal, which was peppered with regular and exciting updates from the ceremony (#TeamEddie!), I decided that éclairs were due a massive come back... Soz macaroons.

We then headed to Grosvenor House for the official EE BAFTA after-party (no one approves more of shaking their tail feathers on a Sunday than me... especially if those tail feathers happen to be Matthew Williamson!) and several hours/CÎROC cocktails/trips to the photo booth later we eventually called it a night.

Thank you CÎROC!  For a full list of winners see HERE. 

SHOP TLC'S LOOK:

The next day I poured over the red carpet fashion from the night before and quickly decided that there was undeniably one stand out look… French actress Lea Seydoux, the latest Bond Girl, shone brightly in her sunshine marigold Prada gown (below). Just... WOW!

Special mentions definitely go to a glowing Keira Knightley in Giamnattista Valli, Laura Bailey in her high neck and full skirted Emilia Wickstead dress and to Julianne Moore, who looked red hot in Tom Ford. 

Keira Knightley Recycled Wedding Dress

Keira Knightley was the epitome of a bridechiller this weekend, wearing a dress she last wore in 2008  (above right)  when she married Klaxon’s keyboard player James Righton in an intimate, low-key ceremony in the South of France last weekend.  To be fair, Keira's ‘something old’  was a Chanel Couture blush pink bustier tulle gown which I’m sure most brides would also choose to re-wear if one were just idly hanging about in their wardrobes!  Accessorised with wayfarer sunglasses, Chanel pumps and jacket, Keira looked amazingly relaxed, down to earth and ultimately, very cool.  Congratulations!

Keira Knightley's Anti-Domestic Violence Campaign for Women's Aid UK

Love Actually star Keira Knightley is left battered and bruised by her jealous boyfriend in a deeply disturbing, TV campaign which raises awareness of domestic violence for the UK charity Women’s Aid.  The advert breaks the stereo type that only meek housewives suffer from such horrific violence with Keira playing a successful and beautiful film actress.
 
"I wanted to take part in this advert for Women's Aid because while domestic violence exists in every section of society we rarely hear about it," said Keira, "Domestic violence affects one in four women at some point in their lifetime and kills two women every week."
Both Keira and the commercial's director Joe Wright, who also directed the actress in Atonement and Pride and Prejudice, refused payment for their services.

Chanel's 'Once Upon a Time'

To celebrate its 100th anniversary, Chanel has released a Coco Chanel film entitled 'Once Upon A Time.'   Shot by the brand's creative director Karl Lagerfeld, the 18 minute short film stars Keira Knightley as the label's iconic designer and focuses on the opening of her debut store in 1913, situated in the French seaside town of Deauville  which Lagerfeld allegedly went to great lengths to reproduce.  Models Stella Tennant and Lindsey Wixson, actress Amanda Harlech and Chanel muse Tallulah Harlech also make cameos.  
This definitely demands a short coffee break Ladies... with a Kit Kat peut-être...?!

Mary Katrantzou for Topshop

Greek designer Mary Katrantzou’s beautifully bold and vibrant prints, usually seen on Alexa Chung and Keira Knightley, will soon be available to us all in an exclusive capsule collection she has designed for Topshop.

Available online and in shops from 9am this Friday, the designer has said vivid flower brooches and Qing Lond Dynasty floral motif china have inspired the striking collection.

Prices start at just £40 and go up to £350 for the structured bowl-dress (left.)

The First Actresses - Nell Gwyn to Sarah Siddons

I recently went to see ‘The First Actresses - Nell Gwyn to Sarah Siddons’ at The National Portrait Gallery, where more than 50 portraits of actresses take centre stage in a vivid spectacle of femininity, fashion and theatricality in seventeenth and eighteenth-century Britain.

Women were first permitted to perform on the English stage in the early 1660’s, after the restoration of Charles II, and this exhibition reveals the many ways in which these notorious, glamorous performers became early celebrities and fashion icons, shrewdly using portraiture to enhance their reputations, deflect scandal and increase their popularity.

Portraits of everyone's favourite Restoration pin up girl, the ‘pretty witty’ Nell Gwyn (with her varying, revealing ‘wardrobe malfunctions’ on display - above, both by Simon Verelst) alongside Moll Davis, Kitty Clive, Hester Booth, Lavinia Fenton, Elizabeth Linley, Sarah Siddons, Mary Robinson and Dorothy Jordan are exhibited.

What makes this exhibition really fascinating is the focus on the social history of the time and the biographies of the ladies which really does keep your interest from the first painting through to the last. With some early actresses becoming mistresses of Kings and aristocrats and with Covent Garden being just as famous for its brothels as it was for its theatres, the struggle which these women were up against was profound and you really leave admiring these theatrical pioneers.

Touchingly, to complement this exhibition, in a nearby exhibition entitled ‘The Actress Now’ displays a cacophony of portraits featuring contemporary actresses, ranging from Dame Judi Dench to Helena Bonham Carter (left, by Trevor Leighton) and Keira Knightley, who all owe a great debt to their predecessors in the next-door room.

Exhibition on at The National Portrait Gallery
until 8 January 2012