Posts with tag style icon

Audrey Hepburn -- every fashionista has swooned and mimicked her style in Breakfast at Tiffany's (if you haven't seen that movie how dare you call yourself a fashionista). She can easily be called the most fashionable woman of all time and even today has an impact on all of our closets.

Audrey turned a plain old black dress into the can't-live-without "little black dress." She made pearls, ballet flats, giant black sunglasses, and over the top hats look amazingly classy and chic with her simplistic elegance.

To nab the Audrey Hepburn look you need to have these items in your closet. Extremely petite figure and cigarette not required.

Audrey Hepburn Closet Staples:

• Little black dress
• Pearls
• Over-the-top hat
• Black cigarette pants
• Ballet flats

Katharine Hepburn wore the pants in Hollywood! Hepburn is credited for breaking the dress code for women in her time. In a time where Hollywood and the fashion industry was bursting with curves, kisses, and sex appeal Katharine's non-conformist style stood out amongst the rest.

Her style was masculine and casual -- she wore trousers, all the time. Even with her "manly" wardrobe she still managed to look beautiful, stylish, and intelligent.

Hepburn won a Council of Fashion Designers of America in1986 which recognized her non-conformist view of fashion.

Katharine Hepburn Closet Staples:

• Pants, specifically men's trousers
  
• Loose fitting button down shirts
• Loafer style shoes with socks

The Katharine Hepburn of today is definitely Cate Blanchett, who also knows how to look stunning without all of the obvious sex appeal.

I was sad to learn that stylist and fashion guru Isabella Blow, one of fashion's most original figures, passed away at the age of 48. Blow, who was famous for her outrageous Philip Treacey hats, her bright red lipstick and her gorgeous eccentricities is credited with discovering Alexander McQueen and helping to launch the careers of British models such as Sophie Dahl. Blow died in the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital in western England and she had recently been diagnosed with ovarian cancer. One thing I did not know about Isabella Blow was that she had been Anna Wintour's assistant. Wintour is quoted as telling the Times: "I don't think she ever did my expenses, but she made life much more interesting." Truly, Blow's presence on the fashion scene made everything a little more interesting. Even if you would never dare to wear some of the things she did, it was always good to know that someone could, and did. Her life itself was a work of art. She will be much missed.

No one so defined style as the Godfather of Soul. From the pompadour to the omnipresent shades to the purple outfits, the Hardest Working Man in Show Business knew what it meant to be well-coiffed, well-dressed and well-accessorized.

Sure, he had his share of scandal. And, yes, he had his run-ins with the law (not the least of which was his O.J.-style interstate chase in 1988). But just as we can't expect Naomi Campbell to be a saint, neither should we expect James Brown to act like a nun.

In short, James Brown was a style icon, and he will be missed. To paraphrase a song of his, We don't know where you are now, James Brown ... but wherever it is, it's got to be funky.

The ever-stylish and suave Tim Gunn, chairman of the fashion design department at Parsons the New School for Design and my favorite part of Bravo TV's Project Runway, reports that architectural design professionals "All hate fashion".

While this may seem unlikely, given that clothing and architectural design are similar in so many ways, Gunn insists that it is so. "I had a colleague tell me that fashion is the lowest form of culture," says Gunn, in an interview with the New York Times. Never one to be rattled by much, Gunn insists that he is not offended by the animosity. "They're [fashion and architecture] both an infrastructure on which to put a skin or surface," he explains, and goes on to tell the story of how he first fell in love with architecture.

The story centers around a calendar the 10-year old Gunn received from his grandmother at Christmas. Each month of the calendar featured a French chateau to cut out and assemble, and by New Year's Day, Gunn had finished the entire calendar. Gunn moved on to designing and assembling his sister's Barbie houses, and with those types of accomplishments under his belt, found his first adult job after art school designing models for an architecture firm.

With a distinguished career built upon fashion and clothing design rather than architecture, Gunn has turned his love for building model homes into a hobby. He collects pop-up books of buildings and carefully searches for furniture and cupboard pieces that emit the aura of the perfect architectural aesthetic.

You may love her or love to hate her, but the fact remains that Lindsay Lohan has become a style icon in today's celebrity-obsessed culture.

Ms. Lohan has been spotted all over Los Angeles, New York, London and Paris, attending fashion shows, sporting the latest (and sometimes disastrous) styles, and generally causing a ruckus wherever she goes. Recently Lindsay gave an extremely revealing interview to the News of the World, discussing her celebrity status, love life, and the overwhelming pressure from Hollywood to remain stick-thin.

With notorious stylist Rachel Zoe in Lohan's employ, it is not surprising that the starlet has shrunk to waif-like proportions. However, Lindsay seems to be fed up with never being allowed to feed.

"Sometimes being that thin doesn't look healthy. I kind of didn't realize that," said Lohan in her recent interview. "I feel great about my body now, though. When I was in the hospital I was overworked and stressed out and that's when they started talking about my weight. Now I am comfortable in my own skin and I like having a shape and having breasts the size they are."

I for one think that it would be wonderful to have a young, stylish starlet who wears fun clothing for the public to emulate, and is curvy rather than emaciated. Let's hope that Lohan uses her celebrity status and newfound attitude about her body to offer a more balanced perspective on fashion and the risks of becoming weight-obsessed.