Patricia Field Style and the City

Patricia Field Style and the City

Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte all had a not-so-secret friend who turned them from women speaking directly into the camera about their dating fiascoes (a rookie season one mistake) into style icons adored the world over. It has been years since the series ended and the last of the films graced the silver screen (breaking box office records) but women all over the world can still not get enough. With this in mind "Style and the City", an exhibition of beautiful gowns and outfits worn by these fictional but very real style icons has been cleverly curated by legendary costume designer Patricia Field and brought to Perth. Launching on Friday morning, the free exhibition will run until May 1st at enex100 and inside Myer at Forrest Chase.

At the launch Patricia shared stories from the set- how she met the actors and how they became family, posed for photos, met and chatted with some 100 women and men all obvious fans of her amazing work. 

Not only is Patricia Field the Emmy Award winning costume designer behind Sex and The City, but Oscar nominated designer behind films like The Devil Wears Prada, Confessions of a Shopaholic, and television series' Ugly Betty, Spin City, Cashmere Mafia, Hope and Faith, Six Degrees and Kath and Kim. Her boutique, which she opened in Greenwich Village in 1966 has been attracting fashion forward locals, internationals and celebrities for fifty years. Named in Time Magazines '100 Most Influential Fashion Icons of All Time', Field is a down to earth and fascinating woman. Her stories brought to life the experiences on set while demonstrating her design process, character analysis and relationship with cast members. 

Costumes from both the HBO television series and both of the Sex and the City films are on display, from the infamous Vivienne Westwood wedding gown (complete with bird!), Zac Posen wedding party gowns (the black worn by Charlotte was Field's pick for Sarah-Jessica Parker to wear in white but Parker chose the Westwood), the Versace ruffled gown Carrie was stood up in by Alexander Petrovsky during that last episode in Paris and a whole lot more. By a whole lot more, I am talking the Carrie necklace, the blue Manolo Blahnick's, that white dress with the gigantic orchid corsage, the Eiffel Tower bag etc etc etc… Patricia Field scoured dresses from across the globe to bring to Perth, just for us. Zac Posen dug into his New Jersey archives for the wedding party dresses, designers and collectors around the world were called, and the results are a stunning collection of 24 colourful, iconic gowns and costume pieces that you just have to see. 

xx Jenelle 

Brunching with Lady MacBeth

Brunching with Lady MacBeth

Monday 14th August

Two consecutive warm sunny days, could it be spring already? Or is this just a preview? Some years the first week of September it's still winter. I much prefer spring for I love all those light flowing fabrics and lace. Home was always spring by the Bay. Cardigan weather most of the time. It's time to bring out the blazers!

Spring is launched by MSFW though it's now MFW. The first week of September we always look forward to. I fondly remember our very first year, oh wait maybe it was the second. 2014. Priceline showbags, the glasshouse at qv and hub.

QV used to do an end of winter popup at the square with different themes and hold events there. One year it was a Swedish forest (minimalist) another was a beach, the third a garden! We went to a beautiful bridal tea and wedding dress runway.

In 2015 we were invited to the AH runway! Front row seats, lunch time with bubbles we haven't had the same privilege since sadly. They've been going downhill and have moved to Perth.

Father's Office. The outdoor area used to be smoking has been divided into a smoking/drinks only area and the other area for non-smoking. What happpend to no smoking anywhere on the premisis?

Dinner snacks at Father's Office. Tacos beef And veg. Veg was bean based and hot! The pulled beef was good. The arancini bad. Battered almost rather than crumbled coating. A bland ball of yellow rice. The gooey cheese added a slight saltiness. The other cheese had the texture of paper, dry and just no.

Movie Night - Orlando (1992)

Ok so Orlando falls into a deep sleep, how didn't they just bury him with a bell?
- There is a widespread notion that 'saved by the bell' originated as an expression that relates to people being buried alive. The idea was that, if someone were comatose and mistakenly pronounced dead and interred, they could, if they later revived, ring a bell that was attached to the coffin and be saved.

So many eras and costumes! I don't understand the changes though... from 1600 to Modern Day, he becomes a she. The Turkish part was funny, sweating and dying under the wigs and winter costumes XD

Thursday

Thursday started with a meeting. An average hot chocolate along the way. 

Meeting went over so we skipped the workshop and went to lunch. 

Strolling we dropped by Zen without looking up reviews or much planing. Bring a student town there's many cheap eats. On this block alone there's Damso Korean and Zen that offers $10 lunch specials.

Castella Cake. It's a huge sponge cake. 

Tiramisu at Basta. A Date Restaurant.

Dinner at Barolo

Friday

• New therapist. What happened to the last one? He got a new job.
• Chilling at the library. It's very different from the office. More background noise on the second floor vs 14th.
• When you can't tell if the presenter is awesome/eccentric as or just nuts XD But he was entertaining.
• Met people! Cool people that we didn't fight.

Dinner at Dondon no.10 now serving in black bowls rather than porcelain. Pretty good needs a sesame Kewpie dressing though for the salad. As always there's plenty of rice.

Saturday

Brunching at The Train Yard.

Lohengrin. Set in 10th century Germany with a palette of muted colours for the ladies, divided up into waiting ladies/level 1 nuns, nuns and the common folk. Not high on costume porn or set design. There was a stage, steps and a projected background. I love my elaborate sets! 

Realism and fantasy collide on a background of impending battle in which Elsa of Brabant is wrongly accused of her brother’s murder. Sailing in on a swan (deftly staged with magical projections in a rain of mist), an enigmatic knight arrives to defend her honour, precipitating a marriage with the caveat that Elsa is never to question his identity.

Naturally she asks, being the weak easily influenced damsel, by Lady Macbeth. He leaves, she dies. Though it was Lady Macbeth that stole the show!

Unlike in Mb it is he who gets killed off, while she lives and was manipulating him from the very start. Unlike in Mb where it was at first teamwork.