A Sky full of Stars, and a Whistle

Two Hollywood greats gone in two days - one a comic genius, the other a legend. I felt truly sad to hear that the 'black dog' of depression had claimed Robin Williams yesterday at the age of 63. He had been fighting his demons for years, and finally, tragically, they won.

Photo: Mark Mann from Series 'Esquire Life of Man'

 As a stand-up comedian he was unparalleled - his speed of delivery was as quick as lightning, his impressions spot-on, his jokes - often against himself - side-splittingly funny. In interviews he was frenetic, whacky and unpredictable but he could make you laugh until you cried. And as if that wasn't talent enough, his acting skills, both in comedy and straight roles were bountiful.  I was an avid "Mork and Mindy" fan back in the late 70's - the sheer zaniness and joy of the show made it must-watch TV, and as I re-watched "Awakenings" last night I was reminded just what a great straight actor he was. I now feel compelled to re-visit "Good Will Hunting" and "Dead Poets' Society" just to enjoy the sheer power of those stand-out performances.  Luckily I can always enjoy "Aladdin" and "Mrs Doubtfire" with my boys and we still have "Night at the Museum 3" to look forward to - they love his Teddy Roosevelt in the first two films, as do I.

Photo: Peggy Sirota for Parade

Wiliams' daughter Zelda quoted from Antoine de Saint Exupery's "Le Petit Prince" when she paid tribute to him yesterday: “You — you alone will have the stars as no one else has them…In one of the stars I shall be living. In one of them I shall be laughing. And so it will be as if all the stars were laughing, when you look at the sky at night…You — only you — will have stars that can laugh.” She said she would try to keep looking up... To that I can only add "O Captain, my Captain" - your genius will live on.

Photo: Dan Steinberg

And then today, Lauren Bacall. A true star and fashion icon who is as much referenced now for her elegant style and trademark curls as she was back in her heyday, Bacall was always her own woman - sassy, forthright and independent. As a couple with husband Humphrey Bogart - they met on the set of "To Have and Have Not" when she was 19 and he was 44 - she was Hollywood royalty, and their films together crackle with the chemistry of their romance.

Bacall in the 1940's

Photo: Rex

On the set of "To Have and Have Not" 1944 - Photo: Corbis Archive

Bacall dressed in a pared down, simple way and she described her style as 'studied carelessness". I particularly love her Summer off-duty wardrobe which remains timeless and modern:

Photo: Rex

Photo: Rex

Photo: Rex

Photo: Rex

Though she easily held her own against Marilyn on the red carpet:

Bacall and Monroe at the 1953 premiere of "How to Marry a Millionaire"

One of the other things I admired so much about her was her attitude to ageing: she did so gracefully and never lost her love for sequins:

Bacall in 1972

 Bacall at the Oscars in 1975 with Costume Designer Theoni V. Aldredge - Photo: AP

Bacall at the White House 1980 - Photo: Ron Galella/WireImage

Bacall with David Lynch - Photo: Andre Rau

Bacall in 2010 - Photo AFP/Getty Images Rich Schmitt

Starring together in the classic "To Have and Have Not" in 1944, Bacall utters the famous lines: "You know how to whistle don't you Steve?  You just put your lips together... and blow." When Bogart died in 1957, Bacall put a whistle in his coffin. I hope her family put one in hers...

Vintage Treasures

Shabby chic, vintage decor, call it what you will but my house is filled with it - an eclectic mix of mostly French and English 'objets' that I've accumulated over the years and found a home for. They have been chosen for their style, colour, history, patina, and I never miss the chance to have a browse wherever I am, in the hope of finding some new treasure to squeeze on to a shelf.

L'Isle sur la Sorgue

Turns out the actor Richard E Grant and I share the same passion - who knew? Grant revealed his love of all things French and vintage on a recent TV programme entitled "Dirty Weekenders" where he revealed that he's been Channel hopping for the past 25 years indulging his "... insatiable desire for beaten up old stuff. Distressed furniture, rusty light fittings, nostalgic paraphernalia...''

Richard E Grant Photo: Radio Times

Oh Richard, I'm so on your wavelength. The programme showed him grubbing around in antique shops, flea markets and French Brocantes on the lookout for that small (or large) gem - see the old metal lantern above - to add to his collection of vintage 'stuff' back home, and I was pleased when he said that he's "always in search of something unusual and interesting rather than valuable." It's not about the value for me either, but about the connection, and the sheer joy of finding an object that will add something to my home decor.

Richard E Grant Photo: Radio Times

For my boys - both large and small, a trip to any flea market or Brocante is quite possibly the most tortuous thing on earth - "BO-RING!" is Rockboy's official verdict, with lots of nodding from English Gent. He just can't see what I see, and I have to negotiate hard to get my 'hour to scour'. But as Grant explained, it's the thrill of the chase that always keeps us coming back for more - and I have to admit I'd love to go off on the hunt with him, though I fear his scarf-wearing skills out-do mine - look how completely chic he looks, I'm loving his tricolore scarf above.

L'Isle sur la Sorgue

I'm rarely looking for something specific, far better to keep an open mind and see what's out there. From old soup tureens, to flower-patterned jugs to chipped church Madonnas, I know immediately I spot something whether it's got that 'je ne sais quoi' and whether, for the right price, it's coming home with me.

 Last Summer when we were visiting some friends in Roussillon in the South of France, I managed to persuade English Gent to accompany me to the town of L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue which is known as the Venice of France due to all the canals that criss-cross the town and is something of an Antique and Brocante mecca for those in the know. The town hosts regular antique fairs and flea markets, and there are also permanent antique 'villages' selling everything under the sun. Sadly, bargains are few and far to be seen these days - it's unfortunately too well known, so perhaps it's just as well that on the day we visited most of the vendors were closed, but I did get to see a staggering array of things that could have made a severe dent in my wallet if I'd been given half a chance! Grant also went there on his French treasure hunt so I felt pleased to have at least been in the right place, even if it wasn't exactly the right time.

L'Isle sur la Sorgue

Still, I hope to make a return journey this Summer and fingers crossed that this time the shops and markets will be open for business - I'll let you know what I find.

High-brow, low-brow

A good pair of brows will definitely take you places - and you need look no further than the glorious Audrey Hepburn to know that this is true. One of my style and beauty icons for many a long year, her brows are quite frankly, amazing, and mine, quite frankly aren't. Slowly but surely, with impressive stealth, my brows have been gradually getting thinner and sparser - a sure-fire sign that I'm on the slippery slope of, yup - the dreaded middle age...

Audrey Hepburn

To be fair, the left one has always been at a disadvantage, ever since I collided with the corner of a chair in a church vestry as a toddler, resulting in stitches and a scar that dissects my brow in two if you look very closely. But over the years I've been good - I've followed the rules - from Jackie through Cosmo to Vogue, taking care not to over-pluck, never removing hairs from above the brow line and ever hopeful that the odd professional shaping would somehow turn me into Brooke Shields, the Queen of the 80's Brow.

Brooke Shields Photo: vogue.com

My brow high-point (my high-brow?) came back in the mid-90's when a very glamorous film producer complimented me on my eyebrows at work. Coming from someone who was highly groomed compared with my 'just out the shower and ran for the Tube without looking' look, the fact that she thought my eyebrows were worth commenting on was astonishing - I think I swore then and there never to touch them again.  And so I hadn't really, until I started noticing the thinning thing and realised that as I was never going to look like Cara Delevingne there still had to be ways to boost my brows and give that illusion of fullness.  Plus, if I could knock a couple of years off as a result, at my age so much the better.

Cara Delevingne Photo: Imaxtree

Back in March, Benefit and Debenhams ran their annual Brow Arch March collaboration raising money for Look Good Feel Better - the only international cancer charity which focuses on problems associated with the visible side effects of cancer treatment. In conjunction with the annual fundraiser, Benefit's Lisa Potter-Dixon gave some great tips which you can read here, my favourite being that the colour of your eyebrow pencil should match the darkest colour of your hair at the back of your head. So regardless of whether your hair is your natural colour or not, your brow shade should literally go back to your roots. Secondly, when applying the pencil you should run it against the grain of your brow and then again in the right direction as this will help give the allusion of thicker brows.

Photo: Garance Doré

Obviously there are various ways to tackle the problem - pencils, fillers, gels, highlighters, temporary tints and permanent tattoos are all available - so I have been working out what looks best for me and what is simple to incorporate into my daily routine.  I alternate between a pencil - Sephora currently and my Bobbi Brown Eyebrow Kit, depending on how much time I have and how fully made up my look is. For evening I would definitely use the Bobbi Brown powder palette, but the truly genius product for brows I have to share with you is Benefit's "Gimme Brow".

Benefit Gimme Brow Photo: www.makeupandbeautyblog.com

I discovered this in Sephora by accident when I was drifting around and the make-up assistant at the Benefit counter offered me a brow tint to boost my thinning arches, (she could see I needed help...) and when she applied the 'Gimme Brow' gel - it was quite simply a revelation. It is a volumizing brush on fiber gel that is buildable, waterproof, incredibly long wearing and most importantly natural looking, with a precise wand for arch-shaping and tapering. I have it in the 'Light/Medium' shade using it alone or on top of the powder or pencil if I want a stronger look, and it has quite simply given me back the brows of my youth. I am now living in fear of it being discontinued so am quietly stockpiling it (along with their 'Boing' concealer in Shade 2 which I also can't live without). Definitely one of my hero products of the year so far - Benefit I thank you.

This is 48

"Age before beauty" the saying goes - but why should one exclude the other?  Surely the two can co-exist? I recently came across Kristin Perer's beautiful and inspirational photographic blog called this is 50 which Perers started as a roadmap for turning 50 with style and grace, and here you will find both age and beauty in glorious abundance. These are women who are truly "bien dans leur peau" (comfortable in their own skin), following their own particular paths, career or otherwise, and their interviews make for uplifting reading. The photo montages sing with a wonderful zest for life and if Perers' aim is to make other women feel better about themselves through meeting these ladies, then she has certainly succeeded.

Photography: Kristin Perers

Photography: Kristin Perers

Photography: Kristin Perers

One of Perers' subjects is quoted saying "I am not just one picture" which I really like, and another has written an A-Z of what makes her life tick at 50 so I thought that as I celebrated my birthday yesterday I would share my version with you - thank you to Sian Tucker for the inspiration: this is 48

 A:  Adventure, Ageing, Amour, art
B:  Boys, Birth, Beach, blogging, BELONG, bed, Balance, blessed
C:  Cocktails, colour, cat, caring, candles
D:  DAN, discovery, dancing, daring, daughter
E:  Evolving, exploring, energy
F:  FAMILY, friends, fun, flowers, freedom, food, flexibility
G: Glitter, growing, garden, GRATEFUL
H: HAPPY, hugs, home, health
I:  Inspiration, ideas, idling, Instagram
J:  Joy, jeans, Romeo and "me"
K: Kisses, kisses, kisses
L:  LOVE, laughter, LUCKY, light
M: MOTHERHOOD, Mary Berry, macarons, mountains
N:  novels, nature, nurture, nourish
O:  Ottolenghi, optimism, older, outdoors
P:  photos, prayer, play, patience, pebbles, pockets
Q:  quiet...sshh...
R:  romance, renewal, reflection
S:  SISTER, sunshine, stars, smiles, soul, snoozing, singing - SONS
T:  Time, tomatoes, thanks
U:  upside down, ups and downs
V:  Vitality, (la dolce) vita
W: Wonder, WRINKLES, walks, waves, wisdom
X:  eXcitement, eXample
Y: Yoga (to keep me) young at heart, yes
Z:  zzzzz - sleep...

this is 48

Rockboy declared that 48 is "not that old",  so it's good not know I'm not over the hill just yet - phew! And as I always say, you're never too old for a sparkler:

Inspiration on International Women's Day

I read a great article in The Guardian today about Stella McCartney (one of my favourite women) and she had this to say about her late mother Linda, which I thought was worth re-quoting on International Women's Day:

Photo: Alain DeJean

“My mum had a massive influence on me, not just in what she wore and how she looked, but in her spirit. She was married to one of the most famous men in the world and she didn’t wear any makeup, ever. I mean, have you ever seen the wife of a man like that rock up with no makeup on? Because I haven’t, since. That courage, that inner confidence, is something I’ve never experienced in anyone else. I certainly haven’t got the balls to do it. I find everything about her pioneering, and amazing. She had a beautiful ease with herself.”

Photo: Allison Michael Orenstein for The Fashion/Guardian

Pioneering, amazing, ballsy and a beautiful ease - aspirations for any woman, especially on a day like today.

And the Award goes to....

As awards season wraps up for another year, here's the 'After My Own Fashion' round up of the Oscars, with the Award for " Most Hollywood A-listers you can fit in a Selfie" to kick us off:

Photo: Bradley Cooper

The Award for "Most Beautiful and Natural" goes to Lupita Nyong'o in pastel blue pleated Prada - Pantone's Colour of the Year 2014 may be Radiant Orchid but from now on, it's all going to be about 'Nairobi Blue' this Summer - heaven.

Photo: Getty

The Award for "Most Comfortable in Couture" goes to the resplendent Meryl Streep in Lanvin:

The Award for "Most Age Appropriate" goes to Emma Watson in edgy Vera Wang, teamed with a bright red lip - the coolest kid on the block:

The Award for "Most Stylish in your Sixties" goes to the 'Divine Miss M' in Reem Acra:

Photo: Getty

and the Award for "Most Magnificent in a Tux" is a tie between Pharrell and Ellen, in Lanvin and Saint Laurent respectively:

Photo: EPA

Pharrell has even remembered to moisturize his shins, which gets points in my book,

whilst only the sartorially brave can carry off delivering pizza in white.

Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Hats off (geddit?) to both and here's to Hollywood not taking itself too seriously for once.

Pharrell Williams & Lupita Nyong'o getting 'Happy' Photo: AP

Pizza anyone?  Photo: AP