Style Icons of 2011: Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge

If 2011 has been anyone's year, it has been Kate Middleton's. From THE dress of the year, to her love of a Jenny Packham sparkly gown, the new Duchess of Cambridge has won herself a legion of fans. The hair, the mixture of high-end high street with designer, and the winning smile have combined to create a style icon. My favourite looks have been, of course, The Wedding Dress, the Jenny Packham blush pink an sequin gown worn to the ARK Gala in June, the Alexander McQueen pale lavender gown she wore to a BAFTA event whilst on her and William's tour of America, and the silver Jenny Packham gown worn in November. Jenny Packham and Alexander McQueen seem to be Kate's favourite designers of 2011, and they're the perfect brands for a modern day Princess.

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* Favourites (stars below the pictures)

Style Icons of 2011: Diane Kruger

My long time girl crush, Diane Kruger, was of course going to be in my round up of the style icons of the year. Diane has had yet another stellar year on the red carpet, my favourite looks have been hard to choose but it’s between the black and sparkly nude Jason Wu number for the MET Gala, the gold dream dress she wore to the premiere of Sleeping Beauty at Cannes and the shimmering nude goddess gown worn to an Ides of March premiere. She has topped many of her outfits off with impeccable choice of arm candy in the shape of Peter Bishop Joshua Jackson.

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*favourites (stars are underneath the pictures)

Film Tuesday: The Dark Knight Rises Trailer

Role on next Summer.

Style Icons of 2011: Emma Stone

Emma Stone has had an amazing year. She started off impecibley with that peach Calvin Klein number at the Golden Globe awards in January, and never really put a foot wrong throughout the year. She also showcased lighter locks at the beginning of the year before returning to her trademark red tresses. Here are my favourite looks of Emma's from 2011:

Fashion Monday: Last Week's Best Looks

Many people complain in comment sections of fashion blogs about Taylor Swift's love of sparkly, princess-style dresses. But when she looks as lovely as this, what is there to complain about? I love this Reem Acra gown that Taylor wore last week to accept the Harmony Award from the Nashville Symphony (which recognised her for "exemplifying the unique harmony between the many worlds of music that exist in Nashville"). A perfect dress choice for the Belle of the Ball.

While I sit here shivering in the freezing cold of the north of England, Brooklyn Decker and her tanned legs are making me super jealous. The blonde beauty wore a dress by a designer that I'd not been previously aware of, Nha Khanh, which she paired with an amazing pair of bright yellow shoes. On paper, black lace and neon yellow sounds like it could be a disaster waiting to happen. But on Brooklyn, it's an amazing sunny look that would perk up even the most miserable people in the midst of winter.

Rooney Mara is currently touring the world promoting David Fincher's new version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Last week she had both the London and New York film premieres, for which she wore Givenchy Couture and Prabal Gurung respectively. Previous to landing the role in TGWTDT, Rooney's style was cute and girly to match her long flowing locks. But after chopping her hair off and dying it black to play the title character, she has had to adapt her style to suit. Her hair has grown out, but she has kept the adopted colour, so her promotional tour looks have been either black or white. The white Givenchy look was my favourite by a whisker, but her black wispy Prabal Gurung look was just as chic. Both dresses had a cut-away sheer covered back, keeping Rooney's looks sexy but not too revealing.

Who is Lana Del Rey?

Lana is soon to be your favourite new artist, that's who. Recently voted the 'Next Big Thing' at the Q Music awards in October 2011, Lana is "a wonderful combination of Jessica Rabbit and Nancy Sinatra". Moving on from Rhianna's obvious selling-sex techniques, Lady Gaga's mental costumes and Katy Perry's bubblegum pop tunes, Lana is going about her chart domination in a much more subtle way. Her performances are eerie and still but still electrifying, and her style is 60's pout and hair meets Kate Nash if she was a supermodel.

So far you may not have seen or heard much about Lana Del Rey, besides her song Video Games on the radio. But she has been in NME's Cool List issue (voted in at number 6), and on the cover of Wonderland's November/ December 2011 issue herelded as 'Pop's Newest Pin-Up'. The fashion world is about to have a love affair with Lana too, so expect to see her in many pretty dresses and beautifully coiffed hair do's. She was picked to perform at last night's Mulberry party in LA, and we all know the effect Mulberry can have on creating a style icon (as in the case of Alexa Chung).

Here's what Lana has to say on her music:
On her sound and visual references: “I keep it really clear. I talk a lot about Thomas Newman’s score for American Beauty. That was a soundtrack I really was inspired by. Giorgio Mirto, I talk about the orchestral work he’s done. Think Thomas Newman score for American Beauty meets early Bruce Springsteen ’sex Americana.’ And put them together, but place it in Miami and have me singing it. That’s what I tell them.”
On early musical influences: “When I was 11, I saw Kurt Cobain singing ‘Heart Shaped Box’ on MTV and it really stopped me dead in my tracks. And I thought he was the most beautiful person I had even seen. Even at a young age, I really related to his sadness. I felt like I was really searching for answers. And I thought I could see that in him, briefly, in 3 minutes and 42 seconds, or whatever. So I saw him for the first time on TV when I was 11, and I never revisited his music again until I was about 17 or 18; and then when I did, it still meant just as much to me then and it’s continued to be my primary inspiration—in terms of not wanting to compromise lyrically or sonically. Not making music that I..thought was really stupid. Just singing over pop tunes just to be famous.”
Enjoy her songs Blue Jeans, Born to Die and Video Games here:

Final Year: Chapter One

It has been 2 months since my last post. Time to get back on this horse I think. University has been MENTAL, I had a whole project to complete in 6 weeks, a chapter of my case study to hand in, and the proposal for my major project to write. My life goes like this uni-work-home-bed, exciting :/ So, enough about me, and more about my work (that makes sense in my head). The project to be completed in 6 weeks was a magazine. We had to come up with the idea from scratch and then produce it and have it professionally printed and bound. I'm so proud of this project, especially my own input. I was the editor so a lot of weight of the project was on my shoulders at times but the finished magazine made the pressure worth it. I took the lead on most of the writing, but I also shot the front cover image which I was pleased with (I'm definitely not a photographer, so I surprised myself!) Here are some of the pieces that I'm most proud of, if you click on the images it should take you to a larger version so you can read the features.