Tamara Cincik

With Dr Mistry at his shop.

I write this on New Year’s Eve, as it seems appropriate: this being a portal into the new year, filled with hopes and dreams, parties and resolutions.  This time last year I was well on the way to being a mother: sporting capes and flat shoes; I followed Dr Mistry’s health and diet regime ‘happy food’ to a capital T.  The result?  The healthiest of babies, the easiest of labours in my group of NCT mothers despite my being the eldest.

Turn back two New Year’s Eves however, and there was I felt little chance of my being a mother.  I tried to remain optimistic, but somehow the curt sharp words of the specialist I had seen just after our honeymoon, paralysed me into believing their version of my destiny.  Perhaps we wouldn’t have a baby; perhaps this would be our lot.  I tried to remain optimistic, yet recently married to a man whom I had loved for many years, it felt so spare to think this was it.  Nine months later on a whim, a half-conscious last resort, one Saturday I walked to South End Green with my god daughter to see Dr Mistry at his shop.  I had known him for many years, he had cured me of acne, and a friend of rheumatism with his simple vitamin and diet regimes mapped out on a hand drawn A4 paper chart.  Nine months had been long enough to incubate an impotent sense of fertility failure imploding as it did upon the previous many months: the specialist’s words had  become my grey reality.

Dr Mistry led me into his consulting room, read my pulse and announced this was all rubbish, that if I followed his routine, taking this before breakfast, that after, eating this and that so on, I would be pregnant within 3 months.  Wow I thought, really?  It all sounded too simple, too good to be true.  The consultation was free, as all his are, the supplements cost me £50.  The chart was stuck to the fridge, this was easy to follow; there aren’t many components to his remedies, since Dr Mistry adheres to simple, sage methods.  6 weeks is all it took; not even the 3 months he had confidently scheduled.  It was while we were on holiday in Turkey that the nausea, the exhaustion kicked in: the giveaway signs that I was pregnant.  I couldn’t, wouldn’t believe it and looking back I realise what a voyage it has been, as while he read my pulse as pregnant when we returned and I knew in my heart he was right when we were back, the first test showed up as negative.  My lovely client Charlotte Church was one of the first to reassure me that this happens, these tests are not the 99.9% accurate they proclaim in bold typeface they are on their packaging; but of course we all are more likely to believe the certainies, not the 72 year old Asian Ayurvedic Dr working from his health food pharmacy in NW3.

If there is one thing, actually I have learnt so many things this year, it can’t be refined down to one, but if I have learnt one large lesson this year, it is this: that babies are miracles and they are more likely to come from love, from simple healthy happiness with guidelines such as those outlined by Dr Mistry, as they are by specialists, especially if like the one I saw they drown you in negatives, in proportions, in fear.  Dr Mistry points out that each person can transform their body through their diet: nothing is unchangeable.

One friend of mine has just had twins thanks to Dr Mistry again after only 6 weeks, another couple we know it took only 2!  Meanwhile friends I sent for polycystic ovaries, for anaemia and other ailments, all report remarkable recoveries.  A lot of the products are manufactured by him, even a range of beauty products and creams, where though the packaging is not Space NK standards – the products with their potentised organic ingredients are – at a fraction of the cost.  The House of Mistry Herbal Baby Powder eradicated my baby’s skullcap within a day, while the calendula cream removed nappy rash within hours.

Jeremy and I are the most exhausted we have ever, or shall ever be, the headlong jump into parenting being a crazy initiation, where other parents nod in coded agreement at the utter relentless tiredness of the first year; yet somehow relating in direct proportion to the immense love we feel for our baby son: it is molecular and endless.  As the person we dreamed into being becomes not someone we see reflections of ourselves in, but his own beautiful, unique self.  I can never thank Dr Mistry enough for what his simple guidance did for us, given that he is a man not charging thousands, instead offering his services for free; a man whose spiritual harmony is at the heart of his work.  We still follow his simply healthy steps, they are common sense with a dash of the spiritual mixed in.  The result?  The healthiest, the happiest of babies, the best gift of my life.

Dr Mistry, Dukey and I.

For more information, to buy his products or to book in for a consultation, please check:-

www.houseofmistry.com

My Mother and Baby Last Week at My Allotment.

Browsing the Nowness website last week, I chanced upon the blog and work of New Yorker Ari Seth Cohen.  He has spent the past few years photographing, partying and celebrating those more foxy than silver, more Iris Apfel than shrinking violet; more likely to dye their hair violet than give up their love of sartorial charm and swagger.  Given I have been raised by my own hot rocker mother, a woman whose mantra is ‘darling never give up’, and whose pilates-flexed limbs mean like her mind she is forever young, I too celebrate all that is wise, yet fun, fabulous, yet proud of the lessons learnt by these charming stylistas.

Most of whom are a generation+ older than my mother, yet never forget that more is more and a dash of lipstick, a pair of red trousers or a quirky felt fedora add colour, passion and texture to everyone’s day.  I like the feeling that the best is yet to come and we can all still have fun and play with fashion: sometimes we are told it all stops at 30, taking a look at these portraits and knowing my mother and the woman she is yet to become, I can only say, ‘oh really?’

Iris Apfel: 80+ and still upholding the more is more mantra.

We have Mary Portas revitalising the high street and Channel 4 with her new shop (and the tv programme Mary Queen of Shops tie-in) for the 40+ woman at House of Fraser, proudly defying women to be in their power and purchase what really works for them.  At the Paris Fashion Week shows this week, it really struck me as I gazed covetously at the Chloe catwalk, that these were the kind of clothes I would love to wear, without worrying something or too much was hanging out, while yet feeling I was in the room with enough of a fabulous quota for me to feel stylish enough that I could hold my head a little higher, my shoulders a little straighter: as I do when I feel good…

Kinga walking the Chloe Catwalk SS12

‘Young woman you’re going to be an old woman some day; don’t worry about it, don’t sweat it, everything adds character’…  Ari Seth Cohen’s book is due out next Spring.  Amazon are already offering advance order reservations: and who said past 50 women are invisible?..

She's Amazing: I styled this lady for Sunday Times Style in emeralds and YSL: over 80, she had been modelling for 60 years and somehow was the most beautiful woman in the room.

Going through my own archive I found this shot from a story for Sunday Times Style with Kim Andreolli.  Bedecked in emeralds and YSL, this mother of all models, who had been in the game for more than a lifetime, said that her daily dose of yoga kept her young, flexible and alert.  I celebrate both her beauty and the hope that with a little yogic discipline we all can aim to reach so high for so long…

http://advancedstyle.blogspot.com/

http://www.nowness.com/day/2011/3/23/1382/advanced-style-age-and-beauty

http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Style-Ari-Seth-Cohen/dp/157687592X

http://www.maryportas.com/

Christian Lacroix's Arles Wallpaper 'Vuelta' for The Designer's Guild.

Oh my, my old mentor Monsieur Lacroix’s lyrical magical hand once more lights my heart.  Ooh la la Lacroix, I LOVE this wallpaper cacophany of colour which he has designed for more reasons than I can say: decorative maximalist perfection.

http://www.designersguild.com/

PRET A PORTAS: AN INTERVIEW WITH MARY PORTAS FOR THE OPENING OF HER SHOP AT HOUSE OF FRASER. BY TAMARA CINCIK.

Mary Portas is a brilliantly British phenomenon. She transformed Harvey Nichols into the shop we all wanted to spend in; then she marched onto our TV sets, teaching her retail mantras to failing businesses, the charity market. From OAPs working in charity shops, to overly hair-gelled estate agents, her refreshingly real retail prowess made for gripping viewing, as we saw her map out how they could improve their businesses, we all felt her verve, her potent power at seeing where things could improve and wanted so much for them to listen. 
Now with her store-within-a-store at House of Fraser on Oxford Street, Mary has identified a gap in the mid-market high street here in the UK, the over 40s stylish woman. Cecilia Chancellor is the model: a face at once familiar to anyone who remembers ‘The Face’ or my old boss the talented stylist Anna Cockburn’s 90′s fashion shoots and I think the perfect fit for Mary’s store and its image. En route to a Cornish weekend away she kindly answered a few questions about the store and why someone like me (a new mother with so little time to shop, that service now more important than ever) might like to go there.

1) Mary Portas at House of Fraser is a new collaboration for Mary, in that it brings her manifesto – her Maryness to Oxford Street, to a department store and therefore to a mass market who know and love her from her TV shows. How different do you think this is from what is on offer currently on Oxford’s Street, or indeed ‘the’ high street?

Mary: Because I’ve created a curated space; everything in it has been edited down for grown up women in mind. Where there’s just too much stuff in the shops my space cuts through all of that to exactly what women need and want. Then the design of the shop is hugely important; the space and the staff is all geared towards a great experience. You’ve got to see it and feel it to totally get it. Bring your baby in, the staff will take care of you and him and give you coffee….

2) What I love about Mary is her direct no-nonsense charm: she gets straight to the point and we admire her all the more for it. It became a saying in our house: ‘what would Mary say?’ when we experienced bad service in a shop or restaurant. With online shopping so prevalent now, is service even more important for retail’s survival? Will we pay a little more for a little more?..

Mary: Service is a no brainer. Customers want service that includes knowledge. The staff in the Mary shop had an exam before they were allowed near the shop floor. When they serve you,  they will be able to tell you everything about everything in the shop; right down to how the shoes were made, and the essential oil in my candles and the story behind each one.

3) The over 40′s woman Mary has identified is a largely untapped  resource in fashion, which I agree is more fool the industry, as these  are the women whose kids have grown up, who have worked hard and
have  more money available to shop. What do you feel are the differences in their needs and wants from a shopping experience and how are you satisfy this?

Mary: This is the no bullshit audience. They want quality at a
reasonable prince, they want sexy shoes that won’t kill their feet,
they want modernity and style that reflects where they’ve got to in
their life and their achievements. Its not twee. Its slick and cool.
No-one on the high street is doing this.

4) My mother is an extremely glamorous 60 year old: ex rocker, child of the 60′s; well-versed in the ways of boutique shopping, as she started with Biba and Bus Stop. These babyboomers are the ones with
the cash, more than my generation are in lots of cases AND they are eternally youthful, way more than their war bride parents were. However they don’t like showing their knees and i saw alot of above
the knees looks on your website. Is this something, along with the arm coverage Mary has identified, which you are intending to add into the collections?

Mary: You can’t lump 40 year olds next to sixty year olds. Melanie is 40 next year! I’m sure you are in your mid thirties, you would not want the same things as someone twenty years older than you, it’s about a spectrum. There are a few above the knee dresses because the audience is grown up women; and not everyone wants to cover their knees! There are also below knee dresses; structured high-waisted leggings that are like spanx for your lower half, and pencil skirts that hit below the knee, as well as wide leg trousers. Later in the season, I’m proposing chic tunics to wear with those structured leggings and it is such a good look on a grown up woman. So many people are asking about this; I’m not dressing geriatrics. I want modern women through the door; if you don’t like your knees, that where the super high denier tights I’ve come in. My hosiery collection is designed to go with the dresses; the colours are great.

5) I love the collaborations with British brands, such as Clarks and Biba. What more are in the pipeline?
Terry de Havilland perhaps, Eley Kishimoto? For those of us who like our fashion more edgy than Clarks can offer, but still want it age appropriate and fabulous?

Mary: I haven’t collaborated with Biba; Biba is a sub-brand of House of Fraser’s and nothing to do with me! Working with Clarks has been a phenomenal experience for all of uson both sides, and the whole point is that my shoes look nothing whatsoever like trad Clarks. The Clarks elements incorporated into myshoes is the high quality production values, old-school workmanship,and best of all the inbuilt comfort technology. We’ve developed our own colours, leathers, and lasts.  This is Clarks, but not as you know it.

6) Christian Lacroix once told me that women over 60 tend to stop buying fashion. What can you do to entice them back into your shop?

Mary: Nothing, I’m not trying to entice anybody over 60. I’m trying to entice women with modern minds who don’t go around with a number attached to their sense of who they are.

7) What trends can you see translating from the catwalk into your store, ie appropriate for the market you have identified, in the next season?

Mary: I don’t see this market as a sub-group who are inspired by different trends than the rest of the market. This market is living in the same cultural landscape as everyone else; their needs are just slightly different, their desires are more sophisticated, and they put up with less crap because they can spot it a mile off. These are women, who if they had the budget would be shopping at Prada, Marni, Jil Sander, Donna Karan and DvF. There is nothing out there for them at a mid-to-premium high street level.  My sister is at the top of her profession in the NHS; but she could never stretch her salary to Prada, only on big birthdays. When she came to my shop she was like a kid in a candy store.   We’ve already set down some of our Spring 2012 trends. We’re feeling for sleek 1990’s inspired modern sporty silhouettes; we’ve got some spectacular prints in development with a contemporary artist, and there is a definite 1930s feel of opulence and elegance in the air inspired by the chic of Nancy Cunard and Diana Vreeland.

Do you intend to take this to other stores after London?

Mary: Yes. Manchester is next.

9) How hard is service with a smile?

Mary: I only employ happy people, service with a smile comes
naturally to them.

http://www.houseoffraser.co.uk/Mary+Portas/MaryPortas,default,pg.html

http://dianepernet.typepad.com/diane/2011/08/pret-a-portas-an-interview-with-mary-portas-for-the-opening-of-her-shop-at-house-of-fraser-by-tamara.html

My husband – yes there is still a novel roll of the tongue each time I saw this, barely 7 months into our marriage – has promised to book us tickets for the 3D IMAX experience of Tim Burton’s ‘Alice’, on the next available day he has off from shooting the film he is working on.

Tim Burton's vision of Alice

Arthur Rackham's colour palette as sported by Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter

Helena Bonham Carter channelling Elizabeth 1st as the Red Queen

Helena Bonham Carter is a local resident and someone who though I love styling, I am glad doesn’t use one: her off-kilter reworkings of the Dior 1947 silhouette are gloriously garish in a world of good taste, I would mourn their passing, were she to change.  I love too, the idea of her, Tim and their children living in close proximity, sharing our air and views, with their lives of make-believe and creative dreams.  Were we to one day to become friends, I would naturally invite her to our allotment for a lunch of salad leaves and tomatoes, perhaps there we might catch a view of the running rabbit…

Alice is a girl for all times: the pre-pubescent questing naughty know-it-all at the dawn of her womanhood, the light side of the Poltergeist looking glass: searching for answers to the changes in her physicality and surroundings from riddles;  beset by ever-shifting realities and confronting the maturising truth. These trials are at the root of all rite of passage quests, from the Odyssey to Oz: that people and life is not as they seem, we cannot trust everyone.  Sometimes we have to step off the path ( the consistent Fairy Tale motif) to find the answers to our questings and questions.

I have grabbed together some of my favourite Alice images, I hope you shall enjoy them too.  Have a lovely weekend/Mother’s Day!

Tim Walker's Lily Alice

Arthur Rackham's Alice

Arthur Rackham is a huge influence on me: I love his sombre palette, weaving magic from dismal tones of Autumn malaise, he somehow manifests the eeriness of half-recollected dreams.  A shoot I styled for Purple once, was completely referenced in his work, and though that reference might not be obvious in the result, it laid a foundation baseline of colours and shapes for me to work with.

John Tenniel's original Alice

The first Alice illustrations were by John Tenniel: she looks a very moody girl!

Jan Svankmajer’s ‘Alice’ was a gold dust filmic find one night at the Scala when I was an undergraduate at UCL.

Alice as seen through the eyes of Jan Svankmajer

Jan’s take on Alice, echoes the work of that other famous Czech also called Jan, who I was lucky enough to work with once in Prague, Jan Saudek.  Czech was once called Bohemia: the essence of eccentricity is at the heart of their very DNA.

That awkward unsettling time between our new teenage self and the overpadded child body

I shot a story once with Serge Leblon, where he built an Alice set in his sitting room in Brussels: a mousehole gap between two worlds, sprinkled with muddy earth, mushrooms from the local gourmet shop, as Alice tore through, her red shoes and half her torso left on our side of the page.  I wish I could find it now, perhaps she is having too much fun on the other side of the Looking Glass…

Disney Alice aka the first time ever I saw her face...

Psychedelic cat - quite a thing to set before a crazed Red Queen

Return to the source: the real deal Alice - OF course she was a brunette! Alice Liddell, the girl who inspired Lewis Carroll

A boat beneath a sunny sky,
Lingering onward dreamily
In an evening of July–

Children three that nestle near,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Pleased a simple tale to hear–

Long has paled that sunny sky:
Echoes fade and memories die.
Autumn frosts have slain July.

Still she haunts me, phantomwise,
Alice moving under skies
Never seen by waking eyes.

Children yet, the tale to hear,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Lovingly shall nestle near.

In a Wonderland they lie,
Dreaming as the days go by,
Dreaming as the summers die:

Ever drifting down the stream–
Lingering in the golden gleam–
Life, what is it but a dream?

The Liddellettes

Pre-raphaelite, I am sure she wished like I she had torn down the rabbit hole and was as glad of all her adventures, trials though they are, as I am of mine.

New year, new resolutions: daily exercising, writing more, meditating and being more a-a-aware – I know, I know, here she goes again on her Tamarama missions…  BUT, a spot of q & a’s from women I admire, doesn’t feel too hard to handle and I hope that their pearls and quirky uniqueness will feel refreshingly like harbingers of hope for a zingy new decade.

Mandi Lennard is one of the most notoriously hard working women in the fashion industry: those 4am emails sent selling the scoop on a new designer, pinged over from her Blackberry, are not mere urban legend.  We’ve known each other for more years than I can remember, Browns for both of us is a bit of a family tree.  Her press days are always the most carefully thoughtful, with amazing presents, always a concept and complemented with the best goodie bags ever!

Mandi answered my q&a in typically super-quick time; here is the first in my series of q&a blogs for the new year, hope you like them!!!

Mandi in a gorgeous Roksanda Ilincic creation.

Mandi and Roksanda have worked together since Roksanda started her house.  I love and aim to 24/7 live in the romance and glamour of Roksanda’s world, nothing bad could happen to you there, festooned with blowsy roses in slinky satin, this is a place where women are film star icons with tapered waists and contrasting ribbon tips and you always get your man –   I was absolutely, tingily-thrilled, when Mandi spoke with Roksanda to help me source my dream rose festooned pale pink wedding dress this Summer from her S/S 09 collection.

t q1
I feel you’ve done so much to promote British Fashion, I remember your
saying your dream was to find the next galliano, do you feel you have
( I feel you have) and if so how many hours per day has it taken you
to get there?!

I don’t remember saying that!  I’ve never really had an agenda, just to surround myself with stuff that’s cool, crazee and inspiring – it’s always
been a vanity project!

Alex Brownsell – she’s brilliant – she could do it blindfolded – she cuts and she’s a hardcore blowdryer too – she does quite a few of us at once – we’re
neighbours and it’s always fun

I’ve always liked a platform, never dainty so kitten heels aren’t really for me – if it’s a flat, it’s usually trainers

I guess a bit of eye contact, humility and common sense never did anyone any harm…

I love old skool stuff – at the moment though i can’t get enough of Kid Cudi and if I listen to something random on youtube it’s usually Nas – i always
find lyrics inspiring, and i love taking them out of context – it’s fresh
comment…

Not into sales

South Bronx mid-80s

Try to make more time for my friends

restraint

To read Mandi’s blog, please go to: http://blogs.colette.fr/mandi/

Copyright V&A Images

French Connection Friday Late – Close Up

Friday night at the V&A was a who’s who of fashion big-shots, and was probably wall to wall with the big-shots of fashion’s future. French Connection Friday Late: Close-Up, offered the chance for anyone to get personal (in a professional aspect you understand) with well proper and successful fashion photographers and stylists.

Vogue’s very favourite snapper, Tim Walker, chatted about his fantastical fairy tale creations, while Warren Du Preez and Nick Thornton Jones talked about the work they do for GQ, iD and Nike. Facehunter hunted through the corridors and around the corners of the museum capturing the most stylish of the evening, Among their prey included a vision in purple and a princess in layers of peach lace – the ladies effort was appreciated by all (especially those who were missing the local fashion sights from the recent London Fashion Week). And while everyone milled around, watching films, or crafting an adornment for themselves, real photoshoots were happening around them – one of archive pieces from the V&A’s fashion collection standing/sitting/lying still, and another featuring modelly models, stylish stylists, arty art directors and…well a photographer of course. .

But for those who wanted to get a piece of the fashion action themselves, of which there were many, their attentions were focused on the French Connection Photography Studio. All evening the clever, creative, stylish and topical created individual images fit for glossy pages. Following the advice of photographer Donald Milne (who shoots for iD, Arena Homme Plus and Visionaire, while directing pop videos for Pulp, Beastie Boys and Massive Attack), the cult stylist Tamara Cincik (Dazed and Confused, Wallpaper*, Purple), new talent fashioned looks out of the French Connection AW collection.

Of the French Connection Friday Lates thus far (there are more to come), Close-Up was one of the busiest. The beautiful and inspirational-looking, quietly queued for a chance to shoot, watch, listen, style, pose, create and dance (the Voguettes provided the soundtrack). These are faces that we know we are going to meet again, although this time the camera will be in their hands.

Copyright V&A Images

The Shoot

Copyright V&A Images

Copyright V&A Images