Tamara Cincik

About To Receive My Lovely Gifts.

Sunlight Coming Into Cochinechine From Heath Street.

I entered the competition on a whim to win a £900 spending spree at my gorgeous local designer emporium in Hampstead, little expecting to win – I mean who ever does win those things???  Well as it transpired, when I switched on my ‘phone after swooning at a sneaky afternoon screening of Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby, as I read my winner’s email with shocked glee, that I do!  My name was plucked out of the bowl; miracles do happen!

Rows of Gorgeousness.

I am a stylist.  I am a quick stylist.  I can edit a look in my head in seconds and scour a rail in a matter of minutes.  For clients, for editorials, for celebrities, I am quick.  But for myself, somewhat overwhelmed at the kindness of strangers, when let’s face it the fashion industry is filled with sharks with nice teeth, it took me two visits and a quantum amount of time to select my booty loot!

I fell in love with a Sacai cardigan, but after a ‘phone a friend call to Liam my assistant, this was vetoed in favour of maximising my quantity quota.  I never normally wear designer jeans, foregoing their charms for cheaper Topshop and Asos options.  Given this wasn’t my money, for once I was seduced by the fit, the softness of an Acne grey pair.  Cochinechine have one of those mirrors downstairs where you look slim, trim and pretty – the mirror we wish we all had at home.

I also ‘bought’ a pair of Kenzo trousers, which fit like a pair of school boy ones, in that Helmut Lang meets John Lewis school section way – ie my favourite trouser fit.  I had deliberated about summer dresses by Carven and floral printed shorts by Mother of Pearl; but after considering the vagaries of our non-existent summer and the knobbliness of my knees, I decided to go for the more covered choice.

Bag By Tila March.

The Tila March grey leather handbag was a practical choice, great for meetings and I know will look fantastic with my wardrobe’s many grey and black dresses.

Acne Silk Pink with Orange trim Blouse.

Love this blouse.  It feels like Alka Seltzer in silk and I think will work under some dresses, or with a skirt, or indeed with those Kenzo trousers.

Bra Top By VPL

I knew Vicky the designer in New York and love that my last piece is by her.

Some Of The Things I Didn't Buy.

Service With A Smile! Fantastic Service At Cochinechine.

Upstairs At Cochinechine.

If like me you want to support local, independent shops and boutiques; if like me you want to enjoy great service and really be properly looked after, then I urge you to shop at Cochinechine.  It was an amazing gift to be given the gift of £900 to spend there: something which I didn’t feel I deserved and couldn’t quite believe was happening to me.  I am lucky as a stylist to be able to go to sample sales and I do have a car boot sale and vintage habit, but this was a precious treat and for that I will always thank them.  The staff are all really attentive and sweet.  Service is one of my bugbears: I don’t understand why people go to lifeless shopping hellholes and spend their money on lots of rubbish, when they could, for the same amount of money, enjoy one lovely piece per season from somewhere special where the service, the buy, the edit and the attention justify the price.

Thank you team Cochinechine x.

http://www.cochinechine.com/

A school friend, Fiona, who is involved with this fabulous event, has kindly invited me along to the series of talks at RIBA tomorrow hosted by Point.  Looking at the schedule for tomorrow, I have to say I am quite excited to hear Peter York whose opinions upon Sloane Rangerdom proliferated my adolescence with quick witted reference points, when I somehow gatecrashed into a world where women wore pearls, everyone wore their collar up and ‘ok’, literally did end with ‘ya’….

Themed around the concept of ‘authenticity’, it will be fascinating to hear, (gulp) 20+ years and another Tory PM at Number 10 later, what Peter’s verdict on today’s authenticity is.

http://pointishere.com/schedule/

Reason 1: CR Book.

Reason 1: I am very excited about the new magazine/book by Carine Roitfeld ‘CR Book’.

I love her foreword which relays both a vision for her new venture and an appreciation of fashion’s fertile possibilities, plus the sheer joy of motherhood, familial love and abundance.  At the Crillon last July, upon an introduction she sweetly pronounced me ‘the chic girl’ and I was swooning for hours!  New talent combined with visionary leading luminaries, reborn; how exciting: I am sure it will be wondrous.

http://crfashionbook.com

Reason 2: Bowie Exhibition at The V&A Next Spring.

It was listening to the song Quicksand which transformed my career.  After working as an assistant, it took nerves and bravado to launch out as a fledgling stylist on my own.  My lovely former boss, Anna Cockburn in a ‘phone chat/mentoring conversation, did ponder why it took me so long, but I found it scary and when you want something it always feels utterly daunting, like the chance not to reach the stars is incomprehensibly devastating.  After a few tests and even some commissions, I knew I hadn’t quite found my ‘voice’: I dressed more colourfully than the work I was producing.  One day, I chanced upon a secondhand beaten up LP copy of Hunky Dory and listening through the crackles came to ‘Quicksand’.  In a synaesthesian epiphany this was it: the poetic humility soaring with revelations quite casually relayed was my moment of understanding how brave, how open and how resolved I could be…

“I’m not a prophet
or a stone age man
Just a mortal
with the potential of a superman
I’m living on
I’m tethered to the logic
of Homo Sapien
Can’t take my eyes
from the great salvation
Of bullshit faith
If I don’t explain what you ought to know
You can tell me all about it
On, the next Bardo
I’m sinking in the quicksand
of my thought
And I ain’t got the power anymore ”

This patchwork springboard of colours, dreams, textures and harmonics burst my heart wide open with the playful possibilities and the hope to dare.

News of the upcoming exhibition at my favourite of museums, The V&A fills my heart with love today…

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/david-bowie-is/

Reason 3: The Diana Vreeland Documentary, 'The Eye Has To Travel' Coming To The Curzon Soon.

Famous for her idiomatic quips, Diana Vreeland was someone I would have loved to have met, let alone worked with.  I am sure her breadth of vision, her encyclopaedic all-encompassing openness to the opportunity for style to inform content would have been the best fashion education ever.  Social merging with art; fashion taking surreal steps into quixotic visual revolutions; how I wish she had been my editor, even if only for a sitting.

Taking The At Home Shot To Another Level...

The documentary ‘The Eye Has To Travel’ which ties in with the book of the same name is due at The Curzon later this month.

http://www.curzoncinemas.com/events/details/1367/premierediana-vreeland-the-eye-has-to-travel-qa-lisa-vreeland/

My Vintage Lacroix Beauty.

This week saw me search high and low: from sample sales to department store sales; from ebay to online shops and everywhere I looked were handbags which were just ‘not right’.  Either too boring for words, or too ridiculously OTT, even some that they wouldn’t hold a lipstick, credit card and phone – surely the baseline prerequisite for an evening bag?..

My search began as I am going to the couture shows in Paris for the first time next week and while in that the heat is on moment of anxiety, I felt with all too much certainty, that my happiness lay in the momentary fix of buying a new bag.  Of course I partly jest: of course my happiness lies far more in my baby’s cuddles, or picking raspberries at out allotment.  But…  well there is that certain rush of adrenalin and pleasure which comes from an all time perfect purchase.

Nothing however felt right: unless I wanted to spend huge amounts.  I don’t find pleasure in spending huge amounts.  Fact.  As a stylist, I am lucky enough to be gifted, discounted, or privy to numerous sample sales.  Spending £5000 on a handbag would not make me happy; and might well end in divorce.

On entering the Prada store on Bond Street, I bumped into the lovely Johnny Blue Eyes, there with his assistant Savannah to prep for his client Lana Del Rey.  We spoke of my dilemma and he suggested vintage.  Hmmm, I thought let me see…  Back home I looked online, and chanced upon a shop close to home I had been to once before in The Stables in Camden Market.  The next day, with baby, buggy and 18 year old god daughter Zoe in tow, we went into the subterranean world that now makes up The Stables: Dukey literally cried seeing the techno pumping gateway to hell on our way down, but the people at Vintage Design Paradise (http://www.vintagedesignparadise.co.uk/index.php) could not have been nicer.  From dancing with Dukey to ska, to taking the time to talk me through their lovely array of pristine condition bags, several of which I liked: Dukey thought the Pollini the nicest – it’s sheen, always a winner with babies – who love shiny things.  Finally I saw a ‘vintage’ Lacroix and knew this was my bag.  Zoe knew it, I knew it and given it’s love heart handle motif I am sure Dukey knew it (am training his eye: start ‘em young, pray for an architect son…).  I worked for Lacroix as a stylist and have always loved the spirit of the house: with it’s partly awry beauty, this felt like the right fit.   Though there is a rather beautiful more orthodox Gucci classic, which might similarly have my name on it…

http://www.vintagedesignparadise.co.uk/index.php

Tamara and Tamara, shot by Tara with Dukey and Phoenix at the Heath.

After a walk which felt like Indiana Jones pushes a pram around the Heath, while my baby  giggled at the hilarity of it all: how heavenly to spend time at Kenwood while the rhododendrons are out, bumping into old friends on a shoot randomly set up next to us.  A perfect afternoon with our gorgeous gifts of love xxx.

Photos from the darkside at Mishka Halloween Night, all courtesy of the uber-talented Karolina, for more of her work please go to: www.karolinaurbaniak.com

The Duke as Count Dukula and I Ready To Style Up a Storm At Mishka Vintage

Last night I hosted a Halloween Styling Night at my favourite North London vintage emporium Mishka.

Spooks, witches, children of the night braved the cold wet wilds of N8 to shop: channelling their inner divas of darkness purchasing looks perfect for the twilight hours and start of party season as Halloween leads to Bonfire Night, leads to Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Eve…  aka a fabulous bunch of excuses for a cocktail dress, Ossie Clark maxi dress, bias cut lace beauties, or any number of retro treats.  As treats become the new tricks!  Boom….

Sherene From My London Agency and Friends. VERY happy with their purchases.

Lizzie and Miles from Mishka with Kirsty a Local Luminary.

Amazing!

Admiration.

Felicity Knows Her Bags! Formerly PR for Angel Jackson: She Was Delighted With This Retro Lovely.

The lovely Nadia Jones whose has designed the best in high street womenswear (from Oasis to Mary Portas), fell in love with a 30s webtastic long dress, perfect for an awards ceremony she is attending next month; while my bridesmaid, the stylist and some might say living Barbie ‘Dolly’ Anna Trevelyan, rocking a fluro pink wig (sadly I wasn’t with my camera to capture the moment) swooped on an 80′s black and lurex long, sleek cardigan.

If you didn’t get the chance to join us last night, I suggest you do soon!

The Duke and I at Frieze Art Fair.

Every year the lovely art world maverick Pablo De La Barra and I go to Frieze Art Fair’s opening afternoon.  It has become both a ritual annual date and a chance to catch up: both with him and his jetset gypsy art-world ways and also with myself as I notice the difference each year marks.  Last year I was bursting to tell everyone I was pregnant; this year Dukey was our plus one.  Dukey loved it: checking out the art, the lights, the people.  He seemed particularly taken with a projector and it’s noises: more so than the film, fascinating to watch his reactions to all that art…

L.O.V.E. I couldn't understand why the fashion bloggers weren't out in force mythologising these amazing artsy looks.

Though I loved some of the art: in particular a piece called ‘The Universe’: with Dukey in-tow, it was more of an excuse than ever to people watch, observe him observing for the first time enjoying the art fair.  The art became as much as the hours spent watching them, watching him, watching it all integrated into an overall sensation of something new: another layer of experience for my baby to explore in his no doubt brilliant imagination!…

Cosmo meets the Universe.

Dukey contemplates the art at Frieze.

Indulge Me: My Own Personal Mobile Art Installation...

I Found the Frieze Cleaners' Reactions to the Art Just as Valid: We all Deserve a Voice.

Colour Blocking in a Sea of Monochrome.

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/