Get the look: Lana del Rey at the Met Gala

Sultry chanteuse Lana del Rey was one of the best dressed at the Met Gala last week. The event has become the fashion Oscars and marked the opening night of the Schiaparelli & Prada exhibition. 

Lana wore a custom-made Joseph Altuzarra evening gown and cape. We have a silver sequin dress and dark violet velvet cape that are almost identical. 

This vintage sequin gown is in mint condition and available to buy here. We also have a vintage deep violet velvet cape in the boutique at the moment... 

The cape is fully lined in purple silk. To view in our online boutique, click here. 

Lana is no stranger to retro looks. Earlier this year she performed at the Mulberry dinner during London Fashion Week wearing a beautiful black dress with lace sleeves and sporting a serious beehive.

For a similar look, we have an original 1960s lace shift in our boutique at the moment. Click on this link to view online. 

Our new collection will be online very soon. To keep informed of flash sales and events, please sign up to our newsletter. 

Studio photography by Dani Riot 

The 2011 Met Costume Institute Gala

Film premieres and award ceremonies are excellent red carpet opportunities for film stars and celebrities, but the Met Gala is the event of the season for true fashionistas. Designers, models, stylists and historians fly in to New York from all over the world to be received by Anna Wintour, left, editor of US Vogue.

The Costume Institute contains more than 80,000 costumes and accessories. It used to have a permanent gallery space in what was known as the 'basement area' of the Met, however, due to the fragile nature of the items in the collection the Costume Institute does not maintain a permanent installations. Instead, every year it holds two separate shows organized around famous designers such as Cristóbal Balenciaga, Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent as well as style doyennes such as Diana Vreeland, Nan Kempner and Iris Apfel.

The Costume Institute's annual benefit gala, co-chaired by Anna Wintour, is an extremely popular - if exclusive - event in the fashion world; in 2007, the 700 available tickets started at $6,500 per person.


This year the gala coincided with an exhibition on late designer Alexander McQueen, curated by Andrew Bolton (see photo above). Guests were greeted by a receiving line of actor Colin Firth, designer Stella McCartney, and Vogue editor—and gala organizer—Anna Wintour. Suzy Menkes wrote a very interesting review of the exhibition for the New York Times, read it here.

Now to the dresses! There were some fabulous outfits (and some real turkeys) but I've compiled some images of the best ones... specifically those which are vintage-inspired or chime with a certain vintage look.

First up is Isabel Lucas, wearing a 1970s-style coral pleated maxi gown by Louis Vuitton. What a great face.

Also working a strong 1970s look was Florence Welch, wearing a white gown with bell sleeves by Yves Saint Laurent. Have you noticed how Flo doesn't smile much for photos anymore?

This girl always gets it right: Margherita Missoni. She has a beautiful face and a very fresh look - just like Ali MacGraw. Here she is in Missoni:

Also channeling a vaguely 1970s vibe was hostess Anna Wintour. I really didn't expect her to wear something like this! It's Chanel haute couture...

Here comes Iman to show us all how it's really done. A vision of 1970s disco perfection in a bronze sequin jumpsuit by Stella McCartney:

Jennifer Lopez glammed it up with a red silk gown with feather shrug by Gucci. We don't really get to see her wear this colour very often - it looks fantastic and much better than her usual beige or black choices. She's still Jenny from the block though... the girl can't resist baring her midriff!

Working back through the decades, there were a couple of dresses that were very 1960s in style. Fashion icon Sarah Jessica Parker wore a fabulous embellished maxi gown, complete with beehive hairstyle. Here is a photograph taken in her dressing room before she arrived at the event. Do I spy an empty bottle of Veuve Clicquot in the background? It's a blessed relief to know she's just like us and enjoys a few jars before going out on the town.

Here we have Bee Shaffer, Anna Wintour's daughter. She wore a very grown-up gown by Balenciaga, featuring a 'watteau' train that was a very popular feature for evening dresses in the 1960s. She looks great but it doesn't feel right for May - do you agree?

Next we have one of my favourite dresses of the evening: model Jessica Stam in a petal-pink tulle gown. The silhouette and fabric are typical of 1950s evening dresses, but the hem and accessories give the look a modern twist.

Actress Dakota Fanning wore a sensational couture gown by Valentino. This is a really elegant dress with exquisite flower details, but I think she needed a more sophisticated hair and make-up look to carry it off.

As usual, Salma Hayek was a vision. She was one of the honorary chairs of the Met Gala this year. We sold a dress very similar to this one a couple of months ago - it was so beautiful it didn't even make it on to the website as it was snapped up by a girl who came in to the studio before I had chance to upload it. It had exactly the same rose detail on the hip but was in a very pale apple silk chiffon, instead of the blush tone Salma's wearing.

There were quite a few guests working a strong 1940s look. One of them was Nicole Richie, with a Lana Turner hairstyle and a gown by Jason Wu:

Diane Kruger also wore Jason Wu. The embellished bodice is superb - but I wonder whether the skirt would work better without such a big slit?

Next up: Madge! I thought this was the best she has looked in ages. Not only does the colour work very well on her, but only a real fashion icon could carry off a star-embroidered train at an event like this. She's pop royalty and she won't let you forget it! Dress by Stella McCartney:

Here is Lucy Liu in one of my favourite designers, Vionnet. Her dress isn't particularly 1930s (in fact the hairstyle is definitely 1960s) but I wanted to mention the design house as their history is fascinating.

Madame Vionnet (1876-1975) was known as 'queen of the bias cut' and specialized in Grecian goddess-style gowns. Eschewing corsets, padding and anything that distorted the natural curves of a woman's body, her clothes were famous for accentuating the natural female form. Influenced by the modern dances of Isadora Duncan, Vionnet created designs that showed off a woman's natural shape. Like Duncan, Vionnet was inspired by ancient Greek art, in which garments appear to float freely around the body rather than distort or mold its shape.

Here's a wonderfully atmospheric picture of two models (the one of the left is Marion Morehouse a.k.a. Mrs e e cummings) wearing her designs. Photograph by Edward Steichen.

Actress Amy Poehler does a fine Jean Harlow impression with her J Mendel 1930s-style gown and hairstyle:

Here we have one of my favourite dresses of the evening: Maggie Gyllenhaal in Stella McCartney. The silhouette and draping is very 1930s but the blue sparkle gives it a 1970s disco twist. Maggie always looks so happy and relaxed - here she looks utterly serene. I guess the army candy helps.

Karen Elson looked sensational in a gold evening gown by McQueen. The silhouette of the dress is quite 1930s, but the fabric and shredded hem make it unmistakably contemporary. This sort of juxtaposition is signature McQueen.

And finally, here we have model Chanel Iman wearing a white embellished shift by Dolce & Gabbana. This was another of my favourites looks from the evening. It's quite hard to pull off high-octane glamour in a short, pale dress (especially when you're surrounded by guests in floor-length gowns) but she manages it!

Look at her beautiful 1920s hairstyle in this shot. Left to right: Chanel, Bar Rafaeli and Isabeli Fontana.

Whenever there is a big event involving beautiful dresses on a red carpet, we tweet photos in real time on our Twitter account - if you want to follow us please click on this link.

We love your comments so please do let us know whose dress you liked the best - or if you think we missed anyone out!

By the way....

We're having a big online sale in a week - 20% off ALL dresses with free UK P&P (with gift packaging) - please sign up to our newsletter so we can email you the discount code.

Start browsing now....

Grace Kelly: Style Icon at the V&A

The long-anticipated exhibition of Grace Kelly's dresses opens this weekend at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

'I don't want to dress up a picture with just my face', said the actress. Her look continues to inspire the catwalk and her demure style of dress harks back to a more delicate femininity. Hitchcock might have called her the original ice queen but still waters run deep: behind the scenes she was a rather passionate woman. She had a tendency t0 sleep with everyone on the set of her movies (including the writers) and was labelled a nymphomaniac by Hollywood's then gossip queen Hedda Hopper.

Vintage fashion guru and blogger Natasha Bailie was interviewed by the BBC about the new show at the V&A. Check out her post here . At Juno Says Hello we have made a selection of Grace Kelly-inspired dresses: a High Society-style frock, a Dial M for Murder fur-trimmed suit, and an Oscar de la Renta gown capable of redeeming even the naughtiest of princesses. Click here to watch original news footage of her 1956 marriage to Prince Rainier of Monaco.

Grace Kelly: Style Icon
(sponsored by Van Cleef & Arpels)
17th April - 26th September 2010
Victoria & Albert Museum, SW7

Designers with the most dresses in the V&A

Shortly after Christian Dior premiered his spring/summer collection in 1947, the editor of Harper's Bazaar approached the designer, shocked, and said. "Why, Mr Dior, it's such a new look". The name stuck.

A total of 29 Dior dresses, spanning 33 years, are on show in the V&A's esteemed textile and dress collection, an achieved challenged only by Yves Saint Laurent, who has 26. (Even Chanel, covering twice the number of years, only manages 14).

Having your dress displayed by the V&A is, of course, the equivalent of being inducted into the fashion hall of fame. "The piece must be virtuosic - made to the highest standards of design quality, and show an exceptional degree of craftsmanship," says Eleri Lynn, a curator at the museum. Among the more famous pieces to be immortalised by the V&A are Yves Saint Laurent's black trouser suit - "Le Smoking" - from 1966 and all nine inches of Vivienne Westwood's "Super-elevated Ghillie" platform heels, which were too high even for Naomi Campbell: she tottered and fell while wearing them on the catwalk in 1993.

Source: The Times Magazine