"It seems that the greatest difficulty is to find the end. Don't try to find it, it's there already" - Sofia Coppola

Some time in the late 90s I bought a Milkfed beanie, which didn't suit me and my small head at all and was hence worn about twice, but was nonetheless treasured. Because I'm pretty sure Sofia Coppola and I are twin souls.


I love everything this woman does. First job? Chanel intern. Ex-husband? Spike Jonze. Current boyfriend? French new wave rock star who's best mates with Daft Punk. Home? Paris. If I were to make movies I would cast Kirsten Dunst and Bill Murray in them too. So I feel confident in saying that were we to meet for a milkshake, we'd click.

I would get (most of) the fawning out the way and start by telling her that she is my favourite director, and not to pay attention to the people who say her movies are vapid and superficial. These are the people who do not understand the inherent value in aesthetics. Her imagery looks like memories, drawing out your own and thus making each film entirely personal to the viewer, and leaving it up to them to construct their own meaning from what they see.


I think a lot of the naysayers are probably boys too. To me, Coppola's films are about the mythology of being a girl, and what the world feels like when you are one who is lost and unsure of herself in the face of the expectations placed on you by yourself and others. The external world she presents might be sumptuous, but the films are unmistakeably about the internal world.

Although I am (still) dying to see Somewhere, in which Stephen Dorff (excellent choice, Sof) is the one who is lost, although his character is apparently an autobiographical version of Sofia.


Coppola chooses actresses who exemplify the beauty of imperfection. Much like Sofia herself, Kirsten Dunst and Scarlett Johansson are beautiful not because they are perfect, but because they are interesting to look at. It's an ordinary, off-beat beauty. The same type Chloe Sevigny and Clémence Poésy (my other two leading ladies) are possessed of. And the type Keira Knightley, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Megan Fox are not.


Her aesthetic, both on screen and off, pretty much sums up my own ideal, the DNA of which was set during that 90s New York moment populated by lo-fi heroes Chloe Sevigny, Kim Gordon, Marc Jacobs, and Harmony Korine and photographed by Juergen Teller, in which everything took on the quality of a polaroid picture, steeped in memories and childhood and reality, with wit and intelligence inherent.


This is a style executed in a plain, muted, tomboyish wardrobe of ankle grazing navy trousers and slouchy t-shirts, white Converse and round-neck sweaters and practical jackets; a fresh, innocent, un-jaded, American version of classic Parisian insouciance.

Wish list #3 - a Scottish stockist for Jalouse

You'd think if we can produce Christopher Kane, we could get someone to start stocking the best fashion magazine in the world? It's called Jalouse and is, of course, French. You can buy it from the news stand outside any tube station in London, even the ones in the shit bits like Finsbury Park where I lived, and yet not from a single shop in the whole of Scotland. Say what you like about our nation emerging as a fashion player; until I can buy Jalouse without going to England, I'd say we have a way to go still, Jonathan Saunders or no Jonathan Saunders.

Wish list #2 - Pug

Having previously been neither a dog nor a Valentino person, watching Vanity Fair's Matt Tyrnauer's achingly beautiful film Valentino: The Last Emperor has converted me to both. 

The film, which follows Valentino Garavani and his partner Giancarlo Giametti in the two years leading up to the celebration of 45 years of his fashion house and his subsequent retirement, is an incredibly moving portrait of a man struggling to retain an element of control over an empire he built single-handedly, against the mounting influence of his financial backers, an increasingly prescient problem for design houses in a age where increasingly corporations with little knowledge or appreciation of fashion are the ones calling the shots.

I'm almost embarrassed to admit (almost, I am blogging it) that I actually welled up at the sight of one of his finished dresses after following the process of its creation. The film is released on DVD on September 6th and I would recommend it to everyone, even if you're not the type to cry at dresses. You don't have to like fashion to love this film, just human beings.

Apparently Valentino is embarrassed by his obsessive love for his entourage of pugs, and not only travels separately from them, but further splits them into smaller travelling groups, so that nobody will comment on a) the fact that he takes them everywhere and b) the fact that he has about fifty of them.

This is not a problem I will have; I only want one. To be named Valentino.

Wish list #1 - The Gap

Top of my wish list, aside from Lara herself, is the gap between her front teeth. When I compare my girl crushes they all have two things in common - blonde hair and a banjo cleaner. So I'm halfway there, and all I need now is a dentist unethical enough to knock my front teeth out and do a slightly wonky job of putting them back in. Or if you're really hating reading this and thinking I'm an idiot, maybe you'd be happy to sort out the first part of the process for me. Get in touch.

#1 crush - Lara Stone

#2 crush - Georgia May Jagger

#3 crush - Jessica Hart

Let's have one more of Lara just because she's so lovely. Deal with it. If you decide to become a regular reader, you'll be seeing a lot of her. 

Ditto.