OH DAPHNE!

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

If you're wondering why I'm not at the Couture, its because this year I took my holiday earlier than usual. So here I am on the holy Greek isle of Patmos looking out over the sea from my vantage point high on the hill. While here I will be sharing fashion and holiday as well as holiday fashion musings. In August the new Fashion Junior at Large joins me and this blog will start to grow up a bit as I want to see what happens if I make it more than a hobby.  

I'm a huge fan of Daphne Guinness. Had she been around during the 1920s and 30s, she could have hung out with Nancy Cunard, Coco Chanel and Diana Vreeland (junior version, her later years are what inspire most people, but having read everything about DV in print I'm a fan of every year). People would have understood her better in that context. Daphne is a relic of women past, a rich and rarefied creature who exists in a bubble of art and philosophical musings. She is a woman who wholly believes in the romance of art, craft, creativity and couture and wishes to keep the old ways alive, which she does in the only way she knows how, by commissioning artisans to create works for her.

Below is one-such. Everything about this "launch" of a chain mail made-to-measure gauntlet glove  made up of 5000 pave diamonds and 1000 grams of gold makes me want to scream. But I'm torn between screaming at the ridiculousness of it, and the wonder of it. 

Had I been at Jay Jopling's house for the "launch" and watched Daphne "lie in state" shrouded in white silk tulle with just the glittering glove on show, I know I would have tittered uncontrollably at first and then been sucked in by the beauty of it.

I know plenty of people who will rubbish Daphne's project with Shaun, but in 100 years when its in a museum somewhere and people gather around to marvel at it and the memory of Daphne it will be a treasure. So I leave you with the press release, as I couldn't take it apart. Forgive me for lifting it.