The Oxfam Curiosity Shop @ Selfridges (London, UK)

Have you ever wanted to own a red carpet dress as worn by Scarlett Johanssen? Do you adore Colin Firth to the point where you'd just like to snuggle up in his cashmere sweater? Well, fear not... all of the above and more is now possible thanks to Britain's largest charity pop-up store, which opened its doors on April 1 in Selfridges' Ultralounge. Organized by Annie Lennox, the ten day event is in its second year running and includes items donated by celebrities such as Lennox herself, both Colin Firth and his wife Livia, Scarlett Johanssen, Jude Law, Dido, Florence Welsh, Alexa Chung and Elle Macpherson to name a few, as well as donations from designers such as Stella McCartney or Vivienne Westwood. In addition, sought-after samples and vintage pieces, both high-end and more affordable have been pulled from over 700 Oxfam shops in the UK and will be made available in the pop-up store.

Some of the items up for grabs include Annie Lennox' s Alexander McQueen gown (left), Livia Firth's gown (center) and Carey Mulligan's Vionnet dress (right). The first two gowns are available online.

More stuff for sale, including Alexa Chung's Mulberry skirt suit (top left), Alison Goldfrapp's Miu Miu shoes (lower left), Vivienne Westwood dress (center), Vivienne Westwood bag (top right) and Elle Macpherson's Celine tote (lower right).

According to Oxfam: "All the money raised will go to fund Oxfam's women's projects across the world from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to Democratic Republic of Congo, West Africa and South Africa. These projects protect support and empower vulnerable women: campaigning against violence, empowering them to fight HIV and AIDS and offering the poorest girls the chance of education. The projects funded by the shop include a women's tailoring project in Liberia which Laura Bailey recently visited with Oxfam. The money raised from last year's event has helped to transform the lives of countless women already." Last year, more than 30,000 customers visited the shop in just one week, raising an amazing £250,000 for Oxfam’s work.

A huge selection of vintage goods...

I spied cute purses and a pair of Marc Jacobs sandals.

If you're nowhere near London, don't worry: some of the most coveted pieces, including the gown Livia Firth wore to the BAFTA awards to support husband Colin, a stunning Alexander McQueen dress donated by Ms Lennox or a sequined number from Kate Moss are all available online here. There's no excuse not to visit Selfridges if you are in London though, especially considering the great cause. I dropped by the store yesterday and even though I'm usually overwhelmed by vintage shops, the spacious and colorful sales area was easy to browse and had a fantastic selection of both celebrity goods and regular (i.e. less pricier) vintage fair.

The gents had a great choice of ties (right), while the ladies could choose from a multitude of scarves and knits (left).

Loved the colorful displays, which showcased the Michael Kors heels (top right) nicely.

So many clothes, so little wardrobe space... sigh.

In addition to clothing, there was a wonderful selection of scarves, ties, bags, shoes and even trinkets such as an antique Singer sewing machine (already sold... bummer), music records, books and homeware items.

The Singer sewing machine (left) was already taken, but lots of scarves and bags were still available.

Sick of clothes? There's always the record collection or retro radios. I quite fancied the picnic set (right).

Tea for two... or more with the lovely porcelain set (left) and more for the music fans (right).

Of course the biggest draw will be the celebrity donations. Even though I didn't have the funds to buy any of them, I made a point of touching every single Colin Firth item (both he and his wife donated a lot), realized that Dido has excellent taste in clothes (her Hussein Chalayan and Vivienne Westwood coats were very cool and in great condition) and marveled at how varied Annie Lennox's style was (everything from black and simple to bright and printed).

Pre-loved Hussein Chalayan coat from Dido (top left), two dresses from Annie Lennox (lower left), Stella McCartney top (top center), Colin Firth's overcoat (lower center), Dido's Vivienne Westwood jacket (top right) and Annie Lennox' s Shanghai Tang dress (lower right).

The cutest area was undoubtedly the little corner that actually resembled a small vintage shop. It was stocked full of the more glamorous celebrity items, while ScarJo's Dolce & Gabbana dress and Colin Firth's leather jacket fronted the space. Inside, a video showed some of the celebrities describe the items they were donating, while the walls and shelves were adorned with more goodies than I could take in properly.

How cute is this shop-in-shop? And more from Colin in the form of a leather jacket. Scarlett donated this lovely Dolce & Gabbana dress (boy is she tiny...).

Inside the shop... more celebrity gowns and memorabilia. The embellished dress (lower right) is by Stella McCartney.

Shelves filled with accessories (right), while a screen featured video clips (top left) and yet another Annie Lennox find: the iconic wet-look trench.

I might actually have to go back to browse a second time and if you're in London, you'll have the chance to peruse the selection yourself - until April 10. As mentioned before, all others can still check out the online auction. I've provided a small selection of what's currently available below...

From the online auction (starting left): Livia Firth's gown as pictured at the top of the post, Kate Moss' dress, Stella McCartney boots from Beverly Knight, Colin Firth's coat and a beautiful Alexander McQueen gown by Annie Lennox (as pictured at the top of the post).

More auction items (from left): Ashish dress by VV Brown, Termperly kaftan dress, vintage Chanel suit, Emma Thompson's Jaeger dress, Jude Law's Oscar tuxedo, Jane Shepherdson's Camilla Skovgaard heels.

Selfridges Auction Homepage
The Oxfam Curiosity Shop Homepage

Madeleine Vionnet - Exhibit (Paris, France)

While most of the big-name designers these days tend to be men, it was the women who paved the way for many trends, looks and innovations in the fashion world. Whether it was Coco Chanel, Sonia Rykiel or Vivienne Westwood, one thing they all had in common was to liberate women with the clothes they created. Madeleine Vionnet was one such remarkable designer, which is why Les Arts Décoratifs (which had formerly also presented the Sonia Rykiel retrospective) has launched an exhibit to pay tribute to both her and her works. As I had previously seen only images of her incredible dresses, I couldn't wait to go check this out and my friend T. was eager to come along, because as she said correctly "there's nothing better than combining culture, history and really pretty clothes".

Left: Madeleine Vionnet in her studio. Right: A model in one of her dresses (images: Les Arts Décoratifs).

Those who have never heard of or seen anything by Vionnet will probably still appreciate her influence on the fashion world, as many of today's dresses, tops, skirts or blouses might still look completely different if she hadn't come along. Born into a somewhat poor family in 1876, Vionnet, who initially wanted to become a teacher, ended up taking an apprenticeship as a seamstress at the young age of 11. Following a short marriage at the age of 18, she left for London, working as a hospital seamstress, then returned to Paris to work with several fashion houses. Her own fashion house 'Vionnet' was opened in 1912 on rue de Rivoli, but closed shortly thereafter in 1914 when WWI broke out. Reopening the house in 1918, Vionnet successfully began imposing her modern style, the most revolutionary of which was the bias-cut, which she first used on crepe-de-chine material. This technique enabled fabric to cling to the body while moving with the wearer - something unheard of in an era when corsets, padding and other forms of stiffening tried to distort the natural curves of a woman.

The miniature mannequins Vionnet used to create her dresses (top image: NYT).

In wanting to show off a woman's natural curves, Vionnet was primarily inspired by Greek art which resulted in her experimenting with various forms of draping. The now ever-so-timeless Grecian dress was one of Vionnet's first creations. Unlike many, she never sketched or drew any designs, instead choosing to model her clothes on miniature 2 meter tall wooden dummies. This enabled her to try and test out ways in which she could drape fabric and how they could look like on the female body.

A few of the more simple draped dresses.

What I admire the most though, reading through her biography, was the revolutionary way in which she directed her couture house, which was later located on Avenue Montaigne. A socially and ethically committed woman, Vionnet, who employed up to 1200 workers, provided paid holidays, maternity leave, day-care, a dining hall, a resident doctor and dentist for her staff. Her motto: "Good health creates good work". She was also one of the first to campaign against counterfeiting in the fashion industry. Despite the latter, she wasn't particularly fond of the high-society fashion world, claiming: "There is something superficial and volatile about the seasonal and elusive whims of fashion which offends my sense of beauty" and later on in 1960: "What I do is not fashion - it was designed to last forever".

Vionnet's use of other materials incl. velvet (left). Floral pieces (right).

Beautifully embroidered gowns.

The one thing that blew my mind upon entering the exhibition space was that every single dress there could easily be worn today. Many of them were red-carpet worthy, I spied at least 20 potential wedding dresses (why didn't I see this last year??) and some were simple yet flattering enough to be worn on a daily basis. My friend T. who tends to be punished by the fashion world for having a slightly curvier body, remarked how she adored these dresses because they would flatter any shape, including hers. Indeed, Vionnet was about creating beauty - not just for the stick-thin model but for any woman. A lot of the photo and video footage we saw showed her modeling her final creations on average models, i.e. they weren't particularly tall or waif-like.

More gorgeous draping.

At this point I'd like to apologize for the somewhat crappy quality of the photos I took, as the various exhibition spaces were either very dark or too bright. Each of the 122 gowns was accompanied by a small video monitor, showing sketches or photos of the dress in its historical context. The pieces were categorized by type, i.e. one corner displayed the fringed outfits, while another showcased her use of embroidery. Most of them of course showed the different ways of draping. As Vionnet once said "I only like decoration if it plays second to the architecture of a dress."

It's no surprise that many of the bigger designers respect(ed) her and were deeply influenced by her work. Cristobal Balenciaga considered her a true friend, Lagerfeld, despite his loyalty to Coco as the women's liberator, acknowledges her importance and John Galliano, himself a fan of the bias-cut which he revived to launch his own career, is so passionate about this Paris exhibit, he has urged his entire staff to go see it.

This simple white Grecian dress, cinched at the waist with a gold-leaf belt was T.'s favorite.

Pictures of this dress (left) don't do it justice... the shimmering embellishments were stunning.

I figure it's best to let the pictures and clothing do the talking, as I couldn't possibly go into the detail of describing the pieces. In fact, I was so overwhelmed by what I saw, I might be tempted to go back again. What I can tell you is that everything I saw was magnificent, and I'm still amazed that creations this old could still look so modern. The detailing on each piece was incredible and the only downside was that you ended up wanting so many of these gowns for yourself - they really should have sold replicas in the gift shop. Vionnet was forced to close down her business in 1939 (because of WWII), so the 'youngest' item in the collection is still 70 years old.

The gown on the bottom right was one of my favorites.

Since then, many have tried to revive the fashion house, with Rodolfo Paglialunga (Prada) currently designing the collections - a first look at his work was the Resort 2010 range, which showcased the bias-cut and Grecian draping of course, but without completely imitating the classic Vionnet look. His upcoming show at the Paris Fashion Week will most likely be eagerly anticipated. But for now, if you're in town or anywhere nearby, I'd urge you to go see this - it's on until 31 Jan 2010. It definitely gave me a new appreciation for fashion design and the history behind it. If you wish to read and see more of Vionnet, I'd also highly recommend getting the official book via Amazon here.

More items from the exhibition and close-ups (images: Les Arts Décoratifs).

Address: 107 rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris
Opening Hrs: Tue-Fri: 11:00-18:00, Sat-Sun: 10:00-18:00
Thu: until 21:00
Les Arts Décoratifs Homepage