The Steeple Times

Tag: cocktail

  • Seeing RED

    Seeing RED

    Our new columnist Jacinta de Vere analyses fashion’s most dangerous colour

     

    I really enjoy seeing people take various pieces that you would think would look hideous on their own and combine them to make a fantastic look. Alternatively, there are people who take one piece and manage to look like a hot mess.

     

    Jacinta de Vere suggests that opting for a red outfit can result in you either looking like a “vision in…” or “getting it all wrong.” There’s no middle ground.

    When I choose an ensemble, I think to myself: “Keep it simple and edit.” I am not sure what I loathe more, a slovenly attired woman or a woman who manages to miswear a fabulous designer. One does not need to wear a well-known label to look good. One just needs to edit and to think about what is flattering for one’s body and proportions. Colours are very important when selecting a piece to buy or to pull out of your closet. If you go too soft, you get drowned out by the shade and if you go too bold, you become an easy eyesore.

     

    As any respectable person who loves fashion will tell you, the colour red tends to be more associated with your bank balance at the end of the month after a Harrods shopping spree rather than the “it” colour of your wardrobe. Red is one of the colours that some people tend to get all wrong. Selecting the right shade of red for your skin tone can really lift and brighten you. Selecting the wrong shade of red for your skin tone can make you resemble a flashing street light and overwhelm you. Additionally, if you choose a busy red dress in the wrong shade, you may find yourself with an imaginary bowl of fruit on your head, holding maracas.

     

    Recently while dining with friends, a woman dressed in a red feathered and lace ensemble walked by our table. This hideous dress made her look like a bright red “Big Bird.” I spotted the back of Big Bird and much to my horror, she had also decided to wear her favorite red bra. I would have chosen a nude strapless Le Mystere bustier bra. I am not sure what “look” this woman was attempting to achieve, aside from resembling “Cha-cha” in Grease, but I think everyone should try to keep it simple when wearing red. If I were her, I would get new friends because letting her leave the house in that ensemble was a crime to any friendship. Either pick lace or pick the feathers but to wear both together is a fashion disaster on any continent.

     

    Marchesa versus Jane Norman

     

    Marchesa has a lace and tulle cocktail dress at £5,700 (http://www.netaporter.com) that is sexy, stylish and just the right kind of busy. If you’re on a recession budget, then have a look at Jane Norman’s lace dress at £35 (http://www.houseoffraser.com). You want the attention on you because of your fabulous lace dress, not because of your poor choice of red.

     

    Elie Saab versus Jessica Howard

    Another woman was wearing a red Lanvin, floor length chiffon Grecian style gown. She was blond with an uneven skin tone, so the red gown with all the chiffon layers overpowered her. The fact she skipped putting on a bra did not help her case. I was confounded, wondering if her chest sagged due to the lack of support or if she failed to tailor the layers of chiffon draping the dress. It pained me to see this lovely dress make this woman look terrible. If we are insecure about our bodies and would like to hide our imperfections, we should find a way to emphasize the positive assets whilst camouflaging the bits you do not like. Buying designer does not guarantee you are going to look amazing. The dress may be amazing but you can still get it wrong if the dress overwhelms you. You want to wear the dress not the opposite. I think if our pot-bellied, saggy chested friend had chosen Elie Saab’s gathered front gown at £3,065 (http://www.netaporter.com) or, if on budget, Jessica Howard’s one shouldered beaded waist gown at £80 (http://www.houseoffraser.com), she would have looked like a million bucks.

     

    Spanx, Le Mystère and Bring It Up

    One can hide unsightly bits and pieces in an outfit without getting lost in yards of chiffon. Just because you’re wearing Lanvin, Valentino, Erdem or Chanel, it does not mean it will look good on you. Buy for the cut and fit and not the label. For these unfortunate situations, I turn to Spanx Slimplicity Convertible Full Slip at £79 (http://www.spanx.co.uk) and to Le Mystère sculptural strapless bra Style 2755 at £56 (http://www.lemystere.com). These are my lifesavers when I am wearing borrowed, tighter fitting or strapless outfits. Lastly, if my chest needs a temporary lift, I rely on Bring It Up Instant Breast Lifts, 8 pairs/pack at $20 (http://www.bringitup.com).

     

    Jacinta de Vere is a lover of haute couture and all things fashionable and decadent. She is based in London.

     

    Follow her on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/jacintadevere

  • The bogs of Bayswater

    The bogs of Bayswater

    Christian Huhnt recounts an evening at the launch of La Suite West

     

    I have a personal connection to Inverness Terrace as twice in my life I’ve had to crash at my friend’s place there. It’s less than a minute from the new Anouska Hempel-designed hotel, La Suite West, and runs parallel to Queensway.

     

    Bursting with cheap Chinese, Arabic and Mediterranean restaurants, this is an area that has great transport links to Oxford Street and the city centre that is also a very short walk from Hyde Park. As a result it’s full of tourists. Here, they arrive and depart every day, wandering around with heavy luggage trying to find their way. Most of them look like they’re hopelessly lost and in need of a good scrub. The tourist density here is almost equal to that of Victoria Station’s Gatwick Express exit or the Piazza San Marco in Venice.

     

    The lobby of La Suite West, 41 – 51 Inverness Terrace, London, W2 3JN
    Party guests at the launch of La Suite West

    Please don’t get me wrong though. I have always felt that this place, the heart of Bayswater, has been totally underestimated. It is charming with lots of London Plane trees and a very cosmopolitan feel. Lady Weinberg, better known as the visionary designer and sometime actress Anouska Hempel, plainly agreed as she integrated all that was good about this atmosphere into the hotel that she has cleverly designed.

     

    “Let’s celebrate with a little champagne”
    Guests at the party included the British supermodel and VogueTV presenter Jade Parfitt and Duncan McDonald of Propeller Communications
    Our party correspondent Christian Huhnt and Inga Buschke enjoying the launch of La Suite West
    Angelo Valentino also represented “The Steeple Times” with his daughter
    Guests at the launch of La Suite West
    Susan Ansary, a regular on the party circuit, even put in an appearance

    Arriving at the hotel entrance, you get a feel of how important it was for Hempel to grasp this outside space and use it as a communal environment for the guests. I was invited to visit on the evening of the hotel’s launch and this was the area where guests congregated. Here, along with the champagne, they served molecular bites including Nutella ice cream that had been shock frozen using liquid nitrogen. This, they told me, had been done to avoid ice crystals appearing and the result was a very smooth and creamy texture. I’d put money on this having left the menu now though as just days later I read news reports of a girl in Lancaster losing her stomach after drinking a cocktail made in a similar manner. With hindsight, I must say that my stomach is very glad that they got the measure just right.

     

    When you enter the hotel, which first opened to guests three months ago, you feel as if you are visiting a Scientology church or traversing the ramp of a Star Wars space shuttle. Coming “onboard,” you enter a reception hall, in which a friendly concierge welcomes you. The whole interior is very minimalistic and has been reduced to hues of only black and white. A long fireplace leads you deeper into this shuttle, onto a main corridor, past the dining rooms and connects into to labyrinthian walkways that transport guests to their appointed suites.

     

    I was told that the hotel rooms are all decorated in the same style and have similar layouts. They differ only slightly in size. On the evening of the launch, the largest could be admired and all of them had a very independent feel as they benefited from their own access to the street. Essentially, the rooms are quite small but all offer the contemporary luxury that any jetsetter would expect. The bathrooms have a particularly sophisticated feel and are clad in marble throughout. The extendable televisions hidden in the bed frames perfectly fitted with the minimalist design, but where this became bizarrely rigorous was the flexible water hose in the bathrooms that dispensed with the need for good old European toilet paper.

     

    One of the hotel’s bedrooms
    A toilet at La Suite West – complete with hose attachment but minus loo roll

    La Suite West is a great step forward. In fact, it is a very audacious move towards upgrading a whole area that clearly has potential for more and which, at the time of writing, does not offer anything better than shabby hostels and seedy bed and breakfasts. The hotel is a well-arranged concept and evidently Hempel put a lot of thought into the execution of it. The design is well composed, but being German I did notice some of the carpets and minor details could have been a little better.

     

    One last piece of advice: the management might want to ship in some bog roll. Some ageing Brit might decide to show up and I’m sure nobody would want a scene from Fawlty Towers to be played out in that rather smart lobby.

     

    La Suite West, 41 – 51 Inverness Terrace, London, W2 3JN. Telephone: +44 (0) 20 3642 3928. Website: http://lasuitewest-px.rtrk.co.uk
     
    Images by Andreas Kirchberger and Christian Huhnt.

  • Gin O’Clock

    Gin O’Clock

    Celebrate World Gin Day at The Rib Room

     

    At 12 noon I often receive a message from my good friend the photographer to the stars, John Stoddart. As a fellow gin aficionado, we regularly raise a toast to one another as well as all manner of others things. After all, as they say: “If you can’t have one eleven, have eleven at one.”

     

    Hogarth’s famous print “Gin Lane”

    Saturday 9th June marks a celebration of all things gin as it is World Gin Day™ and I am pleased to share with you news of a brilliant way of celebrating what could become the only invented celebratory day that I will agree to embrace with gusto. The Rib Room at the Jumeirah Carlton Tower is offering a Sloane Street Vesper to all who take their mum to their bar and quote the words “Mother’s Ruin” absolutely free of charge.

     

    The drink itself consists of a combination of Sipsmith Gin, Pinky Vodka, Americano Cocchi and Lillet Blanc served straight up. The Rib Room themselves describe it as being: “Cheek, chic, pose and poise.”

     

    I’ll certainly be there to celebrate “Gin O’Clock.” Make mine a treble.

     

    The Rib Room Bar & Restaurant, Jumeirah Carlton Tower, Cadogan Place, London, SW1X 9PY. Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7858 7250. Website: http://www.theribroom.co.uk.

     

    Follow The Rib Room on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/RibRoomSW1

     

    For more information about World Gin Day™, go to: http://worldginday.com

  • Lamer than lame

    Lamer than lame

    Zagat’s lamest list

     

    I am a big fan of Zagat. I fill out their surveys religiously every year and always look forward to receiving their guides.

     

    Zagat's logo

    Yesterday, though, I read a piece by Kelly Dobkin on their site that frankly was, in my view, totally ridiculous.

     

    In her piece “The 10 Lamest Things You Can Order in a Restaurant” Dobkin displays extreme snobbishness towards customers who order:

     

    1. Iceberg wedge salads
    2. Shrimp cocktails
    3. Bottled water
    4. Plates of fruit
    5. Mixed greens
    6. Cereal
    7. Scrambled eggs
    8. Steamed vegetables
    9. Olives
    10. Baked potatoes

     

    Why not allow a diner a shrimp cocktail if they so wish? Just because some self-appointed expert views them to be naff, why shouldn’t those of us who like the dish continue to enjoy it in fine establishments like Scott’s in Mayfair?

     

    Scrambled eggs also come in for attack by Dobkin who states “Even a broke-ass one-handed wino is capable of creating this dish in less than five minutes.” So what? Oak smoked salmon with scrambled eggs and chives features on the menu of none less than The Ritz Hotel. It’s a dish I often seek out.

     

    How anyone could have an argument with mixed greens and steamed vegetables also escapes me. What does Dobkin propose we eat instead? Birdseye frozen carrots?

     

    With regard to “cereal at a diner” I can’t say it is something I’ve even witnessed. Where on earth does this woman dine? Mind you, I don’t watch Seinfeld so I suppose I learnt something here but why even bother to mention it?

     

    A prawn cocktail
    A prawn cocktail

    Other readers plainly don’t take too kindly to Dobkin’s patronising ways. “Insulting people for what they like to eat is LAME” says one, adding “Worst top ten list ever.” Another simply sates “Think a little harder next time.” I have to agree.

     

    Thank you for reminding me of one of my favourites though Kelly Dobkin. I’m off for a prawn cocktail at La Brasserie for lunch.

     

    Read the original piece at http://www.zagat.com/buzz/the-10-lamest-things-you-can-order-in-a-restaurant?zagatbuzzid=june11week3&utm_source=buzz&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=buzz20110615

     

    For a fantastic prawn cocktail try:

    –       La Brasserie, 272 Brompton Road, London, SW3 – http://www.labrasserielondon.com (Avocado Crevettes, £8.90)

    –       Sophie’s Steakhouse, 311-313 Fulham Road, SW10 – http://www.sophiessteakhouse.co.uk (Traditional prawn cocktail, £8.25)

    –       Scott’s, 20 Mount Street, W1 – http://www.scotts-restaurant.com (Shellfish cocktail, £17.25)