Keira Chanels her beauty in new perfume ad.

Keira Knightley pulls a pout as she cradles a perfume bottle in this sexy new ad.

The British actress, 26, gazes seductively into the camera while brushing Coco Mademoiselle against her lips.

Dressed in a nude biker jacket, she sports perfectly manicured nails and a glowing complexion.

Her glossy dark tresses are cropped short and swept across her face for the Chanel campaign.

The Dangerous Method star has been the face of the French fashion house’s Mademoiselle fragrance since it launched a new advertising film in 2007.

This most recent shot is taken from the 2011 mini-movie advert which features the beauty jumping on a motorbike and driving off into the Parisian sunset.

Fashion essentials for every woman’s closet.

They can hang in the closet, waiting for the inevitable invitation to a special event, and make the question of what to wear a lot easier to answer.

In fashion jargon these garments are called basics. They can be worn year-round even if they don’t match whatever colour and tailoring happens to be in and they can be combined or accessorized to fit any occasion. When that unexpected invitation comes up, having these types of clothes on hand can be a godsend.

The little black dress is perhaps the most famous example. When Coco Chanel designed it in 1926 it was a scandal. Today it is a must-have for every women, said fashion consultant Andreas Rose of Frankfurt.

“No matter if it is worn to the office, to shop or to a company party, a woman who wears a little black dress is always well turned out,” said Rose. He recommends women buy a plain one because it is easier to combine with accessories and makeup to create variations.

Sonja Grau, a personal shopper in Germany, recommends against choosing a little black dress with sequins or ruching. Women also should pay close attention to the dress’ neckline: “A round neckline can make the upper body look broad, while a V-neck elongates the woman’s figure.”

Another must-have, according to fashion experts, is a thin, straight-cut pencil skirt. “Ideally knee-length and in black or dark blue – that style looks good on every woman,” said Kathrin Bierling, a fashion journalist and blogger in Munich.

Rose on the other hand advises women to consider colourful versions of the skirt in particular red or other berry tones. These look best combined with a white blouse or a twin set, he added.

As for the basic blouse, experts agree it has to be white. Fair-skinned women who look even paler in white should avoid it and instead go for cream, said Bierling.

There also are a few basics when it comes to trousers, said Grau. Every woman should have one pair of dress trousers in black and one pair of jeans, she said.

The jeans should be evenly washed and have a straight cut. She also advises women to pay attention to the position of the pockets on the seat of the jeans: their tip or bottom seam should end “where the bum turns into the upper thigh.”

T-shirts – long-sleeve and short-sleeve – and jumpers might be the most inconspicuous components of a wardrobe, but they are indispensable. Bierling recommends a lightweight and thin cashmere jumper that can be worn in both winter and summer.

It can be worn in the winter over a long-sleeve T-shirt. Rose pointed out that T-shirts in classic colours in crew neck or V-neck look good with a skirt or with trousers.

A blazer is another item that goes well with many other garments and is not just for women who work in offices, said Rose. With the sleeves pulled back and worn with chinos, they look casual.

“Women who like to emphasize their waistline can choose a style with shoulder pads,” he said. Rose’s favourite for young women is an extra long blazer in boyfriend style. Grau added short women should be careful to choose short blazers. Only tall women should wear long ones.

Another important article of clothing that belongs in every woman’s closet is a cardigan. “The cardigan should either be slim cut or oversized. Everything in between is unflattering,” said Bierling.

Grau said the cardigan should be a solid colour, however, accents such as edging or fringes in another colour or gold buttons aren’t out of the question.

Indian designer duo’s sari silhouette put on display.

It’s not only designers such as Manish Arora, Falguni and Shane Peacock who are enjoying the spotlight in the global fashion map.While some Indian designers have dressed A-list international celebrities in the past such as Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez, Fergie and Nicki Minaj, there are a whole bunch of new designers expanding their foreign clientele and making room for themselves in the international space.

The rules of fashion … they rule!

“Nothing goes out of fashion sooner than a long dress with a very low neck,” said Coco Chanel.

Shades of the awards season on the red carpet!

AND here are just a few other quotes, since we are in for “fashion” on television, at least through the Academy Awards on Feb. 26.

“Fashions, after all, are only induced epidemics,” said George Bernard Shaw…

“The origins of clothing are not practical. They are mystical and exotic. The primitive man in the wolf-pelt was not keeping dry; he was saying, ‘Look what I killed!’ said Katharine Hamnett. (Shades of the current Ralph Fiennes movie hit “Coriolanus.”)

“Fashion is more powerful than any tyrant,” goes the Latin proverb.

But quotes and proverbs aside, I still think Tilda Swinton has the best dresses. Her blue costume at the Golden Globes was staggering. And she looked great at the SAG Awards, as well.

SPEAKING of fashion, the funniest charity event turns out to be the grand actress Tovah Feldshuh’s sixth Annual “Broadway Beauty Pageant” featuring the theater’s current crop of leading men.

These males have to compete through their talent, what they say in interviews and they’ll also do a swimsuit competition. Judges have included some of the drama world’s most astute people like Charles Busch, Michael Musto, Christine Ebersole, Carson Kressley, Bruce Vilanch, Rachel Dratch, Ana Gasteyer, Beth Leavel and Seth Rudetsky. The audience is the final judge.

EVERYTHING old is new again, including feuds along what is laughingly called “The Great White Way” and you won’t be surprised to know this time it’s between Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Tim Rice.

Once collaborators — their big hit was “Jesus Christ Superstar” — they are now at odds over a new production of same.

Sir Tim is angry that there’ll be a TV show to find the next man who’ll play Jesus. He thinks that such casting is “tacky … tasteless … relentlessly down market.”

Lord Lloyd Webber says he had found stars in this manner for a number of West End musicals. He is evidently proceeding without Tim’s help or approval.

Tim responds: “It’s just possible that it might be the most sophisticated, tasteful show hosted by the archbishop of Canterbury, but I doubt it … and I really don’t think Andrew should do it. … They can’t cast the show without my approval.”

THERE IS a most fascinating woman, without much on, hanging around Britain’s National Portrait Gallery. She is Nell Gwyn, lover of King Charles II, seen in a painting by Simon Vereist, which has been hidden from public view for almost 50 years. The 17th-century actress shows her charming bosoms with only a lacy blouse totally slipped down to totally expose them.

SPEAKING of nudity, it’s never been a problem for Keira Knightley, according to reporter John Hiscock.

But she did balk at some scenes director David Cronenberg wanted her to do for “A Dangerous Method.” She thought what he desired was too explicit. In the end, he persuaded her and ’tis said the beautiful actress was helped through by “inhibition-easing shots of vodka.”

SOME folks are up in arms over the new James Bond movie “Skyfall” because director Sam Mendes makes use of military funeral repatriations for fallen soldiers. He is accused of not being aware of proper protocol in setting up a big scene with Judi Dench as M and as many as 400 movie extras.

THE ACTOR Toby Jones, who played Truman Capote in the 2006 Film “Infamous,” is taking on another great figure of the past; none other than director Alfred Hitchcock.

“I’m researching the character at the moment. It’s fascinating. I don’t want to say too much but he is a complex character and I am working to get to grips with it. I am very excited by the challenge.”

As you know, Hitchcock — a master of suspense — always appeared briefly in his movies, unidentified. Fans began to watch for him. The best instance of this was on Broadway in the fascinating little farce that ran several years ago — “The 39 Steps.” Hitchcock appeared herein as a tiny miniature drawn figure.

REMEMBER Charlie Chaplin balancing a globe in “The Great Dictator,” which was a send-up of Hitler?

Sacha Baron Cohen is coming in May in a film titled just “The Dictator” in which he makes a mockery of a lunatic tyrant. He wears a huge beard and fuzzy hair and affects the ribbons, medals and absurd uniforms fancied by the late Col. Gadhafi.

ENDQUOTE: The admired reporter Jacob Bernstein writes in The Daily Beast that I, your own Liz, am “not afraid to be a rare unabashed supporter of Madonna in the press.”

Well, that’s true. I am usually on Madonna’s side. But I don’t believe anyone can rise above ridicule at the Super Bowl’s halftime. Still, I have my fingers crossed. If anyone can pull this off, it’s Madonna. (But she herself admits to being a nervous wreck over one of the most daunting performances of her career.)

And I loved Madonna’s quote to someone who asked if she’d be happy if she were married to a royal? The star said, “Why don’t you ask me that when I marry a royal!”

Then, in the 1920s fashion designer Coco Chanel became bronze, and the Western world decided that suntanned bodies identified women of leisure and privilege. When they couldn’t find enough sun to char their skin and fry their brains, they bought sunlamps, reflectors, and gallons of sprays, gels, powders, and amino acids, guaranteed to make their friends believe they had just returned from a decade in Bermuda–or Nigeria.

In the late 1970s tanning salons became popular in the United States. In the semi-privacy of a casket, people could pay a few bucks for a few minutes of UVA rays, slather on even more lotion, and look even healthier! Have you ever seen what a couple of hours a day in the sun can do to an unprotected body over a few years? If you don’t have to chase knife-wielding scouts from the Tandy Leather Factory from trying to skin you, then you have a chance to live until a ripe old age of at least 50. And if Tandy doesn’t get you, there’s a pile of melanoma waiting. Ever see what cancer of the eye or ear looks like? Ever see a jellyfish on a rotting log?

Cancer scare? There’s still sunblock. Just pick a number. Any low number. You’ll “protect” yourself and darken up just like that Bain de Soleil model–and look just as good. After all, would advertising agencies lie?

While many people desperately want to have dark skin, they aren’t willing to appear to be “ethnic.” So, just in case someone could confuse them with being Black, Hispanic, Jewish, or any other genetically dark-skinned type, they dye their hair screaming saffron blonde. Just as they believe that the advertising agencies wouldn’t deceive them, they believe blondes have more fun. If that great American philosopher Lady Clairol said it, it must be so. And, of course, there are about 65,000 solutions on the market just designed to make you have fun while you lose every follicle in your genetic pattern.

Because of genetics–and wise use of suntan lotion–I can spend hours splashing in the ocean and not have to endure boiling red skin, peeling off in painful layers, and spend half my week visiting expensive suntan parlors and dermatologists.

Tonight at the annual Academy Awards show hundreds of women will have spray-tanned and baked themselves into looking like brownies. They will have hair styles and colors as natural as what passes as reality on the “Jersey Shore.” Having already gone on extreme diets to look more photogenic, they will stuff what’s left of themselves into designer dresses and designer shoes, and decorate themselves with jewelry that could finance a revolution in a small Asian country. Every woman nominated for an Oscar is talented, but they exist in an industry forged by hype and image.

Tomorrow, TV shows, both entertainment and news, will feature the stars; newspapers and magazines will open full pages to show tanned women in their $10,000 dresses.

Throughout America, giggly and awe-struck pre-teen girls, their lives fixated upon Disneyesque princesses, will be absorbed by what the mass media show as rich and successful. And they will want to look just like the stars, fake tans and everything else.

Short, chic and low-maintenance, the bob is set for a comeback. Since its heyday in the roaring 20s, this style has been a staple in every hairdresser’s repertoire. To celebrate this versatile cut, we look at the trendsetters and share our eight favourite bobs.

The Coco Chanel
Coco Chanel wore her thick textured hair in a tousled bob with a deep-side part. Thanks to Chanel and actresses Clara Bow and Louise Brooks, the bob became a staple look of every fashionable flapper femme during the 20s. Prior to the 20s, the most famous bob wearer was gorgeous British ballroom dancer Irene Castle who made the chop in 1913 and has a bob named after her.

The Louise Brooks
Shiny, slick and slightly severe, Louise Brooks’ cut is known as an A-line bob. Ideal for women with thinner and flatter manes, this classic cut is all about sharp lines and keeping a little more length in the front. Most often seen on young girls, this 20s ‘do still inspires women to this day: Isabelle Rossellini wore it sans-fringe during the early 90s and style maker Chloë Sevigny made this cut her own in December 2011. This style can also be seen in HBO’s hit television show Boardwalk Empire which is set during the Prohibition Era.

The Vidal Sassoon
The bob left the mainstream after the 20s and 30s but was given a 1960s revamp when the ingenious Vidal Sassoon cut his geometric masterpiece. Inspired by the Bauhaus movement, he styled Mary Quant’s hair into a dramatic Louise Brooks ‘do, a chic bowl-cut and an asymmetrical fringed bob that covered one eye.

The Anna Wintour
Anna Wintour’s pageboy bob is a cut for the professional. Worn since the 1980s, her locks are always freshly blow-dried with a fringe grazing the brows. For a more youthful take on the style, look to Katie Holmes’ mane circa 2009. While the cut was identical to Wintour’s, Holmes wore her fringe brushed off her face for a girlish look and added texturising product to the ends for a sexier ‘do.

The Gwyneth Paltrow
Labelled the lob (long bob), Gwyneth Paltrow’s 2008 centre-parted, shoulder-length cut garnered a cult following. This versatile cut is easy to style in a variety of ways and flatters most face shapes due to the length in the front. Jennifer Aniston has recently embraced the look, wearing her lob with a slightly off-centre part and a hint of movement in the hair.

The January Jones
January Jones’ choppy lob is a much softer cut than Gwyneth Paltrow’s. The long, wispy layers allow for a natural kick at the ends and work to soften a strong jaw. We love how you can transform this look with some height at the base and a few curls in the ends so it looks like you you’ve just stepped off the Mad Men set.

The Keira Knightley
A fan of the lob and the bob for the past few years, we’re particularly enamoured with Keira Knightley’s bed hair bob from the Coco Mademoiselle television ad premiere. Chin length with long layers, it works perfectly for fine hair as it adds a slight tousle.

The Arizona Muse
Model Arizona Muse’s semi-bob is an ideal cut for those who are tired of the lob but aren’t ready to be Louise Brooks. Worn best on super straight or slightly wavy hair, you can get a fun, messy version with razored ends like Scarlett Johansson, or for more volume, try thick hair cut at one length for a look that recalls Keira Knightley’s 2007 Chanel print ads.

Forget striving for the ‘London look’ create your own

Nottingham styles.

As proven by my shameful activities last weekend when I was to be found installed in front of the television watching an On the Buses marathon.

As I watched, I kept thinking how of its time the series was.

Not just regarding its startling 1970s political incorrectness, but also in the fashions its characters were wearing.

The screen was awash with garish 1970s garb, in all its polyester glory, not least that sported by poor, put-upon Olive.

But, wait a minute, looking at her clothes with modern eyes, her gaudy style is suddenly all the rage. The woman is a fashion icon!

Her Crimplene-tastic 1970s wardrobe is back again as the height of chic.

Fashionistas would do a tug of war over some of her frocks if they turned up in a vintage shop.

And her frilly nighties are eerily similar to those for sale at high end lingerie retailer Agent Provocateur – retailing for upwards of £200.

One of my various hobbies here at the Post is writing about fashion.

I love fashion for its pure theatre.

Often, it reminds me of Greek tragedy with its combination of spectacle, high drama and outrage.

Heroes and villains are made overnight – their fate lying in the lap of the gods: the fashion illuminati.

A seat on the front row of a catwalk show means you’ve made it, adulation is yours, while relegation further back is social suicide. Oh the indignity!

I’ve been dipping into goings-on at the recent London Fashion Week to see what The Beautiful People are up to.

Plenty it seems. Especially Dame Vivienne Westwood who this week said: “People have never looked so ugly… We are so conformist, nobody is thinking.”

It seems our Viv is blaming disposable fashion for generating a nation of poorly-dressed, identikit clothes horses.

She clearly needs to visit Nottingham – we’re a whole city of snappy dressers here with every style from design classics to avant garde being strutted daily.

If the general clothes-buying public are choosing the cheaper (and therefore “disposable”) option, I’d say it’s because of the limits of their disposable income rather than any ill-tuned fashion sensitivities.

If you want to just say “no” to being a high-street clone, I suggest you become a regular at one of Nottingham’s great independent boutiques.

It’s sad to hear many are struggling under difficult business conditions, with parking and pedestrianisation wrangles – particularly those in Hockley.

Damn you, authorities, for making individuality increasingly inaccessible!

Nowadays when you walk through Nottingham, you could almost be in any town, anywhere, it’s getting increasingly generic.

So let’s do all we can to preserve and support the city’s creative set.

Nottingham’s also a vintage clothing hot spot with many traders who work tirelessly to bring us unique items.

If you’re not sure what vintage is, it’s a moveable feast as its definition will entirely depend on when you were born.

For example, to me, it means 1940s or 1950s fabulousness.

For kids today, it means 1990s grunge – doesn’t that make you feel old!

I suppose that’s what vintage is all about though – cherishing old things.

As my old mate Coco Chanel said: “Fashion changes, but style endures.”

So, in a nutshell, don’t throw anything out, not even your Olive-from-On-the-Buses gear as it’ll be back in vogue again before you know it.

Hang on though, don’t style gurus say you should never wear a trend that you remember first time around?

Ah, rules are made to be broken.

If you fancy it, there’s a good vintage fair happening this Sunday at the Albert Hall, in Nottingham (see www.theVintageFair.com), I might see you there.

So, forget striving for “the London look”, create your own “Nottingham look” instead and you’ll be ready for Nottingham Fashion Week, happening across the city in October.

I’m planning a combination of “flatforms” (flat platform shoes) for negotiating uneven pavements and tram lines, a waterproof hat for impromptu Market Square fountain moments and, in true Emperor’s New Clothing style, an invisible coat for Saturday night-on-the-town wear.

How absolutely fabulous darling! Mwah, mwah.

Following last week’s column on the lost art of letter-writing, my sincere thanks go to L R Torr and D Povey for your very kind correspondence.

How to… steal Angelina Jolie lace look.

If diamonds are a girl’s best friend, lace comes in a close second.

It’s a fabric that adds instant femininity, romance and interest.

It requires delicacy and elegance to pull off. As Coco Chanel once said: ‘I consider lace to be one of the prettiest imitations ever made of the fantasy of nature.’

This season designers agreed, with Louis Vuitton showing dresses, skirts and shirts in the palest of lacey yellows, pinks and creams. Dolce & Gabbana opted for sophisticated black lace eveningwear and Valentino even sent models down the catwalk in lace espadrilles.

Young designer intends to wow the world next.

Jason Wu has already dressed the wife of the most powerful man on earth – creating the stunning, inauguration ball gown for US First Lady Michelle Obama – and for his collection last fall he sought inspiration from a formidable ruler from yesteryear, the French king Louis XIV.

The Jason Wu brand is now firmly established, with a presence in more than 140 stores worldwide, including high-end outlets in China.

In between designing two Jason Wu collections, the most recent one hitting the catwalks of New York Fashion Week earlier this month, the sudden celebrity has been whizzing around the globe, including regular promotional trips to Hong Kong and Beijing.

He also has a guest slot on the CCTV design-talent television show Creative Sky.

A year ago, Wu, 28, was soaking up the flavor of the Paris, which provided the main inspiration for his collection last season.

A restoration project to bring Versailles, the palace of the Sun King, Louis XIV, back to its former glory, documented in the photo book, Parcours Museologique Revisite, captured his imagination.

“I loved the idea of a grandiose project under construction, that mixture of the ornate, the precious and the raw,” says Wu of his line that’s still in retail stores. “I love the idea of taking things apart and putting them back together and restoring something. There is always a bit of creative interpretation, as you can’t put things back exactly the same way.

“We had 15 different kinds of lace. I would take it apart and reassemble it like a puzzle so it looks completely different. It is an expensive exercise, but a lot of fun.”

Wu has become elevated to the ranks of fashion royalty himself, with a name that has become a byword for sophisticated style. He continues to get a helpful promotional ride from Michelle Obama: the president’s wife was pictured wearing a Wu coat when meeting Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace and a favorite purple dress while posing for the cover of American Vogue.

Wu’s boyish looks, and preference for dressing in basketball sneakers, give him the appearance of a college kid. But looks can be deceptive: beneath the casual-looking facade are keen entrepreneurial instincts and a fast-working business brain.

“I have wanted to be a designer since I was 10, so unlike most Asian parents mine were not shocked, they were well prepared for a long time. I made a pact with them whereby if I went to boarding school and did my schooling I could do whatever I wanted in college.”

Wu is quick to credit the 20 people working at Jason Wu Studios, who have to follow a punishing schedule.

Fashion houses such as this produce a minimum of two collections a year – spring-summer and autumn-winter – in addition to beach-style garments and accessories such as bags, shoes and spectacles.

For now, Wu is concentrating on building up the brand so it has real international cachet alongside names such as Giorgio Armani, , Yves Saint Laurent and the first-ever superstar designer, Coco Chanel.

“I think the world is our oyster, there is an infinite number of things that we can do,” he says. “We will be launching e-commerce this year, it has not been right for us before. We want to develop into a lifestyle brand.

“I get the best of both worlds, as I am from both a Chinese and Western background, it gives my sensibility a broader range. I think there is a huge future for us on the Chinese mainland; we have already been in Taiwan, done a lot of work there.”

‘History of a Pleasure Seeker’ is a ‘Downton Abbey’ of sorts, set in Amsterdam.

Adieu, Mademoiselle: option to be Mrs or Miss goes missing on French official forms.

Government says honorific is an ‘unjustified and unnecessary reference to women’s marital status’ and should be removed.

Coco Chanel summer home on sale for 32 million GBP.

Coco Chanel romantic summer residence, which was constructed on a plot of land gifted to her by her former lover the Duke of Westminster, is on sale for an estimated £32 million.

Dubbed La Pausa, the 10,000 square foot house occupies nine acres of idyllic countryside near Monte Carlo on the Cote D’Azur and has seven bedrooms, seven bathrooms, impressive views of the Mediterranean and elegantly worn interiors and furnishings, some of which have been updated in the intervening half century.

Whoever snaps up the swanky summer villa will also be buying plenty of A-list celebrity history alongside the furnishings. The property was once a haven for the rich and fabulous welcoming the likes of Igor Stravinsky, Jean Cocteau, Pablo Picasso, and Pierre Bonnard, before it was sold to literary agent and art collector Emery Reves in 1953.

But the stream of notable names didn’t stop there, as Reves rented the house to Winston Churchill for the purposes of completing his memoirs, and also entertained Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, the Duke of Windsor, Noel Coward, Aristotle Onassis, Greta Garbo, Rose Kennedy, Prince Rainier and Princess Grace. Quite a dinner party.

Jeweller Verdura star-studded Hollywoodland collection.

Born of an influential Sicilian family, the career of the artist and later, jewellery designer Duke Fulco di Verdura began with a fateful introduction to fun-loving couple Cole and Linda Porter (while they were on their honeymoon in Italy, and for whom he designed the famous Night & Day cufflinks), which lead him to Paris designing textiles for Coco Chanel (who wore a pair of his Maltese Cross cuff bracelets every day) and, eventually, to Los Angeles. It’s there, in the 1930s, that Verdura created the indelible, understated curb-link watch and bracelet that Greta Garbo favoured all her life, along with pieces for Marlene Dietrich (the Lily bracelet), Slim Keith (the Acorn bracelet), Joan Crawford (countless clips and earrings), Tyrone Power (the Wrapped Heart brooch for his wife Annabella) and Tallulah Bankhead, who was known to wear Verdura’s diamond-studded Shell brooch strategically: pinned near her impressive cleavage.

The latest revival from Verdura’s design archives is called the Hollywoodland collection and features the Duke’s golden age of Hollywood-era designs; the catalogue pairs images of the historic pieces with iconic photographs of the stars wearing them. Unlike the front pages of US Weekly or even jewellery ads, the use of bygone celebrity images is not paid endorsement – just historical fact. “It’s a cultural moment, not a commercial one,” explains Nico Landrigan, whose father Ward Landrigan, the former head of Sotheby’s jewellery division, purchased Verdura the 1980s (in Canada, Verdura is available exclusively though Myles Mindham Jewellery in Toronto). “My dad sometimes says that Verdura is a little bit like a club. I don’t want it to sound exclusive, but there is an element of the story being so big and yet still so under-exposed, because we’re not a big corporation.”

“We are, despite having been doing this for however long,” Landrigan continues, “pretty naïve about it, still. We just call them up and say gosh, we’re planning this spread, we’d love to use a picture of your grandmother in this thing. They generally know who Verdura was, and we’ve been surprised and pleased to find that they’re flattered and agree. We do get permission first but we’re lucky that people don’t see us as a big firm, which we aren’t. Because the way the Oscars are done these days, a brand like [Harry] Winston pays a million bucks and Gwyneth [Paltrow] gets to wear the necklace. And then keep it!”

People & Places: Tulsa Ballet fundraiser evokes spirit of 1920s Paris.

Maybe we’ll catch a glimpse of Coco Chanel, F. Scott Fitzgerald or Pablo Picasso – just a quick impression at the corner of the eye. A trick of the light, perhaps. But our dream of being in the Paris of the 1920s will be realized when Tulsa Ballet hosts Icons and Idols at 6:30 p.m. March 16 at the Tulsa Convention Center.

The evening will take us back to the early 20th century when members of the Ballet Russe and the most influential artists, designers and musicians from that era were traveling the world.

In addition to the sights and sounds of Paris of a by-gone age, the evening will also offer gourmet dining, a chance to bid on luxury auction items and unique experiences. At 9 p.m., guests will join friends from Tulsa Ballet to dance the night away with live music at the Icons and Idols after party.
The exceptional event will have it all – live entertainment and an atmosphere of absolute elegance.
The black tie evening will also be the perfect occasion to honor Tulsa Ballet founders, Roman Jasinski and Moscelyne Larkin, two original members of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. As Icons and Idols commemorates the golden era of the past, it will also support Tulsa Ballet’s impact on our community’s future.
Jackie Kouri and Gary Paxton are event chairman and Mollie Williford is honorary chairwoman.
The auction and raffle items at Tulsa Ballet Icons and Idols are available for preview and purchase on the same website.

From Chanel’s story, what do you think raises a milliner to the level of an artiste?

First, it helps to live in a time and place that acknowledges and values the role of the hat in our wardrobes. A 100 years ago, the hat made the outfit. In that respect, just like any piece of couture, a hat could be unique, mysterious and beautiful.

Many musicians and rock stars used their fame to showcase their passion for fashion. Like Madonna did recently with her own line. doesn’t seem to have been closely involved with popular culture of the time, like Gautier and Gaga?

True, but Emma Thompson aka Hermoine Granger from the insanely popular Harry Potter epic has modelled for Chanel. And Chanel remains a favourite of actresses on the red carpet. The Chanel brand and look is a little less pop, a little more restrained and cultured.

As the book is about your being a clotheshorse as much as it is about Chanel, why do you think women have such a problem choosing the right clothes?

I can only speak as an American woman but I think it has as much to do with how we look in our clothes. Or think we look as anything else. There’s also cost. Most of us, if lucky, only can afford one or two wonderful, classic, expensive pieces. How to choose?  (I always chose the jacket!)

What’s your last Chanel buy?

A bottle of Chanel No. 19!

Who inspired your taste for designer clothes? Do you custom-make stuff and tweak stuff you’ve bought by accessorising? And what are you working on now?

My own grandmother was a dress designer. So I was always raised with an eye towards having fewer, but finer pieces. I knew what was well-made and well-designed from a young age. In terms of tailoring though I leave that to pros. I have a tailor I used regularly to tweak stuff. And I live and die by accessories. A pair of kick-ass boots and a cuff bracelet can make a world of difference!

What’s the latest Chanel gossip on the Net?

That she was a Nazi spy.  Everyone knows she had a lover who worked for the Nazi as a PR man. But people remain divided on if she actively worked for the Germans, or was just in love with one.

Simplicity and cheekiness were apparently Chanel’s mark. But wasn’t it more to do with her show-womanship as much as her talent?

Yes, absolutely. In fact, Chanel was only a so-so seamstress. What she was a genius at was articulating her vision.

It’s true Chanel was a savvy businesswoman. But isn’t it also true her financial independence was through men in her life financing her projects in exchange for bed favours? So she wasn’t entirely “self-made.”

No one’s a perfect role model. Chanel certainly wasn’t perfect. It’s true she had a wealthy lover named Boy Capel, who financed her first shop in Biarritz. But having someone back you, (and it should be noted men trying to start business also often have backers — that’s what venture capitalists are), is no guarantee of success. With luck and will, Chanel turned her single shop into a worldwide empire. I’m sure many men footed the bill for their women’s interests. They don’t become Coco Chanel. At any rate, the moment she turned a profit, Chanel paid Boy Capel back in full.

Had she used a lot of Indian textiles and designs?

Funny you should ask. At the beginning of December 2011, Karl Lagerfeld opened his Paris-Bombay Metiers d’Art in Paris. This annual show honours button-makers, hat-makers, embroideries and other artisans who contribute to the high craftsmanship of the Chanel brand.  This particular show highlighted the “artisanal work” of India. There were silk gowns cut like saris. Dresses and suits with dazzling India-inspired embroidery.

What are you wearing as you reply to this, that is Chanel-approved?

Maybe my steel-toed black cowboy boots. She would have hated them at the time she was alive. But if she came back from the dead, she might have second thoughts. They’re pretty stylish.

What accounts for the continuity of Chanel mystique?

Part of Chanel’s genius was casting herself as the perfect Chanel woman. Her life and style were living advertisements for her clothes (and fragrance). She was chic incarnate. To buy a tube of Chanel lipstick makes us feel closer to being as elegant and effortlessly stylish as Mademoiselle.

How can a novice distinguish a Chanel-Chanel from a knockoff?

Whatever piece you’re looking at, if the craftsmanship isn’t impeccable, it’s not Chanel. The hem of every jacket will have a small gold chain. The stitching on every handbag will be PERFECT.

The better the quality of the knock-off, the better these elements will be. But only the Chanel will be flawless. It’s one of the reasons why Chanel never minded knock-offs. She knew that if a woman wanted perfection she would have to come directly to her.

How often does classic Chanel come for auctions? Isn’t it weird? It’s used clothes after all?

Pieces come up for auction now and then; usually it’s because the heirs of someone who collected Chanel want to clean out the closet. Yes, they’re “used.” But so is a Picasso that’s been hanging on the walls of various museums and art collectors!

What’s the verdict? Was Jackie O wearing real Chanel or not as her “assassination outfit”?

The consensus seems to be that the suit itself was stitched up at a place called Chez Ninon in New York, with elements (fabric, buttons, trim) provided by the House of Chanel. Mrs Kennedy patronised the New York establishment to demonstrate her support for American-made clothes.

Jackie O didn’t wear real Chanel when JFK was shot

Karen Karbo worships Coco Chanel. Her book tribute is a delightful romp through the magic world of wardrobes and a fashion witch. She answers an e-mail from Shana Maria Verghis where she mentions a December 2011 Chanel tribute to Indian artistes by Lagerfield in Paris

Books on fashion can go the drab industry route. Telling you stories about tailors with high aspiration. Or mix everything and all that. And of course, it is a deep love of clothes and cuts that puts all the pages together. Karen Karbo’s The Gospel According to Coco Chanel, (Om Books International) is such a fantastic read, because she is a fashionista in her own right. And she is also an ardent student of the adored and celebrated French designer who started her life as an ordinary looking seamstress. (Chanel wasn’t great shakes with the needle and thread either).

The lessons from Chanel school Karbo learnt engage all women and men who enjoy dressing well, since it looks beautiful. And Chanel herself had a great design sensibility as well as a unique style sense. Maybe less flamboyant than current fashion pop-icon, the sensational Lady Gaga. But she was more influential. And taught women classic wearability and aspiration, leaving behind a formidable legacy which one doubts the latter will overthrow. Unless she stops making costume parades into Burlesque or circus routines. Because we admire a Cher. But how many people dress like her? Chanel apparently preferred understatements. And was a fetishist — her camelias, jersey dresses.

She would tell lies. But was an expert at self-invention, fearless, a multi-heartbreak-survivor. She signatured jackets, hats, slim-fit knit skirts and belted sweaters. Jaqueline Onassis Kennedy’s pink dress at the JFK assassination was arguably Chanel. Though not authentic Chanel. And every now and then, antique Chanel reaches the market, to be eaten by beady-eyed women, hungry as bounty hunters searching for obscure artifacts. So the legend won’t die. She’ll just get new seams.

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On one occasion, luck, Gabriel has become the best friend Etienne Balsan, Arthur Coco Chanel. He was a wealthy English polo player whose Coco known as the only love of his life. Soon the two began a passionate relationship that lasted some until 1918, however, Capel has not been completely faithful to Gabriel Coco. However, Capel had a lasting impression on the different styles and only Coco Gabriel. The money has helped Capel collect sufficient monetary resources to open a fashion boutique.

Here, she has had more success he had with the store before. Some of the most impressive clients who visited the shops of Coco Chanel includes some U.S. diplomats and famous actors and actresses recognized in France. It really helped build his reputation and his reputation. In 1913, Gabriel opened his shop Coco and the third largest in Deauville, and sportswear for ladies, with original.

Capel presence and influence played a significant role in the choice of fashion Coco Gabriel have chosen to create a style and for sale. For example, paved the way for designing elegant blazers Arthur Capel Coco Gabriel inspired preferred to incorporate a key square and masculine designs for some of the classic suit. These unique style is still a large part of the Chanel collection closet. Gabriel and Arthur Capel Coco affair lasted for years.

Before the death of Capel, introduced into the world of Serge Diaghilev ballet showman hysterical Gabriel Coco Chanel appointed to a famous composer Igor Stravinsky. Apart from a broken heart consolation Gabriel Coco, Sergei was a close friend of his and his fellow accused.Meanwhile, it was said that the two had an affair. Two years later, Coco Chanel has introduced a new product, a perfume, known as Chanel No. 5 as his advantage.

Inside Coco Chanel’s Paris Apartment

Fashion designer. Born on August 19, 1883, in Saumur, France. With her trademark suits and little black dresses, Coco Chanel created timeless designs that are still popular today. She herself became a much revered style icon known for her simple yet sophisticated outfits paired with great accessories, such as several strands of pearls. As Chanel once said,“luxury must be comfortable, otherwise it is not luxury.”

Her early years, however, were anything but glamorous. After her mother’s death, Chanel was put in an orphanage by her father who worked as a peddler. She was raised by nuns who taught her how to sew—a skill that would lead to her life’s work. Her nickname came from another occupation entirely. During her brief career as a singer, Chanel performed in clubs in Vichy and Moulins where she was called “Coco.” Some say that the name comes from one of the songs she used to sing, and Chanel herself said that it was a “shortened version of cocotte, the French word for ‘kept woman,” according to an article in The Atlantic.

Around the age of 20, Chanel became involved with Etienne Balsan who offered to help her start a millinery business in Paris. She soon left him for one of his even wealthier friends, Arthur “Boy” Capel. Both men were instrumental in Chanel’s first fashion venture.

Opening her first shop on Paris’s Rue Cambon in 1910, Chanel started out selling hats. She later added stores in Deauville and Biarritz and began making clothes. Her first taste of clothing success came from a dress she fashioned out of an old jersey on a chilly day. In response to the many people who asked about where she got the dress, she offered to make one for them. “My fortune is built on that old jersey that I’d put on because it was cold in Deauville,” she once told author Paul Morand.

In the 1920s, Chanel took her thriving business to new heights. She launched her first perfume, Chanel No. 5, which was the first to feature a designer’s name. Perfume “is the unseen, unforgettable, ultimate accessory of fashion. . . . that heralds your arrival and prolongs your departure,” Chanel once explained.

In 1925, she introduced the now legendary Chanel suit with collarless jacket and well-fitted skirt. Her designs were revolutionary for the time—borrowing elements of men’s wear and emphasizing comfort over the constraints of then-popular fashions. She helped women say good-bye to the days of corsets and other confining garments.

Another 1920s revolutionary design was Chanel’s little black dress. She took a color once associated with mourning and showed just how chic it could be for eveningwear. In addition to fashion, Chanel was a popular figure in the Paris literary and artistic worlds. She designed costumes for the Ballets Russes and for Jean Cocteau’s play Orphée, and counted Cocteau and artist Pablo Picasso among her friends. For a time, Chanel had a relationship with composer Igor Stravinsky.

From her first millinery shop, opened in 1912, to the 1920s, Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel rose to become one of the premier fashion designers in Paris, France. Replacing the corset with comfort and casual elegance, her fashion themes included simple suits and dresses, women’s trousers, costume jewelry, perfume and textiles.

Coco Chanel claimed a birthdate of 1893 and a birthplace of Auvergne; she was actually born in 1883 in Saumur. According to her version of her life story, her mother worked in the poorhouse where Gabrielle was born, and died when Gabrielle was only six, leaving her father with five children whom he promptly abandoned to the care of relatives.

She adopted the name Coco during a brief career as a cafe and concert singer 1905-1908. First a mistress of a wealthy military officer then of an English industrialist, Coco Chanel drew on the resources of these patrons in setting up a millinery shop in Paris in 1910, expanding to Deauville and Biarritz. The two men also helped her find customers among women of society, and her simple hats became popular.

Soon “Coco” was expanding to couture, working in jersey, a first in the French fashion world. By the 1920s, her fashion house had expanded considerably, and her chemise set a fashion trend with its “little boy” look. Her relaxed fashions, short skirts, and casual look were in sharp contrast to the corset fashions popular in the previous decades. Chanel herself dressed in mannish clothes, and adapted these more comfortable fashions which other women also found liberating.

In 1922 Coco Chanel introduced a perfume, Chanel No. 5, which became and remained popular, and remains a profitable product of Chanel’s company. Pierre Wertheimer became her partner in the perfume business in 1924, and perhaps also her lover. Wertheimer owned 70% of the company; Chanel received 10% and her friend Bader 20%. The Wertheimers continue to control the perfume company today.

Coco Chanel introduced her signature cardigan jacket in 1925 and signature “little black dress” in 1926. Most of her fashions had a staying power, and didn’t change much from year to year — or even generation to generation.

She briefly served as a nurse in World War I. Nazi occupation meant the fashion business in Paris was cut off for some years; Chanel’s affair during World War II with a Nazi officer also resulted in some years of diminished popularity and an exile of sorts to Switzerland. In 1954 her comeback restored her to the first ranks of haute couture. Her natural, casual clothing including the Chanel suit once again caught the eye — and purses — of women. She introduced pea jackets and bell bottom pants for women. She was still working in 1971 when she died. Karl Lagerfeld has been chief designer of Chanel’s fashion house since 1983.

In addition to her work with high fashion, Chanel also designed stage costumes for such plays as Cocteau’s Antigone (1923) and Oedipus Rex (1937) and film costumes for several movies, including Renoir’s La Regle de Jeu. Katharine Hepburn starred in the 1969 Broadway musical Coco based on the life of Coco Chanel.