Dispatches from fashion's front row This was the most fashionable oscars in years!Not too much crimson, not too much black, no hideous shiny puff balls.These women have been paying attention to all the key trends:Nude, lace, sheer, and origami shapes.Pretty much everyone wore platforms.Statement necklaces were out, chandelier earrings in.Was worn by halle berry(A nude and crystal encrusted corset gown with silk tulle ruffles by marchesa), Amy Adams(L scott), Mandy Moore(Mesh dress by monique lhuillier)And michelle williams, who wore pale chanel, and had forgotten her handbag, or maybe she just leaves her keys under a plant pot.Florence welch too wore nude flounces, which looked fabulous against her flame hair.Hilary swank wore a strapless silver sheath with feathers.Hailee steinfeld wore a ballet pink crystal hand embroidered tea-Length dress by marchesa, surely the most ubiquitous label of the night:Thank god designer georgina chapman respected the true grit star age, and didn put her in something long.She has lost loads of weight, and looked very pretty, but i could have done with a little less cleavage. Scarlett johansson was in colour, too:Raspberry lace with a keyhole back by dolce gabbana.I liked her messy hair, which made her look edgy, when sometimes she is too lamb dressed as mutton.Mila kunis wore lilac elie saab, while sandra bullock was one of the few women, thank goodness, to wear red:A strapless gown by vera wang, that was a little too tight.Helen mirren looked amazing:Short silver hair, and a dark olive gown that emphasised her figure.Anne hathaway, who hosted the proceedings, and was dressed by super stylist rachel Buy Tiffany zoe, looked suitably glamorous in scarlet armani, although the strapless dress didn give her enough help around the bust. There were some howlers, of course, notably cate blanchett purple embellished armour dress, by givenchy.Sharon stone, in asymmetric black with feaThers, had Upswept hair that was too severe, and way too much black eye make-Up.Mark ruffalo wife wore a black dress with an exaggerated shoulder that did not work, but maybe i just jealous.Kidman wore a cream kimono strapless gown with embellishment that was too fussy, and i hated her casual pony tail, and clashing red shoes.Jennifer lawrence wore a scarlet tank dress that was far too casual.Why has penelope cruz put those awful highlights in her hair? (Love The dress, though.I think The cleavage homepage is due to having just had twins. )Gwyneth paltrow was in my worst gown of The night:A silver dress that was too boxy, and slashed to The waist, by calvin klein.Helena bonham carter chose a black velvet slasher dress with a bustle by jenny beaven, The costume designer of The king speech.She said she didn want The night to be about fashion, but about film.Is she insane?Stole The show?I loved halle berry light as a feaTher dress and messy hair.WiTherspoon black and white armani prive strapless column was simple and elegant.But natalie portman was my best dressed:A raspberry off-The-Shoulder gown with ruches by rodarte.Loved her messy, kinked hair and tiffany tassled earrings, but i am wondering, is she a little bit boring in real life? My main observation of the night:All the actors, notably mark wahlberg and matthew mcconaughey, had wives who were more beautiful than the movie stars, while the actresses were uniformly accompanied Cheap Tiffany Necklaces by really unattractive men.Why is that? I last saw john galliano after his couture show for dior in paris.Unlike most designers after a show, even the superstar likes of giorgio armani, who will mingle with models, make-Up artists, photographers and fashion critics, galliano was shut in a room, behind closed doors.A polite, orderly queue was outside the door, kept in line by huge, handsome bouncers in immaculate black suits, wielding walkie talkies.What do they think we are going to do to the designer, probably the most well paid, highly regarded in the world, who has been chosen to design the wedding dress for kate moss?Stab him with our stilettos?We were allowed into his presence one by one, then ushered away, after about a minute.The ceremony, the amount of care and security around galliano, who was born in gibraltar but grew up in london, is as though he were president of the united states, not a handbag designer.When i interviewed him at the exquisite dior hq in paris, there was a pr person present, just in case my line of questioning strayed from the agreed topics.Galliano reminded me of yves saint laurent esperately shy.But maybe this is an act.He is prone to depression, too, and told me he marks out on his calendar blocks in black, the days when he can hardly get out of bed.He is addicted to the gym, certainly, but told me he was free from drugs and alcohol.Trouble with galliano(And with alexander mcqueen, the designer who committed suicide almost exactly a Year ago), is that in the world of fashion, he is surrounded by people who are scared of him, who cannot say no, or even that something is less than perfect.In fashion, unlike in politics, or cinema, or the world of books, if you are anything less than sycophantic, you are banished.This is dangerous, a world where you are never called to account.After my interview was published, john sent me roses, a bunch as large as a hippo, with inside out petals.The rich, blood red colour was on the inside, the soft, velvet interior on the outside.This is what fashion at the level galliano is working at, producing between 10 and 12 collections a Year(Which is probably four times what christian dior would have had to produce), is all about:Ever more extremes of luxury, because there is nowhere else left to go.No wonder he might have felt to need to blow a gasket, not that that is any excuse.He has been suspended, his autumn/winter collection, due to be unveiled in paris in only a few days time, is now in jeopardy.This is a pr disaster for dior, although of course, in the bitchy world of fashion, the knives are already out, with insiders saying the brand had been itching to get rid of him.I doubt that, as galliano has increased sales a hundredfold in his almost 15 Years at the brand.His collection for dior 60th anniversary, held in the orangerie at versailles, was the most beautiful i have ever seen.It will be shame if that mercurial temper has, finally, tripped him up.But what about british manufacturers?Despite the of the british wool marketing board and prince charles recent campaign for wool-It is too little, too late.The 52 worsted spinners in calderdale in west yorkshire have all closed and, this week, i heard the news that yet another spinner, jc rennie, established in 1798, at the dawn of the industrial revolution, and famous for its shetland knitwear and woven cloth, has gone into administration.There were two main centres of the textile industry-West yorkshire and the scottish borders and they are now a shadow of their former selves.The skills and the economies of these areas have been devastated by the exodus to asia of all our garment manufacturing, and the communities have been laid to ruin.Jc rennie is a division of smiths of peterhead, a 190-Year-Old family-Owned textile firm, which has been in administration since february 7th.Nine redundancies were made last week, with a further 41 jobs at risk.Would wager, and hopefully someone will prove me wrong, that despite the hundreds of garments i saw paraded on the catwalk during london fashion week, not one was made from british wool, and not one was spun or manufactured in this country.I called the pr for pringle of scotland, who so proudly trumpeted their scottish heritage in their catwalk show notes, to ask where the wool came from, and where the clothes were manufactured, and she didn know.How can you not know this!So, come on all you great british labels--Jaeger, m burberry.Let see a return to manufacturing a little closer to home. Shetland sheep, right.I could have begged, and promised never to write another negative word again(For these are the only fashion who are deemed worthy to sit opposite the likes of samantha cameron and sarah jessica parker).But, because i have been wearing all week either topshop shoe boots, which cut into my calves, causing red weals, or the new, bulkier style havaiana flip flops, which have caused red weals in the shape of a v on my instep, i thought it easier to sit at my laptop(I refused to join the masses to watch the giant screen in trafalgar square)And observe the live streaming of the show in comfort, and without fear of being turfed out on my flat bottom for daring to object to snakes being skinned and left to die in the hot sun.Setting was a giant tent opposite the royal albert hall.And the clothes?Gone were the mossy, earthy colours, and in their place yellow or purple and black plaids, duck egg blue and orange wool.The trench was remade in stretch wool, trousers were narrow stovepipes teamed with short, three-Quarter-Sleeved swing jackets, bulky-Armed coats and, of course, the inevitable fox fur trim.There was even what appeared to be a fur shift dress.Ah, so this is why i was not invited!They worried i throw myself at the feet of jourdan dunn, clutching a tin of red paint!This show wasn edgy enough for my taste.While these bulky coats look great on the models, they will only make the rest of us feel fat.There was no iconic biker jacket, but instead rather old-Fashioned fur jackets, maybe in the hope of expanding the brand into china.I found the white fur that dominated the second half of the show obscene, reminding me as it did of the carcasses of seal pups left on the ice in novia scotia.Instead of the dreary soundtrack, why not broadcast the screams of the mothers, whose babies were battered over their heads?This might not be baby seal fur, but when luxury brands use fur of any kind it has a trickle down effect, creating demand that is met by dubious means.This mink coat costs â£13, 995.What a strange world we live in when this is what is deemed luxurious. Beth ditto was supposed to be front row at vivienne westwood on sunday night, but i think she was squeezed out by a bemused ed vaisey and his wife(I sat behind sarah harding:What a chatterbox! ).The collection, shown in the breathtaking courts of justice, was very punk(The models make-Up made them look as though they had been violently snogged), while those old chestnuts the plaid kilt, the pinstripe bloomers, the scribble print, the leopard print and demure pearls prevailed.Daisy lowe walked, the only curvy girl on the runway.A gold draped evening gown almost made up for the rest.What she doesn mention is that this is due to cheap, uniformly white(Therefore cheap to dye)Merino from new zealand, and because of the fashion for the super soft rather than the durable and the warm.And let not forget just because wool is british doesn make it ethical:Ewes are still culled far too young, their lambs taken for slaughter(See my wensleydale, big face, Below right, and tell me she not worth saving).Of wool, on monday morning at the pringle show, where tilda swinton sat front row in a multi-Coloured pringle coat, all things knitted prevailed onchos(Below), blanket skirts, even knitted shoes, in very Peruvian patterns.Most sense was talked by erin o who described going backstage at a show, trying to get into a pair of trousers, and finding she couldn get them on.Kiki too was amazing, talking about how, if a woman does not have that core layer of love, family, self esteem around her, she needs things to wrap around herself, and therefore is vulnerable to bombardment by the images in magazines and on tv, telling her to buy stuff.But it was lorraine candy who made me see red.Asked about the airbrushing used by her magazine, she said, readers want amazing and beautiful ¦ are women so stupid to believe that the image is real?Take a look at these images below of britney spears.Without the un airbrushed picture on the left, would you know that the portrayal on the right is not real?Would lorraine be able to tell?Of course not.We would just assume this is what a woman body looks like, and should look like, and we would go away, particularly if we are young and vulnerable, and see that we don quite measure up in the mirror, and we will try to change ourselves.The image on the left will say to young girls, okay, my thighs look like that too.Maybe i am okay.At the evening was alice dogruyol, who blogs about being a size 16.She pointed out to me that the women portrayed in an exhibition on friday night in glossy portraits by photographer rankin as plus size are in fact only a size 12.And i also bumped into the mother of sophie dickson, who died from complications due to anorexia when she was in her early forties, weighing three stone.I wonder what sophie mother thought of the proceedings, particularly the comments of featherstone, who talked about what the government is going to do.Does featherstone really think those arrogant people in paris and milan, where they still want skinny, where they still use models who are under 16, are going to listen? This month easy living has the following nuggets ¦ hairDays start with choosing the right shampoo and conditioner ¦ useful!The magazine identifies a new phenomenon ays.The causes are manifold:The half light, you accidentally slip on navy tights instead of black tragic!We also learn snacking can be good for us, as long as we graze on the right things.Really?How interesting!Spontaneous weeing can be solved if you stop smoking, thus ruling out that inconvenient cough.Best of all, though, is the item entitled, rucksack explained.And i adore the recipe, which takes up a whole page, for gnocchi with peas and pancetta.Ooh, i thought, i love to make gnocchi.But no, this recipe just says, 10oz gnocchi to boiling water.Basically, you then add peas and bits of bacon.This isn a recipe, it assembling things!Gaaaaahhhh!The march issue of vogue, with rosie huntington-Whiteley on the cover with a curiously unreal, shiny, photoshopped face, there is an item on egypt.Ooh, how timely.Elegant prints and dresses are inspired by the play of light and shadow designers justin thornton and thea bregazzi witnessed n cairo.Sail down the nile on nour el http://www.venicehotelguide.co.uk/ nil, and by night order a martini and drift about the decks, lit by chandeliers, in your airy print preen tunic.Who said the glosses were dead?And why has more dash than cash been dropped, and why all the nipples?

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