Happy Friday - Seaside Bliss

For those of you by the sea, heading to the sea or visiting the sea in your mind... Happy Friday. Have a beautiful, calm weekend.

If you're Cate Blanchett, you could just wear the ocean.

Black Swan / White Swan: Cannes Cannes Cannes

                       

 

Cate Blanchett knocks it out of the park in this stunning one-shouldered gown by Ralph Lauren, looking, dare I say it, a wee bit Galadriel-ish...

One word: flawless.

But the ladies in black were pretty amazing too...

If all else fails, you can of course mix the colours as Milla Jovovich did in Chanel.

Happy Monday to the Ballerinas

In honour of its latest ballet, Imperial Suite (a double bill featuring US and French choreographers), the Australian Ballet commissioned a series of pictures dedicated to ballet in the theme of the loveable Paris vs New York: A Tale of Two Cities.

Speaking of ballet, I feel obliged to tell you about my current Fitness Obsession (if you count attendance on a once per week basis an "obsession"...)

Xtend Barre in all its variations (there are so many now that the craze has caught on - Ballet Burn, CardioBarre whatever you want to call it) in a nutshell combines ballet with pilates.  But Barre is so much more than that. It's ballet exercises (the tedious ones we used to hate when we were petite ballerinas itching to put our pointe shoes on) to pop music. It's arm toning without the muscle tees and 'roid boys watching from the corner. It's pilates without feeling bored, and most of all it's fun! 

While you don't wear a tutu, you don't feel any less of a hardcore ballerina as you sweat through your plies. Images of Natalie Portman's dedicated Black/White Swan aren't far from your thoughts as you point your toes, centre your hips and hold and lift your leg that inch ever-higher. It's a great, low-impact workout, that I truly believe gives you great results. Dubbed one of the Victoria's Secret angels' best kept workout secrets for years, the cat is truly out of the bag these days - I highly recommend getting yourself to a class!

The other great thing about Barre is that if you don't have access to a studio class , you can get a DVD of workouts and do it at home with the aid of a chair, 2 x 1kg weights and a pilates ball - it's that easy!

There are studios all over Australia, so there are no excuses (although quality of instructors is highly variable). I went to a fantastic studio in Toowong, Brisbane and in Adelaide I absolutely love Aleenta Barre in the East end of the city. As barre-devotees would say - meet you at the barre.

And finally, I think we can finish our Monday on this note:

Met Musings

I was a little gobsmacked last week (or whatever week it was, they are all blurred at the moment) when Vogue Australia boldly announced that the Met Gala was the Oscars of fashion. And yet it was so YAWN-WORTHY.

The Oscar de la Renta offerings were pretty .... boring.

I'm no fashion industry expert, but the only exciting stuff emanating from the event was the gossip - Reese Witherspoon's drunken man-advice sneakily caught on film by Cara Delevigne (wasted on her surely, as she is a loved-up lesbian?) and of course the most tantalising story of all: what was Solange shouting and kicking about in the elevator and is Beyoncé & Jay-Z's royal relationship rock-solid or rocky?  Otherwise, the evening was a bit ho-hum.

It may have been that the theme for the event (something to do with white tie) was a tad constrictive, as opposed to last year's punk theme which was loads more fun in terms of sartorial adventurism.

My picks from the models were Arizona Muse looking very Southern Belle in red (convert to white and I think there's a wedding dress in that) and Karolina Kurkova killing structured ball gown (she couldn't possibly have driven to this event).

General celebrity glory went to Beyonce's veil (the rest I was bored by) and Victoria Beckham looking more Posh Spice in a 70s-style white gown than we've seen from her in a while. Anna Kendrick looked lovely in radiant simplicity, and model Toni Garrn wore sublime customised skyblue Topshop.

Best on field went to Blake Lively who is emerging from married-hibernation in truly sparkling form. More on her later.

To me, the Oscars of fashion is .. the Oscars. Closely followed by Cannes. (How convenient, because Cannes is on RIGHT NOW).

What were your thoughts on the Met Gala? Fabulous or forgettable?