ADVENT DAY 16: FEELING FINE

By Melanie Rickey, Fashion Editor at Large
Jumper, by Fine Collection ,
When I checked, there were some left!  
This Autumn/Fall has seen the re-popularisation of jumpers as fashion staples. So enthused are people about them that the fashion for them has overspilled into an ocean of nostalgia for novelty festive sweaters. As I write every single person in the office from which I pen this blog is wearing a Christmas Jumper.  Lets flip back to fashion sweaters for a moment. Regular readers of this blog will know that in addition to fashion journalism for Grazia, POP, this blog and occasional forays into newsprint, the other string to my bow is as a trend and fashion consultant. I knew waay back in March 2011 that we would all be loving sweaters now. So since March I've had it in my mind that I wanted the "perfect sweater". In October after months of searching, and purchasing a few vintage duds, I found THE sweater at Austique, an independent fashion boutique in Marylebone. At first glance said sweater, from new brand Fine Collection, is an unremarkable waffle knit with droopy proportions. On the body it is a different story. The proportions are flattering; I chuck it on over shirts, blouses or dresses and it is a chic as.. Everyone asks where its from, and now you know! The label is French and designed by Ugo Bensoussan. Scroll down for entertaining and slightly surreal shenanigans.....

Long cardigan, by Fine Collection 
SURREAL TIMES...
“Since I don't smoke, I decided to grow a mustache - it is better for the health. However, I always carried a jewel-studded cigarette case in which, instead of tobacco, were carefully placed several mustaches, Adolphe Menjou style. I offered them politely to my friends: "Mustache? Mustache? Mustache? Nobody dared to touch them. This was my test regarding the sacred aspect of mustaches.”  Salvador Dali

I found Marcel this morning. I LOVE Marcel. Marcel has millions of fans. She reminds me very much of my friend Brix. Only Brix doesn't sleep on slices of bread....


Directed by Dean Fleischer-Camp
Written by Dean Fleischer-Camp + Jenny Slate
Starring Jenny Slate as Marcel