Elle Macpherson's gleaming beauty

 

Elle Macpherson is one of the unforgettable models of the 1980s and the 90s, perhaps best known for her covers of the Sports Illustrated magazine, where she delighted men and made women jealous of her impossibly long legs and athletic body. At nearly 50, she is still in the business of delighting men and making women jealous! On November 24, 2011 she appeared at a live interview for the American daytime TV program "Today Show" and gave these beautiful shots.

 

Elle is so cheerful, so energetic in these photos that whenever I look at them, my heart just melts in her warmth! Her outfit in burgundy-brown colors is simply stunning! Just like the colors of the autumn leaves that the Atlantic board of the US is famous for. Her Fedora hat, her turtleneck sweater with cable knitting all around, her burgundy suede boots that make her already long legs look even longer and of course her fur vest... Simply stunning! It's both comfy and elegant at the same time while suitable for the unpredictable autumn weather. 

Her fur vest is probably dyed raccon fur. The short guard hairs are in dark mocha brown whereas the tips of the longer guard hairs glisten in metallic gold, and this effect can only be achieved with real fur. Also pay attention to the fact that these gold tips of the fur coordinate nicely with her blonde hair and her gold accessories. Perfection, I say...

Adriana Lima at Donna Karan fashion show

Adriana Lima attends Donna Karan fashion show at the New York Fashion Week. She looks gorgeous in the pictures even though she is wearing minimal makeup, which means she is either too photogenic or too beautiful. Or, she is both!

Both Adriana and Donna Karan are dressed in blacks from head to toe, yet the fur trims of Adriana's black leather jacket bring color and contrasts to her outfit.

The way her hair is ruffled in the wind, the way she uses her hand to tidy her hair, and that naughty smile on her face... Adriana knows how to be sexy-Ooops, pardon me, she is BORN sexy!

From Michael Kors to Simay Bülbül

While I was following the Simay Bülbül show at the Istanbul Fashion Week (IFW) through the Turkish fashion blogs, I saw the fur coat above and liked it a lot. At that time, I even commented "This coat reminds me of Michael Kors!" at a blog post. Then came the Michael Kors show at the NYFW and bingo! There was a fur piece that resembled Simay Bülbül's coat! And here we are, comparing Michael Kors with Simay Bülbül...

I find it very "cool" to have coats, jackets and cardigans that are worn over the shoulders without putting arms through the sleeves:) It's cool, because it has a certain spontaneity, a certain unkempt, careless way with which the coat hangs... How can I say, it's as if the wearer transmits "I am not cold right now, but I placed the coat over my shoulders in case a cool breeze shivers me"... Besides, I really like the way the wearer holds on to the coat with her hands, pulling the sides to herself.

I have an answer to the question "Why do women love handbags so much?" and it is this: since women cannot simply put their hands to the pockets of their pants or jackets the way men always do, they are faced with the difficult question of what to do with their hands. A handbag provides a convenient solution to this problem. A woman can simply hold the handles of the handbag, or place it on her shoulders and grab it with her hands, or simply hang it on her elbow and point her hand upwards with a broken wrist. Likewise, a coat worn over the shoulders this way serves a similar function and provides two convenient handles for the wearer's hands.

Now this is the fur garment that reminded me of Michael Kors in Simay Bülbül's coat. This is from Fall-Winter 2010-11 collection. Okay, fur keeps you warm but this is not a coat, it's a long and sleeveless vest! The stylist of the runway show decided to present the fur vest and the deep V-neck sweater in olive green this way. And I must confess, Abbey Lee Kershaw looks gorgeous!

There are two similarities between the furs in Simay Bülbül and Michael Kors. Both are coyote fur and both have a patchwork-like appearance, they have a certain texture. Indeed, they are a patchwork of coyote fur pieces. They are not made from whole pelts. Of these fur pieces, some have long hairs, while others have short hairs. From the perspective of the furrier, these types of garments help use fur pieces that would otherwise be thrown away, hence making something useful out of them. From the designer's perspective, these patchwork designs are an opportunity to obtain a different texture.

Here we see the Michael Kors fur cest on Kelsey Van Mook, in the January 2011 issue of Flare magazine. It is combined with a  V-neck body in camel color. The fur's colors are a perfect match for camel.

And this is from the latest Michael Kors show, namely Fall-Winter 2012-13. Kors has revisited the patchwork coyote after 2 years, this time as a jacket and hat.

Finally, I would like to return to a fur vest where similar fur pieces were used in a patchwork design. I wrote about this fur vest from the Fabrika collection vest two years ago in the Turkish version of my blog.

White fur: Noble and elegant

There are so many blogs I follow but when it comes to the Turkish high society and their taste of fashion, the  "Moda ve Sosyete" blog tops 'em all, and it turns out the author of this great blog loved a white fur coat worn by Siren Ertan Çarmıklı, a well-known fashion designer and socialite. That prompted me to talk about white furs in my blog. I also thought it quite fitting as the whole country is swathed in white snow these days. In this post, I would like share some of the classic white fur examples of fur fashion, while trying to identify the white fur worn by Siren Ertan.

Since fur is a natural product, simple color descriptions such as "black" or "white" are usually not sufficient. You must have seen this popular infographics on social media, which compares the color literacy of women with men (or their lack of). In this Mars-Venus type of comparison, color for men simply consists of primary colors such as white, black, red, yellow, blue, etc, while for women there are all sorts of hues and tones in between colours. So, white is never just white: there is ice white, milk white, eggshell, creme, beige. For men, blue is blue, but women apparently see all the spectrum from parliament blue to sax blue, from sky blue to turquoise... The colors of furs are just like that. In this post, we shall see all the different types of white in white furs.

Coming back to the picture above, it's always been one of my faves. Although it is probably from the (late) 80s, I think the model's hair, make-up, and especially her look, her gaze... appears very "fresh" to me. And that naughty expression on her face! Reminds me of Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction.


Regarding her fur coat, though we cannot exactly determine its cut because of her lying pose, its broad collar and turnback cuffs immediately strike our attention. How about the fur's type? It's mink, for sure. But what kind of mink? Well, white is a very tricky color since it does not reveal any patterns at all, and since its tone could easily appear different under different lighting conditions. Hence, it could just be "white mink" or it could be "pearl mink" that is closer to cream or beige color. In any case, it is lovely:)

Since I started the post with reference to the white fur coat Siren Ertan Çarmıklı wore, let us see how she looks in it. First question, what kind of fur is this? At first glance, I said mink, but it is so hard to tell in the absence of any revealing clues such as patterns or density of guard hair (I would fare much better if I had a chance to see it close range or better, touch the fur:) ). Hence, it could well be rabbit or sheared beaver. Or sheared/plucked mink. Heck, it could even be faux fur, since these days they do some faux furs that are virtually indistinguishable from the real deal.

Nevertheless, there are some other interesting aspects in this coat besides the type of fur it's made of. First of all, it has a quite large drape, which means its hem is quite large. If it was another branch of fashion, it would not matter that much, but the raw material in the furriers' craft, namely fur, is a very valuable material, just like gold or diamond. Therefore, from the fur designer's perspective, it is important to know how much fur is required to make a particular design. A coat with a large hem requires more pelts, hence it would be more expensive.

This is why, you see a certain type of picture on online fur sellers' sites in the descriptions of their fur coats, which shows its hem size to the viewers, and this is how they do it: The model turns her back to the camera, and grabs both sides of the coat. Then she draws her arms as high as possible. This way, all the drapes in the coat are flattened and its true hem circumference is revealed. Well, I did my best in explaining, but it is much better if I show you some pictures!

This white mink coat's collar and trims are in fox fur, which makes them fuller, fluffier and more voluminous. The hem of this coat measures 148 cms from one side to the other. That is nearly one and a half meters, but wait till you see the next two.

This is another white mink coat, but clearly its hem measures much larger. In fact the model has done a poor job of lifting the sides of the coat, which would have made the look more spectacular. The hem of this coat measures 228 cms. Think about it, this is more than 2 metres!

This is not a regular full length coat, but it's more like a cape or stroller. As you can imagine, its hem is larger, quite larger: 3 metres!

Let me return to the classics. In immaculate styling and full of sensuality, this picture is a true classic indeed! The textured top she is wearing, her gold accessories, and her makeup is flawless. Her fur coat is very chic as well, but more importantly, how can you the color of this coat as simply white!?

Here is a few more classic white fur pictures, and this concludes my post.