How To Have Summer Fun Vintage Style by Caroline Cox

I have a motto when it comes to a holiday - No-Frills equals No-Thrills. The days of Inter-railing across Europe, sleeping on the roof of a Greek pension company or camping in a sodden shit-filled field in the lakes are long gone for me. Now I want a holiday with glam glam glamour or i'd rather stay at home, watch re-runs of Dynasty and channel Alexis Colby. Jackie O loved a vacation, seeing it as the chance to experience something new and culturally authentic - as she put it "I know that to visit Seville and not ride horseback at the fair is equal to not coming at all". And in 1968 whilst at the Yucatan peninsula, her travel companion noted that "she wasn't content just to see the Mayan ruins by daytime - she also insisted on seeing them by moonlight, on horseback to get the feeling of the way it was the day before yesterday. And once she tossed herself into a pool near the ruins with all her clothes on.' (I have to confess that Jackie's approach is not necessarily my own and the closest I have been to horseback riding on my hols is the donkey ride from Santorini port up to my boutique hotel).

It shouldn't be all work, work, work for us grown-up girls and now and again we need to re-charge our batteries on a suitably glamorous break - as Marlene Dietrich said, "If you can manage to have ice-cold Dom Perignon in a beautiful glass on the terrace of a Paris restaurant looking onto trees in a midday autumn sun you will feel like the most luxurious grown-up in the world."

Here's a suggestion for a getaway with glamour.

Why not try Los Angeles - Kim Novak style

Kim Novak was a hat-check girl turned model from Chicago who hung out in the City of Angels after touring the country as a Deepfreeze to publicise a refrigerator company. In the early fifties she was signed up by Columbia's Harry Coen as a Marilyn Monroe type and by 1957 was a major box-office star featured on the cover of Time magazine. She had a haunting, melancholic quality that drew men to her with a siren's call including Frank Sinatra, Cary Grant and African-American entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. Fearing a public backlash over this last particular relationship racist boss Harry Coen got in the Mafia hit men who forced Sammy into a shotgun marriage with a Vegas showgirl. Today Novak is nearly 80 and spends her time painting on a ranch in California.

So from Las Vegas to Hollywood - In LaLa Land you will find that you have to get a cab everywhere! The city is huge, humid and sprawling with no discernible centre and nobody walks - the residents will stare at you with curiosity if you do. If you've never been here before you MUST go to Grauman's Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard which opened in 1927 - fights broke out as fans tried to catch a glimpse of their favourite stars - also see the Art Deco L.A Union Station.

For the full fifties experience start with lunch in Canter's deli at 491 Faifax Avenue, reputedly a favourite haunt of Kim's as well as odd couple Marilyn Monroe and playwright Arther Miller. Have a Hot Pastrami sandwhich or Chicken Matzoth ball soup. Or drive to Pink's Hotdog Stand on 709 North La Brea Ave and munch on a chilli Dog. Pink's proximity to Paramount Pictures has made it legendary in Hollywood and harks back to the days when kids with dreams used to hang their head-shots and phone numbers on its walls in the hopes of being discovered. Actor and director Orson Welles still holds the record for eating the most hot dogs in one sitting - 18! Also the spot where Sean Penn proposed to Madonna and Bruce Willis to Demi Moore........

For pre-dinner drinks try Boardner's Bar (1652 N. Cherokee Ave) - a snug voluptuously curving bar, neon lit and steeped in Hollywood history or the Formosa (7156 Santa Monica Blvd) which opened in 1934 and is festooned with faded and autographed photos of its star-studded patrons. Then eat enchiladas tapatias and check the ambience at Lucy's El Adobe Mexican restaurant at 5536 Melrose Ave, an old school studio hang-out, or El Coyote (7312 Beverly Boulevard) purveyor of Mexican food to the stars since 1930 including Loretta Young, John Wayne, Princess Grace and Prince Rainier of Monaco. If you don't like Hot Tamales and Margaritas (what's WRONG with you?) try the classic Italian Miceli's restaurant at 1646 las Palmas Avenue. And if you're a fan of Mad Men (and who isn't. Can't believe we have to wait a whole nother year for the next series) you must go to Musso & Frank's at 6667 Hollywood Boulevard which starred in season 1, Episode 7. Open since 1919, this dimly lit film noresque restaurant (Raymond Chandler wrote The Big Sleep here) has served Greta Garbo, Claudette Colbert and Bette Davis. The walls are wood paneled, the booths upholstered in leather in the same shade of the waiter's jackets and you can get shrimp cocktails and oyster pie as well as a standard steak.

Stay at the Sunset Tower Hotel, a beautiful example of Art Deco architecture on the fabled Sunset Boulevard that was originally a block of luxury apartments. residents included garbo, Mae West, Carole Lombard and John Wayne who kept a pet cow on his balcony so that guests could have fresh milk with their coffee. Eccentric millionaire Howard Hughes housed several of his mistresses here and a snap-brimmed Sinatra had a bachelor pad where he proposed to Ava Gardner as she drunkenly hung over his balcony. In the seventies Iggy Pop used to from his apartment window straight into the pool - his drug use was so prodigious he used to miss a couple of times a month and end up being rushed to hospital. The tower fell into disrepair in the 1980s until converted into a lovely luxury hotel (8358 Sunset Boulevard, Double rooms around £200 www.sunsettowerhotel.com).

Here's some suggestions for a getaway wardrobe with glamour:

Click here for more glamourous frocks that would suit the Hollywood Hills.

For Armchair travellers:

Watch: Strangers When We Meet (1960) Kim Novak and Kirk Douglas in an amazing study of suburban infidelity filmed on location in Brentwood, Malibu and Beverly Hills.

read: The Day of The Locust by Nathanial west (1939), an ironic depression-era novel examining a motly group of Hollywood hangers-on.

Vidal Sassoon: The Movie by Caroline Cox

Stepping out in one of LFE's finest frocks, I had a fabulous night last night at the British premiere of Vidal Sassoon: The Movie at the Westfield Centre in London - the first documentary to showcase the pioneering work of the world's best known hairdresser.

Vidal made an appearance alongside Kate Moss' stylist James Brown plus Nicky Clarke, Trevor Sorbie and other assorted hair celebs. The movie by ex-head of Bumble and Bumble Michael Gordon celebrated Vidal's life and the cutting edge hair designs he developed in the 1960s including the 5 point cut, the Nancy Kwan A line bob and Mary Quant's signature bob that she still wears today (she has it cut at Sassoon's Sloane Square salon). We saw that Sassoon made hair swing like the sixties itself - he was one of the first hairdresser's to treat hair as hair, as organic material rather than stuff that had to be rigidly set and hair-sprayed into a heavy helmet. Geometry and precision were his watchwords matching the Chelsea girl look that was being bought in the boutiques of London and seen on Carnaby Street. Hair was revolutionised and women were liberated from the twice weekly visit to the salon for a shampoo and set.

Most disconcertingly for me, I had a key role in the movie talking about Vidal's importance in hair and fashion and found it most off-putting to see my face projected onto the huge screen. I found myself burying my head into the shoulder of my good friend Jos Gibson, Principal of Sassoon in Knightsbridge and a fantastic barbering talent. One mustn't think that Sassoon is only sixties though - I work alongside International Creative Director Mark Hayes helping develop ideas for their ground-breaking hair collections and the company, under his direction, is as dynamic and exciting as ever. Check out the new Sassoon collection Tribe 1 (below) and if you love hair and its history I have written two books on the subject Good Hair Days: A History of British Hairstyling (Quartet Books) and Hair and Fashion (V&A).

A Right Royal Frock Watch

What a fashion feast for the eyes the Royal Wedding was. A momentous occasion made all the more by the show stopping frocks worn by the glitterati and of course Catherine herself - WOW!! The lace, the pleats, the embroidery. Well done Sarah Burton. It may have been a bank holiday but we at LFE HQ were on frock watch as always. We oooh'd and aaah'd at most of the frocks and grimaced at some. What did Tara and Beatrice have on their heads? Our vote for best dressed goes to Posh and Camilla. Hopefully they will be sending their frocks in to LFE shortly. Also our vote for most gorgeous goes to Harry and Becks. Watching Prince Harry swagger down the aisle in that uniform was worthy of a few re-winds. We must mention how gorgeous London looked too. What a great looking city we live in.

We thoroughly enjoyed the nations Royal Wedding day. Our day started with Champagne and canapes and ended boogying to the live band at the street party. There was bunting and flag waving and a sense of being part of something wonderful. Call me an old romantic but I love a good wedding and I don't think there was a dry eye in our house.

Congratulations William and Catherine we wish you all the happiness in the world forever. Thanks for a great day.

Happy 75th Birthday Charnos by Professor Cox

This month I feel we should celebrate one of Britain's heritage companies - Charnos whose fab 75th anniversary party I attended at the Natural History Museum in London on 16th March. The company have been making hosiery since 1936 and Charnos' fully fashioned stockings with a hallmark seam running down the back were considered both deluxe and the height of technology. What's especially cool about Charnos is that they used the amazing fashion illustrator Rene Gruau (left) for their fifties advertising - he did many of the images for the

iconic Dior ads in that decade.

The company also collaborated with maverick fashion genius Ossie Clark whose work is avidly collected by vintage enthusiasts (including Kate Moss) today. His witty Ladders design used a motif up the side of the calves that played on a woman's worst nightmare - the laddering of her stockings - but was also a rather racy play on the delights that could be found if one climbed up the leg!

It was a great evening and the new collections were showcased to erotic effect as the models posed on a moving escalator. Champers flowed - so congrats to Charnos on your services to perfect pins!

Interview With Global Cool

Calling all Swishers - LFE's interview with our eco pals Global Cool has been posted on their website. Take a look, leave a comment and tell all your friends on Facebook. Help us to grow the biggest most glamorous wardrobe in the world. Join the shopping revolution and swap till you drop!

Here I am (right) posing with my good friend and business partner Sarah. I had a good long chat with Emily Rycroft, Global Cool's roaming fashion reporter. Click here to find out what we talked about and what she thinks of London Frock Exchange.

Happy swapping Swishers..................

LFE's Sustainable Fashion Week by Charlotte Davies

As London Fashion Week hands over the baton to Milan and John Galliano is booted out of Dior, we at LFE reflect on the week. What a fashion week it has been! Our lovely Professor Cox waxed lyrical on the radio, we Swished in London & New York, we Twished, I was interviewd by our fellow greenies at Global Cool, we organised a collaboration with the fashion students of Stafford College and finalised details to Swish at the Dubai Frock Exchange - Phew! Let me tell you more:

Kicking off LFE's London Fashion Week Professor Caroline Cox, author of How To Be Adored and Grown Up Glamour, was interviewed on Woman's Hour and was asked would Boardwalk Empire have the same impact on fashion as Mad Men? To find out what she said click here. That same day Caroline reported from LFE HQ and talked handbags live with Jeremy Vine.

Saturday we attended a big swish at the V&A, as reported earlier this week and ended with a Swish in New York City. Our roaming LFE advocate Anna, hit the NYC party scene and gathered all her girls for a last minute fun swish last night (above & left). They drank cocktails, ate cake and swapped LBD's for tea frocks and vice versa. A good time was had by all.

The rest of our week was spent organising a frock customisation competition for the up & coming young British designers of Stafford College. This project will begin A/W 2011 through to S/S 2012. We will take some of the frocks that have been sent in to us that need updating & repair and give them a cutting edge new lease of life. We will blog their progress for hot tips on customising an item. The runners up and winner will be showcased here.

So whats in this season? Block acid brights and petit florals of which www.londonfrockexchange.com has lots of. London Fashion Week has been all a twitter of the late great Yves Saint Laurant - his legacy of clashing block bright colour and clean masculine lines fills the catwalks this season. Check out London Frock Exchange's collection which includes authentic Yves and for a swap price of just £30!

London Fashion Week has been busy and fun but sustainable fashion doesn't stop there. Coming soon is our interview with those fine fellows Global Cool. Also reporting from Dubai next month we will be Swishing gowns and LBDs in sunny style. Our flights are booked and our excitement levels are high.

LFE, V&A, LFW, NYC, SJP and Dubai! by Charlotte Davies

The Swishing world started London Fashion Week with a big Swish at the V&A. Organised by the good folks of Futerra and attended by yours truly. A throng of Swishers stripped rails in minutes and the global shopping revolution continues. As we speak, an LFE representative is in New York putting out a big shout to all our NYC girlfriends, to gather for some swishing fun this weekend Downtown. We shall let you know how it goes. Also we will be swishing in Dubai next month. SJP eat your heart out.

If you're thinking of hosting your own swishing event here are some top tips for happy swishers: Quality control is key - Those of good will, who bring quality items to an event, need to be encouraged. For swapping to spread and make a real difference to the environment give Karma a helping hand and categorise items for a fair swap.

Or simply go to www.londonfrockexchange.com where all the hard work is done for you.

Hope you are all enjoying the to-ing and fro-ing that is London Fashion Week? We are. Happy Swapping fellow Swishers!