Love nakedness

The next issue of Love to hit newstands will have three different covers, featuring full-frontal shots of three different models in the same pose with equally little coverage. The issue is Love's third, and I can't help but notice that it is the third to boast naked cover subjects. The first issue featured a naked Beth Ditto, who later said the magazine photoshopped her to make her look fatter than she really is. The second featured two covers, one of which had an unknown bass player appear shirtless, his trousers resting just below his hips. I love Love, but as a fashion magazine, after all, surely the focus should be on the many ways one might attire oneself?

Words from Dame Viv

"The nearest I have come to it [homelessness] is going home and finding I don't have my door key," she said. "I mean, what a disaster that is, dying to get in your house and you can't. And what if it wasn't there any more?"

Insightful words from Vivienne Westwood there on her homeless-inspired menswear collection which made its debut last week at Milan fashion Week. The press release for Westwood’s menswear collection declared: “Perhaps the oddest of heroes to emerge this season, Vivienne Westwood found inspiration in the roving vagrant whose daily get-up is a battle gear for the harsh weather conditions . . . Quilted bombers and snug hoodies also work well in keeping the vagrant warm.”

Let's all take a moment, now, to reflect on that glorious 2001 film Zoolander, Ben Stiller's parody of the fashion world. In it, a character called Mugatu markets a new fragrance: “Let me show you Derelicte,” says Mugatu. “It is a fashion, a way of life inspired by the very homeless, the vagrants, the crack whores that make this wonderful city so unique.” Doesn't this bear more than a smack of similarity to Dame Westwood's new collection (which, by the way, actually has some great individual pieces when you look past such de rigeur accessories as shopping trolleys and sleeping bags)?

Some might feel it's a little too close to the bone in our frosty economic climate. Some might call it tasteless. But surely any year that starts with the suggestion that Zoolander was no exaggeration is a year with definite promise.

One thing's for sure, Vivienne Westwood is a lady never fails to shock.

Bag Lady

Yes, we know, IT bags are so 2007. We’re not meant to want to splurge out on a must-have bag anymore – we’re supposed to go for discreet classics, or ’stealth’ bags that look great but don’t shout too loudly or look too familiar.

But there is one bag that makes me feel like throwing all caution to the wind. It's a modern classic, a bag for all seasons and a piece that will look just as good (if not even better)in a few years time once the leather has been lovingly worn in. For the love of God, it's a veritable keepsake!!

Yes, Mulberry has taken its modern classic, the Bayswater, and given it a new twist, taking one of the UK’s most successful young style icons, Miss Alexa Chung as inspiration. Nothing cements your arrival in the fashion firmament so much as a designer bag with your name on it, eh Alexa? Needless to say,the Mulberry Alexa is the new lust-have.

Unlike many of the IT bags that have gone before, the Alexa is actually practical. With its detachable leather shoulder strap the bag can be swung over the body for hands-free mobility, but the chunky plaited leather handle at the top means you can also carry it if you’re worried about ruining the lines of your coat (or personally speaking, if I can’t fit it over my shoulder-pads), not to mention the ample room inside for all of life's little essentials.

According to the Mulberry website, the Alexa is £695, so excuse me while I whip out my calculator- I've got some serious 'cost per wear' justification to busy myself with.

Now, where do I sign up for that waiting list?!