And the winner is....?

Being a costume assistant my career revolves around clothes and film, so these factors never come better together than on the red carpet at the Oscars. When I was growing up me and my sister would stay up late at night with a bag of pop corn watching all the starlets coming own the carpet in amazing or some times horrendous gowns. Me and Paula would have a note pad and mark the costumes out of ten. Unfortunately the Oscars aren't shown on the BBC and I don't have Sky television, so i have to make do by watching GMTV the next morning, which sucks. Maybe its a good thing as I would never get up for work the next morning. Anyway this is my round up of 2009 Oscar dresses.

Lets start with this years Oscar golden girl Miss Kate Winslet. Kate at the moment is looking hot. She as really grown into herself as she has got older. Its so good to see a woman getting sexier as she gets older, especially in this youth obsessed culture. She has been wearing some great outfits recently, so I have to say I was slightly disappointed with this YSL choice. I don't hate it (My designer Howard really hated it!) but I don't love it either. It would be much better without the fussy net detail, which is not very flattering. She should have gone down the road she took at the 2002 and Oscars in a beautiful red Ben De Lisi dress which is still one of my Oscar favourites.




Next up is new girl on the blog Freida Pinto, the star of the film "Slum dog Millionaire." Pinto has been doing the award circuit in a choice of gowns that for me have been slightly dodgy and this John Galliano one fell for me in to that category. It looks like she is wearing a sling! Enough said. Angelina Jolie once again played it safe in this classy black number from Elie Saab, but to be fair you could put her in a bin bag and she would still look great.



Marisa Tomei wore this very dramatic Versace dress carrying it off very well without it looking over the top. Beyonce once again got it wrong with this House of dereon dress designed by her mother which looked like she was about to bust out of it. One word advice beyonce: "Stop letting your mother dress you!"

SJP took some of her sex and the city kookiness to the red carpet in this vintage style Dior dress which I just love. It looks like its just off the New look catwalk.

Surprisingly my favourite dress was Evan Rachel woods by Elie Saab. For me it's old school Hollywood Glamour with a slight modern twist. I would give anything to wear this dress any day even to supermarket if I had the chance.

So that is my options on this years Oscars but I will leave you with my favourite Oscar dresses through out the years.

Jan's 30th

Well as expected it was a messy one but also a good one too. First things, first though, I got my dress on time and also managed to fit into it. In fact I had no trouble breathing but did have trouble going to the toilet after a couple of drinks as the dress was hard to get over my sticky out hip bones and I decided to wear stockings and spenders with it, which was probably not the greatest decision once your vision gets a bit blurred. It survived in tack though and was totally worth it as I have never had so many compliments about a dress as I did that night. The flat I hate to say fared a little worse. We cleared out most of the furniture, but with a full DJ set with speakers, lights, decks, a band with full kit, a dog? and over a 150 people there was bound to be a few casualties. One of Jan's photos got stolen from his exhibition, which I think he was he was quite glad about as it meant that some one really liked it. The banister got broken ( We can get some glue) and glasses got smashed (they were only cheap from Tesco!). No the most horrible thing to occur was the toilet! With 150 people that have been drinking a lot and only one toilet there is always going to be trouble. At 5.30am I decided I had, had enough and was going to bed so walked to the bathroom dodging the rest of the party people in the less than glamorous state of my dress with UGGS and a bird nest head, to find the bathroom flooded. Yes! The toilet was blocked! I can't remember if I cried or not but I was not in the best of states and demanded that someone go and get a plunger, to which one of the Italians next door said I could use their toilet or I should pee in a bottle! I started to rant on that it was alright for you men and that they should try being a woman, and that it isn't just periods that is a problem but peeing anywhere is too! Luckily some sorted the toilet out ( I think just to shut me up!)





The Party in full swing.

And the morning after!

OBSERVATIONS

* I will not be having a party again for a long time as I spent all of Sunday cleaning and the place is still not fully back to normal!

* People bring the crappiest, cheap wine to parties.

* People leave those crappy, cheap wine bottles in the strangest of places IE the towel cupboard, the drawers, the mop bucket and plant pots.

* Our next door neighbours have really shit taste in music as they are playing it really loud now and it is pissing me off!

HOME SWEET HOME

Appearances can be deceiving! Take for example where I live! Oslo House is not most beautiful of buildings. In fact it looks like a right dump from the outside. My Mum when she first came to visit thought I was living in a squat ( To be fair, that was before the outside was painted!) So when she actually walked in the flat she was expecting the worst but instead the words that escaped from her mouth were "Well, I'm quite pleasantly surprised!" You see our flat may not be to everyone tastes but you just can't help but love it. For a start there is just the shear size of it, such a rare thing in London. The building use to be an old clothing factory, but now it is separated into two floors of live in work spaces, so the building has turned into something of an artist community. London can be an unfriendly place, but in Oslo I don't just know my neighbours ( a First in London!) but you end up knowing most of the people in the building. With its mish mash of styles and anything goes decor that most buildings could never get away with, it has so much character! The most important thing though is that it feels homely. After Claire and Debs (my old flat mates) left, taking with them all their amazing furniture, the place felt dead and empty. Its taken a while, but I feel the place is looking full of life again and may it keep carrying on. Anyway here are some of my favourite pieces in the flat:



The sunset wall paper is left over from the time of Claire and Debs, but I just love it for its sheer kitschness. The Cream Yak hair rug, we found in corridor. Someone must have thrown it out, so we decided to get get it shampooed and keep it.


The patch work throw is from Anjuna Market in Goa. I made Paula (My sister) take it home in her suitcase, much to displeasure, while I carried on traveling through India. When I went to pick it up from her when I got home, she had it in the garage, wrapped in bags because she thought it would have fleas or something like that. It did not have fleas and I think its beautiful, no matter what she says. On the shelf we have my Moroccan lamps which we got in Marrakesh.



This is an old 1950's salon hair dryer that Claire got from the set of Miss Marple. When she moved out her boyfriend Chris hated it that much she left it with us. My clever house mate Oil has since turned it into a light. I love it so much.



This picture belonged to my God mothers, mother. I remember seeing it when I was a child when we use to go round to her house. I always loved it because the woman's skin was blue which I thought was so strange. When her mum sadly went into care, Chris ( My God mother) just put in under a bed for years until I asked what happened to the picture. With that she gave it to me. Since then these paintings have become very fashionable, but I would still love it, even if it wasn't.



I love old pictures. I'm always on the look out for interesting ones, especially costume related. This is a collection of Lee Miller, pictures from the golden age of Couture exhibition at the V&A and My grandmother in the 1940's ( Which is my favourite, because she looks so beautiful).

VIVIEN OF HOLLOWAY

When I met up with Kirsty earlier in the week, we got talking about our new found love of 1950's clothes. We got on to the topic of Vivien of Holloway which is a shop on Kentish Town Road which makes replica 1950's clothing. So we decided to take a visit to the shop today. The shop itself is under a railway arch and above a motor bike garage. It is a Aladdin's cave of polka dots and floral prints. The dresses themselves are tiny : I only just squeezed myself into a size 10, which was new experience for me. I have ordered myself a lovely halterneck pencil dress from them for Jan's 30th, as they did not have it in my size in the colour I wanted. I just hope it arrives in time!
Check out Vivien's website : http://www.vivienofholloway.com/


I managed to squeeze myself into this lovely number.

OBSERVATIONS

* I Can't eat anything ever again if I'm going to fit into that dress! Dam it!

DRINKING AND CYCLING

Me and Jan decided to go to warehouse party on the other side of the Wick last night. As it was so cold but not too far to the party, we decided to cycle. The only problem with it, is cycling back when you have had more than a few to drink. Luckily we got back in one piece, but I'm not sure if its a feat I shall be trying again.! Anyway it was a good night. Not a busy party but met quite a few interesting people, though I was really drunk and talking about crap that I can't remember. I do remember though, inviting loads of random people to Jan's 30Th party next week! Oophs!

OBSERVATIONS

* Really hung over today!

2 PINTS OF LARGER AND A PACKET OF CRISPS....

Actually it should really be 4 larger and blacks, Magners, a couple of gin and tonics with a plate of nachos, as that what was consumed when I met up with my old university friend, Kristy the other night. I only meet up with Kirsty every couple of months, which is never enough because she is a good and loyal friend and always forget how good we get along, ( me and her were thick as thieves at university). Its our tradition that our meetings always take place in an establishment of Weatherspoon as a sort of homage to our uni days as the Bournemouth branch was our favourite drinking hole as it was the cheapest and did lots of special offers, like 2 for 1 and get a double shot for a pound extra. If we could not afford to drink out which happened a lot we use to buy one of those 3 litre ( or something like that!) bottles of Lambrini, before we ventured out to a club, usually unable to walk properly before we had even got out and always sick in some corner before the night was through. Another favourite trick of ours was to buy a bottle of vodka and down shots followed by a hand full of M&M's to rid the horrible taste. It was a good idea apart from the fact you found M&M's all around the house for weeks afterwards! Our second favourite was the student bar, Dylan's which we would escape to for a sneaky pint when our tutor Nigel wasn't looking and always have the healthy? lunch of a plate of nachos with cheese and all the toppings. In fact the nachos ritual was ruined for a year when Kirsty decided to become a vegan, So when she told me the other night that she had stopped the first thing that came into my head was that we could have nachos again! much to my delight. We sat and talked and observed the hard face alcoholics that always seem to frequent Weatherspoons. I must say though it not quite the same since the smoking ban as the nicotine stained ceilings have gone and I always thought they added to the grimy character of the places. I know! I'm strange!

LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW

Snow is like Marmite: you either love it or hate it! It's not just kids that love it. Snow can turn even the most sensible of adults into little children including me ( though I have never been classed as sensible!) When I was younger we had a green plastic sledge from B&Q which me and my brother, Darren loved playing with for hours every timed it snowed (Paula, my sister, didn't really do snow!) We were still playing with that sledge up until our late teens, with us looking a little big and out of place with the rest of the 8 year old sliding down the hill in the local park. On a break from Uni it started to snow and me and Darren immediately rushed to the shed to for the sledge only to find it gone.
"Mum where the sledge!"
"I got rid of it."
"You got rid of it!"
"Well it had a big hole in it!"
"So, we could of fixed it!"
"Carly, you and Darren are 20 and 21!"
IE that means your too old, so get over it. I still haven't forgiven her!
As the heaviest snow fall in 18 years hit London yesterday I wished I had my old sledge. I Woke up Monday morning with a text from Howard to say he didn't own a snow plough so not to bother coming to work. Brilliant! I rushed to window to see a winter wonderland. I usually hate the dull and dead landscape of winter, I find it depressing, but this was beautiful. The snow had turned the ugly Wick into a fantasy land and I couldn't wait to get out there. Unfortunately not everyone shared my enthusiasm! Angus and Oil (Who I know would be snow lovers) aren't here. SSam took one look out of the window and made one of here funny moaning noises and said she was going to stay inside all day and Jan said he just wanted to hibernate. All very annoying! Luckily Jan came round to the idea after he got up and so he should, being from Berlin ( They must get snow all the time there!) We went to Vicky park along where the rest of the Hackney population who all seemed very pleased with having a day off work. We Didn't make a snow man as Jan seemed more interesting in destroying them like a hyperactive child, than producing one. Well you win some and loose some!









OBSERVATIONS

* I need to stop drinking wine. I get far to drunk on it.

* All my fashion sense goes out the window with this cold weather. Its all about warmth and not style which means I look like a cross between Helena Bonham Carter ( Bad dress sense!), a tramp and Michelin man.

CORONATION DAY

New year and back to work! Actually I'm quite glad as I can't bear to watch anymore crap daytime telly and I have gone through all the decent DVDs in our collection. Also, most importantly I am nearly out of money. I am back working with Howard and Fraser again after over year which is good. Its been so long as I sodded off traveling and then they pissed off to Budapest to film Robin hood for 6 months ( they couldn't take me as the BBC wouldn't pay for assistant and just get local girls to do it for 50p or something stupid a day!) Anyway we have a nice little 6 week job which seems to be a breeze as most of it is prep ( IE getting things made and finding the costumes) and less shooting, so not the usual crappy hours. I would tell you what I'm working on but I might get hung drawn and quartered as I had to sign a contract on this job to say I was not allowed to disclose anything about it. This is because this particular programme has a huge cult fan base, which actually means load of geeks with nothing better to do than find out what the story line is. What I can tell you though is that we got a day filming on coronation street. Brilliant! Coronation street or Corrie as it is known is a British institution and also the longest running TV drama in the world. It is also a lot better than Eastenders and I'm not just saying that because I'm a northern, it's just fact! I can't say I have ever been an avid soap watcher but have had to endure them when I go home as my mum and Nan seem to be addicted to them, so I do kind of know whats going on and have come to the conclusion that Soap streets are not a good place to live if you want to be happy and live a long life as you can get blown up, have sex with your brother, get married to a transsexual and have a pedophile living next door. It may not be a good place to live but it's a great place to arse around, which me and Fraser my Supervisor did all day.




The rovers new bar maid.

OBSERVATIONS

* Fraser and Howard are the fastest walkers in the world as I am usually trailing behind, jogging to catch up.

* I have forgotten how knackering filming hours were.

* I have also forgotten how good it is to have a bath as we don't have one in the unit. I had two this weekend, one at my mums and a lovely one at the Ramada Hotel in Manchester where we stayed on Friday. I also stole all the toiletries too.