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Ah how sad it was when I realised that Grace Kelly died 30 years ago this Friday 14th September and then how this is exactly double the time since Diana died as well.  They had so much in common.  

A fabulous portrait of Grace by Bellmann.

The scene this week at Grace's grave in 

the Cathedral of Monaco.  Gone but not forgotten.

There is a lovely article with lots of fab photos of Grace at the Daily Mail newspaper website read it here
As you know I was recently at Althorp:-

Diana's island resting place.

The commemorative urn to Diana 

which is placed on the island.  

Urns are an Althorp tradition.

The "shrine"/temple to Diana.

Bringing these 2 great style icons of the 20th Century together is a lovely new book on Royal Style by Luise Wackerl which I recently bought from Amazon.  Whilst I have only looked at the photos so far, and read a few bits here and there, it does seem to be a very well put together book with fab photos and accurate facts - nothing annoys me more than when authors get it wrong about the royals!  Here are a few pics of the book:-

I love this 50's glamour portrait on the book cover!

The contents.

I like how the book starts "at the beginning" 

a refreshing change!

Everything from the hairstyles of the day....

....to beautiful jewellery.

Empress Eugenie

Empress Elizabeth - Sisi -style 
icon of her day.

Grace Kelly - with scarf!

Gloria von Thurn and Taxis with Moschino
teddy bear dress LOL!.

Diana off duty shopping in London 

carrying her Gucci  bag.

Princess Letitizia of Spain (left) with 

Carla Bruni Sarkozy (loving the Loubutins!) 
when she was First Lady of France

Kate on her wedding day.

Albert & Charlene at Kate's wedding.

A very happy Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden
 - I love this photo it's so happy!

 The book is pretty big and heavy - it will definitely look good on a coffee table LOL!  Hope you like this little trip down memory lane.

Ex Libris En Kimonos in Focus

In response to a reader question here are some photos of my Ex Libris en Kimonos scarf in cw06 with lots of different colours - well as many as I could find!!  Hope this helps make a decision:-

Pink/cerise

Black

Grey

Lilac

Beige

One diagonal ends - more reds

The opposite diagonal ends - more blues

With a bit fur in Poudre

Against brown.

More brown

And the last with brown - I think it works with most
of the colours I have shown and it is interesting
how different colours bring out the individual
colours in the scarf.  Hope this helps with the decision!

Answers!

I have had a couple of queries and requests so here are my responses!  Hope they help!

Wearing my Hermes Sellier gavroche

The cw details for my 

Ex Libris en Kimonos - cw06

The lovely sunset last night near home -

looking across the estuary to North Wales.

Saima Majid Scarves

I was recently asked to review a sample scarf for a UK designer - Saima Majid - and I was more than happy to undertake this new and interesting challenge!  Saima takes inspiration from a by gone era and you can see this coming through in her lovely designs.  I received a sample of the Sophia scarf/shawl - the scarf is large at 120cm x 120cm and is made of 70% wool and 30% silk.  I would say this is a very good alternative to a Hermes GM shawl - if like me you cannot justify the expense of Hermes shawls!  You can see more of Siama's lovely designs at www.saimamajid.co.uk - most of her scarves are the 70/30 wool/silk mix but she also has one 100% silk scarf as well.

First let's look at the design and the scarf itself, and then I've done some pics of the scarf in action:-

Lovely pink tissue wrapped parcel!

A first glimpse at Sophia!

The whole design.

The designer label.

If like me you love jewellery this is delightful - 

I really want this brooch!!

Here gorgeous pink roses are intertwined
with jewels.

Pearls,jet and turquoise get in on the act too!

A closer look at the weave.
Being 70% wool and 30% silk, obviously it is
not as soft as cashmere, but I think this will wear
much better and you won't need to be as careful
as with cashmere which is so much more delicate.

Simply worn here: folded in 2 on the bias and 

draped around the neck to give a casual look.

Worn to the side and secured with MT Shawl ring.
This will look great over a winter coat too!

Here I folded the scarf on the square, like for a pleated
look, wrapped it around my neck once and then 
criss-crossed the ends through the MT Shawl Ring - I think
this makes a nice neat compact look and very warm!

Here worn in a long look still folded on the 

square and I threaded one end through 

the MT Shawl ring and the other end is slipped 

through the one secured by the ring to

make the criss cross.

Just draped loose around the neck for a 

simple look.  Folded on the square.

A traditional shawl wrap/tied look (not really "me"!) 

but it shows the shawl in a different way.  The 

edges of the scarf/shawl design show nicely and 

this would even be nice with a LBD at an evening 

event (if folded a bit better than I have done!)

Cowboy works well!

The Friendship Knot makes for a 

slim line look.

A half bow using MT shawl ring - you 

can make the bow as big as you like 

to suit what you are wearing. 

I used a Basic Fold here.

Here using Basic Fold with MT shawl 
ring to make a bow - you can
wear it tight like this  OR...

....pull out the loops to make a bow..OR...

...pull even further for a floppy bow look!

Here I threaded the scarf through 
the ring vertically - Basic Fold

One of my fave looks the equestrian works really 

well here  with MT shawl ring and shows off the
colours of the scarf.

The same look but a fuller length view.

A variation on the half bow using it in 

combination with the equestrian look.  

This is a shorter way to wear the scarf 

as it is quite long.

The criss cross with ring - scarf 
folded on the bias. 

Here I folded the scarf as narrow as I could 

on the bias and threaded it through one of 

my scarf fur collars for a really cosy way 

to wear!  A simple single knot secures it.

Worn with the ends hanging loose

and which shows off more of the 
scarf design.

I hope this post has been of interest and to see more of Saima's designs please visit her website www.saimamajid.co.uk  I have really enjoyed reviewing something new in the scarf world and seeing how it would wear.  It is always nice to see designers' work and hopefully give them a helping hand, so I was very honoured to be asked to review the scarf.