ENGLAND

Something you might not know about James and I is that we're both English citizens. My dad is English, born in Coventry, so I recieved citizenship through him. James on the other hand was actually born and raised in Yorkshire (Northern England) until he was 12 and most of his family still lives there. This past week, we've both been back in the old country. James is working on a house here in London and I've been working a bit too. I actually shot over by Buckingham palace the other day which was interesting. At one point everyone was sure the Queen was coming out... but sadly no, no sign of her, not even the corgi's.

When I'm in London, I usually stay around Hyde Park but this time I'm staying in London's east end. I have to say, I really like it here! There are so many boutique vintage stores around and I love the street style I'm seeing everywhere. The kids around Hoxton and Shoreditch actually remind me of characters from the TV show, The Mighty Boosh, all future retro'd out. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I suggest you take 2 minutes out of your busy day to watch this classic Mighty Boosh clip. James and I have been inspired to randomly sing this song all week long:

Trust me, you'll get into it eventually.

The other night we were invited to Brown's 40th anniversary dinner. Browns is still owned and run by Mrs. Burstein, or Mrs. B as she is known - a classy lady if ever I saw one.  I was really interested to learn what a patron of fashion Browns has been and how, through the years, Mrs B. has championed the talents of John Galliano, Alexander McQueen and others very early in their careers.

At the dinner James was sat next to the beautiful Eva Herzigova who apparently gave him top secret travel advice for our honeymoon (which he still wont tell me!). Meanwhile on the other side, I got to chat with my pal Henry Holland about the good old days... aka, 2006. A funny story about Henry: I remember a time I was flying from London to New York, I came out of the washroom and nearly fell backwards when I saw a man with a neon pink shirt that had my name in giant letters printed on it!! I realized it was Henry right as he realized it was me staring back at him. Then came the awkward moment of whether or not we should acknowledge each other and that we were both riding in coach (oh the horror! The shame!!). Henry broke the ice and asked me why I was back there and I could only respond with "well, whats your reason?!".  Anyway, I joined him and we sat next to each other, chatting it up the rest of the flight home. He did zip his jacket up after he realized what he was wearing though...

On Saturday both James and I had the day off. Since it was so nice out we decided to take a long leisurely walk over towards the London Eye. Along the way we found the Globe Theatre which is a reconstruction of the exact theatre Shakespeare's company would perform in 400 years ago right along the River Thames. We bought tickets to Henry VIII but the only ones we could get were standing, which we did... for hours!! Still, its all part of the experience, or so we are told. After that, we continued on to the London Eye but the line up was massive so we opted not to go. 

After a photo opportunity at Big Ben (Tim Walker style camera trickery!), we found a park where this cute little squirrel started to follow us. James stopped and beckoned the squirrel over and to our surprise all of a sudden he ran straight up James' leg!!  James took it like a man... well maybe... he might have squirmed just a little bit. Of course, I need to document everything so we tried to make the squirrel do it again but he wasn't having it. Now, he seemed to want to chase after me!! A little side note: squirrels terrify me. A friend of mine was attacked by one once (its true!) and since then I'm always on edge around them. I can shoot with all sorts of animals on set, but a wild squirrel is a bit of a nightmare for me. Anyways back to the subject. I realized the squirrel wanted to see what was in my bag, so I handed the bag off to James. In the end the squirrel jumped back onto James leg and we got our picture of Mr. Squirrel and James chatting it up. After that a pigeon walked over to James and then a duck?!  Now James thinks he's the animal whisperer and that all animals of the land will flock to him...

We have one more week here in England and then its off to Toronto for 'Strut For a Cure.' Then of course there is the wedding, just 22 days away! Exciting times!!

XOXO
COCO

Walking in the clouds

One event I look forward to every year is the Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Absolutely everyone you can imagine is there, all dressed up like they're attending a high society event straight out of a Jane Austen novel. I suppose you could think of it as the one big New York event that kicks off the summer social calendar. This year Anna Wintour and Oprah Winfrey hosted the annual event, opening the special exhibit called "American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity" and I was privileged to attend.

I'm sure countless hours of preparation go into this event but for me the prep work started two weeks earlier at Zac Posens atelier. Before I got there Zac had brought a few dresses out of his archive for me to look at. Every one of them was a masterpiece in its own right but by the time I tried on his "cloud dress" my choice was obvious. The cloud dress, you might remember, is from his spring 2008 collection (vintage!) and is a spectacular gown with an incredible 8 foot train. Apparently it had never been worn on a red carpet before either. It looked perfect but the question on everyone's mind was: how on earth was I going to walk through a room of 600 people with this massive train behind me and not rip the dress or worse!? James had this crazy yet fabulous idea to take my train, flip it up and use it as a cape. It was very 1920's avant garde and when we tried it, we all loved the idea. Zac's team went right to work attaching a button and loop hole and in no time my cape was ready to go.

The day of the Gala I was getting ready to leave my house when I realized the dress was a little heavier than I remembered. I turned around a found my dog Peekaboo curled up and taking a nap on the train. Apparently she was quite content being dragged around the house. After ending Peekaboo's free ride I flipped up my cape, got into the car and headed uptown to the Met. I was so nervous the whole way. The red carpet at the Met Gala can be brutal - with celebrities like Oprah and Justin Timberlake on hand, how can a girl expect to get any attention? James assured me I looked great and told me I had nothing to worry about. As it turned out he was right, the photographers loved the dress and I could barely see straight after the barrage of flashing lights that hit me on the red carpet.

Once inside the Met you get your table number and then ascend another very long staircase up into the cocktail room. This staircase isnt lined with photographers though, its lined with male and female attendants in tuxedo's and ball gowns every step of the way. Every single attendant has their eyes on you, all silent. Its a very eerie experience, climbing all those steps and then finding at the very top Anna Wintour and Oprah Winfrey are stood waiting to shake your hand.

Once I was inside the cocktail hall I decided it most practical to keep myself and my dress in one spot. I bet Caroline and Hilary both thought me a snob at first, since I wasn't running over to talk to them, but once they realized my predicament they kindly came and chatted with James and I for the better part of the cocktail hour. At diner I had to ask for the gentleman's forgiveness before sitting and tried very hard to push as much material under the table as I could.

There were a number of other beautiful dresses at the Met ball but I'll never forget wearing my cloud dress. I'm so thankful to Zac and his team for making me feel like a true Cinderella story.

XOXO COCO

UPDATE: Strut for a cure