Miss Fleur Cowles - a true classic.

There's nothing more chic than having Cary Grant as best man at you wedding - and that's exactly what Fleur Cowles did. She was style personified, in a way we just don't see anymore.

She always wore well-tailored suits, loved large dark-rimmed glasses and an air of mystique. Her signature were large cocktail rings and fresh roses.

In the great traditions of reinvention Ms Cowles was an absolute artiste. She was named Florence Freidman when she was born. Her birth records said 1908, Ms Cowles (or should we call her Flo?) said 1917.

She started as a copywriter in a department store then in advertising in Boston. By 1931 she was writing a daily fashion column in New York which was considered witty, amusing and irreverent.

She launched the fashion magazine Flair in 1950. It was the first of the new wave of magazines for women - featuring art, travel, ideas, fiction, discussion. It failed after a year - losing millions.

By 1953 she was back at the top again - attending the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth as an official US ambassador and doing good works for famine relief - traveling the world meeting the leaders of the times.

In 1996 Cowles wrote her memoirs - She Made Friends And Kept Them. The English Daily Telegraph said of the book, "names were not so much dropped as hurled in a barrage."

Ms Cowles was a new age woman before we could come to terms with what that meant. A gifted art historian, tireless charity worker, stylish woman and terrible gossip - what more could you want? Rest in peace Fleur.

The classic white shirt

My dear friends, you may recall me banging on in the past about "wardrobe classics" and how I am not a fan of all those things one is supposedly obliged to have (eg: classic beige trench and the leopard print shoe).

However, the same cannot be said for my love affair with the classic white button down. It is a wardrobe staple and throughout every look I have ever had, it always has been.

I am very much on the side of "the plainer the better". I don't like fancy add ons, frou-frou, dress ups and novelties added to my white shirt. I like it plain and timeless.

That being said, I will spend money on it. Not big bucks, but not bargain basement either. You need a generous and sensible fit, a good length (too cheap and they skimp on length, I find from bitter experience), and good quality cotton.

And I can wear it with pearls (inside the shirt or out), colored beads, jacket, cardigan, coat, waist coat, scarf. But most of all I like it plain, plain, plain.

What do you look for in your white shirt?

Anna tells Oprah - you're too fat!

Anna Wintour once told Oprah Winfrey that she was too fat to appear on the cover of Vogue and that she "had to drop a few pounds" before the photo shoot.

In un-aired segments of Wintour's recent interview on 60 Minutes, Ms Wintour admits to telling Oprah that she was too fat for Vogue.

She said :

“It was a very gentle suggestion. I went to Chicago to visit Oprah, and I suggested that it might be an idea that she lose a little bit of weight. I said simply that you might feel more comfortable. She was a trooper! She totally welcomed the idea, and she went on a very stringent diet. And it was one of our most successful covers ever.”

I doubt that it was a successful cover because Oprah was skinny. It was successful because it was Oprah. I am so glad that Oprah was happy and receptive to Wintour's suggestion. But you know, Oprah is Oprah and that's the reason we love her. I don't need her to be 100 pounds or 250 pounds, I just need her to be Oprah.

And you know I look at the cover and she looks kind of ....starved, and unhappy.

What do you think?

Jackie OH!

Yesterday we learned so much from Carine Roitfeld about how to have sex appeal.

Today, we reveal marriage advice from Jackie Kennedy Onassis as told to a group of advice young girls at a literary event held at Boston’s Kennedy Library.

And isn't it loaded?

‘I like to share what I’ve learned with all young women I meet, because I wished I’d have known it at your age — never marry, never mix your money,” she said.

Lacroix darling, Lacroix!

French fashion house Christian Lacroix was finally placed under administration this week after filing for bankruptcy protection last week. The global financial crisis hits again!

But Christian himself feels confident that his house will remain open and operating. He wrote a letter to his staff - "I don't know what tomorrow will be made of, if indeed there is a tomorrow, but I will do everything to ensure we remain a couture house 200 percent."

Christian was always one of those mega high end fashion brands that made luxury priced clothes that always looked highly disposable. I never bought any Lacroix but it always struck me as the kind of attire that you definitely could not wear season after season after season. It always was too quirky, too now, too in-your-face for sustainability.

Perhaps in these times, when people are prepared to fork out for luxury brands, the 'of the moment' feel of most Lacroix outfits just made them fall right off the shopping list?