By Deirdre McQuillan
THAT'S AN ORDER The French actress Lou Doillon, the latest international style icon, is known as much for her style of dressing - in vintage clothes and cowboy boots - as for her movie roles. She's the 21-year-old daughter of Jane Birkin and Jacques Doillon and she's APC's model for its winter 04 catalogue in which on one page she appears with her bulldog, Spike, given to her when she left home at 15 by her mother to keep her company and give her a sense of responsibility. APC is the uber chic French mail order company with several outlets in Paris, two in New York and Hong Kong, and more than a dozen in Japan. Its latest offerings include lots of denim, velvet and tweed jackets, wedge peep toes, printed silk scarves and this lovely pleated satin duchesse skirt, €170 worn with a beige cotton sweater, €100. Green, apparently, is Lou's favourite colour. View website at www.apc.com.
BLASTS FROM THE PAST Terry de Havilland's shoes suggest winged Roman chariots, all flying leather, snakeskin and blocky heels, but they are straight out of the 1970s. A self-styled cobbler and son of shoemakers from London's East End, he was one of the golden boys of the early rock 'n'roll set and his customers included Paul Smith, Bianca Jagger, Anita Pallenberg, Britt Ekland, Lulu and the Bowies. He opened his first shoe shop on the King's Road in 1972 called Cobblers To the World, decorating it as fancifully as his footwear with tented ceilings, oversized chandeliers and purple velvet banquette seats. His work featured in Helmut Newton's photographs and more recently he has continued to make bespoke shoes for his fans from his workshop in London. Now he's back in the news again with a ready-to-wear collection blatantly retro in spirit, with wedge heels, platform soles and ankle straps. Colours are rock-star red suede and silver snakeskin, bright yellow and blue, as well as more demure black leather and suede to lift the spirits if not the soles. From €279 exclusively at Footcandy, Rock Hill, Blackrock, Co Dublin.