At first glance it appears to be just a simple white dress that any 11-year-old might choose to buy.

Sadie Frost and daughter Iris Law at London Fashion Week Photo: SPLASH
Sadie Frost’s daughter wears controversial dress
BY Daily Telegraph Reporter | 21 February 2012

But on closer inspection admirers would be forgiven for wondering why Sadie Frost allowed her daughter Iris to wear an outfit that declares “drop dead”, “drink poison”, and a plethora of other X-rated messages.

Iris, Frost’s child with Jude Law, sat front row with her mother at the Vivienne Westwood show at London Fashion Week on Sunday.

She teamed her dress with white lace tights and a blazer as she sat photographing pictures of the models on her iPhone.

Ms Frost, 46, tweeted today: “I seem to have upset people & am shocked myself about the dress Iris wore to Vivienne Westwoods show. Iris had been bought it as a present.”

Also bringing their daughter to London Fashion Week was Heston Blumenthal, who posed before the catwalk show with his teenager Jessica.

Other celebrities in attendance were Jo Wood, in a plunging red gown, Gizzi Erskine,wholesale Louis Vuitton, Rita Ora and Gabriella Cilmi.

Speaking before the show, Dame Westwood said the rise of disposable fashion now meant people often looked too similar.

She said: “In history people dressed much better than we do today. If you saw Queen Elizabeth it would be amazing, she came from another planet.

“She was so attractive in what she was wearing. People have never looked so ugly as they do today regarding their dress.

“We are so conformist, nobody is thinking. We are all sucking up stuff, we have been trained to be consumers and we are all consuming far too much.

“I’m a fashion designer and people think what do I know but I’m talking about all this disposable cr**.

“So I’m saying buy less, choose well, make it last. Everybody looks like clones and the only people you notice are my age. I don’t notice anybody unless they look great, and every now and again they do, and they are usually 70.”

Each July, fashion—the made-in-Italy kind, at least—moves south to Rome. The destination? Altaroma fashion week, Italy’s answer to haute couture, where acting President Silvia Venturini Fendi and Vogue Italia’s Franca Sozzani pick the womenswear winners of Italy’s annual Who is On Next young designer competition. (The men’s half of Who’s Next was held last month at Pitti in Florence.)

The prestigious international jury, including Suzy Menkes,Cheap Marc Jacobs Sunglasses, Saks Fifth Avenue’s Terron Schaefer and Harvey Nichols’ Averyl Oates, spent last Saturday in a sizzling-hot Rome reviewing the work of seven ready-to-wear labels and four accessories lines for the seventh edition of the prize, which rewards winners with a feature shoot by one of Vogue Italia’s photographers and a fashion-show slot during Milan fashion week in late September. (Yoox.com, Mercedes-Benz, and Alcantara offered their own supplemental prize.)

Angelos Bratis (left), a Greek designer producing his collection in Italy, won first prize for his sleek, bias scarf-cut pieces inset with stars, while second prize went to Stella Jean, a Caribbean-Italian designer born in Rome, who created Euro-African mix of crisp pinstripe shirts and wax prints in modernized fifties hourglass shapes. Alessio Spinelli, whose eponymous shoe collection debuted in Rome this year, won the accessories prize for the innovative details of his Neon, collection like stiletto sandals with glow-in-the-dark-edged soles, or interchangeable shocking satin laces. Marta Ferri, who did a bright, floral-filled remix of fifties glamour, received the jury’s special mention.

“It’s really amazing to participate in a competition like this,” said Bratis, who spoke during a private evening tour of the Vatican with the jury and journalists assembled for the prize, a rare treat negotiated by Silvia Fendi using all her intra-Roman connections. “All of a sudden you’re in a room with some of the people who you have always dreamed of showing your collection to. So there’s 15 minutes to explain what you’re doing. And then you realize that they understand everything and that an explanation really isn’t necessary.”
—Rebecca Voight

Photo: Courtesy Photo

“Pariah,” writer-director Dee Rees’ feature debut, achieves a difficult, intriguing balance. It’s at once raw and dreamlike, specific to a particular, personal rite of passage yet widely relatable in its message of being true to oneself.

Adepero Oduye gives a subtly natural performance as Alike (pronounced ah-lee-kay), a 17-year-old Brooklyn girl who’s struggling to come out as a lesbian. Each day at school, she dresses the way that makes her feel comfortable in baggy T-shirts and baseball caps, and she pals around with her brash best friend, Laura (Pernell Walker), who’s already happily out. But on the bus ride home, she must transform herself into the young lady her mother, Audrey (Kim Wayans), approves of and loves. You can see the weight of resignation hanging on her shoulders, the sadness in her eyes as she catches a glimpse of herself in the window.

Audrey hopes arranging a new friendship with a colleague’s daughter, Bina (Aasha Davis), will set Alike down a traditionally straight, female path, but this budding relationship only complicates matters further. While the two girls don’t exactly bond at first, Bina eventually becomes beguiling to Alike on a number of levels; their mutual fascination with each other would be believable even if they’d forged a simply heterosexual connection.

But nothing is ever simple with girls at this age, and so there are gray areas, a phenomenon Rees herself clearly understands. “Pariah” isn’t exactly an autobiographical tale for the filmmaker, but the struggle Alike endures is obviously quite personal to her.

Simultaneously, Alike’s home life is deteriorating, as her police officer father (Charles Parnell) begins keeping suspiciously late hours; it’s a subplot that bogs things down and feels like a distraction from Alike’s journey, a device to crank up the tension. The growing rift between mother and daughter certainly provides enough angst already, with Audrey remaining fiercely closed-minded, even as Alike finally begins to feel free.

Her story is inspiring to see, whether you’re gay or straight and regardless of age or race; she’s searching for her place in the world at a difficult, transitional time, something we’ve all experienced. Oduye is both melancholy and radiant in the role, and she makes you long for her character to finally find peace. And Bradford Young’s award-winning cinematography gives “Pariah” the gauzy,wholesale Ed hardy belts, gorgeous feel of an urban fairy tale one in which our heroine doesn’t necessarily live happily ever after, but at least she has hope. And she knows who she is.

“Pariah,” a Focus Features release, is rated R for sexual content and language. Running time: 86 minutes. Three stars out of four.

___

Motion Picture Association of America rating definitions:

G General audiences. All ages admitted.

PG Parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

PG-13 Special parental guidance strongly suggested for children under 13. Some material may be inappropriate for young children.

R Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

NC-17 No one under 17 admitted.

VIDEO: How Lindsay’s life took a black turn

The 25-year-old star’s father, Michael, was arrested early Tuesday morn in Tampa, Fla., on domestic violence charges after a brutal argument with his live-in girlfriend, Kate Major.

PHOTOS: Lindsay’s latest mugshot

“He swiftly got defensive saying ‘everything is OKAY and naught happened here,’” the police episode report stated. “The martyr started yelling in the background as us to aid her because he was lying.”

Turns out Lindsay’s not the only Lohan in difficulty with the law.

He was creature held without bail at the Hillsborough County Orient Road Jail Thursday morning.

A police report obtained along The Associated Press says Lohan, 51, was taken into custody at 1:10 a.m. after a daylong spat with Major, 28. The pair reportedly fought over an upcoming court outward on a before servant violence charge and the truth namely Major would no perform oral sex on Lohan.

Responding to a shriek at Major’s home, commanders listened a female exclaiming “stop” and “leave me solo.” When Lohan answered the gate, he was sweaty and winded.

Major — who has a temporary domestic violence injunction against Lohan but let him stay overnight anyhow — told police her beau banged his pate on the door and intended to reproach her for his injuries when authorities arrived.

Complaining of breast pains during the ordeal, Lohan was taken to a handy hospital for handling, and was arrested when he tried to retard himself out of the hospital without police consent.

PHOTOS: Stars at court