May 8, 2002

From the Scotsman:

HELENA, DEFYING DISASTER

by scotsman.com

You know what it’s like. Alarm clock didn’t go off, the bulb’s gone in the bedroom and, lit only by closed-curtain gloom, you grab some clothes. Then you hit daylight. They don’t match - your jeans clash with your socks, two buttons are missing from your cardigan, not to mention an unidentifiable stain down the front of your top and, to cap it all, you can’t find the hairbrush. It’s a disaster; if fashion was a country, you’d be Albania.

Then up pops Helena Bonham Carter. And, suddenly, everything seems much better. For this is the woman who could give grunge a bad name. Whenever Hollywood stars are snapped clutching shopping they can’t help but look as if their personal hairdresser or make-up artist is lurking in the shadows. For today’s media-savvy stars, who know the ways of the paparazzi, it is essential to look sensational at all times.

But who on earth in the real world has time for that? Well, it seems that for those of us not deemed worthy enough to attract column inches, there is a new role model - crinoline queen, Helena Bonham Carter. After all, who needs a Fendi purse when there are all these old carrier bags lying around?

Where we are cursed with a laddered stocking or crumpled shirt, Bonham Carter strides out boldly with her Nora Batty-style socks hanging around her ankles, complete with patchwork skirt, which may have cost a fortune but on her simply looks as though she’s been dragged through a hedge twice.

Far be it for this 35-year-old to even contemplate the daily morning battle with a hairbrush. She pulls back her tresses into some sort of bun and gets on with it. But, then, after years of being shoe-horned into corsets for costume dramas is it any wonder that her preferred mufti is on the more deconstructed side of fashion.

But not without some pitfalls - Hollywood’s fashion police have a field day every time the English rose rolls up to her latest premiere dressed from top to toe in the contents of her local vintage shop (usually some sort of a floral-printed frock set off with a sturdy pair of walking boots).

With her huge dark eyes, pale skin and aristocratic heritage, this pre-Raphaelite beauty certainly has the potential - and the money - to join the ranks of her glamorous Hollywood co-stars in their self-obsessed quest for sartorial perfection. But where they have a personal stylist to advise them on what to wear when, and the best colour to paint their toenails, she’s probably got more sensible things to worry about. Then again, there could be another reason - maybe she just doesn’t give a damn.

Does it really matter if Chanel has given you a body-swerve when it comes to dress sense, or whether your Jimmy Choos match your lipstick. Well to some people it does, but if you are in the great band of people who have a life, Helena rules supreme.