Colin Firth

Colin Firth, born to academic lecturers in Nigeria on the 10th of September 1960, is one my all-time favourite British actors. I admire his ability to take any role he is given by storm, i also admire his poise and presence on and off the screen. In this post i am going to give you my take on his performance in "The King's Speech" and "A single man", two of my favourite movies.

I am going to start off by saying how profoundly moving i found "The King's Speech", i have a great appreciation of those few people in human history who have overcome the small battles, be it disabilities, self-imposed limitations or any sort of self-doubt. This for me, as well  as everybody else is the heart of the film.

Colin Firth mastered the ability to stammer and made this impairment realistic and absolutely believable, he would cock his head to the side at the onset of a pause in his speech, he would click his tongue due to the difficulty of pronouncing a word and he would tense up his shoulders as he tried to get words of his mouth. This  performance really took a lot of study and practise to get perfectly right, and my goodness didn't he get it spot on!?

I love the role of  supporting actor Geoffrey Rush(Lionel Logue) and lead actress Helena Bonham Carter(Queen Elizabeth), these two characters personify what support from those close to a man and an unwavering faith can accomplish.

Finally, without sounding like a broken record, this motion picture makes my top five all time favourite list due to the fact that it was based on a true events in which King George had to fight a personal battle in order to win the war and lead his people, the characters overcame numerous challenges(unique to each one) and of course the marvellous performance of one Mr. Firth.

Now onto "A Single Man", in this movie i took a liking to the way Colin Firth leads a double life so to speak, he portrays and outer image of this Inteligent University professor who, although facing challenges in his love life, manages to stay strong and get on with daily life, whilst he has a hidden side of homosexuality .

Here Colin Firth manages to hide his emotions, in my view, perfectly. At times i struggled to comprehend what he would do or say next in the hopes of hiding his secret life. As you know, the plot thickens by the introduction of male model and actor Jon Kortajarena(Carlos) and the efforts of a young inquisitive student Nicholas Hoult(Kenny)

What i also loved about the film was the way the actors were dressed,as you know, Tom Ford was responsible for that. Ford captured the essence of the 1960's, the horn-rimmed glasses, the tight fitting pants and dress-shirts, the perfectly tailored suits and the larger than life hair.Firth looked sharpest in his suit, portraying an intelligent middle-aged man with a plenty of secrets( i ascribe this to the spectacles) there is something sinister about them i tell you!

These two films made me a believer of Mr Firths work and i hope that i did him justice in this post, if not, i will re post and delve deeper into the performance of this Great British actor.

Thank you reading(if you did) it is much appreciated.

T.B

Christopher Bailey

Christopher Bailey M.B.E (CB) is the chief creative officer of Burberry and is one my icons. I've always wanted to do a post on Christopher because, number 1; i haven't blogged in over a year and number 2; because he's a person who i feel i would like to emulate.

I read an article by Vanessa Friedman on the Financial Times website where she conducted an interview with him and it re-affirmed how highly i thought of him. I don't want to re-write a biography on him so I'm going to leave the details of his background and early career untouched for now at least, i just want to talk about how i see him.

As most of you know  CB was the womenswear designer at Donna Karan and then moved to  Gucci where he made a name for himself  heading the womenswear division. Its clear as day to see that he sharpened his skills there as he learnt under the master himself, Tom Ford.

Bailey then moved to Burberry in 2001 and has grown in stature ever since, his take and influence  on British fashion cant be spoken about enough. He has transformed the traditional Burberry image of: "The Trench coat" and added a modern touch to it.

Under Bailey, Burberry has become more modern, relevant and accessible, the use of social media and youtube has allowed this to take place, my favourite is "Music Monday" of course, where bailey picks out a song or music video applicable for that week and posts it on their youtube channel this gives me, as a "ordinary"person who takes interest in this brand, an insight into the mind the creative genius that is  Mr. Bailey

In one youtube video i watched on the Burberry channel, Bailey speaks about his inspiration. He mentions British weather, some photographers and my favourite part of the video, Adele. I first took serious interest in Burberry and Baileys work when i watched the women's autumn/winter show of 2011 where Adele's "someone like you" was played during the show, this for me was the centre piece of the whole atmosphere surrounding the show. I was hooked.

This feels sort of incomplete as i feel like i can go on and on about this designer(i think i should) but this is merely an introduction to more  posts to come, in future posts i will write about my take on his latest designs, videos, and thoughts on fashion and the world basically(again, my view on his thoughts, if that makes sense).

Thank you very much for reading this post(if you did), it is much appreciated.

T.B.