Be Careful What You Wish For

Some people say "be careful what you wish for, for it may one day happen."

Well happened it has and somehow, I have been honoured with becoming the car reviewer for GQ.COM with my first ever car review available to look at online NOW. For those of you who don't know, aged 17 on my year off before university, I worked at a motoring magazine and, to this day, look back very fondly at being among car enthusiasts and fellow petrol heads and each and every day, talking about nothing else but speed, handling, new models etc. Obviously my life changed gear (excuse the pun!), and I took a very different road (oh dear, there I go again), and fashion/modelling has become, and still is, my main passion. The brakes (oh I just can't stop, can I?), have definitely not been applied yet.

This week though, for about two hours, the GQ column has enabled me to live out one of my fantasies (and no, it doesn't involve Rachel McAdams). You see for the 15th anniversary of VOGUE.COM, you may have read a piece that I wrote on 'The fifteen most stylish cars of all time.' (CLICK HERE TO READ IT) I don't want to give too much away as you'll have to read about it next month at GQ.COM, but let's just say that I had a truly astonishing experience test driving one of those historic, individual, and in my opinion astonishingly beautiful cars - an honour I will never forget.

On the fashion front, last week I had a manic four days in Milan during Men's Fashion Week. It saddens me that I have been to so many 'Men's' fashion weeks in Milan, Paris and NYC, but in London, men's fashion shows are limited to half a day during the women's shows. I'm not sure I totally understand this. With the heritage and history in fashion that we have in this country, and names such as Aquascutum, Burberry and Richard James to name a few, it raises the question as to why are we not supporting men's fashion more in the UK? One man that is showing, is Patrick Grant (is there a more stylish man on the planet at the moment?). His collection for E. Tautz will be revealed on February 23, and I wish him the very best of luck.

Milan though, for me, is exclusively for Dolce and Gabbana. Much of the weekend was taken up in preparation and in meetings for a special project (sorry, I've been sworn to secrecy!), that will hopefully be revealed this summer. However, it is a project I am readily involved in like no other before, which is very exciting. The rest of the weekend involved fittings, rehearsals and then the actual fashion show. The buzz, anticipation and excitement before the show, still, after all these seasons, is something I cannot explain. I don't think I will ever get over the fact that I am honoured season after season with working with Dolce & Gabbana and walking in their shows. The only way to quantify it is the fact that the adrenalin still flows and butterflies in my stomach are rife just before I walk - even after all this time.

Just one last thing. Dolce&Gabbana's style icon for this season is Bryan Ferry. What was I saying about the BRITISH heritage?