Who was Oleg Cassini?

Oleg Cassini (April 11, 1913 – March 17, 2006) was a French-born American fashion designer. Cassini dressed numerous stars creating some of the most memorable moments in international fashion and film. He garnered admiration and fame for his designs for First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.

His designs for the First Lady, ‘The Jackie Look’ are recognized as being the “single biggest fashion influence in history” by film costume designer, Edith Head. Cassini’s contemporary designs such as the A-line, Sheath and the Empire Strapless continue to remain influential and predominant today. His passions including sports and Native American culture fueled his work with freshness and imagination, creating innovative looks fueled by his very personal feeling that: “To be well dressed is a little like being in love.”

Jackie Kennedy & Oleg Cassini
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More about Oleg Cassini for Jackie Kennedy:   http://agnautacouture.com/2013/10/27/jackie-kennedy-the-presidential-wardrobe/

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Grace Kelly in her Oscar gown by Oleg Cassini

The Love Affair

Grace Kelly was with Jean-Pierre Aumont, trying to get over the loss of Ray Milland when she met Oleg Cassini. Cassini had recently seen Grace Kelly in the film Mogambo and was already besotted when he spied her in a restaurant in New York. She was with Aumont whom Oleg Cassini already knew (they had competed for the love of Gene Tierney in the past). According to Oleg, when they met, Grace dressed ‘like a school teacher’. He encouraged her to ‘put a little sex in her clothes’. Cassini was something of a Casanova, an ‘accomplished seducer’ he set his sights on winning Grace’s heart and did so in typical fashion. ‘It was to be the greatest, most exhilarating campaign of my life.‘ He remarked later.

Cassini set about developing a plan of seduction which involved sending a dozen red roses to Grace’s home for ten days, he did not sign the card, instead he wrote ‘from the friendly florist’ on the tenth day he called her saying he was the friendly florist. He got her laughing and got her to join him on a date (she was chaperoned by her sister on this occasion).

Grace Kelly & Oleg Cassini

Grace told Oleg she was in love with Ray Milland. The silver-tongued and confident Aries told her it was not a problem and that she would be engaged to him within a year. Grace left for LA the next day, but Oleg made sure he was seen by gossip columnists in the company of beauties such as Pier Angeli and Anita Ekberg in order that he would be seen and read about by Grace in their columns.

They eventually met up again on the French Riviera where they spent an evening together in what Oleg describes as a ‘distressingly platonic’ situation. He poured out his heart to Grace, declared the essence of his inner desires and that was it, his persistence paid off.

Oleg Cassini & Grace Kelly

Oleg Cassini’s biggest obstacle to life-long happiness with Grace Kelly was his past (he had been married before and linked with many beautiful women) which caused a problem for Grace’s mother who considered Oleg a bad risk for a husband. Her father, who was an old-fashioned racist, considered Cassini to be too much of a foreigner (Oleg was a son of a Russian and born in Paris).

Grace was persuaded not to marry designer Oleg by her mother and father. “Do you realise if my mother hadn’t been so difficult about Oleg Cassini, I probably would have married him?” the screen goddess is quoted as saying. Marrying into the Monaco royal family in 1956 was an apparent attempt to gain the approval of her father, who had failed to congratulate her on any of her past accomplishments, including the Oscar she was awarded for The Country Girl.

Once married, Grace realised that there was no way of continuing the Hollywood career that she had so loved and began to regret not choosing a marriage that would have allowed her to work. “How many wonderful roles I might have played by now?” she apparently lamented. “How might my life have turned out? That one decision (to marry Prince Rainier) changed my entire future.”

Grace Kelly 

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What Oleg Cassini had to say

Oleg, who never remarried, did let the regret tinge his voice when he talked about what might have been: “I fell in love with Grace after I saw her in Mogambo. When she broke up with Milland she sent me a postcard asking me to come to the south of France while she filmed To Catch a Thief. ‘Those who love me follow me,’ she wrote.

“Well, I let my dress collections go to hell, and I flew to Cannes. She was warm and funny and caring, also very disciplined about her work. She never stayed out past 11 p.m. Up till now our relationship had been platonic, but we had such a wonderful time that she asked me what my intentions were. I told her I wanted to marry her. We became secretly engaged.

Oleg Cassini with his wife actress Gene Tierney, 1941. 

“Later I saw sharks in the water. It was 1955, and Paris Match introduced Grace to Prince Rainier as a photo publicity stunt for a magazine article. I thought nothing of it. She said Rainier was nice, but that was it.

“We came back to New York and Grace was becoming a superstar. Neither of her parents liked me. The weekend I spent in Ocean City was the worst of my life. I had my own room, but I had to walk through her parents’ bedroom to get there.

Grace Kelly & Oleg Cassini

“She kept seeing me despite her family’s opposition, even suggesting we get married right away. She told me to find a priest who would marry us. I agreed, but then she got sick and rundown. Once she recovered, she had changed her mind. Her parents had talked her out of it. I didn’t see her again until she called to tell me she was engaged to Prince Rainier.”

 

Grace Kelly on her wedding day with Prince Rainier. 

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Books by Oleg Cassini

The Wedding Dress

The quintessential book on the wedding dress, newly revised and updated in a collector’s edition, is an exciting look at the variety of luxurious wedding dresses, which both celebrates and reveals their beauty, sophistication, and romance.   From Jacqueline Kennedy to Grace Kelly, Oleg Cassini’s designs are synonymous with the world’s most glamorous women. The same electrifying elegance resonates with his magnificently crafted bridal gowns. This informative presentation discusses every aspect of the wedding dress—the ultimate expression of a bride’s personality and the focal point of her day. This book showcases a wide range of styles by such fashion luminaries as Cassini, Chanel, Dior, Armani, and McQueen, among others. The beautiful fashions, photographed by such notable photographers as Patrick Demarchelier, Benno Graziani, Horst, Arthur Elgort, Milton Greene, David LaChapelle, and Irving Penn capture the effervescent spirit that is associated with the wedding dress. The Wedding Dress begins with an overview of the sumptuous wedding gown, chronicling its history  from royal weddings to today’s celebrities. The book presents a variety of silhouettes—from elegant Empire-style floor-length gowns to flirty short dresses and sophisticated suits. The same electrifying elegance resonates, whether an informal ceremony, a formal evening affair or a spontaneous trip to City Hall. Also featured are some of the best weddings in the world, including celebrity, society, and high fashion weddings. This stylish look at the wedding dress is not only an essential resource for the bride-to-be but for everyone interested in fashion.

http://www.amazon.com/Wedding-Dress-Revised-Updated-Collectors/dp/0847841820/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387464881&sr=1-2&keywords=the+wedding+dress+by+oleg+cassini

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A Thousand Days of Magic: Dressing Jacqueline Kennedy for the White House    

A gorgeously revised edition of this fashion favorite book, which combines Cassini’s memoirs of working closely with Jacqueline Kennedy during her brief White House years, his fashion philosophies and ideas, and the iconography of the early 1960s style and energy of the Kennedy years.  Jacqueline Kennedy’s selection of Oleg Cassini to design her personal wardrobe as First Lady was not only fashion history, but political history as well. As the creator of the “Jackie look,” Cassini made the First Lady one of the best-dressed women in the world and a glamorous icon of the Kennedy era.

During the 1000 days of the Kennedy administration, Cassini designed over 300 outfits for Jackie Kennedy—coats, dresses, evening gowns, suits, and day wear—and coordinated every aspect of her wardrobe, from shoes and hats to gloves and handbags. In this book, Cassini offers a fascinating and comprehensive view of his role as Jackie’s personal couturier, a position that allowed him unprecedented access to both Jackie and John Kennedy as a designer and a trusted friend. From the details of his first meetings with the First Lady to his thoughts on Jackie’s clothes and their legacy, Cassini’s recollections are far-ranging and informative. Also included are Cassini’s original sketches accompanied by 200 color and black-and-white photographs of the First Lady as she tours India, France, England, and Italy, shows off the White House, and hosts state dinners and family gatherings. Public moments as well as private ones capture the great elegance and charm of one of the most admired and emulated women in the world.

http://www.amazon.com/Thousand-Days-Magic-Dressing-Jacqueline/dp/0847819000

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Grace Kelly

The last post of this year is a tribute to Lara Stone, the sexiest, funniest and most beautiful model at the moment.

The last time I worked with Lara was for Dutch Glamour Magazine 
ph. Andrea Lennon, styling Ellen Hoste   2007
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Short biography

Lara Stone was born (December 20,1983) to a Dutch mother and an English  father in the town of Geldrop, (the Netherlands) and  grew up in Mierlo. She was first discovered in the  Paris Metro when she was 12, she then went on to  participate in the Elite Model Look competition at age  15. She became the primary choice for editorials and  advertising campaigns after signing with IMG in 2006. Lara is not a fan of the runway because of her  unusually small feet of someone of her size. Because  the shoes are usually too big for her, she sometimes  goes down the runway thinking “Do not fall, do not  fall!” (from Vogue Paris interview Feb 09). Lara Stone  was made Models.com #1 on the Top 50 List in  February 2010. In October 2013, joined L’Oreal as  their latest ambassador.

Magazine covers

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Editorial stories 

On the catwalk and backstage

And other great photographs

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Lara and her husband David Walliams 
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 Biography from Models.com

Yves Saint Laurent, July 1960
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It looks like 2014 is going to be Yves Saint Laurent‘s turn to be immortalized on the big screen. There will be two films coming out about the life of this iconic French designer who died in 2008, despite one facing criticism from the late designer’s close companion and business partner, Pierre Bergé. The businessman – who was co-founder of the iconic house – has said that he wants to try to “ban” production of the second movie.

Yves Saint Laurent & Pierre Bergé
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However, the second film has been backed by head of Kering (formerly known as PPR) – the conglomerate that owns Saint Laurent - Francois-Henri Pinault, who has given consent for the fashion house’s logo and designs to be used. Bergé took to Twitter to share his frustration, saying: “Two films on YSL? I hold the moral rights in the work of YSL’s image and mine have authorised that of Jalil Lespert” - in reference to his favoured film’s director. He then hinted that a trial may be in the near future. Bergé is the head of the Pierre Bergé-Saint Laurent Foundation – created to “prolong the history of the House of Saint Laurent”, while conserving a collection of 20,000 haute couture designs, accessories and sketches “that bear witness to 40 years of Yves Saint Laurent’s creativity”.

Both rival biopics currently have the working title of Yves Saint Laurent.

The first  film

Movie poster
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The first film- which has the backing of Bergé - is to be  directed by Jalil Lespert and will star French actor Pierre Niney as the late designer. Bergé has previously commented on the strong resemblance Niney has to his former companion, revealing that he almost greeted him: “Welcome Yves”.

Pictures of this movie

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Yves Saint Laurent opens January 8th.

It looks every dramatic, a bit over the top and every bit as glamorous as you’d expect.

Director Jalil Lespert, starts the film in 1957 as 21 year-old Saint Laurent (played by Pierre Niney, Nikolai Kinski as Karl Lagerfeld and Guillaume Gallienne as Pierre Berge. ) takes over the couture house of Dior. He is bombarded with questions from reporters but appears calm and collected. Alas, this does not last. Young Saint Laurent tears a white table-cloth dramatically, to make a sash with a bow for a glamorous client. He is temperamental: “I don’t fear critics” he proclaims. He is a diva who just wants to be alone:  “Let me sketch in peace!” he yells.

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The second film 

The second film- supported by Pinault - will be directed by Bertrand Bonello, with  Chanel model Gaspard Ulliel cast as the leading role opposite actress Lea Seydoux. According to The Telegraph, Bonello’s team wrote to Bergé explaining that they had not sought his blessing because they wanted true “freedom of expression”. It’s believed that the businessman’s lawyers responded immediately denying any use of his image or Saint Laurent possessions.

Movie poster of Saint Laurent film which Pierre Bergé is trying to "ban"
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Gaspar Ulliel who plays Yves Saint Laurent in the second film
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“Bergé’s role, even when Saint Laurent was alive, has been: ‘I tell the story,’” said scriptwriter Thomas Bidegain, who is working on the Bonello film. ”Saint Laurent had a very complicated life and Bergé always managed the legend. That’s why he couldn’t take being dispossessed of that story.”

The French release of this movie is set for May 2014.

Both productions are expected to focus on the early life of the designer and his relationship with Bergé.

Yves Saint Laurent & Pierre Bergé
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The Iconic nude photograph 

In 1971, the same year that his radical ” 1940s” collection shocked animal activists and fashion critics, Yves Saint Laurent released his first perfume for men, Pour Homme. For its advertisements, Yves Saint Laurent posed in nude in front of the camera of a close friend, Jean Loup Sieff. Sieff who worked for Magnum and was at the apex of his fashion photography career when he took fourteen photos for Yves Saint Laurent. The photo brashly challenged conventional taboos of male nudity in mainstream advertising of the era.

YSL and Sieff rejected the conventional machismo virility that was usually used in the ads on that time, such as Old Spice (introduced in 1937) and Aramis (introduced in 1964). It was a ‘natural’ appearance after the excesses of 1960s youthquake ostentation and fantasy. Although YSL personally wished the photo become an icon of gay liberation, he looked almost a Christ-like figure, a wavy-haired and gaunt and stark naked but for his large-rimmed glasses. The photos desexualized nudity, and presented a more vulnerable, and androgynous side of humanity.

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Info for this post: 
http://www.vogue.co.uk/  
http://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/2010/05/02/yves-saint-laurent/

Fashion is a language. Some know it, some learn it, some never will—like an instinct.”

Biography

The legendary costume designer Edith Head loved to refer to herself as Hollywood’s “dress doctor.” Throughout her six-decade career, and in more than 1,000 films, Edith dressed up extravagant cinematic personas (Biblical seductresses, jungle princesses, showgirls, and cowboys) and yet she saw her task first and foremost as that of a roll-up-your-sleeves problem-solver: a curer of wardrobe ills, a soother of vexed brows, and a tamer of egos. Edith was grounded and pragmatic, a shrewd politician and savvy businesswoman who not only operated an efficient “fashion clinic” at Paramount Studios (and later at Universal), but became a celebrity in her own right.

Clara Bow in Wings
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Mae West in She has done him wrong, 1933
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Mae West dressed by Edith Head
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Ingrid Bergman as Maria in Whom the Bell Tolls
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Ginger Rogers in Lady in the Dark

The praise wasn’t unanimous, however. After Head claimed her sixth Oscar for the 1954 film Sabrina, rumors circulated that Audrey Hepburn’s striking black cocktail dress with bateau neck and bow-bedecked shoulder straps was actually designed by the Parisian couturier Hubert de Givenchy (Hepburn’s friend), while Head publicly took credit for it. Even after her death, former colleagues would claim that Head had no compunction about accepting plaudits for others’ work.

Head’s career eventually waned in the late sixties, as the role of the studio costumer began to die out; more and more, clothes were being bought off the rack. By the seventies her output dwindled to just a few pictures a year. Nonetheless, she worked almost till the day she died, in 1981. The comedienne Lucille Ball remembered her this way: “Edie knew the truth about all of us. She knew who had flat fannies and who didn’t—but she never told.”

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The hilarious Play

http://www.edithhead.biz/

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Book

Edith Head: The Fifty-Year Career of Hollywood’s Greatest Costume Designer

All About Eve. Funny Face. Sunset Blvd. Rear Window. Sabrina. A Place in the Sun. The Ten Commandments. Scores of iconic films of the last century had one thing in common: costume designer Edith Head (1897–1981). She racked up an unprecedented 35 Oscar nods and 400 film credits over the course of a fifty-year career.

Never before has the account of Hollywood’s most influential designer been so thoroughly revealed—because never before have the Edith Head Archives of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences been tapped. This unprecedented access allows this book to be a one-of-a-kind survey, bringing together a spectacular collection of rare and never-before-seen sketches, costume test shots, behind-the- scenes photos, and ephemera.

http://www.amazon.com/Edith-Head-Fifty-Year-Hollywoods-Greatest/dp/0762438053

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“Edna Mode” in The Incredibles (2004) was modeled on Edith Head

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A small diminutive woman, famous for her Anna May Wong inspired crop and signature sunglasses – Edith Head may not have been a fashion visionary, but she knew how to concoct screen glamor like nobody before her or since. She managed to make clothes that not only conveyed the moods and ideas behind a screen narrative, but were also beautiful, flattering to the stars, and inspiring to everyday women.

To succeed in the industry, Edith said, one had to be a “combination of psychiatrist, artist, fashion designer, dressmaker, pincushion, historian, nursemaid, and purchasing agent.”

But she was sometimes economical with the truth, taking credit for designs she had not created, such as Audrey Hepburn’s bateau-necked black dress in Sabrina and Paul Newman and  Robert Redford’s wardrobe for The Sting, for which she won an Oscar. After winning the Oscar, she was sued by the illustrator who really designed Redford and Newman’s clothes.

Always discreet about the size and shape of the stars’ backsides, she knew about all the skeletons in their closets but she was never one to gossip, although she did reveal that full-figured Clara Bow was known as “a sausage”, that Claudette Colbert was “mean-spirited”, and that Barbara Stanwyck was “frumpy” until she took over her designs.

“Go on a diet!” Edith would instruct an overweight woman, while instantly making her look ten pounds slimmer by pulling her shirt out of her trousers, whipping a belt around her middle and swapping her cheap gold jewellery for her own signature pearls.

In the first year for which costume design becomes an Academy Awards category, she receives a nomination for best costumes in a black-and-white film, for Billy Wilder’s The Emperor Waltz, a period comedy set in turn-of-the-century Vienna. But no worry,in the following years Edith was nominated 35 times and won 8 Oscars!!!

In 1966 Edith makes cameo appearance as herself in The Oscar, for which she also designs gowns. As more and more cinematic wardrobes begin to be bought off the racks, Edith remains one of the last studio costumers. A year later How to Dress for Success, Edith’s advice manual for the career-oriented, is published. She moves to Universal after her contract is not renewed at Paramount.

With her film work declining in frequency, Edith and June Van Dyke present more and more costume fashion shows—up to eighteen a year. In 1970 Elizabeth Taylor presents the Oscar for Best Picture to the makers of Midnight Cowboy wearing a curve-hugging, low-cut lavender dress by Edith.

Elisabeth Taylor & Richard Burton
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Young Elisabeth Taylor wearing a Edith Head dress.
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Elisabeth Taylor at her 5th wedding, wearing Edith Head

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In 1974 Edith gets a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She also begins creating sewing patterns for the Vogue Pattern Company. December Vogue toasts an exhibit at the Met, curated by former editor Diana Vreeland, of costumes from Hollywood’s heyday, including many looks designed by Edith Head.

Edith died on October 24, 1981, four days before her 84th birthday, from myelofibrosis, an incurable bone marrow disease.

Edith Head gets a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1974

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Edith Head & Grace Kelly

Edith adored Grace Kelly, for whom she designed many movie wardrobes. When Grace won an Oscar for The country girl, she asked Edith to design her Academy Award ceremonial dress. 

Edith was upset when the luminous actress slighted her by not inviting her to design the wedding dress when she got married to Prince Rainier of Monaco. She did create Princess Grace’s grey going-away suit, though.

Edith & Grace Kelly preparing the wardrobe for To catch a thief
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Working on the Oscar dress with Grace Kelly
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1955, Grace Kelly in her ceremonial Oscar dress by Edith Head

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Edith Head & Audrey Hepburn

Audrey Hepburn & Edith Head 

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The 8 Oscars won by Edith Head

When asked about the most important men in her life, Head would always reply: “There were eight of them – they were all named Oscar.”

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1950, Oscar for The Heiress

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1951, Oscar for Samson and Delilah 

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1951, Oscar for All about Eve

“Her life was all about glamour in the most glamorous place in the world, Hollywood,” Bette Davis once said of her. Indeed, it was Edith who designed the brown silk, sable-trimmed cocktail dress Davis wore as Margo Channing in the 1950 classic All About Eve, warning everyone as she swept down the staircase for the big party scene to fasten their seat belts because it was going to be a bumpy night.

Bette Davis later bought the dress for herself, because she loved it so much – it had been square-necked, with a tight bodice, but when Davis tried on the finished gown the bodice and neckline were much too big. Edith was horrified, but the actress pulled it off her shoulders and shook one shoulder sexily, saying: “Doesn’t it look better like this anyway?” In the wake of this “accident”, Head won another Oscars for the film.

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1952, Oscar for   A Place in the Sun  

“The prototype of the perfect debutante dress, and every girl coming out or having her sweet-16 birthday party wanted this dress because they all wanted to look like Elizabeth Taylor in this movie, which was one of Taylor’s first  films as an adult. It was a tribute to a typical ’50s gown: strapless top covered with silk petals, waisted in silk with a full, bold but lightweight tulle skirt with petals sprinkled all over. It became the prom dress for American teenagers when it was copied by all the leading department stores.

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1954 Oscar for Roman Holliday

Although Edith Head won an Oscar for Best Costumes, the Capri Collection (Capri Skirt, Capri Blouse, Capri Belt, Capri Pants) was, in fact, designed by the European fashion designer Sonja de Lennart. However, since the outfits were actually made in Edith Head’s Roman temporary Atelier of the sorelle Fontana—that acted as the costume department—Edith, Paramount’s costume designer, used only her name without giving credit to the original designer, Sonja de Lennart, as it was pretty common at that time in history. Costume designers around the world used only their names, regardless who created the costumes. However, Edith was given credit for the costumes, even though the Academy’s votes were obviously for Hepburn’s attire. Sonja de Lennart’s Capri Pants were sewn and used in the next movie, Sabrina, by Hubert de Givenchy. Edith Head did not refuse that Oscar either…….

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1955. Oscar for Sabrina

1954. “Audrey Hepburn plays the daughter of a Manhattan chauffeur. She goes to Paris and returns a total fashion plate. The white gown with black embroidery was the source of some controversy. Hepburn had a relationship with Givenchy. He probably was the one who actually designed the gown, but Edith (again) ended up getting the credit. Rumors circulate that Audrey Hepburn’s famous black cocktail dress with high, straight bateau neck (subsequently dubbed the “Sabrina neckline”) was also designed by Hubert de Givenchy  and merely made by Edith’s studio—a claim that she roundly denies. After this, Givenchy started designing on the record for many of Hepburn’s films.”

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1961, Oscar for The Facts of Life   (together with  Edward Stevenson)

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1974. Oscar for The Sting

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Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis will forever be remembered for bringing a sense of style to the White House, but her younger sister, Lee Radziwill, who is direct, free-spirited and true to her own ideals, may have done her one better. The impeccably dressed former princess has almost reached the well-preserved age of 80. Known for her Aristocratic looks and upper-crust taste, Lee Radziwill has swirled through life in the High Society for the better part of the last half-century. Lately she’s become a regular at the shows in New York and Paris, where she’s been photographed often in fabulous outfits and glamorously over-sized sunglasses.

Jacqueline & Caroline Lee Bouvier at their debutante ball
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Lee Radziwill’s sometimes rivalrous relationship with her sister and her tabloid-ready romances have long fascinated. But it’s her enviable wardrobe and not-a-hair-out-of-place coiffeur that have served as inspiration to designers from Yves Saint Laurent to Marc Jacobs. Michael Kors once dedicated an entire collection to “the Lee Radziwill look.” With Balmacaan coats and stovepipe velvet slacks, Kors conjured “what Lee would wear to walk her dogs in the sixties.” Add furs, cashmere, and kitten heels, mix with simple jewelry and minimal makeup, and you’ve got the Lee Radziwill recipe for era-spanning chic.

Jacqueline & Caroline Lee Bouvier
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Caroline Lee Bouvier was born on 3-3-33 in Southampton, New York. Growing up, she made the usual socialite rounds: Miss Porter’s boarding school, Sarah Lawrence College, summers in Newport, R.I—all while favoring sweater sets, three strands of pearls, and frocks in sweet 16 pastels.  She married young, admitting that girls often married in the fifties just to get their own apartments.    

Lee’s starter marriage to “homebody alcoholic” Michael Canfield was annulled after a short time, and she threw herself into supervising Vogue‘s exhibition at the American Pavilion for the 1958 World’s Fair in Brussels. While in Europe, Lee met real estate mogul/ Polish emigré Prince Stanislas Radziwill in England and married him on March 19, 1959, giving birth to son Anthony six months later.

Lee Radziwill
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“Jackie married twice for money with splendid results,” Gore Vidal—the Bouviers’ step-brother—wrote. ”Lee married twice too, far less splendidly.”  (Lee finally married three times) But both sisters lived the life, taking trips around the world resulting in a funky scrapbook-type book, One Special Summer, which was created by the pair in the fifties (and published many years later).

The high point of the 1966 social calendar was Truman Capote’s Black and White Ball, with a guest list that read like a who’s who of Hollywood and high society: Frank Sinatra, Greta Garbo, and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, included. Radziwill went with white for the occasion.

Lee Radziwill all masked up for Capote's Black and White Ball 

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Truman Capote, for some years Lee and Truman were inseparable friends, encouraged a newly blond Lee to pursue acting. After critics panned her performance in a Chicago stage production of The Philadelphia Story. The show sold out its run as fans flocked to see Lee the personality–not Lee the actress–take the stage in a custom-made wardrobe by Yves Saint Laurent. Jackie was conveniently out of the country for the show’s entire run, so those fans hoping to catch a glimpse of the other famous sister in the audience never got their wish. 

Truman wrote the TV adaptation of Laura for Lee—cribbed from Otto Preminger’s film noir of the same name. It was also badly received and she discontinued her acting work.

Lee Radziwill in her various houses
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Lee & Jackie visiting India and Pakistan along in March 1962
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Peter Evans’ 2004 book Nemesis stated that Radziwill also had a long-standing affair with Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, and was privately bitterly disappointed when he married her elder sister Jackie, who allegedly stole Ari away, heating up the rivalry that existed between the sisters.

In 1972 Lee tagged along with Truman on tour with the Rolling Stones; she also rented Eothen, the Montauk retreat owned by Paul Morrissey and Andy Warhol. Photographer Peter Beard lived nearby and was coincidentally the official photographer for Rolling Stone magazine, which was paying Truman Capote to cover the Stones’ tour. Lee and Peter became really, really good neighbors.  

Lee Radziwill & Truman Capote

Lee Radziwill with Mick & Bianca Jagger
Rudolf Nureyev & lee Radziwill
Andy Warhol & Lee Radziwill

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For some years, Lee was a public relations executive for Giorgio Armani and on September 23, 1988, she became the second wife of American film director and choreographer Herbert Ross. They divorced in 2001, shortly before his death.

She was listed as one of the fifty best-dressed over 50s by the Guardian in March 2013. A longtime lover of fashion, Lee is still a front-row fixture, turning up from Marc Jacobs in New York to Giambattista Valli in Paris. She’s still beautifully kitted out in simple shapes with theatrical flourishes, armed with cigarettes and sunglasses.  

Lee Radziwill by Mario Sorrenti

Lee Radziwill
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Lee & Stass Radziwill
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Truman Capote & Lee Radziwill
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Lee Radziwill by Andy Warhol
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Lee Radziwill photographed by David Bailey
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Lee Radziwill & Jackie Kennedy
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Books

One Special Summer

http://www.amazon.com/One-Special-Summer-Lee-Bouvier/dp/0847827879/ref=pd_sim_b_2

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Happy Times

Happy Times offers readers a very personal perspective on a highly publicized life.

http://www.amazon.com/Happy-Times-Lee-Radziwill/dp/2843232503/ref=pd_sim_b_1

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In Her Sister’s Shadow: An Intimate Biography of Lee Radziwill

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http://www.amazon.com/Her-Sisters-Shadow-Biography-Radziwill/dp/0316187534

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The “One (or Two) of a Kind” Collection for men is a series of handmade clothes.  Only one or two items of the same fabric and/or colour are available within the collection, which contains trousers, shirts, jackets and coats.

The collection is inspired by the clothes worn in the ’20ties to ’40ties of the last century, but with a nowadays touch. Almost every item is made in wool, cotton, linen or viscose, pure or blends. Some of the fabrics are woven with very fine metal to secure a creased look.

All fabrics are pre-washed and after finishing an item, it’s washed again. Some clothes get an extra treatment. All shirts, jackets, coats and most of the trousers are finished by visible hand stitching.

The collection will be available in about two weeks.

The name Halston evokes a highly decadent moment in our cultural history: the nightlife-as-performance days of Studio 54, electrified by seventies disco, drugs, and celebrity. But Halston was also synonymous with characteristically American kind of sporty, easy fashion that, as Vogue put it in 1980, was (and remains) “unpretentious, unexcessive, with an instant attractiveness that answers the needs of all women who demand fashion that works.” Whatever he designed—a halter jumpsuit, a fitted jersey dress, a fluid blouse to be worn with an A-line skirt—was executed with a chic simplicity that kept it very wearable.

Roy Halston Frowick was born in Des Moines, Iowa, April 23, 1932. After his school education, Halston becomes a hatmaker in Chicago. (during his childhood he had been referred to as Halston to distinguish between himself and his uncle Roy). At 26 he moves to New York to work for prominent milliner Lilly Daché and meets designer Charles James, whom Balenciaga had called “the greatest couturier in the world,” and who becomes his friend and mentor.

By 1960, Halston is working at Bergdorf Goodman as a hatmaker and becomes the chief milliner to future First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, now on the campaign trail. Reportedly, she has a large head—the same size as Halston’s. An assistant to the designer later will say that before hats were sent to Mrs. Kennedy, “Halston would put them on his head and sit there and look at them with two mirrors, one behind him and one in front, turning his head at different angles to make sure they looked right. When the First Lady wears a Halston pillbox hat to her husband’s presidential inauguration. Halston is famous.

 At a tea dance in the Pines on Fire Island, meets Edward J. Austin, Jr., an assistant buyer of menswear at Alexander’s department store and the two will be lovers for at least five. Two years later, when Halston branches into designing women’s wear, Newsweek dubbed him “the premier fashion designer of all America.”His designs were worn by Bianca Jagger, Lauren Hutton, Liza Minnelli, Anjelica Huston, Gene Tierney, Lauren Bacall, Babe Paley, and Elizabeth Taylor, setting a style that would be closely associated with the international jet set of the era. He opens the first Halston Boutique, within Bergdorf’s; he will create several collections for the store over the next couple of years.

When he opens an independent salon on Madison Avenue, Edward becomes Halston’s boutique manager. After showing his first collection of 25 pieces, receives a visit—the next morning at 9:30—from socialite Babe Paley, who wants an argyle pantsuit. “It wasn’t my intention to go into a made-to-order business,” Halston later says. “I didn’t have that kind of staff, you know, but of course Mrs. Paley is probably the number-one client you could possibly want as a designer. So I started.” Calls from other society belles follow. Halston often closes the store to lunch with clients like Barbara Walters or Lauren Bacall, with a very civilized routine of wine in Baccarat glasses, salad, a main course, and freshly brewed espresso. The salon is the setting for exclusive parties at night.

Pat Cleveland in Halston by Irving Penn 

Still loyal to his friend and mentor Charles James, in 1969, Halston sponsors a retrospective of the older designer’s work at the Electric Circus, a trendy nightclub in the East Village. Soon after, he hires James to work for him in his showroom. In 1970, the two designers show a collection of their commingled efforts; it is roundly panned by critics. The pair have a bitter falling out, both personally and professionally, shortly thereafter—from which James never recovers. Halston, on the other hand, becomes even more successful. “Halston became Halston after the Charles James show, because he realized he was as good as Charles James.” (?)

Halston once told Vogue that his role in fashion was to clean it up: “just getting rid of all of the extra details that didn’t work—bows that didn’t tie, buttons that didn’t button, zippers that didn’t zip, wrap dresses that didn’t wrap. I’ve always hated things that don’t work.”

Halston was ‘addicted’ to the nightlife and partying in Studio 54, where he meets Victor Hugo, a 24-year-old Venezuelan male prostitute, who he asks to dress his boutique windows. Soon he fires Ed Austin, his ex-lover and boutique manager, whose responsibilities have been encroached upon by Hugo.

In 1974, Halston sells his business, and his design services, to Norton Simon, Inc., for about $12 million in stock. The company goes on to license Halston womenswear, menswear, bedding, accessories, luggage, fragrances, and more.  

Halston & Bianca Jagger.

In 1977, Halston hosts a white-themed party for Bianca Jagger at Studio 54. Liza Minnelli attends in a white-sequined sweatsuit, and she and Jagger release white doves in the club.

Halston is very influential in the design of uniforms. In 1977 he is contracted by the airline Braniff International Airways to create a new look for their flight attendants. Halston created interchangeable separates in shades of bone, tan and taupe. An elaborate party was thrown at Braniff’s Acapulco Executive House in January, 1977, dubbed Three Nights In Acapulco, to introduce the new Halston fashions along with the new and elegant Braniff International Airways. The party and the Halston creations were a hit not only with the fashion press but also with Braniff employees who thought they were the easiest and most comfortable uniforms they had ever worn.

Halston moves from his small boutique to a skyscraper called Olympic Tower, a location that receives spectacular reviews. The collections that follow are huge hits. His first at the new location includes a showstopping live performance of “New York, New York” by Minnelli, and a cameo appearance by Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor.

After years of huge success, the designer launches a lower-priced line of clothing and accessories for JC Penney, telling Vogue, “I always wanted to reach a wider America. When you’re able to produce a dress—that a woman can wear to work, wear out, that’s machine-washable—for $75, that’s magic.” Bergdorf Goodman drops Halston’s line…

Halston photographed with “Halston”, the perfume

As “the first designer to realize the potential of licensing himself,” his influence went beyond style to reshape the business of fashion. Through his licensing agreement with J.C. Penney, his designs were accessible to women at a variety of income levels. Although this practice is not uncommon today, it was a controversial move at the time. Halston, his perfume, was sold in a bottle designed by Elsa Peretti and it was the second best selling perfume at the time.

Despite his achievements, the increased pressures from numerous licensing deals, in particular that of J.C. Penney which demanded eight collections per year plus accessories, in addition to his Made to Order, Ready to Wear, and Haute Couture lines, all took their toll. Halston was a perfectionist and he would not allow junior designers to design licensed products bearing his name. In October 1984, Beatrice Foods subsidiary the Playtex Corporation managers asked Halston to leave the Olympic Tower, headquarters of Halston Enterprises, due to several conflicts. 

Halston is no longer able to design or sell clothes under his own name. Nevertheless, he continued to design clothing for his family and friends, including costumes for his friends Liza Minnelli and Martha Graham and her Martha Graham Dance Company.

Roy Halston died on March 26, 1990, of, an AIDS-related cancer.

Book

http://www.amazon.com/Halston-Steven-Bluttal/dp/0714863181/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1391103665&sr=1-1&keywords=halston+book

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Documentary

Ultrasuede: In Search of Halston

The documentary got bad reviews, mostly because it’s more a gossip story of the rise and fall of the person, Roy Halston instead of an overview of Halston’s importance in fashion for America.

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http://www.amazon.com/Ultrasuede-In-Search-Halston/dp/B006QVRV1I

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Halston  circa 1977

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The “One (or Two) of a Kind” Collection for Men is a unique series of handmade clothes.  Only one or two items of the same fabric and/or colour are available within the collection, which contains trousers, shirts, jackets and coats.

The collection is inspired by the clothes worn in the 20′s to 40′s of the last century, but with a nowadays touch. Almost every item is made in wool, cotton, linen or viscose, pure or blends. Some of the fabrics are woven with very fine metal to secure a creased look.

All fabrics are pre-washed and after finishing an item, washed again. Some clothes get an extra treatment. All shirts, jackets, coats and most of the trousers are finished by visible hand stitching.

This collection will soon be available in the online shop on this blog

Years ago I got a the book about Francesca Woodman‘s work as a present from a friend. I’d never heard of Francesca Woodman, but I was immediately intrigued by her photographs. Her short life was intense and full of passion , as was her work.

In 2010 a documentary by director C. Scott Willis about the artistic family Francesca came from, called The Woodmans, won an award at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Francesca & her father George Woodman
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Francesca Woodman Bio

Francesca Woodman (1958-1981) only lived to be 22 years old, but her remarkable body of work has continued to increase attention in the world of contemporary art since her suicide in 1981.

She was born to an artistic family in Denver, her mother, Betty Woodman, is a sculptor and ceramicist and her father, George Woodman, is a photographer and painter. Her older brother Charles later became an associate professor of electronic art.

Beginning in 1975, Francesca attended the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). She studied in Rome between 1977 and 1978 in a RISD
honors program. A year later Francesca moved to New York “to make a career in photography”.  She sent portfolios of her work to fashion photographers, but “her solicitations did not lead anywhere”.

Francesca was also deeply interested in the Surrealist movement and neo-Pictorialism—as seen in the work of fashion photographer Deborah Turbeville—and both movements are evident in the abstraction, motifs, and ghostly air of her work.

While her work would remain unknown for the entirety of her life, today she is widely celebrated for her black-and-white depictions of young women, frequently in the nude and blurred by slow shutter speed and long exposure. Many of her photographs are self-portraits—though you rarely can see Woodman’s face unobstructed—and men are an infrequent presence. Francesca made a number of short films as well, along the same aesthetics of her photographs.

Sometimes she dressed up like the heroine of a Victorian novel – she collected vintage clothes long before it was fashionable – or as Alice about to disappear through the looking-glass. In one famous image, she stands alongside two other naked women, each of them concealing their face behind a photograph of her face, while a different Francesca Woodman face, in a self-portrait pinned to the wall, gazes out at us too.

Her nudes often recall Bellocq‘s haunting Storyville portraits of New Orleans prostitutes. One startling photograph of her legs bound tightly in ribbon or tape, her hand holding a striped glove that rests between her legs, has traces of the disturbing doll photographers of the German surrealist photographer Hans Bellmer.

In late 1980 Francesca became depressed due to the failure of her work to attract attention and to a broken relationship. Her life ended when she threw herself off a building in New York in January 1981. She was just 22, but left an archive of some 800 images.

Francesca’s photography was first exhibited at Wellesley College in 1986 after it was discovered by Ann Gabhart, the director of the Wellesley Art Museum, in the Woodmans’ family home in Colorado. Her first retrospective opened at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2011 and traveled to the Guggenheim in 2012. The photographs are in the permanent collections of both the Whitney Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and prominent artists such as Cindy Sherman continue to cite her as an inspiration for their work.

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Documentary:  The Woodmans

The tragic story of Francesca Woodman, a young photographer renowned for her extraordinary nude self-portraits, is also the story of her brilliantly artistic family.  With THE WOODMANS, director C. Scott Willis shows how the struggle for fame in the high-stakes world of art resulted in tragedy, and then in healing and redemption.  As a family, the Woodmans are noted for their talent.  Betty Woodman, in particular, is an internationally renowned ceramicist whose work has been shown at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.  But it is the fate of Francesca, the youngest Woodman, that will haunt them over the years.  By piecing together Francesca’s photos, never-before-seen experimental videos and personal journals, and through candid conversations with George and Betty Woodman, Charlie Woodman and a host of friends, Willis depicts four lives committed to art.  And whose art lives through them.  It is an extraordinary debut film that explores what it truly means to create.

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http://www.amazon.com/The-Woodmans-Francesca-Woodman/dp/B007IHH4H0

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Books

This week some new, smaller sized items in the online shop

No.604 

size: Eur. 46- USA 36

No.703

Size: Eur.48- USA 38

No.206

Size: Eur.46- USA 36

No.207

Size: Eur.46- USA 36

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For more details: check the online shop

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The only portret of Nettie Rosenstein
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Years ago, on a flea market, I found a label that said: Nettie  Vogue model. Although spelled different from my first name (Netty), it’s pronounced the same and I treasured it for a long time.

I never knew what the label stood for untill this week. When starting to work on a new story for my blog, I stumbled on the jewelry by Nettie Rosenstein. Reading about this very talented designer, whose clothes were promoted by Vogue and designed patterns for Vogue, the mystery of the Nettie Vogue model was unravelled.

Coat, Nettie Rosenstein ph.Erwin Blumenfeld for Vogue, 1955 

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Nettie Rosenstein Bio

Born Nettie Rosenscrans in Salzburg, Austria in 1890, she and her family migrated to America in the 1890s and settled in Harlem, New York, where they ran a dry-goods store. She began making her own clothes when she was only 11 years old.  Her interest in and exposure to the fabrics in her parents’ store formed the backbone of her career. Nettie’s sister, Pauline, ran a millinery business known as Madame
 Pauline in the Rosencrans family house, next to the dry-goods store. Nettie began her career as a custom dressmaker for her sister’s clients.

In 1913 Nettie married Saul Rosenstein, who ran a women’s underwear business. In 1916, Nettie Rosenstein started a custom dressmaking business in her home on West 117th Street. By 1921, she employed fifty dressmakers and had moved her business to a more fashionable address at East 56th Street. During the 1920s, Rosenstein switched to selling wholesale. By the late 1920s, I. Magnin, Neiman-Marcus, Nan Duskin, and Bonwit Teller were some of the stores that carried her clothing.

Clothes by Nettie Rosenstein

When Saul Rosenstein retired from his successful women’s underwear business in the late 1920s, Nettie tried retirement, too. Two years later, however, she began working for the dressmaking firm Corbeau & Cie. She started couture clothing around 1927 and a couple of years later, she reopened her own dressmaking firm on West 47th Street with her sister-in-law, Eva Rosencrans, and her former boss at Corbeau & Cie., Charles Gumprecht.  . In 1931 she moved to West 47th Street and in 1942 to Seventh Avenue.

“It’s what you leave off a dress that makes it smart.”

At her peak in the 1930′s, Nettie designed 500 models a year, preferring to work by draping material directly on the figure.  Her clothes were sold all over America, but only to one store in each city.  The store that featured her clothes by name in New York was Bonwit Teller.

In 1936 LIFE magazine profiled Nettie Rosenstein, as one of the most respected American designers, showing a photograph of one of her evening dresses.

In spite of the Depression, Rosenstein’s business flourished, grossing $1 million in 1937.

Nettie Rosenstein wedding dress
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Nettie was very well-known for her little black dresses and her evening gowns. Her wedding gowns were also very much admired. Her designs were among the highest-priced wholesale clothes in New York City. Because they were so widely copied, the influence of her work went far beyond those who could afford her clothing. The reasons for her high prices were her use of high-quality materials and construction techniques, and her precise fit process. Each of her designs was first conceived on a showroom model, and then adapted in fit and proportion five times to five different-sized workroom models that represented the average figure. Rosenstein, who was given a design award in 1938 by the department store Lord & Taylor

Together with old friend Sol L. Klein, who also came from Austria and moved to the United States in 1920, in the 1940s Nettie  founded Nettie Rosenstein Accessories Inc. The company manufactured costume jewelry and handbags.

Handbags by Nettie Rosenstein

She announced her second retirement in March 1942, inspiring a tribute in TIME Magazine. However, also this retirement did not last long, as she resumed fashion design a few years later, winning a Coty Award in 1947. She  contributed largely to the movement of the democratization of fashion in America during the first half of the twentieth century by making good-quality clothing of sophisticated design available for the ready-to-wear customer.

Commissioned by Neiman Marcus, she designed the pink brocade Inaugural gown shown here on the right for Mrs. Mamie Eisenhower in 1953 when her husband Dwight Eisenhower became President of the United States.  First Lady Mamie Eisenhower‘s style landed her on many a best-dressed list and made her a fashion icon to women across America.

Mrs. Mamie Eisenhower in 1953
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Nettie was again called upon again by Mrs. Eisenhower in 1957.  She made a beautiful yellow gown for Mrs Mamie Eisenhower when he husband became President for the second time.

Mrs. Mamie Eisenhower in 1957
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Nettie cultivated excellent relationships with European fabric houses, so they made exclusive materials for her including shantung, organdy and taffeta gauze.  Lace, one of her favourite fabrics, went on sheer bodices of cocktail dresses or whole ball gowns. In 1957 she went into sportswear with maillots made out of Lastex.

Charles Kleibacker joined her house in 1958, and designed till 1961.  He was a master of bias-cut garments with a beautiful fall. In 1961 Nettie stopped making dresses, and concentrated on design of jewellery and accessories. Her jewellery is nowadays very much in demand and there are many sites on the net offering these pieces.

After Nettie retired from the fashion industry, her name was carried on by Sol L. Klein with Nettie Rosenstein Accessories Inc . He retired in 1975, at which time the Nettie Rosenstein brand closed too

Jewellery by Nettie Rosenstein

On March 13, 1980, after a long illness, Nettie died at the age of 90.

In 2000 the City of New York included the name of Nettie Rosenstein in a list of great American fashion designers, when considering whom to honour by a plaque on the pavement of 7th Avenue called the FASHION WALK  OF FAME.

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Who does not recognize the picture above…? It’s one of the most published images ever, but not many know whose face this is. Well, it’s the face of Jean Patchett, one of the most recognizable and popular models in American fashion.

An absolutely stunning creature with a signature beauty mark, Jean was a super model decades before the term ‘super model’ was invented and staggeringly, has had more covers than any fashion model in history. Jean’s distinct features helped define the face of fashion for over a decade, the body of work she did is enormous and the legacy she and fashion photographers created together is monumental. The camera loved Jean and Jean loved the camera.

Editorially, as Jean herself once said, she “belonged to Vogue.” She is the subject of two of the magazine’s most famous covers ever, shot by Erwin Blumenfeld and Irving Penn, respectively, in January and April of 1950. The first, which has been described as “a visual haiku,” features only Patchett’s slanted doe eye, lips, and a beauty mark. The second, titled  Girl in Black & White, was the first noncolor cover the magazine had run since 1909. The symmetry is broken only by Jean’s sidelong glance. To help get the contrasts Penn wanted, Jean used black lipstick, improvised from mascara. In 2008 a signed, initialed, titled, dated in ink copy of the famous photograph by Irving Penn of Jean Patchett was auctioned at Christie’s, New York for a fabulous sum of $266,500.

Some of Jean Patchett’s Vogue covers

Jean Patchett's first Vogue cover, 1948
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Girl in Black & White by Irving Penn
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The start of Jean’s modeling career

In 1948, 21-year-old Jean Patchett (1927-2002) borrowed $600 from her father and headed to New York City. Their she met future boyfriend Louis Auer, a banker  who lived at the Yale Club, at a luncheonette (they married in 1951). In February she signed with the Harry Conover modeling agency and two months later, April 10, Jean signed with the Ford Model Agency (a new agency when Jean walked in the door) and became their first star model. ”I’ll always remember what our first great model Jean Patchett went through when I told her she had to cut her hair. I don’t remember everyone, but I do remember her,” Eileen Ford said. “You just had to take a deep breath, even then. She had on a black tent coat that her mother had made with black velvet at the shoulders and a black hat with veil and garnet earrings, bracelet and necklace. She really was a country girl.  When she took off her hat and veil I saw that she had beautiful ‘doe eyes’ and a marvelous mole on her face, which she darkened with an eyebrow pencil. Jean was unique.”  Impressed with Jean, however Eileen told Miss Patchett: “Loose 20 pounds and come back in a month; you’re as big as a house!” At that time Jean weighed 135 pounds. “Jean didn’t mind the weight part, but her hair was her glory,” Eileen continued. “We took off just one inch, but you’d have thought we’d taken her life’s blood!” In september Jean modelled for her first Vogue cover.

Another Vogue cover with Jean Patchett by Irving Penn
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One enthusiastic reporter suggested that “almost alone Jean changed the accent in high-fashion modeling. Before, models of that ilk often had a warm, girl-next-door look. Today they mostly appear unapproachable, unattainable.”  While Jean was not as alone in this shift (Dovima, Evelyn Tripp, and Barbara Mullen could also cop an attitude), she readily admitted to purposefully
playing the ice queen. (There were practical reasons for this, too: The mood didn’t require Patchett to grin. “I have baby teeth; when I open my mouth I look like a child,” she said.).

The Tarot Reader. Ph. Irving Penn, Vogue, 1949

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Working on ’The Tarot Reader’ in 1949, Irving Penn discovered Jean was not only of seldom beauty, but also had great skills as a model. Their frequent collaboration resulted in many iconic photographs, like the one  1949 he took of her chewing pensively on a string of pearls as she sat in a cafe, a picture that came about spontaneously. This photo was for a photo-spread article for Vogue “Flying down to Lima” a romantic travelogue as lived by the model. Jean was also photographed in a shoeshine stand with an admirer and rubbing her tired feet; again in a real life and spontaneous moment. In later sessions, Irving Penn  (who called Jean Beautuful Butterfly)  would give her the suggestion of a story she could act upon,

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Jean Patchett & Irving Penn, Award Winning Photography in Lima, Peru, Vogue 1949

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Jean later said  “Flying down to Lima”  for Vogue was her big Break-Through. 

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“A young American goddess in Paris couture”

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“She has great physical energy and throws it all into a job,” Irving Penn said. “She is not conventionally pretty but has the real beauty of a person of deep intelligence and sympathy, and that all comes out.”

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Some other pictures of Jean by Irving Penn

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Cropped Pants

New in the online shop are cropped pants (trousers which are just a tiny bit shorter). Seen in shows like for instance by Junya Watanabe and Yohji Yamamoto.

Cropped pants by Junya Watanabe

Cropped pants by Yohji Yamamoto

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Cropped pants by A.G.Nauta couture

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No.1101

 €245,-

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No.1102

€245,-

No.1103

€245,-

No.1104

€245,-

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Jean Patchett’s features, delightful as they were, were not responsible for making her the most sought after, the busiest, and the most successful photographic model in New York in the 40′s & 50′s. Jean was a highly paid models because of a blemish. She had a mole next to her right eye which she darkened with an eyebrow pencil to make it more prominent. For the mole became her trademark. Manufacturers of every product from toothpaste to fashions, and jewelry to luxury cars insisted on having the girl with the mole in their advertisements. The same happened to Cindy Crawford in the 90′s.

“Photographers used to retouch the pictures they made of me very carefully, to remove the mole,” Jean said. “It used to make me angry, so out of defiance, I began to darken it with eyebrow pencil. Then one photographer left it alone and the
advertising people started asking for me. That’s how it all began.”

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If a picture is worth a thousand words, then Jean Patchett’s pictures are encyclopedic.

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In 1951 Jean married boyfriend/fiancé Louis Auer, a Yale-educated banker, whom she had met in 1948. She didn’t stop working, what married women did mostly in those days, but she refused to work before 10 am or after 4:30 pm because she liked to cook meals for herself and her husband. She worked 3 ½ days a week.

Jean Patchett & Louis Auer
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Jean is seen in eighteen of Vogue’s 20 issues in 1953 and constantly in the advertisements (for Bergdorf Goodman, Henri Bendel, Hattie Carnegie, and Revlon, among others). The next year she appears on the cover of Popular Photography magazine alongside “The Four Most Expensive Models in the World!”—Dovima, Evelyn Tripp, and Barbara Mullen.

In 1960 she retires to raise son Bart and daughter Amy. After they left home, Jean occasionally modelled again.

Jean Patchett dies from emphysema at 75, in 2002. In her New York Times obituary, she is remembered by Irving Penn as “a young American goddess in Paris couture.”

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The story behind a famous photograph

For the April 1, 1950 issue of Vogue, Jean travelled to Cuba. She met Ernest Hemingway, sat with him, and talked for hours. During their time, Hemingway kept her wine glass full. In proper etiquette, Patchett could not refuse her host. By the end of their interview, Jean reported: I could barely walk and had a headache the next day. No need to be precious, dear.

They met at his Cuban ranch and the shot was captured by fashion photographer Clifford Coffin. At Hemingway’s feet lays his beloved Black Dog and his hand rests on Ecstacy, one of his eleven cats. Jean sits, reserved, holding Boise. Hemingway elected to go shirtless and shoeless for the interview and photo shoot and Jean commented that Mr. Hemingway smelled bad.

We’re guessing Hemingway was enjoying a daiquiri, a favorite of Papa’s (his rumored go-to, the mojito, was not his drink of choice according to Philip Greene’s recent book). The tension between the two is palpable and Hemingway appears completely in control of his domain. Although Hemingway is iconic in many realms, this shot captures the essence of summer—craft cocktails, casual conversation, international models, slow days, Cuban ranches.

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The Television Braodcast

Jean was featured on CBS Television on Edward R. Murrow’s show Person to Person on January 28, 1955. In Mr. Murrow’s introduction he said: “Jean Patchett has been the most sought after model for nearly seven years now.”  Jean and husband Louis Auer V were broadcast live from their home in the relaxed style of Mr. Murrow’s TV journalism.

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The Critic

by Weegee

Originally titled The Fashionable People, this photograph is not the  journalistic coup it appears to be, but rather a setup planned in advance by the  photographer, Arthur H. Fellig, nicknamed Weegee.

On opening night at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 1943 — the 60th  anniversary of the company and thus its Diamond Jubilee — Weegee sent an  assistant to Sammy’s Bar in the Bowery to pick up the drunken woman shown at  right. Weegee positioned himself for the picture as the woman encountered Mrs.  George Washington Kavanaugh and Lady Decies, two well-known art patrons often  featured in New York society pages. The setup is typical of the photographer,  who was enamored with stark juxtapositions of rich and poor, young and old, dead  and living.

The original photograph which was cropped later.

The picture, bearing the title The Fashionable People, was first published in Life magazine on December 03, 1943. It was renamed The  Critic in Weegee’s book The Naked City (1945).

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Yves Saint-Lauren Outside Church Where Dior’s Funeral Was Held

by Loomis Dean, 1957

A young man with the weight of the world on his shoulders

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Dovima with Elephants

by Richard Avedon, 1955

Richard Avedon, selfportrait

Mainbocher Corset

by Horst P. Horst, 1939

Lucile Brokaw on Long Island Beach' by Martin Munkácsi, 1933

Portrait of Horst P. Horst, by Cecil Beaton
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Resting on a Girder by Charles C. Ebbets/ unknown
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New in the online shop

Cropped pants made of grey striped linen (No.1105 & No,1106)

The coat is now also available in dark , ‘workman’ blue (No.605), lining green.

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Different ways to wear the Workman’s Pants & the Cropped Pants

In the series of mood photo’s of the collection the Workman’s pants are worn extra high-waisted, with a belt, but of course they can also be worn low waisted or with a belt through the loopholes….

To show the fitting of the pants a series of photo’s………

The cropped pants can also be worn in different ways; high-waisted like the pictures below…..

Or low waisted, like the 2 pictures underneath….

The “One (or Two) of a Kind” Collection for Men is a unique series of handmade clothes.  Only one or two items of the same fabric and/or colour are available within the collection, which contains trousers, shirts, jackets and coats.

The collection is inspired by the clothes worn in the 20′s to 40′s of the last century, but with a nowadays touch. Almost every item is made in wool, cotton, linen or viscose, pure or blends. Some of the fabrics are woven with very fine metal to secure a creased look.

All fabrics are pre-washed and after finishing an item, washed again. Some clothes get an extra treatment. All shirts, jackets, coats and most of the trousers are finished by visible hand stitching.

The online shop regularly gets new supplies!

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The story of Paul Poiret is one of a working class son, who used his natural charisma to gain entry into some of the most exclusive ateliers in Paris and eventually became one of the twentieth century’s great couturiers. But it’s also a cautionary tale about a man who refused to adapt to changing times and styles after WWII due to his arrogance and finally ended penniless and bitter, his once-great label long forgotten.

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Biography  (the beginning)

Paul Poiret is born 20 April, 1879 as the son of a cloth merchant, in Paris’s working-class quartier of Les Halles. As a young boy he is sent to apprentice with an umbrella manufacturer, where he gathers “the scraps of silk left over after the umbrella patterns had been cut,” and uses them “to dress a little wooden doll that his sister . . . had given him.”

Still a teenager, Poiret takes his sketches to Madeleine Chéruit, a prominent dressmaker, who purchases a dozen from him. He continues to sell his drawings to major Parisian couture houses, till he is hired by Jacques Doucet, one of the capital’s most prominent couturiers. Poiret is only nineteen years old at the time. Beginning as a junior assistant, he is soon promoted to head of the tailoring department. His debut design for Doucet, a red wool cloak with a reverse gray crepe-de-chine lining, receives 400 orders from customers.

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Paul Poiret Sketches

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After two years of mandatory military service (1914-1918), he returns to Paris and is hired by House of Worth, once founded by Charles Worth, but now taken over by his sons. Instead of working on the luxurious eveningwear the House is famous for, Poiret is put in charge of the less glamorous and more practical items. Gaston Worth, the business manager, referred to Poiret’s division as the “Department of Fried Potatoes.” His ideas and designs are not appreciated by the clients. One of his “fried potatoes,” a cloak made from black wool and cut along straight lines like the kimono, proved too simple for one of Worth’s royal clients, the Russian princess Bariatinsky, who on seeing it cried, “What horror; with us, when there are low fellows who run after our sledges and annoy us, we have their heads cut off, and we put them in sacks just like that.” 

At twenty-four (Poiret has a tireless self-confidence, despite his experiences at the House of Worth) he breaks out on his own and after borrowing funds from his mother, opens his own shop on Rue Auber. Its flashy window displays attract attention and he makes his name with the controversial kimono coat. Looking to both antique and regional dress types, most notably to the Greek chiton, the Japanese kimono, and the North African and Middle Eastern caftan, Poiret advocated fashions cut along straight lines and constructed of rectangles. 

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Paul, Denise & the children

Denise & Paul Poiret in their home at Faubourg
Paul & Denise Poiret at workDenise & Paul Poiret at work
Denise & daughter Rosine (the cosmetic line was named after her)Paul & Denise Poiret with their children, November 1922
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In 1905 Poiret marries childhood friend Denise, with whom he’ll go on to have five children. “She was extremely simple,” he later will say, “and all those who have admired her since I made her my wife would certainly not have chosen her in the state in which I found her.” Denise Poiret will eventually become his artistic director as well as muse, wearing his designs as they travel around Europe together and winning a reputation as a trendsetter. (A fact her husband will later take credit for: “I had a designer’s eye, and I saw her hidden graces.”)

Years later, Denise Poiret is described as:

“the woman who had inspired the feminine silhouette of this century”

Poiret’s process of design through draping is the source of fashion’s modern forms. It introduced clothing that hung from the shoulders and facilitated a multiplicity of possibilities. Poiret exploited its fullest potential by launching, in quick succession, a series of designs that were startling in their simplicity and originality. From 1906 to 1911, he presented garments that promoted a high-waisted Directoire Revival silhouette. Different versions appeared in two limited-edition albums, Paul Iribe’s Les robes de Paul Poiret (1908) and Georges Lepape’s Les choses de Paul Poiret (1911).

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Denise Poiret, the Fashion Icon

Denise Poiret, ph. by Man Ray 1919
Denise wearing the Amphitrite cape by Poiret


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Every decade has its fortune-teller, a designer who, above all others, is able to divine and define the desires of women. In the 1910s, this oracle of fashion was Paul Poiret, known in America as “The King of Fashion.” In Paris, he was simply Le Magnifique, after Süleyman the Magnificent, a suitable nickname for a couturier who, alongside the great influence of Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, employed the language of orientalism to develop the romantic and theatrical possibilities of clothing. Like his artistic confrere Léon Bakst, Poiret’s exoticized tendencies were expressed through his use of vivid color coordinations and mysterious silhouettes such as his iconic “lampshade” tunic,  “Kymono” coat and his “harem” trousers, or pantaloons. However, these orientalist fantasies (or, rather, fantasies of the Orient) have served to decline from Poiret’s more enduring innovations, namely his technical and marketing achievements. Poiret effectively established the canon of modern dress and developed the blueprint of the modern fashion industry. Such was his vision that Poiret not only changed the course of costume history but also steered it in the direction of modern design history..

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Anecdote

Lady Asquith, wife of British Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, invites Poiret to show gowns at 10 Downing Street. Stories of half-nude models running amok at the prime minister’s residence cause a furor in the press and the resulting scandal almost forces Asquith to resign...
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Peggy Gugenheim wearing Paul Poiret Helena Rubenstein in Poiret, 1926

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Paul Poiret on Tour with his Collections

Historians consider Poiret the first haute couturier to have taken his collections on tour in Europe and America. He visited Berlin in 1910, and the next year went on a six-week trek (in a chauffeured car) to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Warsaw, Vienna, Frankfurt, Berlin, and Bucharest—where he was arrested for not having a proper permit. Poiret’s arrival in New York in 1913 was prefaced by an open letter from John Cardinal Farley warning against the temptations offered by “the demon fashion.”

..Paul Poiret was the first couturier to tour America
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King of Fashion, The Autobiography of Paul Poiret

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009ZXN07S/ref=rdr_kindle_ext_tmb

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