If it's good enough for Miss Gloria Swanson, it's good enough for me..!
If it's good enough for Miss Gloria Swanson, it's good enough for me..!
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This weekend, I am mostly dressing casual...
If it's good enough for Miss Gloria Swanson, it's good enough for me..!
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S-H-O-P-P-I-N-G, we're shopping...
Some practical footwear...
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A game for all the family...
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Something inspirational...
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And a little ornament for the garden...
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A game for all the family...
Something inspirational...
And a little ornament for the garden...
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On the Jukebox this weekend at Dolores Delargo Towers
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A little nonsense now and then
[Roald Dahl aged 17 in 1934]
"Watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it."
"When you're writing a book, with people in it as opposed to animals, it is no good having people who are ordinary, because they are not going to interest your readers at all. Every writer in the world has to use the characters that have something interesting about them, and this is even more true in children's books."
"A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men."
“We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams.”
His books James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator were my favourites, alongside the works of Enid Blyton and Richmal Crompton, many moons ago - it is the centenary today of an integral part of my (and many generations of kids') childhood, Mr Roald Dahl (13th September 1916 – 23rd November 1990))
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At a Bacall house party...
...there's music...
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...there's dancing...
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...there's gossip...
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...plenty of booze...
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...fun with friends...
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...safety gays...
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...and a buffet...
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...a grand way to start a weekend!
Lauren Bacall (born Betty Joan Perske, 16th September 1924 – 12th August 2014)
...there's dancing...
...there's gossip...
...plenty of booze...
...fun with friends...
...safety gays...
...and a buffet...
...a grand way to start a weekend!
Lauren Bacall (born Betty Joan Perske, 16th September 1924 – 12th August 2014)
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Holding that mirror up to people
“That’s the job of the writer. Holding that mirror up to people. We’re not merely decorative, pleasant and safe.”
"If Attila the Hun were alive today, he'd be a drama critic."
“What I mean by an educated taste is someone who has the same tastes that I have.”
“I write to find out what I'm talking about.”
“You're alive only once, as far as we know, and what could be worse than getting to the end of your life and realising you hadn't lived it?”
Sad news today, as we hear of the death of the magnificent playwright Mr Edward Albee.
By way of a tribute, I am re-posting my blog about the great man over at Give 'em the old Razzle Dazzle from way back in 2009:
Adopted by a high society couple as a child, Albee ran away from his constrictive upbringing to join the literary set of New York's Greenwich Village in the 1950s. And his phenomenal legacy began there, with critically-acclaimed works such as Zoo Story and The Death of Bessie Smith. He was awarded the Pulitzer prize for A Delicate Balance, Seascape and Three Tall Women, and continued to produce award-winning plays over five decades, including The American Dream, and most recently with the 2002 hit Broadway and West End play The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?."I'm loud, and I'm vulgar, and I wear the pants in this house 'cos God knows, somebody has to! But I'm not a monster, I'm not!!"
But it of course for his masterwork Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf that he is (rightly) most admired and remembered. This tortuous dissection of a stifling relationship between two headstrong (and drunken) characters is held up today as a classic of world drama. It caused massive controversy in the straight-laced early 60s for its uncompromising use of vulgar language and uncomfortable scenes of verbal humiliation and implicit "sexual decadence"."Getting angry, Baby?"
The 1966 film adaptation was a massive success, featuring possibly the very best cinematic performances of all the leading players' careers - Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Sandy Dennis and George Segal. All four were nominated for Oscars (the film itself having been nominated in all thirteen eligible categories, unprecedented at the time), and Miss Taylor and Miss Dennis won Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress respectively.
In the hands of these masters, the movie is a brilliantly disturbing and engrossing example of modern film noir, as the viewer "eavesdrops" on the agonies of Martha and George's spiteful attacks on each other, and experiences the growing discomfort of their humiliated guests.
The film, as the play before it, caused uproar in an age when cinema censorship was still rife, and apparently Jack Warner chose to pay a fine of $5,000 in order that it would remain as faithful to the play (with its profanity) as possible. His faith in the project certainly paid off.
Here are just a couple of clips from this, one of my and Madame Acarti's favourite films ever:
"I am the Earth Mother, and you are all flops..."
A sad loss, but what a legacy.
Apparently, before undergoing a major operation a decade ago, Albee wrote a statement to be released upon his death: “To all of you who have made my being alive so wonderful, so exciting and so full, my thanks and all my love.”
RIP Edward Franklin Albee III (12th March 1928 – 16th September 2016)
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It's moved on...
...with its bananas [from Charlotte Olympia]...
...clowns [courtesy of Ryan Lo]...
...big wigs [actually an advertising stunt for Captain Morgan rum]...
...made-over Radio 2 DJs [Jo Whiley as you never saw her before, thanks to Vin & Omi!]...
...and "Jazz Age" concoctions [Gareth Pugh - who else?]...
...London Fashion Week has ended, leaving its usual befuddled audience behind. Milan Fashion Week, here we come!
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The glamour, excess, frivolity and modernity of the decade
A Fashion Phantasy by illustrator Gordon Conway
The Dolly Sisters
Prada design for the film The Great Gatsby
Twenties showgirl "Dolores" - my muse
We're in our element! A new 1920s-themed fashion and photography exhibition opens in London today. As the blurb explains:
From Paris and London to New York and Hollywood, the decade following the Great War offered the modern woman a completely new style of dressing. With over 150 garments, this stunning selection of sportswear, printed day dresses, fringed flapper dresses, beaded evening wear, velvet capes, and silk pyjamas reveals the glamour, excess, frivolity and modernity of the decade.From Women's Wear Daily (now known as WWD):
All of the clothing is part of the private fashion collection of Cleo and Mark Butterfield, the largest of its kind in the U.K. Cleo began collecting jazz-era clothing in the Seventies on her numerous trips to the vintage flea markets on Portobello Road. “I told myself, ‘You will not get these things in the future so get it while you can,’” said Butterfield.
The clothing displayed reflects the massive social and political changes of the decade. To illustrate the modern woman’s more active lifestyle, the exhibit is divided into sections based on different settings in which she may have found herself. Fur-collared coats and rich coloured velvet capes accompany lamé and silk dresses. A standout piece is a trompe l’oeil heavily sequinned Elsa Schiaparelli original. In another section are shorter tennis skirts and sportswear, which exemplify the increasing popularity in female athletics. One room is completely devoted to sleepwear. “I wanted it to be what ordinary people wore, not just couture. I wanted to get away from that flapper stereotype,” Butterfield said about the selection.
Alongside the clothing are miscellaneous popular culture items. Magazine covers, cigarette cases and even some of the first self-tanner for women, which all help to put the fashion on display into context. In the final room of the exhibit is a collection of photographs and celebrity portraits by James Abbe. By capturing more candid moments in the lives of film stars like Fred Astaire and Louise Brooks, Abbe may very well have started the whole celebrity paparazzi craze.We are organising our group visit as we speak...
“It is no surprise that Jazz Age fashion is a key reference point for our students and visitors: the quality, characteristics and rich vocabulary of design forged in the decade set the standard for generations to come,” says Celia Joicey, head of the museum. “If you need further proof of the decade’s lasting influence, a line of display cases filled with Miuccia Prada’s creations for the 2013 version of ‘The Great Gatsby’ greet you on your way in and out of the exhibit.”
1920s Jazz Age Fashion & Photographs is on at the Fashion and Textiles Museum, 83 Bermondsey Street, London SE1, 23rd September 2016 to 15th January 2017
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My legs are my fortune
"Gossip doesn't worry me - I'm an open person. I've mixed around in this business long enough not to be embarrassed by anything pertaining to sex."
"My really big disappointment was being told I was too tall for the ballet. When I got on my toes, some of those male partners were way down there."
Miss Juliet Prowse - star of the high-kicking movie Can-Can, as well as innumerable television variety shows and Vegas-style spectaculars, would have been eighty years old today.
Facts:
- Miss Prowse was the very first guest star on The Muppet Show.
- She had affairs with both Frank Sinatra (to whom she was briefly engaged) and Elvis Presley - at the same time.
- Born in Bombay, India, her British family relocated to South Africa when she was 3; it was here, as a teenager, that she became a championship dancer.
- In 1987 she was mauled - twice - by an 80-pound leopard while rehearsing for television shows; afterwards she restricted such appearances in future to animals "no bigger than an alley cat."
- Her brother is Dave Prowse, who played "Darth Vader" in Star Wars and was the "Green Cross Code Man" in children's safety campaign TV ads in the 1970s.
Juliet Anne Prowse (25th September 1936 – 14th September 1996)
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London Calling
"Women should be women, who wants them to be asexual?"
"It's only a thimbleful of a voice, and I have to use it close to the microphone. But it is a kind of over-smoked voice, and it automatically sounds intimate."
"You have to set standards for yourself. I have a strong feeling about not letting myself go."
"I cannot wear the same thing too often."
Another day, another adored leading lady to celebrate - as today, none other than the utterly captivating Miss Julie London would have celebrated her 90th birthday...
To demonstrate quite why we all adore the lady so much, here she is in her natural element: lolling around, made up like "Endora" in Bewitched, among luxurious animal prints, singing a risqué number in her huskiest "seduction" voice... it's (probably) a theme tune for all of us, dear reader - Nice Girls Don't Stay For Breakfast:
Julie London (born Julie Peck, Gayle Peck or Nancy Peck [sources differ]; 26th September 1926 – 18th October 2000)
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Stay Peculiar...
...Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children has arrived!
Tim Burton's first film for ages without either Johnny Depp or Helena Bonham-Carter, it's had mixed reviews. But it looks to me like something that might appeal...
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To the extreme
More than 100 performers. Five hundred costumes. Feathers. Chains. Kilts. Leather harnesses. Bare-chested boys (and girls).
It could only be the work of Jean-Paul Gaultier, he of the most outrageous fashions ever to hit the haute couture catwalks of Gay Paree...
Described by none other than style bible i-D Magazine as “Arty to the extreme”, M Gaultier has (finally, one might say) added his particular brand of over-the-top campery to a new revue show - choreographed by our own Craig Revel Horwood and produced by the FriedrichstadtPalast's veteran showgirl-revue-meister Roland Welke - THE ONE Grand Show, which looks likely to take Berlin by storm as it is launched this week!
"Divine decadence, darling!" Indeed.
And here's a preview of this spectacular:
Read more and book tickets at the FriedrichstadtPalast Berlin website
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There is no heaven but here
The edition of the Rubaiyat that we have on our shelves here at Dolores Delargo Towers, with illustrations by Elihu Vedder
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
As National Poetry Day draws to its close, so I have just enough time to encapsulate two great loves of mine - one of the greatest of thinkers, the late, lamented Christopher Hitchens; and that most magnificent of poetic works [my absolute, utter favourite] The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, from which he here reads...
The bird of life is singing on the bough
His two eternal notes of “I and Thou” -
O! hearken well, for soon the song sings through,
And, would we hear it, we must hear it now.
The bird of life is singing in the sun,
Short is his song, nor only just begun,
A call, a trill, a rapture, then - so soon!
A silence, and the song is done - is done.
Yea! What is man that deems himself divine?
Man is a flagon, and his soul the wine;
Man is a reed, his soul the sound therein;
Man is a lantern, and his soul the shine.
Would you be happy! hearken, then, the way:
Heed not To-morrow, heed not Yesterday;
The magic words of life are Here and Now -
O fools, that after some to-morrow stray!
Were I a Sultan, say what greater bliss
Were mine to summon to my side than this,
Dear gleaming face, far brighter than the moon!
O Love! and this immortalizing kiss.
To all of us the thought of heaven is dear -
Why not be sure of it and make it here?
No doubt there is a heaven yonder too,
But ’tis so far away - and you are near.
Men talk of heaven, - there is no heaven but here;
Men talk of hell, - there is no hell but here;
Men of hereafters talk, and future lives,
O love, there is no other life - but here.
Look not above, there is no answer there;
Pray not, for no one listens to your prayer;
Near is as near to God as any Far,
And Here is just the same deceit as There.
But here are wine and beautiful young girls,
Be wise and hide your sorrows in their curls,
Dive as you will in life’s mysterious sea,
You shall not bring us any better pearls.
Allah, perchance, the secret word might spell;
If Allah be, He keeps His secret well;
What He hath hidden, who shall hope to find?
Shall God His secret to a maggot tell?
So since with all my passion and my skill,
The world’s mysterious meaning mocks me still,
Shall I not piously believe that I
Am kept in darkness by the heavenly will?
The Koran! well, come put me to the test -
Lovely old book in hideous error drest -
Believe me, I can quote the Koran too,
The unbeliever knows his Koran best.
And do you think that unto such as you,
A maggot-minded, starved, fanatic crew,
God gave the Secret, and denied it me?
Well, well, what matters it! believe that too.
Old Khayyám, say you, is a debauchee;
If only you were half so good as he!
He sins no sins but gentle drunkenness,
Great-hearted mirth, and kind adultery.
But yours the cold heart, and the murderous tongue,
The wintry soul that hates to hear a song,
The close-shut fist, the mean and measuring eye,
And all the little poisoned ways of wrong.
So I be written in the Book of Love,
I have no care about that book above;
Erase my name, or write it, as you please -
So I be written in the Book of Love.
Sublime.
My tribute to Christopher Hitchens over at Give 'em the old Razzle Dazzle
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam on Wikipedia.
National Poetry Day
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Struttin’ her stuff on the street
It's the birthday today of the original "fierce rulin' diva", Miss Nona Hendryx - one third (with Patti LaBelle and Sarah Dash) of the faboo LaBelle, and the creative genius behind most of their songs. Her role in transforming the way women performed on stage was an abiding influence on many of those "ladies with an attitude" who followed - Grace Jones, Cyndi Lauper, Janelle Monáe, Chaka Khan among them - as well as male musicians such as Prince. But it's the phantasmagorical "Space Diva" look that Nona and the girls perfected in their '70s heyday that probably appeals the most...
Of LaBelle's ground-breaking appearance at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York in 1974, the LA Times said (in an article back in 2008):
The crowd watched as two women - wearing so many feathers they looked like birds - descended from the rafters to join a third onstage. The trio's harmonies were so close that their voices seemed to merge in a swirl of gospel, rock and soul.On reading more about the magnificently camp rise of LaBelle, however, one name seems pivotal - that of the man who created those avant-garde designs that made the group's stage appearances quite so startling: Mr Larry LeGaspi! A name that seems largely absent on the interwebs these days. I've had to dig deep to find more about the man...
This was Labelle in the mid-1970s. They were not just a pop group with one enormous hit, Lady Marmalade, but a phenomenon whose music helped change the very idea of what pop and the artists who made it - especially women singers previously confined to "girl groups" - could be.
"People were looking for three outrageous women who might sing and say anything," said Patti LaBelle.
After spending the 1960s as the vocal group Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles (who, among other accomplishments, toured with the Rolling Stones) the group, guided by manager Vicki Wickham, enacted one of pop's most remarkable transformations. They traded in their wigs and satin gloves for futuristic costumes by rock designer Larry LeGaspi, began recording Hendryx's politically forthright and erotically charged songs, and developed a stage show that was part gospel revival, part circus, part love-in... They supported The Who and the Rolling Stones, recorded an album with Laura Nyro and followed Bette Midler's famous engagement at New York's gay mecca the Continental Baths.
"It wasn't really accepted that black girls could sing these songs," said Wickham, who also managed Dusty Springfield. "A lot of Nona's songs had double entendres, it wasn't like radio was going to jump on it. The time really wasn't right, but I also think that we were so big on doing it live and having great audiences that nobody really said, 'Hang on a second, you need to have something that goes on radio.'"
The earliest mention I can find is in Cheap Chic: Hundreds of Money-Saving Hints to Create Your Own Great Look (by Caterine Milinaire and Carol Troy, 1975):
Larry LeGaspi works out of Moonstone, a small design studio in the Village. His influence, however, is far wider. The incredible, soulful LaBelle flashed his space clothes all over the world, from Soul Train to Paris, from the Continental Baths to the Metropolitan Opera. The sliver breasts which flashed off their costumes at the Met were made by Larry's partner, Richard Erker, who works with him on all their spacey silver jewellery. Some weeks, when a show is about to go on, Larry doesn't get to sleep until five or six in the morning.According to Disco Chic: All the Styles,Steps and Places to Go, Mr LeGaspi's store was "decorated like the surface of the moon, with a silvery moonscaped floor and twinkling stars overhead," so must have been a sight to behold. Unfortunately his retail business was not such a great success [Moonstone went bust], but the fashions he designed were [especially during the excesses of the Disco era] - and in addition to the Labelle girls, he also created iconic "looks" for KISS, Divine and Funkadelic.
"My design ideas come from my childhood fantasies. I dream of other planets. I'm always finding myself in very strange places in my imagination! ... Space seemed to me the only direction for me to go, because the Seventies just seem to be a repeat of the Thirties through the Sixties. I see my work as a kind of "Space Deco". I'm trying to get a lot of fluidity in the skirts and cutting the jersey on a bias, but I think the Deco look should have more of the future in it. ...
"Half my customers are entertainers. My clothes are mainly for performers, because people are going to turn around and look at you in these things. Last week I got stopped by the police for stopping traffic in my white leather and fur coat!"
Whatever became of Larry LeGaspi eludes me [one mention on a blog comments section says he died on 26th April 2001, but it's not verified] - but his (and Miss Hendryx's) influence lives on!
Sibling's Autumn/Winter 2016 show for London Fashion Week
Nona Hendryx (born 9th October 1944)
More LaBelle here, here and here
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The Consort
With the death announced today of King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand, not only is this the end of the longest reign of any monarch on the planet (70 years - now superseded by the reign of our own dear HM Queen Elizabeth), but also the end of the longest tenure as consort - that of the impossibly glamorous Somdet Phra Nang Chao Sirikit Phra Borommarachininat, Her Majesty Queen Sirikit...
Who'll wear those tiaras now, I wonder?
RIP His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej (5th December 1927 - 13th October 2016)
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Swans reflecting elephants in a Surrealist jungle
Edward James, 1930s, by Cecil Beaton
“We still have two lobster telephones, so we have to ask ourselves, we obviously need a lobster telephone, but do we really need two? We also have three Mae West sofas, and that’s just greedy, isn’t it?"
Lisa Fonssagrives on Dali's "Mae West's Lips" sofa, by George Platt-Lines
Thus the director of West Dean College justified the forthcoming sale - which will be conducted by Christie's in December - of parts of their vast collection including the two aforementioned works by Salvador Dali as well as paintings by Pavel Tchelitchew, all bestowed upon the college (along with the vast mansion and grounds in which the college resides) by the eccentric millionaire philanthropist and collector of Surrealist works Edward James.
Edward James with composer Igor Markevich, by Norman Parkinson
Their benefactor Mr James certainly does seem to have been fabulously eccentric... According to The Guardian:
[He] lived mainly in nearby Monkton House, which came to him as a modest, plain home designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens as a refreshing break from the opulence of the main building. James painted the walls a searing purple, added two-storey palm-tree trunks and murals of washing hung out to dry, and heavily padded the interior walls.As well as Dali and Tchelitchew, Edward James supported numerous renowned artists and writers during their careers, including John Betjeman, Brian Howard, Bertold Brecht, Kurt Weill, Lotte Lenya and George Balanchine. One of his favourites René Magritte made him the subject to not one, but two of his most famous paintings. He went to school with Evelyn Waugh and Harold Acton, and counted among his social circle such luminaries as the Mitford sisters, Lord Berners, Sergei Diaghilev, Boris Kochno, Gertrude Stein (till they fell out) and Pablo Picasso. The refurbishment of Monkton House was done by society interior designer Syrie Maugham. His autobiography Swans Reflecting Elephants was written with the assistance of fellow Surrealism fanatic George Melly.
He slept in a bed modelled on Nelson’s hearse, and when he married Tilly Losch, an actor and dancer, he commissioned a green carpet woven with her footprints. The marriage did not last, with James accusing his wife of adultery and Losch suspecting her husband was gay. When they separated he had the carpet replaced with one woven with his Irish wolfhound’s paw prints.
His greatest indulgence, however, was the creation of the magnificent Surrealist gardens of Las Pozas in Mexico.
Tilda Swinton at Las Pozas
From "W" Magazine:
For 20 years, he dedicated much of his time and wealth to the design and construction of a spectacular series of concrete sculptures amid the luscious vegetation of Las Pozas, his vast estate in a tropical rain forest high in the Sierra Madre Oriental mountains near the tiny town of Xilitla, about an eight-hour drive north of Mexico City.
Some of the sculptures were inspired by the shapes of exotic plants and trees in the surrounding jungle; others, by the convoluted forms in the immense collection of works by the surrealist artists James had assembled back in England. Among his fantastical structures were totem poles, hidden rooms, teetering towers, and staircases leading to nowhere. James gave them baffling names like The House With Three Storeys That Could Be Five and Temple of the Ducks and instructed the hundreds of artisans who’d worked for him over the years to leave many of them unfinished.
Now the gardens are being restored to their former glory, and the college is intending to use its auction earnings to provide a home for a permanent exhibition of Mr James' bequest (what remains of it, which was quite a lot) - so, thirty-two years after his death, the man's eccentric legacy lives on anew...
Edward William Frank James (16th August 1907 – 2nd December 1984)
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This weekend, I am mostly dressing casual...
...just like today's much-missed birthday girl, the incomparable Celia Cruz!
Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso (21st October 1925 – 16th July 2003)
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"Acid Raine" no more
“I don’t care what people say behind my back. What I want is for them to be nice to my face.”
Daughter of the inimitable Barbara Cartland, stepmother to Diana Princess of Wales; from her three marriages, she became first Lady Lewisham and later Countess Dartmouth, then Countess Spencer, and latterly, and briefly, Contesse de Chambrun. The Spencer children resented her arrival intensely and nick-named her "Acid Raine", yet in both her political career and in her social life she was admired for her steely and trustworthy nature. In the end even Diana reconciled with her.
And she had great hair!
RIP Raine, Countess Spencer (born Raine McCorquodale, 9th September 1929 – 21st October 2016)
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Deliberate trash
"If you own a car, you change that every few years and that's just what I'm doing with my appearance."
"The only thing that separates us from animals, our ability to accessorise."
"You'd never catch me in a pair of fishnets! For one thing, they are not practical. And for another thing, it's just like a tacky drag queen."
"How trashy do I seem? I like deliberate Trash. I collect items like Elvis Presley clock radios and '50s memorabilia. It inspires a lot of my imagery. I like tasteful trash."
We're very sad here at Dolores Delargo Towers. Another great icon of the Eighties, Pete Burns is dead!
There will never be another...
Peter Jozzeppi "Pete" Burns (5th August 1959 – 23rd October 2016)
More Pete Burns and Dead or Alive here, here and here.
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On the Jukebox this Hallowe'en weekend at Dolores Delargo Towers
Scary...
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