I was a Lady before I was a Dame

"My mother said to me, ‘You’re no oil painting, my girl, but you have the spark. Thank God you’ve got my legs and not your father’s!’”

"I have always resented the comments that it was I who was the homewrecker of Larry's marriage to Vivien Leigh. Danny Kaye was attached to Larry far earlier than I."

Sad news. Another of our eminent Dames has departed these shores to preside over Fabulon - Dame Joan Plowright.

Never the huge international star her late husband Sir Laurence Olivier became, her world was that of one of the pre-eminent doyennes of the theatre. In her own words:

"You do films if the roof needs mending."

As well as being a fine actress, and instrumental in the overhaul of British theatre - first in the "Angry Young Men" era at The Royal Court, then (as Mrs Olivier) she played a pivotal role in the establishment of The National Theatre - she was also a very witty and entertaining raconteuse, as our late friend Alistair and I discovered when we went to "An Evening With..." the Great Dame back in 2014.

And here she, is, having a great time with her old chums and fellow Dames in one of the most charming documentaries we watched in the last decade:

Nothing Like A Dame [known as Tea with the Dames in the USA] - Who was the First Dame?

RIP, Dame Joan Ann Plowright, the Baroness Olivier.

The Surrealist

RIP, David Lynch (20th January 1946 – 16th January 2025)

Angelo Badalamenti - Twin Peaks Theme

Genius.

That face

"I love that face, that face, it just isn't fair
You must forgive the way that I stare
But never will these eyes behold a sight that could replace
That face, that face, that face."

In a final flourish of attention-grabbing - surely what her entire tragic, plastic-surgery-enhanced existence was all about - the final entry in 2024's "Book of the Dead" has departed for the "Beauty Salon Reject Area" of Fabulon. RIP, Miss Jocelyn Wildenstein (née Jocelyne Périsset, 5th August 1940 – 31st December 2024)!

Banging in the New Year

London Fireworks, New Year 2025

Once again, London's fireworks display was utterly breathtaking! But what were all those graphics in the middle of the London Eye all about? Were they really there - or were they AI? We should be told...

Happy New Year, dear reader!

It's your duty to be beautiful

Many happy returns to the simply faboo Miss Annie Lennox, who is (gulp!) 70 years old today!

Adore her...

Annie Lennox - Keep Young and Beautiful

Indeed.

[PS Also born on 25th December: Quentin Crisp, Noele Gordon, Sir Isaac Newton, Helena Rubinstein, Humphrey Bogart, Sir Lew Grade, Cab Calloway, Princess Alexandra, Ismail Merchant, Lady Eve Pollard, Kenny Everett, Sissy Spacek, Desireless, Shane MacGowan, Alannah Myles, Ian Bostridge, Dido, Ed Davey and Justin Trudeau.]

On the Jukebox this weekend here at Dolores Delargo Towers

...but will any of 'em end up on our New Year's Eve playlist? Time will tell.

I dared

"Style doesn't have seasons."

"You have to want to dare being a model. You have to dare or you don't go that step further. You have to be willing to stretch - and to not only be willing to stretch, but to want to stretch."

"A lot of women say to me, 'Polly, why aren't there more clothes out there that we can wear?' And I don't agree with them! There are clothes out there that they can wear - it's just that they don't dare to wear them."

"I personally do not think that I have ever done, in my working life, anything vulgar. I know I've done provocative things."

"I like to take things further. Too often, stylists do things to please because they are going to be accepted. You lose the magic that way. You can’t give something special to your readers unless you dare. I was a stronger woman behind the camera than I was in real life. I dared."

And so, farewell, the remarkable stylist and fashion editor Polly Mellen, who has departed to zhoosh-up the glittering catwalks of Fabulon at the venerable age of 100.

Unsurprisingly, during her long career in the fashion world she knew everyone who was everyone - growing up in Connecticut, she was acquainted with the young Katherine Hepburn; a friend-of-a-friend Sally Kirkland (future editor of Vogue) recommended her to Diana Vreeland, who gave Miss Mellon her big break at Harpers Bizarre, and then Vogue; she worked with photographers Helmut Newton and Irving Penn, and her collaborations with Richard Avedon became iconic; she worked with just about every couturier from Cristóbal Balenciaga to Halston to Alistair McQueen, Calvin Klein, Isaac Mizrahi, Vera Wang and Viktor & Rolf, and nurtured the careers of a host of supermodels that included Penelope Tree, Patti Hansen, Lauren Hutton, Nastassja Kinski, Janice Dickinson, Kate Moss, Linda Evangelista, and dozens more.

A most influential fashionista, indeed!

RIP, Polly Allen Mellen (18th June 1924 – 12th December 2024)