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)

Judi's a slag!

Judi and Maggie being pampered

The magnificent Dame Judi Dench is 90 years old today! All hail.

Many and varied are the tributes being paid to the great lady, but quite possibly the most unexpected one is from her pet African grey parrot, Sweetie:

“We had a long chat just now. You shouldn’t ask what she says. She says: ‘You’re a slut’, ‘you’re a slag’!”

“Honest to God, it’s true,” Dench said. “I don’t know where she learned the timing.”

Many happy returns, Dame Judith Olivia Dench (born 9th December 1934)

Haway!

Our latest "exhibit" here at the Dolores Delargo Towers Museum of Camp - and our latest obsession...

...Smoggie Queens!

Smoggie Queens - Have a guess, Stewart

Smoggie Queens - Smoggie Ice Cream Van

Smoggie Queens - I've seen Lucinda's new man before, I swearrrrrr

Smoggie Queens - Smoggie lingo!

You may need the subtitles.

All this and Michelle Visage as you've never seen her before!

Grandma Glamma

Meet Margret Chola, aka "Legendary Glamma" - the 80-something style sensation from rural Zambia!

There's hope for us all...

I think today should be...

...a "Say Something Hat Day"!

...don't you?

Hallowe'en..?

...no, it's the story of my life.

Thou comest, Autumn

Thou comest, Autumn, heralded by the rain,
With banners, by great gales incessant fanned,
Brighter than brightest silks of Samarcand,
And stately oxen harnessed to thy wain!
Thou standest, like imperial Charlemagne,
Upon thy bridge of gold; thy royal hand
Outstretched with benedictions o'er the land,
Blessing the farms through all thy vast domain!
Thy shield is the red harvest moon, suspended
So long beneath the heaven's o'er-hanging eaves;
Thy steps are by the farmer's prayers attended;
Like flames upon an altar shine the sheaves;
And, following thee, in thy ovation splendid,
Thine almoner, the wind, scatters the golden leaves!
 - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Oh, no!

British Summer Time (for what it was worth) is over for another year.

No light evenings from now until March 2025...

I made my own lane

I made my own lane. I worked and still work as hard as anyone can, and I love each person who supported me and cares about me for me. I love performing. I still take dance lessons, and when I sing to people in the theatre, I’m not giving a performance - I’m sharing my love with each individual person. I’m asking, “This is how I feel. How ’bout you?” My work is real.

No! She's not dead...

Our Patron Saint of Pizzazz Liza's very much still with us - as this fabulous interview/conversation with her long-time friend Michael Feinstein confirms:

• Liza Minnelli in Interview Magazine, Fall 2024 edition

Razzle Dazzle no more

It is with tears in our eyes that we bid a fond farewell to our beloved Patron Saint of Bugle Beads Miss Mitzi Gaynor, who has razzle-dazzled her way off to Fabulon today.

The star to end all stars, she shimmied, shook and high-kicked her way through myriad musicals, TV specials and award ceremonies in her long, long career - her screen legacy includes such classics as My Blue Heaven, There's No Business Like Show Business, Anything Goes, Les Girls and, of course, South Pacific. We are going to miss her terribly!

Mitzi Gaynor - Honey Bun

Mitzi Gaynor - Limehouse Blues

Mitzi Gaynor - Let Go!

RIP, Francesca Marlene de Czanyi von Gerber, aka Mitzi Gaynor (4th September 1931 - 17th October 2024)

Diamonds are forever...

...unless you decide to sell them, of course.

Dame Shirley Bassey’s vintage 1960s Van Cleef and Arpels diamond ring with brilliant-cut diamonds, which was given to her by Sir Elton John.

Necklace featuring 52 graduated diamonds.

Ruby and diamond parure with heart detail.

Her 1905 diamond brooch, poss. Cartier.

A multi-piece set featuring aquamarines, sapphires and diamonds.

Van Cleef and Arpels emerald and diamond necklace, bought by her to commemorate her first Royal Variety Performance for Queen Elizabeth II.

Dame Shirley Bassey's jewellery collection has smashed a world record in a Paris auction with all of the lots belonging to the singer selling for a collective price of 2.2 million euros (£1.8m).

I would have placed a bid, but it's not pay day 'till next week.

[click any pic to embiggen]

Spectacular Spectacles

Lordy! The "Songbird of Athens", the woman who single-handedly made glasses a fashion statement, one of the biggest-selling artists in the world (with a seven-decade career and more than 200 albums in multiple languages under her belt) - the lovely Miss Nana Mouskouri is 90 years old today!

What a huge musical legacy - here's a mere sample of her repertoire:

Nana Mouskouri & Sacha Distel - Les Parapluies De Cherbourg

Nana Mouskouri - The White Rose of Athens

Nana Mouskouri & George Chakiris - Siko Chorepse Sirtaki

Nana Mouskouri - Ta Pediá tou Pireá/Never on a Sunday

Nana Mouskouri & Nina Hagen - Lili Marlene

Many happy returns, Nana Mouskouri (born Ioanna Mouschouri, 13th October 1934)

This weekend I am mostly dressing casual...

...like Signorina Lea Periconi, tennis maven, and style icon of the 1950s and 60s, who has departed for Fabulon. The higher the hair...

Each hath one, and is one

It's National Poetry Day! How about this one... As we used to say when I was studying for exams in school, "We done Donne!"

The Good-Morrow
By John Donne

I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I
Did, till we loved? Were we not weaned till then?
But sucked on country pleasures, childishly?
Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers’ den?
’Twas so; but this, all pleasures fancies be.
If ever any beauty I did see,
Which I desired, and got, ’twas but a dream of thee.

And now good-morrow to our waking souls,
Which watch not one another out of fear;
For love, all love of other sights controls,
And makes one little room an everywhere.
Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone,
Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown,
Let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one.

My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,
And true plain hearts do in the faces rest;
Where can we find two better hemispheres,
Without sharp north, without declining west?
Whatever dies, was not mixed equally;
If our two loves be one, or, thou and I
Love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die.

Sublime.

The Face

Our Patron Saint of Post-Punk Poise, Miss Debbie Harry - at the venerable age of [gulp!] 79 - is the face of Gucci's "We Will Always Have London campaign, in which the couture house has launched "The Blondie Bag"!

No words

It's the end of an era.

RIP, Dame Maggie Smith.

We adored you.

If you're born with it, you'll have it

"There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of the people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age."

"Beauty is how you feel inside, and it reflects in your eyes. It is not something physical."

"Sex appeal is fifty percent what you've got and fifty percent what people think you've got."

"Everything you see I owe to spaghetti."

"You have to be born a sex symbol. You don't become one. If you're born with it, you'll have it even when you're 100 years old."

Signorina Sophia Loren, Diva-above-all-Divas, is 90 years old today!

All hail.

Words to live by

We try our best.

Betty

"If there was one thing I had never been, it was mysterious, and if there was one thing I had never done, it was not talk."

Shamefully overlooked by what laughingly passes for "the media" these days, 100 years ago today a true legend [although she hated the term] was born - Miss Lauren Bacall.

All hail!

"If goodness is its own reward, shouldn't we get a little something for being naughty?"

"Growing up takes longer than you think."

"Looking at yourself in a mirror isn't exactly a study of life."

Such a gloriously beautiful and charismatic woman - her image is destined to live forever.

And she appeared to be a fun person, too!

Lauren Bacall - One of the Girls Who Is One of the Boys (Woman of the Year)

Lauren Bacall (born Betty Joan Perske, 16th September 1924 – 12th August 2014)