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)

Aa-aa-Armani

Officially the most successful Italian designer ever (his fortune is estimated at five billion pounds!), Signor Giorgio Armani celebrates his 90th birthday today.

As famous for underpants, watches and accessories as for his sharp suits, his has been the style of choice for generations of stars of music, sport and the silver screen, politicians, dignitaries and even the Milanese police force.

Facts about Signor Armani:

• He was born in the northern Italian town of Piacenza, of Armenian and Italian descent.
• After military service as a young man, he became a window dresser at La Rinascente department store in Milan.
• Having worked on a freelance basis for myriad designers including Zegna, Cerruti and Loewe, the first pieces he designed under his own name were a series of leather bomber jackets in 1970.
• While building his fashion empire, he also designed costumes for more than one hundred films including American Gigolo and The Untouchables.
• When in 1975 he brought out a womenswear line using men's fabrics, he set the wheels in motion for the "power dressing" look that became synonymous with the 80s.
• Among his many commissions, he designed the costume worn by Spanish bullfighter Cayetano Rivera Ordóñez, the suits for the England football team (twice), and the cover of a book of gospels for the Pope.

So world-famous is Giorgio Armani, he's name-checked in loads of songs, from rap to pop to musical theatre. Not least, this one (a further tribute to another celebrant of a milestone birthday this week, Mr Neil Tennant):

Pet Shop Boys - Paninaro

Giorgio Armani (born 11th July 1934)

Excess is success

"I really don't understand minimalism. It is so polite and boring. If you don't want anyone to notice you, you should stay home and grow your own vegetables."

"Fashion should be something that in the morning, when you open your window, you say, 'Oh fantastic, sun!' Then you take your shower, you say, 'OK fantastic, which colour I wear today because I feel happy?' This should be fashion."

"In my planet, fashion, I'm the only straight man."

"What is too much? There is no such thing!"

"Excess is success."

The "go-to" designer for a raft of celebrities, from Brigitte Bardot and Sophia Loren to the Beckhams, Britney Spears and Jennifer Lopez, the great Italian fashionista Roberto Cavalli has departed to bestow endless swathes of leopardskin and animal print upon the glitterati of Fabulon.

The catwalks are going to be a lot less camp and glamorous now he's gone...

RIP, Roberto Cavalli (15th November 1940 – 12th April 2024)

Sex and champagne forever

It makes a refreshing change to read a beautiful obituary of someone who is not a "celebrity", nor even that well-known, but who made a significant impact on culture nonetheless. That is exactly how I felt when I read in tonight's Evening Standard the heartfelt tribute by "renowned fashion journalist and tastemaker" Ben Cobb to his friend Edward Sexton, bespoke tailor and co-founder of the Swinging Sixties favourite Nutters of Savile Row. Here are few extracts...

He began making a name for himself as a skilled cutter and by 1967 he was working at Donaldson, Williams and Ward, a fusty Savile Row establishment. It was here Edward met well-connected salesman Tommy Nutter; bored of buttoned-up business suits, the two started a side hustle creating outré outfits for private clients. Their signature look? Big shoulders, cinched-in waists, super wide lapels and even wider trousers.

“I was very influenced by the 30s and 40s,” Edward told me, “and I always loved Fred Astaire’s looks.” With funding from Cilla Black and Beatles manager Peter Brown, Edward and Tommy opened the doors to Nutters of Savile Row on Valentine’s Day 1969. The Row’s old guard didn’t know what hit them as Swinging London swarmed into Number 35a. Goodbye pinstripes; hello peacocks! That suit Mick Jagger got married in? Edward made that. Bianca’s too. Those far-out Elton John suits that inspired Harry Styles? Edward made those. And Harry’s. He dressed John and Yoko, Paul McCartney, Twiggy and Bowie. Jarvis Cocker. Bobby Gillespie. From a basement backroom, Edward systematically revolutionised menswear stitch by stitch, decade by decade...

When Edward was 76 years old, I put him on the cover of the fashion magazine Perfect. He turned up on set, immaculate as always and shoot-ready. As he stood in front of the camera I could see him mouthing something to himself. Later I asked him what he was saying. “Sex and champagne, sex and champagne,” he replied; apparently Bowie had taught him this photogenic trick. (Give it a go, it sure beats saying “Cheeese”.)

...I also had the honour of presenting Edward with the “Visionary” award at last year’s Walpole Luxury Awards...As he clutched his award, I asked if he could retire now; his reply is unprintable here but, suffice to say, Edward worked right up until the end. Standing side-by-side for our final photocall that night, I heard him mumbling Bowie’s mantra under his breath.

Sex and champagne forever, Edward.

RIP, Edward Sexton (9th November 1942 – 23rd July 2023)

Heavy Metal

RIP Francisco “Paco” Rabaneda Cuervo, better known as Paco Rabanne, architect and metal-sculptor-turned avant-garde couturier, who has departed to add his kooky Barbarella touch to Fabulon...

Viv

“It is not possible for a man to be elegant without a touch of femininity.”

“I never look at fashion magazines. I find them incredibly boring. To me, reading a fashion magazine is the last thing I need to do. I've got books I need to read. More people should read books. It's the most concentrated experience you can have. You know, all those incredible geniuses concentrated their lifetimes' experiences in books. It's much better than chattering away to somebody who's never read anything and knows nothing at all.”

“Culture is necessary for human beings to evolve into better creatures.”

"If you wear clothes that don't suit you, you're a fashion victim. You have to wear clothes that make you look better."

"I may be a rebel, but I am not an outsider."

"If in doubt, dress up."

Yet another icon has departed, on a mission to make Fabulon a more stylish place...

RIP, Dame Vivienne Westwood DBE RDI (8th April 1941 – 29th December 2022)

It's a Look

Paris Couture Week 2022 was a "happening". Again.

[from top left: Alexis Mabille, Filippo Fior, Gaultier, Iris Van Herpen, Julien Fournié, Schiaparelli, Yuima Nakazato, Gaultier again - click any pic to enlarge]

It's a Look...

Richard Quinn

Harris Reed

VIN + OMI

Yes, the madness that is London Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2022 is upon us - in fact, it ends tomorrow, and we hardly even noticed it was on!

[click any photo to enlarge]

The Dame, The Designer and "The Gasp"

Our icon, Patron Saint and eternal role-model Dame Shirley Bassey celebrates her 85th birthday today, and we remain completely and utterly in awe of her as always...

However, by way of a tribute, let's concentrate on her frocks - one in particular - and the magnificently flamboyant old queen behind them all!

Apparently a favourite outfit, Dame Shirl has worn "The Cat Suit" on numerous occasions since the late 1960s - including her record-breaking run of performances at The Talk of the Town nightclub in April 1970, on several record sleeves including Something Else (1971), Diamonds Are Forever and The Shirley Bassey Collection (1972), and several times since, including at her 60th birthday concert in Althorp Park in July 1997. The intricately-beaded and sequinned suit and its accessories were modified a number of times over the years, notably the fact the legs were designed with wide flares trimmed with marabou and these were latterly straightened and the trims removed as fashions changed.

Back in August 2021, we were enthralled when - having been purchased by the V&A in London - its meticulous restoration for display was featured in the BBC "fly-on-the-wall" documentary Secrets of the Museum:

Secrets of the Museum- Dame Shirley Bassey - The restoring of the cat suit

This magnificent ensemble was the creation of the man who became the Dame's "go-to" frock designer for more than five decades, Douglas Darnell.

A precocious child, always fascinated by on-screen Hollywood outfits, when Douglas was seven his mother taught him to use a sewing machine, and by the age of 12 he was making fancy dress costumes for the floats in the local carnival. From humble beginnings as a window-dresser for C&A and various other department stores, he landed an apprenticeship with Royal couturier Norman Hartnell. However, when he was given a magnet to pick up pins from the floor, he told the grand old man that they could pick up the pins for themselves and promptly left the building. “That boy,” Hartnell reportedly commented, “will go far.” And he certainly did.

Fom his own premises - first in Soho, later in Mayfair - "Darnell of London" attracted myriad showbiz names of the 1950s and 60s including The Beverley Sisters, strongwoman Joan Rhodes, Diana Dors, Joan Collins, Zsa-Zsa Gabor, Dorothy Squires and drag queens including Ricky Renee and Danny LaRue.

From his obituary in 2012, his sister Linda paid tribute to the "great perfectionist":

"He never left the house unless everything was colour coordinated and matching - not a hair out of place and in his favourite jewellery.

"Doug enjoyed making women look gorgeous and glamorous."

When Dame Shirley decided to auction a selection of frocks Doug had designed for her for charity back in 2003, she personally thanked him from the stage, describing him as "not someone who makes gowns, but an architect and an engineer, he is just magic" - and she credited him for "the gasp" she always got from her audience when she first walked out on stage wearing his numbers, with their extravagant nicknames such as "The Diamond Gown", "The Mermaid Gown" and the "Tassel Gown", as well as the (notoriously skimpy) one that made worldwide headlines and became known as "the gownless evening-strap", and many more besides...

The highlight of the sale was a spectacular Darnell creation, a full-length gown encrusted with Swarovski crystals which fetched £35,000. Dame Shirley remarked that, in an age of convenient off-the-roll, pre-sequinned and beaded fabrics, she knew of no one else who would spend so much time sewing on thousands of individual stones. His workmanship and expertise, she added, were second to none.

A documentary featuring Shirley talking about her life and her frock collection, in which Douglas Darnell appears, is on "The Shirley Bassey Blog" here.

According to Doug's sister Linda again:

"...legend has it that one night in 1965, after sharing top billing with Shirley Bassey, Dusty Springfield sneaked into the dressing room to find out who had made her stunning outfits. The name on the label read 'Darnell of London', the fashion house was later contacted by Dusty - and the rest is history."

Indeed, Dusty became a regular customer, and developed a whole new "stage persona" as a result. On one famous occasion she said from the stage:"Do you like the frock? I've borrowed it from Dorothy Squires; only she has to have it back by midnight because she's hired the Vatican for a one-night stand!"

I very much doubt anything Dusty wore was ever quite as OTT as Dotty's...

click any pic to enlarge

But, of course, as it is her birthday after all, the last word must go to Dame Shirley Bassey herself - wearing "The Cat Suit", naturally...

Shirley Bassey - On A Wonderful Day Like Today’, I’ll Never Fall In Love Again, This Is My Life [Monte Carlo Sporting Club, 1970]

Many happy returns, Dame Shirley Veronica Bassey, DBE (born 8th January 1937)

RIP, Douglas Darnell (15th August 1933 - 25th April 2012)