Statement...

Swan hat pictured at Royal Ascot Ladies Day 2011

Trompe-l'œil

Is this a window, or is it something else?



A beautiful Art Deco poster for Rudolph Valentino's Monsieur Beaucaire, nonetheless...

“I don’t do minimal”

At the grand old age of 90, former interior designer, fashion maven and New York socialite Iris Apfel is a sudden superstar. She has been photographed by Bruce Weber; Simon Doonan devoted a whole window at swanky department store "Barneys" to her, and in 2005 the Metropolitan Museum of Art mounted a full-scale exhibition dedicated to her wardrobe!



The self-proclaimed "geriatric starlet" is certainly a walking art-form, with trademark out-sized glasses and exquisite - and deliberately clashing on occasions - outfits.


Iris Apfel by Bruce Weber

She also has a lot to say about style...

• "I never care much what people think. I honestly don’t; I don’t pay any attention to the fashion police.
• I don't do minimal."
• "Clothes are not frippery. Properly done, they can be an art form... They are a great vehicle for explaining who you are."
• "I’ve never tried to be a rebel or upset anybody. I just figured if I pleased my husband, and my mother didn’t get upset, then I was okay."
• "People with a lot of money don’t dress as well as people who have to make do, who have to be inventive. Those are the people who are always more interestingly dressed, I think."
• "Diamond necklaces don’t appeal to me at all. I prefer fun jewellery with big stones - so large they would be untouchable if they were real."
• "Now, don’t get me wrong. I do appreciate Daddy Warbucks-size stones, like a big, flawed emerald. I love stones that are inherently flawed: rock crystal, turquoise with big veins."

In September 2011, she launches her own jewellery line Rara Avis ("Rare Bird" - a nickname of hers), which we look out for with trepidation...

A fascinating woman indeed, and a worthy exhibit in the Museum of Camp!

Iris Apfel’s Exuberant Apartment in The Architectural Digest, June 2011.

The book Rare Bird of Fashion: The Irreverent Iris Apfel is available now.

"You are the one"

The young Cole Porter (8 June 1891–15 October 1964) was almost hurled in the direction of a musical career by by his doting (and rather influential in small-town America) mother. She apparently financed his school orchestra in exchange for guarantee that he would get to play the violin solo, ensured his musical compositions were published and performed, and used her influence on the local media when they reviewed his performances. It is safe to say he may well have been a bit of a spoilt child...

Emerging from the finest schools, including Yale and (briefly) Harvard, Cole Porter had an impeccable education. And, like many other privileged young gay men, Mr Porter kept up a proper front for his family while clandestinely indulging his burgeoning sex life. Perhaps the number of football fight songs he wrote in Yale and his post-college sexual preference for large strong men were not entirely coincidence.

During the First World War (in which he did not actually fight, despite his stories to the contrary) he lived in Paris, a city renowned for its free-and-easy attitude towards sex and sexuality even then. The parties he attended (and hosted) were apparently fabulous, with guests from the elite of European (and US) society including members of the Italian nobility, gay orgies, cross-dressing, music, champagne and recreational drugs. [Sounds fab!] There he met wealthy American socialite Linda Lee Thomas, who was to become his wife and muse.

Miss Thomas, eight years older than him and one of Mr Porter's financial as well as emotional supporters, was more than happy to overlook his sexuality in exchange for his erudite and entertaining company and a share in his glamorous life. In return he was more easily able to concentrate on making a successful musical career. Despite their obvious long-standing adoration for each other (they stayed together, on and off till her death in 1954), their marriage was entirely sexless. According to the New York Times, however, "Marriage did not diminish Porter's taste for extravagant luxury. The Porter home on the rue Monsieur near Les Invalides was a palatial house with platinum wallpaper and chairs upholstered in zebra skin."

Cole Porter also carried on his constant pursuit of affairs with men (one of them ballet star Boris Kochno) for the rest of his life. He seemed to specialise in trysts with "rough trade" such as sailors and rent boys, often going cruising with his old friend the actor Monty Woolley. Allegedly one night, a young sailor they drove up to on the street asked outright, "Are you two cocksuckers?" Wooley smiled and said, "Now that the preliminaries are over, why don't you get in and we can discuss the details?"

John Barrowman & Kevin Kline - Night and Day

It was Hollywood, however, that really catered to Mr Porter's hedonistic tastes, and his pool parties and gay affairs were the stuff of legend.

"Porter became a centre of the social whirl wherever he went, particularly among the homosexual elite. He was the only person who ever threatened director George Cukor's pre-eminence in Hollywood's gay circles. In George Cukor: A Double Life, biographer Patrick McGilligan writes that these competing world-class egos were called "the rival Queens of Hollywood," but concedes that "Porter's was perhaps the more privileged invitation."

Linda felt so left out of Cole's life that she packed her bags and left for Paris. She only returned when a horse riding accident shattered Cole's legs, and she supported him as he rebuilt his career.

And what a career!

Cole Porter's musicals include Anything Goes, Broadway Melody of 1940, Kiss Me Kate, High Society, Can-Can, Panama Hattie, and the tantalisingly-titled Gay Divorcee and Something For The Boys.



Among the hundreds of songs that he gave us as his legacy are: What is This Thing Called Love?, Let's Misbehave, Night and Day, Love for Sale, Let's Do It, I Get a Kick out of You, You're the Top, My Heart Belongs to Daddy, De-Lovely, You'd Be So Easy to Love, Do I Love You?, Well, Did You Evah!, In the Still of the Night, It's All Right with Me, At Long Last Love, I've Got You Under My Skin, Begin the Beguine, Too Darn Hot, Always True to You (in My Fashion), Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye, True Love and Just One of Those Things (among so many more).

Eartha Kitt - Let's Do It

An amazing man.

http://www.coleporter.org/

One can never have enough...

...hat boxes, darlings!



"So many hats and only one head!"

Dirty Gertie from Number 30

Gertrude Lawrence, photographed by Cecil Beaton, 1930

From an article in The Daily Mail [of all places!]:

Yes, it was a spectacle the star's daughter was never to forget. As Pamela Clatworthy opened the door of the Number One dressing room at New York's St James Theatre on an April afternoon in 1951, she encountered a scene that froze her in her tracks.

Her mother, the legendary musical star Gertrude Lawrence, was in flagrante.

Her oyster-pink hooped satin ball gown was over her head like an inverted circus tent. Burrowing beneath it with dedicated zeal was a man of whom Pamela could see only his bare feet and equally bare buttocks.

'When they noticed I was there, and he emerged, his head was as bald as his backside, and I realised it was Yul Brynner'.

That was the first intimation Pamela had that her mother was involved in a passionate affair with her co-star in the hit Broadway musical, The King And I, a married man 17 years Gertie's junior, who owed to her his ascent to stardom.

'It was a closely guarded secret,' says Pamela. So secret that it has eluded every biographer of Lawrence and Brynner.

'It makes me laugh when I keep hearing stories about my mother supposedly being a lesbian. She was the complete reverse. Her appetite for men verged on nymphomania.'

Gertrude Lawrence on Wikipedia

La bella figura

“The expression ‘Made in Italy’ has become a global codeword for an embodiment of style, conveying Italy’s position at the forefront of international trends, inspiring and influencing the designers of tomorrow as it has done for over half a century”.



To mark the 150th anniversary of Italy’s unification, a new exhibition Masters of Style: Celebrating the Stories behind Italian Fashion is at Somerset House this summer (1 July – 14 August).



It brings together six of Italy’s most influential fashion houses to celebrate the stories behind Italian fashion. Looking at defining moments from their advertising campaigns, Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Ferragamo, Gucci, Missoni and Prada will showcase a personally hand-picked selection of images from their collections and archives, bringing to life iconic style moments and offering an insight into the passion and influences behind their work.



This exhibition is curated by Peroni Nastro Azzurro in partnership with fashion commentator Colin McDowell.

Masters of Style