Chic is...

From her book Always Ask a Man: The Key to Femininity" - "The Guide to Chic":

Chic is:	Chic is not:
An evening dress with long sleeves. A gay dinner hat. A man’s black umbrella when it rains. An accessory that matches your hair. A trademark too ingenious to be corny. Flexibility in appearance and attitude. English, beautifully spoken. Beautifully matched lingerie. Perfumed fans. The absence of a summer tan. The arts, appreciated. A bad habit, a stale passion, discarded. Taupe. Acting your age.	Diamonds at breakfast. More than three colours in an ensemble. White shoes, daytime. Plastic shoes, anytime. Being seen in curlers in public. The contrived. Ostentation. Sloppy grooming. Sleeveless dresses on overweight women. Tight pants on anyone. A strident voice. A fad that everyone’s adopted. Playing it safe. An aggressive manner.

Sad news. Another glittering star of "The Golden Age of Hollywood" has departed for Fabulon...

RIP, Arlene Dahl (11th August 1925 – 29th November 2021)

End of an Era

West Side Story
Gypsy
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Anyone Can Whistle
Do I Hear a Waltz?
Company
Follies
A Little Night Music
The Frogs
Pacific Overtures
Sweeney Todd
Merrily We Roll Along
Sunday in the Park with George
Into the Woods
Assassins
Passion
Road Show

RIP, The Maestro; the man whose creative genius was behind every one of these musicals.

Stephen Joshua Sondheim (22nd March 1930 – 26th November 2021)

We at Dolores Delargo Towers are distraught at the loss of our icon.

Life through a lens

RIP Mick Rock, "The Official Photographer of the 1970s".

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I think today should be...

Isabella Blow (19th November 1958 – 7th May 2007)

Gene Tierney (19th November 1920 – 6th November 1991)

Eleanor Powell (21st November 1912 – 11th February 1982)

Ofra Haza (19th November 1957 – 23rd February 2000)

Amanda Lear (born 18th November 1939)

Fenella Fielding (17th November 1927 – 11th September 2018)

Anni-Frid "Frida" Lyngstad (born 15th November 1945)

Louise Brooks (14th November 1906 – 8th August 1985)

Veronica Lake (14th November 1922 – 7th July 1973)

...a "Say Something Hat Day", don't you?

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On the Jukebox this Weekend at Dolores Delargo Towers

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This weekend, I am mostly dressing casual...

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...like the irrepressible Mrs Shilling, doyenne of Royal Ascot Races' Ladies' Day (wearing the millinery creations of her son David) for three decades!

Gertrude Ethel T. Shilling (3rd March 1910 - 13th October 1999)

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Footnote:

I was prompted to post this arising from a comment exchange over at Inexplicable Device, where the lovely Dinahmow compared me to the dearly-missed Gertrude...

Britannia rules!

With one of the most remarkable voices in opera, Welsh operatic dramatic soprano Dame Gwyneth Jones, who is 85 today, gave many of the "bigger" names among Wagnerian divas - like Kirsten Flagstad, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Birgit Nilsson - a run for their money. Having begun her career as a stand-in for the great Leontyne Price, she progressed from operas by the likes of Verdi and Puccini towards more demanding roles in the works of Richard Strauss and Wagner - to huge acclaim.

Here she is in one of her most-remembered performances, the uber-dramatic "Brünnhilde" in Götterdämmerung:

Gwyneth Jones - Brünnhilde's Immolation Scene [Bayreuther Festspiele, 1980]

At the height of her powers, she famously undertook the roles of both Elisabeth and Venus in Tannhäuser at the Bayreuth Festival in the 1970s, and she has performed all three major female roles in Elektra on stage. As her voice matured, she took fewer of the diva roles and diversified into Lieder, recitals and character parts; she played the role of "Isolde" in the TV drama series about the life of Wagner, and became an adjudicator in the international Cardiff Singer of the World competition for the BBC.

By pure coincidence she shares a birthday with the late, great Dame Joan Sutherland - and here they are together, at the retirement of the opera manager chief executive of the Royal Opera House, David Webster in 1970:

Fairly recently, she played a retired opera singer in the major film Quartet, alongside Dame Maggie Smith, Sir Tom Courtenay, Pauline Collins, Sir Billy Connolly and Sir Michael Gambon, and received many plaudits from the critics for her role. Largely retired from singing, she remains President of the Wagner Society of Great Britain, a role she has held since 1990.

The last word, as always, goes to the Grande Dame herself - making one of the most memorable appearances as "Britannia" at the Last Night of the Proms in 1991:

Gwyneth Jones - Rule, Britannia!

Many happy returns, Dame Gwyneth Jones DBE (born 7th November 1936)