Little Glory

The World of Gloria Vanderbilt
By Wendy Goodman with foreword by Anderson Cooper

Out in November. If this is anything akin to Tony Duquette, which Goodman coauthored, this is indeed something to look forward to.



Now playing: Laura Branigan - Gloria

Fit

American Beauty by Patricia Mears

...the first to examine the relationship between innovation and aesthetics as expressed by American couturiers and fashion designers from the late 1910s to the present day. The book, which accompanies a major exhibition at The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, reveals that great design and great style were consistent elements in the work of American’s best fashion designers.



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Now playing: Diane Birch - Valentino

1979

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Now playing: David Bowie - Fashion

On the horizon

Yves Saint Laurent by Farid Chenoune

One of the most distinctive and influential designers of the second half of the twentieth century, Yves Saint Laurent takes his place in the pantheon of French couturiers, alongside Coco Chanel, Christian Dior, and Jeanne Lanvin. Yves Saint Laurent, the first comprehensive retrospective of his life’s work, will accompany an exhibition of some 250 garments from the collection of the Fondation Pierre Bergé–Yves Saint Laurent at the Petit Palais in Paris.





Thierry Mugler by Danièle Bott

A visual journey through four decades of Thierry Mugler’s unmistakable style and inexhaustible creativity. The designs of the iconic French couturier Thierry Mugler convey a powerful and seductive image of womanhood. His architectural, ultra-stylized silhouettes, his exploration of new materials, his passion for staging and spectacle, and his futuristic fantasies have left an indelible impression on the world of fashion.



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Now playing: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - We Call Upon the Author
via FoxyTunes

Something for the weekend

Neil Jordan's Breakfast on Pluto comes tearing out of the gate like a pink poodle on speed. Rattling through chapters from Patrick McCabe's novel - all 36 of them, individually captioned - it relates the picaresque adventures of a young Irish transvestite called Kitten (Cillian Murphy), taking us from his rural Irish childhood, dumped on the doorstep of the parish priest (Liam Neeson), to his quest for his mother (Eva Birthistle) between bombings and cabaret shows in glam 1970s London. - Tim Robey





I love talking about nothing. It is the only thing I know anything about. - Oscar Wilde


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Now playing: Dusty Springfield - The Windmills of Your Mind
via FoxyTunes

A dieu

Alexander McQueen CBE (1969-2010)






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Now playing: Antony & The Johnsons - Another World
via FoxyTunes

Fash. Ed. Supreme.

That was how Joanna Lumley's fashion editor character, Patsy Stone, in Absolutely Fabulous described her idol Grace Coddington.


Vogue's Grace Coddington
More from Style.com





With the release of The September Issue Coddington finds a new audience and confirms what those of a certain age already knew - she is genius.





Her 2002 opus Grace: Thirty Years of Fashion at Vogue



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Now playing: Aretha Franklin - Amazing Grace
via FoxyTunes

Winter wonderland

Alexander McQueen Autumn/Winter 2009-10





And by the looks of it the coming Spring is going to be glorious. Glorious in an American abstract expressionist way, that is.















GQ.COM















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Now playing: Simple Minds - Love Song

via FoxyTunes

I am the Gothic version of Garbo

So said Valentina (Valentina Nicholaevna Schlee, nee Sanina, c.1899 - 1989), the legendary Russian emigrée who was America's answer to Mme Grés and Madeleine Vionnet.




Valentina: American Couture and the Cult of Celebrity by Kohle Yohannan





Author, curator and historian Kohle Yohannan on Valentina.


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Now playing: Stevie Nicks - Garbo
via FoxyTunes

The man who brought downtown uptown

The Stephen Sprouse Book










Uber antimodel Tony Ward, wearing Stephen Sprouse, photographed by Paul Gobel for Blitz, April 1988.


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Now playing on iTunes: Inner City - Big Fun
via FoxyTunes

Brave new world

Alexander McQueen
Ready to Wear
Fall 2009

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Now playing on iTunes: Time Zone featuring John Lydon & Afrika Bambaataa - World Destruction (Single Edit)
via FoxyTunes

Pure theatre

Christian Dior
Haute Couture Collection
Spring-Summer 2009

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Now playing on iTunes: Simple Minds - Promised You a Miracle
via FoxyTunes

Spirits

Mrs. de Menil's Liquor Closet
Nest, Fall 2001
Article by Edward Albee
Photographs by Langdon Clay


A little place of bewilderment, as it was described by one of the de Menil's children. Its ocher felt lined door, palest of blue painted papered walls, seamless black concrete floor, and mirrored shelves were created by the couturier Charles James.

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Now playing on iTunes: The Shangri-Las - Sophisticated Boom Boom
via FoxyTunes

More ways to waste time

Life is cruel to people who aren't fabulous, so sayeth Reality Nirvana Tuttle doorwhore extraordinaire and protagonist of Lee Tulloch's late 80s romp Fabulous Nobodies.

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Now playing on iTunes: Jimmy James - Fashionista (Original Radio)
via FoxyTunes

Goddess

Tilda Swinton wearing Lanvin at the 81st Annual Academy Awards.
Note, it is not Lanvin wearing Tilda Swinton. A lesson a good many of the Hollywood set (and those who take their cues from them) should heed. Neither over styled, nor over dressed for the occasion.

If one is a greyhound, why try to look like a Pekingese?
- Edith Sitwell


Image from fabsugar


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Now playing on iTunes: The Beauty Room - Soul Horizon
via FoxyTunes

How one should use toile

Copiously.

Nest, Summer 2001 - This is a Genuine Emergency
Andre Leon Talley photographed by Jason Schmidt in his Lenox Hill Hospital room decorated by Mica Ertegun (MACII). Fran Lebowitz takes a cigarette break outside.

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Now playing on iTunes: Peggy Lee - Don't Smoke In Bed
via FoxyTunes

How one should use toile

Copiously.

Nest, Summer 2001 - This is a Genuine Emergency
Andre Leon Talley photographed by Jason Schmidt in his Lenox Hill Hospital room decorated by Mica Ertegun (MACII). Fran Lebowitz takes a cigarette break outside.

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Now playing on iTunes: Peggy Lee - Don't Smoke In Bed
via FoxyTunes

Why not?

Designer Gareth Pugh with makeup artist and collaborator Alex Box.

The New York Times, A Call to Armour

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Now playing on iTunes: Blue Boy - Remember Me
via FoxyTunes

Why not?

Designer Gareth Pugh with makeup artist and collaborator Alex Box.

The New York Times, A Call to Armour

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Now playing on iTunes: Blue Boy - Remember Me
via FoxyTunes

Thé dansant

Neither slick nor fancy, but a charming institution none the less.
Maison Bertaux
28 Greek Street
Soho, London



A good and heavy Art Deco period four piece hallmarked silver and ivory mounted tea service comprising teapot, coffee pot, two handled sugar and milk jug, maker's mark for Mappin & Webb Ltd, each piece decorated with an engine turned style upper band and three pieces bearing engraved monogram, each on octagonal foot, all pieces assayed Sheffield 1937, the coffee pot 19cm high.


A good unusual and heavy George IV - William IV melon shaped bachelor's four piece tea service, comprising teapot, coffee pot, two handled sugar bowl and milk jug, the sugar bowl and milk jug having gilded interiors, the tea and coffee pots having unusual knop finials modelled as an open winged butterfly on a flowerhead, the coffee pot 10.2cm high, assayed London 1830.



A Royal Crown Derby Imari tea service, including an oval teapot and cover, 11cm h, printed mark and date code for 1918.



A George III oval mahogany and marquetry tea caddy, circa 1790, 11cm high, 15cm wide, 9cm deep.



A George III mahogany semi-elliptical tea table, circa 1780.