the Season

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you may say fashion bores- it has all been seen before. I say- that is what fascinates me about Fashion. I rarely LOOK at Fashion today that I don't see Fashion yesterday. Everything -mostly- has a reference point to history, art, or cinema.


& why?  just 45 years ago-1955, Fashion returns to
form. The cover BALENCIAGA.

form endures. Who better than SUZY MENKES-the one and only FASHION STORYTELLER Extraordinaire- to sum up in Harper's Bazaar September issue no less- THE SEASON  

"This curved and linear geometry is the essence of the new look. Designers have use the compass and the square, but not to create 2-D effects."  SM

(Suzy Menkes a name that should put fear into FASHION'S BLOGGIN' EXPERTS- Do not ever forget your betters-your MUCH betters)- but that is a story for another day.

"Genius creates, and Taste preserves.

Taste is the good sense of Genius;

Without Taste, 

Genius is only Divine Folly."

 alexander pope

SILHOUETTES: Geometric Gadgets are the the tools of the trade, so it is straight as a ruler, angular intersections as drawn with a square, or circles elongated as ovals. SUZY MENKES


 HOW THEY SEE IT:

Louis Vuitton 

(l to r)  Roland Mouret, Victoria Beckam, Calvin Klein, Antonio Berardi, Marc Jacobs (all from style.com)


 THE SEASON:
THE PHRASES the New Perfection, Sculptural, Feline(eyeliner), Restrained Chic, Black, Sleek Simplicity. 1955-BALENCIAGA.


-fashion history repeating itself, yet again.





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Daisy Fellowes' return to Bazaar

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Harper's Bazaar's September issue-not so fat-but full of content holds a pleasant surprise for the sartorially inclined & the style historian. Daisy Fellowes, heiress-daughter of the Duke Decazes and Isabelle Singer, returns to the pages of the magazine she was editor of in Paris during the 1930's. The issue devotes ten pages to Daisy revamping her sharp lines and profile in fall fashions. Sadly though their choice of Jennifer Aniston posed as Barbara Streisand-this cover goes to subscribers, while a typical Aniston cover is on the newsstand-, is dismal. Streisand's face-especially her profile- is an undefinable and part of her persona. More, much more Streisand-Aniston vamping takes place within the issue's pages. Streisand is hardly ready for tribute spreads-why not lure the superstar in for her own shoot?

In the meantime -these Daisy visions will assuage.

 "Daisy Chic"

 Karl Lagerfeld calls her "the chicest woman I ever laid eyes on," and that has got to be countless numbers.

 Style maker and Paris editor for Harper's Bazaar in the 1930s

considered by many to be "the world's most elegant woman."

"a good fashion is a daring fashion, not a polite one."

from the elegant lens of Karl Lagerfeld and words by David Vincent in the September issue

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Sunscreen by Bazaar

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Bazaar cover with Vreeland at the helm.

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JOLIE-LAIDE, SJP& DV by way of EEE

Jolie-Laide

Etymology: French

good-looking ugly woman : 

woman who is attractive though not conventionally pretty.

from mr. webster

I am a fan(a big one) of EMILY EVANS EERDMAN'S blog & this particular post stuck with me-JOLIE-LAIDE The Beauty of Imperfection. Read the entire post here.

I think SARAH JESSICA PARKER fits the bill, as you must know from my little augury quote:

There is no excellent beauty 

that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. 

Sir Francis Bacon(1561-1626)

I say Thank the gods for women like her in this day and age.

 SJP is on the cover of ELLE right now. see more here

excerpted here: all words are Emily Evans Eerdmans'
It is much more interesting to look at something that is slightly imperfect, slightly askew - whether it be a room (MC would purposely pull her curtains off one or two hooks) or a face. And who else but the French would come up with a term for this? "Jolie-laide" or "pretty-ugly" is hard to define, and perhaps, like many French expressions, isn't meant to be.

...the 1963 cover of Harper's Bazaar by Richard Avedon
model Danny Weil

"Mr. Worthington sent me the 1963 cover of Harper's Bazaar (top photo) which apparently caused quite a stir: "Only recently it occurred to me that there was an elaborate insider's joke going on~ Richard Avedon was channeling Diana Vreeland with this model's navy blue hair, makeup, cigarette holder (inside the magazine, the same model wore a snood). Then, Walter Winchell ran a squib which implied that the model was in fact not a real woman at all! It was never verified and has intrigued me ever since." (again from EEE)

Whether this be so- the resemblance is distinct- as are the gestures.

Of course! DV's world-always on our minds-was just reimagined in a recent HARPER'S BAZAAR featuring SJP as DIANA VREELAND. Read the story here.

Why don't you just dress up like DV? I am certain she would be highly diverted!

SJP channeling DV

Too bad Bazaar missed the opportunity to explore the DV-SJP likeness on its cover. Surprising? NO. Disappointing? YES.

SJP in a chintzly-lacking Garden In Hell.
&

The real DV divinely reclining in her own.

  Come now-Tell me what you think? JOLIE LAIDE? Who would you add to this beautiful LIST?
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