Charlotte Moss: muses on Lavender

.


" Lavender

A color often misunderstood."

"The fluttering chiffon-like petals of a single iris

Placed on the mantle of one Pauline de Rothschild."

Tuileries Iris  photograph by Charlotte Moss

Tuileries Irises   photograph by Charlotte Moss

Pauline de Rothschild's London Flat photographed by Derry Moore

"The beautiful sculpted soaps in a bowl in my grandmother’s bathroom"

"The inside of a chocolate violet crème – from deBauve in Paris"

Pauline de Rothschild Balenciaga dress

image from the Met

 

"Often a grey hair-color rinse gone wrong – or right – depends on which way you look at it!”

Elsie de Wolfe

a lavander

"A sultry color. where few dare to venture--"

 Givenchy Fall 2011-detail

image from Vogue

.

about Clio

.

"Clio may be the most austere and chaste of the Muses, but she has been known to come down informally from Mount Helicon in a mood so raffish that there are those who claim to have seen her with her slip showing."  ~Willis Thornton, Fable, Fact and History

I  am always intrigued by the paintings of Clio-(my personal Muse of Choice)- this one by Vermeer- very much so.
what is the story of this painting?
It's all explained here-

your Muse of Choice?

.

.

The Dame Game

Don’t you want to know the woman who counts among her style icons Bjork, Chaka Khan, Vivienne Westwood and Janis Joplin? Meet “Dame” Lori Sutherland, the pleasure visionary who knows that style lives not in your closet, but in your soul.

Find out who else inspires Dame Lori at The Dame Game. See which other men and women have achieved iconhood, and follow all of Dame’s soul-styling escapades. How can you help but be curious about someone who has managed to corral Ed Koch, Bootsy Collins, and Jean-Paul Belmondo onto one page!

Livia's Laurels

Death of Lord Byron

Joseph-Denis Odevaere

XXXV.

Ferrara! in thy wide and grass-grown streets, Whose symmetry was not for solitude, There seems as t'were a curse upon the seats of former sovereigns, and the antique brood of Este, which for many an age made good

Its strength within thy walls, and was of yore Patron or tyrant, as the changing mood Of petty power impell'd, of those he wore The wreath which Dante's brow alone had worn before.

XLI.

The lightning rent from Ariosto's bust The iron crown of laurel's mimic'd leaves; Nor was the ominous element unjust.

For the true laurel wreath which glory weaves is of the tree no bolt of thunder cleaves, And the false semblance but disgraced his brow; Yet still, if fondly superstition grieves, Know that the lightning sanctifies below Whate'er it strikes yon head is doubly sacred now.

from CHILDE HAROLD"S PILGRIMAGE

**Byron's Wreath of Laurel**

Wreaths of laurel on a victor's brow began with Livia Drusilla, wife of Caesar Augustus. "A hen of remarkable whiteness... was holding in its beak a laurel branch bearing its berries" and dropped the branch at Livia's feet. From this time onward, the bird and her offspring resided in nests, at the Poultry on the Tiber where the laurel branch was planted and propagated..."The laurel grove so begun has thriven in a marvelous way..."



From this time, all the Caesars appeared in triumph & held a laurel branch from the original tree in his hand and wore laurel wreath upon his head-and planted the branch. Pliny the Elder

Caesar Augustus

detail from Vermeer's The Art of Painting

close up of Clio, Muse of History

Portrait of a Woman Wearing a Laurel Wreath

Rosalba Giovanna Carriera

Da Vinci's Wreath of Laurel, Palm and Juniper

Dante Alighieri by Sandro Botticelli

try one of Livia's laurels on.

Cesar

Helena







Amour





all by

Louis Mariette

"Nod to ancient elegance in Louis Mariette's detailed headbands. Take inspiration from the classics and pair it with a draped maxi dress for the ultimate in Grecian glamour." from net a porter

** ** Byron's Wreath of Laurel photograph from (here) and Patrick Hunt (here)