Sunday, September 11, 2011
Friday, September 9, 2011
simply divine Ms. Vreeland!
"Why don't you... wash your blond child's hair in dead champagne, as they do in France?"- Diana Vreeland
Harper's Bazaar 1937-1962Her publishing career began in 1937 as columnist for Harper's Bazaar. In 1937, the Vreelands moved from London to New York City. They found New York City to be extremely expensive. Carmel Snow, the editor of Harper's Bazaar, was impressed with Vreeland's clothing style and asked her to work at the magazine. From 1937 until her resignation, Diana Vreeland ran a column for Harper's Bazaar called "Why Don't You?". One example is a suggestion she made in the column, "Why don't you.... Turn your child into an Infanta for a fancy-dress party?" According to Vreeland, "The one that seemed to cause the most attention was **** "[Why Don't You] [w]ash your blond child's hair in dead champagne, as they do in France." Vreeland says that S.J. Perelman wrote a parody of it for the New Yorker magazine that outraged her then editor Carmel Snow
. Diana Vreeland "discovered" actress Lauren Bacall in the nineteen forties. A Harper's Bazaar cover from the early forties shows Lauren Bacall posing near a Red Cross office. Based on editor Vreeland's decision, "[t]here is an extraordinary photograph in which Bacall is leaning against the outside door of a Red Cross blood donor room. She wears a chic suit, gloves, a cloche hat with long waves of hair falling from it". Vreeland was noted for taking fashion seriously. She commented in 1946 that "[T]he bikini is the most important thing since the atom bomb". Vreeland disliked the common approach to dressing that she saw in the United States in the forties. She detested "strappy high heel shoes" and the "crêpe de chine dresses" that women wore even in the heat of the summer in the country.
Poor, darling fellow - he died of food. He was killed by the dinner table.
Until her resignation at Harper's Bazaar, she worked closely with Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Richard Avedon, Nancy White and Alexey Brodovitch. Diana Vreeland became Fashion Editor for the magazine. Richard Avedon said when he first met Diana Vreeland and worked for Harper's Bazaar, "Vreeland returned to her desk, looked up at me for the first time and said, 'Aberdeen, Aberdeen, doesn't it make you want to cry?' Well, it did. I went back to Carmel Snow and said, 'I can't work with that woman. She calls me Aberdeen.' And Carmel Snow said, 'You're going to work with her.' And I did, to my enormous benefit, for almost 40 years." Avedon said at the time of her death: '"She was and remains the only genius fashion editor."
Poor, darling fellow - he died of food. He was killed by the dinner table.
Until her resignation at Harper's Bazaar, she worked closely with Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Richard Avedon, Nancy White and Alexey Brodovitch. Diana Vreeland became Fashion Editor for the magazine. Richard Avedon said when he first met Diana Vreeland and worked for Harper's Bazaar, "Vreeland returned to her desk, looked up at me for the first time and said, 'Aberdeen, Aberdeen, doesn't it make you want to cry?' Well, it did. I went back to Carmel Snow and said, 'I can't work with that woman. She calls me Aberdeen.' And Carmel Snow said, 'You're going to work with her.' And I did, to my enormous benefit, for almost 40 years." Avedon said at the time of her death: '"She was and remains the only genius fashion editor."
In 1955, the Vreelands moved to a new apartment which was decorated exclusively in red. Diana Vreeland had Billy Baldwin[disambiguation needed] decorate her apartment. She said, "I want this place to look like a garden, but a garden in hell."Regular attendees at the parties the Vreelands threw were socialite C.Z. Guest, composer Cole Porter and British photographer Cecil Beaton In 1957's Paramount movie musical Funny Face, the character of Maggie Prescott (as portrayed by Kay Thompson) was based on Vreeland 
In 1960, John F. Kennedy became president and Diana Vreeland advised the First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in matters of style. "Vreeland advised Jackie throughout the campaign and helped connect her with fashion designer Oleg Cassini, who became chief designer to the first lady." "I can remember Jackie Kennedy, right after she moved into the White House. It wasn't even like a country club, if you see what I mean-plain." Vreeland occasionally gave Mrs. Kennedy advice about clothing during her husband's administration, and small advice about what to wear on Inauguration Day in 1961. 
In spite of being extremely successful, Diana Vreeland made a small amount of money from the Hearst Corporation, which owned Harper's Bazaar. Vreeland says that she was paid eighteen thousand dollars a year from 1937 with a raise finally in 1959 of one thousand dollars. "San Simeon must have been where the Hearst money went, I certainly never saw any of it." Vogue 1963-1971 and the Metropolitan Museum of ArtAccording to some sources, hurt that she was passed over for promotion at Harper's Bazaar in 1957, she joined Vogue in 1963.
The only real elegance is in the mind; if you've got that, the rest really comes from it.
She was editor-in-chief until 1971.Vreeland enjoyed the sixties enormously because she felt that uniqueness was being celebrated. "If you had a bump on your nose, it made no difference so long as you had a marvelous body and good carriage." During her tenure at the magazine, she discovered the sixties "youthquake" star Edie Sedgwick. In 1984, Vreeland explained how she saw fashion magazines.
Elegance is innate. It has nothing to do with being well dressed. Elegance is refusal.
"What these magazines gave was a point of view. Most people haven't got a point of view; they need to have it given to them-and what's more, they expect it from you. It must have been 1966 or '67. I published this big fashion slogan: This is the year of do it yourself. E]very store in the country telephoned to say, 'Look, you have to tell people. No one wants to do it themselves-they want direction and to follow a leader!'"
Balenciaga did the most delicious evening clothes. Clothes aren't delicious any more. 
After she was fired from Vogue, she became consultant to the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1971. By 1984, according to Vreeland's account, she had organized twelve exhibitions.Artist Greer Lankton created a life size portrait doll of Vreeland that is on display at the museum. Later years In 1984, Vreeland wrote her autobiography, D.V.. At age 86, she died in 1989.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
0h my 0h my..when did Dracula and Wolfman get sexy and....NUDE?!
I am use to seeing the Dracula being very sauve, luxery, elegant and the were wolf man be hairy and scary, I was brought up with those kinds of trademark being elegant actors like Bela Lugosi..This generation is not what Dracula and Wolfman seem to be...The new Draculas and Wolfmen ttends to be sexy, masculine, and appear nude..lots of nude on True Blood and Twilights. It seems like Dracula of my generation is to be scary and classic comparing to this generation is about romance, sex and nude!
Today, Dracula is widely regarded as a classic of the era and of its genre. In 2000, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". To many film lovers and critics alike, Lugosi's portrayal is widely regarded as the definitive Dracula. Lugosi had a powerful presence and authority on-screen. The slow, deliberate pacing of his performance ("I … bid you … welcome!" and "I never drink … wine!") gave his Dracula the air of a walking, talking corpse, which terrified 1931 movie audiences. He was just as compelling with no dialogue, and the many close-ups of Lugosi's face in icy silence jumped off the screen. With this mesmerizing performance, Dracula became Bela Lugosi's signature role, his Dracula a cultural icon, and he himself a legend in the classic Universal Horror film series. However, Dracula would ultimately become a role which would prove to be both a blessing and a curse. Despite his earlier stage successes in a variety of roles, from the moment Lugosi donned the cape on screen, it would forever see him typecast as the Count.
Moyer). The show is broadcast on the premium cable network HBO in the United States. It is produced by HBO in association with Ball's production company, Your Face Goes Here Entertainment. It premiered on September 7, 2008.The series has received critical acclaim and won several awards, including one Golden Globe and an Emmy.
The Wolf Man proved popular, and so Lon Chaney reprised his signature role in four more Universal films, though unlike his contemporary "monsters," Larry Talbot never enjoyed the chance to have a sequel all to himself. Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) had Talbot’s grave opened on a full moon night, causing him to rise again (making him, in the subsequent films, technically one of the undead). He seeks out Dr. Frankenstein for a cure, but finds the monster (Béla Lugosi) instead. The two square off at the climax, but the fight ends in a draw when a dam is exploded and Frankenstein’s castle is flooded.
In House of Frankenstein (1944), Talbot is once again resurrected and is promised a cure via a brain transplant, but is shot dead with a silver bullet instead. He returns with no explanation in House of Dracula (1945), and is finally cured of his condition. But he was afflicted once again, in the comedy film Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948).
This time the Wolf Man is a hero of sorts, saving Wilbur Grey (Lou Costello) from having his brain transplanted by Dracula (Bela Lugosi) into the head of the Monster (Glenn Strange). Grabbing the vampire as he turns into a bat, the Wolf Man dives over a balcony into the sea, taking Dracula with him.
The Twilight series falls under the genre of young adult, fantasy, and romance, though Meyer categorized her first book, Twilight, as "suspense romance horror comedy."] However, she states that she considers her books as "romance more than anything else.:" The series explores the unorthodox romance between human Bella and vampire Edward, as well as the love triangle between Bella, Edward, and Jacob, a werewolf.[12] The books avoid delving into provocative sex, drugs, and harsh swearing because, according to Meyer, "I don't think teens need to read about gratuitous sex. The books are written in first-person narrative, primarily through Bella's eyes with the epilogue of the third book and a part of the fourth book being from Jacob's point of view. When asked about the structure of the novel, Meyer described her difficulty to pinpoint the premise of the novels to any specific category:
I have a hard time with that. Because if I say to someone, 'You know, it's about vampires,' then immediately they have this mental image of what the book is like. And it's so not like the other vampire books out there–Anne Rice's and the few that I've read. It isn't that kind of dark and dreary and blood-thirsty world. Then when you say, 'It's set in high school,' a lot of people immediately put it in another pool. It's easy to pigeonhole with different descriptions.
The books are based on the vampire myth, but Twilight vampires differ in a number of particulars from the general vampire lore. For instance, Twilight vampires have strong piercing teeth rather than fangs; they glitter in sunlight rather than burn; and they can drink animal blood as well as human blood. Meyer comments that her vampire mythology differs from that of other authors because she wasn't informed about the canon vampires, saying,
Inspiration and themes According to the author, her books are "about life, not death" and "love, not lust." Each book in the series was inspired by and loosely based on a different literary classic: Twilight on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, New Moon on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Eclipse on Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, and Breaking Dawn on a second Shakespeare play, A Midsummer Night's Dream .Meyer also states that Orson Scott Card and L. M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series are a big influence on her writing.
And yes, I live for Halloween, and yes, Halloween is my favorite Holiday next to Christmas...why? Because Halloween is my Birthday! ;)
Saturday, August 27, 2011
MARC JACOB to DIOR?!
PLEASE Nooooooooo! Marc Jacob is no DIOR! Leave him with Viotten! Tom Ford would have been the perfect replacement for Dior or Christian Lacroix for Dior, Not Marc Jacob! 
After the sensationalism of John Galliano's scandalous departure from Dior earlier this year, one question remained: Which designer will finally step up as the new creative director of the legacy brand? After months of breathless speculation, all indicators seem to point decisively in the direction of one man: Marc Jacobs. The Daily is reporting that "high-ranking industry sources" confirm that the deal is now final. A final and official statement from Dior is expected imminently to confirm the news.
Suffice to say, Jacobs' musical loyalists will follow his travails at Dior, a brand already valued chiefly by the entertainment universe mainly for its aspirational status. The beacon of French luxury remains a red carpet staple, and countless rappers routinely namedrop Dior (alongside stalwarts Gucci, Vuitton, and Chanel) in materialist anthems. But the primary pop figure to truly live and breathe the contemporary Dior ethos has been Gwen Stefani, who played Galliano's unofficial muse for the better part of a decade (he made her an unforgettable wedding gown; she dedicated "Rich Girl" to him in thanks.) 
Both Galliano and Stefani favor deviant interpretations of 1940s glamor: any No Doubt video confirms this, while latter day Dior shows exhibit the same playful admiration for vignettes of the past. At the core of both creatives' priorities: beauty, even when off-kilter. This was not the willfully Dadaist realm of McQueen or Lady Gaga. In his tenure for the label, Galliano fixated religiously on creating inspired iterations of "The New Look," Dior's original breakthrough 1947 silhouette; Stefani, and other female starlets, wore them in videos, and in photo shoots.
By 2011, Galliano's retrofitting trick, in its various guises, was starting to bore a few critics, inviting the industry to speculate whether fresh creative blood at Dior was advisable. Like a chart clogged with hits produced by one overarching entity, the Dior aesthetic was turning staid. 
With Jacobs at Dior's helm, the brand's legacy looks will certainly be modernized and musicians who favor Parisian styles will find their looks subtly shifting. In essence, two of France's most decadent labels will be seeing major changes: while Jacobs indulges his inner decadent for Dior, someone will take over as creative director of Louis Vuitton, a position he's held since 1997. His successor is likely to be ultra-minimalist Phoebe Philo, says WWD. If that's the case, expect Vuitton's sexual opulence and grandeur to be toned down into something sleek, discreet, and sophisticated — a lux economy Philo does brilliantly for Celine, as Kanye West appreciates.
As for what Dior under Jacobs might look like? It would be foolish to conjecture: it's impossible to predict Jacobs' own trajectory from season to season. But it's worth noting that the designer's past interpretations of vintage glamor usually point out the uglier and more trite aspects of an era. That irreverence may alienate those who favored Galliano's florid romanticism and theatrics, on and off the runway.
It's the MARC JACOB Skin Cancer Awareness Month
There was a lot of buzz about Victoria Beckham baring it all for the Marc Jacobs skin cancer awareness T-shirt this past August. And since then, as well as prior to that, many other celebrities stripped in support of the Cancer Awareness campaign.
There are numerous iterations of the t-shirt that bear the slogans: "Protect the Skin You're In", "Protect Your Largest Organ" and "Save Your Ass" all strategically placed over parts of bodies of many celebs. Some are printed front and back, some on color and some on grey. 
Despite the fact that the celebrities, models and Marc Jacobs get most the press, the unsung heroes of this campaign are Robert Duffy, President of Marc Jacobs International, LLC and the late Dr. Jesse Ruben, who inspired the campaign and photographer Brian Bowen Smith who shot these celebrities. Not to mention the New York University Interdisciplinary Melanoma Cooperative Group, shown below: Chances are you are not aware of exactly how many female celebrities have since showed some skin in support. I certainly wasn't. I noticed most blog and reports have incorrectly reported the number of celebs who have donated their time and beautiful bodies to this campaign. There seem to be far more than most people know. 
First off, I didn't realize that the shirts did not begin with Mrs Beckham, but she was instead later added to the impressive roster of celebrities supporting this cause. The campaign actually began in 2006 with Naomi Campbell, Winona Ryder, Rufus Wainwright, Julianne Moore and Selma Blair. The shirts were sold at the initial fund raiser only and subsequently in marc jacob boutiques. 
Since then, more models have joined the cause and several new shirts have been issued- however now only in grey, at marc jacob boutiques (and probably on ebay as well).
Who actually posed in the buff? I have found the following females, in addition to Mrs. Beckham, shot by Mr. Bowen Smith for the shirts are: Winona Ryder, Helena Christiansen, Eva Mendes, Selma Blair, Heidi Klum, Dita von Teese, Naomi Campbell, Carolyn Murphy, Joss Stone, Julianna Moore, Christy Turlington, Hilary Swank, Alison Lohman .. and yet there are probably more.
Every hour, someone dies of melanoma, but if caught early, the cure rate could be 100 percent. Melanoma is the easiest cancer to detect early because all you need is a trained pair of eyes. The message is don't let embarrassment stop you from stripping down before your physician or someone you love, and use the ABCDE rule--developed by physicians at NYU Medical Center--to determine if a mole could be cancerous: A for asymmetry; B for irregular border; C for color variation; D for diameter larger than a pencil eraser; and E for evolution of existing mole.
For more information about melanoma and other cancers go to www.nyuci.org
All proceeds from the T-shirts will go to support the NYU Cancer Institute.T-shirts will be sold nationwide at all Marc Jacobs stores. For store location go to http://www.marcjacobs.com/
Sunday, August 21, 2011
I LOVE LUCY! Happy 100th Birthday!
The most infiuential woman in the history of television, Lucille Ball remains among the medium’s best-loved performers. She appeared on weekly series almost continually for 23 years, always playing a variation on “Lucy,” the wacky, red-headed scatterbrain who, unlike Ball, had ambitions that far outstripped her talents. Born on August 8, 1911, Lucille Désirée Ball overcame a desperately unhappy childhood. She spent her early years in Jamestown, New York, where her father died when she was three. Her other remarried and left Ball in the care of her stepgrandparents, stern disciplinarians who tried to stifie Lucille’s natural bent toward theatricality.
With her mother’s support, Ball left home at 15 to attend John Murray Anderson/Robert Milton School of the Theater and Dance in New York City. Doubtful of her own talent and intimidated by her fellow students (who included the future film star BETTE DAVIS), Ball quit the school and returned to Jamestown after only a month. She quickly recovered from her bout of insecurity and started visiting New York to find work as an actress. A striking beauty, she had more initial success as a model. Her image in an ad for Chesterfield cigarettes attracted an agent and won her a role in Roman Scandals (1933), an extravaganza directed by Busby Berkeley and starring Eddie Cantor. With characteristic focus, Ball used the opportunity to watch and listen, hoping to learn everything possible about working in films. Show business legend holds that when, for a comic bit, the filmmaker needed a beauty to have her face sprayed with mud, Ball volunteered. Impressed with her pluck, Berkeley supposedly said, “Get that girl’s name. That’s the one who will make it.”Ball began appearing in small film roles and was placed under contract first by Columbia and then by RKO. 
Although she received regular work, the film industry had difficulty using Ball well: With the looks of an ingenue and the spirit of a comic, she defied attempts to type her in conventional roles. Her best early role was in Stage Door (1937), where as a smart-mouthed aspiring actress she stood out in a cast that also included KATHARINE HEPBURN, GINGER ROGERS, and EVE ARDEN.
In 1940 Ball was cast in the film version of the Broadway musical Too Many Girls. One of the performers recruited from the Broadway cast was DesiArnaz, a young Cuban musician who was five years her junior. Immediately, Ball and Arnaz were attracted to each other, even though early in their romance, it was obvious their personalities clashed. Despite their tendency toward frequent and ferocious arguments, the practical Ball and reckless Arnaz were married within months. Ball thought she had found her breakthrough role as a bitter nightclub singer in The Big Street (1942). But, instead, soon after it appeared, RKO chose not to renew her contract. Ball, then 33, signed up with another studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Seeing her years as an ingenue warning, she welcomed the studio’s attempts to remake her image.
As part of her MGM makeover, her brown hair was dyed a fiery red designed to make her stand out in Technicolor films. Although her red hair would become her trademark, Ball’s stint working for MGM was a disappointment. A studio that specialized in musicals, it produced few vehicles that could showcase the nonsinging Ball. After several years of being cast in ever smaller parts, MGM released her from her contract in 1946. From 1947 to 1951, Ball starred in the radio program My Favorite Husband, a role that brought her to the attention of the early television industry.
When CBS approached Ball with the idea of featuring her in a television version of her show, she was hesitant at first. At the time, movie industry leaders so looked down on the new medium of television that starring in a television series would essentially end any chance she would ever have at movie stardom. The offer, however, was still intriguing to Ball for personal reasons. She had been looking for a project on which she and Arnaz could work together, believing that might help save their rocky marriage. A bandleader, Arnaz was often on tour. His infidelities while away had already led Ball to file for divorce in 1944, but the couple soon reconciled.
Ball proposed that Arnaz be cast as the male lead in My Favorite Husband, but CBS balked. A Cuban American with a strong accent, Arnaz did not strike the network executives as right for the part of a midwestern banker. They were also not convinced that America would embrace Ball and Arnaz as a couple because of their mixed ethnicity. To change their minds, Ball and Arnaz set out on a touring act, blending music and comedy. Hailed by Variety as “a socko new act,” the show was such a success that CBS became interested in designing a program for the couple. 
The enterprise, though, was still considered so risky that CBS insisted Ball and Arnaz take a cut in salary. They agreed in exchange for CBS’s grant of ownership of the show to Desilu, a production company the couple borrowed $5,000 to form. Six months pregnant with her first child, Lucie Désirée Arnaz, Ball filmed a pilot for I Love Lucy in early 1951. On October 15, the program premiered and quickly became the most popular show on television. At its height, as many as two-thirds of American families with television sets were faithful viewers. One of the most successful shows in the history of the medium, it was rated the number-one show for four years of its six-year run.
I Love Lucy featured the adventures of Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, played by Ball and Arnaz, and their friends and landlords Ethel and Fred Mertz (played by Vivian Vance and William Frawley). The show often focused on the mayhem set in motion by Lucy’s desire for a performing career against Ricky’s wishes. At the core of its success was Ball’s fiair for slapstick, a talent her film career had never exploited well. Using Ball’s comic skill and innate appeal to their best advantage, I Love Lucy struck a chord with the public almost immediately. Recognizing the effect, Ball once recalled, “I never found a place of my own, never became truly confident, until, in the Lucy character, I began to create something that was truly mine. The potential was there. Lucy released it.”I Love Lucy was also an innovator in the television industry. At Ball and Arnaz’s insistence, it was filmed before a live audience using three cameras, a technique then rare but now almost universally used for situation comedies. It also explored new subject matter when Ball became pregnant with her second child during the show’s second season. She persuaded CBS to allow her character also to become pregnant, leading to one of the most successful ratings stunts in television history. 
On January 9, 1953, Lucille Ball gave birth to Desi Arnaz Jr. by a cesarean section scheduled for the day that Lucy Ricardo gave birth to “Little Ricky” on I Love Lucy. A record-making 44 million viewers tuned in to see Little Ricky’s arrival. While still America’s number-one show, I Love Lucy went off the air in 1957. Although Ball and Arnaz reprised their characters in a series of specials, their offscreen marriage had completely unraveled, owing largely to Arnaz’s drinking and philandering. They finally divorced in 1960. The next year, Ball married a young comedian, Gary Morton, who remained her husband until her death. 
In 1962 Ball also severed professional ties with Arnaz by buying out his share in Desilu. Because of their television work, the production company had become so successful that it was able to buy RKO, the movie studio that years ago had unceremoniously declined to renew Ball’s contract. From 1962 through 1967, Ball served as Desilu’s president and CEO, giving her more power in the television industry than any woman had held before. Although Desilu began to struggle financially, during Ball’s tenure it produced two enduring television classics—Star Trek and Mission Impossible. 
Ball finally sold the company to Paramount for $18 million, when she decided she could no longer perform both the role of executive and of television star. After I Love Lucy, Ball returned to television in The Lucy Show, which was later renamed Here’s Lucy. From 1962 to 1974, she played a widow and working mother whose constant scheming exhausted her boss Mr. Moody (Gale Gordon). Initially, The Lucy Show reunited Ball with Vivian Vance, and on Here’s Lucy she eventually costarred with her two teenage children. Even after she left episodic television, Ball still appeared regularly on specials and occasionally in films.
Ball finally sold the company to Paramount for $18 million, when she decided she could no longer perform both the role of executive and of television star. After I Love Lucy, Ball returned to television in The Lucy Show, which was later renamed Here’s Lucy. From 1962 to 1974, she played a widow and working mother whose constant scheming exhausted her boss Mr. Moody (Gale Gordon). Initially, The Lucy Show reunited Ball with Vivian Vance, and on Here’s Lucy she eventually costarred with her two teenage children. Even after she left episodic television, Ball still appeared regularly on specials and occasionally in films. 
She also made a splash on Broadway in Mame in 1974 and was recognized for her dramatic range in Stone Pillow (1983), a television movie in which she played a bag lady. A late effort to return to television in a situation comedy, how ever, proved a disaster.
The much-hyped Life with Lucy (1986) drew few viewers and was yanked from the air after only eight episodes. The debacle did little to tarnish Ball’s reputation as the queen of television comedy. Three weeks after the last Life with Lucy program aired, she was in Washington, D.C., to receive from President Ronald Reagan a Kennedy Center Award, the United States’s highest honor for a performer. Following her death on April 26, 1989, the many glowing tributes from her peers and fans gave further testament to her enduring appeal and infiuence. 
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