Category Archives: Glamour
Spring bath linen suggestions
Serge Lifar’s notorious 1958 duel with the Marquis de Cuevas is represented by photographs and, most wondrous of all, cornflower blue monogrammed towels which commemorated the event.
Spring bath linen suggestions
Serge Lifar’s notorious 1958 duel with the Marquis de Cuevas is represented by photographs and, most wondrous of all, cornflower blue monogrammed towels which commemorated the event.
The hands of Robert de Montesquiou
Montesquiou’s hands — slim, pale, elegant, well-dressed — were the count himself in manicured microcosm. Portraitists, photographers and caricaturists were all drawn to the expressive richness of the long, tapering fingers, whether adorned with rings, gloves, or nothing but perfumed air.
The hands of Robert de Montesquiou
Montesquiou’s hands — slim, pale, elegant, well-dressed — were the count himself in manicured microcosm. Portraitists, photographers and caricaturists were all drawn to the expressive richness of the long, tapering fingers, whether adorned with rings, gloves, or nothing but perfumed air.
Dress-down Friday: Ganna Walska
Re-examining Ganna Walska’s modus operandi, it is striking how utterly contemporary her approach to celebrity was, a combination of slender accomplishments and gargantuan ambition, of fashion labels and scent endorsements, of big rocks and little dogs.
Dress-down Friday: Ganna Walska
Re-examining Ganna Walska’s modus operandi, it is striking how utterly contemporary her approach to celebrity was, a combination of slender accomplishments and gargantuan ambition, of fashion labels and scent endorsements, of big rocks and little dogs.
Dress-down Friday: Umm Kulthum
I was shopping in the Gaza Strip when I first encountered Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum. I was struck by numerous stalls selling what appeared to be pirated CDs with an arresting, almost unvarying image: a woman d’un certain âge, raven hair piled high, with dark glasses and long gown, holding a scarf.
Dress-down Friday: Umm Kulthum
I was shopping in the Gaza Strip when I first encountered Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum. I was struck by numerous stalls selling what appeared to be pirated CDs with an arresting, almost unvarying image: a woman d’un certain âge, raven hair piled high, with dark glasses and long gown, holding a scarf.
Dress-down Friday: Edith Sitwell
Imagine, if you will, an everyday scenario, such as an unusually large albino tapir visiting Hampton Court Palace, rolling itself in glue and through a series of mishaps becoming entangled in the curtains.
Dress-down Friday: Edith Sitwell
Imagine, if you will, an everyday scenario, such as an unusually large albino tapir visiting Hampton Court Palace, rolling itself in glue and through a series of mishaps becoming entangled in the curtains.
No regrets
“I would hate to leave this world without saying that I have had a good ride of it all. I have lived my life the best way I know how and I regret nothing.”
No regrets
“I would hate to leave this world without saying that I have had a good ride of it all. I have lived my life the best way I know how and I regret nothing.”
Strange Flowers guide to Berlin: part 4
Else was shocked when management barred her entry one day, on the grounds that she didn’t consume enough. “Is a poet who consumes a lot even a poet?” she fumed. And so as the First World War approached, Café des Westens fell out of favour with the avant-garde.
Strange Flowers guide to Berlin: part 4
Else was shocked when management barred her entry one day, on the grounds that she didn’t consume enough. “Is a poet who consumes a lot even a poet?” she fumed. And so as the First World War approached, Café des Westens fell out of favour with the avant-garde.
Strange Flowers guide to Berlin: part 1
Germany’s cultural history generally favours the tortured genius over the wayward maverick, but the period between the First World War and the Nazis’ rise to power in 1933 represented a rare temporal oasis of experimentation, extravagance and eccentricity.
Strange Flowers guide to Berlin: part 1
Germany’s cultural history generally favours the tortured genius over the wayward maverick, but the period between the First World War and the Nazis’ rise to power in 1933 represented a rare temporal oasis of experimentation, extravagance and eccentricity.
The 12-step Sissi lifestyle plan
Looking out from official portraits with her radiant skin, torrents of chestnut hair and tiny waist, Her Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty seems to be saying “this doesn’t just happen, you know”. And it really, really didn’t: maintaining it all was a full time occupation.
The 12-step Sissi lifestyle plan
Looking out from official portraits with her radiant skin, torrents of chestnut hair and tiny waist, Her Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty seems to be saying “this doesn’t just happen, you know”. And it really, really didn’t: maintaining it all was a full time occupation.
Homecoming
Two-time Oscar winning German actress, 101-year-old Luise Rainer, was honoured in Berlin today on the Boulevard der Stars. It was the first time she had returned to Germany since 1934.
Homecoming
Two-time Oscar winning German actress, 101-year-old Luise Rainer, was honoured in Berlin today on the Boulevard der Stars. It was the first time she had returned to Germany since 1934.
Nazimova’s secret garden
Nazimova enlisted designer Natacha Rambova, wife of Rudolph Valentino. Sets and costumes borrowed liberally from Beardsley’s illustrations, with a riot of dwarves, drag queens, half-naked slaves and camp courtiers in extravagant headpieces.
Nazimova’s secret garden
Nazimova enlisted designer Natacha Rambova, wife of Rudolph Valentino. Sets and costumes borrowed liberally from Beardsley’s illustrations, with a riot of dwarves, drag queens, half-naked slaves and camp courtiers in extravagant headpieces.
Strange Flowers guide to London: part 3
The choice of blue plaque honourees is leadenly conservative and sometimes bafflingly perverse, celebrating lesser colonial administrators known only to their mothers. Or it may be that current residents would rather not have their homes associated with drunks, deviants and diabolists.
Strange Flowers guide to London: part 3
The choice of blue plaque honourees is leadenly conservative and sometimes bafflingly perverse, celebrating lesser colonial administrators known only to their mothers. Or it may be that current residents would rather not have their homes associated with drunks, deviants and diabolists.
Strange Flowers guide to London: part 2
Fitzrovia was a stone’s throw from Bloomsbury but a world away in temperament. According to the Times Literary Supplement, Fitzrovia was “a world of outsiders, down-and-outs, drunks, sensualists, homosexuals and eccentrics”. In short, the spiritual home of Strange Flowers.
Strange Flowers guide to London: part 2
Fitzrovia was a stone’s throw from Bloomsbury but a world away in temperament. According to the Times Literary Supplement, Fitzrovia was “a world of outsiders, down-and-outs, drunks, sensualists, homosexuals and eccentrics”. In short, the spiritual home of Strange Flowers.
Coming home?
“To do a film – let me explain to you – it’s like having a baby,” she claimed. “You labour, you labour, you labour, and then you have it. And then it grows up and it grows away from you. But to be proud of giving birth to a baby? Proud? No, every cow can do that.”
Coming home?
“To do a film – let me explain to you – it’s like having a baby,” she claimed. “You labour, you labour, you labour, and then you have it. And then it grows up and it grows away from you. But to be proud of giving birth to a baby? Proud? No, every cow can do that.”
Casati continues to captivate…
Marchesa Casati/Is a living doll/Pinned on my Frisco/Skid row wall
A year without fear
New year’s resolution: be fearless!
Bohème and beyond
Selbstinszenierung is a great German term which is related to self-promotion and self-presentation, but really carries the idea of directing oneself in the manner of a stage production or work of art, and thus expresses a concept close to Strange Flowers’ heart.
Bohème and beyond
Selbstinszenierung is a great German term which is related to self-promotion and self-presentation, but really carries the idea of directing oneself in the manner of a stage production or work of art, and thus expresses a concept close to Strange Flowers’ heart.
Riviera rani
Raj overlords from King George V down frowned on the mixed-race marriage; the British deployed protocol with practiced, passive-aggressive pettiness (as they would later with Wallis Simpson and Diana Spencer).
Riviera rani
Raj overlords from King George V down frowned on the mixed-race marriage; the British deployed protocol with practiced, passive-aggressive pettiness (as they would later with Wallis Simpson and Diana Spencer).
Phantom of the empire
She haunted Europe’s pleasure spots in widow’s weeds, a gothic freak show of peek-a-boo solipsism, a fan shielding her from the gaze of the hated hoi polloi. If she was seen at all it was in silhouette, like Marlene Dietrich in Maximilian Schell’s documentary, and for the same reason – neither could bear to disturb the earlier image the public had of her.
Phantom of the empire
She haunted Europe’s pleasure spots in widow’s weeds, a gothic freak show of peek-a-boo solipsism, a fan shielding her from the gaze of the hated hoi polloi. If she was seen at all it was in silhouette, like Marlene Dietrich in Maximilian Schell’s documentary, and for the same reason – neither could bear to disturb the earlier image the public had of her.
“A huge old baby vulture”
“Eccentricity is not […] a form of madness. It is often a kind of innocent pride, and the man of genius and the aristocrat are frequently regarded as eccentrics because genius and aristocrat are entirely unafraid of and uninfluenced by the opinions and vagaries of the crowd.”
“A huge old baby vulture”
“Eccentricity is not […] a form of madness. It is often a kind of innocent pride, and the man of genius and the aristocrat are frequently regarded as eccentrics because genius and aristocrat are entirely unafraid of and uninfluenced by the opinions and vagaries of the crowd.”
Strange Flowers 