night is half gone...: fashion

Showing posts with label fashion. Show all posts

Dec 16, 2015

Miss Clairol

Just this morning I was waylaid by the clickbait headline I stumbled across:
"The First Black Trans Model Had Her Face on a Box of Clairol"

I dare you not to read.
Well, I know I couldn't help it. It turned out to be the fascinating
story of one "Tracey Norman"...
(by Jada Yuen and Aaron Wong)...and it made me late for work.
It was still worth it.

Here's the first paragraph:

"Tracey “Africa” Norman always knew that the question wasn’t if she’d be found out, but how long she could go undetected.
To be black and from Newark in the mid-1970s and get plucked from a model casting call for Italian Vogue by Irving Penn — it was the kind of success story that was unheard of, especially for someone like her. She was signed by a top agency, photographed multiple times for the pages of Essence magazine. She landed an exclusive contract for Avon skin care, and another for Clairol’s Born Beautiful hair color boxes: No. 512, Dark Auburn, please. She went to Paris and became a house model in the Balenciaga showroom, wearing couture and walking the runway twice a day. Norman was never as big as Iman, Beverly Johnson, Pat Cleveland, or the other models of color breaking barriers on international runways or on the cover of Vogue. But she was riding that wave. It was more than she could have ever hoped for when she was a kid in New Jersey. Back when she was a boy who knew that, inside, he was a girl."

Jan 20, 2015

thought for the day...

Dec 7, 2014

A page rom the NIHG Wishbook 2014

A. The Man muff: for those Dr. Zhivago nights

B.Sweaters for Bottoms

C.Fanfares, for a moving experience!

D.Lighter, for when you want to be hit

E.Purses, for when you need to hit a bitch

F. Kaftans, for when you need more Kaftans

What do you want from Santa?

Dec 2, 2014

FMK: The "how to have style" edition

1.Blaine: professional aerobicizer/semi-professional accessorizer

2.Calvin: fashion designer/ Walmart stocker

3.Walter: Accountant/Dominatrix

Jun 8, 2014

How to have style (part 5)

1.Fit is everything

2. A lady is never a lady without a hat

3.Practicality is always in style


4.Give yourself a sexy new name

5.And watch the men flock to you

6. Don't be afraid to dress as young as you feel. Mutton, schmutton!

7. Most importantly, always remember you are a star!

May 25, 2014

and now a word from our sponsors...

Aug 22, 2013

Bridal Style

The other day, while perusing the library stacks,
I found myself intrigued by this lovely tome of the 80s.

(um...don't ask)

These were the first two photos I saw upon opening the book. Like an archaeologist, I took a photo and carefully replaced it for posterity's sake.
I hope I didn't disturb the Reagan era layer of dust on top too badly.

(I wonder what he wore at his second marriage, to Tom?)

Aug 11, 2013

thought for the day

Jun 19, 2013

Bals

This is the book on my nightstand now, Bals.
(courtesy of the library)
Actually, it's so big it's taken the place of my nightstand.
True to its name, it's a sort of pornography.
But no one is nude.
(thank God)

It's kind fabulousity overload....I just may end up with a hangover.
But I'm not complaining.

Here's a short film from the publishers about it. (Books have trailers now? I didn't realize.
I guess books that cost $195.00 do. I better not spill any diet coke on it.)

(Oh, and not to namedrop, but that's Princess Radziwill at the Black and White Ball of 1966 on the cover, btw)

Here's the inner cover, with the Baron and Baronne de Rothschild at their Surrealist Ball of 1972

Table of Contents

At the Baron de Redé's Oriental Ball in 1969.

About de Redé (in black), we hear this tidbit:

"This remarkable change in his fortune was effected by a bisexual, party loving antique collecting, multimillionaire Chilean guano baron, Arturo Lopez Wilshaw" who snatched the young de Redé up and set him up in high style. "This remarkable menage a trois survived over 20 years...and Redé and Lopez-Wilshaw's widow remained close friends after his death."

a "Bisexual Chilean Guano Multimillionaire"

Now there's a phrase we don't hear nearly enough nowadays, do we?
Well, I don't at least.

Brigitte Bardot at the Oriental Ball

Jacqueline de Ribes and her identical handmaidens at the Beistegui Ball in 1951.
(I just love this photo....so fabulous and creepy)

Leonor Fini looking like a figure in one of her paintings at the Beistequi Ball

The dashing John Jacob Astor IV.... before his death on the Titanic

The Grand Duke Alexandrovich at Czar Nicholas 2nd's Romanov Ball

Camel riders at the Cuevas Ball in 1953

Frank and Mia at Truman Capote's Black and White Ball in 1966

Warhol at the Black and White Ball

Marisa Berenson as Marchesa Luisa Casati for the Rothschild's Proust Ball in 1971. That, by the way, must be one the most fabulous sentences I've had the joy to type.

La Liz at the Proust Ball

My favorite part of the book so far is from Cecil Beaton, (about whose sex life I learned more than I ever wanted to know a few months ago) in regards to this (his) photo:

"I have always loathed the Burtons for their vulgarity, commonness and crass bad taste, she combining the worst of US and English taste, he as butch and coarse as only a Welshman can be. She wanted compliments. She got none. I felt I must be professional and continued, but not without loathing at this monster. Her breasts, hanging and huge, were like those of a peasant woman suckling her young in Peru. They were seen in their full shape, blotched and mauve, plum. Round her neck was a velvet ribbon with the biggest diamond in the world pinned on it. On her fat, coarse hands more of the biggest diamonds and emeralds, her head a ridiculous mass of diamond necklaces, sewn together, with a snood of blue and black pom-poms and black aisprey aigrettes. Sausage curls! Alexandre, the hairdresser, had done his worst. And this was the world's biggest draw! In comparison everyone else looked ladylike." - via The Unexpurgated Beaton Diaries, 1970-1980

What a bitch!
How I wish I had been there next to him.