BRITISH PATHÉ: CHRISTIAN DIOR FUR SHOW IN LONDON (1969)

Ordinarily I wouldn't mind the unseasonably warm weather we've been having.  But you know, I'm "between sizes" right now (which is too say a little too chunky for the slim-tailored shirts that make up the better part of my closet), and I was really counting on hiding under sweaters and coats until at least April.  Guess I'd truly be distraught if I had a new coat from this (unbelievably groovy) Christian Dior fur show from 1969, as reported in a wonderful vintage British Pathé newsreel.  Swoon! 

There is so much here to celebrate:  that Sixties sense of chic, the use of white to enhance the stage presence of the coats, the groovy electric organ music ("if the coats didn't send the customers, the music certainly did..."), and of course all that odd, playful period modeling that seems (sadly) almost unfathomable today.  Frankly, I am living for all the synchronized "jigging about," especially in a chinchilla cape! 

I've written a little bit about Sixties style modeling before on The Social Design -specifically I think on a scene from a '68 Ungaro show used in the Catherine Denueve film Manon 70.  I wish I had a better grasp of the vocabulary of choreography, dance, and movement -  but to me there really is something paradoxical about the dominant modeling expressions of the time that both bewilders and entrances me.  It seems they sought to simultaneously exaggerate both the lines of the clothes and also the terrific sense of movement and freedom of the age.  The result is a recurrence of stiff, stylized postures that work quite well for print editorials (and here I definitely have Peggy Moffitt on the brain) but when applied to the movement of runway come off, well, a little bit bizarre...

It sort of calls to mind some observations I once read in a feature on the Audubon-inspired painter Walton Ford and how there is something distinctly unnatural in the naturalist Audubon's work,  because he was in fact not working from live models but rather from "freshly shot birds pinned into macabre dioramas."   Well, Dior isn't using dead birds but rather ballet dancers - and to great effect in my esteem.  And in my amateur musings on the Sixties modeling milieu I am probably discounting the influence of popular dance anyway. I will also add that Geoffrey Beene, a designer of great intellect, often cast dancers for models in his shows as well.

I wholeheartedly invite anyone with an opinion on Sixties modeling to chime in, or Sixties fashion for that matter (but really, I'm not so interested in the anti-fur sentiments)...

Enjoy!

VILLA OF DISTINCTION: TAYLOR & BURTON IN "BOOM" (1968)

 
 

File this under "Villas of Distinction".  In my last post I mentioned coming across a spread in the July issue of Architectural Digest on the private Bel Air residence of the late Elizabeth Taylor.  Honestly, it was a privileged view, but one quite a bit softer than the cinematic image of the lady so many of us have loved and enjoyed.  It got me thinking about one of my favorite Taylor-Burton films, 1968's "Boom"...

An adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play, "The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore", apparently the film was a bit of both a commerical and critical flop. It sat in obscurity for many years until sometime in (if I remember correctly) the very late 90s bootleg copies began making the rounds and it soon reasserted itself as a campy, cult classic. Also stars Richard Burton, of course, and Noel Coward as "The Witch of Capri" - in a role originally offered to Katherine Hepburn and in part inspired by the eccentric Italian Marchesa Luisa Casati .

Despite the stellar cast, my favorite presence in the film is that of the Mediterranean villa in which it was filmed (Sardinia, actually). Airy, spacious, perched on a dramatic natural setting - the villa once again satisfies my eternal appetite for the white room.  And Taylor's predominantly white wardrobe set against this stylish backdrop is like the icing on the (apparently vanilla) cake.  I also like the approach the designers took in creating the interior mix: the juxtaposition of the clean-lined, modern upholstered pieces (and expansive white interior) with older, detailed casepieces and accents for texture and visual interest.  Hope you enjoy, too...

And below, the trailer for "Boom" - if you are more into dramatic sound bites than interiors. Though I am willing to say the two together are mutually beneficial...



 

 

OP-ART INFLUENCE IN FLOOR TREATMENT (A.D., JULY 2011)

How I hate to stumble on an abandoned blog. Or worse: a blog whose last entry starts with "sorry I haven't posted anything lately..."  And here I am, my own blog teetering on the verge. Well, suffice it to say my creative/editorial energy was directed, by necessity, elsewhere throughout the better part of the summer. But still I was always making note of great little items I knew I wanted to share...

Last month I was waiting to get my hair cut. I like to arrive early so I can peruse the magazines in the reception area and otherwise unwind.  Usually I don't go for the Architectural Digest, but the July cover promised a sneak peek into the private residence of the sadly late, great Elizabeth Taylor. Of course someone with a taste for Sixties glamour like myself is going to take the bait.

Liz aside, what I did find and actually liked quite a bit was a spread on the South Carolina beach house of interior designer Amelia Handegan (photos posted above and below).  And of course anyone who coos on about Op-Art accents as much as I do is going to flip over the graphic floor treatment in the hall above.  I've always loved a white room to begin with - add a dash of that optical black & white and I'm all about it!

Of course on a practical note, I'll say it's good this is a light-usage second home or that A.H. is well off enough to have domestics: painted floors, especially white ones, are frankly a colossal pain in the ass to keep up. I speak from experience since I have painted hardwood floors (long story) myself, the color of an elephant.

Below, a couple more photographs from the editorial - these of a guest bedroom where Handegan again brings in an optical punch, in this instance a black and white Persian kilim I like quite a bit.  Ambiguously Franco-Indienne textiles compliment the airy interior and add a little hippie chic, which is also fine by me, of course...

ANDRÉ COURRÈGES ON GERMAN TELEVISION (1968)

 
 
 
 

Here's another "summer white" for your consideration.  Some great German television footage of André Courrèges' 1968 collection, paired with a little moog music. It's the product of a terrific woman in Germany who posts under the name of cosmocorps2000 on YouTube. She's worth loooking up: she's got scads of great vintage fashion videos and lovingly pairs each one with some equally groovy "space age" tunes.  Says cosmocorps2000's bio: (I) have an affinity for anything futuristic (Design, Furniture, Architecture, Music...) especially from the 1960s and 1970s, the heyday of futuristic design and lifestyle. Well, I have an affinity for you, cosmocorps2000, I have an affinity for you!

I do like this video quite a bit. I'm a sucker for an impractical, all white interior. I'm mad about quaint visions of yesterday's tomorrow.  The totalizing, white interior - that's optimism. See, even dirt has been left behind in mankind's great ascension.  Plus there's a place for everything, as evidenced by the series of closets from which the models enter and exit. It's man's mastery over the elements, or at least clutter.  And it's optimism that says tomorrow's woman can sport a bubble-hooded white space poncho and still have occasion for girlish pigtails, scalloped hems, and sweet white gloves...



DYAN CANNON IN WHITE IN "DOCTORS' WIVES" (1971)

 
 
 

Here's another "Summer White" for you. I think you'll agree, white is still outta sight...

It's Dyan Cannon in the 1971 film Doctors' Wives.  When Babydoll pulled this one out I have to say I was intrigued.  Of course anything stylish from 1971 entices by default. But then also my grandmother was a doctor's wife (and not just any doctor's wife but a president-of-the-medical-auxiliary, über doctor's wife) so naturally I was very curious to take in an artistic reflection of her world.  Well, sadly, in 1971 she wasn't running around in a sexy white jumpsuit offering to do her friends' husbands, but alas, here in the film Dyan Cannon is...  

She looks pretty great, you have to admit.  It's a good intro scene: love the banter, love the clothes, love the hair, love all that clean taupe and glass in the country club card room. But then - ugh! - her character is dead in the next scene!  And that's that.  So don't shy away from checking out this film, but be prepared to accept the fact that the best character gets killed off immediately and does not come back.

 

 

DAGMAR LASSANDER IN WHITE IN "PECCATI DI GIOVENTU" (1975)

  
 
 

#22: WHITE IS OUTTA SIGHT...

So Babydoll brought this very rich clip to my attention some time ago, from the 1975 Italian film Peccati di gioventu.  Then late one night we eventually ended up watching the full English-dubbed version of the film, set in an Italian beach community.  It's about a girl that can't handle her new (sexy) stepmother, and if I recall correctly, resolves the matter by sleeping with her. Well, why not...  

I think technically Gloria Guida is the top-billed star of Peccati di gioventu, but frankly Dagmar Lassander is the bomb (and bombshell).  Aside from Dagmar's other fabulous films, like Femina ridens (The Frightened Woman) of 1969, it's pretty clear from this clip where she takes all the attention simply by descending the stairs in a high-slit white dress. It's a great look, of course, a classic really.

But what I also love (and kind of hate) about this scene is - quite obviously - the cheesy Casio dance party that breaks out! Of course I love it because it's basically tragic and completely unbelievable to witness in 2011. But of course I hate it, too, because if this film were made just a year or two earlier, there'd have been some groovy electric organ music they'd be getting down to. So I guess 1975 marks the death of the electric organ and the ascendancy of the synthesizer, the end of an era, and that makes me sad. I won't dismiss the synthesizer, I will just say it's not nearly as groovy...

Otherwise summer is here and I'm feeling the cool, collected look of white.  Indeed, it can be a pretty powerful social signifier wearing something as high-maintenance and essentially disposable as white, especially with as much aplomb as Dagmar above. It says: Hello there, I'm no stranger to leisure and ease, I have a fair disposable income, and I'm pretty conscientious, too, to be successfully wearing this stain-magnetizing get-up. So do consider white, when you are feeling (or needing to feel) outta sight. ( And if you're interested in (I think anyway) some pretty fascinating insights into consumer choice and its subliminal meaning - beyond white - I highly recommend Geoffrey Miller's Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior (2009, Viking). It's contents are even more interesting than it's witty (and yes, white) cover, posted below...)