Down Mexico Way

Next year I'm going to Mexico for the first time and so my eyes were drawn to these summery campaign images for Paule Ka. Photographed by Venetia Scott, Jessica Stam models outfits that wouldn't look out of place on Megan Draper circa Mad Men series 5 (have you been watching?). And sure, maybe these photos were taken in Acapulco and maybe I'm visiting the East Coast rather than the West Coast, but I can dream, can't I? And in my dreams I'll be carrying a bamboo and leather purse and shading my eyes behind big red sunglasses.

Marilyn Does Vintage

I know I've written a lot about Marilyn lately but that's because, since my husband bought me a copy of the fabulous photographic book Metamorphosis Marilyn Monroe for Christmas, I've been a little obsessed. I was so dazzled by the photographs in the book that I was prompted to read Joyce Carol Oates novel Blonde which had been sitting on my bookshelf for about a decade. I've got no idea why I didn't read it earlier - especially as I've been a fan of Marilyn's films since childhood - but perhaps it had something to do with page length (considerable) and false impressions. One can never really know what celebrities are truly like unless you spend significant time with them (I've met enough of them in my time to know) but overall the impression I've had over the last few years - contrary to the 'difficult' persona cultivated by the gossip press while Marilyn was alive - is of someone damaged but also very likeable. Blonde is a novel - it is not a biography - but it draws on Marilyn's life heavily and is a powerful story of celebrity, beauty, sexuality and womanhood.

Anyway, back to the pretty pictures ...

It was only on receiving Metamorphosis that I discovered this amazing set of photographs Marilyn sat for with Richard Avedon for the December 22 1958 edition of Life magazine. Labelled the 'siren' series of photos, in them Marilyn poses as greats from Hollywood's past: Clara Bow, Jean Harlow, Lillian Russell, Marlene Dietrich and Theda Bara.

A letter from Marilyn's publicist Joe Wolhandler in January 1959 (courtesy of the book MM Personal) says the 'issue of Life magazine that carried your picture set an all-time record in sales. More copies were sold of that issue than any other issue in the history of Life. The figure was 6,300,000 and more could have been sold if they had printed more. Life's circulation department tells me that this is the highest circulation figure in their entire publishing career.'

In the latter part of her career Marilyn was very much in control of her own image. These pictures are testament to Avedon's talent and Marilyn's smarts. And they go to prove that retro has always been in vogue for portrait and fashion photography. Even in the 1950s they glamorised the flapper age.

Pretty for the weekend

Photographer Amber Grey for Marie Claire China, the styling is uniquely modern but the composition recalls fashion photos from the 50s and 60s. Can anyone tell me who the designer is of those lovely floral frocks? Dolce & Gabbana maybe?

Smashing, positively dashing ...

Famed photographer, diarist and costumier Cecil Beaton had already been lauded for his costumes for the London and New York theatrical productions of My Fair Lady (starring Julie Andrews) when he was commissioned to create costumes for the film version. From the December 1963 issue of US Vogue comes this gorgeous preview of those very costumes, photographed by Cecil himself and starring the new Eliza Doolittle, fashion plate Audrey Hepburn. Says Vogue ...

the delicious dilemma we have here is simply this: When Audrey Hepburn, on the brink of the plummiest part of the decade, cast those great enrapturing eyes on the clothes Cecil Beaton designed for everyone else in the cast, she suddenly knew that 'Liza is one of those heroines with almost Nothing to Wear ... Shaw invented her long before he wrote Pygmalion, as a "rapscalliony flower girl in an apron and three orange and red ostrich feathers." Tatters and violets, that's what Eliza starts with. But Audrey Hepburn, before taking to those real garn rags, had one glorious whirl with the gilded-lily dazzle clothes designed for the swells and chiquerinos of the Acscot Chorus and Convent Garden.

The final result, of course, was an Oscar winning bounty of timeless beauty. And thankfully for us Audrey so loved that frilled dress with the organdie boa in the final image that Cecil created one for Eliza in mauve that she wore in the scene in Mrs Higgins' garden. Set in 1914, My Fair Lady covers the same period (and merges the same crowds) as Downton Abbey.

Don't you just love the shades of black, white and grey in the famous Ascot scene from the film? And the hats, oh my, the hats. Vogue says that with his hats Cecil Beaton 'blows life into the statue.'

Arthur Elgort

Lots of pretty pictures to begin the week, all courtesy of famed photographer Arthur Elgort, who is credited with bringing in the 'snapshot' style of high fashion photography in the 70s. He was most active in the 70s, 80s and early 90s and has shot all the top models and still works for Vogue and others today.

Marilyn Monroe

Further to my last post here is a selection of favourite shots of Marilyn taken in 1962. She was slim, luminous and chic in that last year of her life (let's not debate here what her actual state-of-mind may have been). 1962 was the year that she was hired, fired and then hired again on the film Somethings Got to Give (images 1 & 7) and that she left New York and memories of Arthur Miller behind to buy her own house in Brentwood, LA. That year she sang happy birthday for the US President, vowed to push Elizabeth Taylor from the cover of all the tabloids, posed for Bert Stern for the famous last sitting (image 6) and began working on an autobiography with photographer George Barris (images 2, 3, 4 & 5)
Last night I went out with a few girlfriends to see My Week With Marilyn and I thought Michelle Williams was amazingly good. I haven't seen Meryl in The Iron Lady yet, but surely her performance is deserved of an Oscar? Just like Marilyn, I couldn't take my eyes off her.

Norma Jeane

Some Norma Jeane modelling shots to start the week. I love the colour intensity of these 1940s Kodachrome photographs. Marilyn's look evolved through the decades - 40s, 50s and 60s - so that her beauty always remained in style. I love the girl-next-door prettiness of her 1940s dark blond phase, but I do believe Marilyn was at the height of her beauty in the last year of her life.
Who was your favourite Norma/Marilyn?

Family Photo

My mother found this fascinating photograph amongst my grandmother's things the other day (my grandmother - always called nanny by my brother and I - sadly passed away three weeks ago). The photograph is actually a mock wedding snapshot, an exercise to show off what my nanny and others had created in sewing school. My nanny is the 'bridesmaid' on the right and the photo was taken when she was about 15 years old, so probably in 1940. Aren't the dresses spectacular? My nanny went on to design and sew her own wedding dress six years later, as well as all her bridesmaids gowns. She was a prodigious seamstress; I have one skirt in my wardrobe that she made for my mother in the 1980s that I always get compliments on when I wear it.
My nanny was always impeccably dressed and had a real love for fashion. It's a passion that has definitely been inherited.

Swimwear, 1963

These sultry images are from a swimwear shoot for the December 1963 issue of US Vogue photographed by well-known NY based music photographer Art Kane. The theme is the bandeau swimsuit, very much back in vogue again now, although perhaps it never really went away. After all there's nothing quite like a strapless swimsuit to create a nice even tan.
Starting this minute down south, coming north with a splash this summer: the bandeau bathing suit, slashed straight across the top, showing marvellous shoulders, cut shifty or bare through the middle.
The bikini featured in the last photograph (bright green according to Vogue) looks very similar to my own bright pink bikini, care of Zimmermann. Here is a pic of me wearing it on my most recent trip to Mission Beach in Far North QLD two weeks ago. The husband and I spent a lot of time exploring the area and we found a few gorgeous swimming holes at the foot of the mountains with the clearest freshwater imaginable. The other photo is of me wearing my favourite new vintage shorts care of Grandma Takes a Trip. The top is from The Vintage Drawer, the sunglasses are a second-hand market find and the handbag is Marc by Marc Jacobs.