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Showing posts with label audrey hepburn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label audrey hepburn. Show all posts
Friday, December 3, 2010
This has been a Balenciaga + Spain week...
I visited the Balenciaga exhibit at the Queen Sophia Spanish Institute at 684 Park Avenue on Tuesday (on through Feb 19 so don't miss it)
Three floors of exquisite examples of the maitre/master of couture..
Plus designer sketches and catwalk videos. Here drawings by Rene Gruau.
Everywhere evidence of Balenciaga's Spanish background, as an altar boy at the Church of San Sabastien...
Plus influence of the great Spanish painters like Zuniga...
Picasso, Goya and of course Velasquez.*Note the infanta's multi satin bows!
Bows are everywhere on Balenciaga's creations...
Bows both fore and aft...
The bow acts as a feminine touch to soften a simple, austere gown like this one covered in red carnations, the national flower of Spain.
Deep red gypsy roses show up on Balenciaga's amusing hats..."Wit was on the head, where it should be."
The bullring was a favorite inspiration source, though Balenciaga did not like to attend the slaughter. But 'the suit of lights', the tiny hats, the rituals fascinated him, and French women were delighted to follow where ever he led them.
"A ruffle must be intelligent," he told his protege, Givenchy. 
The flavor of Joquin Sorolla's flamenco dancers is evident in richly embroidered mantilla dresses...
Last night at FIT, Vogue European editor, Hamish Bowles gave a lecture on the exhibit he helped curate and his new book on Balenciaga & Spain, coming out March '11
Seen side by side, the Spanish source of inspiration + the unique creations endlessly amazed.
Do go to the exhibit and immerse yourself in an elegant world long gone...
"Working sometimes on the cut of a sleeve, he would neglect all else and go without food or sleep for days and nights." said Gloria Guinness, couture client.
Inspired me to get out my paintbox...
The bullring was a favorite inspiration source, though Balenciaga did not like to attend the slaughter. But 'the suit of lights', the tiny hats, the rituals fascinated him, and French women were delighted to follow where ever he led them.
"A ruffle must be intelligent," he told his protege, Givenchy. Certainly Audrey benefited from Balenciaga's tuteladge to her chosen designer...
The flavor of Joquin Sorolla's flamenco dancers is evident in richly embroidered mantilla dresses...
Last night at FIT, Vogue European editor, Hamish Bowles gave a lecture on the exhibit he helped curate and his new book on Balenciaga & Spain, coming out March '11
Seen side by side, the Spanish source of inspiration + the unique creations endlessly amazed.
Do go to the exhibit and immerse yourself in an elegant world long gone...
"Working sometimes on the cut of a sleeve, he would neglect all else and go without food or sleep for days and nights." said Gloria Guinness, couture client.BRAVO BALENCIAGA!
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Thursday, December 3, 2009
In case you hadn't heard, the Audrey Hepburn auction will take place on December 8th in London. Right now 360 pieces of clothing, accessories, momentos, sketch and photos are on display in Paris.
Somehow this Dutch-British yet Belgian born (American) actress epidomizes every fantasy we have about Paris. Granted she made quite a few films set in Paris, so with good reason:Paris - When It Sizzles
Two for the Road
How to Steal a Million
Charade
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Funny Face
Sabrina
And granted she became the canvas for Parisien designer, Givenchy to paint many of his finest creations on. They were both mad for each other. She was his muse, he was her best friend and co-creator of her inimitable style.
The collection of pieces on sale are cast-offs given by Hepburn to a long-time teen-age friend of many years, Tanja Star-Busmann.The two met in London when Tanja was 15 years old and Hepburn 20 – just before her career took off."I was perhaps her first unofficial fan – writing letters to her from boarding school and receiving replies," Star-Busmann, who is now in her 70s, wrote in the auction catalog. In addition to letters – some of which are to be sold – Hepburn also regularly gave her young confidant her hand-me-downs, which became increasingly fabulous as her star rose".
"Over the years, a cavalcade of boxes filled to the brim ... arrived at my door," wrote Star-Busmann. "Unpacking them was always like Xmas all over."
I read somewhere that Hepburn's clothes closets were practically the size of football fields...
And every single piece of clothing was color-coded and meticulously, if not manically, organized.
Sigh...my own closet is everyone's nightmare.
Well it's perfectly understandable that Audrey would have to make room for new additions is it not?
I simply do not know the right people...
Everyone knows Audrey was a huge fan of French designers YSL, Givenchy, Madame Gres bien sur.
But she experimented plenty with newer more avant garde designers too:Alaia, Bill Gibbs, Jean-Paul Gautier, Comme des Garcons, John Galliano, Vivienne Westwood...
Was Audrey not the queen of the little black dress - the simple creation she donned for her date with Humphrey Bogart in Sabrina - to die for forever!
I promise you, you'll have a ball looking at the lots in the auction.
There's always a dog in the story. "Famous", Audrey's adorable Yorkie turns up in many of the fashion shots in the auction...
Here are 4 "Famous" Yorkie pups waiting for Audrey to finish her shoot in Paris...I was very lucky to see Audrey Hepburn win the Society of Lincoln Center award at a gala tribute in 1991. She was every bit as gracious and lovely as you can imagine...
Bonjour Audrey, we will always love you
Thursday, May 28, 2009
It is no secret that Billy Wilder is my favorite director, but I can say that of all his films Sabrina is not one of my favorites.
In the film, Sabrina Fairchild is the daughter of the chauffer to the powerful Larabee family; growing up adjacent to the Larabee house has made young Sabrina become infatuated with the youngest Larabee son, David. The problem is that David doesn’t even know Sabrina exists, he is far too caught up in chasing after the daughters of the socialites in his circle. Sabrina’s father decides the best course of action to get Sabrina over David is to send her to cooking school in Paris; while in Paris Sabrina is absolutely miserable, until she meets a friend that helps her begin to mature into the sophisticated Parisian woman she can be. Upon graduation Sabrina returns to the Larabee estate and decides to use her newfound feminine charms to win the newly engaged David. In order to keep David from ruining his engagement (and therefore the plastics deal the Larabee’s are working towards) older brother Linus does his best to occupy Sabrina’s time.
I can’t name anything large or specific that makes Sabrina mark low on my list of Billy Wilder films. One of the key elements for me is that it tonally just feels very different from all of his previous films; Sabrina was made after some of his best - Double Indemnity, The Lost Weekend, Sunset Blvd. and Ace in the Hole - and Sabrina is just borderline bland next to those.
I also have to say that I don’t know if I enjoy Humphrey Bogart in the role of Linus. Call me ageist but to me he is just too old to be playing Hepburn’s love interest. The tow also don’t seem to be performing towards each other; Hepburn is interacting with Bogart, but Bogart doesn’t seem to be responding to her.
I still enjoy this movie and think Wilder is a film god, I just think he made such astronomically great movies that this one just being “good” seems sub-par.
Director: Billy Wilder
Writer: Billy Wilder, Samuel Taylor & Ernest Lehman
Linus Larabee: Humphrey Bogart
Sabrina Fairchild: Audrey Hepburn
David Larabee: William Holden
In the film, Sabrina Fairchild is the daughter of the chauffer to the powerful Larabee family; growing up adjacent to the Larabee house has made young Sabrina become infatuated with the youngest Larabee son, David. The problem is that David doesn’t even know Sabrina exists, he is far too caught up in chasing after the daughters of the socialites in his circle. Sabrina’s father decides the best course of action to get Sabrina over David is to send her to cooking school in Paris; while in Paris Sabrina is absolutely miserable, until she meets a friend that helps her begin to mature into the sophisticated Parisian woman she can be. Upon graduation Sabrina returns to the Larabee estate and decides to use her newfound feminine charms to win the newly engaged David. In order to keep David from ruining his engagement (and therefore the plastics deal the Larabee’s are working towards) older brother Linus does his best to occupy Sabrina’s time.
I can’t name anything large or specific that makes Sabrina mark low on my list of Billy Wilder films. One of the key elements for me is that it tonally just feels very different from all of his previous films; Sabrina was made after some of his best - Double Indemnity, The Lost Weekend, Sunset Blvd. and Ace in the Hole - and Sabrina is just borderline bland next to those.
I also have to say that I don’t know if I enjoy Humphrey Bogart in the role of Linus. Call me ageist but to me he is just too old to be playing Hepburn’s love interest. The tow also don’t seem to be performing towards each other; Hepburn is interacting with Bogart, but Bogart doesn’t seem to be responding to her.
I still enjoy this movie and think Wilder is a film god, I just think he made such astronomically great movies that this one just being “good” seems sub-par.
Director: Billy Wilder
Writer: Billy Wilder, Samuel Taylor & Ernest Lehman
Linus Larabee: Humphrey Bogart
Sabrina Fairchild: Audrey Hepburn
David Larabee: William Holden
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