Style Icons: Female »Donyale Luna

Exotic Beauty

If there were one woman to embody the word exotic, it would have to be the stunningly gorgeous Donyale Luna. Her illustrious film and fashion modeling career landed her the first African American cover of Vogue, though her relationship to her race was far more complicated than that of proud pioneer.

She was born in Detroit where her abusive father murdered her mother when she was a teen, but, maybe in attempt to distance herself from a traumatic past, she claimed to be of a mysterious lineage of Mexican, Indonesian, Irish. She never wanted to be defined by her race.

Notably as strange as she was beautiful, she was said to have been wild and unpredictable and sadly died of a drug overdose at age 33. She was romantically linked to Klaus Kinski among others.

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Posted on February 3, 2011

Style Icons: Female »Jean Patchett

Supermodel Icon

I was so ahead of the Mad Men fueled – the 50’s are cool again craze that, sparked by a River Phoenix-centric Stand By Me obsession, I hosted a 1950’s theme birthday party in my pre-teen days at, where else but Fuddruckers.

For a more sophisticated take on the decade than basket burgers and table-side jukeboxes, I now get enthused about the decade by gazing at photographs of Jean Patchett.

Look at any fashion image that makes you yearn for the mid century (minus the whole pre women’s lib thing) and I guarantee there’s a fifty fifty chance it’s of Jean. Just look for the signature beauty mark, that svelte frame, those piercing and mysterious eyes – the woman was downright gorgeous.

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Posted on December 19, 2010

Style Icons: Female »Peggy Moffitt

Iconic Muse and Model

Is it just me or does Peggy Moffitt personify the style vibe of today as well as she did in her swinging sixties heyday? Would love to see her walk the runway, I mean, she looks just as dashing today with her signature “five point” hair do and bold eyes and would lend some quirk to the lovely 1970’s Lauren Hutton styles that are coming down the runways.

Moffitt gained fame and iconic status from her work with two men: designer extraordinaire, Rudi Gernreich and husband/photographer William Claxton.

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Posted on September 18, 2010

Style Icons: Female »Isabella Rossellini

Unique Beauty and Renaissance Woman

Isabella Rossellini is so inspiring in her fierce individuality. She does the projects she wants to do and always with grace and humor. Whether starring in a David Lynch film, making short films about animal mating habits, or guest starring as the Arby’s roast beef loving ex of Jack on 30 Rock, Rossellini is constantly entertaining and one of our most interesting beauties – a woman who puts the rail thin vacant eyed stars of current young Hollywood to shame.

Most recently she’s been lending her eye to a line of Bvlgari handbags that are lined with her own snail print design. While I can not dream of affording the simple but slightly funky bags, I love that she’s making them and keeping her career interesting.

If you want to have a mini Isabella festival I recommend Blue Velvet, The Saddest Music in the World, and her Green Porno series and go ahead and throw in one of my favorites of her mother, Ingmar Bergman’s filmography, Gaslight.

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Posted on July 18, 2010

Style Icons: Female »Donna Jordan

Disco Marilyn

Dubbed the Disco Marilyn, 70’s icon, model and muse Donna Jordan has such a modern look and style. I am currently in love with her bleach blond, red lipped, gap toothed, leather and sequin clad razzle dazzle. While the Warhol girl, who starred in his film L’amour was once an it girl in the city, the lanky glamourpuss is pretty obscure with very little information about her to be found.

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Posted on June 20, 2010

Style Icons: Female »Lisa Taylor

Model Muse

Muse to Helmut Newton, one of the faces of her generation, and nary a wikipedia entry for the lovely Miss Lisa Taylor? After seeing the gorgeous, tawny, athletic lady in this weeks movie pick, where she pretty much plays herself, I couldn’t NOT choose her as this week’s style icon, even if there’s barely any information out there about her. Did manage to find several photos of this iconic star though.

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Posted on May 2, 2010

Style Icons: Female »Mahogany

directed by Berry Gordy (1975)

On a co-worker’s recommendation, I pushed the Diana Ross as young upstart fashion designer/model vehicle Mahogany to the top of my queue strictly for the over-sized jewelry (which, no doubt you know, I’m a big fan of – ever want to get me a gift, just type HUGE into the vintage jewelry section of eBay).

It’s a terrible movie, but the style is fantastic – plus, you’re exposed to constant flashes of the unbelievably broad smile of one the most charismatic men around (the great Billy Dee Williams) as well as a riveting and creepily realistic performance by go-to weirdo Anthony Perkins as a Machiavellian fame wrangler (at least, it feels accurate to me, though I’ve never personally been to the gun room of a Phil Spector type, but I imagine Perkins got it right).

The plot (which calls to mind a dumbed-down, simplified take on the story lines of Jacqueline Susann) is as thin as Ross, who plays “young” not entirely convincingly, but with an amazing amount of sassy charm – there’s a reason that this broad is a star! And there’s a reason her creation, Mahogany, is my style icon: it’s all kimono sleeves, rainbow gowns, jersey capes, feathers, statement hats, body paint, gonzo hairstyles, Egyptian influence, and sequined or Navajo wraps. LOVE IT. There are a good many stills to peruse below/after the jump.

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Posted on February 14, 2010

Style Icons: Female »Crystal Renn

crystal rennPlus Sized Beauty

The Terry Richardson lensed One Size Fits All campaign, with the bodacious Crystal Renn, is one of my favorite fashion spreads of the past few years. Not just because a non waif is presented in the spread like a token freak in a size-specific issue, but because she looks ten times more rocking and amazing than her skin and bones counterpart. I don’t really want to get into the weight debate here, but I do want to praise Renn for outright awesomeness.

Once suffering terribly with an eating disorder, Renn broke the illness’s hold on her and wrote a book about it called Hungry: A Young Model’s Story of Appetite, Ambition and the Ultimate Embrace of Curves. Since then she’s quickly become the most recognized non conformist fashion model to grace the pages of the biggest fashion magazines. Just a few of her looks are below/after the jump. Having thighs that actually touch has never looked or felt so good.

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Posted on January 10, 2010

Style Icons: Female »Naomi Sims

naomi simsMove over Miss Campbell, there was a classy (non abusive) Naomi that ruled the fashion scene once and her name was Miss Sims. Truly the first African American model to reach Supermodel status, Sims was the face of the “Black is Beautiful” movement and later became a successful business woman.

The gorgeous icon died earlier this month of cancer but is remembered for the her trailblazing career.

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Posted on August 24, 2009

Style Icons: Female »Kristen McMenamy

I simply can not get over the latest Lanvin Fall campaign that features the deathly pale, awesomely sexy Kristen McMenamy as a totally hot cat lady — there's very little on this earth that can make me as psyched as a totally hot cat lady.

Of course, the photos are by perennial genius Steven Meisel, but much of the credit goes to McMenamy, who has always been able to personify extreme non traditional fashion fantasies. Just think back on the famous Grunge and Glory editorial back in ?2. Sure, Marc brought the clothes, but she made them sing.

Fall Lanvin campaign

Steven Meisel

Grunge and Glory

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Posted on August 17, 2009