Disco MarilynDubbed 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.
Click here for the rest of Donna Jordan
Style IconoclastThe irreverent style of Iris Barrell Apfel was introduced to me by my sister and we’ve both kept the ingeniously fashionable eccentric as a semi guarded secret. But the feeling of sharing has won over and I give you Miss Apfel, a lover of huge wild jewelry, exaggerated silhouettes, and inventive color combinations, a truly remarkable inspiration. A chance to wander through her closet would probably make me weep and pass out.
Click here for the rest of Iris Barrel Apfel
Model MuseMuse 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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While the art of Vali Meyers isn’t quite up my alley, I was fascinated with this witchy, tattooed enigma from the first photos I glimpsed of her which, admittedly, was only recently – the Australian artist, despite an impressive list of friends (Dali, Tennessee Williams, and Jean Cocteau to name a few) and a semi-permanent Chelsea Hotel address, just wasn’t a household name stateside.
Aside from her painting, Meyers was a tightrope walker, a tattoo artist who marked Patti Smith, and a muse. Below/after the jump are just a few images of the striking and truly unique beauty that passed away at 72 a few years ago.
Click here for the rest of Vali Meyers
R.I.P.It was very sad to hear of the passing of artist and muse Jeanne Claude, who along with her husband Christo, transformed Central Park with The Gates, a lovely installation that any one living here could enjoy. (Well, not everyone: I distinctly remember former co-workers bragging about how dumb they told their kids it was). Together over decades, the team has been making people re-examine the world with their bright drapings. Whether you were a fan of their large scale creations or not, a partnership like theirs is one to envy and celebrate. Christo has said he is “committed to honor the promise they made to each other many years ago: that the art of Christo and Jeanne-Claude would continue.”
Click here for the rest of Jeanne Claude (and Christo)
Here's what I wrote on May 4th:
Every quote attributed to (“I take a teaspoon of brandy when I feel spacey. It makes me come alive.” and?”I'd sell myself for a hat,”) or about (“Facts are not my mother's strong point”) adds to the charm of the willowy actress and style icon, Mimi Weddell.
While her old lady stylish eccentricities might call to mind the antics of the Beales, she never seems to teeter into such decrepit derangement. Instead, with a motto of “Rise above it!” she's an inspirational wonder with hundreds of hats (she and her millinery obsession are the subject of a 2008 documentary Hats Off that I am excited to see and wish would come to Netflix – check out the Algonquin release party photos here).
Here are some excellent photos of her and her adorably disorganized apartment taken by Brix Picks fave Tim Walker.
RUNNERS UPS:
Laura and Kate Mulleavy
Eiko Ishioka
Catherine Ribeiro
The Great Kat
Charlotte Rampling
Michelle Obama
The sudden death of Tammi Terrell was one of the biggest tragedies in American soul music. Only 24, the songstress who found fame and happiness singing along side Marvin Gaye died of a brain tumor after collapsing in Gaye's arms on stage. He went on to record the timeless and classic What's Going On while grappling with the loss.
Her adorable smile and affable stage presence, which would have surely taken her through a very successful career, can be appreciated on a few television performances you can find online.
While for a good long time Yoko Ono has been known mainly as the woman who broke up The Beatles, lately the petite radical has been remembered more for her contributions to avant garde art and the peace movement.
Ono and her 1964 performance Cut Piece was the inspiration for and earned an homage from the threeasfour runway show.
I can't sit here and pretend that I am thrilled with the direction of Vogue. I turned off when I kept finding Kate Hudson, Renee Zellweger, Sandy Bullock and Jennifer Aniston staring back at me week after week in one tired old bias cut dress after another. Even this year's September issue features Charlize Theron on the cover, when it really should have had a stunning photo of Miss Wintour herself!
After all, with the movie September Issue coming out, for better or worse the somewhat enigmatic icon will be center stage. Few women working in the industry have made such an impact in popular culture. Her bob hair and large sunglasses are known and often feared by all – it will be interesting to see what lies beneath them.
Maxine de la Falaise's obituary reads like a dream: she grew up in a family that “were the highest of haute bohemia”, as a child in school, “her clothes – Rhoda's (her mother's) discarded Schiaparellis or bespoke oriental ensembles – were awesome”. Later, shipped off to the US to find a wealthy husband, “She hung around Vogue in New York, was introduced to Elsa Schiaparelli, whose couture house had reopened… as perfect in her lanky loucheness to wear and sell for the house in its last years, and she was also photographed as a model for Dior, whose rise finally eclipsed Schiaparelli.”
She counted Louis Malle and Max Ernst among her lovers before becoming “an influential hostess among the Manhattan creatives” and a food columnist for Vogue. She was great friends with Andy Warhol and I know her well from his camp classic Blood for Dracula. Yves Saint Laurent, who claimed her daughter Loulou as a muse, was also enamored with Maxine and she both modeled for him and acted as his licensing consultant.
She was a gorgeous and fascinating woman who left her own, unique stamp on the world.