Tag Archives: ladies and gentlemen

Diana Vreeland – Style Icon

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Diana Vreeland was and continues to be the arbiter of style, even after her death 20+ years ago.  Do yourself a favor and read “D.V..”, her autobiography/manual of style/name drop-a-thon.  It will seriously change your life.  You will start to look at style as something you own, now something you follow and conform to.  She will teach you that the sexiest most attractive thing one can have and wear is confidence.  Ladies and gentlemen, Diana Vreeland.  Style Icon.

NAME: Diane Dalziel Vreeland
OCCUPATION: Journalist
BIRTH DATE: March 01, 1924
DEATH DATE: August 22, 1989
PLACE OF BIRTH: Paris, France
BEST KNOWN FOR: As a fashion journaist, Diana Vreeland was an influential figure in American fashion during the 20th century.

Diana Vreeland (July 29, 1903, Paris, France – August 22, 1989, New York City) was a noted columnist and editor in the field of fashion. She worked for the fashion magazines Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue and the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

People who eat white bread have no dreams.

Blue jeans are the most beautiful things since the gondola.

Elegance is innate. It has nothing to do with being well dressed. Elegance is refusal.

I always wear my sweater back-to-front; it is so much more flattering.

I loathe narcissism, but I approve of vanity.

Pink is the navy blue of India.

Diana Vreeland by Horst P. Horst.

Image via Wikipedia

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Carrie Donovan – Style Icon

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I am a sucker for huge glasses, truth be told.  You have got to OWN your look, make it yours, and do not hide from it.  Become know by it and your “style” becomes stylish and copied.  Ladies and gentlemen, Carrie Donovan.  Style Icon.

Carrie Donovan (March 22, 1928 – November 12, 2001) was fashion editor for Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and The New York Times Magazine. Later in her life she became known for her work in Old Navy commercials where she wore her trademark large eyeglasses and black clothing, often declaring the merchandise “Fabulous!”. In almost all of the commercials, she appeared alongside Magic the dog and various other stars from TV and fashion.

When Donovan was just 10 years old, she mailed her own sketches for a design collection to the actress Jane Wyman, who replied with a handwritten letter. She later attended the Parsons School of Design, graduating in 1950. She worked as a journalist for 30 years but always wrote her copy out by hand, because she never got the hang of the typewriter.

Donovan gained recognition as a style editor for Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and the New York Times Magazine. She was known for being able to quickly recognize talent, being among the first to praise the work of designers Donna Karan and Perry Ellis. It was her work for Old Navy, however, that brought her into the public eye.

She was portrayed as a parody by Ana Gasteyer on an episode of Saturday Night Live.

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Kurt Cobain – Style Icon

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He was the reluctant crown-prince of my generation.  Had he lived, he would be 45 today and an Indie Rock God Legend or a bloated cliche or a recluse.  There is no way to predict something that will never be.  We will always remember him as beautiful, and sad.  My family and I were in Aberdeen over the weekend and probably went over the Wishkah a half dozen times.  The rain was heavy and constant, like it always is this time of year, and we hid out in an old mausoleum in the cemetery where my great-grandparents  are buried.  If I were a kid growing up in Aberdeen, I would have made it one of my haunts, it is very quiet and empty and full of the forgotten founders of a town whose prime has passed.  Ladies and gentlemen, Kurt Cobain.  Style Icon.

Kurt Cobain, born in Aberdeen, Washington (1967). He was the son of an auto mechanic and a cocktail waitress. His parents divorced when he was seven, and the split was traumatic, which influenced a lot of the pain in his lyrics. “I remember feeling ashamed, for some reason,” he told an interviewer in 1993. “I was ashamed of my parents. I couldn’t face some of my friends at school anymore, because I desperately wanted to have the classic, you know, typical family. Mother, father. I wanted that security, so I resented my parents for quite a few years because of that.”

He dropped out of high school three weeks before graduation, took a job as a janitor, and started playing in a band. They called themselves Nirvana, pooled their money — $606 — and recorded their first album, Bleach, in 1989. Bleach did well enough to get them a contract with a major label. In 1991, the group came out with its second album, Nevermind, which received rave reviews and propelled the band to stardom. The album featured the singles “Come as You Are” and “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Nevermind sold more than 24 million copies and Cobain became the reluctant poster child of Generation X.

In 2005, a sign was put up in Aberdeen, Washington, that read “Welcome to Aberdeen – Come As You Are” as a tribute to Cobain. The sign was paid for and created by the Kurt Cobain Memorial Committee, a non-profit organization created in May 2004 to honour Cobain. The Committee planned to create a Kurt Cobain Memorial Park and a youth center in Aberdeen. Because Cobain was cremated and his remains scattered into the Wishkah River in Washington, many Nirvana fans visit Viretta Park, near Cobain’s former Lake Washington home, to pay tribute. On the anniversary of his death, fans gather in the park to celebrate his life and memory.

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Let’s Stay Together

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Fundraising on Thursday in New York, President Obama decided his audience of 1,400 at the Apollo Theater in Harlem needed to hear just a little bit more than the usual campaign rhetoric.  So he broke into the first line of Al Green‘s R&B classic, “Let’s Stay Together” — after Al Green, himself, had warmed up the crowd.

“I-I-I’m so in love with you…”

Brief as the phrase is, it’s tough to hit all the high notes. But the president was pitch-perfect.  The audience screamed in delight.  Obama grinned, delighted himself. “Don’t worry, Rev,” he said to Green, “I cannot sing like you.”

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