ROGER VIVIER

• Born: Paris, 13 November 1913.
• Education: Studied sculpture at l’École des Beaux Arts, Paris.
• Family: Adopted son, Gérard Benoit-Vivier.
• Military Service: Performed military service, 1938-39.
• Career: Designed shoe collection for friend’s shoe factory; opened own , 1937, designing for Pinet and  in France, Miller and Delman in U.S., Rayne and Turner in UK; designed exclusively for Delman, New York, 1940-41 and 1945-47; studied millinery, 1942; opened New York store, Suzanne & Roger, with milliner Suzanne Remy, 1945; returned to Paris, 1947, designing freelance; designed for Dior’s new shoe department, 1953-63; showed signature collections, from 1963; reopened own business in Paris, 1963; designs collections for houses, including Grés, St. Laurent, Ungaro, and Balmain; resigned with Delman, 1992-94; new licensing  with Rautureau, 1994; opened new Paris boutique, 1995.
• Exhibitions: Musée des Arts de la Mode, Paris, 1987 [retrospective]; Nina Footwear Showroom, New York, [retrospective], 1998; Folies de dentelles, Musée des Beaux-arts et de la dentelle, Alençon, France, 2000.
• Awards: Neiman Marcus award, 1961; Daniel & Fischer award; Riberio d’; honored by Nina Footwear, 1998.
• Died: 2 October 1998, in Toulouse, France.
• 

Roger Vivier was perhaps the most innovative shoe designer of the 20th century and beyond. Vivier’s shoes have had the remarkable ability to seem avant-garde yet destined at the same time to become classics. He maintained an eye for the cutting edge of fashion for six decades. Vivier looked back into the history of fashion and forward to the disciplines of engineering and science for inspiration. The shoes may seem shocking at first; however, it is the way they complete the  that has made Vivier so coveted by top fashion designers for decades. With a sophisticated eye for line, form, and the use of innovative materials, Vivier created  worn by some of the most and prestigious people of both the 20th and 21st centuries, among them Diana Vreeland, the Queen of England, and Marlene Dietrich.

Vivier worked with some of the most innovative fashion designers, such as , Christian Dior, and Yves Saint Laurent, at the height of their careers. Schiaparelli was the first designer to include Vivier’s shoes in her collections. Vivier was working for the American firm Delman at the time; Delman rejected Vivier’s sketch of the shocking platform shoe which Schiaparelli included in her 1938 collection. In 1947 Vivier began to work for  and the New Look brought new emphasis to the  and foot. Vivier created a number of new  shapes for Dior, including the  and the  heel. During their ten-year association, Dior and Vivier created a golden era of design. In the 1960s Vivier created the low heeled “pilgrim pump” with a square silver , and this shoe is often cited as fashion’s most copied footwear.

Vivier was one of the first designers to use clear plastic in the design of shoes. His first plastic designs were created in the late 1940s after World War II; however, in the early 1960s he created entire collections in plastic. Vivier popularized the acceptance of the thigh-high boot in the mid-1960s, a fashion considered  for women. Vivier teamed with Delman again in 1992, and the mood his later collections continued to be imaginative and forward thinking. Drawing his inspiration from nature, contemporary fashion, the history of fashion, painting, and literature, Vivier updated some of his earlier designs and was constantly creating new ones to challenge the ideas of footwear design.

Vivier studied sculpture at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and later apprenticed at a shoe factory. It was this solid base of training in both aesthetics and technical skills that led him to become known for precision fit as well as innovative design. A Vogue ad for his shoes in 1953 educates the viewer to look beyond the design. Showing the shoes embraced in callipers and other precision tools the ad read, “Now study the heel. It announces an entirely new principle—the heel moved forward, where it carries the body’s weight better.” In another ad from Vogue (1954) the experience of owning a pair of Vivier shoes was likened to owning a  suit or dress, “a perfection of fit and .”

Vivier’s shoes not only had the ability to complete a silhouette with an  that made a whole, but the beauty of their line, form, and  made them creations that stood alone as objects of art. Vivier’s strong combination of design and craftsmanship allowed his shoes to stand prominently in the permanent collections of some of the world’s most prestigious museums—the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; and the Musée du Costume et de la Mode of the Louvre, Paris.

In 1994 the 86-year-old Vivier signed a new licensing agreement with Rautureau Apple Shoes, which in turn allowed him to open a  in Paris the following year. The Rautureau venture gave Vivier the backing to continue doing what he loved most—designing shoes. Yet three years later, in October 1998, Vivier died in Toulouse, France. He was remembered by many, including fellow shoe designer , who told People magazine, “People try to copy him, but it’s impossible to find that mix of technical skill and design.” Kenneth Jay Lane, who had worked with the master , declared, “He was the world’s greatest artist of shoe design.”

An invaluable collection of great design! Offering a range of styles, the interiors represent the best from the late 1960s into the first years of the 70s. Included are Britwell Salome’s estate designed by David Hicks, Federico Forquet’s apartment in Rome, Roger Vivier’s apartment in Paris, Maurice Rheims’ apartment in Paris, Lagerfeld’s Paris apartment including the bathroom, Valentino’s apartment in Rome, Chateau Mouton-Rothschild, Count Panza’s apartment in Milan, the Paris home of Quasar and Emmanuelle Khanh, and the apartment of Gunther Sachs in the Palace Hotel in Saint-Moritz. This collection profiles the work of Serge Royaux, David Mlinaric, Jacques Thual, Aldo Jacober, David Hicks, Jean Dive, Piero Pinto, Michel Cruchot, Gerard Gallet, Alberto Pinto, Yves Vidal and Charles Sevigny, Anita Bachman, Michel Boix-Vives, Alain Demachy, Jacques Demachy, Jay Spectre, Marc du Plantier, Yves Houdin, Francois Catroux, John Stefanidis, Henri Samuel, Didier Aaron, Jean-Paul Faye, Gae Aulenti, Gerard Gallet, Jacques Simon, Pierre Sels, Paolo Tommasi, Michel Boyer,Maria Pergay, Isabelle Hebey, Martine Dufour, Andre Putman, Francois Arnal and Atelier A, Nanda Vigo, architect Claudio Dini, architect Michel Sadirac, architect Carla Venosta, architect Lawrence Michaels, architect Arthur Finn, and the Swiss house by Marcel Breuer.

Left to right: Creative Director Bruno Frison with Ines de la Fressange; A display of Roger Vivier shoes; Diego Della Valle, CEO of Tod’s Group.

INES DE LA FRESSANGE

Inès Marie Lætitia Églantine Isabelle de Seignard de la Fressange (born 11 August 1957), is a French supermodel and designer of fashion and perfumes.

She was born in Gassin, Var, France. Her French father, André de Seignard de La Fressange (b. 1932) (a marquis), was a stockbroker, and her mother, Cecilia Sanchez-Cirez, was an Argentine model. She grew up in an 18th-century mill outside Paris with three brothers. Her grandmother was Madame Simone Jacquinot, heiress to the Lazard banking fortune.

In the 1980s, she became the first model to sign an exclusive modeling contract with an haute couture fashion house, Chanel, by fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, whose muse she became. However, in 1989, Lagerfeld and De la Fressange had an argument and parted company. Likely this argument was, at least in part, regarding her decision to lend her likeness to a bust of Marianne, the ubiquitous symbol of the French republic. Lagerfeld reputedly condemned her decision, saying Marianne was the embodiment of “everything that is boring, bourgeois, and provincial” and that he would not dress up historic monuments.

In 1990, she married Luigi d’Urso (d. March 23, 2006), an Italian railroad executive, with whom she had two daughters.

Currently, De la Fressange does not model very often. Instead, she is a businesswoman with a chain of clothing boutiques, a designer, and a consultant for Jean-Paul Gaultier. She presented a creation by Gaultier for his Spring/Summer 2009 haute couture collection at the Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week and walked the runway for Gaultier during the event, at age 51.

PUBLICATIONS

By Vivier:

Books
• Vivier, Paris, 1979.
• Vivier, Roger, and Cynthia Hampton, Les souliers de Roger Vivier [exhibition catalogue], Paris, 1987.

On Vivier:

Books
• Swann, June, Shoes, London, 1982.
• McDowell, Colin, Shoes: Fashion and Fantasy, New York, 1989.
• Trasko, Mary, Heavenly Soles: Extraordinary Twentieth-Century Shoes, New York, 1989.
• Provoyer, Pierre, Vivier, Paris, 1991.
• Pringle, Colombe, Roger Vivier, New York & London, 1999.
• Musée des Beaux-arts et de la dentelle, Folies de dentelles, [exhibition catalogue], Alençon, France, 2000.

Articles
• Cassullo, Joanne L., “Four Hundred Shoes,” in Next, December 1984.
• Bricker, Charles, “Fashion Afoot: Roger Vivier, the Supreme Shoemaker Comes to New York,” in Connoisseur (New York), December 1986.
• Buck, Joan J., “A Maker of Magic,” in Vogue (New York), December 1987.
• “Styles,” in the New York Times, 9 August 1992.
• Weisman, Katherine, “Rautureaus Sell Stake; Ink Vivier Deal,” in Footwear News, 28 February 1994.
• Menkes, Suzy, “Master Cobbler Sets Up Shop Again,” in the International Herald Tribune, 24 January 1995.
• Baber, Bonnie, et al., “The Design Masters,” in Footwear News, 17 April 1995.
• Weisman, Katherine, “Roger Vivier, 90, Mourned by Shoe World,” in Footwear News, 12 October 1998.
• “Died, Roger Vivier,” in Time, 19 October 1998.
• “Roger Vivier, France’s Footwear Extraordinaire,” [obituary] in People, 26 October 1998.
• Carmichael, Celia, “Legendary Status: Nina Honors the Creative Genius of Roger Vivier,” in Footwear News, 21 December 1998.— Dennita Sewell; updated by Sydonie Benét

*I always loved Roger Vivier’s designs.Takes me back in time. Is romantic, aristocratic and timeless.Thirteen years ago, I did a project called Palais Royal and Roger and Chanel were my inspiration.

www.rogervivier.com 

Why ‘It’ Bags Are Out

Luxury bags fall victim to their own success; exclusive over ostentatious

 By CHERYL LU-LIEN TAN and RACHEL DODES

Irene Weisburd used to buy 20 handbags a year, dutifully getting on waiting lists for the season’s designated “it” bag and filling her “bag wardrobe” with Fendi Baguettes, a Louis Vuitton Murakami bag and Prada nylon backpacks.Recently, however, she has bypassed popular styles such as last fall’s Gucci Indy bag and the ubiquitous Fendi ‘B’ bag in favor of unadorned pieces from Bottega Veneta and lesser-known labels such as New York’s MZ Wallace.

“I felt like, ‘Gee, all these bags are so attainable by a lot of people that everyone’s carrying around that bag,’ ” says Ms. Weisburd, a 59-year-old homemaker who lives in New York City. “I wanted something that was more exclusive.”

For the past 10 years or so, fashion houses have churned out expensive bags with distinctive shapes and logos in the hopes that they’d catch on as that season’s sensation. Consumers, seeking the status a recognizable bag conferred, flocked to buy them, helping to fuel the recent luxury boom.

But as big luxury brands have expanded world-wide, offering more entry-level products to reach more consumers, some high-end shoppers are getting turned off. The proliferation of knockoffs has helped erode the mystique of owning a high-end bag. Affluent customers have grown confident in their own sense of style and increasingly turning to unique accessories to set themselves apart from the crowd. On top of that, the recent stock market selloff and downturn in consumer spending has many consumers shunning spending that could be considered ostentatious. As retailers head into the new year, some are declaring that “it” is over.

“The ‘it’ bag isn’t important any more,” says Stephanie Solomon, women’s fashion director at Bloomingdale’s. “It’s all about looking different from your neighbor.”

Instead of one hot, recognizable style, retailers this spring will be pushing a variety of styles and brands, many of them lesser-known. Intermix, a high-end New York-based retail chain, is making a big push for handbags from labels such as Zagliani and Lanvin. Scoop is stressing Jamin Puech, Whiting & Davis and other relatively unknown, expensive brands. For spring, Henri Bendel is picking up LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton’s brand Loewe, which is popular in Asia but hasn’t been widely sold in the U.S.

Adriana Sassoon has a Handbag Company with the focus in Minimalist Design. The main ingredient is to help a Charity founded by her father and mentor as well as charities that work with children of developing countries “.The bags are very exclusive and they range between $295 – $1,000.

Adriana Sassoon red tote $1,000. At FIDM fashion Museum store Los Angeles, The studio, Boston.

PETER LINDBERG GOES LIGHT ON RETOUCHING

              THIS TIME WITH SUPERMODEL’S FROM 90′S

FASHION LANDFILLS

Do you love clothes? I do….How about Fashion? Are you a Fashionista?

Don’t they look good hanging in our closets? How about now……………..

WHAT IS A LANDFILL SITE?

Landfill sites are carefully designed structures built on or on top of the ground in which rubbish is being dumped. The idea is to make sure that the rubbish is kept apart from the surrounding environment, which includes groundwater, air and rain. The rubbish is kept dry and not in contact with air. Under these conditions, rubbish will not decompose very much. A landfill is not like a compost heap, where the rubbish is buried in such a way that it will rot down (decompose) quickly. Bacteria in the landfill break down the waste even though there is no oxygen present (anaerobic). A by-product of this anaerobic breakdown is landfill gas, which contains approximately 50 percent methane and 50 percent carbon dioxide with small amounts of nitrogen and oxygen. This presents a hazard because the methane can explode and or burn. So, the landfill gas must be removed. To do this, a series of pipes are placed within the landfill to collect the gas. In some landfills, this gas is vented or burned.

HOW MUCH DO WE DUMP?

When new trends and styles hit the stores each season do you throw out your old stuff to make way for the new or do you take a more fashionable approach and reuse or recycle them?
Americans throw away an estimated 10 million tons every year while over 80% of waste generated in China is land filled. The Solid Waste Management Department of Karachi in India claims that over 7,000 tons of rubbish is generated daily. Waste management is now a global concern.

Research carried out by Global Cool the climate change charity, found that women who shop online are twice as unlikely to return unwanted clothes than those that are bought in store. The charity asked 3,500 UK women who revealed that they spent an average of £470 last year on items that they did not ever wear, which is a hefty figure considering that this equates to an estimated UK total of £11.1 billion.Even scarier perhaps though, is that one in ten of the women who took the survey admitted that they just bin the unwanted clothes which actually contributes to an estimated 900,000 tonnes of landfill waste. This waste also leads to needlessly creating 8 million tonnes equivalent of CO2 through the purchase of unworn clothes.by Clare Saxon

Our “throw away attitude” contributes to the large increase in waste now being created causing, what the US Protection Agency has identified as a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide, Methane Gas. Since the Industrial Revolution in the late 1700’s, the earth’s methane concentration has increased by 150%. As world population grows the consumption of resources increases and the output of waste is increased.

Fashion itself promotes consumption as each season the latest styles in clothing, shoes, handbags and the like, encourage us to throw out the old and consume the new. A report published in 2006 by the University of Cambridge Institute for Manufacturing stated that “in 2000 the world’s consumers spent around US $1 trillion worldwide buying clothes. A third of that in Western Europe, another third in North America and about a quarter in Asia”. “Fast fashion” made from cheaper materials which may only last one season, provide affordable items aimed mostly at young women and their insatiable desire to have the season’s latest styles.

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FASHION WEEK BOSTON

Adriana Sassoon and Model’s

Fashion Week Boston starts September 25th to October 2nd.

The Boston Fashion Week started with a timid Party at the Beehive on Friday the 9/25. Saturday was ruled by “Recessionista Shopping Tour”  and Sunday “Fashion Evolution”.Boston Fashion Week  is evolving. It cannot be compared to Sao Paulo, NY, Paris, London or Milan.The Boston community should support their local designers.I interviewed  designers during the weekend.

At the “Fashion Evolution” Forever Party I interviewed Cindy Mathieu a Canadian designer, David Chum and Delise Ana Parker.Cindy Mathieu brought over to the show one of her gowns worn by ETC show host  Cheryl Hickey.Designer David Chum just  re:released his women’s collection  called “Sela Do’r”. At the same show designer Delise Ana Parker showed  an orange synthetic Leather Gown with feathers.

“Semana de Moda de Boston, ainda nao pode ser comparada a uma Sao Paulo Fashion Week!”

Por Adriana Sassoon

A semana de moda de Boston, comecou na ultima Sexta 25/9 com uma festa um pouco timida na Beehive.O final de semana ficou por conta de “Recessionista Shopping Tour” no Sabado e “Fashion Evolution” no Domingo. Nem de perto a Semana de moda de Boston, pode ser comparada a uma SPFW. O Brasil esta  muito a frente neste quesito! A SPFW e considerada uma das mais conceituadas semanas de moda do mundo.Tanto pela criatividade como tambem em qualidade e desenvolvimento do Design de Moda.Entrevistei dois designers durante a “Fashion Evolution” .Cindy Mathieu uma designer Canadense, que ja teve seu trabalho divulgado pela apresentadora do  Entertainment Tonight Canada Cheryl Hickey , David Chum que lancou sua colecao “Sela Do’r” em Marco deste ano e a designer Delise Ana Parker,mostrou um vestido em couro sintetico laranja com plumas.A semana promete mais.

Cindy Mathieu Mother of Pearl Dress

David Chum and Model’s

Delise Ana Parker her Orange synthetic Leather gown with Feathers

All images are courtesy of Ian Larraga Phorography

Para saber mais detalhes sobre as entrevistas acesse o site:

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ISABEL TOLEDO

Isabel Toledo (born April 9, 1961)is a Cuban-born American fashion designer based in New York. Toledo designed a lemongrass yellow wool lace shift dress with matching overcoat which First Lady Michelle Obama selected to wear at the inauguration of her husband, President Barack Obama.

Toledo was named creative director of Anne Klein in 2006 after more than twenty years of working solely under her own name; she was let go from that position in 2007.

Isabel Toledo was born in Cuba and moved to New Jersey where she attended high school and met her future husband and collaborator, Ruben Toledo. Toledo attended the Fashion Institute of Technology (NY) and Parsons School of Design (NY) where she studied painting, ceramics, and fashion design. An avid seamstress from a young age, Toledo’s work reflects not only a distinct design sense but a keen understanding of garment construction and appreciation for the geometric intricacies of pattern shapes.

In 1984, Toledo married artist Ruben Toledo and in 1985 presented her first collection. In 1998, she stopped presenting biannual collections, instead choosing to create on her own schedule.

Along with her husband, Ruben Toledo, Isabel was the recipient of the Cooper-Hewitt Design Award for their work in fashion in 2005. Toledo made her debut with Anne Klein at New York Fashion Week in February 2007 to critical acclaim. She and Anne Klein parted ways, however, a few months later.

Toledo was also the recipient of an Otis Critics’ award named for her at the Los Angeles-based Otis College of Art and Design.

Michelle Obama first wore a Toledo design on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 for an appearance at a New York City fashion world fund-raiser.

 Michelle Obama & Barack Obama

BRIGITTE BARDOT

AN EXHIBITION featuring rarely seen vintage prints of Brigitte Bardot, Brigitte Bardot and the Original Paparazzi, will be on display at James Hyman Gallery from September 3 to October 3, 2009.

Focusing on one of the great fashion icons of the twentieth century, the exhibition is being presented at the same time as London Fashion Week (September 18 to September 22) and coincides with Bardot’s 75th birthday on September 28.

The exhibition traces the development of a new genre of photography, showing how Bardot and the paparazzi created a whole new image of womanhood, female sexuality and youth fashion via a candid a photographic style that swiftly replaced the more controlled imagery produced by film studio publicity units.

The exhibition also times with the 50th anniversary of the birth of paparazzi, and includes vintage prints by the most famous of all the paparazzi: Tazio Secchiaroli (1925 – 1998), the basis for Fellini’s character in his seminal film La Dolce Vita (1959).

The show also includes many beautiful and rarely seen prints, including Bardot on the set of Godard’s seminal film Le Mepris; chiming perfectly with Jean Paul Gaultier’s current interest in the film and the inspiration for his 2010 collection, to be modeled by Bardot lookalike Lara Stone at London Fashion Week.

James Hyman Gallery : Brigitte Bardot et le paparazzi original

À temps pour le 75e anniversaire de Brigitte Bardot le 28 septembre prochain, la James Hyman Gallery nous fait plaisir avec une exposition de 75 photographies vintage de la blonde légendaire de plusieurs des plus célèbres photographes paparazzi de son époque. Ceci s’assortit parfaitement à la Fashion Week de Londres (du 18 au 22 septembre), après tout, Bardot est une des grandes icônes de la mode du 20e siècle. L’exposition présente quelques motifs rares et certains encore jamais publiés ni exposés.

L’exposition tombe aussi en même temps que le 50e anniversaire du concept de paparazzi et en profite pour nous éclairer sur la naissance d’un nouveau genre photographique – d’un délire VIP, pourrait-on dire. Il s’agit ici encore des débuts naïfs du genre, puis de la tentative de reconquête du contrôle que les grands studios de cinéma s’étaient arrogés en ce qui concerne l’image de la star.

Brigitte Bardot fut une des premières à agir plus ou moins en coopération avec les paparazzis pour se créer sa propre image – une image qui perdure encore aujourd’hui derrière les murs de sa cachette à St. Tropez. Les photos ou plutôt l’image représente un personnage fabuleux – un rêve érotique hétéro émancipé, vierge mais lavé de toutes les eaux.

L’exposition montre entre autres des impressions rares de deux des plus grands paparazzis Tazio Secchiaroli (1925-1998) – un exemple pour le paparazzi du film de Fellini La Dolce Vita de 1960 – et Marcello Geppetti. Mais aussi Roger Corbeau, Loomis Dean, Walter Limot, David Magnus, Patrick Morin et Claude Schwartz y sont représentés.

Brigitte Bardot and the Original Paparazzi est structurée par thèmes – de la pose à l’instantané, du privé au public, du studio à la rue. Et St. Tropez ne manque pas non plus. Pour tous ceux qui ne pourront se rendre à Londres, en voici quelques motifs ici, chez GoSee.

*Os paparazzi são associados a fenómenos como a invasão da vida privada. Mas em meados do século XX captavam estrelas como Brigitte Bardot, em imagens que hoje são consideradas obras de arte.Para Hyman, a diferença dos paparazzi daquela época é que estes não se limitavam a ter “uma grande lente e a invadir a privacidade das pessoas”.

Até dia 3 de Outubro, será possível ver 75 destas fotografias, assinadas por alguns dos mais famosos fotógrafos de celebridades das décadas de 50 e 60, na galeria James Hyman, em Londres, numa mostra intitulada “Brigitte Bardot e os primeiros paparazzi”.

A exposição Brigitte Bardot And The Original Paparazzi comemorará o aniversário de 75 anos de Brigitte e ficará aberta a visitação durante um mês, com entrada franca. Tudo está marcado já para começar no dia 3 de setembro próximo e segue até 3 de outubro.

Brigitte Bardot and the Original Paparazzi
An exhibition of rare original vintage photographs James Hyman Gallery
03.09.2009 – 03.10.2009
5 Savile Row, London W1S 3PD

Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot  (born 28 September 1934) is a French animal welfare/rights activist and a former actress, fashion model and singer.

In her early life Bardot was an aspiring ballet dancer. She started her acting career in 1952 and after appearing in 16 films became world-famous due to her role in the controversial film And God Created Woman. During her career in show business Bardot starred in 48 films, performed in numerous musical shows, and recorded 80 songs. After her retirement from the entertainment industry in 1973, Bardot established herself as an animal rights activist. During the 1990s she became outspoken in her criticism of immigration, some aspects of homosexuality and Islam in France, and has been convicted five times for “inciting racial hatred“.

Brigitte Bardot was born in Paris to Anne-Marie ‘Toty’ Mucel (1912–1978) and Louis ‘Pilou’ Bardot (1896–1975). Her father had an engineering degree and worked with her grandfather in the family business. Toty was sixteen years younger and they married in 1933. Brigitte’s mother enrolled her and her younger sister Marie-Jeanne (‘Mijanou’, born 5 May 1938) in dance. Mijanou eventually gave up on dancing lessons to complete her education, whereas Brigitte decided to concentrate on a ballet career. In 1947, Bardot was accepted to The National Superior Conservatory of Paris for Music and Dance and for three years attended the ballet classes of Russian choreographer Boris Knyazev. (One of her classmates was Leslie Caron). By the invitation of her mother’s acquaintance, she modeled in a fashion show in 1949. In the same year she modeled for a fashion magazine “Jardin des Modes” managed by another friend of her mother, journalist Hélène Lazareff. She appeared on a 8 March 1950 cover of ELLE.and was noticed by a young film director Roger Vadim. He showed an issue of the magazine to director and screenwriter Marc Allégret, who offered Bardot the opportunity to audition for “Les lauriers sont coupés” thereafter. Although Bardot got the role, the shooting of the film was canceled, but it made her consider becoming an actress. Moreover, her acquaintance with Vadim, who attended the audition, influenced her further life and career.

She participated in various musical shows and recorded many popular songs in the 1960s and 1970s, mostly in collaboration with Serge Gainsbourg, Bob Zagury and Sacha Distelincluding “Harley Davidson”, “Je Me Donne A Qui Me Plait”, “Bubble gum”, “Contact”, “Je Reviendrais Toujours Vers Toi”, “L’Appareil A Sous”, “La Madrague”, “On Demenage”, “Sidonie”, “Tu Veux, Ou Tu Veux Pas?”, “Le Soleil De Ma Vie” (the cover of Stevie Wonder’s “You Are the Sunshine of My Life“) and the notorious “Je t’aime… moi non plus“. Bardot pleaded with Gainsbourg not to release this duet and he complied with her wishes; the following year he re-recorded a version with British-born model and actress Jane Birkin which became a massive hit all over Europe.

www.brigittebardot.org

FASHION SCANDAL

“Ladies marked like Cattle” by Adriana Sassoon

Have you being Marked?Can you see yourself? Which one is you?

A little while ago I posted an article about “DELUXE” a book by Dana Thomas.Well I just decided to make this new post and spread the knowledge out there! How can we address this issue?Please post your comments. Maybe we could even start a debate about this bubject.

http://adrianasassoon.wordpress.com/2008/03/22/re-deluxe/

http://adrianasassoon.wordpress.com/2008/03/22/deluxe/

TWIGGY: A LIFE IN PHOTOGRAPHS

A new display at the National Portrait Gallery will celebrate Twiggy’s 60^th birthday and the publication of a new photographic biography of her life. One of the best-known and most respected models of all time Twiggy has worked with many of the world’s leading photographers and a selection of the most iconic and important of these portraits will be on show at the Gallery.

Twiggy by Barry Lategan in 1966 – the picture which made her career

Twiggy by Cecil Beaton

Twiggy by Richard Avedon

Launched with a famous haircut by Leonard and photographs by Barry Lategan in 1966, Twiggy was the world’s first supermodel. It was Lategan’s studies of her in the Daily Express that launched her as ‘the Face of 1966.’ For the next three years Twiggy helped define swinging London and she remains today an internationally recognised name and face. Appearing in all the leading magazines she has been photographed by Cecil Beaton, Richard Avedon, Melvin Sokolsky, Ronald Traeger, Bert Stern and Norman Parkinson amongst others.

In 1970 Twiggy embarked on her theatrical career. She played the lead in Ken Russell’s film of Sandy Wilson’s musical The Boyfriend (1971), for which she was awarded two Golden Globes -Most Promising Newcomer and Best Actress in a Musical. She went on to star in the Broadway musical My One and Only (1983-4), for which she was nominated for a Tony award. Twiggy continues to make regular appearances in print and on television and has more recently modelled for portraits by leading contemporary photographers including Bryan Adams, John Swannell, Mary McCartney, Steven Meisel and Sølve Sundsbo. This display of over 20 photographs will encompass the Twiggy’s life in portraits, from early shots by Lategan to the present day.

Twiggy by Ronald Traeger for Vogue

To accompany the display, the National Portrait Gallery will publish a hard-back book Twiggy: A Life in Photographs in September. A range of portraits from the Gallery’s Collection will be included in the book along with insights by Twiggy and an introduction by Terence Pepper, Curator of Photographs. An illustrated chronology – including Twiggy’s private collection of photographs, snapshots, cuttings and memorabilia – will explore her extraordinary life in front of the camera. The book (RRP £20) will contain over 100 illustrations, and a current retrospective of the portraits in Twiggy’s own words.

Recent: Solve Sundsbo’s shot last year (left) and Bryan Adams’s in 2000

TWIGGY: A LIFE IN PHOTOGRAPHS
From 19 September 2009 – 24 March 2010
Room 33A
Admission Free

For further press information and image requests please contact:

Eleanor Macnair , Press Office, National Portrait Gallery

Tel: 020 7321 6620 (not for publication)

 Email: emacnair@npg.org.uk;

To download images: www.npg.org.uk/press

THE LITTLE SEED

The Little Seed, a children’s specialty boutique carrying eco-friendly and organic products, opens its doors in the hip, urban enclave of Larchmont Village at 219 Larchmont Blvd.  Co-founded by new mothers Soleil Moon Frye and Paige Goldberg Tolmach, the goal was to create a one-stop shop for parents seeking products from skincare to bedding to toys that are made with organic or eco-friendly materials – healthy for babies and healthy for the planet… because it’s never too early to sow the seeds of care and responsibility.

Soleil’s  party was a huge success ! Private Label launch party sponsored by Weleda skin care!