Reading List || The Titanic Edition
12/04/2012 § 2 Comments
Grand staircase of the Titanic. Image via Retronaut.
I have a mild obsession with Titanic — the historical event much more so than the Cameron film, but I’m not going to even try to pretend like I didn’t make my high school boyfriend sit through that 3 hour extravaganza — twice.** And so, I’ve put together a roundup Reading List in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster; the concurrent 15th anniversary and 3D release of the 1997 James Cameron film; and the people who didn’t realize Titanic was real, not just a movie:
Amazing photographs: Construction of the Titanic || Interiors of the Titanic || Photographs taken onboard Titanic by Father SJ Browne || Titanic Survivors {all via Retronaut}
Titanic Guide to New York City Part 1 & Part 2 {via Scouting New York} — top it off with a stay at The Jane Hotel, where the survivors stayed 100 years ago {via Designtripper}
Seven Famous People Who Missed the Titanic {via Smithsonian.com}
Guernsey’s and Bonhams both auction off Titanic artifacts this week. View selected items {via Artinfo}
Fashion and ephemera salvaged from the deep: On the Titanic, Defined by What They Wore {via NY Times}
Every *MAN* for himself: Researchers say male chivalry on sinking ships is a myth {via Washington Post}
Remastering Rose and Jack: Converting Titanic to 3D with a cool infographic {via NY Times}, but if you happen to be in China, don’t get all excited about Rose’s 3D boobs {via LA Times}
Unsinkable Molly Brown presenting a loving cup to Captain Arthur Rostron, master of the RMS Carpathia, the ocean liner that rescued the survivors from the Titanic. Image via the Library of Congress.
**and I may have gotten the tiniest of lumps in my throat upon my first viewing of the 3D trailer in the theatre. Don’t you judge me! I was young and impressionable!
Reading List || The Financial Times: Power With Grace ~ Christine Lagarde
13/12/2011 § Leave a comment
Christine Lagarde. Image via the FT.
When Christine Lagarde took the reins at the IMF from embattled and embarrassed Dominique Strauss-Kahn, I will admit that aside from the remarkable milestones she represents — the first female managing director of the IMF, first female finance minister of a G7 country, first female head of international law firm Baker & McKenzie — there is something about her style that resonates deeply with me. Here I use the term “style” loosely, as I do not specifically mean her manner of dress or hairstyle. While I do love both, it has more to do with what Gillian Tett calls her “power with grace” in Tett’s recent article on Lagarde for the Women of 2011: Special Edition of the Financial Times:
But Lagarde is also being watched – as a potent female watershed. Never before has a woman held such a powerful position in global finance; the world of money has hitherto been dominated by men, not just inside banks but in bureaucracies too. Lagarde herself has often lamented this pattern, joking, for example, that the financial crisis might have been different if there had been “Lehman Sisters” and pointing out that the euro’s “fragile” foundations were created by its “founding fathers”, not mothers, since “regrettably, there was no woman at the table at the time.” Or, as she recently told me on the telephone: “I wish that there were more women in finance – I think it would be much healthier. We don’t know if it would have been different with more women [in 2008] but my intuition tells me it possibly might have been.”
Read the article here.
And from Forbes, Lagarde talks about being a lawyer, gender, diversity and the role of the IMF in the global economic crisis. Especially interesting to hear the reasons she prefers to use the title “Chairman.”
Also on the list:
The Smithsonian: Unflinching Portraits of Pearl Harbor Survivors
Business of Fashion: Digital Scorecard | Valentino Garavani Virtual Museum
LIFE Magazine, 17 Jan 1969: While Burton romances Rex, Liz weighs her power and her future
The diamond is 33.9 carats and when I first saw it I said, “It can’t be real.” And Mrs. Burton belted back happily, “You bet your sweet ass it’s real. It’s the Krupp Diamond.”
Reading List || LIFE Magazine July 6, 1959: Big Sur, California Story
18/10/2011 § Leave a comment
Henry Miller, second from left, in Big Sur in 1959.
I was pleased to discover that in 1959, LIFE Magazine sent J. R. Eyerman to capture a portrait of the creative colony that called Big Sur home at the time. Shooting in color, Eyerman returned with sun-bleached moments of artists, yogis, writers, families and local businessmen living in the picturesque California mountainside town. And after spending a few days there last week, I am happy to confirm that Big Sur definitely retains some of this same arty, offbeat and bohemian personality.
To read this lovely article, head here.
All images via the LIFE Archive.
Reading List || WSJ Magazine: The Beau Brummels of Brazzaville
04/10/2011 § 1 Comment
Image via WSJ
The current “State of Man” issue of the Wall Street Journal Magazine has a fascinating article written by Tom Downey about Congolese dandies, or “Sapeurs.” In the two Congos, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and its neighbor the Republic of the Congo, it is still a struggle for many to meet their own basic human needs. Violence is a daily part of life. Severe poverty is rampant. And yet, impossibly, there exists a small group of men who make it the main priority of their lives to outdo each other with exceedingly extravagant (and sometimes bordering on outlandish) suiting and accessories.
On their idiosyncratic and highly ritualized approach to their individual style:
The general rule for Brazza Sapes is said to be that they wear no more than three colors at a time. In fact what this seems to mean is three tones, not counting white. Pocket squares aren’t folded but stuffed in and left to spill out, rakishly. Patch pockets abound, an unconventional feature on most jackets. The outfits are dandyish, but they don’t come off as costumes. Some Sapes boast of their brands, especially their shoe brands, of which J.M. Weston, a fine and expensive French shoemaker, seems to be the most prominent. But most Sapes agree that brand isn’t everything—it’s about fit, confidence and, as Hassan Salvador tells me, art: “We need to paint with colors, patterns and textures,” he says. “All week I mull over the different possible combinations of jacket, trousers, pocket square, tie, tie pin, scarf, umbrella and suspenders before I actually put on the clothes.”
On how Congolese society perceives these men:
“The Sapeurs can only exist in peacetime,” Atipault told me. “To me they’re a sign of better things: stability, tranquility. They indicate that our nation is returning to normal life after years of civil war.”
Quite Continental 