Vote!
06/11/2012 § 4 Comments
Wherever you are, regardless of whatever party you belong to,
I hope you make time today to vote.
**Also, please pardon my silence lately! Thanks to Sandy I am still unable to return home, unfortunately, and am a bit off of my regular schedule. That said, I am very thankful to be safe, with wonderful friends, and for the fact that I have lost relatively little in comparison to others. I have also been so blessed with caring thoughts and emails from so many people, from all circles of my life and even from some people that I’ve not yet had the pleasure to meet in person, but rather have reached through this blog. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You’re all the cat’s pajamas, truly.
You can read more about the trials and tribulations some of the buildings
in my neighborhood (Lower Manhattan)are currently facing here.
Photo of Caroline & John Kennedy in Hyannis Port on Election Day, 1960.
Taken by Paul Schutzer, via the Life Archive.
Masqued Class
31/10/2012 § Leave a comment
From my temporary refugee perch on the UES, and on Halloween no less, I felt this elegant masked ball in Paris in 1946 was particularly apropos to share with you today. Featuring several minor royals and creations by seminal postwar French designer Jacques Fath — and a few pictures of Fath himself, even in a mask! — these ensembles take fancy dress to dizzying couture heights. Doesn’t it just make you itch for a pair of opera-length gloves and a set of crown jewels?
Photos by David E. Scherman for Life Magazine, via the Life Archive.
While these pictures are a sorry excuse for missing out on the usual Halloween festivities, I’m still very hopeful that New York will come together for the kids this evening. I’m planning a UES constitution of my own, to try to help spread the spirit. So many New Yorkers are still without power, and the annual Halloween parade in the Village has been postponed, but the city has been working hard to come back online as soon as possible after Sandy — and we’ve made some amazing progress already.
If you would like to help, please make a donation to the American Red Cross. You can also text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10 to American Red Cross Disaster Relief.
Be well! Happy Halloween!
Throwback Thursday || There Will Be Breweries (and Beards)
24/10/2012 § 6 Comments
From the family archives: an amazing group portrait — which you must click to enlarge — featuring my great, great-grandfather Peter Joseph in New Orleans, sometime after the Civil War. A veteran, a civic leader and a policeman, he somehow also had the time to serve as foreman for a brewery built on Canal Street, and here he is pictured with his crew. You can find him either by the arrow penciled in on the photo, or you could just search for a masterful beard…
La Bombe Dior
19/10/2012 § 3 Comments
Tourbillon dress and bolero in black crepe wool,
Haute Couture collection Fall-Winter 1957-1958. Ligne Fuseau
Aventure outfit, jacket with black and white houndstooth, pencil skirt in black wool.
Haute Couture collection Spring-Summer 1948. Ligne Envol
Abandon dress in black wool, Haute Couture Fall-Winter collection 1948-1949. Ligne Ailée
Arizona wool coat in cherry red. Haute couture Fall-Winter collection 1948-1949. Ligne ailée.
Porto Rico dress with black and white polka dot.
Haute Couture Fall-Winter collection 1954-1955. Ligne H
Portugal evening gown in white organdie with cerise embroidery
Haute Couture Spring-Summer collection 1957. Ligne Libre
I suppose that when one is Marion Cotillard, it is practically all in a day’s work to pose in iconic haute couture pieces from the Dior archive — created by Monsieur Dior himself — and transform oneself into the “The Dior Bombshell” for amazing photographs by Jean-Baptiste Mondino as part of the Lady Dior web documentary.
Le sigh. She looks so perfect that it almost difficult to be jealous.*
*Please note I said “almost.”
School Days: Wellesley College, 1949
18/10/2012 § 4 Comments
These great pictures, taken by Nina Leen for Life Magazine, make me wish I could find Doc Brown to fix my flux capacitor so I could pop back to 1949 to either a) hang out with all these rad girls at Wellesley College in 1949 and/or b) abscond back to the present day with all their clothes. Barring that, I suppose you can officially consider me on high alert vintage patrol for one of those double-breasted trench coats with a fur collar. If you happen to find one, be a dear and let a (Seven) Sister know.
Photos taken by Nina Leen on October 10, 1949, via the Life Archive.
Whisky Kissed
05/10/2012 § 3 Comments
Spend a day with a handsome, Macallan-drinking Scot in New York?
Where does one sign up?
Adore these photographs of actor Kevin McKidd taken by Annie Leibovitz for The Macallan Masters of Photography Series. The texture and tone combine for a deliciously golden experience, with each scenario intended to evoke the spirit of a distinct Macallan whisky, and were shot in New York City, the Red Dot restaurant and bar in Hudson, and private homes upstate.
All images via The Macallan.
Desired Destination: Morocco
01/10/2012 § 2 Comments
When the weather turns cooler, my wanderlust for warmer climates always picks up. I’ve frequently forgone the usual trip home for Thanksgiving in favor of a long international journey somewhere warm. Last year it was Argentina, two years before that I went to Egypt, and lately my mind has returned to North Africa. Morocco has officially made its way to the very top of my Desired Destination shortlist somehow, fueled at least in part by the images and inspiration I have been collecting on Pinterest.
My trip to the Maghreb probably isn’t all that far off with flights hovering around $1,000 and no annoying visa procedure for US citizens, but until that day comes, you can find me wandering among my pictures, wistfully wishing for the smell of fragrantly perfumed tobacco, oranges and coriander, the taste of mint tea and dates, the feel of crisp linen against my body and cool tiled floors beneath my feet, and the sound of the call to prayer at dawn and the souk at dusk.
The harbor town of Essaouira.
Dying to stay at L’Heure Bleue hotel in Essaouira…gorgeous!
Marrakech, the Ochre City.
YSL in Morocco.
YSL at home in Marrakech, what is now known as the Majorelle Garden.
Casablanca
All images via Pinterest.
Quite Continental Desired Destinations
~*~Travel Charmingly~*~
NYFW Recap: Samantha Pleet S/S 2013
26/09/2012 § Leave a comment
Loving the S/S 2013 Samantha Pleet collection! Called the “Sands of Time” and drawing inspiration from the ancient civilizations of the Fertile Crescent and the 19th century adventurers who discovered them, Pleet’s collection is whimsically detailed and utilizes some very gorgeous prints. And I quite obviously lost my mind at the sight of the shorts suit above — amazing! The presentation was held at the gorgeous Wolverine Company Store that has been popped up in Nolita, against a backdrop that echoed the stratified landscape of ancient Mesopotamia.
I was also excited to get a sneak peek at the new S/S Samantha Pleet for Wolverine 1000 Mile collaboration that includes sandals, boots and oxfords. I can already tell those turquoise lovelies are poised to be quite a hit — mark my words!
View the entire Samantha Pleet S/S 2013 lookbook here.
New York City by André Kertész
26/09/2012 § 2 Comments
“I write with light.”
— André Kertész
How I adore The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection of
André Kertész photographs taken in New York.
QC Archives || Grandma’s Hands
25/09/2012 § 3 Comments
A trip home to Los Angeles is never complete without a wander through my grandmother’s photo albums, now kept by my mother. While not exactly a scrapbooker per se, my Grandma did like to make collages with her pictures over the years — sometimes organized chronologically, sometimes completely nonsensical, sometimes accompanied by scribbled entries identifying who people are and where they might be, sometimes not. The purist in me instinctively wishes that she hadn’t cut up so many of the pictures, but I always take it back when I think about her lovingly laboring over her creation. I know how lucky I am to be able to hold in my hands something that she made with hers.
I took a few pictures (yes, of pictures) so I could share them with you.
Definitely click on them for a closer look.
My grandparents are the ones wearing sunglasses. Obviously they are the coolest.
With friends on Chesapeake Bay, 1946.
And can we please talk about what the women are wearing? Can. We. Talk.
My mother and grandmother, 1950.
My grandmother and uncle (at right), 1940s.
My grandmother and uncle, 1947.
My grandmother and mother (at right) on Easter, 1950s.
Grandmother and uncle (at right), 1940s.
My grandparents and mother (at left) at her 6th birthday party, 1955.
Quite Continental 