I read recently that Franca Sozzani, the avant-garde doyenne of Italian Vogue, has daringly put fat….well not exactly fat, but fattish….models on the cover of the magazine’s current cover. Also, gushes the fashion press, Franca edited, wow, a black model issue in 2008.
But she might have glanced back a few decades, to the April 1965 issue of American Harpers Bazaar. I worked on this with photographer legend Richard Avedon. Not only did we use a truly black model, Donyale Luna, to wear American designer couture, almost the first time a black girl appeared in a mainstream ‘white’ magazine—and it raised many hackles across the country, but we also photographed my fabulously beautiful, but frankly fat, friend, Bibi Winkelhorn, who had worked with me on American Vogue, on several pages. We didn’t need to dress up or dress Bibi down for that matter, her beauty outshone anything she wore, the New Botticelli Girl.
Bibi, the great-grandaughter of the heroic Czarist general Koutuzov, who turned Napoleon’s army from the gates of Moscow, is now a fat-cat communications exec in Las Vegas. Donyale died in Rome in the 1970s. Signorina Sozzani should put flowers on her grave….
My very dear friend, the artist, fashion editor and blonde beauty Amanda Eliasch is putting on a play, and not just any play, but a biographical reflection of a special period in her life. Written in response to a challenge set by her father, the journalist and writer Anthony Cave-Brown, who she didn’t meet until she was 22.
Amanda is bringing her multi talents to Chelsea Theatre between Monday 4th and Thursday 14th July 2011. Lyall Watson has directed the play while I have been asked and am honoured to have designed the set. Tickets are hotter than Amanda’s trademark red lipstick, so I recommend booking right now for what will be a sure fire evening. For further information on the play and ticket availability please click here.
I’ve mentioned Susie MacMurray before. I follow her work, in fact own a piece, and yet we’ve never met, so I was very pleased when she contacted me regarding her exhibition at Agnew’s Gallery. Then annoyed to discover I would miss the entire thing due to various travel commitments. I asked if my colleague Natalie could attend with a camera however, and fortunately it was a ‘yes’!
‘After Flock’ is bronze turkey feathers dyed black.
MacMurray’s material range is extensive and one of the things that keeps me tuned in. She has an eye for the unexpected not dissimilar to how we look at interiors.
The little decorator voice in me says ‘that looks QUITE Grinling Gibbons!’
Or like melting pearls…
In fact it’s called ‘Feast’ and is made of clingfilm.
‘Swarm’ 2011 was executed of modeling wax and lay pins.
We’ll meet soon! Meanwhile MacMurray is represented by Agnew’s Gallery at 35 Albemarle Street.
Rob, Hollywood’s most handsome and kindest actor was in town last week with his brilliant jewellery designing wife Sheryl to promote his book ‘Stories I Only Tell My Friends’. Following their dinner at Mark’s club the next day I met Rob at lunchtime where we swapped copies of our autobiographies. Mine is called ‘Redeeming Features’.
We are on the covers-who looks the prettiest??!
…Rob of course!
Things have really changed. In the 70′s my Barbie’s pretty much looked like this; naked, disheveled, and neglected. Its was a small comfort to learn on a recent trip to Toronto that Sheldon Wagner has been rescuing heaps of them, which are now for sale in his rarely open gallery on Ossington Ave which he calls ‘Ulterior Design’. There are hundreds to be had, but it’s an ‘installation’ and surely $3000.00 is not too high a price for a bit of 70′s fun! This type of heady abandon is not easy to come by anymore after all.
I mean just LOOK at Barbie now, licensed architect, and the AIA are running a ‘Design Barbie’s Dream home’ competition. Serious stuff.
Its so fun contemplating design with children - they’re natural decorators with heaps of ideas.
Mine covet this house in Shanghai…
And my little one thinks this is a grand idea.
Not to mention the ‘edible’ bus stops in Japan. We may not be cribbing these any time soon, but it’s a fun diversion.
