Monday, June 29, 2015

NEW JET SET FLYS THROUGH DUBAI

VANITY FAIR - THE NEW JET SET - DUBAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT EMIRATES AIRBUS - AIRPORT  link her to the full informative article
Graham Boynton   Stephen Wilkes
 
EXCERPTS:
 
This is Dubai International Airport’s $4.5 billion Terminal 3, the exclusive province of Emirates airline. Covering nearly 18.5 million square feet, it is the largest air terminal on the planet. Dubai International also ranks alongside Singapore’s Changi, Hong Kong International, and Beijing Capital International as the most passenger-friendly. Every week from this airport’s Jetways, 130 international airlines operate more than 6,000 flights to some 260 destinations on every continent except Antarctica.
 
In January 2013, Dubai International opened Concourse A—aviation’s first facility dedicated entirely to Airbus A380 superjumbos. Located in Terminal 3, it is a magnificent building. Huge first- and business-class lounges connect directly to the A380 upper decks; economy-class passengers board from the lower level. The new concourse has already increased Dubai’s traffic to 75 million passengers a year, moving it past London’s Heathrow as the world’s busiest international airport. By 2018 that number is expected to pass 90 million, overtaking vast domestic hubs such as Atlanta and Beijing...
 
At the back of the upper-deck cabin, directly behind business class, is the pièce de résistance: a fully operative stand-up bar that has been the social hub on every Emirates A380 flight I have taken. To make space for this in-flight lounge, Emirates president Tim Clark says, he has had to sacrifice six premium seats, but declares, “It’s the most popular thing we’ve ever done. They have a real party down there.” On this flight a group of Italian contractors join two British couples around the bar soon after takeoff. And they’re all still there six hours later as the plane starts its descent. It is, indeed, some party...."
 
*****
 
Missy here!  Read this article.  If you haven't traveled by air in a while you may consider transferring through this airport just to see the architecture and soak in the vibe.  Just expect to be seated by class and ticket price on the airbus, and since each class boards separately, you probably won't have much luck sneaking into First Class to sit with royalty and the stars!

Saturday, June 27, 2015

DECLARATION FOR MISTRESSES - Language

"I clean up my language. I don't use curse words or swear words in my daily language.  I learn new words and add them to my conversations and writing!"


I'm not going to say I never ever use curse words or swear words.  Recently I had a problem with workmen leaving a lot of clutter and dirt behind them. I was tripping over and breaking things trying to get around their stuff for days on end and I said one bad word in particular dozens of times till it was all taken away and cleaned up. It helped me blow off some of my anger at being so inconvenienced.  But I don't think anyone heard me! 

With this Declaration, I'm focusing on those of you who constantly overuse swear words in your daily language and have gotten into a bad habit with that.  It cheapens you, it really does.  It makes you sound ignorant and like you want to be.  Women who swear most every sentence do not always realize the bad impression they give but sometimes they are erroneously thought of as street people, drug addicts, or criminals.

On my smart phone there's a Word of the Day app which brings up a new word, defined and used in a sentence.  Why not add a few new words to your vocabulary and be perceived as intelligent, educated, and classy?"

C 2015 Mistress Manifesto All Rights Reserved

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Watch" PAN AM" - the TELEVISION SERIES - on DVD if you missed it on the TV.

I loved the TV series, which you can now watch all 14 episodes of on DVD, and which is set in the "Jet Age" and involves Cold War Spying, romances between pilots and mistresses, affairs in foreign places, in these pre-feminist revolution times when some women wanted a career and a man.  Checked YouTube and you can also watch an entire show on there.

Christina Ricci had the lead role as one of Pan Am's extremely accomplished stewardesses, women who had to be fluent in languages, educated, sophisticated, and know how to handle a myriad of crisis on board and off.  (And yes, I'm aware that people in this job are now called Flight Attendants, be they male or female, and that some men also love the job.)

The DVD set includes some special features including a short interview tithe former Pan Am Stewardess and Executive producer Nancy Hult Gains, and a reality check about the real lives of stewardesses in the era before air travel became mundane and discounted.

Here's the real deal, a Pan American Airlines promo!

Monday, June 22, 2015

SHOULD SHE CHANGE JOBS SO SHE CAN STILL HAVE AN AFFAIR WITH THE MAN WHO IS HER BOSS NOW?

QUESTION FOR MISSY

Dear Missy

A good friend of mine, Angela, is having an affair with her married boss, who I'll call Wade. She's crazy about him and from what she says, he's crazy about her.  They get along really well.  They've always worked really well together.  They have a lot of fun, a good sense of humor between them, and some common interests, like they both love baseball.  Their affair started because a group from her office go to down to the sports bar to watch the games after work to unwind and relax. 

I've known her since we were little girls. I know being involved with a married man is not like Angela.  She's never done this before.  At first I was shocked, especially because this man has three children under the age of six at home.  I really want her to be happy and she is happy.  I don't want to bring her down.

The other day Wade told Angela that he wants her to find another job.  He says that if the old men who are higher-ups find out it could be trouble for both of them.  He reasoned that since she's a secretary, and will get his highest recommendations, it will be easier for her than for him to leave the company.  She's afraid to do that because she's got benefits like a retirement to consider and because she knows then she won't see him as much and wonders if leaving the company will end the affair.

I asked her if she asked him what's wrong with his marriage.  He says the whole scene at home is exhausting and not at all what he had imagined his life would be married.  He loves his children but he says they are all the result of contraceptive failures.  They came too soon and too fast one after another.

Ginny,
Portland

*****

Hi Ginny,

Will Angela really be able to keep working with a man who doesn't want to have an affair with her anymore?  Office based affairs are common and so many people who've had them do break up and stay put.

It's my gut feeling that the affair will end if she changes jobs and that Wade is trying to find a good way out for both of them, but I'm also hoping Angela can break it off and keep her job.  It seems that whenever there's an office based affair it's always the underling who suffers.

Angela will have to negotiate that and if she's in love with Wade, it's going to be really difficult emotionally.  To break up and stay at work with a person require the skills of a great actor, at least for a while.  She will have to go about the workplace pretending she really doesn't feel like crying.  Probably a number of co-workers, supervisors, and other personnel have already picked up vibes and suspect or know there's an affair going on. 

I don't feel too sorry for Wade.  I can't be more encouraging to you for Angela's sake because of the number and ages of his children and the fact that they have a stay at home mom there with them raising them. 

If a man really does not want children, if a couple does not, there are so many options today, which, if they cooperate, are very effective to avoid having children.  I was reading an advertisement in a local weekly magazine that said rubbers are extremely effective these days in preventing AIDS.  If using them prevents the transmission of venereal diseases including the deadly HIV virus, certainly they are effective as contraception. 

Sure they break, but maybe not as much as they used to with better manufacturing methods (Do not use brands not made in the United States that haven't been rated.)  I've met people who got pregnant while using every form of contraception there is, which is why I'm pro-abortion.  But when a couple is not ready to have a child or another child and cannot afford it physically, psychologically,. emotionally, or financially, then they can so use more than one method.  In other words, those babies came "too fast" because WADE WAS THERE!

So my guess is that having three children one after another like that is tied into some very deep irrevocable notions that Wade has about life, possibly tied into his religion and culture, and that of his wife's.

But whatever their life is as a married couple, I think he's scared for his job and career and how he'd find another one to support a family of four.  He may think Angela is terrific and may enjoy her greatly, but this affair comes at a bad time in the lives of his children, their mother, and his.

Of course I could be wrong.  It could be that Angela, with the help of Wade, finds a new better, excellent job, one in which she prospers, uses all her talents and skills, and that comes with better benefits and retirement.  Maybe then he'll find that he misses her so much that he gets a divorce and can be with her.  Surely Angela would hope that he could afford child support, and will not mind as he becomes a weekend daddy for years on end.  Does Angela WANT to be the step-mother of three small children? 
Can she imagine seeing very little of Wade because he will spend a lot of time with them and always have a connection to his wife because of them? 

Ginny, Help your good friend think this through.  Tell her to BE STRONG.

Missy


Thursday, June 18, 2015

JET SET - the book by WILLIAM STADIEM - VERY INTERESTING!

THE PEOPLE - THE PLANES - THE GLAMOUR and the SEX!

Hello Readers!  I read this book and I will post a review at a later date!  I hand wrote it and have misplaced my notes. (I know, I'm usually so well organized!) If you're interested in the times that Bettina and other "jet-setters" lived, that era when jet plane travel was still posh and the wealthy moved from place to place on what seemed like a forever vacation, you'll want to read this one!

WINNWPEG FREE PRESS - THE AVIATION AGE and a REVIEW of "JET SET"


WWILLIAM STADIEM OFFICIAL SITE

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

BETTINA : PARIS PHOTO MONTH FETE

The original title of this post was  SWITZERLAND  CIRCA 1957 - BETTINA IA SOCIETY WEDDING IN THE KHAN FAMILYS "EARLY ON THE SCENE" In this film Bettina is identified as Aly Khan's fiancée. Bettina is "early on the scene." The film expired and I can't find a replacement at this time. Never the less, I thought I'd keep this post up by featuring this newer video of PARIS PHOTO MONTH FETES 50's MODEL BETTINA.
It;s from 2014 and Bettina attended
.

Monday, June 8, 2015

POLO : THE SPORT OF KINGS - OF COUNTRIES and COMPANIES

POLO, the sport of Kings, sometimes Kings of Industry and Finance, a very expensive sport. Yes, polo matches are a place to meet wealthy people, though some just love the horses... and could care less about diamonds and wine cellars.  



Saturday, June 6, 2015

AMARIGE - CLASSIC PERFUME BOTTLE by HUBERT DE GIVENCHY

From Sephora (though this same image is all over!)
 
Here is what Sephora has to say about this perfume which has Neroli, Rosewood, Violet Leaves, Citrus Notes, Gardenia, Mimosa, Melon, Peach, Plum, Cashmereon Wood, Tonka Bean, and Vanilla scents.  Hey what is Cashmereon Wood?
 
"Amarige expresses the emotion of love at first sight. A romantic scent of grace, warmth, and fantasy for a spirited, confident, spontaneous woman. The Amarige bottle was inspired by a blouse once created by Hubert de Givenchy for his muse and style model, Bettina Graziella. A wide collar of gold—part-frosted, part-clear, part-opaline, part-flame—unveils the enchantment of the fragrance."
 
What beautiful wording!

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

SIMONE MICHELINE BODINE - "BETTINA" - THE FIRST SUPERMODEL and MISTRESS OF ALY KHAN - A JET SET ERA MISTRESS

UPDATE February 2018
 
MODELS OF INFLUENCE - 50 WOMEN WHO RESET THE COURSE OF FASHION by NIGEL BARKER.  (Can you identify the models on the cover photo?)  There are do many good pictures of the models in the book, but it's a wonder the editors could even choose which photos to feature!  Author Nigel Barker features a series of mini bios capturing the essence of each model and her contribution to the evolution of fashion, or perhaps that's fashion photography!

Here's what the book MODELS of INFLUENCE by Nigel Barker has to say about Bettina, which I read as an e-book, some of which I'll quote and some of which I'll paraphrase. 
"Gamine - with a freshness that broke through the aristocratic mold, Bettina Graziana had rock solid connection to the most influential designers of the age..."  She was photographed in dramatic black and white photos and became part of an in house team of fit and runway models but she started out modeling hats.  Despite the clothes she had to model, she was able to project a "spirited and natural" expression - mischievousness - a love of life.  By 1955 she was a society figure.  After the death of Aly Khan, she returned to Paris was couture director for designer Emanuel Ungaro.  (pages 36-38 of the e-book)

ORIGINAL POST from JUNE 3rd 2015:


SIMONE MICHELINE BODIN,  who used the modeling name Bettina, was one of the first supermodels.

When you think of hauteur, of high cheekbones, of elegant smoking, of millinery, the resurgence of which we have seen with the "fascinator" and all other outrageous hats worn by the Duchess of Cambridge and other aristocrats and their guests at the royal horse shows and weddings in Europe these days, while we all wonder "How do they keep those things on?," you begin to think of the models of Bettina's era, the late 1940's to early 1950's. 

They were all "class acts."   Even when they came from nowhere and nothing or had difficult personal lives.

Bettina went to Paris as a young woman hoping to get into fashion design, but instead she worked hard as a model and muse for several fashion designers and photographers.  She also helped organize shows and did the equivalent of PR and marketing too. Just about everyone she worked with became famous, if not rich, from their creativity.

She was red haired, freckled, and she wore barely-there makeup.  In 1952 fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy named his debut collection after her.  Of all the designers she worked for he seemed to be the one who loved her the most - as a muse and friend - and was most dedicated to her - for life.  He even named his first perfume Amarige for her.

Bettina married a society figure and photographer of the jet set named Gilbert Gaziani, called "Benno," briefly, but became entwined with a married man, screenwriter Peter Viertel, who left his pregnant wife to be with her.  Bettina may have been Viertel's mistress but come on, dump your wife when she is pregnant?   Bettina soon dumped Viertel, because she had met a better man.  Aly.

Bettina became an icon, even though she is said to have turned down a contract to act for 20th Century Fox studio.



BETTINA
AKA Bettina Graziani
born Simone Micheline Bodin
(1925  - 2015)

Image from Google Images - Fashion Addict

Bettina knew how to arrive.  She also knew when it was time to leave.

In 1955, at about age 29, having met Prince Ali Salman Aga Khan, a dedicated sportsman, horseman and horse owner, even sometime jockey, and playboy, she retired from modeling and was his mistress.  Kahn, born in 1911, was 15 years her senior, and a son of Aga Khan III, the head of the Nizārī Ismā'īlī Muslims.  His bad boy reputation meant that he would be passed over as the next head of the sect when his father died. In 1300 years that had never happened.

How bad was he?

When Bettina met her Prince, he as already twice divorced and the father of three children, and he had a thing for women who were not Muslims.  His own mother was Italian though, and he lived in a larger world, a not Muslim world, that encompassed Western culture.  A socialite who partied around the world seducing women, a member of the Jet Set, Aly's first marriage to the Honorable Joan Barbara Guiness (aka Barbara Yarde-Buller) took place only days after her divorce, and lasted from 1936-1949.  He ended that marriage to be with Hollywood movie star Rita Hayworth, but their marriage in 1949 only lasted till 1953 and by 1951 Rita was already threatening to divorce him.  He is known to have been a womanizer who sought out and conquered women of the aristocracy and claimed that he thought marriage would cure him of his compulsions.

On May 12th 1960, Aly Khan died soon after a car accident near Paris. He was driving and collided with another vehicle and everyone else including the driver of the other car, survived.  Now his fiancée after five years of mistressing, and pregnant with his child, which may have been Aly's reason for considering a third marriage, Bettina later miscarried.

After reading Bettina's obituary in the New York Times and an article saluting her from Vanity Fair, both published after her death this year, I found another article in the Sports Illustrated Vault from 1960 which said this:

"The death of Prince Aly Khan last week deprived horse racing of its foremost international figure; it also deprived our times of a man of quality.

In the fields Aly Khan chose for his own he had no peers. His horses were the best, his modern paintings were the best, his manners were the best and his women were the best. Then suddenly last Thursday night, on the gentle curve of a suburban Paris street while on his way to be guest of honor at a small dinner party.

 Aly's life of excellence ended

He had spent the day at Longchamp race track—"Don't play my horse today, I don't feel lucky," he told a friend—and then had gone home to dress for the evening in a blue tuxedo. Ready to leave his house at 10:15, he paused to telephone French industrialist Gerard Bonnet, his dinner host, to say he would be a little late. At his side as he took the wheel of his Lancia sports car was Bettina (real name: Simone Bodin), once the most elegant fashion model of France and Aly's mistress for years. A highly intelligent woman, Bettina was accepted by Paris society and by Aly's family as well."


In his pre-marital will, his fortune went mostly to his three children but Bettina was remembered with a $280,000 bequest.  A lot of money in those days for the likes of you or me but chump change considering his vast wealth.

Besides looks and talent and inspiration, as well as a volatile private life, what else was Bettina known for?  It is said that she never was one to speak negatively about anyone.  No mean spirited gossip for her.  What a gal!  (And isn't there so much else to talk about?)

She lived to the age of 89, and, true friend to the end, had dined out with Herbert recently.



C 2015  Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot./ Missy Rapport
All Rights Reserved including International and Internet Rights



Tuesday, June 2, 2015

LET'S DO IT (LET'S FALL IN LOVE) : ELLA FITZGERALD : WRITTEN BY COLE PORTER

This song, written by Cole Porter in 1928, got new lyrics by Noel Coward in the 1950's that include the words "Aly Khan and King Farouk do it."  

Does Ella Fitzgerald's version include those words?