THAT'S GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME : PEARL BAILEY

BETTINA By GUY SCHOELLER : MISTRESS MANIFESTO BOOK REVIEW

SIMONE MICHELINE BODIN -  "BETTINA" - THE FIRST SUPERMODEL and MISTRESS OF ALY KHAN - A JET SET ERA MISTRESS  was our June 2015 Mistress of the Month. You can find that month in the archives and it may be fun for you to simply search for the word 'fashion.' Recently I found this small fashion memoir by Guy Schoeller.

This short but sweet book is mostly full of black and white photos of Bettina as a model, some of her in her personal life, some from her heyday - from 1944 to 1990. Her career spanned about twelve years and she twice abandoned it for love. At a time when holding a pose stiffly and haughtily was the way one modeled, Bettina was loved for her movement and her lack of pretense. She came from an ordinary background in Normandy but came to Paris with the ambition to model at eighteen. She dropped everything at 30 to be with Prince Ali Khan but he died five years later. I'm struck by the expressiveness of her hands, the way she used her arms, her bearing.

What I did not know: That in 1952 she helped Hubert de Givenchy launch his couture house.

That she created a first knitwear collection for Jacques Heim in 1954. That in 1969 CoCo Chanel created a collection inspired by her. That in 1972 she became Couture Director for Emanuel Ungaro. In 1974 she was in charge of public relations for Valentino in Paris.

C 2022 Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot

MISSY ASKS YOU! : ARE YOU INSPIRED BY ANY OF THE PEOPLE PROFILED HERE AT MISTRESS MANIFESTO?

Have any of the people I've chosen to elect to the Mistress of the Month Pantheon here at Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot inspired you?  I'd like to hear who and why!

If you are new to this blog, you can look in PAGES where there is a list of all the subjects I've covered her over very many years.  Leave me a comment!  

Missy

READY

 

GRACE CODDINGTON'S MEMOIR

  I listened to this audio book, read by the author Grace Coddington, with her British accent, and thoroughly enjoyed hearing her tell her own tale of leaving home at 18 and giving modeling a try.  Her first assignment was nude, though she didn't understand that was the case when she showed up, but she went with it.  Coddington is well known as Vogue magazine Editor Anna Wintour's sidekick, both included in the documentary called The September Edition. She's the red haired one, if you haven't guessed, the one who actually can speak to Anna candidly. According to Grace, it was the film "The Devil Wears Prada," a fictive account, the human devil said to be based on Anna Wintour, that brought Anna - and then Grace - to infamy.  It was that film and all the commentary, and her true relationship with Anna, that lead the normally publicity shy (OK, we'll try to believe her) Grace to go ahead and speak up for herself, her life, and her profession and write her book.

One of the things I appreciated was that she didn't do much introspection and certainly no apology for her life or rise in fashion but as I also read other audio memoir type books this past year by British women, I'm beginning to think there is something British about it. Certainly this woman must have faced competition and made some enemies along the way, but her own perspective is that she went from event to event, opportunity to opportunity, almost as if it were all fate or a done deal. But believe it: she worked her butt off.

C 2018 Book Review Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot  Originally posted.

JOXEUX

 

THE CHIFFON TRENCHES by ANDRE LEON TALLEY : MISTRESS MANIFESTO BOOK REVIEW

 

He was six foot seven and followed a dream. Doors opened for him, one especially held open by Diana Vreeland, so that Talley, who went to college in love with all things French and aimed to be a writer in the fashion world could succeed, though a Black man from the South, and often the singular representative of his race. 

Talley has passed since this book was published. Born in 1928, he died of a heart attack at age January 18, 2022. The man was considerably obese as a result of food addiction and compulsive eating.  In this book he talks about how he got so, the interventions by his friends, the attempts to lose the weight, and eating as a substitute for ever having a partner. Lap band surgery did not work for him. Because of his weight, he took to wearing caftans and big coats over custom made suits. In that way, he accepted himself as a man of size and became known outside the closed world of the great designers. 

Although interviewers and the press seemed to focus on his professional and personal relationship with Vogue editor Anna Wintour revealed in this book, there is quite a bit in this book about his relationships with other designers and the fashionistas, such as Lee Bouvier Radizwill, First Lady Jackie Kennedy's sister, who he calls a best friend, and his long time professional and personal relationship with designer Karl Lagerfeld.

He is forthright and dishy, and can't help but drop names, after all these were the people he worked with and knew personally. Anyone who adores reading around the world of luxury will find this memoir a page turner. One may find themselves longing for just a taste of what it is like to have friends so rich that they can send you over to Paris on the Concorde or gift you thousands of pairs of shoes over the years.

It takes creativity, vision, fortitude, and business savvy to make it to the top of the fashion trenches and there are a few - Diane Von Furstenburg comes to mind - who seemed to have gone away but made it back again. Talley takes credit where it is due, and he gives credit where it is due. Both Lagerfeld and Wintour were capable of jettisoning people who were no longer useful to them.  It was his displeasure to be ghosted.

On page 93, Talley says,  "At Chanel's haute couture show in January 1998, inspired by Misia Sert, a true friend of Mademoiselle Chanel, I said to Anna (Wintour): "We must stand up and applaud Karl."  Karl (Lagerfeld) had returned to the famous rue Cambon salon and we were packed in like sardines.  I bolted to my feet and Anna Wintour sat there, as she was expected to do, as editor in chief of Vogue.

A note to my readers:

MISIA SERT : THREE MARRIAGES - THIRD TO TO JOSE MARIA SERT : THE ACCOMMODATION OF A YOUNGER WIFE   was the subject here at Mistress Manifesto for July 2019

DIANE VON FURSTENBURG was Honorary Mistress of the Month for December 2018.

Check those out in my archives!

C 2022 Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot

PS: The Documentary film The Gospel According to Andre is also worth seeing!

A HOLIDAY EDITION WITH A LITTLE FOCUS ON FASHION

Hello Sweeties!  Happy Holidays! 

I just looked into my closet and well...    

Are you one of those people who finds fashion challenging?  Do you perhaps buy only one good dress or suit for the winter season, knowing that you need to splash out a bit during the holidays?  Or are you a fashionista with a great sense of style and an impressive budget to spend on clothes, perhaps with a special closet just for your shoes and purses?  Or maybe you're into sewing your own clothes.  Or you are one of those who are concerned about our ecology and don't like fast fashion?

How aware are you of the fashion world?

I love watching the fashion shows, especially those in Paris, in which top models parade the latest fashions designed the most interesting and esteemed designers, each a personality. Like many of you, I have to watch these on film. These creatives and their crews influence all that there is to wear every season, planning well in advance, so the truly fashionable can anticipate and adjust their wardrobes seasonally. However, much of what I see on the runway would not work for my lifestyle and seems extremely unpractical to me.

Over the last several years there has been a trend to sustainable fashion and against what is called "fast fashion." This is an eco-fashion trend which emphasize buying quality items that last and usually that means that the colors and designs are not influenced by the runway displays or the inexpensive throw-aways that are derivative of them, but clothing that will last, can be worn for years, is well made and comfortable, and will not take a couple hundred years to decompose in our landfills.

There is a store near me that has clothes of this type that I love, though all casual wear, and the salesclerks there have told me that stretchy fabrics are the worst, taking near forever to decompose in land fills. There goes tights and skinny jeans! 

This month I hope you'll be inspired to a bit of an upgrade of your appearance so that when the new year begins there will be, maybe not a whole new you, but a change that readies you for it.

An eco kind of thing you can do is throw a clothing trade party. Each of your friends go through their closet and pull the things that they have not been wearing, clothing that is still in good condition, and bring them over to your place. You serve drinks and some appetizers, and each of you takes a turn and selects one item from the pile until everything brought has a new owner.  After that, the item might need a revision, by its new owner or a seamstress or tailor. Perhaps you have talent that I do not, and everyone can also have fun refiguring the clothes. Sewing machines, needles and thread, patches, whatnot, available, it brings a whole new dimension to the term "Ladies Sewing Circle." (You can turn pants into shorts, dresses into blouses, and sew (!) on.)

Now, be it that you are a socialite who will be out at parties through the holidays or a stay-at-home person who just wants to be alone to read a good book, I have some book recommendations for you that will help you to think fashion!

Missy