(My) Fashion Trendsetters: GRACE KELLY

I don’t want to dress up a picture with just my face.
Grace Kelly

(This video has lovely pictures of Grace but i do not like the music so just do like i do: turn the sound off and enjoy the most fabulous photos of her!!)

“We all knew from the beginning there was something about Grace”
– Mum Margaret Kelly, from Princess Grace: A Biography, 1976 (Quoted in Hello Magazine online tribute to her).

”Her Serene Highness Princess Grace of Monaco, née Grace Patricia Kelly, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on November 12, 1929. She was the third child of a family of four. Her father, John Brendan Kelly, was a businessman and an Olympic rowing champion ; her mother’s maiden name was Margaret Majer. She was the niece of American playwright, George Kelly, a Pulitzer prize winner.

Miss Grace Kelly’s scholastic studies took place at Raven Hill Academy Philadelphia, a convent run by the Sisters of the Assumption, and later at Stevens School, also in Philadelphia. Strongly attracted to the theatre, she attended the American Academy of Dramatic Art in New York, and graduated after two years. Her debut as a stage actress took place in New York, where she played the role of Raymond Massey’s daughter in Strindberg’s play, « The Father ».

After several parts in the theatre and on television, Grace Kelly went to Hollywood. There she experienced a dramatic rise towards the heights of the artistic career. Among her films were « High Noon » – « Mogambo » – « Dial M for Murder » – « High Society » – « To Catch a Thief » – « The Swan » – and « Country Girl », for which she received an Oscar in 1954, the highest American Cinema Award.’’ (Prince’s Palace of Monaco site online)

“Grace Kelly was ”characterized by an innate sense of style, classic beauty and inherent good taste. Always atop the “world’s most beautiful” lists, admired as a fashion leader and setter of trends, She “graced” the pages of many a glossy magazine with a dazzling smile, warm, enigmatic eyes and vivacious expression. “Grace Kelly style” is a well-known, well-used phrase in the English lexicon signifying incomparable beauty and all that is chic, natural and lady-like.” (Fashion Era.com)

Grace’s wholesome yet sophisticated look — neat twin sets, full skirts, and pearls — was perfect for the 1950s. It even caught the eye of fashion designer Oleg Cassini, to whom she was unofficially engaged before she met Prince Rainier. Kelly bag was born out of Grace’s desire to hide her pregnancy!* First produced in 1935, it was not until 1956 that the bag’s reputation became positively stratospheric when the newlywed Princess Grace of Monaco was famously photographed for the cover of Time magazine trying to shield her pregnant belly with a classic Hermes bag. The bag in question thereafter became known as the Kelly in her honour, and shot to global bestseller status, where it remains today. Fashion commentators at the time were quite clear about the association of bag and star: carrying a Kelly bag screamed class and old money, both then thought to be highly desirable. (Daily Mail online)

CELEBRATION of GRACE on October 15-26 in 2007 was 25 years since her death at the age of 52 in 1982. ”To commemorate the 25th anniversary of Grace’s tragic death at 52, the principality of Monaco is staging a major retrospective starting at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco (July 12 through September 23) and culminating in a special Sotheby’s exhibition in New York City titled “Grace, Princess of Monaco: The Life and Legacy of Grace Kelly” (October 15 through 25). Sotheby’s also will be conducting an auction during the Princess Grace Foundation-USA Awards Gala on October 25” (Harper’s Bazaar online)

According to the Newscom Australia her son Prince Albert said: “For my sisters and myself, this exhibition will revive happy memories we shared with our mother, who was a peerless woman.”

In the 1920’s, Somerset Maugham wrote: “Monaco is a sunny place for shady people”. That was all to change the day Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier of Monaco on April 19,1956.

“I’d like to be remembered as a decent human being and a caring one” Princess Grace, 1982

I have compiled a selection of these fashion trendsetters of mine and here are the others in that link plus an entry on The Little Black Dress in this link here.

Keep so well and swell. Rii xx

Sources:
* http://www.visitmonaco.com/mtny/style_icon.html
* http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/10_01/gracekelly0710_468x390.jpg
http://www.harpersbazaar.com/magazine/feature-articles/princess-grace-0807
http://www.visitmonaco.com/mtny/life.html
http://www.visitmonaco.com/mtny/home.htm
Wikipedia on Grace Kelly http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Kelly
http://www.who2.com/princessgrace.html

Coming or Going …

Our weather does not know whether it is coming or going presently; that is to say if the winter is finally at its end as in the photo underneath

or if the spring has finally sprung on us and staying?!! Every other day it is winter and then the next day it is spring; and so it goes round and round week after week this year!

© Photos Riihele. All rights reserved

Waking Up, Getting Up …

The average, healthy,
well-adjusted adult
gets up
at seven-thirty
in the morning
feeling
just plain terrible.
Jean Kerr

How do pics of mine look framed?

Have you ever wondered how your fabulous pics & photos would look like framed? Well, I did and here is the result of a few of them which i did. I have joined a site called RedBubble where one can show and sell one’s stuff since four days ago.
Here is my site over there:

The Cardo was Jerusalem’s main street during the Roman (63-324 CE) and the Byzantine era (324-638 CE). Today, the street is lined with elegant boutiques and shops. (Wikipedia; Israel- Mfa.gov)

In ancient Roman city planning, a CARDO or cardus was a north-south-oriented street in cities, military camps, and coloniae. Sometimes called the cardus maximus, the cardo served as the center of economic life. The street was lined with shops, merchants, and vendors.

  © Photos by Riihele. All rights reserved 

Do have a grand weekend. Rii 🙂

Garfield: To B or Not To B

HOORAY 4 WOMEN!

They used to give us a day –it was called International Women’s Day.

In 1975 they gave us a year, the Year of the Woman.
Then from 1975 to 1985 they gave us a decade, the Decade of the Woman.

I said at the time, who knows, if we behave they may let us into the whole thing. Well, we didn’t behave and here we are. Bella Abzug (1920-1998)

International Women’s Day has been observed since in the early 1900’s, a time of great expansion and turbulence in the industrialized world that saw booming population growth and the rise of radical ideologies. Great unrest and critical debate was occurring amongst women. Women’s oppression and inequality was spurring women to become more vocal and active in campaigning for change. Then in 1908, 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights. (International Women’s Day online)

In an article entitled ‘International Women’s Day protests highlight violence, inequality’ there is among other things this:

”Calls to end forced marriage, domestic abuse and job discrimination marked International Women’s Day on Saturday as demonstrators took to the streets worldwide.”

And this the advice in North Korea to their ladies:

’Communist North Korea marked International Women’s Day in its own way by urging its women to reject Western fashions and to “set good examples” in their clothes and hairstyles. “Women must set good examples in all fields of culture and custom, including clothes, hairdos and language,” Rodong Sinmun, the official daily of the North’s ruling Korean Workers’ Party, said in an editorial.’

Even this was in the above article: “French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for an end to pay inequality between men and women, and pledged to institute financial sanctions to address the problem.” — That’ll be the day, I say, when the pay will be!

If you want something said,
ask a man;
if you want something done,
ask a woman. (Margaret Thatcher)

This is what is urged in one of the sites where I got articles for this entry:

”So make a difference, think globally and act locally !! Make everyday International Women’s Day. Do your bit to ensure that the future for girls is bright, equal, safe and rewarding.”

This said as even today — and every single day — thousands of Baby Girls are terminated in the womb of their mothers, just because they are Girls, when the parents wanted boys… So many females have been ‘finished’ that the imbalance ratio on males-females is in millions in certain countries and is increasing alarmingly each day.

Take good care. Rii 🙂

© The portrait of The Girl in Cameo is by Riihele. All rights reserved.

Further read in the International Museum of Women online.

CLOUD 9 …

Cloud nine
gets all the publicity,
but
cloud eight
actually is
cheaper, less crowded,
and has a better view.

George Carlin said that and I find it very apt.

Photo by Rii. All rights reserved.

PS
Me entries are on the light side at the moment….
but am brewing some stuff with more substance,
so get ready, Folks!!

(Cloud Nine explained on Using English site online.)

‘Funny Pictures’ …

I saw this picture at Aneta’s blog on Y360 months ago and took note of it for it caused me to ponder, wonder and I left this comment on the same:

Looking at that gob with the tags in it makes one wonder:

‘How does the poor thing manage to eat at all, at all?!!’

Maybe tearing the chunks of raw meat would be just the ticket,
or only plain liquids poured down past the metal work in there!!

Not to mention: Airport security could be very noisy for ‘im, i say!!

How could one kiss somebody like that and not be shred to pieces in the process?!!
Very romantic. NOT.

Puzzled so am I…

What springs to your mind?

Keep so grand. Rii xx

If I were…

Cartoon by Dave Walker.

Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.