(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

(My) Fashion Trendsetters: JACKIE O

Those of you who have been following my blogs know that I was/am rather lively of myself like jumping off moving trains, jumping off a ski jump and such things; in other words not so ladylike, eh?!! Well, let me tell you that, when I was in my early to mid-teens I started to collect pictures off the magazines with styles of fashions, clothes and so on for many years. Then in my late teens I went through my vast collection of pictures and put aside the ones which still appealed to me at that stage. And guess what, my preferred style in fashion was LADYLIKE!! I remember saying to my Mum: “Ooh if I only was older so that I could wear it!” Mum’s reaction: rolling her eyes, actually!

Audrey Hepburn has been one my trendsetters that I did an entry some while back and now I’m going to write a few things on Jackie O, who has been on my list of fashion trendsetters for a very long time, and I still think that her style is elegance and chic personified. Here is a link to Jackie O-style jacket that is high fashion even this season.

Some background on JACKIE O (1929-1994): She was born Jacqueline Lee Bouvier, daughter of John Vernon Bouvier III and his wife, Janet Lee. Her early years were divided between New York City and East Hampton, Long Island, where she learned to ride almost as soon as she could walk. She was educated at the best of private schools; she wrote poems and stories, drew illustrations for them, and studied ballet.

To the role of First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy brought beauty, intelligence, and cultivated taste. Her interest in the arts, publicized by press and television, inspired an attention to culture never before evident at a national level. She devoted much time and study to making the White House a museum of American history and decorative arts as well as a family residence of elegance and charm. But she defined her major role as “to take care of the President” and added that “if you bungle raising your children, I don’t think whatever else you do well matters very much.” A quote of hers that I have used a lot on my entries, for I think that it sums it all up so very well, actually. Source: The White House: First Ladies

She was First Lady for only a thousand days, but Jackie Kennedy will always hold a special place in our hearts. It all began with her 1953 marriage to the dashing senator from Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy. As a couple they epitomized the arrival of a new generation of American leadership; their years in the White House have been immortalized as “Camelot.”

As First Lady, Jackie organized receptions and dinners notable for their elegance. Her streamlined gowns and suits sent fashion spinning. She created a Fine Arts Committee to assist her in documenting and renovating the décor of the White House. Her television tour introduced 80 million Americans to the White House and won her an Emmy Award. Source: Womenshistory.about.com.

From the moment she set off on the campaign trail in 1960 as a young senator’s wife, Jacqueline Kennedy had a rapt audience in American women. The pillbox, worn despite the fact that she abhorred hats, was only the beginning: Plastic surgeons reported that many women were visiting them in search of the Jackie “nose bob”; college girls everywhere affected Jackie’s breathy voice and patrician accent: There was something about Jackie. Source: Style.com

To mark the 40th anniversary in 2001 of her emergence as America’s first lady and explore her enduring global influence on style, the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute celebrated Jacqueline Kennedy with an unprecedented special exhibition of her iconic fashions. Some 80 original costumes and accessories from the collection. Here are some images on show of her stunning outfits of the timeless impact of her extraordinary, unforgettable grace and style. Here is the link to the exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum. And here is the link to the special Travels section at the exhibition that Jackie travelled as the First Lady.

Jackie was a beautiful and elegant young woman, and when she made her social debut the Hearst newspaper gossip columnist named her Debutante of 1947. Jackie Kennedy was only 31 years old when she became First Lady . She was a popular First Lady, known for her elegant sophistication and her historical interest in the White House. Source: Answers.com

Jackie O was so very young when she became the First Lady for only a thousand days that is until her husband was assassinated in Dallas that fateful day in November 22, 1963. I remember reading about her and how she was cast into the mould of widow for life – like a German magazine put it, translated into English: ‘The Widow of the World’ (Das Witwe Der Welt) When she married Aristotle Onassis in 1968, the goodwill that she had gained over the years was nigh lost for good, and I think that she never quite managed to regain it ever again.

Here is a You Tube tribute to Jackie O with the most haunting Celtic tune sung by Enya in ‘May It Be’:

“I am a woman above everything else.”
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

And why she had to underline this fact, I think is, that she first and foremost was a real person and not an icon above any other title or status she had ever had in life.

What thoughts come to your mind reading this entry today?

Tis for now. Riihele xx

Further links on Jackie O:
Who2.com on Jackie

I read several extracts on the life of Jackie O online of the book that is called ’America’s Queen: A Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis,’ by Sarah Bradford, published by Viking (The Times online)

And I came to understand the ‘what was what’ in her life so much better. I will be getting this book for I want to read it all; it is that excellent. I have also read other books on Jackie O over the years but this one seems to sum them all up in a beautiful way, methinks.

(My) Fashion Trendsetters: AUDREY HEPBURN

“My look is attainable. Women can look like Audrey Hepburn
by flipping out their hair, buying the large sunglasses,
and the little sleeveless dresses.”

Audrey Hepburn quote

Here is a You Tube Tribute to Audrey Hepburn:

“There was something in her smile, in her eyes, in her timeless and natural elegance…” Here is such fabulous photos of her in Retro Hairstyles has this fabulous photo of Audrey Hepburn

Those of you who have been following my blogs know that I was/am rather lively of myself like jumping off moving trains, jumping off a ski jump and such things; in other words not so ladylike, eh?!! Well, let me tell you that, when I was in my early to mid-teens I started to collect pictures off the magazines with styles of fashions, clothes and so on for many years. Then in my late teens I went through my collection of pics and put aside the ones which still appealed to me at that stage. And guess what, my preferred style in fashion was LADYLIKE!! I remember saying to my Mum: “Ooh if I only was older so that I could wear it!” Mom’s reaction: rolling her eyes, actually!

Audrey Hepburn has been on my list of fashion trendsetters always and I still think that she is elegance and chic personified. Remember the entry I did some weeks ago called “The Little Black Dress @ 81” where I mentioned about that famous dress designed by Givenchy specially for Audrey Hepburn and which was worn by Audrey on the movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s? Apparently, the Fashion House of Givenchy bought it back ‘home’ so to say, I read in an article. Interesting.

The article ”Going Lightly For Pearls” states that ‘Coco Chanel made pearls chic in the 1920’s and Audrey made them glamorous again four decades later. Pearls have been worn in both jewelry and clothing since antiquity, but until recently they were the province of the very rich. Sumptuary laws in ancient Rome as well as certain kingdoms of Europe into the 17th century prevented the lower social classes from wearing pearls. It wasn’t until the modern pearl cultivation industry took off in the 1900s that the lovely orbs became an affordable luxury.’

”Hepburn is famous for the poem “Time Tested Beauty Tips”, which she used to recite to her sons. The poem includes verses such as, “For beautiful hair, let a child run his or her fingers through it once a day”, and, “For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.” The poem is popularly attributed to her, but it was in fact written by Sam Levenson. (Wikipedia)

Audrey Hepburn to this day is a beauty and fashion icon. She has often been called one of the most beautiful women of all time. Her fashion styles also continue to be popular among women.Contrary to her recent image, although Hepburn did enjoy fashion, she did not place much importance on it. She preferred casual, comfortable clothes. In addition, she never considered herself to be very attractive.(Wikipedia)

She said in a 1959 interview, “you can even say that I hated myself at certain periods. I was too fat, or maybe too tall, or maybe just plain too ugly… you can say my definiteness stems from underlying feelings of insecurity and inferiority. I couldn’t conquer these feelings by acting indecisive. I found the only way to get the better of them was by adopting a forceful, concentrated drive.”(Wikipedia)

Despite her stardom, Hepburn retained her humility. She preferred a more quiet living with family and nature. She lived in houses, not mansions, and she loved to garden.

“You can always tell what kind of a person a man really thinks you are by the earrings he gives you”

Audrey Hepburn quote

Tis for now. Riihele xx

SABRINA THE MOVIE (1954)
AUDREY HEPBURN CHILDREN’S FUND
A WONDERFUL PHOTO OF AUDREY HEPBURN AND GRACE KELLY IN THIS SITE
http://www.monroegallery.com/detail.cfm?id=616.
TRENDS FOR 2007/2008