Christian Dior

Christian Dior was born on January 21, 1905 in Basse Normandy, France. From a young age Dior took an interest in art and fashion. As a young boy he would sell his sketches for ten cents a piece and by 1928 with his father's help, he and a friend opened an art gallery.

Though after closing the gallery, Dior was called for military service, and during the thirties and forties he worked with Robert Piguet and by 1942 he designed for the House of Lelong, and became one of the top designers. During his time at Lelong, Dior designed and dressed Nazi wives, the only way houses like Nina Ricci, Patou, and Lanvin were able to survive their business.

It was December 16, 1946 when Dior founded his fashion house in Paris and his first collection, Corelle, was successful. The Dior New Look was nicknamed by Harper's Bazaar editor in chief due to the new curvy shape and silhouette of long voluptuous skirts and bustier bodice.

Dior revolutionized the way women dressed by creating the New Look, the shirtdress, and the pencil skirt. He was a genius, an artist, a man ahead of his time, who wanted to glamorize women.

Pan Am

Pack your bags every Sunday because we are flying Pan Am Airlines!!

I love the Sixties ever since i was a little girl, I always say I was born in the forties and lived my youth during the Sixties. Finally there is a show about four young working women in the Sixties who live their lives in a glamorous place each week. From London to Rio de Janeiro.

Pan Am is the new ABC series about two pilots and four flight attendants, each one has a history, a love life, and their present. Every week we learn a bit from each character, we fly with them to exotic places, and we also fall in love with them.

If you haven't seen the show, here is a recap about each character: Maggie, played by the amazing Christina Ricci, is a beatnik wanting something and expecting more to her life, and joined Pan Am to see the world. Laura is a runaway bride who felt that she needed to live her life before she settled down, running away dissappointed her mother, but a way she got closer to her also flight attendant sister, Kate, who is the black sheep of the family. Kate is a Pan Am flight attendant, but at the same time she is a CIA agent. Then there is the French flight attendant, Colette, who we know little about her. She is French, lived the Nazi occupation in Paris as a child, and I think there should be stronger storyline of Colette. And the boys, there is Ted, who is co pilot, is in love with Laura, and jealous of Dean's job. Now about Dean is just the most handsome pilot I have ever seen, he is a perfect gentleman. He was in love with Brigitte, a Pan Am flight attendant who disappeared due to a failed CIA mission, and now he is sleeping with his boss's mistress, but I think he should notice Colette, because during the Paris episode there was a connection between the two.

The show is so classy, elegant, chic, sexy, preppy, and ladylike style.

We have been to London, Paris, Berlin, Indonesia, Monte Carlo, and Rio de Janeiro. In the following days I will post more about the series and I will do a research on the real Pan Am. Ciao, Cherio, Au revoir, Ate a vista.

Coco Chanel

A legend, an icon, an inspiration, a true independent woman ahead of her time, what we were today and consider classic is due to one woman, and one woman only, Coco Chanel. The lady who changed the world with one little black dress, a tweed suit, and Number 5.
Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel was born on Agust 19, 1883 in France. At the age of twelve, Chanel's mother died of tuberculosis thus she and her siblings were abandoned by their father. During her time at the orphanage, she began to take an interest in seamstress. After turning eighteen years old, Chanel became a cabaret singer and was nicknamed Chanel due to one of her songs, or if you would rather believe one of the rumers that Coco is short for "kept woman". In the early 1900s, Chanel began designing hats for socialites and became more involved with the French society. Chanel was inspired by her lovers' military uniforms and created a modern look for French women.

In 1910, Chanel opened her first boutique, Chanel Modes, in Paris at 21 rue Cambon. Then Chanel opened a boutique in Deauville, where she designed casual elegant clothes for women. Her next shop was located in Biarritz in 1915, ans she became a registered couturiere in 1919. The Chanel Maison was located at 31 rue Cambon, where it's located today.
The Parfums Chanel began in 1924, and the following year Chanel met British socialite, Vera Bate Lombardi, who became her muse and the social connection to the aristocrats of Europe. Chanel was inspired by Lombardi's style, thus creating the English Look. The perfume Chanel No. 5 was the most successful fragrance, but Chanel only had 10% of the profit, and after the war she was able to earn most of the profits and became the wealthiest woman in Europe.

During the beginning of the secong World War, Chanel closed all of her shops because she believed it was not the moment for fashion. Once Germany occupied France, she moved into the Ritz Hotel, where it became her home for the rest of her life.

Coco Chanel became an icon, she represented a modern woman, independent, and a business woman, which was uncommon during her time. She revolutionized fashion, she was inspired by menswear, she was creative, daring, and didn't care what people thought of her "risky" style. Women around the world needed one woman to change fashion, to change the point of view of how a woman should dress. She embodied class, elegance, and the creator of the most important dress of all time, the Little Black Dress with long pearls.

This is how I will dress when I'm an old lady.

Adrift

As we are transported into the summer of the seventies in Brazil, we see the lives of a family changing, Adrift presents the fun, awkard, confusion, lies, love, rebellious life of a teenage girl. The film stars the amazing Vincent Cassel, telenovela actress Deborah Bloch, and introducing Laura Neiva, also a small part of Camilla Belle, who I thought her character was so interesting that she should have been more developed. I do not want to give the story away, but it begins with Vincent Cassel's daughter discovering that he is having a affair with Camilla Belle.

The style was appropiate for a summer vacation in Brazil, fresh, bold, colorful, lots of bikinis and throw ons, all I wanted to do was go to the beach. The most stylish character was Camilla Belle, she wore the trendy clothes of the era, the head pieces, bold prints, big jewlery, long and flowy, as well as bikinis. Her character was as if she read Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, was a fan of Bianca Jagger.

The Lady is a Tramp

Lady Gaga is a tramp. It is the new version of the song by Tony Bennett with Lady Gaga on his new album, Duets II. "The Lady is a Tramp" was written by the greatest Rodgers and Hart in 1937 for the Broadway musical Babes in Arms, and since then it has become a classic and has been recorded by a variety of performers giving their special touch to it. Lady Gaga fits perfectly to sing this song not only because of her stage name, but because she has real talent to be singing next to Bennett. Tony and Gaga make a great duo, they combine the old and new, the classic and the avant garde, he is old school New York and she is the biggest pop star in the world.

The music video is just great, it is simple, classy, the audience could really appreciate the song and the talent. I think it was Lady Gaga's best outfits because she looked classy, ladylike, she looked how a woman in the thirties and forties would dress to go out an evening with thier husbands to the opera. Gaga wore an all black lace, see through gown by Tom Ford, and with her mint blue wig done in 1940s curls, very Old Hollywood Glamour.

The Adjustment Bureau

I know I know this movie came out a few months ago, but I couldn't help myself to post something about this great film. The Adjustment Bureau is about a man, Matt Damo, who falls in love with a ballerina, Emily Blunt, but they were never meant to be together. This film reminded me a lot of Inception, the whole psychological theme, destiny, in and out of places through doors, but what Inception lacked was fashion. The Adjustment Bureau, the bad guys, looked as if they just come out of a Brooks Brothers ad campaing, so preppy, elegant, sharp, 1950s inspired suits and fedoras.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is a good movie about a homeless woman in London, who becomes a socialite's assistant and is introduced to a world of wealth, lies, affairs, love, fashion, and parties for only one day. What I love about this film is the fashion, it is 1940s inpsired, glamorous, elegant, ladylike, and femenine. The socialite played by the great Amy Adams has an incredible taste for fashion, and during a period of a day she changed about ten times. My favorite part of the movie was the lingerie fashion show, I just wanted to go back in the forties and buy every piece of clothing.

How to Steal a Million

Audrey Hepburn. Only with her name she evokes timeless beauty, class, elegance, and simplicity. Her most memorable performance was Breakfast at Tiffany's, playing Holly Golightly, but many forget or do not know about another of her great films, How to Steal a Million. This film is about Audrey's character's father, who forges masterpieces in Paris, and his daughter hires a professional to steal a fake sculpture her father created.

Audrey's wardrobe in this film was created by her good friend and elegant designer, Givenchy. The film is set in Paris, it obviously has amazing fashion. Hepburn looks beautiful in Givenchy designs, very elegant, very French, and gorgeous 1960s eye make up.

Coach Poppy

Coach introduced their Poppy Collection a few seasons back and it has become a great success. The Coach Company knew they had to market their product to a younger audience, and they did it by creating Poppy, a fun, bold, colorful, youthful collection. The Coach bags, shoes, umbrellas, accessories are very traditional, mature, neutral colors, so Poppy is perfect for young women who love color and pop art. I see Poppy as the little sister of all the other Coach collections.

I feel that Poppy really defines me because it's just as colorful, preppy, girly, fun, bright, and candy sweet as am I. Poppy has a great variety of bags and accessories from jewelry, umbrellas, wallets, shirts, ballet flats, boots, tote bags, bookbags, clutches, small messenger bags, to my favorites big messenger bags. I think it would be hard for a person to leave a Coach store without buying something from the Poppy collection or leaving the store thinking about buying a Poppy bag in the future, I know I am.

Aldo Summer Bags

Summer Bag

I think I have an obsession with Aldo, I love their shoes, their bags, their accessories, pretty much everything. This summer there is a variety of bags, from daytime at the beach to classy night at the theatre. My favorite bag has been the Birkin Bag inspired, a bag that Princess Grace Kelly and Jackie Onassis Kennedy would own .  Another bag that I fell in love with and own is a white bag with a gorgeous floral scarf, very Chanel inspired.



My new gorgeous bag



Summer Platforms

 

The platforms of this season from Aldo remind me of the 1970s summers, very bright, bold, disco fever, Studio 54, and teen Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver. These shoes look as if the child prostitute from this amazing film would buy to walk around in New York City.

Love the lace

Jodie Foster as a child prostitute in Taxi Driver

Factory Girl

Factory Girl is one of my favorite films because it has everything I love, the Swinging Sixties, New York City, pop art, socialites, and the one and only Andy Warhol. I absolutely love how the Sixties is portrayed in this film, it is so sexy, mod, and ultra chic, still very glam even though showing the downfall of drugs and alcohol. Andy Warhol's Factory was filled with art, films, drugs, sex, and expectations.

This film is mostly about Edie Sedgwick's rise and downfall during her time at the Factory. Everyone at the Factory expected so much from her, especially Andy. The movie reflects the jealousy and rivalry between Andy and Bob Dylan. They were both in love with her, but they pressured her to choose between them, the artsy cool kids, or the music entourage. Poor little rich girl.

The artsy cool kids

I always say that I was born during the 1940s and lived my youth during the Swinging Sixties, so I get very excited when I see any Sixties inspired films, I feel like I'm relieving my past. The wardrobe in Factory was incredible, I loved Edie's clothes, hair, eye makeup, short hair, big earrings, leopard coat, everything was just mod and chic.