O Captain! my Captain!

Captain Edward Molyneux (1891-1974)

One cannot mention HRH Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent (pictured below) without mentioning Captain Edward Molyneux. It was he who was entrusted with the Princess's bridal trousseau, despite protestations from the royal household. 

...the designer to whom a fashionable woman would turn if she wanted to be absolutely 'right' without being utterly predictable in the 1920s and 1930s. - Caroline Milbank, Couture: The Great Designers (1985)

Molyneux  trained with Lucille, Lady Duff Gordon before serving as an infantry captain in the First World War. After the war, he moved to Paris and opened his first maison de couture in 1919. He quickly established a reputation for refined and modern clothes (mostly in black, navy blue, beige, and grey) that were sure of line.

Aside from royalty and the aristocracy, Molyneux also counted the likes of  Greta Garbo, Gertrude Lawrence, Margaret Leighton,  Vivien Leigh and Syrie Maugham amongst his clientele.

Amongst those who would begin their careers with Molyneux were Pierre Balmain, John Cavanagh and Marc Bohan.

 A Molyneux shallow crown straw hat with silk satin trim, 1938.

Silk lounging pajamas with gold thread embroidery, 1932

Evening jacket, 1926

Midsummer Madness evening ensemble, 1937

Wool coat and skirt, 1938

Wool coat, 1933-35

Silk evening dress, 1950-51

All images from The Costume Institute

Now playing: The Captain & Tenille - Love Will Keep Us Together

They don't make princesses anymore

HRH Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent 

photographed by Cecil Beaton

Prince George, Duke of Kent; Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent

by Dorothy Wilding, 1936
National Portrait Gallery, London

TRH The Duke and Duchess of Kent with their infant son Prince Edward.

Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent

by Dorothy Wilding, 1953
National Portrait Gallery, London

 Since once I sat upon a promontory,
And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back
Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath,
That the rude sea grew civil at her song,
And certain stars shot madly from their spheres
To hear the sea-maid's music.

A Midsummer Night's Dream, 2. 1

Now playing: Joe Hisaishi - Princess Mononoke Symphonic Suite

Chop for chop

Portrait of HRH Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent  by Cecil Beaton

Portrait of Cecil Beaton by HRH Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent

National Portrait Gallery, London

Now playing: Clare Maguire - This Is Not The End

Vox

This Is Not The End

Clare Maguire

Twofold

Divine

Peter Hujar, 1975

In quiet, black and white portraits, Peter Hujar captures his subjects in moments of reverie. This one shows Divine, a famously foul-mouthed drag queen, usually seen wearing a blonde wig, sequined dress, and garish make-up. In Hujar’s portrait, the public persona is stripped away. Divine appears as a man, wrinkled and balding, resting on a velvety black blanket and gazing into the distance. His half-closed eyes suggest he is on the borderline between dream and sleep... - Whitney Museum of American  Art

Now playing: Divine - I'm So Beautiful

Here a pug, there a pug

Everywhere a pug.

The Duchess of Windsor's bedroom with its display of pug cushions.  

 The contents of the Windsor's former villa were auctioned by Sotheby's in 1998.

These two also once belonged to a duchess. 

A duchess on the small screen in Edward & Mrs. Mrs Simpson (1978).

Now playing: The Jeffersons theme song  - Moving On Up

Spoonful of sugar

Ottolenghi's
Pear and cranberry upside-down cake

Now playing: Richard Kiley - Dulcinea

David Wojnarowicz (1954-1992)

A Fire in My Belly, 1986-87

by David Wojnarowicz

Courtesy of the Estate of David Wojnarowicz and P.P.O.W Gallery, New York.

Wojnarowicz made A Fire in My Belly, dated 1986-87, at a turning point. In 1987 his longtime mentor and lover, the photographer Peter Hujar, died of AIDS, and Wojnarowicz himself learned that he was H.I.V.-positive. 


As Ants Crawl Over Crucifix, Dead Artist Is Assailed Again
By Holland Cotter
Published: December 10, 2010
The New York Times



Now playing: David Wojnarowicz - Arts Funding

Polished and painted

Regency satinwood side chair with painted decoration and caned seat.

The swept front stretcher and back splats are particularly fine details.

Now playing: Tasmin Archer - Sleeping Satellite

If karma indeed be a bitch...

The site of All Saints on Westbourne Grove, once home to some of the best antique dealers in the UK.

 All Saints threatened by cash crisis.

Then, one's hope is that she be an efficient and thorough one.

Now playing: The Trammps - Disco Inferno

By special appointment to the Imperial Crown

House of Fabergé nephrite tray with silver and gilt enameled handles set with diamonds

  House of Fabergé nephrite tray design, Hermitage Museum


House of Fabergé

Now playing: Alexander Borodin - Symphony No. 2, III. Andante

The right light

Isabella Blow (Isabella Delves Broughton)
The Head of Isabella Blow

by Tim Noble and Sue Webster

2002

The Head of Isabella Blow was donated to the National Portrait Gallery in 2009 by the artists and Blow's estate. The work (which must be spot-lit for the subject's silhouette to be visible) is comprised of taxidermic magpies, rooks, hooded crows, a rattlesnake, a raven, a robin, a carrion crow and a black rat.  Other materials also used include fake moss, wood, a lipstick tube and a Manolo Blahnik shoe heel.

  

Poetry is something in-between the dream and its interpretation. - Lou Andreas-Salomé

Impetus, The House of Edward

Now playing: Dead Can Dance - Song Of The Sibyl

Gone, never to be forgotten

You can't buy a muse. It's like a love affair with somebody.

Isabella Blow

McQueen & I

Now playing: Marc Almond and Antony And The Johnsons - River Of Sorrow

Talking heads III

More reference worthy must see films.

Film History by Decade: 100 Years of Movies written and edited by Tim Dirks

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), 129 minutes, D: Frank Capra

One of Frank Capra's time-honored classic comedy/dramas about the triumph of the ordinary man over the corrupt political elite, restoring faith in democracy. An idealistic, naive Boy Rangers leader Jefferson Smith (James Stewart) is drafted by his state's governor to the Senate in Washington as a freshman senator to complete the remaining term of a dead Senator. The corrupt "political machine," led by his state's senior Senator Joseph Paine (Claude Rains) believes he will easily be controllable, but when Jefferson discovers the land-scam plans of his supporters, he becomes stubbornly determined to not forsake his dreams and to do what's right against the corrupt, greedy forces running his state. With the support of his secretary Saunders (Jean Arthur), he delivers a powerful, rousing and passionate filibuster on the Senate floor in the final climactic moments.

The Wizard of Oz (1939), 103 minutes, D: Victor Fleming

One of the most popular films of all time, a children's fantasy classic, based on Frank Baum's novel. A farm girl Dorothy (Judy Garland) from Kansas (Kansas sequences are in sepia-tone) is transported with her dog Toto in a twister to the magical fantasy land of Oz (Oz sequences are in Technicolor). There she meets delightfully colorful characters including the Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton) and three companions - the Scarecrow (Ray Bolger), the Tin Man (Jack Haley), and the Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr). With them she sets off on the yellow brick road to seek the Wizard's (Frank Morgan) help to get home. The Wizard grants all of their wishes when they subdue the Witch. In the land of Oz, she discovers that things aren't always better somewhere else. With the well-known theme song, "Over the Rainbow."

The Women (1939), 132 minutes, D: George Cukor

With an all-woman, all-star cast of more than 125 strong-minded women, from Clare Boothe's (Luce) play. A comedy/drama full of biting wit, fast dialogue, and superb performances. The complex story line about matrimony and men and women is full of twists and diversions, almost unimportant. One of the socialite women Mary Haines (Norma Shearer) learns that her husband is having an affair with an amoral perfume sales clerk Chrystal Allen (Joan Crawford). She seeks a divorce with a six-week stay in Reno. The cast of women engages in cat-fighting and bitching, vicious gossip and cattiness, husband-stealing, and back-stabbing, while the film provides insight into female bonding and the role of women in society.

Wuthering Heights (1939), 104 minutes, D: William Wyler

One of the greatest romantic love stories ever filmed, from Emily Bronte's tragic Victorian novel. An abandoned orphan Gypsy boy Heathcliff (Rex Downing as child, Laurence Olivier as adult) is taken in by a well-to-do 19th century English family, the Earnshaws (Cecil Kellaway as the father) on the isolated moors. He becomes their stable boy and falls in love with the family's spoiled young daughter Catherine Earnshaw (Sarita Wooten as child), his childhood friend. The beautiful Cathy (Merle Oberon as adult) is desperately in love with Heathcliff, but because of his low birth begins seeing a wealthy neighbor's son. Heathcliff leaves during a misunderstanding and with driving ambition later returns moderately wealthy, discovering that she has married rich Edgar Linton (David Niven), in spite of her passionate love for him. In revenge, he spitefully marries Edgar's naive sister Isabella (Geraldine Fitzgerald) and then neglects her. The long-suppressed passionate feelings that they have had for each other continue to torment them as haunted, star-crossed lovers.

Fantasia (1940), 120 minutes, D: Ben Sharpsteen and Disney

An innovative and revolutionary animated classic from Walt Disney, combining classical music masterpieces with imaginative visuals, presented with Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra. The eight animation sequences are colorful, impressive, free-flowing, abstract, and often surrealistic pieces. They include the most famous of all, Paul Dukas' "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" with Mickey Mouse as the title character battling brooms carrying endless buckets of water. Also Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor," Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker Suite," dinosaurs and volcanoes in Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring," the delightful "Dance of the Hours" by Ponchielli with dancing hippos, crocodiles, ostriches, and elephants, and Mussorgsky's darkly apocalyptic "Night on Bald Mountain.

The Letter (1940), 95 minutes, D: William Wyler

A superb melodrama, adapted from the W. Somerset Maugham play. In the opening scene, Geoffrey Hammond (David Newell), an old family friend, is killed and shot point-blank on the front steps of the Crosbie Malayan rubber plantation by Leslie Crosbie (Bette Davis) while her husband Robert (Herbert Marshall) is away on business. She claims that she killed him in self-defense to protect her honor (in fact, she killed him because as her lover, he threatened to leave her). Her husband faithfully believes in her and hires respected lawyer Howard Joyce (James Stephenson) to defend her, but soon the lawyer has his doubts. An incriminating letter (from Leslie to Geoffrey) surfaces in the possession of Hammond's Eurasian widow (Gale Sondergaard), and she blackmails them for $10,000. The letter must be retrieved personally in a dramatic scene. Leslie is found innocent of murder charges in the court trial, but she suffers a fateful retribution in the conclusion.

The Philadelphia Story (1940), 112 minutes, D: George Cukor

A classic romantic comedy, a witty adaptation of Phillip Barry's Broadway hit. Set among the upper class society in Philadelphia, a spoiled, wealthy heiress, Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn) is about to be remarried to a stuffy executive, George Kittredge (John Howard). She divorced her first husband C. K. Dexter Haven (Cary Grant) because he drank excessively and was irresponsible. He still loves her and shows up in attendance. So do Spy Magazine's scandal reporter Macauley "Mike" Connor (James Stewart) and a photographer. Dexter is there to prevent them from publishing an expose about the womanizing reputation of Tracy's father Seth (John Halliday), his ex-in-law. Things get complicated when the inquisitive, cynical Connor falls in love with Tracy and teaches her what love is.

Rebecca (1940), 130 minutes, D: Alfred Hitchcock

Adapted from Daphne du Maurier's novel of gothic romance and mystery, a compelling romance-mystery with intense psychological suspense. Following a rapid courtship, a shy, naive young woman becomes the second Mrs. de Winter (Joan Fontaine) by marrying a dashing, but brooding British nobleman (Laurence Olivier). She is haunted by the memory and shadow of his beautiful first wife, Rebecca, who died under mysterious circumstances. At his huge Manderley mansion, the icy-cold housekeeper Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson) taunts and frightens her. The untold secrets of the past are slowly unraveled, finally freeing her from her fear and uneasiness. A winning Best Picture film.

The Thief of Bagdad (1940), 106 minutes, D: Ludwig Berger, Michael Powell and Tim Whelan,
Produced by Alexander Korda

One of the best, most enchanting fantasies ever made - with an Arabian Nights theme, including spectacular special effects, amazing photography, a memorable musical score, and wonderful performances. A mischievous young urchin/thief Abu (Sabu) is thrown in a dungeon for theft. He helps the good-hearted, prince Ahmad (John Justin) of the city of Bagdad - who is tricked out of his kingdom - save his kingdom, his throne, and his love for the Princess (June Duprez) from an oppressive, evil magician Jaffar (Conrad Veidt) with the help of a giant genie Djinni (Rex Ingram) and a magical flying carpet.

Now playing: Joan Armatrading - The Weakness In Me

Red

The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love colour the most. - John Ruskin

Now playing: Sting - Desert Rose

Bits and pieces

Guestroom in a temporary house until the clients can find one to buy.

Had this have been their permanent abode I would have fitted it out completely in this particular toile.
When they move, that is the plan.

Now playing: The Zombies - She's Not There

Seven

As I have managed to avoid doing this on previous occasions (Fashion's Most Wanted and Thea Beasley) it seemed churlish not to participate when Mode Parade so kindly decided to include me. However, I really must draw a line at the passing it on bit.

1. The sum of many parts - French born of European, Chinese and Carib decent.

2. Consequently, I have almond shaped blue eyes.

3. My eyebrows are registered lethal weapons.

4. I have a dark, almost black, sense of humor.

5. The very idea that things can be aspirational is ugly and repellent.

6.While I absolutely love what I do, it is hardly all consuming.

7. I do love a happy ending, even though I know it is not always possible.

Now playing: Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush - Don't Give Up 

Vintage

Miss Streisand

Mission: Impossibly Smart

Illum Wikkelsø (1919-1999)

 

1960s Danish King Chair and sofa.

For some, the be all and end all is Wegner's Papa Bear Chair. 

If that concept existed here, then Wikkelsø's  King Chair would fill the bill.

Now playing: Kate Bush - King of the Mountain

T O M

Mermaid Blues

Ghost Of A Shark

McRae

Vintage

Baguès style gilt bronze ceiling light with obligatory glass accents.

 Now playing: The Smiths - There Is A Light That Never Goes Out

Polished, not painted

An 18th century Norwegian Rococo dark polished sofa, 

with carved c-scrolls and ornaments, the cabriole legs terminating in ball and claw feet. 

Mid 18th century Rococo dark polished canapé, carved with shells and foliage. 

Time will pass, and we shall go away forever, and we shall be forgotten, our faces will be forgotten, our voices, and how many there were of us; but our sufferings will pass into joy for those who will live after us, happiness and peace will be established upon earth, and they will remember kindly and bless those who have lived before. - Anton Chekhov, The Three Sisters

Now playing: Zero 7 - Simple Things

In the right light,

at the right time, everything is extraordinary. - Aaron Rose

PH-Septima 5  designed by Poul Henningsen

Pendant light with seven shades of clear glass, with alternate frosted fields.

Manufactured since 1931 by Louis Poulsen.

Now playing: Foy Vance - Shed a Little Light

Meet my little friend

Mike Diaz 

Impresario of Latin American chic.

Formerly of Mexico City's Chic By Accident, now with Arizona's Holler and Saunders, Ltd.

Now playing: Cheo Feliciano - Sali Porque Sali

Curtains

Miss Jane Russell

1921-2011

As Mary Mame Carson and looking for trouble in Howard Hughes' The French Line (1954)