Friday, April 23, 2010

They Were All Impressed With Your Halston Dress -With Your Rusting Radio Tower, Not So Much...


NOTED IN THE NEWS-

- Lord Foster fires up campaign to save rusting Russian radio tower- Architect brands Lenin-commissioned structure as a work of 'dazzling genius' and inspiration that must be saved : "From a distance it looks a bit like an upturned wastepaper basket, soaring over the concrete skyline of southern Moscow. Now British architect Lord Foster has backed a campaign to save the 150-metre-high steel tower designed by the engineering genius Vladimir Shukhov. In an open letter, Lord Foster describes the tower as "a structure of dazzling brilliance and great historical importance". Calling the structure Shukhov's masterpiece, Foster says it is the "first major landmark of the Soviet period"..." Read the full story


- Now Showing (& Growing) Atop the Met- A Bamboo Jungle! : "On a recent summerlike morning, men in T-shirts and women in bikini tops were busily working to the loud strains of Michael Jackson, Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix. Some looked like tightrope walkers, delicately balancing on horizontal poles in bare feet; others could be seen shinnying up vertical poles like monkeys, securing intersections with colored nylon ropes; and still others were building teepeelike configurations on the ground. But this wasn’t a circus tent-raising; it was the scene on the rooftop of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Supervised by artists and built by about a dozen rock climbers, an installation in the form of a labyrinthine jungle of bamboo was rising some 25 feet in the air..." Read the full story


ARTS ALMANAC-

April 23, 1564 – The traditional birth date of William Shakespeare, greatest English playwright of all time (despite what the Baconians say).


April 23, 1775 – J. M. W. Turner, English painter, was born. "Joseph Mallord William Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting. Although renowned for his oil paintings, Turner is also one of the greatest masters of British watercolour landscape painting. He is commonly known as "the painter of light" and his work regarded as a Romantic preface to Impressionism."


April 23, 1910 – French actress Simone Simon was born. "Simon achieved her greatest successes in English language cinema with The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941), Cat People (1942) and The Curse of the Cat People (1944), the latter two formed part the horror film series produced by Val Lewton. French Minister of Culture Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres issued a statement in which he extolled Simon's "charm, her irresistible smile. . . With Simone Simon's passing, we have lost one of the most seductive and most brilliant stars of the French cinema of the first half of the 20th century."


April 23, 1932 – Roy Halston Frowick, American fashion designer known as "Halston", was born. "Halston achieved great fame after designing the pillbox hat Jacqueline Kennedy wore to her husband's 1961 presidential inauguration, and when he moved to designing women's wear, Newsweek dubbed him "the premier fashion designer of all America." His designs were worn by Bianca Jagger, Liza Minnelli, Anjelica Huston, Lauren Bacall, Babe Paley, and Elizabeth Taylor, setting a style that would be closely associated with the international jet set of the era."


IN OUR STORE-

"Belle Jardiniere – Paris – Fourrures"

A trade catalog issued in Paris in 1930.

A stylish catalog of fur coats and fur accessories for women, gentlemen and children in the best late ‘20s/early 30s Paris taste. The very Art Deco illustrations perfectly capture the flavor of the age.

$85.00



Opening Day, Spring 1909 – The Leslie Dry Goods Co.”

A colorful program for the Opening Day at this Boston clothing retailer, presumably introducing the new Spring Fashions. The brochure features several beautiful ladies dressed in their full Edwardian finery. Music was provided by the Bostonia Ladies Orchestra under the leadership of Belle Yeaton Renfrew.

$35.00


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