The Costume Bleg
A bleg = blog + beg — i.e., using a blog to beg for information.
Note: I beg here for what inspires YOU…MINIMAL OR MAXIMAL?
GIve me silence, a white snowy expanse, an open infinity pool, a Rothko, a clear blue sky and sea and I am full or overstimulate me to the point of fainting from a cacophony of senses. Anything in between, forced, half-baked, adopted without reason or humor or complete abandon will annoy me.
What appears on the red-carpets of Galas and Award events usually falls into the “annoy” category and yet many women do actually understand how to work the formula for good taste and spontaneity. For New York City’s Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute’s “The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion” opening last night, May 4th, there were many inspiring muses and I especially appreciate the annoyance of the not so beautiful ones which has inspired this BLEG from me to make events like this more inspiring and legendary.
FIRST…THE WINNER.
THE BEST OF ALL WORLDS…ALEK WEK
BEG ONE. PLEASE WAKE ME UP!
I beg you…Vogue…is it not time to wake up and shake in your “inside-of-a-codfish-blue” sweater set that influences millions… that maybe actually the street, style bloggers and underground dandies and performers have much more influence on fashion than models? If last year’s Superheroes exhibit left me with my head shaking the theme alone of this event is already making me quiver to see the inside of the museum.
The official wording of exhibition says it will examine “the reciprocal relationship between high fashion and evolving ideals of beauty and will focus on iconic fashion models of the 20th century and their roles in projecting, and sometimes inspiring, the fashion of their respective eras.”
HO-HUM.
“We are trying to sell magazines today kidz.”
OK, I take off my “annoyed” turban to comment upon Kate. The Moss, here dressed by her co-host Marc Jacobs in role of Queen Muse. Her turban was custom designed by Stephan Burrows. I like it. She wins, where Lopez and others have failed.
Oluchi Onweagba in Oscar de la Renta is like a bold illustration, this is a model whose red carpet does inspire. This is the look of a muse.
One color looks like Kate’s or the classic power of black and white done well will go a long way on the carpet. Thanks go to the legendary muse Coco Chanel for adopting the black and white power colors and emblems of men and their boyish interplay with the female body and attitude. This is classic good stuff. I guess Coco’s trousers and cigarette back in the day = Kate’s candy. (Coming to the screen soon, muse Audrey Tautou as Coco Chanel)
Coco Chanel
BEG TWO: PLEASE INVITE THE REAL NEW MUSES!
As a publicist who works with many designers, editors and stylists I completely understand the beauty of models and their personal style. But if there is anyway to position yourself as old-fashioned and perhaps not viable, it would be to ignore what has always driven fashion and style and now more than ever…individuals way outside of the comfort zone of class and race and society’s red carpets. Brands like Vogue do just that and it’s becoming so boring.
The legendary models in the exhibit, Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn, Dovima, Suzy Parker, Sunny Harnett, and Dorian Leigh are highlighted in the exhibit but this was another era when all it took was beauty, a visionary photographer (and maybe some dramatic elephants) to make one sheath come alive.
What if there were 50 random invites sent to street style experts like those bloggers I so admire such as the Queens at The Kingdom of Style, some random invites to the best Harajuku kids plus the winners of The Alertnative Miss World contest. (hmm… interesting typo: Alert-native for Alternative…) Everyone knows this is where looks originate that end up on Paris and London runways. Now that would be an inspiring Costume Gala. Legendary. A model of ingenuity, perfect for the times.
BEG THREE: THE COLLABORATION OF TALENT IS KINDA THE NEW NEWS!
While it is true that anyone with the goods can be a model, it is still the the art directors and designers who are the actual muses and visionaries who determine the face of the moment.
Fashion historian and co-curator Kohle Yohannan,(whom I met while he was Mary McFadden’s muse/boyfriend, sporting tennis whites), who worked with the Met’s curator-in-charge Harold Koda, commented: “You look at those women and you understand what it meant to be modern in that time.”
“I think that any woman that inspires other women to want to lead the life that she lives – that’s a muse.”
That inspiration comes from the team of talent and before all that from the artists, designers and culture makers themselves who use the model as their canvas. If she or he is smart and is winking through the canvas…then you have a Muse. Kohle, yes, your explanation PLUS mystery, interplay of tension and seduction…an interplay between creators and models.
BEG FOUR: KEEP IT SIMPLE!
THE MINIMALS
So if personality is a blank canvas…I beg you…is this what Ashley Olsen was thinking?
Flavia de Oliveira and Chanel Iman in Zac Posen
Daria Werbowy in Balmain
Anna Jagodzinska in Altuzarra and…
Carmen Kass here in black Michael Kors are Muses of Minimal Sexy
A flash of pink or skin always works, Natalia Vodianova in pink Fortuny and Kate Bosworth in Stella McCartney
Designer, Patrick Robinson and Virginia Smith Of Vogue
Ciara in Emilio Pucci, the last word in black and white simplicity, with Peter Dunder
BEG FIVE: GIVE ME INTELLIGENCE AND STIMULATION AND BANJI-REALNESS!
THE MAXIMALS
Derek Lam dress on Liya Kebede. Her husband Kassy, behind her is also a favorite gentleman of mine…
Anja Rubik in Balmain
Caudia Schiffer in Atelier Versace
Haute Lou Doillon goes bezerk yet it works. With Oliver Theyskens on her arm and wearing Nina Ricci
Lauren Hutton with and in Michael Kors, accessorized in Imperfection. Skiing accident remains, famous imperfect teeth and sexy realness. SHE WINS TOO!
BEG FIVE: CAN WE FINALLY APPRECIATE THE NUANCES THAT MAKE US LAUGH AND MAKE US NOT BELONG TO ANYTHING , BUT BE WEIRDLY AND SMARTLY TOSSED INTO ORIGINALITY?
MY FINAL BEG.
Make sure you see Andrew Logan’s Alternative Miss World. In 1976, he hosted the Valentine’s Ball at which the Sex Pistols first got noticed and counts among his close friends and fans some of the world’s best Muses…Brian Eno, Derek Jarman, David Hockney, Zandra Rhodes, Divine and Anita Roderick.
CAN WE HAVE MORE FUN AND LESS PLASTIC SURGERY?
BEG FINALE: WHAT INSPIRES YOU? MINIMAL, MAXIMAL, FOREIGN LANDS AND PEOPLE, MUSEUMS, TINY FLOWERS IN THE DIRT, GLOWING COMPUTER SCREENS, REALLY GOOD COCKTAILS? TELL ME. I BEG YOU!
written by Jade Dressler
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Tracy Stern is A Teas
Very Short, Schiaparelli Pink and Orange Creamsicle Cocktail Minis Melt Me in the Wardrobe. I am age 7, in my mother’s closet. Little hands reach up to the hem edges of hot pink and orange popsicle colored wool mini-dresses dresses hanging there and I am “seven-year old swooning” over the juice of the colors, the weight of the fabric, the jewels embedded at the collar and the imagined nightclubs they are worn in. I am already extending my world beyond the plastic bodies of Ken and Barbie and into far better imagined worlds evoked by hot-colored-party-worn dresses, lingering perfumes and liasions.
I am convinced my mother is Twiggy and hot pink and orange together will forever excite me. Clearly, the key to one’s life path can be found in child’s play…a tease of the Future.
Flash forward to my meeting with New York’s teasing hot pink and orange confection, Tracy Stern of Salon Tea.
Sunny Palm Beach, 1973.
Tracy Stern gets her first flowery porcelain tea set from her parents’ latest antique jaunt to Europe and easily sees herself presiding over a Salon in Paris circa 18th century mixing Artists, Politicians, Writers, Scholars, Dandies, Musicians, Famous Lovers and Society hounds over fragrant and exotic teas and spiced cakes. She is Alice, assembling the cast at the Mad Hatter’s Tea, ruling the party and lording like a Lady from her pink velvet tufted throne, except she, unlike Alice, is not at all mad about “Murdering Time.”
She is having a blast and solidly set on her important hostess role and intent upon her game of “Tease.”
A Tease is a Flirt, Fun and a Portent of things to come. Teas love rituals, excite exotically, calm, soothe, heal and bring people together. Tracy Stern is all Teas.
Her Biz.
Today Tracy is the worldwide empire of Tracy Stern Tea, a society tea mistress lavishly combining hot pink and orange everywhere and making sure there is a disco ball in every room. She is a total tease encouraging the Murder of Time with the luxury of slowing down and sipping, bathing, eating, breathing and slathering on of TEA.
I’ve always admired her massive collection of vintage designer jewels and party dresses and was curious to know more about what makes Tracy tick and what makes her make teas. (Here she presides over her orange and pink home office and rocks a vintage Miriam Haskell necklace and vintage feather dress by Sonia Rykiel.)
I was happy to run into Tracy in her new Salontea Bar, 501 E 75th Street, where I went to have tea with my friend, Dame Lori, the city’s Pleasure Expert. (of course, more on Lori for another post!) Without hesitation, Tracy agreed to an exclusive look into her closets and her world at home.
The Living Room.
The lushness of Tracy Stern Home (your next license darling!) begins with creamy white marble floors throughout creating a massive roller skating venue which Tracy’s kids, Chloe and Hunter on wheels, do endless rounds after round after round. The windows wrap on 3 sides creating a floating island effect, especially in the way Tracy created individual sitting areas which all work together but each one cultivates a different mood. You can feel the guests who gather here and imagine the 18th century tea hostesses in hot pink and orange gowns who serve on roller skates at Tracy’s parties!
Every room has a light fixture that hovers between modern, vintage elegant and kitsch…she makes most of them. Gold alligator upholstery is the only fitting choice for a Palm Beach bred entrepreneur serving tea in New York like it’s 1840.
Everywhere there are The Tableaus. In the hallway, Tracy’s own sketch sits among her trademark themes, silhouette portraits, graphic lines and drama. Everywhere there are surprises that work from the black flocked wallpaper in her son’s room to a 7 foot tall massive silhouette of Alfred Hitchcock in her daughter’s room.
The Kitchen.
Mama Disco ball lords over the kitchen along with daughter Chloe taking a break from the mad rounds with her brother.
The Closet.
Tracy begins…”This is Miriam Haskell.” “This one was on the Dior runway.” “This one is Palm Beach thrift, I can’t say where because I already fight with Simon Doonan and Jonathan Adler to see who gets what first.” “I have tons more in the back.” “These shoes I designed were worn by Paris Hilton.” This woman needs a TV show. (or a curated show of her vintage collections, which I vow to do with her on the spot!)
Notes on The Bedroom.
The Dress: 1970’s YSL, the jewels are No-Name Vintage.
The Signature Cool: “One should always have paintings on the ceiling.” Tracy did a massive framed parquet of golden tone woods on the ceiling as you enter, she calls it “golden Mondrian.”
The Get Away: The Bathtub, with tea and candles. Every night.
The Exercise. Fourteen flights of stairs instead of the elevator.
The Bedside Books: “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”, Donny Deutsch‘s book and “Richer Than Spices” by Gertrude Z.Thomas, the story of how tea was brought to England through Catherine of Bragnaza, a Portugese princess whose dowry from Charles ll of England, introduced cane, lacquer, cottons, tea, spices and porcelain to England, and so revolutionized taste, manners, craftsmanship, and history in both England and America.
Tracy and Tea would not be here if it wasn’t for these two royal lovers and the Tease of a Dowry.
From the esoteric to the simply childlike, Tea is a Tease. Bored royal lady smarties, women excluded from the coffee shops of men talking politics, geishas and monks with time on their hands adoring the meditation and enlightenment aid of tea… all are parts of the global puzzle of the still mysterious Time-Murdering Culture of Tea. Deeper still are the “hmm, that makes sense” rants of my muse, Terence McKenna, author of “Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge A Radical History of Plants, Drugs, and Human Evolution.” His comprehensive theory that altered states have created culture as an agreement between plants and humans reads like an other-worldly tease tickling the human imagination.
On a lighter note, on Tracy’s new CD release of Tea Party mix of Paris tunes (including a song by my favorite, sultry Natacha Atlas), Billie Holiday croons the childlike but brilliant anthem for the contemplated, playful and tea-infused life. It’s totally in line with Tracy’s impassioned motto and the key to Why Tracy Stern Makes Tea: Enjoy Life. Drink Tea. Celebrate Often.
When we wanna work we work, when we want to play, we play. In our happy setting, we’re getting.. some fun out of life. Maybe we do the right thing, maybe we do the wrong…spending each day wending our way along…Billy Holiday
photos of Tracy and her home by Kaitlyn Barlow and Nina Mattar, written by Jade Dressler
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Tags: 1960's mini skirts, Alice Mad Hatter, Alice's Tea party, Billie Holiday, business of tea, Catherine of Bragnaza, Dame Lori, dandies, disco balls as earrings, disco balls in decor, dowry, Famous Lovers, Food of the gods, gold upholstery, jade dressler, Miriam Haskell, murdering Time, Natacha Atlas, orange and hot pink, Palm Beach thrift shop, party dresses, penthouse, Pleasure Expert, Richer Than Spices" by Gertrude Z.Thomas, Salon Teas, Salons, Schiaparelli Pink, silhouettes in decor, Sonia Rykiel, tea entrepreneurs, tea hostess, tea parties, Terence McKenna, Tracy Stern, tracy stern Tea party, vintage collector, vintage Dior jewels, vintage party dresses
Who is Dagny Taggart?
While judgment grows thick, while faith loses its choice, and while the people sit terrified, devouring their dinner, the media, and their feelings… there are those who do not allow good times to be by-gones, and instead, create.
A Immense Capacity for the Enjoyment of Existence
For the past ten years, the American culture has been driven by an obsession of luxury and simultaneously “second-rate work”: an infatuation built upon the ability and defiant immediacy to make money and become marketable without having done honest work. Unfortunately, because of these banal standards of living, we are currently involved in a recession that has forced the American culture to regress. At present, the idea of trend, fashion, or of spending hard-earned money on mindless material goods seems wasteful. If the economy is in recession, then the fashion industry must be in the Great Depression.
Ayn Rand, A Woman of New York
Despite the struggles, fashion will never become obsolete and thus I have decided to write about a fashion icon that gives a renaissance to the state of style. Dagny Taggart, of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, is the Operational Manager and Vice-President of the Taggart Transcontinental Railroad. She was the saving grace of her family-owned industry, as well as, the savior of society when it was the most corrupt. The author of the novel, Ms. Rand, is known for her objective philosophies and the hark of the individual in terms of purpose and craft. I believe in her philosophies based on the idea of serving and developing the individual in order for the individual to ultimately benefit the community.
Dagny’s fashions, which are described with poignant detail in the novel, are uncomplicated, almost industrial, and they emulate the principles and structures, which employ her. Dagny wears the silhouette of a simple nature, but still is more remarkable than any other woman in the room. She wears neutral colors like grey and black, and it is her mannerisms and self-approved pride that distinguish her in a crowd.
“He saw a girl standing on top of a pile of machinery on a flatcar. She was looking off at the ravine, her head lifted, strands of disordered hair stirring in the wind. Her plain grey suit was like a thin coating of metal over a slender body against the spread of sunflooded space and sky. Her posture had the lightness and the unself-conscious precision of an arrogantly pure self-confidence. 
She was watching the work, her glance intent and purposeful, the glance of competence enjoying its own function. She looked as if this were her place, her moment, her world, she looked as if enjoyment were her natural state, her face was the living form of an active, living intelligence, a young girls face with a woman’s mouth, she seemed unaware of her body except as of a taut instrument ready to serve her purpose in any manner she wished.” (519).
Miss Jolie is rumored to be portraying Miss Dagny Taggart in the whispered about, film version of Atlas Shrugged set for release in 2011.
It has been said, many times, that it is not what you wear, but how you wear it; and with grace, integrity, and self-understanding a little can go a long way. I prefer to refer to it as, Going Back to Basics, dressing in plain colors and sustaining one’s elegance, and by wearing well-tailored clothes and taking care of them, quality not quantity. Despite the appreciation I have for a healthy amount of expression and creativity displayed in people through their fashion sense, there is no need for circumstantial trend to dictate our lives as if we are consumer dummies…
It is, therefore, appropriate to state the success of simplicity; and to go as far as to say that in hiding the body with too much accessory is a distraction and an insult to the body as a machine and a vessel. Real-life examples of this would be our muse Coco Chanel or Margot Fonteyn, the famous ballerina.
Coco Chanel
Margot Fonteyn
It is our mind and spirit, which we need to impress upon the world, not multi-faceted flip-flops and headscarves.
Passing by a well-known vintage/designer boutique named Roundabout on Madison and 72nd Street in New York recently, I could not help but gasp each time I passed by a remarkable dress of a nature I questioned.
A Self-Proclaimed Statue of Liberty
The dress, by designer Donna Haag, was made of what looked like metal plates sewn together. It resembled steel, and the woman who would wear this dress would look like a skyscraper. I thought to myself, that during a economic crisis, this is the one dress that a New York woman can wear. In doing so, she would be a self-proclaimed Statue of Liberty. I learned later that this dress was actually looked at by various PR and designer representatives as a dress for Paulina Porizkova for the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala, which this year will celebrate the Supermodel Era, this year, hosted by Marc Jacobs, Kate Moss and Justin Timberlake.
“Skyscraper Dress” by Donna Haag, at the Roundabout Boutique, Price Upon Request.
I have chosen to use this dress as an example of the style I describe, for a number of reasons. First and foremost, because it is a piece of art and beauty, crafted by a designer with an exalted imagination. It is also of grave importance, because of its symbolism during a time period such as the present. It is a representation and dedication to strength, integrity and dignity; and such adjectives as these are what have defined and built New York City.
Last of all, because Dagny would have worn this dress and at an occasion, when New York needed it most; it embodies all that is simple, but with veracity that proves the convictions of the mind and ultimately the glory of the human body.
written by Emilie Ghilaga
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Filed under: ART, FASHION, NEW YORK, STYLE | 6 Comments
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Madonna was unavailable but the event was sponsored by The Sundance Channel and 
