'Vino un barco cargado de gustos y se fue vacío'
(Spanish popular saying) It means something like 'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder'.
This blog brings together all of my preferences, experiences, caprices, trivialities and the like. Hope you enjoy it! :)
2. You will need to post something on your blog about the giveaway (as I did)
3. Leave her a comment below to let me know you want to be entered (Click here).
Entries will be taken until January 14th. The drawing will be held on January 15th.
Arthelia's Attic etsy shop craft these hair snoods using a vintage pattern from 1942. This reminded me of a famous video, I watched some years ago.
During the WWII, in the early 1940's, Veronica Lake had to change her trademark peek-a-boo hairstyle to encourage women working in war industry factories to adopt more practical, safer hairstyles. Women had to cover their hair, using safety caps too.
Take a look at this video!, you will love it:
Peek-a.boo hairstyle
Fortunately, I am not working in a war industry factory but it would be great to win one of these custom snoods. Windy days are terrible in Ireland. Next picture proves it.
It was taken last August (yep I was wearing a coat, as usual) I started the outing, with my gorgeous victory rolls hairdo...This was the end hahaha :/
Crossing my fingers!!! :)
My hair would love to win a snood in windy days x')
Hello Be-Bops! Today I went for a walk, wearing one of my most comfortable handbags. It's a faux crocodile one, designed by Courrèges. I bought it some years ago, in a thrift shop. It was in a perfect state of preservation as you can see on the pictures below, but I'm not sure how old it is...I can only say, it's inspired by a classic men's briefcase.
Front picture
Side picture
André Courrèges was born in 1923, he graduated as an engineer at the age of 25. In 1950, he went to Paris to work at the fashion house of Jeanne Lafaurie, before securing a position at Balenciaga. He worked for the couture master for ten years, honing his skills in the cut and constructions of garments. In 1961, with his mentor's blessing, he left to set up his own house.
André Courrèges
His look was radically different not only from that of Balenciaga, but also from just about everything that was going on in a contemporary fashion. His wife and partner Coqueline organized the presentation of his collections, which she conceived explicitly as 'a show', energized by loud music and dancing young models.
'A show' as a presentation of his collection
His spring 1964 collection, with its linear minidresses and futuristic tailoring, confounded the experts. The look was created using heavyweight fabrics such as gabardine that held a stiff, uncompromising shape. Moreover, he used materials hitherto unheard of in the couture atelier: metal, plastic and a cutting-edge innovation called PVC. Many of the outfits had cut-out panels, exposing backs, waists and midriffs, and shockingly they were also often worn without a bra.
He was in love with white and red colours :)
Accessories included flat boots, goggles, and helmets inspired by the equipment used by astronauts. With his stark shapes and white and metallic colourways, Courrèges was celebrated as a designer of the Space Age.
The Space girl
Next pictures show a gorgeous Audrey Hepburn, they were taking by Douglas Kirkland in 1965.
Audrey Hepburn dressed Courrèges' designs (1965)
She looked a little bit weird in this one, didn't she?
She dressed Courregès' designs in two movies: 'How to steal a million' and 'Two for the road'.
How to steal a million (1966)
Two for the road (1967)
From the perspective of publicity, the collection was an absolute sensation. British Vogue declared 1964 'the year of Courrèges'. His clothes represented a couture version of the 'Youthquake'-driven style, and heralded the arrival of the 'moon girl' look.
Ferrari advertisement from the 60's featuring Courrèges' models.
Sondra Petersen for Vogue in Courrèges sunglasses (1965).
Moon girl collection
His career may have been short-lived but his influence was seismic. Courrèges made trousers acceptable daywear for fashionable women, and to this day he vies with Mary Quant for the credit of being the inventor of miniskirt.
Who was the inventor of miniskirt? ♥♥♥
Massiel, a Spanish pop singer, dressed one Courrèges' design, which was her good-luck charm, because she won the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 with the song 'La, la, la' :)
Hello Be-Bops! Yesterday, it was 14th November that's why in order to celebrate Louise Brooks' birthday, I want to pay tribute to her on my blog. Since I last watched her silent film 'Pandora's box' (1929), she became my favorite flapper, the queen of silent-movies. I couldn't look her away. She radiates a incomparable captivating sensuality. Brooks' portrayal of a seductive, thoughtless young woman whose raw sexuality and uninhibited nature bring ruin to herself and those who love her. This film was initially unappreciated, eventually made her a star.
Pandora's box (1929)
Provocative Louise Brooks in Pandora's Box
In 1906, Louise Brooks was born in Cherryvale, Kansas into a difficult family. Her father, Leonard Porter Brooks, was a busy solicitor, who wasn't very strict with his practice to discipline his children. Her mother, Myra Rude was an autistic pianist and their relationship was always at each other's throats. Since she was 5 years old, Brooks was an unfriendly girl who looked her famous hairdo; the bob cut in which the hair is typically cut straight around the head at about jaw-level, often with a bang at the front.
Young Louise Brooks
The Bob Cut was copied by thousands of women
She spent her childhood surrounded by books and listening to music. She used to perform in front of the neighbourhood children, being her main hobby. It reads, her father had stored so many books that the foundations collapsed in the library area. Growing up, she fervently read Dickens, Thackeray, Carlye, Darwin, Emerson, and Twain masterpieces, nevertheless her favorite author was Goethe who always went with her at dressing rooms. Louise Brooks was a cultured gal, at the school she got good grades in English, Latin, Social Sciences and Maths. She was always reading pieces of literature and writing a diary when she took a break in the shootings. She starred in 17 silent films and, late in life, that diary helped her to write the witty memoir, 'Lulu in Hollywood'. In the neighbourhood, she was fiercely criticized, chit chat everywhere because Brooks was a rebel, perceptive and unusual girl.
My Disquieting girl
Despite her mother's protection her nine-year old was shattered when a neighbour sexually abused her. Myra was very cruel because she said that Brooks led him on. That fact deeply marked her life, she was incapable of real love and what she defined as 'sexual pleasure' must have bondage features. When she was 14, Brooks became a Lolita because she fell in love with a married man, 'He was one of my cradle snatcher', she said.
Love this pic ♥
After that, she left Kansas and moved in Los Angeles, where she started her career as a dancer joining the Denishawn modern dance company (whose members included founders Ruth St. Denis, and Ted Shawn, as well as a young Martha Graham) in 1922. Next year, Brooks had advanced to a starring role in one work opposite Shawn. A long-simmering personal conflict between Brooks and St. Denis boiled over one day, however, and St. Denis abruptly fired Brooks from the troupe in 1924, telling her in front of the other members that 'I am dismissing you from the company because you want life handed to you on a silver salver'. The words left a strong impression on Brooks; when she drew up an outline for a planned autobiographical novel in 1949, 'The Silver Salver' was the title she gave to the tenth and final chapter.
Also, she had a very high level of culture and this didn't help her in the relationships. Men felt awkward in front of her because they couldn't speak about authors and masterpieces as she did. This was the main reason because of she went to Algonquin Hotel, where bohemian people used to live in.
A woman and two men: Rolled Stockings (1927)
She was nicknamed 'The Black Orchid' due to her hectic life. Getting fed up with double standard, she went away Europe thanks to her friend Barbara Bennett and overthere she was the first woman who danced charleston. She met Marlene Dietrich in a rich decadent European environment, however she was going to see each other some years later.
She was the first woman who danced charleston
At 18 years old, she wrote an article for The New York Times, about the comedy film 'No, no, Nanette' (1940) because whoever must be its author, fell asleep when the movie opened. It was such a successful article that the most famous critics imitated her style. People strongly criticized her, because she was only interested in books, fashion, alcohol and intellectuals such as Aldous Huxley.
Louise Brooks was a cultured person
In 1925, there was another sexual scandal. She met Charles Chaplin and they were shutted away in a room at Ambassador Hotel for 2 months. They did sex orgies with another couple, and at the same time they were playing the piano, dancing, perfomancing, singing...a little bit of everything...
Louise Brooks was object of desire for many people, including Marlene Dietrich, however it was Charles Chaplin who pulled it off.
She enjoyed fostering speculation about her sexuality, cultivating friendships with lesbian and bisexual women including Pepi Lederer and Peggy Fears, but eschewing relationships. She admitted to some lesbian dalliances, including a one-night affair with Greta Garbo.She later described Garbo as masculine but a 'charming and tender lover'.Despite all this, she considered herself neither lesbian nor bisexual. What was her most famous quality? Brooks had sex appeal. In the 20's , nobody knew what that word meant, however directors took advantage of it. Louise was a pioneer girl, sex isn't taboo for her.
The hottest pic of Louise Brooks
In the summer of 1926, Brooks married Eddie Sutherland, and their honeymoon was at Ambassador Hotel , but this time it took her two days. By 1927 she had fallen 'terribly in love' with George Preston Marshall, owner of a chain of laundries and future owner of the Washington Redskins football team, following a chance meeting with him that she later referred to as 'the most fateful encounter of my life'. She divorced Sutherland, mainly due to her budding relationship with Marshall, in June 1928.
Eddie Sutherland and Louise Brooks
In 1929, she starred German silent melodrama 'Pandora's Box', directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst in his New Objectivity period. The film is based on two plays by Frank Wedekind and Brooks plays the central figure, Lulu. This film is notorious for its frank treatment of modern sexual mores, including one of the first screen portrayals of a lesbian. It reads, this role was going to be to Marlene Dietrich, and she was furious as she didn't get the role.
Brooks then starred in the controversial social drama 'Diary of a Lost Girl' (1929), based on the book by Margarete Böhme and also directed by Pabst. In this film, she dances, has sex and drinks alcohol...A new scandal in Europe, as you can imagine. Next year, she starred 'Prix de Beauté' . All these films were heavily censored, as they were very 'adult' and considered shocking in their time for their portrayals of sexuality, as well as their social satire. In North America, producers ignored her.
Pandora's Box theatrical poster
Brooks was fed up with Hollywood and retired from the screen after completing one last film, the John Wayne western 'Overland Stage Raiders' (1938) in which she played the romantic lead with a long hairstyle that rendered her all but unrecognizable from her 'Lulu' days. After that she came back to New York and finally she returned to her hometown, Wichita, where she was raised. Overthere, she became Catholic. She loved being in state of sin, to go to a confession and to have sex as a prostitute. She loved being in state of sin over and over again, in a vicious circle.
Overland Stage Raiders (1938)
She wrote a memoir 'Lulu in Hollywood'. One of her fan started to write some love letters to her, and Brooks answered him. He was very surprised, discovering she was a great writer, and it reads he became her lover.
'Lulu in Hollywood' was a great success, I recommend you, next article: Tales from Louise Brooks.
Lulu in Hollywood
Brooks also had an influence in the graphics world – she had the distinction of inspiring some famous comics: the long-running Dixie Dugan newspaper strip by John H. Striebel that started in the late 1920s and ran until 1966, and the erotic comic books of Valentina, by the late Guido Crepax, which began publication in 1965 and continued for many years. Crepax became a friend and regular correspondent with Louise late in her life. Her famous hairdo is present at strips, as you can see :)
Valentina
Dixie Dugan
On August 8, 1985, Brooks was found dead of a heart attack. She was buried in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Rochester, New York. Her death was a great shock to many European newspapers ,however in North America, she was ignored.
One of her last pic :(
Happy Birthday Mrs Brooks!
This is my little tribute for you, my couple of hair black orchids.
Margarita Carmen Dolores Cansino was born on October 17th, 1918 in Brooklyn (New York) into a family of dancers. Her father, Eduardo Cansino, was a Spanish man who immigrated from Seville to Brooklyn in 1913. He met Rita's mother, Volga Hayworth, a dancer of Irish descent, in 1916 and they married in 1917. They had two boys and a girl, Margarita, who was trained as a dancer in order to follow her parents' steps.
This picture shows her childhood. She's 5 years old.
As a child she was performing on stage with her family, in the short films, 'La Fiesta' and 'Anna Case with the Dancing Cansinos'. When she was 8 years old, the Cansinos opened a dance school and his father worked as a choreographer for Hollywood films. Joining her parents' stage act, at the age of 13, Margarita performed with the Spanish dancing troupe in shows in Mexico. Unfortunately, there were shady secrets in the family. As a teenager, Margarita danced in public with her father as partner. It reads, Margarita was subjected to sexual abuses by her father, Eduardo Cansino.
Margarita and her father. Poor girl :(
That's why she got married to the salesman and promoter Edward C. Judson at the age of 18. But this marriage was even worse. He acted as her manager and took over from his father. Judson negotiated a new contract for her young wife with Columbia Pictures in 1937. It was too hard. First she changed her name to Rita Hayworth and began to go through a transformation from humble latin dancer to a Hollywood superstar.
Margarita Cansino, before the transformation.
Rita and her husband, the much-older Edward C.Judson.
How did Rita Hayworth change her physical appearance? Her hairline was too low on her forehead and she approved raising it by electrolysis for years. This is a way of removing individual hairs from the face or body, medical electrolysis devices destroy the growth center of the hair with chemical or heat energy. A very fine probe is inserted into the hair follicle at the surface of the skin. The hair is then removed with tweezers. Nowadays it may be very painful!!! I don't want to imagine what it would be in the 1940's. After that, her forehead was higher and she dyed her hair flaming red. She took voice lessons, learned to act and went on a diet too. A hard training, no doubt.
Her first Columbia film was 'Criminals of the air' in 1937. Two years later, she appeared in the film 'Only Angels have wings', starring Cary Grant. During her 5 years of marriage with Edward C.Judson she starred classic movies such as 'Strawberry Blonde' ,1941, with James Cagney, and 'Blood and Sand', 1941, with Tyrone Power as Juan Gallardo. The first one, was shot in black and white, nobody realized her new red hair. Rita, played the character Doña Sol, in 'Blood and Sand' where the matador Juan Gallardo,dazzled by her charms. The public understood why he would leave his good wife, Linda Darnell as Carmen Espinosa. Rita was so gorgeous and in this film she could act as Spanish beauty even though she was now thoroughly Anglicized. Some authors say, her much-older Edward C.Judson used to make her have sex with the most famous producers, to get roles in the movies.
Only Angels have wings (1939)
Strawberry Blonde (1941)
Blood and Sand (1941)
The film was a smash, and Columbia cast her in a series of happy happy dancey dancey films with the master dancer, Fred Astaire. They starred 'You'll never get rich' in 1941. It's amazing watching them!:)
The film was very successfully, and Rita Hayworth appeared on the cover of Time Magazine because she was the hottest Hollywood star. On the magazine , it read she was the new Astaire's lady given that the icon confessed that Rita was his favorite dancing partner instead of Ginger Rogers.
whip-woo!!! (wolf.whistling ;)
Next films were 'My Gal Sal', 'Tales of Manhattan' with Ginger Rogers legend and 'You were never lovelier' with Fred Astaire again, in 1942. During this period, WWII had broken out, and Rita Hayworth became one of the most popular pin up for soldiers. They used her pic for non-gentleman purposes between the years of 1941 and 1945...and plastering her pictures and others pin up girls on any free surface. Yes! it's true, they used them from their B-17 cockpits to their walls. Did you know it? Next picture showed Hayworth sitting on a bed in a satin nightie. This picture became the second most popular pin up illustration, behind only Betty Grable's iconic white swimsuit pic. The goverment distributed it to relieve soldiers' sexual tension...
Rita, pin up legend.
She divorced Edward C. Judson in 1942. Her next husband was Orson Welles. Love sprang up between them, while he was shooting the film 'Citizen Kane' in 1941. He was her true love. They got married in 1943 and the following year she gave birth to her first daughter, Rebecca Welles. Returning to the screen after, Hayworth starred opposite Gene Kelly in 'Cover Girl in 1944 and went on to star in 'Tonight and Every Night' in 1945, which shows Hayworth dances samba with the song 'You excite me' . Marvelous!!!:)
Orson, Rita and Rebecca. I love this pic, it's so tender!
In 1946, she would be remembered forever, with the film 'Gilda', the femme fatale who drived crazy Glenn Ford and sang 'Put the blame on Mame' capturing the legendary one-glove striptease. If you haven't watched the movie yet, you would love it!. As a curiosity, while her film was still in release, publicity linked her to a widely covered nuclear American bomb test in the South Pacific. Young scientists had put the name of 'Gilda' and Hayworth's image on the bomb, alluding to her bombshell status as a film star. Her husband Orson Welles issued a public statement at the time, saying they would be pleased only if this were the last bomb test ever. Hayworth was furious to be used in this way.
Around the world (mainly in Spain) people were shocked by the one-glove striptease but however they weren't shocked by the slapping scene...some kinds of censures are pretty funny, aren't they? :O
Put the blame on mame. Legendary scene.
In 1947, Orson Welles directed and starred with Rita Hayworth in 'The Lady of Shanghai', and this film was the end of the couple's marriage. He made Hayworth cut her lovely red curls and dyed it blonde. Why did their marriage end? Welles wanted to renovate her image, with or without Rita's consent. This film took away her main skills, her ability to dance, to make her hair bounce...everything. She ceased to exist as a person. They got divorced after the film was shot.
Blonde Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles.
After that scandal, the studio told her, she had to grow her hair out again. Her next film, 'The Loves of Carmen' an adaptation of Georges Bizet's opera in 1948. Hayworth played Carmen to Glenn Ford’s Don Juan. However the audience expected the bubbly Gilda and they were very disappointed. They weren't the only ones. By her recent failure, she decided to travel around Europe where she met the famous womanizer Prince Aly Khan. After a very public courtship, Hayworth got married for the third time. During her marriage, she gave birth her second daughter, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, in 1949.
The loves of Carmen (1948)
Rita Hayworth and Prince Aly Khan.
Rita Hayworth and her daughters.
Her wedding was so ostentatious: 500 guests from the United States and Europe feasted on 50 pounds of caviar, 600 bottles of Champagne and other gourmet delights around a swimming pool scented with 200 gallons of perfume. The royal lifestyle and Prince Aly Khan's romantic adventures didn't suit the very shy Rita Hayworth (she wasn't Gilda), so she returned to the United States after her split from Khan in 1951. Finally thet got divorced in 1953.
Her ostentous wedding.
When she came back to Hollywood, she starred in her fourth film with Glenn Ford, 'Affair in Trinidad' in 1952. It was notable as Hayworth's return film after four years away from Columbia.
Affair in Trinidad (1952)
A year later, she starred in the Roman-set 'Salome' and as the title role in the South Pacific-set musical 'Miss Sadie Thompson'. Hayworth disappeared from the Hollywood screen for another three years in 1953 after another short-lived marriage, this time to Argentinean popular singer Dick Haymes, best known as Mr. Evil. He had been married three times and had considerable debts. When he got married again, seemed to perceive his financial and professional salvation in Rita Hayworth. She supported Dick through his battles with immigration and the threat of deportation. There were serious death threats against Rita and her daughter Princess Yasmin. Nevertheless the wedding to Dick Haymes went ahead in Las Vegas on 24th September 1953. Child neglect charges were filed against Rita. In the end the court allowed her custody of the two girls but said they would remain under supervision for 3 months as the complaint was fully justified. She spent most of the marriage embroiled in legal disputes of one kind or another. Dick Haymes both verbally and physically abused and controlled her life. He also stirred up trouble between her and Aly Khan. She was divorced from Dick Haymes in 1955. The final straw was an incident where he hit her in public, blacking her eye.
Rita Hayworth and Dick Haymes.
She starred in 'Pal Joey' with Frank Sinatra and Kim Novak. By now however her age was starting to show. She married for the fifth time, Jim Hill, a partner in an independent production team. They had a turbulent marriage and Rita was often violent towards him. In 1960 Prince Aly Khan was killed in a car crash. She divorced Hill in 1961. Her final years saw a tragic descent into Alzheimer’s disease, sadly not diagnosed until 1980. She would spent the next 20 years gradually losing herself and every memory of her bittersweet life. Many people thought she was an alcoholic but she continued to make public appearances although her health was getting worse. She was eventually put under the care of her daughter Princess Yasmin Khan, then a grown woman, and spent her final years staring out a window in Central Park West. She died on May 14th 1987 at the age of 68 :(
Rita Hayworth and her daughter, Yasmin.
After reading my post, as far as we know, she had a hard life. Reading the heading, I named this post 'She loves me, she loves me not' because 'Margarita' means 'Daisy' in Spanish. The poor little 'Margarita' pulled her petals off. That's why I am posting a little tribute, for you, wherever you are, love :(
A Spanish embroidered shawl, a black satin glove and a Margarita cocktail. (Some legends say the Margarita cocktail was named for her when she was dancing under her real name in a Tijuana, Mexico nightclub:)
Here to the The Love Goddess! Cheers!
Love,
Lorena Be-Bop
P.S. El post estará traducido próximamente en mi Facebook, pero si quieres leer un post maravilloso en castellano sobre Rita Hayworth, visita el blog 'Diario de una Pin Up Frustrada' :)
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