Winifred Wikkeling

At first we were struck just by her.  The eyes, the lips, the hair, the colors against her skin.  We were even struck by her form, and how there seemed to be something conspiring about it.  As if she were daring us to stare, to drink her in.  Like some forbidden elixir.  Stare we did, first at her, and then the clothes.

Lais Ribeiro for Jean Paul Gaultier

The draping, the fabrics, the sensuousness mixed with the appeal to our gypsy sensibilities.  Then came another surprise – accessories.

Yasmin Warsame for Jean Paul Gaultier

Stronger than we would normally like, but so feminine, still refined.  Armor, but of the seductive and mysterious kind.  The mood suits us.  Couture swept us…

A Stolen Life

There are three obsessions we have not yet shared with you:  Hats, Bette Davis, and classic films.  We love it how all three come together in the beautiful stylings of Orry Kelly in A Stolen Life. There is the structure, the texture and the angles.

A Stolen Life

A dramatic look, made all the more dramatic by expressive eyes that deliver as much of the dialogue as anything else…we are obsessed with that. We will share more of that.

Vivian Sassen is in her photography, interested in raising questions, she says. 

We questioned the effect that her photograph had on us.

The fishermen of Saint-Louis by Viviane Sassen

via NY Times

We are riveted by the tangled legs, the colorful clothes, the endless water.  The shadows even more marvelous than the men giving it shape.  We are transfixed, our eyes traveling the image over and over, stirring us with an overwhelming and turbulent beauty that washes over us, pinning us in our seat.  We don’t know what it means to us exactly, we know it feels personal and that with every glance we feel at once joyous, satisfied, tranquil, surprised, and always grateful.

It was the Chanel Couture show that awed us with the possibilities of paper…

The Lotus Dome is made out of hundreds of aluminum folded flowers which unfold in response to human behavior.

In the perfumed country which the sun caresses,
I knew, under a canopy of crimson trees
And palms from which indolence rains into your eyes,
A Creole lady whose charms were unknown.

Her complexion is pale and warm; the dark enchantress
Affects a noble air with the movements of her neck.
Tall and slender, she walks like a huntress;
Her smile is calm and her eye confident.

If you went, Madame, to the true land of glory,
On the banks of the Seine or along the green Loire,
Beauty fit to ornament those ancient manors,

You’d make, in the shelter of those shady retreats,
A thousand sonnets grow in the hearts of poets,
Whom your large eyes would make more subject than your slaves.

~ Charles Baudelaire

It requires 23,000 spiders to produce 1 ounce of silk.  Spider silk is in fact, the finest silk, and was no longer produced after the 19th century, until Simon Peers and Nicholas Godley decided to revive the art of weaving it.  Three years and 1.2 million golden orb weaver spiders later, from the highlands of Madagascar, came this:

It would be greedy for us to covet an entire cape,

but if we had an audience with Messrs Peers and Godley,

we would gently request a hand fan,

with a tassel dangling from its nape…

Via Yatzer

All the faces were there, Beverly, Christie, Paulina, Isabella, Pat…The photos stunning, the memories even more so. But one stood apart from them all.

We had heard rumors.  It was not only one of our favorite food items, it was also beautifying.  Stir, apply, let it harden, then rinse.  That is what we heard.  But we found it messy.  It seemed the kind of effort one makes once, but can never quite work into a routine.  But suddenly, it appears, there might be a way.  Moisten, lather, then rinse.  No drip, no cracks, no drying, no waste.  Wouldn’t it be delicious if perhaps it also had a nice scent?

Eggwhite Soap

Via Everbrite Mercantile Co

We have to admit this particular trend never quite swayed us. We did not find it elegant or even feminine and were shocked at how some we have admired seem to have latched on to it for life.