Will The Real Gillian Girl Please Stand Up?

With All the Frills Upon It

Have a hopping good Easter weekend, darlings!

One Woman

...but of course, when you're Miss-Ross-to-You, who needs the other two?

Meanwhile, Back at the Chateau...

Over at Chateau Thombeau, that darling imp suggested that we spend our rare nights alone, at home, wearing lurex pantsuits trimmed in marabou. While we certainly endorse the lurex-marabou combination (particularly if it's designed by Mr. Blackwell for Jayne Mansfield), we're really more of a suit-by-Ben-Zuckerman, hair-by-Kenneth type. Bitch.

Looks Are Deceiving

Don't be fooled - we will accept your offer of a drink, and go to second base.

Come into Our World...

...just dress accordingly.

Fun in Acapulco

These Mexican-inspired designs were created by Luis Estevez, who was, naturally, Cuban. He was also talented, charismatic, and ambitious: at age 23, he became the youngest-ever designer to receive the coveted Coty Award. Estevez' designs were simple yet thrillingly feminine, often with unexpectedly daring touches: a plunging neckline here, an exposed shoulder blade there. They mirrored the life of the man himself, who was elegant and decorus, yet unabashedly hedonistic and pleasure-seeking. Married to the former model Betty Dew (a union described as one of the great marriages of convenience, as well as one of the most glamorous; Hubert de Givenchy acted as best man and gave the bride away), the self-described bisexual designer disarmed men and women alike with his impish good looks and charm.

ESTEVEZ (R) & FRIEND IN ACAPULCO; INSET: ESTEVEZ AT THE HAVANA YACHT CLUB. VIA NEW YORK SOCIAL DIARY.

Estevez' friends and clients read like a Who's Who of society and Hollywood, and not surprisingly, included such SSUWAT icons as Dina Merrill, Norma Shearer, and Eva Gabor (with whom he designed a short-lived clothing line bearing the actress' name). There's an in-depth profile of Estevez from the archives of David Patrick Columbia's venerable New York Social Diary, recalling an epoch in history and fashion which seems both as hauntingly memorable and fleetingly fragile as a whiff of expensive perfume.

Kisses on Their Openings

"KATHARINE CORNELL, first lady of the theatre, curves a waist-length dark mink jacket over her shoulders and carries a matching muff, the identical mink brown of her hair. Her long evening dress of beige lace is serenely simple, scalloped at the neckline. Playgoers are queuing up at the National to see Miss Cornell is Somerset Maugham's The Constant Wife, admirably playing the role of Constance, cuckolded but deftly indestructible."


"MARLENE DIETRICH, the star of New York's first-night audiences, usually steals the show in her straight white ermine chesterfield - copied exactly from a man's - with narrow cuffless sleeves and low flapped pockets. Under it she wears a short wheat chiffon dress, with stockings and sandals approximately the shade of her wheat-colored hair. In Cafe Instanbul, on the radio Sunday nights, Miss Dietrich stars as a female Humphrey Bogart involved in high intrigue with secret police, international spies and tall, handsome, mysterious strangers."

Why Don't You...

...play a sly trick on a style icon?


This January 1963 Bazaar cover has been the source of controversy and speculation since it first hit newsstands nearly half a century ago. The cover model ("Dani") was rumored to have been made up to parody the legendary Diana Vreeland, who had recently defected from Bazaar to its arch rival, Vogue.


Certainly, Dani was a marked switch from the remote, icy mannequins who usually graced the fashion magazine covers at the time: her near-camp, wry smile; decidedly "handsome" features; blue-black hair; and flamboyant cigarette holder make a good case indeed for an extravagant "in joke" perpetrated by Bazaar and photographer Richard Avedon. The ensuing cover made enough of an impact that even columnist Walter Winchell jumped into the fray. The mystery remains unsolved, but another clue lies further within the same issue's pages:


This striking image appears in a fashion layout entitled "Carte Blanche Chic," a seven page spread in which two other models appear in all but this one photo. This chic lady makes just this one, prominent, full page appearance, and is noticeably older and styled quite differently from the other two models. She also bears more than a passing resemblance to Kay Thompson as"Maggie Prescott" in Funny Face (1957) - a character acknowledged as being based, at least in part, on Mrs. Vreeland.



If she were aware of the joke, we'd like to think that Mrs. Vreeland took it with good humor, and also as a compliment to her singular, influential style. After all, to get one over on D.V. took - let's face it - pizazz.

The Sad Truth

Being flawless can be isolating.

We Are Hard at Work...

...conferring with Mrs. Snow and Mrs. Vreeland about our return to fashion land. (This damn feature had better be good, what with all the build-up we're giving it.) Truthfully, we're awfully busy with work, Fashion Week, and general chaos, and also trying to make our comeback advice column as good as it possibly can be. Watch this space!

Saint Anne Marie

Our absolute favorite supermodel of the 1950's is, paradoxically, the one we know the least about. Anne St. Marie fascinates us because she's simultaneously completely of her time, and absolutely outside of it: the quintessential elegant, distant, detatched 1950's mannequin, yet somehow alive and fresh and modern and real.


Unlike many of her contemporaries, St. Marie's beauty seems peculiarly contemporary, whereas the remarkable Dorian Leigh, for instance, seems permanently frozen (if spectacularly so) in 1954, or thereabouts. There was a canniness, an amused half-smile, a knowing raised eyebrow about Anne St. Marie, and in some of her photographs, it's near-impossible to pinpoint a date or decade.


Of all of the famously brittle beauties who graced the fashion magazines of the 1950's and early 1960's, Anne St. Marie seemed the most confident, the most assured, and the most aware. Yet there were demons lurking about, and it's reported that she suffered a mental breakdown. Her taped conversations with photographer turned filmmaker Jerry Schatzberg were the basis for the film Puzzle of a Downfall Child (1970), starring Faye Dunaway as an emotionally fragile ex-model on the skids. Apart from this, scant information is available or forthcoming on this most exquisite of women; we hope that eventually Miss St. Marie regained her footing and her happiness. Wherever she may be, we thank her for all she may have sacrificed in the name of beauty for our consumption.










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