yesterday's muse #9 - lisa fonssagrives-penn

Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn is yet another muse who is famed as 'the first super model'. born in Sweden in 1911, Lisa moved to Paris to train as a ballerina and there began a modelling career that would span the 30s to the 50s. in 1935, Lisa Bernstone, as she was then called, married Parisian photographer Fernand Fonssagrives, whom she later divorced. in 1950, she married another photographer, Irving Penn, and was the subject of much of his work.

Lisa posed for the most famous photographers of her age. in the late 1940's, when most models were paid $10-$25 an hour, Lisa was earning $40 an hour. and though most models' careers ended before their 30th birthdays, Lisa continued to model into her 40s.



Lisa kept a down-to-earth attitude throughout her career as a model. in a 1949 article in Time magazine, she was quoted as saying: "It is always the dress, it is never, never the girl. I'm just a good clothes hanger."
in the mid-50's, Lisa traded modelling for fashion design, which she did for about 6 six years. in the 1960's, she devoted her time to sculpture, working in marble, bronze and fiberglass. Lisa's two children are sculptor's and artists in their own right.


Fonssagrive-Penn lived to be 80 years old. in February of 1992, she died in the hospital of pneumonia.

if polygamy were legal #24

marry me, clutch, and i shall hold you forever.

you should totally see this

check out this nifty music/spoken word project conceived by Darren Solomon. neat, huh?

R.I.P Patrick Swayze (August 18, 1952 - September 14, 2009)

gregory thielker

the weather has been really beautiful where i am as of late, but since i've a bad case of the sicky-doldrums, it seems a good time to post Gregory Thielker's mesmerizing rain-scapes [which i found via my friend Eric's awesome blog]. it's astounding to me how clearly these paintings capture a particular point in time and space (albeit possibly imaginary). i am delivered to the back seat of my family's old station wagon, peering out through the rain streaked windows, stretching the lights with my squinting eyes, following the drops until they fell away. i can almost hear and smell the rain.

nursing myself back to health

bandaid necklace by pinktophat

partied a wee bit too hard this weekend. feeling like dirt. be good as new tomorrow, i promise.

60s paperback from vvpaperemporium

red cross earrings from steampunkjunq

say ahhhhh pocket mirror by sweetperversion

vintage play boxes from goodandplenty

red nursing shoes from VintageDove

j'aime [bow]coup

this bracelet is so whimsical and fun. don't know if i'd marry it, but i'd certainly mess around with it a bit.

hair today...

i am in serious need of a haircut. i'm trying desperately to grow it long again, but the middle stage can be so awkward and excrutiatingly boring. while pondering my coif dilema, i was reminded of my childhood love of Crystal Gayle's shiny mane.

does anyone else remember that? as a very young girl, i thought her hair was the most beautiful thing on earth. i would dream of someday having hair as long as hers. now? ...not so much. bit horsey. neigh. still love that duet with Eddie Rabbit though. Just You And I-I-I....

tiny wee street art

Slinkachu's Little People project has reached new levels in Grottaglie, Italy, with his largest piece yet. so charming :)

all the king's women #8 - dolores del rio

in 1905, Dolores Martínez Asúnsolo y López Negrete was born to an aristocratic family in Durango, Mexico. the family lost everything they had in the Mexican revolution of 1916 and emigrated to Mexico City, where Dolores became a socialite. in 1921 she married Jaime del Río, and the two moved to Hollywood to launch careers in the movie business (she as an actress, he as a screenwriter). Dolores made her first film, Joanna, in 1925, and the couple divorced shortly after.

during the silent era, Dolores' career soared. she became the first Mexican movie star with international appeal and was often hailed as 'the female Valentino'. Orson Welles, with whom Dolores had an affair that would end her second of three marriages, referred to her as "the most exciting woman i've ever met".

with the advent of sound, however, came many forgettable roles for del Río, who eventually left Hollywood for Mexico in 1942. at the age of 37, filming in Spanish for the first time, del Río was partly responsible for creating what is referred to as the Golden Era of Mexican Cinema. with films such as María Candelaria (Xochimilco) (1944), Las abandonadas (1945) and Bugambilia (1945), she became the prototypical Mexican beauty in foreign countries.

in 1954, she was set to appear in the 20th Century Fox film Broken Lance, but was denied permission to work in the USA, accused of being a communist sympathizer by the U.S. government. it wasn't until 1960 that Dolores finally returned to Hollywood, playing the part of Elvis' native american mother in Flaming Star, Elvis' sixth film, costarring Barbara Eden.

del Río continued making films in both Mexico and the U.S. until 1978. On April 11, 1983, she died from liver disease at the age of 77, in Newport Beach, California.

if polygamy were legal #22

if polygamy were legal, i would marry this dress at city hall and buy her an apartment in manhattan. :)

video vendredi - red riding hood reinterpreted

above is Tomas Nilson's answer to a school assignment calling for a reinterpretation of Little Red Riding Hood. were i his professor, i'd've slapped an A+ on this fer sure.

yesterday's muse #8 - dorian leigh

Dorian Leigh (born Dorian Elizabeth Leigh Parker, sister of the afore mention muse Suzy Parker) was another of those considered to be among the first 'super models'. Dorian worked from 1945 until the early 1960's, and is rumoured to have been the inspiration for the character of Holly Golightly in Truman Capote's novel Breakfast at Tiffany's.



Leigh was married five times and mothered as many children.
two with her first husband, Marshall Hawkins, whom she met in college. this marriage ended in divorce.
next, she married a US Navy officer with whom she had her third child. they also divorced.
Dorian's third marriage was in Mexico, to a Spanish marquis/race-car driver, who turned out to be married at the time. he died in a crash during a race. the two had a son, Kim de Portago, who later became addicted to drugs and at age 21, jumped from a window to his death.
marriage number four was to Serge Bordat. during this marriage, Leigh had her fifth child with another man.
her fifth and final marriage was to playwright Iddo Ben-Gurion, from 1964-1966.

in 1980, Leigh published an autobiography, The Girl Who Had Everything, which she dedicated to her late son Kim. in Leigh's words: "I really wrote it for Kim, who will never read it. But perhaps other Kims and their parents may learn from my unhappy experiences ".

Leigh lived to be 91 years old, eventually succumbing to the effects of Alzheimer's disease in a Virginia nursing home.