Tag Archives: Fashion

Lee Miller: Born April 23, 1907

Posted in Artists Born Today Include: by

Lee Miller archives: https://bit.ly/3maYfBR

picAt the age of 19, Lee Miller was prevented from being hit by a truck in NYC by Condé Nast, the publisher of Vogue. Condé Nast thought she had the makings of a model, putting her on the cover of the magazine, which launched her modeling career. For a couple of years Miller was in high demand by photographers, until 1929 when a photograph of her taken by Edward Steichen was used to advertise Kotex pads, effectively ending her popularity as a model.kotex

Miller then moved to Paris, with the intention of working with Man Ray. She became his model, muse, collaborator, and lover, thus beginning a new career on the other side of the camera as well as continuing as a model.
manray
Lee Miller returned to New York in 1932, where she set up her own studio. She continued to pursue dual careers as model and photographer, however photography became her primary interest.

Miller was married in 1934 and moved to Cairo. The following years saw a succession of lovers and locations, eventually landing her in London where once again Vogue magazine had a major influence on her life, this time as a photographer: her work for them included being their war correspondent during WWII. warShe covered many major events including Normandy, the Liberation of Paris, and the death camps of Dachau and Buchenwald. There was a famous photo of her taking a bath in Hitler’s apartment in Munich taken as the war drew to its close.
bath
Miller’s only child was born in 1947, fathered by her lover Sir Roland Penrose, whereupon she divorced her husband and married Penrose. They settled in a farm in England. Miller became a gourmet cook and a hostess for some of the most famous artists and photographers of the time, but her life became colored by her ongoing clinical depression and she started on what her son described as a “downward spiral”. She died of lung cancer in 1977. After her death, 60,000 of her photographic negatives were found in a stash of cardboard boxes.withson

Lee Miller has such an amazing biography that I haven’t even attempted to cover it all. I recommend using Google to learn more about her life, or following some of the links I’ve posted here:
Victoria and Albert Museum~ http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/l/lee-miller/
Much More Than A Muse: Lee Miller And Man Ray~ http://www.npr.org/2011/08/20/139766533/much-more-than-a-muse-lee-miller-and-man-ray
Lee Miller’s Photographs of the Second World War~
http://www.brighthub.com/multimedia/photography/articles/119376.aspx
The Roving Eye~ http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/01/21/the-roving-eye

April 18, 1956: The “Wedding of the Century”

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“Before William and Kate, before Charles and Di, before Liz and Dick (I and II), before any of the “storybook” weddings of the past several decades, there was the fairytale wedding of the last century: the April 1956 nuptials of Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier III of Monaco. The tale of the American movie star and Philadelphia native marrying the prince of a small, sensationally wealthy city-state was simply too perfect to ignore — and for months leading up to the event, from the time of the couple’s engagement PGKuntil the two ceremonies (civil and religious) that formalized their union, the Hollywood princess and the real-life prince were hardly ever out of the news.

Here, LIFE.com presents photos — many of which never ran in LIFE magazine — from the moment the couple announced their engagement in January 1956 until they were married three and a half months later in Monaco.”
FROM~ http://time.com/3684060/life-with-grace-kelly-and-prince-rainier-photos-from-the-wedding-of-the-century/

Andy Warhol (1928-1987)

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2016-02-22-warhol-e1456088647797

Andy Warhol Died 29 Years Ago Today,
Here’s a Look at One of His First Silkscreens.
artnetnews

Blake Gopnik, Monday, February 22, 2016  Andy Warhol died 29 years ago today in a hospital in New York, after a routine gallbladder operation. It seems only fitting to commemorate the end of his artmaking by revisiting its beginnings. The work I’ve chosen as today’s Daily Pic was made in the spring of 1962, as one of the very first of the silkscreened canvases that became Warhol’s signature mode for the next quarter century. It’s the titular work in a touring exhibition called “Open This End: Contemporary Art from the Collection of Blake Byrne,” curated by the art historian Joseph Wolin and now at the Wallach Art Gallery of Columbia University.
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/andy-warhol-died-29-years-ago-today-here-is-when-he-started-to-matter-431666

Andy Warhol, A Documentary Film~

Andy Warhol Biography


The Andy Warhol Museum~ http://www.warhol.org/museum/
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts~ http://warholfoundation.org/

“First Lady fashion from the 1930s to today”

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First Lady Mamie Eisenhower Jewelry

“As these photos by LIFE photographers show, there hasn’t exactly been a dress code, though styles have historically erred on the conservative side (in terms of hem lines, not party lines). The first ladies’ fashions have both evolved with popular trends and helped to inspire them. Furs, seen on Eleanor Roosevelt, Bess Truman, Mamie Eisenhower and Lady Bird Johnson, have fallen out of favor in recent decades. Hats, from Truman’s rather vertical design to Kennedy’s pillbox style, are infrequently sported by recent first ladies. Leather, with the exception of Nancy Reagan, shown in 1968 before her First Lady days, has been far from a staple, whereas the simple pearl necklace continues to be a timeless, nonpartisan classic.

While Kennedy’s style was described by LIFE in 1961 as having “an almost deliberate plainness,” Obama does not shy away from a hint of flourish here and there. But she’s certainly not the first to indulge in a bit of flair. When working with a designer on her dress for the inauguration in 1953, Mamie Eisenhower had a few extra requests. “She specified pink and asked for some additional glitter.” Because even the White House—no, especially the White House—can use a little sparkle now and then.”

44 First Lady Fashion Looks from Eleanor Roosevelt to Michelle Obama:
http://time.com/3665827/first-ladies-fashion/