Doamne din sec.XX

 http://www.vanityfair.com/style/features/2010/09/jacqueline-deribes-201009?currentPage=1&ref=nf

Pacat ca astfel de Doamne au disparut...
Jacqueline de Ribes, Nan Kempner, Sao Schlumberg, au sustinut si promovat artisti, care ulterior au ajuns celebri, au sustinut (atat cu bani dar mai ales cu timpul si relatiile lor) muzee,  au infiintat muzee... Chiar si in activitatile lor banale, promovau dezinteresat oameni, idei, creatii...Sao Schlumberg nu pleca de la nici o expozitie a unui tanar / necunoscut  artist   fara sa cumpere o lucrare a acestuia, pentru ca ulterior el "sa poata spune ca se afla in colectia Schlumberg".

Cand vor ajunge si la noi doamnele din lista celor mai bogati romani sa sustina astfel de cauze ? Sau sa ajunga la fel de des la expozitiile din Bucuresti pe cat ajung in cautare de chilipiruri la casele de licitatii..

Hermes - Birkin

Sunt deja cativa ani buni de cand fita maxima  prin e sa plimbi o poseta Birkin...cu cat mai multe cu atat mai bine. Conform tipicului bucurestean, fetele cu posibilitati  (sau nu) isi etaleaza posetele Birkin in cele mai ciudate imprejurari si combinatii vestimentare (la ora 10 dimineata, am vazut in zona piata dorobanti o pseudo creatoare de moda imbracata in trening de velur si tenisi da' cu "Birkin" la vedere....De ce oare romanii reusesc sa transforme in cel mai scurt timp  in kitch absolut orice???

Numai in Bucuresti am vazut acest model de poseta in cele mai strepezitoare la dinti culori care exista (probabil faptul ca se vand in baza unei liste de asteptare si a catorva recomandari din partea clientilor existenti ai casei conteaza la livrarea culorii:))

Sunt ferm convinsa ca majoritatea purtatoarelor de Birkin de pe plaiurile dambovitene habar n-au de originile acestei posete, de istoria ei si - practica dovedeste - nici de de ce reprezinta ea si cum se poarta.  Romancele o cumpara pentru ca e scumpa. Si mare. Si s-o inverzeasca de invidie pe vecina de vis-a-vis, si pe oricine care are o vaga idee despre pretul usor obscen al posetei.

Atasez doua imagini relevante despre cum arata purtatoarele de Hermes Birkin in Franta - preluate de pe nowness.com - si facute la un concurs de echitatie organizat anual de Hermes.  In Franta purtatoarele de Hermes Birkin sunt pasionate in primul rand de cai si echitatie, traiesc zi de zi in lumea Hermes. Care nu face posete si parfumuri ca sa vanda sei, ci pentru a-si respecta traditia de o suta si ceva de ani, aceea de a fi producatorul celor mai luxoase, confortabile accesorii / echipamente pentru echitatie.

De ce m-a impresionat atat de puternic NAN Kempner

cu aceasta ocazie raspund si comentariului annukai, careia ii multumesc  pentru sugestii, pentru ca a citit postarile si mai ales pentru comentariu :))

Nan Kempner nu a fost doar "unica femeie americana" chic cum a numit-o Diana Vreeland sau "cea mai chic persoana din lume" cum a caracterizat-o bunul ei prieten Yves Saint Laurant...nimeni pana la ea nu a realizat atat de mult cu atat de putin.

Surprinzator, NAN era o persoana foarte modesta, considerand sincer atentia pe care i-o acorda presa ca fiind "ego-boosting" insa supradimensionata, ea neavand nici o realizare grozava care sa justifice atata atentie din partea publicului.

Dincolo de comentariile PR-istice sau ale prietenilor, NAN a fost o femeie extraordinar de puternica si hotarata, care s-a nascut urata dar a facut toata viata TOT ce i-a stat in putere pentru a fi CHIC. "Nu exista nici o scuza pentru a fi urat" chiar a fost deviza ei. S-a nascut cu foarte putine atuu-ri. Pentru a ajunge persoana despre care s-a scris atat, si-a folosit inteligenta, ironia, educatia, simtul umorului, sinceritatea si nu a uitat niciodata sa fie ea insasi, sa se simta confortabil atat in pielea cat si in hainele ei.


 Pe parcursul acestui lung si complicat drum,  NAN nu a fost niciodata vulgara, a inventat si respectat niste reguli simple si eficiente, de fapt a inventat stilul femeii contemporane, din care ne putem inspira cu succes noi muritoarele de rand chiar daca nu avem la dispozitie nici bugetul ei si nici ocaziile de a ne "expune" garderoba pe care ale-a avut ea.

In ciuda pasiunii pentru couture, ea avea o atitudine democratica si ireverentioasa fata de haine, combinand cu usurinta si intr-un mod chic piese couture cu piese de la GAP.   NAN credea din toata inima in vaoloarea intrinseca a hainelor "Fashion is an art" spunea ea.  Ceea ce o deosebeste de tot restul "colectionarilor" de haine - couture sau nu-,  sau a asa-zisilor "fashion lovers"

NAN considera ca pentru a avea stil, trebuie sa te imbraci cel mai bine conform bugetului de care dispui dar sa te simti confortabil. Hainele insemna mult mai mult decat niste flecuri din tesatura cu care sa ne acoprim goliciunea. A stiut ca expresia stilului personal al cuiva este data NUMAI de atitudine.  "Stilul este expresia sufletului, loctiitorul persoanei" pentru ca nu ne putem purta sufletul in public, nu-i asa?

Sa o consideri pe NAN Kempner doar o purtatoare de haine de lux este o mare nedreptate si un neadevar: a fost o femeie educata, extrem de dinamica, hotarata, inzestrata cu o ironie fina, si cu un rafinat simt estetic.  Care a muncit mult desi nu avea nevoie de bani, si a fost extrem de devotata scopurilor caritabile.

Pe langa alcatuirea celei mai invidiate si dorite colectii de haine si "expunerea" in lume a acestora,  de-a lungul vietii sale NAN si-a folosit stilul impecabil in scopuri nobile. Ea singura a strans donatii de 75 milioane de dolari in 30 de ani pentru Centrul de Cercetari impotriva Cancerului, a fost editor special la Harper's Bazaar, consultant de design la faimoasa casa de bijuterii Tiffany & Co, si corespondent la editia franceza a revistei Vogue.

Cand a fost nevoita sa strang ao suma mare de bani pentru una din organizatiile caritabile in care era implicata, a scris unica sa carte - in fapt o colectie de interviuri  " RSVP: Menus For Entertaining From People Who Really Know How" care a avut vanzari uriase.

Cand au fost intrebati cum si-o amintesc sau cum au cunoscut-o pe NAN Kempner cei mai multi au povestit despre cat de placuta era fiecare intalnire cu NAN, uitandu-se fix in ochii tai ca si cum ai fi fost cea mai importanta persoana din incapere si spunandu-ti pe cel mai cald ton din lume "cat de mult ma bucur sa te vad"... 

coafuri chic dar foarte simple

"lucrurile simple sunt cele mai complicate" este un truism, de acord, insa cand vine vorba despre parul nostru, toate stim cat de greu este sa il aranjam asa..foarte simplu...nepretentios...sa fie si sexy deja e bonus. Iata cateva sfaturi (si imagini) de la profesionisti, cum sa ne aranjam parul "stylish" & simplu, in doi timpi si trei miscari... si intr-un stil "timeless"

http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-french-twist-hair-2


http://http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-create-a-messy-knot

Ici et la

..te rasfata cu delicioase mancaruri frantuzesti autentice.  Si nu e de mirare , dat fiind faptul ca patronul  in acelasi timp "Chef cuisinier"  Phippe Dupre care gateste chiar in fata ta, vine din Lyon , una dintre cele mai renumite zone gastronomice din lume.

Meniul cuprinde exact ce trebuie pentru un bistro mai chic decat media,  absolut toate felurile sunt DELICIOASE, vinurile sunt bune si fara mari pretentii, cat despre deserturi...deja am apa-n gura....toate sunt din liga "mare" a deserturilor.  Ah! preturile sunt decente.

Dintre preferatele mele: 

- supa de ceapa - cea mai autentic-frantuzeasca supa de ceapa pe care am mancat-o in Bucuresti;

- vinul Chateau Roquefort;

- TOATE deserturile  

- melcii

Atmosfera e calda si linistita, iar  gazdele impart cu generozitate zambete largi si cuvinte prietenoase. Si asta nu in modul comercial cu care suntem obisnuiti ... ci chiar sincer...

Nu astepti mai mult de 10 minute nici un fel de mancare iar meniul  tipic frantuzeste- este scris cu creta pe o tabla :))

 "Ici et la" este un bistro  chic, cu atmosfera calda, cu mancare frantuzeasca foooooarte buna si preturi decente si se afla langa Piata Romana, mai extact pe Mendeleev 43.

 

Locul nu-si merita deloc comentariile n aparute pe metropotam.ro (sursa in general "reliable" si cu atat mai putin cele din Wall Street - 5 martie, cu iz de razbunare impotriva refuzului de a cumpara publicitate la ei. Sau poate, cine scrie cronica restaurantelor la "Wall street" de Bucuresti, are gusturi culinare neaose romanesti - ciolan cu varza / slanina de porc / tocanita de cartofi / sarmale moldovenesti si foarte multa bere - atunci inteleg de ce a fost omu' nemultumit.

In ce priveste comentariile despre design-ul locului  citite acolo - romanul tipic isi da cu parerea si despre mancare si despre arhitectura si despre lobotomie...cu acelasi aer "doct" si acelasi ton categoric.....tupeul nu cunoaste limite....mai ales daca scrie la gazeta vorba 'ceea...

Pozele le-am imprumutat de pe metropotam k altele n-am avut la indemana, dar voi reveni si cu foto facute de mine.

Lessons Learned

desi niciodata nu voi "a Park Avenue Princess" here are the lesson I have learned from Nan Kempner:

1. “I’ve always liked being noticed, and I work hard at it.”
2. Get “tons” of sleep, entertain “constantly,” and “be yourself.”
3. “When you’re trying on clothes, look at yourself sitting down and look at your reflection from the back side.”
4. All a woman needs is a good trench coat, a pair of black pants, a long black skirt, a short black skirt, and lots of tops.”
5. "There is really no excuse for anyone to be ugly".
6. "You know me - I wouldn't miss the opening of a door. "

Read more: Nan Kempner: How to Be a Park Avenue Princess (in 2004 Fall Fashions) http://nymag.com/nymetro/shopping/fashion/fall04/9647/#ixzz0gv3pLWKJ

from the guardian 2005

The American socialite and couture collector Nan Kempner, who has died aged 74, was an exemplar of how to spend it if you had it; she demonstrated that entrance to the New York elite was open to those with elan and wardrobes of size two couture. As the slogan on her cushions read, she was The Queen Of Everything.

She had been a muse to Yves St Laurent, the original of Tom Wolfe's "social x-rays" (hostesses, in The Bonfire Of The Vanities, as thin as they were rich), and a reliable photo-op for 50 years, recently in demand for glossy features on fabulousness in age. "If I'm going to go," she warned en route to hospital for treatment for the emphysema that killed her, "I'm going to do it with a photographer taking my picture."

Had she been born later, or poor, her character and wit would have furthered a career. As it was, they were her career, although now and again she swept past as consultant at Harper's Bazaar, Tiffany's, French Vogue and Christie's (where her role was to be "a shill to bring friends in").

In the Manhattan manner, she worked her networks in service of charities, especially the Memorial Sloan-Kettering cancer centre, which, in 2000, received the proceeds of her book, RSVP: Menus For Entertaining From People Who Really Know How.

"Nervous hostesses ruin a party," she advised, "imagination and great friends" made for good ones, while the best hospitality might be no more than a bowl of spaghetti in Greenwich Village. Every Sunday night, she did downhome pasta for friends - Princess Diana and Nancy Reagan among them - "home" being a 16-room duplex at 79th and Park Avenue, where she lived for more than 45 years.

Nan was from San Francisco, the daughter of a Ford car dealer, Albert Schlesinger, and his wife Irma, "who cared terribly about how she looked". Her formal education ended with a year in Paris, taking painting lessons with Fernand Léger, who told her "I had so little talent I should go back to San Francisco and stop wasting my parents' money . . . it was true."

Her informal education, in the power of appearances, began when Irma put her on a diet at 12; Nan read recipe books for comfort and turned to cigarettes at 14. She smoked heavily until a decade ago, tar toning her voice to a timbre that intensified the wit. On the way back from that Paris foray, she met Thomas Kempner, chairman of an investment bank, who said her Dior skirt was too short; they traded insults at the Monkey Bar, dated, and married in 1952.

Her mother and grandmother had trained her as a clotheshorse. Grandma wore "classy silk jackets to bed, with sheets to match"; mother wore only red, black or grey. When they picked her up from summer camp, she noticed they had coats with linings that matched their dresses. Her own first couture gown was a white Dior sheath, bought in the early 1950s, just before she attained instant celebrity via a Museum of Modern Art committee.

She travelled to Paris and Milan twice a year for shows, seldom absent from the St Laurent salon. Nicotine, deprivation - she used thick lettuce leaves instead of bread for sandwiches - and exercise in her apartment mini-gym kept her slender enough to fit into couture samples, discounted at $10,000 a gown. She stored them (when the children grew up, she converted their rooms to extra closets) and "it turns out that I was an art collector. Museums come and ask me for clothes all the time". As curator of her own rails, she was elected to the fashion Hall of Fame and gave courses at the Metropolitan museum.

She bought too much and wore all of it, dressed up in the 1970s as "Pocahontas, Nanook of the North, I'd be - God knows - the River Boat Queen; it was such fun". She was crazy about, and in, high heels - she bent to kiss her husband after climbing into a pair of rare spikes, tripped and broke her hip.

Such insouciant stories were a wow. Remember that 1960s legend of a socialite who was stopped at the door of a chic restaurant because she was in a trouser suit? That was Nan Kempner in a St Laurent tunic over pants. She took off the bottom half on the spot, gave it to her husband, and flaunting the top as a minidress over racehorse legs, warily sat to dine. "I put a lot of napkins in my lap and didn't dare bend over."

"Artificially relaxed" was how Nan described her style. "I've always liked being noticed, and I work hard at it . . . Never has anyone done so much with so little." She was frank about her plastic surgery. As she would go "to the opening of a door", there were decades of lunches, galas and parties worldwide, her favourite being her 50th wedding anniversary, catering for 476 people at the New York Botanical Gardens. Although by then accessorised with a portable oxygen tank, she attended Ronald Reagan's funeral, and dished the dirt on it with the rest of the girls next day.

Two women in an Armistead Maupin story propose a wax museum of society so that future generations will know what Nan Kempner was like. No need. She left enough snaps of herself looking swell to paper Park Avenue.

Her husband, and children Tommy, Lina and James, survive her.

· Nan Kempner, couture collector, born July 24 1930; died July 3 2005
© Guardian News & Media 2008
Published: 7/25/2005