News of the World and Little Missy's Reading Round Up

 

The Royal Christening and Two Groovy Uncles!

That little Prince George sure has two groovy looking uncles.  Prince Harry we know all about, but this other one, Uncle James with the beard looks to be a groovy contender as well.  And isn't he in the party planning business with social butterfly little sister Pippa and his parents?  These guys will be jamming out the best parties on the planet!  This little Prince George does not have a chance to be an old bore.  Hopefully Kensington Palace will be Party Central and London will live up to its old name Swinging London!  And Sarah Burton can keep on banging out fabulous creations for Mamaquin Kate to model!  Well done, Windsors and Middletons!  Little Missy approves!

 

Kanye Rents Out AT&T Park to Propose to Kim Kardashian!

You hit this one out of the ballpark, Kanye!  The San Francisco Giants rock and so do you!

 

George Lucas Gets Honoured by San Francisco Museum of Modern Art!

George Lucas with Alyssa Fung and Little Missy, photographed by Frederic Aranda

 

 

Yes, the Star Wars Wizard himself picked up a Bay Area Treasure award, bestowed annually by SFMOMA to a living legend in the arts who was born or who has worked in the Bay Area.  Joni Binder, President Emeritus of Modern Art Council of which Little Missy is a proud member, worked tirelessly for two and a half years to make this stellar night happen.  Good work Joni!  Congratulations, George!  You changed everything in motion pictures and no one deserves this award more than you. And yes, the dress I am wearing is Rodarte!

 

Joni Binder with husband Robert Shwarts. Joni's wearing Rodarte, too!

 

 

 

Well that's it for News of the world!  Let's go to Reading Round Up!  I'm calling this one Little Missy's Must Reads for the Educated Fashionista.  There are a ton of books out there so  let's not be boring.  I will just cut to the chase and tell you three ones that are not necessarily fashion reads but will put you that much more in the know about fashion.

 

Dior by Dior

Some people think it started with Chanel.  Some people think it started with Balenciaga.  Some people think it started with Yves Saint Laurent.  Personally, I believe it started with a caveman killing a leopard and presenting it to his cave woman, who fashioned the skin into a sarong.  Little Missy loves animals, but almost surely what I have just described is  the start of haute couture.  And then there is Christian Dior.  This little book, Dior by Dior, is the most profound book I have ever read on the subject of fashion.   This man's genius and humanity shines through every page, and his modesty is a virtue a few of today's designers could incorporate into their megalomaniac personas.

 

All We Know by Lisa Cohen is a book of genius, a biography at the highest level of the discipline.  The lives of three woman, all as nutty as fruitcakes and utterly compelling spring forth and the reader compulsively turns the page.  One woman is a tour de force of eighteenth and nineteenth century intellectual history (Little Missy's great love, BTW) who cannot commit a single brilliant thought to paper.  One is a stalker of Greta Garbo and one was the first editor of British Vogue.  Trust me and read this book!  You will be more fashionable when you have finished it.

A great read

 

Finally, it's one of the sadder books I have read, but I must recommend Alone Together by Teddy Getty Gaston.  This is also a compulsive page turner.  Teddy was John Paul Getty's last wife, and this is Teddy's compelling story of life with the difficult and complicated Getty. Teddy is a generation or two removed from Little Missy, and is more forgiving in her tone, and when you read what John Paul Getty was like as a husband and father, you will not be as forgiving!  You must remember that this was a different time and era, the Stork Club!  World War II!  Cigarettes and cocktails and debutantes and love affairs.  The whole nine yards.  It is a bird's eye view of what it was like to live with a man like John Paul Getty.  Obviously, nearly impossible!  Little Missy says get this book!  You will not be disappointed.  Maybe a little sad, but what a read!

Little Missy's idea of a good read

 

Well, that's it for Little Missy for this week!  Happy Halloween!  Be in the moment since the possibilities are just so endless!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

Gericault or Jericho?

You Be The Judge!

 

Frederic Aranda, Edelweiss October 2013

The Raft of the Medusa by Gericault

Fashion was getting so boring even Little Missy was about to give up!  Then along came Frederic Aranda and now fashion is fun again! Here are some pictures from an epic shoot this past August in Tokyo that Freddie did for Edelweiss Magazine!  Brodie Reynolds is an innocent and intelligent man caught up in several situations where he is about to be taken advantage of!  Of course in real life this never happens, does it!  And Little Missy is the good Fairy, there to help point the way from all things Evil!

Frederic Aranda for Edelweiss, October 2013

This is the way fashion will be from now on.  Epic.  And not one minute too soon!

Frederic Aranda for Edelweiss, October 2013

 

And Prophetic! Now for Little Missy's Mail Bag

Dear Little Missy, I always look forward to your blog posts.  Your posts are a surplus value to our blogger community of fashion and culture.  Hmmmm, this one sounds a bit fishy!  I think it was from a reader trying to pull my leg!  Because as we all know, Little Missy likes to go out on a limb, and reel in the wrath.  Like this email, for instance, from Robopuck.  Dear Christine, writes Robopuck, You are an authority on nothing, and nothing is your authority. Hmmm, Robopuck, you are sounding a bit like Gertrude Stein!  Did you know that Gertrude Stein's brother Michael and his wife Sarah lived right around the corner from Little Missy after they gave up life in Paris for the delights of Palo Alto?  Robopuck, I know who you are and how much you love French culture, so I know you'll enjoy that tidbit!

It's wonderful to be sharing these photographs with you.  The shoot was so much fun!  I wish you all could have been there with us!   

Epic and alive and in the moment!



Little Missy Gets Iconic On Rue Cambon
 Chic Chic Chic!

Little Missy Would Make A Good Nun And You All Know It!

Photograph by Frederic Aranda in London, 2012

 

 Yes, it was Fashion Week,  not Little Missy's favourite Fashion Week (that would be Haute Couture), but a very good one!  Having been to the Chanel show earlier in the morning, the urge to visit 31 rue Cambon, the inevitable Pavlovian Little Missy response to any and all things Chanel, flung itself into my conscious (what there is of it).  A burgundy sequined bag, big enough for the stuff one needs at night, a credit card, some bills, ID as we like to go to those downtown hot spots that require it, lipstick, cell phone and eyeglasses.  It adds up. So, off I go.  Well well, I am in good company, it seems.  Half the fashion world I know is assembled at Mademoiselle's apartment entrance next door for that rare little tour which is given to clients during fashion week.  "You look marvellous, darling, come along".  Well yes I will admit Little Missy might look marvellous to the Chanel crowd as I am head to toe in the latest that they have, a walking advert.  "Come along Christine, you've seen it a gazillion times but see it again.  It's fun and we can gossip", says Madame A.  So Little Missy goes on the tour of Coco Chanel's apartment at which Coco did not sleep (she really lived at the Ritz).
The Tour!
First we look at the Haute Couture and Little Missy gazes affectionately at the silver embroidered flapper dress she saw last summer, wondering who ordered it.  Then, looking around at our little assembled tour, including a young beauty from  Napa Valley (yes, Little Missy is surprised not to be in the know who she is, too)  it dawns on me that maybe no one has ordered it.  Or maybe six clients have.  It is a mystery, like the interlocking CCs on the light posts in Marylebone, London (Little Missy's favourite ever neighbourhood).  Did the Duke of Westminster put them there when he and Coco were having an affair?  I think he must have! What a tribute!  What a woman!  Then we walk upstairs.  There is a kind of rumbling and of course being from California I think at first it is an earthquake!  Or that maybe Karl has dropped by!  But OMG, the Russian Icon that Stravinsky gave Coco almost falls from its perch onto my head.  Little Missy may not lean so much to the Ecclesiastical interpretation, but goodness, is this some kind of message? That Karl is Not God and Coco is his mother?   Being the Chanel crowd, we laugh it off and then hear the story about Hubert de Givenchy visiting the apartment and as he is so tall, he knocks a crystal off the chandelier.  Then there is a tedious part about a frog and good luck and long life and all of that, but Little Missy is not going to bore you with it.
I will tell you this: the Chanel crowd likes to call that sunny spot for shady characters Monte Karl.  Those of you who are still reading this can pat yourselves on the backs, because really, that is a good one!

The Denouement (not to be confused with Deneuve)!

And did Little Missy get her burgundy sequined evening bag?  Maybe if I had gotten conked out by the icon, things would have been different...