Why Givenchy's Orange Coat for Breakfast at Tiffany's is My Favourite Audrey Fashion Moment

You know the coat---she wore it OVER her famous little black dress to "select" jewelry at Tiffany's in the immortal fashion movie Breakfast at Tiffany's.

She was really having fun with leading man George Pepppard

Givenchy gave Audrey Hepburn real power with her orange coat.  In the more famous look, the "little black dress (now LBD)", a bit of salacious shade is thrown onto the screen as party girl Audrey jumps out of bed, miraculously throws on the perfect LBD (which is somehow next to her bed), and slips into the perfect black heels-- which are miraculously under her bed.  We somehow have managed to forget that Audrey was a call girl in this hallowed fashion film!  But in Givenchy's orange coat, she is protected, secure and truly joyous.

This will never take away from the magnificence of this image.  However, Audrey's screen power came when she donned the orange coat.

Tiffany's took her seriously, too!

So here is Little Missy's Advice:  it comes from a San Francisco girl who owns a lot of coats because it's COLD in this town!  Wear a great coat whenever you can. This orange coat has been copied more times than nearly any other garment.  Its staying power is for real. Wear a great coat, ladies, and so will be yours!

Love Little Missy

Little Missy's Fashion Tips

Every age has its charms.  How many times have you heard that one? Well, Little Missy has entered that age where I don't give a hoot what anyone thinks about my style.  I am very sad for these younger women who desperately put photos of themselves online, or even worse--selfies--on a daily basis.  I think they are really simply trying to discover who they are. At any rate they seem to have no clue.  The Kardashians...maybe this family started this bizarre trend which is now a multi-billion dollar business.  Little wonder our country is in the mess it's in. 

We value reality stars over beauty and art.

We value reality stars over truth.

Last night I attended a bittersweet goodbye party for Alan Morrell, the General Manager of Neiman Marcus in San Francisco.  He's leaving to manage an even bigger Neiman's outside of Dallas proper.  It was dipping into the 30's Fahrenheit, which is very cold for San Francisco at any time.

Now to my fashion tips.  What to wear to a cocktail party when you really want to honor the honouree by looking your best and it's freezing?  You don't want to walk into the ultra glamorous Rotunda Restaurant in a heavy coat.  You know Drew Altizer (our local society photographer) will have someone very good there photographing everyone in attendance.   I chose a two piece blue sequined Rodarte ensemble, very Hollywood glamorous, which I paired with a lighter blue Mongolian Azzedine Alaia shrug.  For jewelry I only had to dip into my mother's cache which she left to me. I carried a blue velvet Dries van Noten envelope bag large enough to hold an umbrella and I wore black suede Emma Hope kitten heels with crystal star bursts at the toe. It goes without saying that your hair, makeup and nails should look good without looking overdone. Regular grooming appointments help.  It's that simple. If you commit to a regular program, you won't be freaking out on the day of your event.

A lot of people loved the above described ensemble, which I devised out of necessity (it was freezing). But I say to my readers, just enjoy yourself.  Don't wait until you're my age to stop caring what other people think (spoiler alert: I have never given a damn what anyone thought  I wore as long as I loved it).

So here are Little Missy's Fashion Tips in list form:

1. Always try to look your best

2. Always maintain a high standard of grooming

3. Dress for comfort, meaning lower heeled shoes for ladies if you know there will be walking, and for warmth if you know you will be outdoors a lot and it's cold.

4. Smile and make an effort to enjoy yourself or this advice of mine will be for nought.

Now, if it's a Gala or a Red Carpet event, much of my advice is out the window.

1. Never hide your Red Carpet gown with a coat even it it's 20 below Fahrenheit.

2. Wear the highest heel you can manage if you're a woman and suck it up in black tie if you're a man.

3. Forget enjoying yourself.  You'll be through it in a few hours and if you did a good enough job, there will be some photos to prove it.

Well, I didn't claim this was the cure to cancer or the way to world peace.  Little Missy gave you the secrets of what she knows best--putting a fashion perspective into perspective.

Fashionably Yours,

With Love, 

Little Missy

Little Missy Is Five Years Old!
March 2013-February 2018

And like most five year olds, I want a party if I can't go to Disneyland!  Yes, Little Missy took both her daughter and then her son to Disneyland when they turned five.  That's how I got out of having to go to Great America, which is located less than ten miles from my home!

I celebrated my fifth birthday as Little Missy with this beautiful Rodarte dress.

I think of all the things that have happened in the past five years!  My granddaughter Isold was born. My children's father passed away.  My mother and father passed away.  Frederic Aranda and I published Electric Fashion. We then began a new project. Births and deaths and re-births!  It's what life is all about!

A photograph from Electric Fashion

Lexi and Isold at our V&A launch party for Electric Fashion

And we're planning a Rodarte exhibition at the National Museum for Women in Arts November 2018!  First DC museum fashion exhibition in history!

So remember, when life seems to get you down, put on your tiara or your cowboy hat or whatever and get out there!  Get up, dress up and show up!

It's been a five year roller coaster ride my dear readers and I'm still here and so are you.  I love you all!  Let's keep loving each other!

XXXXXOOOOO

Little Missy

WARREN  BUFFET READS 500 PAGES A DAY
Letter from Paris

Little Missy cannot say the same thing.  But if Warren can manage 500 pages, then I think the rest of us can as well. In my youth, about a million years ago I labored under the delusion that you either read or you wrote and I chose to write. Even Bertrand Russell said (and I paraphrase) "you either read or you write".  Just today in the International edition of the New York Times, in an interview with Philip Roth, one if the most prolific writers of his generation,  Philip said he had retired from writing and has shifted to reading.
It's a cozy, rainy night in Paris.  I just got in today, and I'm tucked away in my room thinking about the last three hit books I've read.  They are as different as all get out. Leonardo da Vinci by the great biographer Walter Isaacson was almost as compulsive a read as his Steve Jobs biography.  And indeed Isaacson made constant references to his Steve book in his da Vinci bio.  Like there is a similarity?  Much as I have loved Steve for decades, I think not!  If you want to know what colour Leonardo was obsessed with in his clothes choices, Walter knows!  Walter's also good at explaining all the things Leonardo figured out, and what commissions he either completed or not, as well as  personal studies he abandoned or pursued with sustained intensity. Michaelangelo is portrayed as a gauche and filthy angry genius who refused the older, more genteel Leonardo's advice.  I was  inspired to read it after having a peek at Salvator Mundi, the last Leonardo painting to go on auction.

Tina Brown's The Vanity Fair Diaries was a bitch for me to read.  Tina is exactly my age and at the thirty was given the limping Vanity Fair magazine to edit and turn into a huge success, which she did.  Si Newhouse, her boss, apparently had a thing for English girls with fathers in the publishing business.  Tina breezily recounts all those boring dinners with the likes of Henry Kissinger, Ben Bradlee, Warren Beatty and so on.  And if you are looking for a loyal best friend, don't pick Tina.  Her best friend, in whose house Tina was married, wrote a book and Tina thought nothing of having Christopher Buckley do a hatchet job on it. Tina still doesn't understand why her friend stopped speaking to her.  Tina is just too disingenuous for words!

 Now I'm reading What We Cannot Know by Marcus du Sautoy.  Marcus is Professor of Mathematics at Oxford (Tina's alma mater in fact) and in 2008 was appointed as the Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science.  This means he has the gift of explaining all kinds of scientific knowledge in a way that even I can get it!  I'm loving the history of logic through the history of gambling with dice. I already feel more intelligent!  Warren Buffet is on to something!  I am going to try to read at least 250 pages a day and see where I go from there! If any of you have any good book ideas, send them along!
Love from Paris
Little Missy

Influencer or Influenza--What is Worse?

Here I am at my chic morning haunt, drinking my cappuccino and showing you my partially eaten pastry and my new Azzedine bag!  I forgot to bring my copy of Le Monde, but you get the idea...I'm CHIC!

Here I am with my all important out of season peonies, trying to figure out what jewelry to wear!

About last night...that's what we Influencers always say! Mine was about Rodarte!

I have the new Rodarte bag and you don't!

Here I am with my new candle and of course my peonies!

Next week we'll talk about taking SELFIES!

Little Missy Goes to the Movies

A Thanksgiving Tradition--Catching up on the movies you have been wanting to see!

Victoria and Abdul
Like many of Little Missy's readers, I am usually dazzled by anything to do with the British Royals, even when their most gifted filmmakers are attempting to humanise them, one might even say knock them off their pedestals.  Watching the brilliant actor Judi Dench, made up to look like an obese and ageing Queen Victoria gives one a start, especially as we must endure her slurping through her formal dinners, burping when she's not snoring.  When two young Indians arrive to present the queen with a special Indian coin, we are cheering the tall, good looking one on to wake her up.  Apparently, she hasn't lost all of her lively impulses, or else it's the chicken curry he has made especially for her, but all at once, the Indian called Abdul becomes her favourite--and the queen goes on an Indian fanaticism that lasts the rest of her life.  The story of Victoria's obsession with Abdul--he was with her nearly every day, teaching her Urdu and Hindustani, chatting about her family problems as well as the issues of the state--was little known until 2003, when Shrabani Basu was touring Victoria's Isle of Wight summer home and noticed several paintings and busts of an Indian made up to look like an aristocrat, not a servant.  Voila:  Stephen Frear's drama starring the aforementioned Judi Dench and Ali Fazal.  This movie is well acted and beautifully shot, and Little Missy gives it a pass because it brings to light a story we didn't know about Queen Victoria.  And because of that, it sheds new light on the age of repression we call "The Victorian Era". Nothing is as easy as a label. By now we must all know that.

Last Flag Flying
Leave it to filmmaker Richard Linklater (Little Missy reviewed his "Boyhood" a few years ago) to tackle a difficult and sensitive topic. The film takes place in 2003, just after the beginning of the Iraq war. Larry "Doc" Shepard, played by Steve Carell has lost his wife to breast cancer a few months earlier and now his son, a Marine, in Iraq. Steve, who served in Vietnam until an incident got him thrown into the brig for two years and thrown out of the Navy with a Bad Conduct Discharge, is truly the epitome of down and out. He seeks out his old Vietnam buddy Sal, played by Bryan Cranston, who is now running a seedy bar in Virginia for help.  Although the two haven't seen one another since the war, Bryan drops everything when Steve asks him if he will come with him to claim his son's body and bury him. The Marines have stipulated he be buried at Arlington, which already is giving Steve bad feelings.  The two pick up one more old Vietnam friend for this journey, Richard Mueller, played by Laurence Fishburne, now a Baptist minister. We learn that Steve doesn't want his son buried at Arlington, but next to his mother in New Hampshire. When the three friends arrive at Dover to claim Steve's son, they meet the son's best friend, Charlie Washington, played brilliantly by J. Quinton Johnson.  Quinton tells Steve what really happened to his son, which makes Steve go ballistic.  He insists on bringing his son home to New Hampshire, Arlington be damned, and the Marines insist Quinton accompanies the group to insure the son has a proper and dignified burial wearing his dress uniform.  My favourite part of the movie is when the three old warriors start reminiscing about Saigon, booze and prostitutes, and Quinton shuts them down by suggesting that prostitution isn't something he or his friends are into.  Hmmmm, a Millennial Moment???  Happily for this sad movie, the ending is upbeat.  The three inadvertently have done exactly what the son would have wanted them to do.  Full disclosure:  I would not have picked this movie, my boyfriend did--but I am glad I saw it.

The Florida Project
If I had to say what movie had the most impact on me this year, I would have to say it was Sean Baker's "The Florida Project". The setting is a three-story poverty motel on the outskirts to Disney World.  It's even called The Magic Castle, but this is as close to Disney World the kids who live here are going to get. It stars Willem Dafoe as motel manager and it should get him an Academy Award. He is uncompromising but kind and humane to the down and out parents who are trying to make their rents each week.  He also looks out for the small kids while their parents are working, asleep or inebriated.  A six year old girl called Moonee, played brilliantly by Brooklyn Kimberly Prince, lives with her early twenty something mom, played by Bria Vinaite.  For Brooklyn, summer means endless stretches of time to invent games to antagonise neighbours, roam throughout the neighbourhood inventing fantasy scenarios, and never giving up or giving in.  In essence, this movie is about the resiliency of children, despite what may be going on at home. In fact, I've never seen a movie that quite captured the indefatigable bounce back kids can have in the worst of situations. I don't want to say much more, except do whatever you can to see this movie!

Woodshock
Last but not least, Little Missy is happy to say that Woodshock is available as a DVD.  Kate and Laura Mulleavy's breathtaking movie starring the luminous Kirsten Dunst is a must see.  It tells a story 100 per cent from a woman's viewpoint, something I don't think has ever happened in Hollywood. Like the movie "Days of Heaven", which was released in 1978 and is now considered one of the most important American movie, there is little dialogue and much gorgeous cinematography.  Allow yourself to be immersed in the redwoods while Kirsten takes her dark night of the soul journey. Stunning and unforgettable.

Happy Thanksgiving, dear readers!
Much love
Little Missy

Coco Chanel's Out of Date Advice

Throw It Away Now

Yes it's true!  She's dated.

"I don't care what you think about me. I don't think about you at all".

Advice to hand down to a daughter or a granddaughter?  I hope not!

"Dress like you're going to meet your worst enemy today".

Perhaps Mademoiselle may have written that when she was holed up at the Ritz in Paris with Nazi officers?

"A woman with good shoes is never ugly". 

Forgive Little Missy but What in the Hell does That mean?

"A girl should be only two things: who she is and what she wants".

God forbid she would ever think of anyone else!

"A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous".

For those of you old enough to remember, Helen Gurley Brown, the legendary editor of Cosmopolitan Magazine essentially had some of the most famous writers of the day re-writing this drivel, including Norah Ephron.  Gone with the wind!  It's too ridiculous to contemplate.

"A woman who doesn't wear perfume has no future".

I guess it worked for selling Chanel No. 5 but who's buying into that myth now?

And last but not least because I think my beloved readers are getting the idea:

"If you're mad, add some lipstick and attack".

Utter rubbish!

Coco, your days of "chic advice" are over.  Little Missy never quoted you to her daughter and can't imagine doing so now.  My granddaughter would simply look perplexed, and ask why the lady (Coco) was so angry and why she wanted to play those games with lipstick and shoes.  This isn't 1910.  Little Missy says please stop quoting Chanel, stop the memes and the Pinterest boards about her "pearls of wisdom". Collect the costume pearls she created -- they actually have value and are skyrocketing every day.  Lay to rest the things she had to say and do to get where she got. It's a brave new world, women! 

#MeToo

Do You Want To Be  Bad Girl Or A Good Girl?

Paris Fashion After Christian Dior Died

Silk Shantung and Wool Crepe Bar Suit 1947

It was wonderful and only natural for a French fashion genius to bring a new look to women after the deprivations of World War II.  Christian Dior, the French fashion genius even called it "The New Look".  It featured an extreme nipped in waist and flared out skirts that almost swept to the floor. The skirts were lined in tulle and could virtually stand on their own. No more deprivation!  The war was over and fabrics were again available and men wanted to see women look like women!  That's what Dior designed and the fashion world did a topsy turvy!  Lots of women loved the idea of extreme usage of fabric as a symbol of youth and hope. But not all women.  When Christian Dior's designs arrived in Chicago in 1947, they were greeted by women carrying banners which said, "Mr. Dior, we abhor dresses to the floor".

1954 Dior Floral Day Dress

This did not stop Christian Dior, and for the most part, his popularity was legendary.

Added to his popularity was his unassuming nature. I urge all of you to read his autobiography, Dior by Dior.  His charm is natural and unforced and he comes across as genuine and lovable.

And full disclosure, Christian Dior designed Little Missy's most favourite dress in the world, the Junon.  It is such a special gown that it has its own glass case on a top pedestal in the Dior Retrospective at Les Arts Decoratifs in Paris, on display until January 2018.

Well, well, well...Dior suddenly died in 1957 and the brilliant young Yves Saint Laurent took his place.

Hmmm, what do we have here?  The "Chicago Ensemble"!  A badass take on Brando, James Dean and motorcycles!  Plus an incendiary nod to the badasses in Chicago who did not dig Dior in '47!

Of course, Saint Laurent got fired and went on to dizzying heights, completely in tune with what his generation of women wanted!  Bonjour Jeunesse indeed!

And of course Yves was a hippie!  I mean, HELLO!

So my point is (and I do have one)--a woman does not have to be a "good girl" or a "bad girl".  Just be an aware individual.  Select the clothes which suit you.  I see a lot of women today buying these awful Gucci and Dolce&Gabbana floral dresses and it makes me cringe!  But then fashion is cyclical and already the leading designers have stopped putting everything but the kitchen sink onto their clothes and accessories!  I take a leaf out of Yves' page...when in doubt, be a BADASS!
Love,
Lttle Missy

Packing for an Extended Trip

Little Missy Light
ONE SUITCASE ONLY

The original itinerary was two physics conferences in Florence and Belgrade.  One small suitcase with a couple of day dresses and some white jeans and tops to augment my travel ensemble of jeans and a sweater.  The weather in Florence is topping out at 95 degrees Fahrenheit every day and Belgrade is even hotter.  Then the plans changed.  Kate and Laura Mulleavy invited me to the premiere of their movie Woodshock at the esteemed Venice Film Festival.  So I talked it over with Bruce and we decided I should attend this once in a lifetime experience and cheer on Kate and Laura after our trip to Florence.  Then my daughter said, "Why don't you take a direct flight from Venice to Abu Dubai (Lexi has a research gig at New York University in Abu Dhabi part time). "And we can take Isold (my granddaughter) to see the Cirque de Soleil in Dubai one night".  Then my friends Livi and Yass from on aura tout vu called.  "We're doing a thing at Kensington Palace on the 15th of September and there's a dinner afterwards and we want you to come"!  And of course I want to come, so now it's Florence, Venice, Abu Dubai, Dubai and London, with side trips to Paris and Milan.

So!

I am taking four or five easy to pack lightweight day dresses from Rodarte, McQueen and Alaia, white jeans and tops, swim suits, a cover up, a red carpet gown Rodarte created for me (these two never cease to amaze me...they simply do it all)! Then I am taking a black Dior fall black Duchess satin cocktail dress to wear to Kensington with on aura tout vu accessories. And of course various shoes and sandal and handbags.

This dress from Dior except in Duchess Satin for Kensington Palace--and I sure am not wearing that stupid hat!

on aura tout vu Couture necklace which they created for an anniversary of my 30th birthday.

Oh dear, there seems to be an editing job here!

This McQueen dress is a hot look in Europe at the moment so it makes the cut.

I plan to work this Rodarte Tour de Force on the Red Carpet in Venice,
even if I am working it only for myself!

It doesn't look glamorous now, but just wait.  I've managed to fit a gazillion things into my Tumi two-suiter suitcase!

My friend, de Young's textile curator Jill D'Alessandro claims she marvels at my ability to pack.  Yes, Little Missy will pat herself on the back for that one.  Pack I can.

Florence, the Venice Film Festival, dinner at Kensington Palace and so on may be fun and grand and all, but being with Isold at Cirque de Soleil will be grandest of all!
Hope my packing story helps someone!
Happy Summer to my beloved readers,
Love Little Missy

SOULEIADO Chic with Little Missy!  Come visit the epicentre of a cherished French brand from the south which constantly reinvents itself!

This is the charming and deceptively simple town of Tarascon, the birthplace of one of the western world's most enduring textile houses, SOULEIADO.

Brigitte Bardot and Isabelle Adjani visited the museum in 2013 when the brand was reigniting. 

The dramatic styling of Souleiado.

A Visit to SOULEIADO Museum

This is a souvenir of our trip to the Souleiado Museum in Tarascon, France.  Anyone who knows me well knows of my fondness for the special toiles of Souleiado.  Please take a journey with me and I will show you a little of what I saw during  this visit.  SOULEIADO is a Provencal word meaning the strong sun that breaks through the clouds after rain.

The sculptures of Larry McLaughlin greeted us as we entered the museum.  His exhibition will be shown until mid-September.

Original dyes in the dye room, still vibrant.

Test cloth for colour.

A stack of 200 year old boutis.

Samples of boutis, the special hand worked quilts.  The fact that these red hues from years ago stand up to the red walls speaks volumes about the vibrancy of the dyes.

Perhaps the biggest surprise for me was the marvellous porcelain made at the beginning of the 20th century.

The divine intricacy of this tureen is a sight to behold.  The craftsmanship of this town was in full flower at the beginning of the last century.

How chic are these dancers on a tureen in a takeoff of Greco style?

                                               A table setting from the last century still looks fresh.

                            Above and below are ensembles Little Missy might have worn in the Eighties.