Tag Archives: Fashion

Lady in Red…

29 Sunday May 2011

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© Khrystyana Kazakova

I want to reach that condensation of sensations that constitutes a picture.
Henri Matisse

I was surprised how few of my favorite artists painted portraits of women wearing red dresses. Here are some beautiful ones I found:

1.  Lady in Red by Murat Kaboulov
2.  La Femme en Rouge by Giovanni Boldini
3.  The Lady in Red by Giovanni Boldini
4.  Madame Juillard in Red by Giovanni Boldini
5.  Mrs. Charles E. Inches (nee Louise Pomeroy) by John Singer Sargent
6.  Portrait of a Lady in Red by Sandro Botticelli
7.  Woman in Red by Jacqui Faye
8.  Portrait of a Woman in Red Dress by Anna Bilińska-Bohdanowicz
9.  Portrait of a Lady in Red by Jacopo Pontormo
10. Study of a Woman in Red by Jean-Jacques Henner
11. The Small Cowper Madonna by Raphael Sanzio
12. Helnwein Child by Raphael Sanzio
13. Portrait of a Woman in a Red Dress – Pierre Auguste Renoir

Model: Khrystyana Kazakova

80 Words Beginning with the Letter “C” (Part 2)…

28 Saturday May 2011

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© Lauren DiMarco and “Cat”

Although it was difficult to restrict the list to just 80 words, here is Part 2 of my favorite words beginning with the letter “C”…

41. Chivalry
42. Chocolate
43. Chopstick
44. Chutney
45. Cinema
46. Circus
47. Citrus
48. Chalk
49. Chapel
50. Charity
51. Chromosome
52. Chickadee
53. Chinese
54. Cinnamon
55. Cityscape
56. Clandestine
57. Clay
58. Cloque
59. Coastal
60. Cochlear
61. Coffee
62. Cognac
63. Congeal
64. Coniferous
65. Constellation
66. Cornflower
67. Cornucopia
68. Corvette
69. Courageous
70. Cranberry
71. Crater
72. Cream
73. Crepe
74. Crewel
75. Cricoid
76. Crinoline
77. Crocus
78. Croissant
79. Crystalline
80. Custard

Curious Cupid: 80 Beautiful Words Starting with the Letter “C”…

26 Thursday May 2011

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© Lauren DiMarco

On my walk this morning, I thought of these beautiful words starting with the letter “C”…

1.  Caboose
2.  Cachepot
3.  Cachet
4.  Calcification
5.  Calico
6.  Calligraphy
7.  Calliope
8.  Camera
9.  Campanile
10. Canadian
11. Canterbury
12. Canyon
13. Capillary
14. Cashmere
15. Cassiopeia
16. Castle
17. Cayenne
18. Celebration
19. Celsius
20. Celestial
21. Celtic
22. Cinnamon
23. Chalet
24. Chameleon
25. Chamois
26. Champagne
27. Chandelier
28. Chapbook
29. Chapel
30. Charcoal
31. Charmeuse
32. Chastity
33. Chenille
34. Chevrolet
35. Chiaroscuro
36. Chiffonier
37. Chignon
38. Childhood
39. Chiffon
40. Chime

To be continued…

Model: Lauren DiMarco

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30 Beautiful Portmanteau Words…

26 Thursday May 2011

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© Lydia Hudgens

 Twas brilling, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll 

In Through the Looking Glass, Alice asks Humpty Dumpty to explain the meaning of the words in the poem Jabberwocky. She learns that slithy derives from the combination of  lithe and slimy and mimsy from flimsy and miserable. Carroll seems to have been the originator of seemingly nonsensical or portmanteau* words – pairing words or parts of words to express qualities pertaining to both.

Here are my favorites, but for a more comprehensive list see Wikipedia’s. You might also try creating your own!

1.  blog = web + log
2.  bleen = blue+ green
3.  bodacious = bold + audacious
4.  dreambition = dream + ambition
5.  chortle = chuckle + snort
6.  cometeor = comet + meteor
7.  dyellow = dye + yellow
8.  fablegend = fable + legend
9.  glamping = glamour + camping
10. godeity = god + deity
11. grapear = grape + pear
12. hattitude = hat + attitude
13. kingdomain = kingdom + domain
14. koga = kickboxing + yoga
15. knork = knife + fork
16. liger = lion + tiger
17. lurve = love + crave
18. moblog = mob + blog
19. narratell = narrate + tell
20. netiquette = internet + etiquette
21. penvy = pen + envy
22. pleasurejoicing = pleasure + rejoicing
23. pluot = plum + apricot
24. prettiful = pretty + beautiful
25. saintellectual = saint + intellectual
26. smarkitect = smart + architect
27. stitulating = titillating + stimulating
28. tangello = tangerine + pomelo
29. tendernessence = tenderness + essence
30. vlog = video + blog

* A suitcase that has two compartments.

Model: Lauren DiMarco

Short Stories Revisited…

24 Tuesday May 2011

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© Daryl Barko Barnett

The writer should never be ashamed of staring. There is nothing that does not require his attention. – Flannery O’Connor

I loved going to the dentist’s office when I was a child because it was there in the waiting room that I first discovered The New Yorker magazine and the literary short story genre within its pages.

Below are the short story books that I return to again and again:

1.  The Collected Short Stories of Colette, edited by Robert Phelps
2.  The Art of Eating by M. F. K. Fisher
3.  High Lonesome by Joyce Carol Oates
4.  Flannery O’Connor, The Complete Short Stories
5.  The Portable Chekhov, edited by Avrahm Yarmolinsky
6.  The Portable Dorothy Parker, introduction by Somerset Maugham
7.  The Night in Question: Stories by Tobias Wolff
8.  Close Range: Wyoming Stories by Annie Proulx
9.  The Love of a Good Woman by Alice Munro
10. The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: The Finca Vigia Edition
11. Six Tales of the Jazz Age and Other Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Model: Lauren DiMarco

Poetry Revisited…

23 Monday May 2011

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© Lydia Hudgens

that which we are, we are;
One equal-temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak  by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
from Ulysses by Lord Tennyson 

I recently discovered my high school Victorian poetry book that featured the works of Browning, Tennyson, Arnold, Swinburne, and Rossetti. I could tell from my multiple margin notations that I had no clear understanding about what the poems were about. How could I? What did I know about love, life, and loss at such a tender age?

Over the years I gravitated to the works of the modern poets and when, finally, I revisited the the Victorian giants’ work, I found them to be deeply moving and indeed transformative.

My favorite poetry books:

1.  Ariel by Sylvia Plath
2.  The Colossus and Other Poems by Sylvia Plath
3.  Sailing Alone Around the Room by Billy Collins
4.  Nine Horses by Billy Collins
5.  Collected Poems by Jane Kenyon
6.  To Be The Poet by Maxine Hong Kingston
7.  Modern Poetry edited by Maynard Mack, Leonard Dean, and William Frost
8.  The Best American Poetry 1994, edited by A. R. Ammons
9.  The Selected Poems of Emily Dickinson, Introduction by Billy Collins
10. Robert Frost Poetry & Prose, edited by Edward Connery Lathem and Lawrence Thompson
11. Selected Poems by Pablo Neruda, edited by Ben Belitt
12. The Poetry of Lucy Maud Montgomery by Ferns McCabe
13. The Major Victorian Poets, edited by William H. Marshall
14. William Carolos Williams Selected Poems
15. Dinners and Nightmares by Diane Di Prima and Terry Carr
16. Selected Poems of Erza Pound
17. a selection of poems by e. e. cummings, introduction by Horace Gregory
18. The Essential Haiku, edited by Robert Hass
19. The Penguin by John Lennon
20. The Complete Poetry of Edgar Allan Poe by Edgar Allan Poe, Jay Parini, and April Bernard

Your favorite poets?

Model: Lauren DiMarco

Stepping Out…

18 Wednesday May 2011

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© Hong An Doan

 Fashion fades, only style remains the same. – Coco Chanel

My maternal aunt was a fashionista in the best sense – she wore what suited her regardless of the trends. She had a penchant for couture clothes and became a great fan of the I. Magnin & Company label when she lived in San Francisco beginning in the late 1950s. Being an accomplished seamstress, she often copied the store’s designer gowns right down to the smallest details of construction, fastening, and underskirting.

She never received guests or left the house without being perfectly attired, coiffed, and made-up. Consequently, all the photographs of her portray a beautifully turned out woman – even as an octogenarian.

Model: Lauren DiMarco

Ten Latin Dance Songs…

05 Thursday May 2011

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© Lauren DiMarco

Here are my favorite Latin dance songs – perfect for a Cinco de Mayo party!

1.  Y Yo Sigo Aqui – Paulina Rubio
2.  Maria – Ricky Martin
3.  Objection (Tango) – Shakira
4.  Hips Don’t Lie – Shakira
5.  I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho) – Pitbull
6.  On the Floor – Jennifer Lopez
7.  Dance Dance – Thalia
8.  Oye el Boom – David Bisbal
9.  I Like It – Enrique Iglesias, featuring Pitbull
10. Conga – Gloria Estefan

Model: Lauren DiMarco

Books that Made a Difference Early on…

04 Wednesday May 2011

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© Lydia Hudgens

Books, like friends, should be few and well chosen. Like friends, too, we should return to them again and again for, like true friends, they will never fail us – never cease to instruct – never cloy. – Charles Caleb Colton 

For better or for worse, my view of the world was shaped early on by the following books:

1.  Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
2.  The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone
3.  The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood
4.  The Story-Makers edited by Rudy Wiebe (particularly the short story, Guests of the Nation by Frank O’Connor)
5.  A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
6.  Lust for Life by Irving Stone
7.  My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
8.  The Sun King by Nancy Mitford
9.  The Major Victorian Poets edited by William H. Marshall
10. Mythology by Edith Hamilton
11. A Passage to India by E. M. Forster
12. Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
13. Hedda Gabler play by Henrik Ibsen
14. The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
15. The Stranger by Albert Camus
16. A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
17. Hills Like White Elephants, short story by Ernest Hemingway
18. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
19. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
20. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
21. Metamorphosis, novella by Franz Kafka
22. The Penguin by John Lennon
23. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
24. Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence
25. The Mountain is Young by Han Suyin
26. Love Story by Eric Segal
27. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
28. Romeo and Juliet, play by William Shakespeare
29. 1984 by George Orwell
30. Animal Farm by George Orwell
31. The Divine Comedy, epic poem by Dante
32. The Odyssey, epic poem by Homer
33. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
34. Tales of the South Pacific by James Michener

I would love to know what books top your list?

Model: Lauren DiMarco

Royal Wedding Dresses…

29 Friday Apr 2011

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© Telegraph.co.uk

I think Kate looked perfect. Her dress was very timeless and very reminiscent of Princess Grace of Monaco. Kate looked exactly the way we hoped she would when she walked out of her car. – Alison McGill, Weddingbells Magazine. 

Simply lovely! Kate Middleton’s traditional, elegant gown was designed by Sarah Burton, creative director of Alexander McQueen. Its design elements may have been inspired by Princess Grace’s dress by Helen Rose, an Academy-award MGM costume designer who also made wedding gowns for actresses Elizabeth Taylor, Debbie Reynolds, and  Jane Powell.