Ava Gardner #1
- Thread starter FASHIONLOVA
- Start date
- Status
scriptgirl
Active Member
- Joined
- May 1, 2006
- Messages
- 12,226
- Reaction score
- 5
scandinavian mags
scriptgirl
Active Member
- Joined
- May 1, 2006
- Messages
- 12,226
- Reaction score
- 5
morning glory
scriptgirl
Active Member
- Joined
- May 1, 2006
- Messages
- 12,226
- Reaction score
- 5
IPOL
scriptgirl
Active Member
- Joined
- May 1, 2006
- Messages
- 12,226
- Reaction score
- 5
people
scriptgirl
Active Member
- Joined
- May 1, 2006
- Messages
- 12,226
- Reaction score
- 5
ebay
scriptgirl
Active Member
- Joined
- May 1, 2006
- Messages
- 12,226
- Reaction score
- 5
ebay
scriptgirl
Active Member
- Joined
- May 1, 2006
- Messages
- 12,226
- Reaction score
- 5
ebay
scriptgirl
Active Member
- Joined
- May 1, 2006
- Messages
- 12,226
- Reaction score
- 5
Voa News
Frank Sinatra's Hollywood Legacy Revisited in New Book
By Faiza Elmasry
Washington
09 December 2008
Elmasry Report (Read by Faith Lapidus) - Download (MP3)
Elmasry Report (Read by Faith Lapidus) - Listen (MP3)
Frank Sinatra is universally recognized as one of the greatest voices of the 20th century. He was also an equally talented actor. But his fame as a singer overshadowed his screen legacy. Tom Santopietro devoted his new book, Sinatra in Hollywood, to shining a spotlight on Sinatra's film career.
Sinatra in Hollywood shines a spotlight on the famed singer's film career
To write about Sinatra's screen legacy, Santopietro had to watch a lot of movies.
"Sinatra appeared in around 70 films, in cameo or starring roles," he says. "So there was a great deal of film to look at. And I read everything I could find about Sinatra. There are dozens of books and thousands of newspaper articles.
"And then I sat down and watched every one of his films at least once, in some cases, several times. And you know, Frank was the first to say that some of his films were not classic, but the great ones were absolutely terrific."
Santopietro says, when given the right material, Sinatra proved himself a gifted artist.
"I think what made him so great on screen was that he was able to access these very deep emotions," he says. "And I think that's because of his training as a singer. He was used to telling a story in song. On screen, Sinatra was a tough guy, but he was not afraid to show his vulnerability, and that was a new kind of figure on screen. That's what made him so interesting to watch and actually why audiences today can still identify with him."
Film achievements top Sinatra's list of career highlights
What surprised the author is how seriously Sinatra took his career in Hollywood.
Santopietro says he was surprised by how seriously Sinatra took his acting career
"I think people don't realize that he really wanted to be a movie star," he says. "He was determined to make it, which he did. I came across an interesting interview he did with Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show in the 1970s, so Sinatra had been a star for decades.
"Johnny Carson said to him, 'You have an unparalleled career. What's the highlight?' Sinatra instantly said, 'Winning the Oscar for From Here to Eternity and making The Man with the Golden Arm.' What was surprising to me was he didn't say the music. He didn't say the Grammy Awards. He instantly talked about the movies."
Sinatra was at his peak as a singer and an actor in the 1950s, Santopietro says.
"In 1955 alone, he released five movies, which he starred in," he says. "Nobody would ever do that today. They were, all but one, big hits and terrific performances. So I say that Sinatra at that point was in many ways like America. Both were really on a roll, and the toughest times lay ahead, but at that point, as Frank Sinatra was singing, 'I've Got the World on a String,' and he really did."
Rat Pack movies put Las Vegas on the map
Among Sinatra's most popular movies of those years were the ones he made with a group of actor friends who were known as the Rat Pack.
"The Rat Pack still fascinates people today, 50 years later," he says. "It was Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop. It was really right around 1960. They were in [Las] Vegas. Sinatra slept only four hours a night because he'd make a movie at the same time he'd be singing in the nightclubs. He'd be out carousing with his pals.
"That really put Vegas on the map. Vegas exploded as an adult playground, and I think it made Frank loom larger than life. There he was, also palling around with President-elect [John F.] Kennedy.
"The best of the Rat Pack movies is Oceans Eleven, which of course has been remade by George Clooney. That's really a fun movie."
Bing Crosby, mother among artist's influences
In his book, Santopietro examines the influences that helped shape Sinatra's career, including the crooner Bing Crosby.
"When Sinatra was unknown, he went to see Bing Crosby sing, and afterwards he turned to his date, who eventually became his first wife, Nancy [Barbato] and said, 'That's going to be me up there someday,'" he says. "Then when he saw Bing Crosby also became a movie star, Sinatra wanted that same sort of career, where he could succeed in both."
In the 1950s, Sinatra literally had "the world on a string," Santopietro says
Sinatra's mother, Dolly, was also a very influential figure in his personal life and career.
"Nobody ever told Frank Sinatra what to say or what to do except his mother," he says. "Dolly was outgoing. She was influential in Democratic politics. She was a mover and a shaker, you know, at a time when very few women were. She was in many ways a pioneer.
"She loved Frank, but they continually squabbled. They were both so strong-willed. He always wanted to prove to his mother that he could be somebody, that he could be a star. That was the engine inside of him."
In Sinatra in Hollywood, Santopietro also examines Sinatra's relationships with his leading ladies.
"He was a great actor to play opposite, if you were quick," he says. "If you were not quick, he would get very impatient. But he generally had really good relationships with his co-stars. Of course, in terms of relationship with the famous women, the most famous, of course, is his kind of legendary romance with Ava Gardner. They both couldn't live without each other, and they couldn't live with each other. That's why that romance still fascinates people today."
Frank Sinatra's Hollywood Legacy Revisited in New Book
By Faiza Elmasry
Washington
09 December 2008
Elmasry Report (Read by Faith Lapidus) - Download (MP3)
Elmasry Report (Read by Faith Lapidus) - Listen (MP3)
Frank Sinatra is universally recognized as one of the greatest voices of the 20th century. He was also an equally talented actor. But his fame as a singer overshadowed his screen legacy. Tom Santopietro devoted his new book, Sinatra in Hollywood, to shining a spotlight on Sinatra's film career.
Sinatra in Hollywood shines a spotlight on the famed singer's film career
To write about Sinatra's screen legacy, Santopietro had to watch a lot of movies.
"Sinatra appeared in around 70 films, in cameo or starring roles," he says. "So there was a great deal of film to look at. And I read everything I could find about Sinatra. There are dozens of books and thousands of newspaper articles.
"And then I sat down and watched every one of his films at least once, in some cases, several times. And you know, Frank was the first to say that some of his films were not classic, but the great ones were absolutely terrific."
Santopietro says, when given the right material, Sinatra proved himself a gifted artist.
"I think what made him so great on screen was that he was able to access these very deep emotions," he says. "And I think that's because of his training as a singer. He was used to telling a story in song. On screen, Sinatra was a tough guy, but he was not afraid to show his vulnerability, and that was a new kind of figure on screen. That's what made him so interesting to watch and actually why audiences today can still identify with him."
Film achievements top Sinatra's list of career highlights
What surprised the author is how seriously Sinatra took his career in Hollywood.
Santopietro says he was surprised by how seriously Sinatra took his acting career
"I think people don't realize that he really wanted to be a movie star," he says. "He was determined to make it, which he did. I came across an interesting interview he did with Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show in the 1970s, so Sinatra had been a star for decades.
"Johnny Carson said to him, 'You have an unparalleled career. What's the highlight?' Sinatra instantly said, 'Winning the Oscar for From Here to Eternity and making The Man with the Golden Arm.' What was surprising to me was he didn't say the music. He didn't say the Grammy Awards. He instantly talked about the movies."
Sinatra was at his peak as a singer and an actor in the 1950s, Santopietro says.
"In 1955 alone, he released five movies, which he starred in," he says. "Nobody would ever do that today. They were, all but one, big hits and terrific performances. So I say that Sinatra at that point was in many ways like America. Both were really on a roll, and the toughest times lay ahead, but at that point, as Frank Sinatra was singing, 'I've Got the World on a String,' and he really did."
Rat Pack movies put Las Vegas on the map
Among Sinatra's most popular movies of those years were the ones he made with a group of actor friends who were known as the Rat Pack.
"The Rat Pack still fascinates people today, 50 years later," he says. "It was Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop. It was really right around 1960. They were in [Las] Vegas. Sinatra slept only four hours a night because he'd make a movie at the same time he'd be singing in the nightclubs. He'd be out carousing with his pals.
"That really put Vegas on the map. Vegas exploded as an adult playground, and I think it made Frank loom larger than life. There he was, also palling around with President-elect [John F.] Kennedy.
"The best of the Rat Pack movies is Oceans Eleven, which of course has been remade by George Clooney. That's really a fun movie."
Bing Crosby, mother among artist's influences
In his book, Santopietro examines the influences that helped shape Sinatra's career, including the crooner Bing Crosby.
"When Sinatra was unknown, he went to see Bing Crosby sing, and afterwards he turned to his date, who eventually became his first wife, Nancy [Barbato] and said, 'That's going to be me up there someday,'" he says. "Then when he saw Bing Crosby also became a movie star, Sinatra wanted that same sort of career, where he could succeed in both."
In the 1950s, Sinatra literally had "the world on a string," Santopietro says
Sinatra's mother, Dolly, was also a very influential figure in his personal life and career.
"Nobody ever told Frank Sinatra what to say or what to do except his mother," he says. "Dolly was outgoing. She was influential in Democratic politics. She was a mover and a shaker, you know, at a time when very few women were. She was in many ways a pioneer.
"She loved Frank, but they continually squabbled. They were both so strong-willed. He always wanted to prove to his mother that he could be somebody, that he could be a star. That was the engine inside of him."
In Sinatra in Hollywood, Santopietro also examines Sinatra's relationships with his leading ladies.
"He was a great actor to play opposite, if you were quick," he says. "If you were not quick, he would get very impatient. But he generally had really good relationships with his co-stars. Of course, in terms of relationship with the famous women, the most famous, of course, is his kind of legendary romance with Ava Gardner. They both couldn't live without each other, and they couldn't live with each other. That's why that romance still fascinates people today."
scriptgirl
Active Member
- Joined
- May 1, 2006
- Messages
- 12,226
- Reaction score
- 5
Telegraph
ermanent shift towards darkness: Derek Jacobi
In recent years Sir Derek Jacobi has been getting nastier. When he rose to fame as the imperial stammerer in I, Claudius, an air of cuddly vulnerability settled on him which brought women of a certain age flocking to his stage door. Although he's had a go at Hitler and Richard III in his time, the more permanent shift towards darkness only properly occurred with his hissy Francis Bacon in John Maybury's film, Love Is the Devil.
"I didn't quite know why John had come to me," Jacobi says. "That Bacon was not the most attractive-looking man and I sat in the make-up chair and five minutes later I looked like him might have been one of the reasons. That was a part that I really had to reach for. But they are the most rewarding."
Jacobi subsequently made himself even less lovable in two major West End roles – as Philip II in Don Carlos and in John Mortimer's A Voyage Round My Father. For all this gallery of malevolents, he'd never thought of himself as a future Malvolio. But the director Michael Grandage did, which is why at 70 Jacobi turns up in the Donmar's new West End production of Twelfth Night.
"I had never thought that part would come my way. Michael was so adamant. He said, there are qualities you have as an actor that to me say 'Malvolio'. The one we really talked about was what he considered my love of language. Also that he thought my comic side was under-used."
That's not entirely true. I retain a strong memory of Jacobi's brilliant Benedick for the RSC, although it was 25 years ago. Not that they're going to go looking for the comedy in the brutal gulling of Malvolio, who is encouraged to believe that his mistress Olivia is in love with him, then clapped up in a madhouse. "One of the problems I'm having with Malvolio is people saying, 'Oh I hope you're going to make him funny,' which is a killer. No, I'm going to make him a person."
It is to Jacobi's advantage that although he has been going to the theatre since he was converted as a Leytonstone schoolboy ("David Beckham country"), he can recall seeing only a couple of productions of Twelfth Night. He has also been in one – as Aguecheek in the Seventies. So his research has been in the archives, and has largely told him which sight gags have already been nabbed.
"There are very famous bits of business connected with Malvolio. The gag has to be character-motivated. The famous example of a superb piece of stage business that also helped the character is when Donald Sinden's Malvolio said, 'Perchance I'll wind up my watch.' On set there was a sundial, Sinden looked at his watch, looked at the sundial, looked at his watch and changed the sundial."
Over the years the Shakespeare play Jacobi has revisited more than any other is Hamlet, which he has played more than 400 times. At school it was the second male part he ever played, then he was in a Cambridge show which toured, and 20 years later played the part at the Old Vic. Richard Burton saw both his adult Hamlets.
"He was very complimentary and said to me, 'You've got to roughen your voice up. You've got a voice like me, it's a bit mellifluous, you'll send them all to sleep.' At the Old Vic he invited me out to dinner and as I was walking out, he said, 'Do you mind if we go and stand on the stage?' So there I was standing next to Burton on the stage, him having just seen my Hamlet, and I said, 'I sat up there and watched your Hamlet when I was a schoolboy.' He said, 'Yes I remember Churchill coming to see it and when I got to "To be or not to be" he started saying it loudly.'"
Jacobi spent eight years at the Old Vic as part of Olivier's National Theatre company in the Sixties. He was talent-scouted by Olivier at Birmingham Rep in 1963, and was instantly cast in the inaugural Chichester production of Othello, the famous one in which the story goes that Olivier turned up to the read-through with an astonishingly deep new voice.
"Not only is that true, but he also came head to foot in black leather. He sat there and John Dexter said, 'Go for it.' There was Maggie Smith and Frank Finlay and all of us sitting there absolutely s----ing ourselves and Sir Laurence did the full thing. "
By the time I, Claudius came along in the mid-Seventies, Jacobi was still an unknown theatre actor to the series's American co-producers who were rather keener on casting Charlton Heston or Ronnie Barker.
"The Americans said, 'Who?' I was totally unknown on telly. I had to go out and have dinner with this guy and act my socks off for him. I charmed the pants off him somehow. I convinced him that I could do it."
He had met Robert Graves, on whose two books the series was based, when holidaying with his parents in Majorca. A yacht-borne Maggie Smith happened to land on their beach and invited him back to Deia.
"It was an extraordinary weekend. Ava Gardner was there. I got on very well with Robert and then years later he came to the BBC while we were doing it but he was a big gaga by then. He sent the BBC a telegram saying, 'Claudius is very pleased.' He thought he had a hotline."
ermanent shift towards darkness: Derek Jacobi
In recent years Sir Derek Jacobi has been getting nastier. When he rose to fame as the imperial stammerer in I, Claudius, an air of cuddly vulnerability settled on him which brought women of a certain age flocking to his stage door. Although he's had a go at Hitler and Richard III in his time, the more permanent shift towards darkness only properly occurred with his hissy Francis Bacon in John Maybury's film, Love Is the Devil.
"I didn't quite know why John had come to me," Jacobi says. "That Bacon was not the most attractive-looking man and I sat in the make-up chair and five minutes later I looked like him might have been one of the reasons. That was a part that I really had to reach for. But they are the most rewarding."
Jacobi subsequently made himself even less lovable in two major West End roles – as Philip II in Don Carlos and in John Mortimer's A Voyage Round My Father. For all this gallery of malevolents, he'd never thought of himself as a future Malvolio. But the director Michael Grandage did, which is why at 70 Jacobi turns up in the Donmar's new West End production of Twelfth Night.
"I had never thought that part would come my way. Michael was so adamant. He said, there are qualities you have as an actor that to me say 'Malvolio'. The one we really talked about was what he considered my love of language. Also that he thought my comic side was under-used."
That's not entirely true. I retain a strong memory of Jacobi's brilliant Benedick for the RSC, although it was 25 years ago. Not that they're going to go looking for the comedy in the brutal gulling of Malvolio, who is encouraged to believe that his mistress Olivia is in love with him, then clapped up in a madhouse. "One of the problems I'm having with Malvolio is people saying, 'Oh I hope you're going to make him funny,' which is a killer. No, I'm going to make him a person."
It is to Jacobi's advantage that although he has been going to the theatre since he was converted as a Leytonstone schoolboy ("David Beckham country"), he can recall seeing only a couple of productions of Twelfth Night. He has also been in one – as Aguecheek in the Seventies. So his research has been in the archives, and has largely told him which sight gags have already been nabbed.
"There are very famous bits of business connected with Malvolio. The gag has to be character-motivated. The famous example of a superb piece of stage business that also helped the character is when Donald Sinden's Malvolio said, 'Perchance I'll wind up my watch.' On set there was a sundial, Sinden looked at his watch, looked at the sundial, looked at his watch and changed the sundial."
Over the years the Shakespeare play Jacobi has revisited more than any other is Hamlet, which he has played more than 400 times. At school it was the second male part he ever played, then he was in a Cambridge show which toured, and 20 years later played the part at the Old Vic. Richard Burton saw both his adult Hamlets.
"He was very complimentary and said to me, 'You've got to roughen your voice up. You've got a voice like me, it's a bit mellifluous, you'll send them all to sleep.' At the Old Vic he invited me out to dinner and as I was walking out, he said, 'Do you mind if we go and stand on the stage?' So there I was standing next to Burton on the stage, him having just seen my Hamlet, and I said, 'I sat up there and watched your Hamlet when I was a schoolboy.' He said, 'Yes I remember Churchill coming to see it and when I got to "To be or not to be" he started saying it loudly.'"
Jacobi spent eight years at the Old Vic as part of Olivier's National Theatre company in the Sixties. He was talent-scouted by Olivier at Birmingham Rep in 1963, and was instantly cast in the inaugural Chichester production of Othello, the famous one in which the story goes that Olivier turned up to the read-through with an astonishingly deep new voice.
"Not only is that true, but he also came head to foot in black leather. He sat there and John Dexter said, 'Go for it.' There was Maggie Smith and Frank Finlay and all of us sitting there absolutely s----ing ourselves and Sir Laurence did the full thing. "
By the time I, Claudius came along in the mid-Seventies, Jacobi was still an unknown theatre actor to the series's American co-producers who were rather keener on casting Charlton Heston or Ronnie Barker.
"The Americans said, 'Who?' I was totally unknown on telly. I had to go out and have dinner with this guy and act my socks off for him. I charmed the pants off him somehow. I convinced him that I could do it."
He had met Robert Graves, on whose two books the series was based, when holidaying with his parents in Majorca. A yacht-borne Maggie Smith happened to land on their beach and invited him back to Deia.
"It was an extraordinary weekend. Ava Gardner was there. I got on very well with Robert and then years later he came to the BBC while we were doing it but he was a big gaga by then. He sent the BBC a telegram saying, 'Claudius is very pleased.' He thought he had a hotline."
scriptgirl
Active Member
- Joined
- May 1, 2006
- Messages
- 12,226
- Reaction score
- 5
The Australian
LMOST every day for the past 60 years, master embroiderer and beader Francois Lesage has walked through the doors of his five-storey workshop in the heart of Paris. Even now, at 80, he finds himself working "six days a week, sometimes seven", to realise the most fantastical visions of fashion's greatest designers.
The House of Lesage, France's oldest embroidery establishment, creates exquisite embellishments for haute couture luminaries including Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel, John Galliano at Christian Dior, and Christian Lacroix, and that takes some time.
A single couture dress takes an average of 200 hours to make. If a designer wishes to use beading or embroidery, Lesage will first present a sample in keeping with the designer's brief, which alone can represent 20 to 30 hours of work and up to 50,000 stitches.
Delivering the finished garment to a client takes much longer.
The results are extraordinary: silk flower petals curled and dyed by hand; 250,000 sequins sewn on to a print of Vincent van Gogh's Irises for Yves Saint Laurent; an ice-castle image created entirely from thread and beading.
Lesage makes designer dreams a reality. As he charmingly puts it, "Fashion is like an ocean liner, this fabulous ship of travelling looks, and every morning there is a little boat that brings the flowers."
The bouquets of Lesage and a handful of other master artisans in Paris -- Massaro for shoes, Desrues the costume jeweller, Lemarie, a supplier of feathers and silk flowers, and the milliner Michel -- are what make the city the world's fashion capital.
"Paris is the only city in the world where you can click your fingers and a few hours later you can access all the artisan houses with their years of culture, archives and sensibilities," Lesage says.
Many examples of their work are a part of the largest exhibition of haute couture to come to Australia, which opened on Sunday at the Bendigo Art Gallery in Victoria. The Golden Age of Couture: Paris & London 1947-57 includes works from Dior, Cristobal Balenciaga, Hubert de Givenchy and Pierre Balmain, two of which feature Lesage embroidery and beading.
Lesage presides over a business that employs 60 women known as petites mains (tiny hands) and churns through 100 million sequins and 70kg of pearls each year. His role is not to sew but to realise what he calls "the fog in the brain of the designer".
In addition to understanding a designer's ideas and translating them into beads and stitches -- "Claude Montana was a great designer, but his sketches, they were an Egyptian hieroglyph" -- Lesage must deploy extraordinary diplomatic skills.
"Oof! After 60 years in fashion I could be an ambassador at the United Nations," he says of balancing competing designer egos and demands. That he has managed this well is clear from the fact Lacroix refers to him as "my godfather" and Lagerfeld admires him "for his exceptional intelligence, culture, creativity and speed".
Lesage has been running the business since 1949, when he inherited it on the death of his father, Albert.
"When I was 15 it was my responsibility to go around to all the fashion houses and ring the bell to ask for payment," he says. "Sometimes they were obliged to sell their paper patterns to pay the accounts."
From such hand-to-mouth beginnings, couture has grown into a multimillion-dollar business. There are said to be only a few hundred couture clients worldwide: estimates range from 300 to 1500, although the higher figure is almost certainly inflated.
These are clients who are willing and able to pay upwards of $US150,000 (about $230,000) for an evening gown and $US25,000 for a day suit. Couture exists as the world's most glamorous loss leader.
Once the preserve of the wealthiest (and thinnest) women in the world, couture is now all about catwalk and celebrity moments (Nicole Kidman on the red carpet in a Chanel couture dress, Lily Allen at the MTV Awards in vintage Dior), which houses then use to sell perfumes, make-up and handbags to the masses. "It's still about the dream that few people can afford, but everybody now, even people who are common, they can buy a little bottle of (Chanel) No5," Lesage says.
He is sanguine about the mass marketing of what was once a rarefied art form, perhaps because, as it happens, his career began in Hollywood when he travelled there at 20. Working on Sunset Boulevard, he added the final touches of sparkle and sequins to the gowns of Lana Turner, Marlene Dietrich and Ava Gardner.
"It is normal to have nostalgia about working with a lady like Lana Turner, but I fight against it," he says. "We don't have the time to be depressed, we are at the service of fashion and have to follow the new tendency. We must be of today."
Despite his forward thinking, Lesage came close to closure when the 1991 Gulf war sharply diminished his core customer base of Middle Eastern royalty. "The Kuwait war was a disaster," he says, as it reduced couture clients "by at least 100".
Chanel chairwoman Francoise Montenay, in whom he confided his concerns at a dinner also attended by his fellow master craftsmen, turned out to be Lesage's saviour. "She loved our craft houses, so she asked me, 'Monsieur Lesage, what do you think will happen with the couture?' I said it would last only as long as we (were) there."
Chanel purchased all five artisan houses in 2002 and now produces regular collections specifically to showcase the creativity of each workshop. The dream factories are profitable once more because of the emergence of new luxury markets for couture.
"With the development of India, China and Russia, already there is more demand," Lesage says. "Although the Russians are more for ready-to-wear."
The way couture clients shop also has changed with the times, thanks to the increased speed of travel and the immediacy of the fashion media, particularly online, which disseminates images of the collections.
"The ladies used to take the (ocean liners) Queen Elizabeth or the Normandie to Paris and arrive at 10.30am for coffee," Lesage says. "They would go to day wear, cocktail wear and evening wear fittings over one week, then wait another five weeks to have the dresses ready. But now in couture the customer wants the dress in 10 days and that's a big problem for us.
"Progress is about faster, faster, but with handwork you cannot make it faster."
What has not changed are his longstanding and often personal relationships with designers. Of the many competing for his attentions, Lagerfeld, whom he describes as possessing "the fabulous quality of Karl", would appear to be his favourite.
"He is really the Kaiser," Lesage says, referring to the German-born designer's nickname and his reputation for demanding perfection. "Really, he is an exceptional man. He came (to Chanel) in 1982, that is 27 years. To keep Chanel moving with the creativity he has, well, it's extraordinary."
Madeleine Vionnet is also remembered fondly -- unlike today's designers, "she made the dress to the (Lesage) samples, not the other way around" -- as is Saint Laurent, who "used to stand in the workshops smoking cigarettes, watching everything we did". Lesage is less enamoured of Galliano, who he claims once referred to "the constipated embroidery of Lesage" in a newspaper interview.
"It was not a good start," Lesage says. "Several weeks later he arrived in the workshops wearing his little bandanna and he asked where the toilet was. I said there is no toilet because we are constipated."
Even if relationships with designers are sometimes fraught, the connections are what Lesage treasures most about his work.
"To be in complicity with the designers, that is the thing," he says. "The haute couture will still be there as long as we both will be there."
LMOST every day for the past 60 years, master embroiderer and beader Francois Lesage has walked through the doors of his five-storey workshop in the heart of Paris. Even now, at 80, he finds himself working "six days a week, sometimes seven", to realise the most fantastical visions of fashion's greatest designers.
The House of Lesage, France's oldest embroidery establishment, creates exquisite embellishments for haute couture luminaries including Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel, John Galliano at Christian Dior, and Christian Lacroix, and that takes some time.
A single couture dress takes an average of 200 hours to make. If a designer wishes to use beading or embroidery, Lesage will first present a sample in keeping with the designer's brief, which alone can represent 20 to 30 hours of work and up to 50,000 stitches.
Delivering the finished garment to a client takes much longer.
The results are extraordinary: silk flower petals curled and dyed by hand; 250,000 sequins sewn on to a print of Vincent van Gogh's Irises for Yves Saint Laurent; an ice-castle image created entirely from thread and beading.
Lesage makes designer dreams a reality. As he charmingly puts it, "Fashion is like an ocean liner, this fabulous ship of travelling looks, and every morning there is a little boat that brings the flowers."
The bouquets of Lesage and a handful of other master artisans in Paris -- Massaro for shoes, Desrues the costume jeweller, Lemarie, a supplier of feathers and silk flowers, and the milliner Michel -- are what make the city the world's fashion capital.
"Paris is the only city in the world where you can click your fingers and a few hours later you can access all the artisan houses with their years of culture, archives and sensibilities," Lesage says.
Many examples of their work are a part of the largest exhibition of haute couture to come to Australia, which opened on Sunday at the Bendigo Art Gallery in Victoria. The Golden Age of Couture: Paris & London 1947-57 includes works from Dior, Cristobal Balenciaga, Hubert de Givenchy and Pierre Balmain, two of which feature Lesage embroidery and beading.
Lesage presides over a business that employs 60 women known as petites mains (tiny hands) and churns through 100 million sequins and 70kg of pearls each year. His role is not to sew but to realise what he calls "the fog in the brain of the designer".
In addition to understanding a designer's ideas and translating them into beads and stitches -- "Claude Montana was a great designer, but his sketches, they were an Egyptian hieroglyph" -- Lesage must deploy extraordinary diplomatic skills.
"Oof! After 60 years in fashion I could be an ambassador at the United Nations," he says of balancing competing designer egos and demands. That he has managed this well is clear from the fact Lacroix refers to him as "my godfather" and Lagerfeld admires him "for his exceptional intelligence, culture, creativity and speed".
Lesage has been running the business since 1949, when he inherited it on the death of his father, Albert.
"When I was 15 it was my responsibility to go around to all the fashion houses and ring the bell to ask for payment," he says. "Sometimes they were obliged to sell their paper patterns to pay the accounts."
From such hand-to-mouth beginnings, couture has grown into a multimillion-dollar business. There are said to be only a few hundred couture clients worldwide: estimates range from 300 to 1500, although the higher figure is almost certainly inflated.
These are clients who are willing and able to pay upwards of $US150,000 (about $230,000) for an evening gown and $US25,000 for a day suit. Couture exists as the world's most glamorous loss leader.
Once the preserve of the wealthiest (and thinnest) women in the world, couture is now all about catwalk and celebrity moments (Nicole Kidman on the red carpet in a Chanel couture dress, Lily Allen at the MTV Awards in vintage Dior), which houses then use to sell perfumes, make-up and handbags to the masses. "It's still about the dream that few people can afford, but everybody now, even people who are common, they can buy a little bottle of (Chanel) No5," Lesage says.
He is sanguine about the mass marketing of what was once a rarefied art form, perhaps because, as it happens, his career began in Hollywood when he travelled there at 20. Working on Sunset Boulevard, he added the final touches of sparkle and sequins to the gowns of Lana Turner, Marlene Dietrich and Ava Gardner.
"It is normal to have nostalgia about working with a lady like Lana Turner, but I fight against it," he says. "We don't have the time to be depressed, we are at the service of fashion and have to follow the new tendency. We must be of today."
Despite his forward thinking, Lesage came close to closure when the 1991 Gulf war sharply diminished his core customer base of Middle Eastern royalty. "The Kuwait war was a disaster," he says, as it reduced couture clients "by at least 100".
Chanel chairwoman Francoise Montenay, in whom he confided his concerns at a dinner also attended by his fellow master craftsmen, turned out to be Lesage's saviour. "She loved our craft houses, so she asked me, 'Monsieur Lesage, what do you think will happen with the couture?' I said it would last only as long as we (were) there."
Chanel purchased all five artisan houses in 2002 and now produces regular collections specifically to showcase the creativity of each workshop. The dream factories are profitable once more because of the emergence of new luxury markets for couture.
"With the development of India, China and Russia, already there is more demand," Lesage says. "Although the Russians are more for ready-to-wear."
The way couture clients shop also has changed with the times, thanks to the increased speed of travel and the immediacy of the fashion media, particularly online, which disseminates images of the collections.
"The ladies used to take the (ocean liners) Queen Elizabeth or the Normandie to Paris and arrive at 10.30am for coffee," Lesage says. "They would go to day wear, cocktail wear and evening wear fittings over one week, then wait another five weeks to have the dresses ready. But now in couture the customer wants the dress in 10 days and that's a big problem for us.
"Progress is about faster, faster, but with handwork you cannot make it faster."
What has not changed are his longstanding and often personal relationships with designers. Of the many competing for his attentions, Lagerfeld, whom he describes as possessing "the fabulous quality of Karl", would appear to be his favourite.
"He is really the Kaiser," Lesage says, referring to the German-born designer's nickname and his reputation for demanding perfection. "Really, he is an exceptional man. He came (to Chanel) in 1982, that is 27 years. To keep Chanel moving with the creativity he has, well, it's extraordinary."
Madeleine Vionnet is also remembered fondly -- unlike today's designers, "she made the dress to the (Lesage) samples, not the other way around" -- as is Saint Laurent, who "used to stand in the workshops smoking cigarettes, watching everything we did". Lesage is less enamoured of Galliano, who he claims once referred to "the constipated embroidery of Lesage" in a newspaper interview.
"It was not a good start," Lesage says. "Several weeks later he arrived in the workshops wearing his little bandanna and he asked where the toilet was. I said there is no toilet because we are constipated."
Even if relationships with designers are sometimes fraught, the connections are what Lesage treasures most about his work.
"To be in complicity with the designers, that is the thing," he says. "The haute couture will still be there as long as we both will be there."
scriptgirl
Active Member
- Joined
- May 1, 2006
- Messages
- 12,226
- Reaction score
- 5
Majikthise
Secrecy in Congress
Congressional Quarterly has an important cover story about secrecy in Congress. Obama promised to make his administration more transparent, especially when it comes to earmarks. I'm not sure exactly what power the president has to tell congress how to run the earmarks process, but I applaud the sentiment. Obviously, the executive branch has a lot of work to do on transparency, too.
The CQ story explains that, too often, access to nominally public events is limited to an elite cadre of insiders:
That’s not to say that it’s always easy to get into a committee meeting. Some of them, such as Appropriations subcommittee markups, often take place in spaces the size of middle-class suburban living rooms, and so admission is restricted to a handful of reporters and members of the public in addition to the lawmakers and their aides. [CQ]
For a very funny primer on how Congress works, check out Matt Taibbi's latest book, The Great Derangement. The book is better known for the stories about infiltrating a mega-church and enduring the wrath of the 9/11 truth movement. But Taibbi's account of covering Congress for Rolling Stone one of the best parts of the book.
Most of what Congress does in the open is trivial, like naming post offices and congratulating local sports teams. Taibbi has a hilarious anecdote about three congressmen waxing eloquent in a bipartisan effort to explain why the United States of America should name a post office after some sex symbol of their youth--Ava Gardner, I think. Taibbi wonders what average American tourists would think of their democracy if they witnessed this shameless fan service on the floor of Congress.
Secrecy in Congress
Congressional Quarterly has an important cover story about secrecy in Congress. Obama promised to make his administration more transparent, especially when it comes to earmarks. I'm not sure exactly what power the president has to tell congress how to run the earmarks process, but I applaud the sentiment. Obviously, the executive branch has a lot of work to do on transparency, too.
The CQ story explains that, too often, access to nominally public events is limited to an elite cadre of insiders:
That’s not to say that it’s always easy to get into a committee meeting. Some of them, such as Appropriations subcommittee markups, often take place in spaces the size of middle-class suburban living rooms, and so admission is restricted to a handful of reporters and members of the public in addition to the lawmakers and their aides. [CQ]
For a very funny primer on how Congress works, check out Matt Taibbi's latest book, The Great Derangement. The book is better known for the stories about infiltrating a mega-church and enduring the wrath of the 9/11 truth movement. But Taibbi's account of covering Congress for Rolling Stone one of the best parts of the book.
Most of what Congress does in the open is trivial, like naming post offices and congratulating local sports teams. Taibbi has a hilarious anecdote about three congressmen waxing eloquent in a bipartisan effort to explain why the United States of America should name a post office after some sex symbol of their youth--Ava Gardner, I think. Taibbi wonders what average American tourists would think of their democracy if they witnessed this shameless fan service on the floor of Congress.
scriptgirl
Active Member
- Joined
- May 1, 2006
- Messages
- 12,226
- Reaction score
- 5
National Trust
dazzling investment
Helena Frith Powell
Last Updated: December 04. 2008 4:47PM UAE / December 4. 2008 12:47PM GMT
Beaute Dangereuse sapphire snake brooch with 298 emeralds and ruby eyes, 2002. Courtesy Boucheron
As Boucheron marks a milestone and brings boutiques to the UAE, the CEO Jean-Christophe Bedos explains why people should turn their backs on stocks and put their money in luxury jewellery.
What do you do to celebrate 150 years of one of the world’s most exclusive, sought-after jewellery brands? You invite designers to come up with one-off pieces to mark the event and hold a global party that lasts a year, starting in Paris and taking in 11 other cities before a grand finale in Dubai.
“We chose to end in Dubai because we see the region as a bridge to our future,” says Boucheron’s CEO Jean-Christophe Bédos. “It is a crossroads between East and West, there is a cosmopolitan energy here. We see this party as not the end of our celebrations but the beginning.”
Fighting talk from a man whose company is selling something people don’t actually need in the middle of the worst economic crisis the world has seen for decades. Au contraire, Bédos would argue. In fact, he sees the economic crisis as an opportunity for the company.
“In times of crisis people have historically invested in jewels,” he says. “I cannot say whether this will happen now, but if people can’t trust their banks, where will they put their money?”
He tells me he has already had clients in Paris come into their flagship store in the Place Vendôme saying they “need something eternal to invest in”.
At a speech during the recent party in Dubai, he made a direct plea to the audience. “I invite you to forget about the stock exchange for one minute and invest your money in something of real tangible value, something that will not collapse tomorrow.”
With the necklaces on show retailing at around Dh8 million and the rings carrying a price tag of several hundred thousand, we are not talking a minor investment. But Bédos is far too romantic about his product to view it as a mere financial transaction.
“Jewellery is not just about money. It is about love, emotion, a sense of power, conquering someone you love, pleasing someone you love. And whether there is a crisis or not, people will always fall in love, thank goodness.”
He describes a woman’s relationship with her jewellery as something extremely “intimate and sensual”. One of the things that attracted him to leave Cartier to come and work for Boucheron was the sensuality of the jewellery. “It is very feminine,” he says. “I meet women who tell me they forget to take it off when they go to bed. This makes me extremely happy. It shows that the jewellery is not just about vanity, it is deeper, more significant, almost part of them.”
Boucheron has been worn by such glamorous and celebrated women as Queen Rania of Jordan (who favours the Ava collection inspired by Ava Gardner), Nicole Kidman and Cameron Diaz, as well as the legendary film stars Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo and Rita Hayworth.
The French family dynasty was founded in 1858 by Frédéric Boucheron and four generations helped the brand become a leader in the high-end jewellery market.
Although there are now 40 boutiques around the globe, Boucheron began in Paris in the Place Vendôme, where legend has it he chose number 26 because it was the sunniest corner of the square and he believed the diamonds in the window would sparkle more brilliantly.
Although it is now owned by the Gucci Group, Bédos says it is still very much a family business.
“The ethos is still intimate and close,” he asserts. “The company will retain that atmosphere, just like it has retained coherence in its designs throughout history.”
Bédos is keen to emphasise the history and style of Boucheron. “I love the sense of mystery of the brand. If you look at our animal themes for example, the vast majority of them are silent animals. This is not a loud brand, and a lot of them are night animals. This nocturnal theme is something Boucheron has had throughout the years; a sense of mystery, darkness – even the corporate colour, deep aubergine, is dark. You see this idea starting with our advertisements in the early 20th century.”
There probably is no average Boucheron client, although they are all extremely rich. Bédos says he has seen a noticeable development in clients in the UAE in that they used to come to Paris to shop but now prefer to buy their jewels at home.
At the moment there are two boutiques in Dubai and plans to open in Abu Dhabi within the next couple of years.
“We are just looking for a suitable location,” he explains.
A suitable location to spend the next 150 years.
dazzling investment
Helena Frith Powell
Last Updated: December 04. 2008 4:47PM UAE / December 4. 2008 12:47PM GMT
Beaute Dangereuse sapphire snake brooch with 298 emeralds and ruby eyes, 2002. Courtesy Boucheron
As Boucheron marks a milestone and brings boutiques to the UAE, the CEO Jean-Christophe Bedos explains why people should turn their backs on stocks and put their money in luxury jewellery.
What do you do to celebrate 150 years of one of the world’s most exclusive, sought-after jewellery brands? You invite designers to come up with one-off pieces to mark the event and hold a global party that lasts a year, starting in Paris and taking in 11 other cities before a grand finale in Dubai.
“We chose to end in Dubai because we see the region as a bridge to our future,” says Boucheron’s CEO Jean-Christophe Bédos. “It is a crossroads between East and West, there is a cosmopolitan energy here. We see this party as not the end of our celebrations but the beginning.”
Fighting talk from a man whose company is selling something people don’t actually need in the middle of the worst economic crisis the world has seen for decades. Au contraire, Bédos would argue. In fact, he sees the economic crisis as an opportunity for the company.
“In times of crisis people have historically invested in jewels,” he says. “I cannot say whether this will happen now, but if people can’t trust their banks, where will they put their money?”
He tells me he has already had clients in Paris come into their flagship store in the Place Vendôme saying they “need something eternal to invest in”.
At a speech during the recent party in Dubai, he made a direct plea to the audience. “I invite you to forget about the stock exchange for one minute and invest your money in something of real tangible value, something that will not collapse tomorrow.”
With the necklaces on show retailing at around Dh8 million and the rings carrying a price tag of several hundred thousand, we are not talking a minor investment. But Bédos is far too romantic about his product to view it as a mere financial transaction.
“Jewellery is not just about money. It is about love, emotion, a sense of power, conquering someone you love, pleasing someone you love. And whether there is a crisis or not, people will always fall in love, thank goodness.”
He describes a woman’s relationship with her jewellery as something extremely “intimate and sensual”. One of the things that attracted him to leave Cartier to come and work for Boucheron was the sensuality of the jewellery. “It is very feminine,” he says. “I meet women who tell me they forget to take it off when they go to bed. This makes me extremely happy. It shows that the jewellery is not just about vanity, it is deeper, more significant, almost part of them.”
Boucheron has been worn by such glamorous and celebrated women as Queen Rania of Jordan (who favours the Ava collection inspired by Ava Gardner), Nicole Kidman and Cameron Diaz, as well as the legendary film stars Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo and Rita Hayworth.
The French family dynasty was founded in 1858 by Frédéric Boucheron and four generations helped the brand become a leader in the high-end jewellery market.
Although there are now 40 boutiques around the globe, Boucheron began in Paris in the Place Vendôme, where legend has it he chose number 26 because it was the sunniest corner of the square and he believed the diamonds in the window would sparkle more brilliantly.
Although it is now owned by the Gucci Group, Bédos says it is still very much a family business.
“The ethos is still intimate and close,” he asserts. “The company will retain that atmosphere, just like it has retained coherence in its designs throughout history.”
Bédos is keen to emphasise the history and style of Boucheron. “I love the sense of mystery of the brand. If you look at our animal themes for example, the vast majority of them are silent animals. This is not a loud brand, and a lot of them are night animals. This nocturnal theme is something Boucheron has had throughout the years; a sense of mystery, darkness – even the corporate colour, deep aubergine, is dark. You see this idea starting with our advertisements in the early 20th century.”
There probably is no average Boucheron client, although they are all extremely rich. Bédos says he has seen a noticeable development in clients in the UAE in that they used to come to Paris to shop but now prefer to buy their jewels at home.
At the moment there are two boutiques in Dubai and plans to open in Abu Dhabi within the next couple of years.
“We are just looking for a suitable location,” he explains.
A suitable location to spend the next 150 years.
scriptgirl
Active Member
- Joined
- May 1, 2006
- Messages
- 12,226
- Reaction score
- 5
en.terra
Cover Exclusive: Eva Mendes—The Real Woman Behind the Bombshell
Exclusive from Latina.com
On her role models, Betty Davis and Ava Gardner: “Those women spoke their minds and they weren't afraid to say a bad word because they'd come off crass. I feel like nowadays everybody is so careful about what they say. Those women...had a really great combination of femininity and masculinity.”
Cover Exclusive: Eva Mendes—The Real Woman Behind the Bombshell
Exclusive from Latina.com
On her role models, Betty Davis and Ava Gardner: “Those women spoke their minds and they weren't afraid to say a bad word because they'd come off crass. I feel like nowadays everybody is so careful about what they say. Those women...had a really great combination of femininity and masculinity.”
scriptgirl
Active Member
- Joined
- May 1, 2006
- Messages
- 12,226
- Reaction score
- 5
OCHS
scriptgirl
Active Member
- Joined
- May 1, 2006
- Messages
- 12,226
- Reaction score
- 5
Imago
- Status
