Babe Paley

[CTstyle]

just like nearly every "socialite":emaciated,smoker,ugly.ugggh.merely interested on climbing the rungs.what a waste.

Every socialite ugly? Not true! What about Aerin Lauder Zinterhofer? She is gorgeous! "Ugly" is so subjective, though. I don't think Babe Paley was ugly.
I am glad she has a thread here. I was wondering about her when I saw this forum. She is always referred to in the fashion mags when there is reference to classic style or icons of the past.

 

[CTstyle]

Babe and William Paley's apartment in New York: http://www.panachemag.com/Archive/9_05/Indulge/Design/d2.jpg

 

[Miss Dalloway]

CT Thanks for the picture!
I think Babe was one of the biggest fashion icons ever!She invented effortless chic!She could make fashion headlines just by walking out of her front door.One day,in a hurry to leave her house she wrapped a scarf around her Hermes bag handle.Spotted by photographers the image was used by the nations fashion magazines and started a trend that took years to abate.

It was Babe Paley that popularized the trend of wearing the junk dime store jewelry with Houte Couture.

So i find comments like bunnbunn made very stupid and their author dosent have his facts straight.As for her being ugly its the matter of personnal opinion i think she was beautiful!One admirer was qouted as saying,"So great is her beauty that no matter how often i see her ,its the first time".

Whoever knows fashion knows Babe Paley!She remind fixture at the top of Best Dressed List through her entire life!And she is still used today as a reference point for style,and the fashion coverage of the 1998 Oscar De La Renta summer collction praised its,"Paley chic,that says,I"m rich but i dont have to flaunt it.

All in all she was a maginficent lady and they dont make them like that anymore.There are very little of them now in our times when tabloids queens are called fashion icons!

Truman Capote said "Babe Paley had only one flaw: she was perfect.Other than that she was perfect.And that qoute seems to summarize everything that made people both worship and envy this remarkable individual!

 

[texastess]

She was indeed flawless!

 

[manzana]

Its a shame there aren't more pictures of her, they're hard to find

 

[SiennaInLondon]

I can never understand people like you,what gives you the right to call someone ugly?Its all in the matter of personal taste i think she was beautiful but even if i thought she wasnt i would never write a post like yours my mother raised me bettre than that!If you dont like her dont come to this thread because its for people who like her and her style!

Odd argument I have never understood this one. She wasnt criticising you, she was criticising a celebrity. Did your mother not teach you about the pitfalls of being holier than thou? And please do come to this thread BunnBunn, it is for everyone who wants to say something. It is not a parliament thank goodness! Some people tend to have an agressive view of anyone who disagrees with them from thread to thread but TFS will never be an authoritarian forum! Yay. Anyway your argument defeats itself. It is a matter of personal taste and I am grateful for her point of view, as should everyone.

I do happen to disagree with it though. Babe Paley wasnt a beauty but that kind of pared down look made for a great iconic style. Whether or not it was original or better than any of her contemporaries can be debated but this line drawing of her illustrates the cleanliness of that 40s look

By the way, is Babe a common nickname in the States? There is also Babe Ruth of course? Is there any special reason for it other than the obvious?

 

[SiennaInLondon]

That's from http://www.drawrm.com/rb9c.jpg btw

 

[Miss Dalloway]

^^WOW thanks soooooooooo much for psoting those pictures.

Its so ahrd to find her pictures,they dont make them like Babe anymore. *sigh*

 

[Lina5]

profimedia.cz

 

[Miss Dalloway]

Here is a great article about her life from old VF issue,kindly snaped by TFS member Pedro :
Babe Paley
photography by Richard Avedon
text by Sally Bedell Smith
from Vanity Fair September 1990







Full credit: to TFSs member Pedro!
http://www.thefashionspot.com/forums/f78/search-magazine-edits-44864-9.html

 

[ruslana rules]

A couple of vintage pics....

Source: Vogue- December 1964 - Scanned by Me

 

[jackieonassis]

Amazing, thanks so much. I love Babe but It is so hard to find new pictures!

 

[Miss Dalloway]

^^It truly is,so thanks a million ruslana_rules for scanning those.

 

[Miss Dalloway]

Here are few more i found:

8th May,1958!
William Paley,the chairman of American boradcasters CBS,with his wife Babe in Denmark.

Credit:Viewimages.

 

[Miss Dalloway]

1952;Chairman of American broadcasters CBS,William S Paley,pictured with his wife Barbara at Sarah Roosevelt's going away party at Greentree,held on Jock Whitney's Manhasset estate,Long Island.

Viewimages.

 

[Miss Dalloway]

American socialite Babe Paley beside the pool at Round Hill in Jamaica.

Viewimages

 

[lollicandy]

Probably the most famous picture of Babe Paley.






With some notable guests, Wallis Simpson









corbis.com

 

[lollicandy]

As a young socialite...


Out with FDR Jr.


Modelling, mostly by Horst P. Horst







corbis.com

 

[MissMagAddict]

FOUND TREASURES
US Vogue March 2009
Verdura launches a line of pieces once designed for the inimitable Babe Paley. Jean Nathan gets a preview.


source | scanned by MMA

 

[Ziegfeld Girl]

Babe Paley clad in elegant evening gown while attending President Dwight Eisenhower's inaugural ball.
Location: Washington, DC, US
Date taken: 1953
Photographer: Alfred Eisenstaedt

Wife of CBS Board Chairman Mrs. William S. Paley (C) attending dinner party at the Plaza Hotel following opening concert of the Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall.
Location: New York, NY, US
Date taken: September 1960
Photographer: Yale Joel

source: LIFE archive via Google