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I've been have some fun with Daisy Fellowes of late.
Though she is known in aesthetic circles as one of the most well dressed women of all time-her candle has flickered in the 21st century. Blogs have served to put her back in the spotlight somewhat- with much of the current information coming from the great book The Power of Style, by Annette Tapert and Diana Edkins. I've past along copies of this book and have held on to at least two-and upstairs-downstairs sort of thing.
The challenge is-what's new? That's what I'm looking for. The book Custom and Characters, by Peter Quennell has added rich detail to the world of Daisy. Quennell knew Daisy personally and some of the supposed horrors of Daisy as the tyrant pirate of her yacht-Sister Anne-are tamped down in his memoirs.
She emerges as a bit more human-and he posits she may have been a successful business women if she'd not had the enormous wealth of the Singer fortune.
She wore lots of Schiaparelli's Surrealist pieces-and somehow pulled it off with -that studied simplicity that fascinated Beaton. Schiaparelli's new Couture designs put me in mind of Daisy.
New designer, Marco Zanini said, “I love the personality of Schiaparelli so much that I wanted to reference her as an extremely cultivated, irreverent, and daring woman.”
I think Daisy would have been right at home in Zanini's designs.
Hoyningen-Huené photographed her with her sleek Antoine coiffure wearing a Jean Patou
green velvet dress and a peacock-feather toque.She's wearing a pair sapphire and diamond pigeon's wing brooches, by Rene
Boivin, 1936.
I've no reason to doubt Daisy would have been showing up in Schiaparelli today-and showing them up in it too.
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I've been have some fun with Daisy Fellowes of late.
Though she is known in aesthetic circles as one of the most well dressed women of all time-her candle has flickered in the 21st century. Blogs have served to put her back in the spotlight somewhat- with much of the current information coming from the great book The Power of Style, by Annette Tapert and Diana Edkins. I've past along copies of this book and have held on to at least two-and upstairs-downstairs sort of thing.
The challenge is-what's new? That's what I'm looking for. The book Custom and Characters, by Peter Quennell has added rich detail to the world of Daisy. Quennell knew Daisy personally and some of the supposed horrors of Daisy as the tyrant pirate of her yacht-Sister Anne-are tamped down in his memoirs.
She emerges as a bit more human-and he posits she may have been a successful business women if she'd not had the enormous wealth of the Singer fortune.
Beaton showing Daisy up in the best of light, she wears Schiaparelli
Cecil Beaton adored her and loved photographing her and her "studied simplicity."
She wore lots of Schiaparelli's Surrealist pieces-and somehow pulled it off with -that studied simplicity that fascinated Beaton. Schiaparelli's new Couture designs put me in mind of Daisy.
New designer, Marco Zanini said, “I love the personality of Schiaparelli so much that I wanted to reference her as an extremely cultivated, irreverent, and daring woman.”
I think Daisy would have been right at home in Zanini's designs.
Daisy as drawn by Sargent, and below Stella Tennant in Schiaparelli Couture
Jean Cocteau said, Fellowes “launched more fashions than any other woman in the world."
Daisy, at left wearing tailored day clothes-photographed by Beaton, and below right wearing Schiaparelli, 1933
Fellowes loved pairing jackets with evening dresses-a look Zanini put out on the runway a number of times last week at Schiaparelli's show.
Fellowes loved pairing jackets with evening dresses-a look Zanini put out on the runway a number of times last week at Schiaparelli's show.
Wearing Schiaparelli, at left,1933.
She wore jewelry and heels while sunbathing on her yacht-Sister Anne, photographed by Beaton.
She adored Schiaparelli's tailoring paired with embroidery and beading. Zanini included pieces with the same sense of ease-yet impeccably tailored & elaborately embroidered.
Daisy at bottom left, again photographed by Beaton in Schiaparelli wearing her "Tutti Frutti" Cartier necklace
top left, in repose photographed by Maurice Tabard, below r. drawn by Cecil Beaton
She wore mega watt jewelry with nonchalance- and wasn't afraid of feminine ruffles and a flounce or two, and still there was that appearance of ease- and simplicity Beaton spoke of.
Bettina Ballard of Vogue called her "the most elegant and most talked-about woman in Paris, and Karl Lagerfeld called her, "the chicest woman I ever laid eyes on."
I've no reason to doubt Daisy would have been showing up in Schiaparelli today-and showing them up in it too.
all pictures of Schiaparelli Couture are at Vogue.com, as well as a review of the collection by Hamish Bowles-and the quote by Zanini that is linked in the story.
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It is so true that much of what we know and have seen of Daisy Fellowes has been from the wonderful book 'The Power of Style' but I have long longed to see more and know more about the Honorable Mrs. Reginald Fellowes... (isn't it funny, for being one of the most famous fashion icons, there is really so little out there about DF?? So different then now in this age of social media!) Thank you for the recommendation on the book 'Custom and Characters', by Peter Quennell - which I had never heard of - do you know, did Quennell ever do a second memoir? I will be ordering Customs and Characters promptly from Amazon! Thank you for satisfying my longings - as always :))
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