Cathy Graham's SECOND BLOOM

my beautiful SECOND BLOOM book wrapped beautifully,
 and accompanied by a journal and all of it packed in a SECOND BLOOM gift box.

'tis the season of books, and there are more to come here at little augury.
today's book is special–unique to all the books that have emerged this Fall.
If I envy anything, it's the ability to paint, illustrate, render. Artist Cathy Graham has the knack, not just that, but artistry.

Cathy Graham amongst her paints

It's obviously a joy to her, it's easy to see from the work. There's Joy in each color–stroke–and embellishment of her book SECOND BLOOM!

I started following Cathy on Instagram and was immediately drawn to her portraits–her talent for capturing the likenesses of the personalities I've been fascinated with for many years. They are instantly recognizable–a true art!

 I snagged these from Cathy's instagram page, they can be seen in the book but not close up. See what I mean? Coco & Vreeland, Voila!

in Cathy's studio

I adore all of those perfectly sharpened pencils!

Her book SECOND BLOOM takes you on a visual journey focusing on setting tables with great joie de vivre, a touch a whimsy, a soupçon of humor, and of course flowers that are romantic, abundant, and carry her own stamp of individuality. Her mentor was the great Robert Isabel, so it's no wonder Cathy has embraced the Art of the Table. She's a noted hostess with a way of entertaining effortlessly according to Joanna Coles who writes the foreword to the book. Coles also cherishes the handmade invitations Graham sends to her dinner parties.

I found the beautiful rooms Cathy designs her flowers in & for-well-just beautiful!  I was looking beyond her flowers to see the "trees," as it were. She has a light, deft touch in her rooms–just like her illustrations. Look at her interiors, so feminine and warm. She mentions in the book nothing ever changes–she never re-does things. When it's time to replace something due to wear, she uses the same fabric. I love this philosophy.

Spring at Graham's New York townhouse

   Summer in Nantucket 

a heavenly bath and dressing table

At table...

with summer's citrusy colors

& back to New York for Christmas...

It seems SECOND BLOOM is the beginning of a creative boon for Cathy. I spied a candle in the works on her instagram page, she currently has a paper goods and stationery line, and a collaboration with Charmajesty linens, here, for the most adorable PJS, just in time for the holidays, and there's more in the works, but

FIRST track down SECOND BLOOM, its available at Vendome here, and there's a special slipcase edition at Bergdorf Goodman.

Follow Cathy on instagram if you want to keep up, and her website here, & more of her products here.

The book is published by Vendome, authored by Cathy Graham & Alexis Clark, with photographs by Quentin Bacon & Andrew Ingalls.

All photographs used with permission from VENDOME

Rosamond Bernier- Requiescat In Pace

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One of the most delightful memoirs I've read in months is the Rosamond Bernier's book Some of My Lives-
DO read it.
It's magical.
I gave the book for Christmas years ago-and I received my copy from Charlotte Moss-with the inscription-"enough Inspiration here for several lifetimes."
Bernier does inspire.

Rosamond Bernier died November 10th at the age of 100. Her storied life was an inspiration for so many-proof noted with tributes all over social media.

Bernier in 1996, photographed in front of her 1948 Dior dress, chosen as the 'Poster Girl' for the Dior exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute. (I am wearing Chanel!)- caption from her site Rosamond Bernier here

So fashionable — So lovely– So intelligent, proof  positive of that phrase "style & substance."

The beautiful Rosamond Bernier met everyone that was anyone and shared bits only she could know about the BIGGEST artists, designers and style makers of an era never to be seen again. She's chaptered the book into dishy memories-as she calls it "A Scrapbook Memoir"-with Picasso, Miro, Matisse-Chanel, Lelong -they're all there. She travels to Paris after the second World War with artist Eric to cover fashion (this chapter is excerpted at the Paris Review here  along with some of Eric's drawings from their trip)

  a 1943 Vogue drawing by Eric of a Hattie Carnegie evening blouse

I have this Eric drawing in my collection-(from the pages of Vogue 1943)

 This is one of the Eric drawings I've collected from the pages of  Vogue 1943.

Eric's Taxco Summer Dresses made me think of  Rosamond Bernier's chapter on landing her job with Vogue in 1945. Though she hadn't met Eric- Eric Carl Erickson, Bernier could easily have posed for the drawing. While in New York, she met Edna Chase, Iva Patcevitch, Alexander Liberman and his wife Tatiana, 'the Conde Nast high command.'  Bernier recalls- 'I was wearing a Mexican skirt and white blouse. Tatiana growled at me in French, "You ought to wear a black blouse with that skirt.' It didn't seem to phase Chase- who as Bernier explained 'that she had been on a beach in Acapulco for five years & knew absolutely nothing about fashion,' replied 'tartly,' "My child, I know a fashion editor when I see one."

Berniers crisscrosses in Some of My Lives from Mexico-to Paris-to-New York wearing couture and collecting memories. She recalls her long friendship with Leonard Bernstein,  the founding of her influential art magazine L'OEIL and her marriage to love of her life- John Dickinson, all of it's there. She tells us stories & we feel as if we're eavesdropping-but she's keeping confidences too- exuding an elegant presence-cool- collected. The lady.
I didn't want it to end.


There are just the most wonderful photographs, lectures, Everything at her website It's a dream- visit here. 

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"capturing wonder" Victoria Thorne

It started with my request for Elsie de Wolfe.  An Elsie wearing green shoes, though the green shoes aren't visible, Elsie materialized!

Friend and fellow blogger-who I've found a kindred spirit in, Victoria Thorne, is sketching-making people I've long admired materialize before my eyes. When one has the gift to capture features- a gleam in the eye or an unturned corner of a grin from a photograph in line and shade, we can see something new-something lost in the image itself. Perhaps it is seeing something beyond, or seeing what the viewer misses, that allows an artist to bring a photograph to life-or at the least, add their vision. Zeroing in on that "thing" that makes a person memorable. This is what Victoria has been able to do. This is why her portraits are compelling, exciting.

AMY WINEHOUSE

WE only said goodbye with words

I died a hundred times

You go back to her-

and I go back to 

Black. ~Amy Winehouse

ELIZABETHS I & II

I know I have the body of a weak, feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm; to which rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field. ~"I"

I asked Victoria to tell me how this all started. Here's what she said:

I actually started college in the art department, but wandered over to the English building freshman year, fell in love with Andrew Marvell and stayed there. For many years after, I worked as an artist and copywriter, always freelance, fitting it around the schedules of our four amazing kids.

The art jobs sort became design jobs and, some time last year, I realized that not going back to art–drawing, painting, calligraphy, collage–was sort of like continuing a forced march away from my soul.

So I started again, which felt bumpy at first. I thank God for the support of my family. My kids received (and applauded, usually) regular strange texts with odd doodles, my husband was incredibly understanding as the house became 90% art studio, and my Instagram pretty much turned into a giant pad of newsprint.

The people who stuck with me through months of sketch after sketch after strange little collage followed by yet another sketch: I'm so thankful. Beyond grateful. And those I've meant who've become collaborators and friends: a true treasure.

One of my kids said, several months before I started putting the art out there: Commit. Treat this as a full-time job. Her advice was good. I am so thankful for the chance to do this. And so appreciative that you have asked me how it came about.

THE POETS

When Bliss disclosed a hundred Toes - 

And fled with every one ~ED 

In Fashion

Elegance does not consist in putting on a new dress. ~GC

Women have always been the strong ones of the world. The men are always seeking from women a little pillow to put their heads down on. They are always longing for the mother who held them as infants. ~ Chanel

In mythology and palmistry, the left hand is called the dreamer because the ring finger on the left hand leads directly to the heart. I find it a very poetic idea. And that's why I only wear nail polish on my left ring finger. ~Gloria Vanderbilt

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."

 IF I were seeking out great fashion icons it wouldn’t be my first impulse to search the rosters of Nobel laureates or members of the Academie Francaise. On the other hand, an examination of the lives of the greatest women of style generally reveals individuals of some cultural sophistication. I can’t think of anyone who is known for her stylishness to be stupid or purely instinctive. The memorable women of fashion have to be intelligent enough to understand the rules and codes, often nuanced, implicit in fashion, and how far they can go in testing the limits and boundaries of those accepted standards. I love the fact that when someone is perfectly put together they are said to look “smart.” That’s as intellectual as fashion has to be. ~Harold Koda




And then, after All -there is the utter charm in many of Victoria's pieces, capturing the whimsy- the wonderment -of a fleeting fashion idiosyncrasy, or the innocence of a child. 

Isn't that what draws us to anything worthwhile?
The inexpressible-the "we just know it" wonder of something that we may not remember indefinitely, but that we can feast on for a time. On Instagram, the essence of that same wonder, Victoria posts her portraits, compiles them, draws insta-ration from the images others post. 

Living in that childish wonder is a most beautiful feeling - I can so well remember it. There was always something more - behind and beyond everything - to me, the golden spectacles were very, very big. Kate Greenaway



If you've a notion to such a feeling, of such wonderment, follow Victoria here, & also on her blog- here.

I'm delving into Instagram too-& you can find me here posting daily. It's another avenue into what's inspiring me this instant.

Ladies who Lunch

at some point, I would love to go to a Chanel fashion extravaganza.
For me that would be a real treat-say at Brasserie Gabrielle, Karl Lagerfeld's latest fantasy where he showed his Fall 2015 Chanel collection. Certainly there were some eager spectators of his fashion sport, but after weeks of watching teenagers waltz about in clothes that most people don't want, much less afford, Fashionable Eyes must be crossed at the mixing and matching that went on, and on.

I for one in the provinces, love to SEE what's going on in that other worldly world. No matter how I stray from Classic fashion, still there is that unabated LOVE for the Chanel suit, jacket, dress, that never tires, never errs, never wears Out or goes Out.

Style.com's "MOVE IT" is such fun! Watch the swish of a skirt the wafting of a sleeve, but alas, Chanel's MOVE IT was sketchy, the camera angle and the staging-KL created a full service French brasserie for the collection- prohibited Study of the clothes.

Lagerfeld's Chanel Collection for Fall 2015 is mostly all CHANEL when she triumphantly returned to clothes in the 1950's. What's strikingly out of sink with the Clothes is the Models wearing the clothes. Dress Up comes to mind- wearing Mommy's clothes.

photo by Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuter, from the NY Times here

Of Course, the worldwide obsession with YOUTH is to blame, but Mr. Lagerfeld, who is mostly genius as fashion goes, missed a perfect opportunity to do something Really Revolutionary- dress Real Women in these very Real Clothes.

 Ines de la Fressange?

Deeda Blair?

Carole Bouquet?

Charlotte Rampling?

Who will wear these clothes?
These are clothes that require experience. Model Audrey Marnay, (below) at 35, fits the clothes. Once retired, Marnay returned to modelling recently and  in Chanel, she alone wears a sweater over the shoulders with elan, and authoritative aplomb.

all photos from Style.om  Kim Weston Arnold / Indigitalimages.com, except where noted.

something beautiful...

Chanel  Karl Lagerfeld at his best.
No one can deny Lagerfeld's genius at reinventing Chanel suits-and Chanel's style aesthetic over & over, season after season. Taking tartans last season in his Pre-Fall Métiers d'Art staged in Edinburgh at Linlithgow Castle -putting his Chanel wit to it-and this week he fashioned lederhosen & the dirndl into Chanel at the Schloss Leopoldskron in Salzburg (familiar to The Sound of Music aficionados).

As a silken thread-or in this case-wool, to his full blown Austrian fantasy, Madame Chanel was inspired by the jacket worn by a Schloss Leopoldskron lift operator to create her signature little black jacket.

 

 Photographed by Margherita Chiarva 

all her photographs are at Vogue.com here

Photographed by Margherita Chiarva 

There are gorgeous photographs & first hand reviews on all the websites-Vogue , style.com, etc. etc., and this collection is indeed gorgeous.

What strikes me-it's so identifiable, and that- in an age of fashion's experimentation with digital printing (often more misses than hits), Lagerfeld brings a reality to his Austrian Fantasy. Traditional clothes with beautiful details-feathers, embroidery, lace-all look fresh-and beautiful, a word often applied to clothes, yet sadly lacking in those seen today.

Photographed by Margherita Chiarva

Photographed by Margherita Chiarva

The Collection is all "gift wrapped." Lagerfeld's way of getting the full breadth of his collection across-a film, a setting, a stage, a story. While his short film featuring Cara Delevingne didn't quite work, Delevinge is a star. As Sisi, Austria's style Queen c. 1860, Delevingne waltzes around in a Sisi crinoline dress that echos the empress's famous Winterhalter portraits.

SISI

 Empress Elisabeth of Austria, by Franz Xaver Winterhalter, 1865

found at Mademoiselle Delevingne's instagram account

Whatever your penchant for fashion, this little treasure (the ear muff) -practical, and so so whimsical, encapsulates Karl Lagerfeld's magical agility in putting one prettily shod foot into a Winterhalter portrait past-and the other squarely in the modern day world of instagram future:

I can't think of a better way to celebrate (other than ordering one of these jackets) than watching some Movies that will whisk you away to Austria this weekend:

Visconti's LUDWIG, with Romy Schneider as SISI, 1972.

or Ernst Marischka's SISI, 1955, again with Romy Schneider as SISI.

& then there is always The Sound of Music, 1965, or Heidi, 1968.

In all these movies there are shades of Chanel's Austria- loden, military stripes, lace, and braids-but no black leather anywhere in sight. 

It's the jeweled black leather in this collection along with its feathered fedoras, plaited ear muffs, and thigh high suede boots that make Karl Lagerfeld's Chanel Métiers d'Art Collection a costume drama all its own. 

I'd star in any of them.