She played her part...

“From the moment I read [it], I was fascinated by the lovely wayward, tempestuous Scarlett, “I felt that I loved and understood her, almost as though I had known her in the flesh. When I heard that the book was to filmed in Hollywood early in 1939, I longed to play the part.” ~VL

 The Vivien Leigh Collection is a lot of 250 pieces of fine art, memorabilia, personal photos and clothing belonging to the consummate actor being sold at Sotheby’s in London September 26, 2017.  

"Life’s pattern pricked with a scarlet thread / where once we were with a gray / 

To remind us all how we played our parts / In the shock of an epic day” 

~ Margaret Mitchell's inscription to Vivien Leigh inside  her leather bound copy of GWTW

Among the collection, is Leigh’s personal copy of Gone With The Wind, presented to her by the author  ( auction estimate $6,548 to $9,166), and her leather bound copy of the script (seen above) given to her by the film’s cast (estimate approximately $3,274 to $4,583). Apparently, Leigh kept a copy of the novel with her on set in order to assure the script remained true to Mitchell's words.

read more at Sotheby's here

that dress~ GWTW

December 15th, 2014 marked the 75th anniversary of Gone With The Wind's premiere in Atlanta Georgia, 1939. The movie centers around the Civil War city of Atlanta and the countryside near Tara and Twelve Oaks. Recently in an interview, Anna Wintour called Scarlett O'Hara the most well dressed character in literature-vis a vis the film.

Walter Plunkett created this dress for Vivien Leigh's Scarlet to wear during Christmas at Aunt Pittypat's house in Atlanta. Scarlett went to grieve there (get closer to the action) -for her first husband Charles Hamilton, Pittypat's nephew. Her wedding dress to the ill-fated & feckless Charles was pretty fantastic too-(& not a hoop in sight).

Ashley, married to Melanie- Charles' long-suffering sister, comes home from the war on furlough and Scarlet gets another taste of the bitter pill-unrequited love, though no one could deny the dash of her bonnet, & the sprig of holly pinned to her green dress. Suffer she must-but that's no need for becoming a dowd.

Scarlett fights her way through the Civil War with  pluck-ultra, and 40 wardrobe changes- A Civil War "fashionista." It had to hurt as she watched from the parlor door Melanie & Ashley drift off to their bedroom clinging to one another.

 As Ashley leaves to return to battle, Scarlett waylays the poor man to give him a ridiculously fashionable sash for his uniform- vaguely reminiscent of her own white one, but in buttah yellow.

It is hardly worth mentioning that the gift gets her an embrace & kiss-I could care less-for being mesmerized by that dress with its darling ruched bodice trimmed out in red & adorned with a tasseled cameo, and Aunt Pittypat's extravagant curtains of silk & lace.
No, these are not "portieres" (a curtain that hangs in the entryway to a room that with no door), as referred to incorrectly in the movie.

Along with that dress, Aunt Pittypat's design aesthetic gets full marks- minus the antimacassars.

I love the Victorian pieces upholstered in Chintz. While we think of them in tired old antique Velvets, rethink your Grandmother's-or Aunt Pittypat's in a bold chintz with painted frames lacquered in red-violet-or green-even white would do. Consider an Indian cut work Lace to update Pittypat's windows, Schumacher has one I've used over & over.

And for Christmas supper, drape yourself in a fur stole, get an instant lift with a blue bow tied tightly under your chin, keep the Christmas tree small ( on a table near the windows), keep the table decorations low & simply chic (candles & holly sprigs), decant the port yourself...

& raise a glass to 75 years, and 40 costume changes!
If you haven't read Margaret Mitchell's GWTW, or seen the movie- "GOD'S NIGHTGOWN!"

a little Southern something

a new book for the editors of Garden and Gun...

The Southerner's Handbook

My brother dropped this little blue book into my hands last weekend-a charming cover, I read down-"by the editors of Garden and Gun." 

...good enough for me.

 It happens to be my favorite magazine-I am constantly trying to think of a story I can send them that would be worthy of publication. 

Nothing yet.

Suggestions?

This is a compilation of sorts-their best stories from the magazine & good 'ole new practical advice 'bout the South-but don't throw any of your old issues out-as I'm want to do with some magazine that do books.

The editor in chief of Garden and Gun, David DiBenedetto writes a beautiful introduction to the book-worth it's purchase alone.There should be a Mr Gerken in everyone's life wherever one lives. Fortunately, I had lots of them in the form of neighbors and especially relatives.

The book's first pages quote Clyde Edgerton: 

"Because I was born in the South, I'm a Southerenr, 

If I had been born in the North, the West, or the Central Plains, I would be just a human being."

I understand.

There've recently been a rash of comments creeping up on little augury like Kudzu.  

What?

I've just interviewed one of our well known sons (more to come on that lucky break)

I've been riled up by another blogger's unreasonable phobias of the South, 

just read about how Britain flocked to GWTW when it came out during WW II, 

and found out how the South is still perceived today through that movie's lens, and on and on. 

What's it all mean? 

The South will always hold an Allure, and a Distaste.

but the book holds a Delight.

There are many, many things in the book as a sixth generation Southerner-I haven't a clue about.

I rarely even say ya'll. 

I've never fried chicken-but will take a look into a recipe for great deviled eggs-though I always improvise when I make mine, Grannie did too.

Don't have a home bar-nor do I mix a good cocktail. I improvise there too, but there is a story about a still and moonshine back in the family lore.

Never even held a Gun like my grandfather did (He was from Maryland)-but I've plenty of callouses from a Garden spade-another inheritance, spade & callouses.

SO-I'm sure to learn something from the book, 

Ya'll too.

More about the book at where else-Garden and Gun hereand here

Zac Posen GWTW

.

I'd cut up my heart for you to wear if you wanted it. 

-Scarlett to Ashley,  from Margaret Mitchell's  Gone With the Wind

It ain't fittin'... it ain't fittin'. It jes' ain't fittin'... It ain't fittin'.-Mammie to Scarlett

Mammie- what are you gonna-wear?

Scarlett- that.

Mammie- No you won't. You can't show your bosom before three o'clock.

Rhett- I thought it was about time to get you out of that fake mourning. [shows her how to wear it after she places it on backward] The war stopped being a joke when a girl like you doesn't know how to wear the latest fashion. And those pantalettes: I don't know a woman in Paris who wears pantalettes any more.

Scarlett- Oh Rhett, what do they — you shouldn't talk about such things.

Rhett- You little hypocrite. You don't mind my knowing about them, just my talking about them.

Scarlett-But really Rhett, I can't go on accepting these gifts although you are awfully kind.

She closed the window and leaned her head against the velvet curtains and looked out across the bleak pasture toward the dark cedars of the burying ground.
The moss-green velvet curtains felt prickly and soft beneath her cheek and she rubbed her face against them gratefully, like a cat. And then suddenly she looked at them.
A minute later, she was dragging a heavy marble-topped table across the floor. Its rusty castors screeching in protest. She rolled the table under the window, gathered up her skirts, climbed on it and tiptoed to reach the heavy curtain pole. It was almost out of her reach and she jerked at it so impatiently the nails came out of the wood, and the curtains, pole and all, fell to the floor with a clatter.
As if by magic, the door of the parlor opened and the wide black face of Mammy appeared, ardent curiosity and deepest suspicion evident in every wrinkle. She looked disapprovingly at Scarlett, poised on the table top, her skirts above her knees, ready to leap to the floor...

Scoot up to the attic and get my box of dress patterns, Mammy!  

I'm going to have a new dress.

After supper had been cleared away, Scarlett and Mammy spread patterns on the dining-room table while Suellen and Carreen busily ripped satin linings from curtains and Melanie brushed the velvet with a clean hairbrush to remove the dust. Gerald, Will and Ashley sat about the room smoking, smiling at the feminine tumult. A feeling of pleasurable excitement which seemed to emanate from Scarlett was on them all, an excitement they could not understand. There was color in Scarlett's face and a bright hard glitter in her eyes and she laughed a good deal. Her laughter pleased them all, for it had been months since they had heard her really laugh. Especially did it please Gerald. His eyes were less vague than usual as they followed her swishing figure about the room and he patted her approvingly whenever she was within reach. The girls were as excited as if preparing for a ball and they ripped and cut and basted as if making a ball dress of their own.

 You go into the arena alone. The lions are hungry for you- Rhett to Scarlett

fittin' for Scarlet 

Thinking back, perhaps the most astonishing thing is that Vivien Leigh looked amazing in green. Her dress in Twelve Oaks scene of Gone with the Wind was a lovely green-on-white print , and the famous curtain dress was a luxurious bottle green. An everlasting testimony to her preternatural beauty, and also, some of the most iconic dresses in the history of film, Scarlett O'Hara's wardrobe is now being restored in view of the film's 75th anniversary (the movie was released in 1939).  from Vogue Italia

all dresses are ZAC POSEN RESORT COLLECTION

ZAC POSEN here
read about the Restoration of the gowns at the swell life  here
NPR here
& Vogue italia here



.

damn

.

“Frankly my dear I don’t give a damn”

In the novel, Rhett's line is "My dear, I don't give a damn," but writer Sidney Howard added "Frankly" -creating what is now one of the most memorable lines, if not the most in cinema history.

voted as the most famous one movie line by the American Film Institute in 2005

Hollywood lore still prevails that in 1939, David O. Selznick paid a $5,000 fine for the privilege of using the word DAMN when Rhett abandons Scarlett at the door of their Atlanta mansion & walks off into the foggy distance. Turns out he didn't-but he would have-





Potential alternatives for the Line were

"Frankly my dear... I just don't care," "... it makes my gorge rise," "... my indifference is boundless," "... I don't give a hoot," and "... nothing could interest me less."

David Selznick bemoaned the fact that he would be a laughing stock if he edited THE line in Margret Mitchell's best selling novel to please the censors. He was willing to pay,but after pleading his case-The Motion Picture Association board passed an amendment to the Production Code in November 1939, to insure that Selznick would be in compliance with the code:

The words "hell" and "damn" would be banned except when they "shall be essential and required for portrayal, in proper historical context, of any scene or dialogue based upon historical fact or folklore ... or a quotation from a literary work, provided that no such use shall be permitted which is intrinsically objectionable or offends good taste."


...damn, not to mention the cameo brooch, the staircase, the stained glass scenic mural, the flocked paper & the damned fog, oh-and the perfectly manicured topiary tree.
.

Pardon Me, but Are you wearing my wallpaper?

As I receive emails by the dozen everyday from stores-tempting me with the newest of the new in fashion. Occasionally I bite-but more often I LOOK. I adore fabrics and it is always intriguing to see how fashion and interior design merge -often on the runway.

I suppose Scarlet O'Hara of GONE WITH THE WIND infamy- was the first gal I knew that literally WORE her curtains. I always wondered who made that fabulous confection of green velvet. She pulled together her patterns and designed the frock, but I think Mammy did most of the sewing, or perhaps it was sister Sue Ellen.
Right now I see many prints that are the exact fabric I have used. I rarely repeat a fabric in my design work-But on occasion one comes along that is a brilliant "workhorse."
It GOES with everything: IMPERIAL TRELLIS by designer Kelly Werstler. I have use the wallpaper and the fabric. My favorite colorway is the Citrine and Ivory.

from St. John (Saks 5th Avenue)

IMPERIAL TRELLIS

my favorites of the Imperial Trellis' many colorways...

perfect for a wallpaper application in the Powder room

Have you seen someone wearing your wallpaper or favorite french chair recently?