1/3/15 review of book Elsa Schiaparelli: A Biography

(Image: Penguin Random House)

Here is the link to my Twitter thread review of the Meryle Secrest book Elsa Schiaparelli: A Biography.

My thread discusses Secrest's accomplished and atmospheric writing style. It discusses how Secrest examines Schiap's life and society. It gives insight into Schiap's sources of inspiration, as well as how Schiap was always on the cutting edge of things. It discusses some challenges Secrest leaves for future Schiap biographers. And it gives some of my own reflections and favorite parts from the book.

Here is the link to the Penguin Random House edition of Elsa Schiaparelli.

I bought this book at the Tattered Cover Book Store in Colorado.

12/24/12 review of book D.V. by Diana Vreeland

(Image: Left Bank Books New York)

This is my Twitter review of the book D.V., the memoirs of Diana Vreeland

This is one of my earlier Twitter reviews. I did it on December 24, 2012.

Unlike most of my Twitter reviews, this was not done as a thread. Instead, I posted each tweet separately.

The tweets are below for your convenience.

***

Tweet 1. Finished reading DV, the memoirs of Diana Vreeland, fashion icon, Harper's Bazaar and Vogue editor, and curator for the Met Museum.

T2. Vreeland's book is full of great stories. I had a hard time remembering them all. I love the stories of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. T3. I love Vreeland's stories of her meticulous work at the lingerie boutique. And the stories involving Coco Chanel. T4. The stories of Vreeland's experiences with speakeasy violence and The Night of the Long Knives are pretty wild.

T5. The book has a nice mix of autobiography and history. Often Vreeland's life is peripheral to the wild times and personalities around her. T6. Vreeland's book reminds me a lot of Russell's Portraits from Memory. And of Simone de Beauvoir's Au Revoir a Sartre.

T7. Interesting is Vreeland's sensibility of a fashion connection between France and Russia. Even Chanel was inspired by Russia.

T8. Vreeland laments the trend of large fashion shops like Saks. This trend is opposite the trend Alvin Topfler saw in his book Future Shock.

T9. I really like the part in the book where Vreeland philosophizes on color.

***

Here is the link to the HarperCollins page for D.V.

I checked this book out from the Jefferson County Public Library system in Colorado.

12/19/12 review of book Searching for Beauty: The Life of Millicent Rogers

Here is my Twitter review of the book Searching for Beauty: The Life of Millicent Rogers, by Cherie Burns.

This is one of my earlier Twitter reviews. I did it on December 19, 2012.

Unlike most of my Twitter reviews, this is not posted as a thread. Instead, I posted each tweet separately.

The tweets are below for your convenience.

***

Tweet 1. Finished reading Searching for Beauty, by @cherieburns1 . Story of fashion icon, artist, and Taos art collector Millicent Rogers. Good book.

T2. Millicent Rogers is famous for the collecting she did in Taos. I learned of Rogers through the book The Power of Style. T3. A particular photo in The Power of Style showed Rogers dying fabric over a stove. This reminded me a bit of poet William Morris.

T4. But @cherieburns1  gives a full portrait of Rogers' life and loves, not just the famous time in Taos. T5. The first part of Searching for Beauty gives the harrowing story of Rogers' failed first marriage to Austrian Count Sam. T6. Rogers' father, a wealthy Standard Oil heir, basically bought Rogers out of the marriage.

T7. Rogers then went on to marry Arturo Peralta-Ramos, who was kind enough, and who had a sense of discipline Rogers' father admired. T8. After Rogers' father died, Rogers and P-R divorced. Rogers married an athletic, well-hung (!) stock-broker. That marriage also didn't last. T9. Rogers then helped with the war effort in WWII, and loved Forrestal, Fleming, and Dahl. Then she lived in Hollywood and loved Clark Gable.

T10. The most fascinating parts of @cherieburns1  book are in my opinion the lyrical passages dealing with Rogers' emotional life in collecting. T11. Rogers collected fashion and really served, simply by being herself, to spearhead certain fashion movements. T12. Rogers also collected, and then created, jewelry, learning the art of metalworking from some of the early twentieth century's masters. T13. The moments where @cherieburns1  explores Rogers' excitement over creation and collection are very inspiring.

T14. I also feel like Rogers' love life is like a map out of nineteenth and into twentieth century frames of thought. A progression with times. T15. Something about Rogers' progression into modernity (through WWII) also reminds me of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross' life. T16. Rogers and Kubler-Ross also both lived in Virginia, then in the Southwest, where their lives ended. T17. I also feel like there's a life-sympathy between Millicent Rogers and visionary Christiana Morgan.

T18. Sometimes I wonder who'd direct a good film adaptation. I'd like to see Michael Mann do a life of the Millicent Rogers of @cherieburns1 .

(Cherie Burns actually responded to my Twitter review. Here's our exchange.)

Burns:  So glad you appreciated the range of Rogers's life.   She only spent the last six years of a 51 year life in New Mexico.

Preemie: Oh, I did. You presented it so well. Thank you!

***

My reading of this book actually inspired me to take a trip to Taos, New Mexico, which you can read about here.

Here is the link to the Macmillan edition of Searching for Beauty: The Life of Millicent Rogers.

I checked this book out from the Jefferson County Public Library system in Colorado.

11/6/2012 review of book The Power of Style

This is my Twitter thread review of the book The Power of Style, by Annette Tapert and Diana Edkins.

I wrote this review on November 6, 2012.

Unlike many of my Twitter reviews, this was not written in thread form. Instead, I posted each thread in the review separately.

So I have reproduced each tweet into this blog post for easier reading.

T1. Finished reading The Power of Style, by Annette Tapert and Diana Edkins. The stories of fourteen fashionable women.

T2. Women from Power of Style who most interested me were Elsie de Wolfe, Diana Vreeland, Millicent Rogers, and Pauline de Rothschild.

T3. Also interesting to see how people like Cecil Beaton, Mainboucher, and Elsa Schiaparelli are part of the life stories in The Power of Style.

T4. Elsie de Wolfe was my favorite in The Power of Style. A career arc from actress/hostess to world-renowned interior designer -- and inventor!

I checked this book out from the Jefferson County Public Library system in Colorado.