#joel lobenthal

[kitsunetsuki]

Henry Grossman - John Kloss, 1966, from the book Radical Rags: Fashions of the Sixties by Joel Lobenthal (1990)

[pers-books]

Tallulah Bankhead was born on this day 120 years ago. 

She was the main real life inspiration for Disney’s Cruella de Vil in The Hundred and One Dalmatians animation: although her family wasn’t Catholic, the uncontrollable Bankhead was sent away to convents as a child and was twice expelled, once for throwing ink at the Mother Superior and again, at age 12, for making romantic advances towards a nun!

In order to get permission from her father to pursue acting in New York, she promised her father that she’d abstain from men and alcohol. Luckily, as she mentioned in her 1952 tell-all autobiography, there was a loophole: “He didn’t say anything about women and cocaine.” 

Bankhead’s wild, open, shameless sexcapades with men and women made her an instant queer icon, explains biographer Joel Lobenthal in Tallulah!, noting her “visual adoption by some of the most prominent gay women in London.” However, Bankhead never identified as bisexual or any other label. 

Photographer: Irving Lippman

[fashionbooksmilano]

Ballerina

Fashion's Modern Muse

By Patricia Mears, Laura Jacobs, Jane Pritchard, Rosemary Harden, and Joel Lobenthal

Vendome Press, New York 2019,  288 pages,  250 color, b+w illustrations,   ISBN 978-0-86565-373-3

euro 75,00

email if you want to buy booksinprogressmilano@yahoo.it

Ballerina: Fashion’s Modern Muse is a revelatory, irresistible treat for dance aficionados and fashionistas alike. Couturiers such as #Balmain, #Balenciaga, #Chanel, #Schiaparelli, #CharlesJames, #Dior, and #YvesSaintLaurent designed ballet-inspired dresses and gowns, many featuring the boned bodices and voluminous tulle skirts of classical tutus. American ready-to-wear designers such as #ClaireMcCardell found inspiration in ballet leotards and other practice clothing, creating knitted separates, bathing suits, and wrap dresses.        Written by fashion and ballet experts, the book is illustrated with archival photography by such masters as #RichardAvedon, #EdwardSteichen, #IrvingPenn,#ManRay, and #CecilBeaton, along with newly commissioned photography of contemporary ballerinas wearing ballet-influenced couture.

The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (MFIT) presents from  February 11 – April 18, 2020  Ballerina: Fashion’s Modern Muse, the first large-scale exhibition to illustrate the profound and enduring influences of classical ballet and its most celebrated practitioners — ballerinas — on modern high fashion.

06/12/19

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[uartslibraries]

Ballerina : fashion's modern muse

by Patricia Mears, Laura Jacobs, Jane Pritchard, Rosemary Harden, Joel Lobenthal

call #  GV1789.2 .M43 2019

[notyetalona]

‘Slouching towards Bethlehem’: The fashions of the 1967 summer of love

How the hippies of the late 60’s rejected the monolithic attitude of traditional fashion trends and gave way to an hyper- individual approach to personal style.

“Why not dance anyway you feel like, look anyway you feel like?” says Linda Gravenites, a fashion designer who was responsible for pioneering much of the key aesthetics and stylistic practices of the golden age of hippy culture. This bohemian philosophy of absolute freedom was precisely the essence of not only the fashions of the late sixties but also it’s attitude. 

The summer of 1967 is widely recognised to have been the epitomisation of the seismic cultural revolution brewing on the West Coast, as San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbery district became the hotspot for young people who felt disillusioned from the “American dream” and values of the consumerist society. They were heavily inspired by the beatniks who came in the decade’s prior, of whom included poet Allen Ginsburg and novelist Jack Kerouac. For these so-called “flower-children '', Haight-Ashbery had become a form of escapism from the socio-political troubles of the time, most prominently the Vietnam War.

As with any prominent social or political movement, the hippies had adopted a type of uniform, as Joel Lobenthal writes “Haight-Ashbury’s orgiastic and egalitarian utopia asked its participants to sever old loyalties and prior identities. New clothes were a right of passage” (Radical Rags 1990). Ironically, the 1960s were the first time that people wore old clothes, used clothes, secondhand clothes from their older relatives or bought for a couple of bucks at a Goodwill. It had become much cooler to create something new and individual from something seemingly old and unfashionable than to buy something sold in a catalogue. Despite the hippy inclination towards collectivism (as a response to American rugged individualism) fashion had uniquely become a tool for individual self expression, the more your style had reflected the person you were, the seemingly more bohemian it was. This in a sense was a rebellion from a style which seemed to have been stuck in the 50's sensibilities, in the same manner that Mary Quant's mini skirt had liberated the female body, the hippie style had liberated the soul's of those youth. There wasn't a set style, it was a mindset. But with that, there were still certain aesthetics which had been recurring.

Particularly in womenswear, Maxi flowing dresses which were always either filled with decadent embroidery or maximalist colourful prints were worn by the likes of Joni Mitchell and Janis Joplin both of whom pioneered the aesthetics we associate with the Bohemian movement. . The maxi dress had become a staple in any woman’s wardrobe who participated in the counterculture. 

It would be unjust to discuss any aspect of the hippie lifestyle without even a slightest mention of LSD. With its ability to expand the user’s consciousness, it was the drug which had defined the movement. Even the Beatles were notorious for partaking in the seemingly magical properties of Acid. This was directly reflected in the colour palette as well as the patterns and prints of clothing within the counter-culture. Bright and opulent colours were the hallmark of hippie clothing, which I don’t doubt enhanced their trips. This perhaps being the most controversial aspect of the movement. On the one hand, the mind-altering properties of acid were seen as the key to ultimate freedom, as trippers would see the world beyond physical reality. Acid notoriously makes you question everything, which is essential to breaking away from societal norms. In a sense, LSD was what characterised the movement. Other writers such as Joan Didion in her infamous essay ‘Slouching towards Bethlehem’ wrote about the dangers of acid, and how these kids weren’t finding freedom but were getting lost. Joni Mitchell was also critical of the glamorisation of psychedelics, which is obvious in much of her lyrics such as in “Slouching towards Bethlehem '' and “Blue”.

At its core, hippie fashions of the late 60’s were not characterised by any specific set of trends, you didn’t become a hippie because you bought a specific type of attire or if you dropped acid once, you could only truly have a hippie style if you were a hippie. Not just in what you wore, but your philosophy. It was more about becoming free from the traditional constraints of society, than any particular style. You can’t buy your way into becoming a hippie. 

[bhex]

✨👇Review✨ "Tallulah! The Life and Times of a Leading Lady" by Joel Lobenthal 🥀 In Tallulah's wild facade, I feel her pain, the torment of loneliness, the attitude of escapism kept the bandage but never healed the wounds. The physical and emotional suffering was eating her alive and she still managed to pour out a humor, sharp and unparalleled. She was a true artist not only by profession but by heart as well. Original and unpredictable, she took the road of nonconformity, the struggles of a creative theater life over the unartistic routines of rising film business, and the respect for the marginalized groups (black & LGB com) over moral/social conventions and mediocre judgements. But her lonely craving for attention and living for applause sacrificed her artistry. She 'camped' her characters (intent exaggeration for buying giggles in the show) instead of developing them. I bet this was also a shield from connections of pain between her and her characters. 🥺 It was also sad that she did not receive the recognition she deserved - no Oscars because she did not yield to the business rules to make money, plus her allergies from studio disciplines 🤭 🥀 The bigger portion of the book covered Bankhead's theatrical plays and discussed them heavily from production to touring. But I think it did not give the fullest view of the subject. This book can be recommended not only to Tallulah's stans, but to those curious and interested of the plays in the 1920s to early 1960s. It is a heavy read with too much information that they cloud the entirety of the picture. It's like looking into each blade of grass and every flower petal in sketching the whole garden.😳 But if you're a fan (like myself😉) there's no dull spot😎 "She dominated the evening not by stealing the show, but by turning what little show there is into a sizable sideshow. With Tallulah the divine spark is a fire at once flaming and dangerous. The extraordinary endowments which distinguish her also imperil her. She is as much a victim of her talents as she is a product. Her gifts outdistance her taste..." - John Mason Brown, Sunday Review #biography #bookstagramph #bibliophile #ol #tallulahbankhead https://www.instagram.com/p/CZHYiPXvDZn/?utm_medium=tumblr

[bitter69uk]

“The cast was briefly puzzled by the buckets of ice (housekeeper) Rose Riley was seen bringing into Tallulah’s dressing room before every performance. Eventually they realized that Tallulah must be using them as a restorative, dunking her face and neck, which explained how onstage her neckline magically tightened. Critics and cast alike found her ravishing onstage.” 

Tighten that décolletage! A beauty tip from 1956 via hell-raising, hard-drinking wild woman of the American stage Tallulah Bankhead (1902 – 1968). Via the book Tallulah! The Life and Times of a Leading Lady (2005) by Joel Lobenthal.  Portrait of Bankhead by Philippe Halsman, 1954.

Tallulah Bankhead

[kitsunetsuki]

Richard Avedon - Jean Shrimpton, Harper's Bazaar, 1965, from the book Radical Rags: Fashions of the Sixties by Joel Lobenthal (1990)

[kitsunetsuki]

Ed Pfizenmaier - Paraphernalia, 1965, from the book Radical Rags: Fashions of the Sixties by Joel Lobenthal (1990)

[kitsunetsuki]

Helmut Newton - Yves Saint Laurent, 1965, from the book Radical Rags: Fashions of the Sixties by Joel Lobenthal (1990)

[queerasfact]

Wonderful! I have added her to our list of suggestions.

Also I did a little bit of digging to get a source on this quote, and found its context:

Rather than hide her sexual iconoclasm, she began incorporating it into her social pleasantries. “Hello, my name is Tallulah Bankhead,” she told a guest at writer Heywood Hale Broun’s apartment. “I’m a lesbian. What do you do?”

This is from Joel Lobenthal’s biography Tallulah! The Life and Times of a Leading Lady, in his chapter which takes the quote as its title. (It’s p.40 in the electronic edition I’m looking at but would be different in a paper one.) Lobenthal sources the quote to an interview he conducted with Tallulah’s contemporary, actress Fiona Hale in 1993.    

tallulah bankhead was an american actress who often introduced herself at parties by saying "hello, i’m a lesbian. what do you do?“ photographer unknown, 1925

[kitsunetsuki]

Radical Rags: Fashions of the Sixties by Joel Lobenthal (1990)

[kitsunetsuki]

Marc Hispard - André Courrèges, 1967, from the book Radical Rags: Fashions of the Sixties by Joel Lobenthal (1990)

[kitsunetsuki]

Guy Bourdin - Twiggy Wearing Sonia Rykiel, 1966, from the book Radical Rags: Fashions of the Sixties by Joel Lobenthal (1990)

[kitsunetsuki]

Ed Pfizenmaier - Paco Rabanne, from the book Radical Rags: Fashions of the Sixties by Joel Lobenthal (1990)

[kitsunetsuki]

Seymour Rosen - Giorgio Sant'Angelo, from the book Radical Rags: Fashions of the Sixties by Joel Lobenthal (1990)