Living Well IS The Best Revenge.

Sara & Gerald Murphy.

Perfs.

New Antiquarians.

One of my favourite bloggers Hollister Hovey is featured in the New York Times today.

(All images from the New York Times.)

Steven Alan

The new fall look book from Steven Alan came out today. I love! I want all of the clothes on the model on the far right. Including the socks. I just found out there's a Steven Alan outlet up the road from the store so I may be camping out.

Jourdan & Bourdin

Guy Bourdin

$24.95

Fabled shoe-label Charles Jourdan is being relaunched. Oh happy day. Here are some of my favourite Jourdan ads shot by the mischevious Mister Guy Bourdin. That's him at the bottom. He was a a bit of a saucy minx by all accounts.

Paris Magnum.

Paris Magnum
$40

In February I was at a ball in a silly gown with a black feather fascination thing on my head which my brother later told me looked like a crow had crashed into my forehead. I felt a bit silly not being much of a gown-wearer, and I popped outside for a cigarette to calm myself. I started talking to a man who was from Paris. His friend joined us and we carried on the conversation. A little later the afore mentioned friend was hitting on Sharlene and told her he thought I was the most pretentious person he'd ever met. I blame the crow-crash and the fact that I was talking about this book above. I wasn't trying to be pretentious I was trying to find some common ground with the man from Paris. Sigh. I am SO misunderstood ;)

For The Love of Old.

For The Love of Old
$50

I love old bits and bobs. It's hard to have them at home because I live with a Virgo who likes to keep things very clean and simple. I sneak little golden oldies in occasionally.

Lucille!

Lucile
$60

"Lucile was the first designer to have fashion houses in London, Paris and New York. She has been credited with staging the first fashion parade using beautiful models (the precursor of the catwalk show)...and naming her designs "gowns of emotions".

Lucile lived her life in the spotlight. She was an early divorcee, flouted convention as a titled lady by setting up business, survived the Titanic, was at the centre of a seminal copyright law suit and exploited the creative talents of Howard Greer and future fashion names Edward Molyneaux and Norman Hartnell."

Lucile! Sounds like a blast! (note I didn't write ball. Could have. Didn't ;)
The image is from the inside of the front cover, I love that it looks like wallpaper.

Cheap Chic

"Wrapped in white fox with yards of tulle, Edita Sherman knows how to make that "grand entrance" and enliven any party!"

"Cher, wearing a pair of jeans that fit the way jeans should fit."

"Mr. Merkin, a perfectionist in his attire, likes to accent his grey pinstripe double-breasted suit with a British bowler and butter cotton gloves."

Cheap Chic

$35

Mr. Merkin.

Great name.

African Textiles.

African Textiles

$44.95

This book just arrived!

I adore!

A Wilderness of Stoned Harlequins.

Boutique: A 60s Cultural Phenomenon

$40

From left to right: Christine Keeler, David Bailey, Penelope Tree, Marianne Faithfull

I was trying to figure out who looks the most leathered, it's a hard pick but I think Penny looks like she's about to take a tumble.

Weekend Utopia.

Weekend Utopia: Modern Living in the Hamptons

$45

"Country House utopias....everyone does nothing except follow his own free will and pleasure, rising out of his bed whenever he thinks good, and eating, drinking, and laboring when he has a mind to it...as Rabelais puts it, there is but one clause to be observed - "Do what you please."

How marvellous.

My eyeballs hurt.

Woodstock Handmade Houses.

Spotted this over on Vena Cava's new blog here.

I need to get my hands on a copy of this book quick!

Oh no. Julius.

Julius Shulman

RIP

1910-2009

NorCalModLove

McCauley House, Mill Valley
Architect: Raphael Soriano
1959

Tamalpais Pavillion, Marin County
Architect: Paffard Keatinge-Clay
1965

Bartlett House, Huntington Lake, Fresno
Architect: Beverly (David Thorne)
1962

Ludekens House, Belvedere
Designer: Jack Hillmer
1951

From NorCalMod $35

The colours are so diffused - this is the look I've been trying to get with my Diana F. Must keep trying. Love these pictures. My friend Doug took me hiking up Mount Tamalpais once. I nearly died. It was hard.

(I have Harry Potter tickets. I'm so excited I can barely sit still. I don't care if that makes you pity me a little.)

Affection by Frank Lloyd Wright.

"By playing such dishonest (can it be merely stupid) politics you win not only my contempt but that of everyone of your contemporaries....FRED

The ostrich sticks its head in the sand but why should you. What can your aim be?

Affection FLW"

I love that FLW tells Fred he has earnt his contempt and that he thinks Fred's possibly stupid and definitely dishonest and then signs off with affection. So biting that FLW!

California.

These photos by Ben Watts remind me of the photo in the Hunter book here.
Make me want to go to Big Sur despite the vertigos.

Sunnies.

I bought new sunnies this weekend. $18. Bam. I feel like a wilted daisy.

Beachlife.

Beachlife

Interior Design & Architecture at the Seaside

$69

It's hot here. Real hot. I would like to be near an expanse of water.