J’adore Brigitte Bardot…

Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot was born in Paris in 1934. Brigitte was a plain child with glasses and she wore a brace to correct her irregular teeth for so long that it made her mouth permanently pout. Her mother encouraged her to take up music and dance and Brigitte proved to have natural abilities in both. Soon, however, it became apparent that Brigitte was blossoming into a beauty and she gave up her ambitions of becoming a professional dancer when modelling opportunities arose. Bardot appeared in French fashion magazine ‘Elle’ by the age of 15 which soon opened doors into the film industry.

In 1952, aged 17, Brigitte met and fell in love with journalist and screenwriter Roger Vadim. Her strict Roman Catholic parents opposed the match until she turned eighteen and Bardot reacted by attempting suicide. Although the attempt was unsuccessful, Brigitte vowed to continue until her parents backed down. Brigitte and Roger married three weeks later in Notre-Dame de Grace, Paris. The same year she starred in his controversial film And God Created Women. It was the role that made her known internationally. Singing her praises to studio bosses Roger famously described her as ‘sex on legs’. She and Vadim divorced five years later, by which time Bardot had already gained a reputation as one of the most beautiful and alluring women in the world. Bardot’s innocent yet provocative on and off-screen charisma turned her into an overnight sensation in a world on the verge of the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Bardot, against the repressed Roman Catholic environment she had been brought up in, remarked ‘it is better to be unfaithful than faithful without wanting to be’.

Brigitte was one of the first women to popularize the ‘bikini’ in Manina (Woman without a Veil) in 1952 and was often seen with her friends sunbathing topless in St Tropez in the late 1960s. She remains one of the most instantly recognisable icons of the 1960s. One of the few European actresses to gain superstar status in America, in 1965 she starred as herself in the film Dear Brigitte alongside James Stewart. It was one of the few Hollywood films she ever made, only agreeing on condition that the cast and crew shot her scene in Paris.

Women wanted to be her and men wanted to be with her, but being considered a sex kitten soon grew tiresome to Brigitte who once said ‘if only every man who sees my films did not get the impression he can make love to me, I would be a lot happier’. Bardot suffered from many bouts of depression throughout her life, most publicly in September 1960 on her 26th birthday when she swallowed a bottle of sleeping tablets and slit her wrists. She had married Jacques Charrier in 1959 and had become a mother for the first time in January 1960. When she and Charrier divorced in 1962, her son Nicholas was brought up in the Charrier family. Bardot did not maintain close contact with him until he reached adulthood.

Bardot retired from the film industry in 1973 just before her 39th birthday, having starred in 47 films. The following year she posed nude for Playboy magazine celebrating her 40th birthday. A keen animal rights activist, Brigitte decided to become a vegetarian before selling her home, jewels and other personal effects to begin the Brigitte Bardot Foundation in 1986 – a charity working for and promoting animal rights. Well known for being politically opinionated in the past, Brigitte’s anti-gay and racist views still understandably grab headlines around the world. She has been fined five times by the French government for ‘inciting racial hatred’ in her published books attacking both mixed race and same sex couples.

In 2011 Brigitte’s ex husband, multi-millionaire playboy Gunter Sachs, shot himself following a long struggle with depression. Brigitte, 31, at the height of her fame was introduced to Gunter in a St Tropez restaurant by her first husband Roger Vadim. Instantly attracted to one another, they both immediately broke off their current relationships and Sachs whisked Brigitte off to Monte Carlo. He not only sent 100 red roses to her St Tropez house each day but had his helicopter fly overhead and scatter them over her garden shortly before arriving himself with his suitcases. They were married on Bastille Day, July 14th 1966 in Las Vegas. The ceremony lasted approximately eight minutes. Just a few weeks later he claimed to have married her in order to win a bet with his friends. They divorced three years later after Bardot famously embarked on an affair with Warren Beatty.

Posted on March 9, 2013 by Stop Traffic / Posted in Culture, Fashion, Film, Icons | Tagged , , , |

Natalie Wood

Born Natalia Gurdin on July 20th 1938 in San Francisco to Russian immigrant parents, Natalie Wood learned to speak both Russian and English with an American accent. As the middle child of an alcoholic father and ruthlessly ambitious mother, she was enrolled in ballet classes from an early age and already working as an actress by the age of four. Natalie appeared in more than 20 films as a child and later described the somewhat surreal environment in which she grew up “I was so young, and making movies, going to the studio every morning at dawn was magic.”

Aged just nine years old, her breakthrough role came whilst playing Susan Walker, the pretty little girl who doubts in the existence of Santa Claus in the 1947 film Miracle on 34th Street. “I spent practically all my time in the company of adults. I was very withdrawn, very shy, I did what I was told and I tried not to disappoint anybody. I knew I had a duty to perform, and I was trained to follow orders.” Her mother Maria was a typically pushy Hollywood mother, relying on her daughter as the sole breadwinner of the family from the age of seven. Disturbing accounts include her pulling off the wings of a butterfly in order to make Natalie cry during a scene. She once prevented Natalie from having her arm set in a cast after she broke her wrist in an accident aged 9 due to the possibility of it jeopardising her being offered roles. This left Natalie with a permanent wrist deformity which she would disguise with jewellery throughout her life.

Natalie, who was developing into a young woman with emotional troubles, appeared to make the transition from child star to a fully fledged romantic screen icon seem effortless when cast as James Dean’s love interest in Rebel Without a Cause (1955) aged 16. Off camera, she was having a relationship with the film’s director, 43-year old Nicholas Ray, but despite this distraction, Natalie received great critical acclaim for the role of Judy and the first of three Best Actress Academy Award nominations, two of which she secured by the age of 25 – an unsurpassed record to this day. It was her second nomination that is still considered her most iconic role – Maria in West Side Story with Splendor in the Grass (1961), in which she starred opposite Robert Redford, achieving a further acknowledgement of her talent. In 1962 Natalie starred in Gypsy and was already the second highest paid actress in Hollywood after Elizabeth Taylor.

Exuding a classic and highly polished elegance, Natalie always wore heels due to being a petite 5ft and seemed the ideal candidate to play leading, yet often vulnerable, heroines. She became a major box office star during the early 1960s and a fashion icon after the famous Edith Head designed a colourful array of costumes for her in Penelope (1966). Natalie made the “bob” haircut her own during the 1960s, with strong eyes accentuated with plenty of eyeliner and mascara and peachy lip colours. In 1959 the renowned French perfume house Creed paid homage to Natalie’s beauty by creating a fragrance especially for her. Jasmal, which has strong aromas of Bergamot and the finest Moroccan and Italian Jasmine flowers, remained her preferred fragrance.

Believed to have begun a serious relationship with Frank Sinatra at the age of just 15, Natalie’s off-screen romances with Hollywood’s leading men regularly promised to overshadow her acting prowess, having dated Steve McQueen, Dennis Hopper, Elvis Presley and Warren Beatty. “Elvis was so square – we’d go for hot fudge sundaes. He didn’t drink, he didn’t swear, he didn’t even smoke. It was like having the date that I never had in high school.” It was the date the studio arranged for her with her idol 26-year old actor Robert Wagner on her 18th birthday that was to prove the most enduring relationship of her life and whom she married one year later, against the wishes of her mother and despite rumours of Wagner being bisexual.

Natalie’s high profile marriage to Robert Wagner was extremely turbulent and ended in divorce just a few years later on her discovering him in a sexual encounter with a man. Throwing herself into acting, she went on to marry British producer Richard Gregson in 1969, with whom she had a daughter. She was never able to forget Wagner however and later rekindled her relationship with him in 1972. The couple remarried the same year and went on to have a daughter. During these years, Natalie’s glittering film career seemed to dry up and she appeared in a series on dud movies and TV dramas. Meanwhile, her second marriage to Wagner was proving as unstable and fraught with tension as the first – alcoholism and Natalie’s depression and dependence on psychoanalysis contributing heavily to the issues with which they battled.

On Thanksgiving weekend 1981 the world were stunned to learn that Natalie, aged just 43, had tragically drowned whilst on a sailing holiday off Santa Catolina Island, California, with her husband Robert Wagner. Ironically, she had spoken of her fear of water shortly before her death. She was sailing on her husband’s boat “Splendor”, along with Christopher Walken with whom she had been co-starring in what was to be her last film – Brainstorm (1983). The Captain of the boat recently stated that Wagner and Natalie had been arguing prior to her entering the water.

One of Hollywood’s greatest mysteries, many conspiracy theories have attempted and failed to make sense of the episode which was deemed an accident at the time. Many believe that the couple’s row resulted in Natalie, who was wearing only a nightgown and heavily under the influence of alcohol, wanting to board the boat’s smaller dingy boat in order to distance herself from her husband. Her body was discovered several hours later, covered in bruises and scratch marks.

As Frank Sinatra, Laurence Olivier, Gregory Peck, David Niven and Fred Astaire acted as pallbearers at Natalie’s funeral, suspicion was cast on her husband who appeared grief-stricken. Due to the exact circumstances of her death never being verified, the possibility of the case one day being reopened continues to draw much press speculation, but the outcome will never detract from her enduring presence in film history.

“At night, when the sky is full of stars and the sea is still you get the wonderful sensation that you are floating in space.”

Posted on February 23, 2013 by Stop Traffic / Posted in Film, Icons | Tagged , |

Hollywood’s Golden Couple: Paul and Joanne

Paul Newman met and fell in love with Joanne Woodward in 1953 whilst making his Broadway debut in a production of William Inge’s Picnic. Their relationship developed into an adulterous affair – Paul Newman was married to Jacqueline Witte with three children. Joanne remembered “Paul and I were good friends before we were lovers. We really liked each other. We could talk to each other, we could tell each other anything without fear of ridicule or rejection. There was trust.”

Paul was torn between loyalty to his children and his increasing love for Joanne. The affair continued for five years until Paul finally plucked up the courage to ask his wife for a divorce. He later said he felt “guilty as hell” about this time – “I’ll carry it with me for the rest of my life.”

Joanne Woodward & Paul Newman starring together in The Long Hot Summer in 1958. Paul received his divorce soon after, having just found out Joanne was carrying his child.

Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward were married in a civil ceremony at the Hotel El Rancho Las Vegas in Nevada, on January 29th 1958. It was a marriage that would last over 50 years until Paul’s death in 2008. Paul attributed this to “correct amounts of lust and respect.” They incorporated The Art of Marriage as a reading:

Happiness in marriage is not something that just happens. A good marriage must be created. In the Art of Marriage: The little things are the big things. It is never being too old to hold hands. It is remembering to say ‘I love you’ at least once a day. It is never going to sleep angry. It is at no time taking the other for granted; the courtship should not end with the honeymoon, it should continue through all the years. It is having a mutual sense of values and common objectives. It is standing together facing the world. It is forming a circle of love that gathers in the whole family. It is doing things for each other, not in the attitude of duty or sacrifice, but in the spirit of joy. It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways. It is not expecting the husband to wear a halo or the wife to have wings of an angel. It is not looking for perfection in each other. It is cultivating flexibility, patience, understanding and a sense of humor. It is having the capacity to forgive and forget. It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow. It is finding room for the things of the spirit. It is a common search for the good and the beautiful. It is establishing a relationship in which the independence is equal, dependence is mutual and the obligation is reciprocal. It is not only marrying the right partner, it is being the right partner.

The couple flew to London for their honeymoon. Paul said “there were no tourists to speak of. We would drive off into the country ’til we were lost and then check into country inns at nightfall. It felt good being married.”

The couple moved to Connecticut where they had purchased an 18th Century farm house where they went on to raise three daughters – Nell, Melanie and Melissa. They also maintained a New York apartment and a residence in Malibu, California. Joanne later said “we were never Hollywood people. We just liked it better here [Connecticut] It also probably helps that we always enjoyed each other’s company.”

A few months after their wedding Joanne Woodward attended the Oscars with her new husband, having made her own gown in the barn – spending $100 on materials. (It was a green taffeta). She went on to win the Best Actress Academy Award for her role in The Three Faces of Eve - I love the way he looks at her….

Paul on why he never succumbed to the charms of his other glamorous co-stars ”why fool around with hamburger when you have steak at home?”

Paul Newman reading the script Rally Round the Flag, Boys - with Joanne Woodward at home 1958

Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward at home, 1958

Starring together in From the Terrace 1960

Joanne on living with Paul - “Sexiness wears thin after a while and beauty fades, but to be married to a man who makes you laugh every day, ah, now that’s a real treat.”

Paul and Joanne whilst filming Paris Blues 1961

Paul and Joanne on the set of Paris Blues 1961

Other great shots…..

Paul “people stay married because they want to – not because the doors are locked.”

If you’re a die-hard cynic these images are here to remind you that true love does exist – it isn’t like the tooth fairy or Santa Claus - you will get hurt, experience disappointments and tears, just don’t stop believing.

Posted on February 9, 2013 by Stop Traffic / Posted in Film, Icons | Tagged , , |

Vivien Leigh

Forever to be remembered as Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939) and regarded as one of the most beautiful women to ever grace the silver screen, Vivien Leigh was born Vivian Mary Hartley in Darjeeling, India, in 1913 just before the outbreak of World War I. Her father was an officer of the English Cavalry and rather romantically, her mother Gertrude would stand gazing at the Himalayas each day in the belief that their great beauty would be passed on to her unborn child.

With her parents opting to remain in India during the war, Vivien did not visit England until aged 6 when her mother decided she should have an English education. An only child, she was sent to a convent boarding school where all the other children were at least two years older. Being uprooted in this way was naturally extremely harrowing for the young Vivien, who found solace in playing with one of the nun’s cats and making friends with a young Maureen O’Sullivan. When her mother returned from India after an absence of 18 months she took Vivien to see a play in London which she insisted on seeing a further 16 times in 6 months and which inspired her lifelong love of theatre.

On informing her parents of her ambitions to become a “great actress” they enrolled her at RADA in 1931. Perhaps unwisely, Vivien decided to leave without finishing the course on meeting and marrying her first husband Leigh Holman, a barrister. Just ten months later Vivien gave birth to a daughter, Suzanne, but she did not settle to domesticity or motherhood. She took a small part in the film Things Are Looking Up – thus securing an agent and prompting her new stage name ‘Vivien Leigh’.

In 1936 Vivien, aged 22, went to see Theatre Royale on the West End, in which Laurence Olivier was starring. Star-struck she declared adamantly “that’s the man I’m going to marry.” The fact that both she and Olivier were married did not check her from uttering this bold statement, nor from seizing the chance to appear opposite him in Fire Over England the following year. The pair’s instant attraction was apparent to all who witnessed them together, on screen and off, and their affair soon became an open secret in theatrical circles.

From the moment she read Margaret Mitchell’s 1936 book Gone with the Wind, Vivien was certain that she was born to play Scarlett in the film version and determined to convince producer David O. Selznick likewise. So many actresses (around 1000) had auditioned for the role that Vivien later described the costume as still being warm when she had first tried it on. The magnificent costumes were designed by the great Walter Plunkett, known for his period designs, and are an enduring memory of one of the most loved films of the 20th century.

Considering how vehemently she fought for the role, Vivien soon became miserable during filming when director George Cukor was fired after a few weeks into production. She found his replacement Victor Fleming difficult to work with and increasingly demanding as the film’s budget grew to astronomical proportions. She also greatly disliked kissing her co-star Clark Gable whose false teeth apparently caused bad breath. Despite these issues, the film became the highest grossing film Hollywood had ever known. The following year Vivien became the first British actress to win the Best Actress Academy Award, one of 10 Academy Awards the film received.

Described by the poet John Betjeman as “the essence of English girlhood”, Vivien stood at a petite 5′ 3 1/2″ and was an extremely heavy smoker, known for having smoked four packets a day during the filming of Gone with the Wind. With her sudden raise in profile coinciding with Olivier starring as Heathcliff in the film version of Wuthering Heights, the couple were no longer able to prevent the press from focussing on their affair. With everything finally out in the open they both asked their spouses for a divorce. Vivien and Olivier married in 1940, as soon as their divorces were finalised, with Vivien’s former husband having custody of their daughter.

The early forties were happy ones for Vivien and to say she adored her husband would be something of an understatement – it was for him she studied theatre so intently in the hope of sharing his place in the spotlight. She succeeded in playing Juliet to his Romeo and Cleopatra to his Anthony and with her beauty and his legendary gravitas they naturally became an iconic couple, known as the King and Queen of the stage. Starring together in That Hamilton Woman (1941) Vivien’s desire to match Olivier’s capabilities only reveal her deep insecurities and emotional struggle with his growing fame as she grew older. Vivien and Oliver tried for a family of their own but in 1944 Vivien fell whilst rehearsing for Caesar and Cleopatra and later suffered a miscarriage, leaving her deeply depressed. Shortly afterwards Vivien contracted tuberculosis in her left lung, but after spending several weeks in hospital appeared to be cured.

It was far more difficult to treat her manic depression, an illness with which she struggled throughout her life. Vivien would switch from being the life and soul of the party one moment to wrestling with the deepest despair. As much as she tried to occupy herself with acting, crossword puzzles and interior design, eventually her hallucinations became so severe that doctors suggested shock therapy treatment, something she would often undergo before returning to the stage the same evening to give an impeccable performance. In 1947 Olivier was knighted and for the next ten years she would be known as Lady Olivier.

In 1951 the world was astonished when Vivien gave a raw and disarming performance as Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire. Tennessee Williams (author of A Streetcar Named Desire) said that Leigh as DuBois was “everything that I intended, and much that I had never dreamed of.” She went on to win her second Best Actress Academy Award and later said that it was playing the role of Blanche that finally “tipped me over into madness.” After over twenty years of the same routine however, Olivier gradually lost hope and patience. Having informed him sometime in 1948 that she was no longer in love with him, he had sought affection from other women, including the actress Joan Plowright whom he later married after being granted a divorce by Vivien in 1960. Speaking after their divorce Vivien said she would “rather have lived a short life with Larry than face a long one without him.”

Aged just 53, in 1967 Vivien developed a recurrence of tuberculosis. Unable to rise from her bed for a month, but continuing to smoke cigarettes, she was discovered dead by her last partner John Merivale one night – the infection having spread to both lungs. Olivier, grief-stricken entered her house through a side entrance in order to avoid the waiting press keen to record his reaction. Despite out-living Vivien by twenty years, a friend came across Olivier, shortly before his death, watching an old film starring Vivien and declaring “this, this was love.”

Posted on December 14, 2012 by Stop Traffic / Posted in Film, Icons | Tagged , , , , |

Ginger Rogers: The Girl Who Could Dance Before She Could Walk

Known as the girl who could dance before she could walk, and best remembered for her onscreen partnership with dance legend Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers was born Virginia Katherine McMath on the 16th July 1911 in Independence, Missouri, the only child of electrical engineer William McMath and his wife Lela. Her parents separated shortly after she was born and she and her mother went to live with her grandparents in Kansas. A turbulent custody battle ensued and McMath attempted to kidnap Ginger when Lela prevented him from seeing her. The nickname of “Ginger” derived from her younger cousin mispronouncing her name and was soon adopted by anyone who knew her. Her mother, a talented journalist and writer, met and married insurance salesman John Rogers in 1920 whilst working as a newspaper reporter, and who later adopted Ginger after her father’s death.

Ginger made her first stage appearance at the Texas State Charleston Championship aged 14, wearing full flapper attire. She won, and the prize, consisting of a four week tour of Texas theatres catapulted Ginger into show-business, leading to her own act “Ginger and the Redheads” and a further tour of the western United States including Chicago. As her mother and John Rogers were divorcing, Ginger, aged 17, married her dancing partner Jack Pepper in 1929. The couple separated shortly afterwards and Ginger returned to the road with her mother. Ginger once said “When two people love each other, they don’t look at each other, they look in the same direction” but unfortunately her often idealistic and romantic views of marriage did not translate into happy relationships and she went on to have a further four failed marriages. She later said “I yearned for a long, happy marriage with one person.”

On Christmas Day 1929 Ginger made her first Broadway appearance starring as the leading lady in Top Speed. Although the show closed after 20 weeks, Ginger received positive reviews and was hailed as an up-and-coming star. During the show’s run Ginger was invited to star in George and Ira Gershwin’s new musical Girl Crazy. It was in rehearsals she met Fred Astaire who had been called in to choreograph a dance for Ginger and her partner. She enjoyed learning from Fred and her performance made her an overnight sensation. The following year, aged just 20, she signed a seven year contract with Paramount Pictures and was cast in her first Hollywood film The Tip Off. She would go on to make a further 72 movies throughout a career spanning over 40 years, winning the Best Actress Academy Award in 1940 for Kitty Foyle.

Her mother Lela, with whom she had an extremely close relationship, was a respected stage reporter and scriptwriter by this time, and instrumental in Ginger’s early successes. She also offered vital help and assistance when it came to negotiating studio contracts and took up the role of her manager with ease. During the Great Depression Ginger was earning $1,000 a week. She made five feature films under Paramount before disentangling herself from the contract and making films with Monogram, Pathé Exchange and Warner Bros with whom she was given the breakthrough role of “Anytime Annie” in 42nd Street (1933). That same year Ginger was cast in her 20th film Flying Down to Rio starring alongside Fred Astaire for the first time. This was only Astaire’s 2nd movie with neither of them having originally been intended for the leading roles. Ginger had been called in as a replacement to another actress who had dropped out to get married and thus “Fred and Ginger” were born. They worked together on a further nine films, encapsulating the golden age of Hollywood musicals and quickly becoming one of the most memorable onscreen pairings of all time. Ginger said “I adore the man. I always have adored him. It was the most fortunate thing that ever happened to me, being teamed with Fred. He was everything a little starry-eyed girl from a small town ever dreamed of.” Fred Astaire described Ginger, who had never received formal dance training, as “the hardest-working gal I ever knew.” As the saying goes, she could do everything Fred Astaire did, only backwards and in high heels.

Standing at a petite 5 ft 4 ½ inches with blue eyes and blonde hair, Ginger remains an enduring style icon due to the long flowing gowns and classic Hollywood tailoring in which she appeared throughout the 1930s and 40s – not least the ostrich feather dress she designed herself for Top Hat (1935) which caused much annoyance on set due to the feathers getting in Fred Astaire’s face during rehearsals of the unforgettable “Cheek to Cheek” routine. As it turned out, the alluring qualities of the feather dress greatly contributed to the overall impact and glamour of the film, for which Ginger could rightly take credit. Her make-up was never over-done and her hair, whether softly curled or styled in a “do” remained immaculate onscreen and off.

Privately, Ginger was a devout Christian Scientist, never smoked or drank alcohol apart from an occasional glass of wine with dinner, and had her very own soda fountain installed in her mansion due to her obsession with ice cream. She said “my love for ice cream emerged at an early age and never left!” Besides being a talented actress, singer and dancer, she had a natural athletic streak and was a gifted artist and sculptor. She suffered from poor health in her later years and moved from Beverley Hills to her other property the 1,000 acre Rogers Rogue River Ranch in Oregon where she died in 1995 at the age of 83. She is buried beside her mother in California with Fred Astaire just a few yards away.

Posted on November 30, 2012 by Stop Traffic / Posted in Film, Icons | Tagged , , , , |

Vidal Sassoon and the Hair Revolution

Vidal Sassoon: Outtakes exhibition at Somerset House pays tribute to Vidal Sassoon CBE (1928-2012), the most influential British hairdresser of all time, who passed away in May this year and who has been described as a ‘rock star, an artist and a craftsman’.

 

Vidal’s precision and skill revolutionised hairstyling and established it as an essential part of the fashion industry, turning Sassoon into a household name with the launch of his own range of hair products and a successful chain of salons. This reflective look at Sassoon’s career combines film and photography and provides a fascinating glimpse into the creator of some of the world’s most iconic hairstyles such as the Mia Farrow pixie style and the endlessly copied wedge bob, now emblematic of the swinging 60s.

In an era obsessed with backcombing and sculpting candyfloss-like matted and lacquered hair into beehives, for Vidal it was all about the cut. With his bold and precise lines, he was destined to become an innovator who changed the way we think of hair. Whether graduated, asymmetric or acute, his ‘wash and wear’ cuts were avant-garde and designed to attract attention, but above and beyond that they were designed to give women fluid, more manageable hair, therefore liberating them from the necessity of the weekly trip to the hair salon and a stint with curlers and the tedious hairdryer hood. Now considered the founder of modern hairdressing, he famously said, “If I was going to be in hairdressing, I wanted to change things. I wanted to eliminate the superfluous and get down to the basic angles of cut and shape.’’

Born in Shepherd’s Bush, Vidal grew up in a small flat in the East End until his mother was abandoned by his carpet-salesman father and the family were evicted. His father was a womaniser who, so Vidal later claimed ‘‘spoke seven languages and had sex in all of them.’’ His mother moved in with her sister and sent Vida,l aged five, and his younger brother Ivor to a Jewish orphanage where she could only visit them once a month and was never permitted to take them outside. Vidal and his brother remained there for six years, until their mother Betty remarried. By the time he reached the age of fourteen, Betty could no longer afford to school Vidal so he was sent to work for two years as a shampoo boy at Cohen’s Beauty and Barber shop.

Although non-religious, he joined Jewish ex-servicemen in the 43 Group movement aged seventeen and fought in street battles against uniformed fascists who, even after the war, marched through the streets chanting anti-Semetic slogans. In 1948 when America and Britain partitioned Palestine and established the state of Israel, he travelled to Israel where he joined the army to fight for his homeland. These were beliefs he carried throughout his life, founding the Vidal Sassoon International Centre for the Study of Anti-Semitism at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in the 1980s. He returned from Israel to begin a hairdressing apprenticeship at Raymond Bessone’s smart Mayfair salon, even taking elocution classes in order to soften his cockney accent.

Vidal opened his first salon ‘Sassoons’ in 1954 in Bond Street at the age of 26, but although the address was impressive, the shop was on the third floor and so small that customers were forced to wait on the stairs. Despite the failings of the premises, his cuts were gaining a reputation and before long he could boast of having styled Grace Coddington, Twiggy, Terence Stamp and Jean Shrimpton. Sassoon was so in demand that before long he had moved to a new premises and launched a hairdressing school. Vidal was a hugely charismatic man and enjoyed making his customers feel glamorous and stylish. He once said ‘‘hairdressers are a wonderful breed. You work one-on-one with another human being and the object is to make them feel so much better and to look at themselves with a twinkle in their eye.’’

 In fashionable 60s London his own personal style never failed to make a good impression, and Vidal is well remembered for cutting hair whilst wearing an immaculately tailored suit, tie and a pocket square. In 1963 he invented the ‘bob’ for fashion designer Mary Quant with whom he became great friends and worked with to create some of the most memorable looks of the decade, including the ‘five point cut’. She said “I made the clothes, but you put the top on.” Vidal cut Mia Farrow’s hair on the set of Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby in 1968, once again creating a sensation and a new fashion trend. These styles continue to make come-backs due to being low maintenance and sculpted to suit the individual.

His range of hair products were initially launched for sale to trade, but it was the salon customers, keen to take a small piece of Vidal’s magic home with them, that made the products a global success. He later sold this to Proctor & Gamble with the slogan ‘‘If you don’t look good, we don’t look good’’ displayed on all bottles. His empire grew still further when employees bought the right to use his name, taking the Sassoon brand across Britain and to America, where he later lived happily for many years with his wife Ronnie until his death in LA earlier this year.

The book How One Man Changed the World with a Pair of Scissors published by Rizzoli accompanies the exhibition and is available in the Rizzoli bookshop. A special screening of Vidal Sassoon The Movie (2010) will take place on Saturday 13th October, 14:00-16:00 at The Screening Room, tickets (£8) can be pre-booked online. The feature-length documentary, produced by Bumble and Bumble founder Michael Gordon, explores Vidal’s fascinating Jewish heritage and impoverished childhood as an émigré born in London.

Vidal Sassoon: Outtakes at Somerset House from 2-28th October 2012. Open daily 10:00-18:00 at the Courtyard Rooms, South Wing. Free admission. Website.

Posted on October 4, 2012 by Stop Traffic / Posted in Culture, Fashion | Tagged , , , , , |

50 Years of the Bond Girl

This year celebrates the 50th anniversary of the first James Bond film, Dr No (1962) and with that the birth of the Bond Girl. With the dawn of the swinging 60s it’s easy to see why these girls captured the imagination of so many women – who wouldn’t be envious of the glamorous clothing, sports cars, international travel and exciting lifestyle, not to mention time alone with Bond himself?

Often dismissed by feminists as being a derogatory depiction of women, the early Bond Girl defined an era where women were seeking liberation and freedom both professionally and sexually. Despite James Bond clearly deserving the title of ‘sexist’, Bond girls were more than simply male fantasy figures, they were an unlikely role model for a generation of ambitious women. There is no other film franchise more celebratory of the allure and beauty of women. Ian Fleming’s books feature many beautiful women; both friends and enemies of Bond whom he seduces as frequently as changing his underpants.

Typically Bond girl characters range from the seductress to the demure girlfriend type, many invented by Hollywood writers keen to cash in on the magnetism of 007. Whilst Bond himself appears to be indestructible, his leading ladies also have something of the superhero about them and despite him loving them and leaving them, most don’t seem to mind all that much. Bond girls are not only beautiful, they know exactly what they want and how to get it – but what they often fail to realise is Bond’s inability to love again. The first Bond girl ever written was double agent Vespa Lynd and whose untimely death Bond never recovers from; accounting for his emotionally detached and often ruthless behaviour.

50 years and 22 films later, Bond movies have influenced and recorded fashion trends in equal measure. Some of the world’s greatest fashion designers, including Hubert de Givenchy, Tom Ford, Oscar de la Renta and Prada, have proudly contributed to making Bond girls synonymous with style. The recent Barbican exhibition entitled Designing 007 – Fifty Years of Bond Style, curated by Oscar-winning costume designer Linda Hemming and fashion historian Bronwyn Cosgrave featured many of the most iconic Bond girl outfits. Bronwyn told Vogue Magazine ‘the impact of Bond on fashion is huge. Designers are always ready to create costumes for Bond films because of their global appeal. What Bond and his female sidekicks wear is endlessly copied.’ Here are some of our favourites…

Sylvia Trench in Dr No, played by British actress Eunice Gayson, is the very first Bond girl to appear on film. She also starred in From Russia With Love (1963), becoming the only Bond girl ever to have the honour of appearing in more than one film. She meets Bond in a casino, wearing a striking red silk georgette one shoulder evening dress and can later be seen sporting only Bond’s shirt whilst practising her putting skills in his apartment.

Honey Ryder in Dr No, played by Swiss actress Ursula Andress, is mostly remembered for emerging from the sea wearing that white bikini on the pretext of shell collecting, later singing ‘Underneath the Mango tree’ to a misty-eyed Sean Connery. She asks him ‘are you looking for shells?’ to which he replies ‘no, I’m just looking.’ Halle Berry looked equally sizzling when sporting a similar style orange bikini in the more recent Tomorrow Never Dies, designed by Eres; a nod to the impact Bond Girls have had on fashion.

The following year Goldfinger introduced us to Pussy Galore, played by the husky-voiced Honor Blackman – one of the most iconic Bond girls. With her tongue-in-cheek name, she is a Judo expert and a pilot employed by the villain Goldfinger. She takes delight in conveying her dislike of men; all except Bond that is. Having initially met him and spoken the opening line ‘turn off the charm. I’m immune’ it wasn’t long before she too succumbed to his good looks and charisma. With smart high-waisted trousers, silk wrap blouses and a gold waistcoat, her style was beguiling rather than revealing.

Shirley Eaton played Jill Masterson and also employed by Goldfinger, became the first Bond girl to be killed. Bond discovers her dead in bed, having been suffocated and her entire body painted gold; Goldfinger’s revenge and a warning for Bond.

Goldfinger is the second highest grossing Bond film of all time – after Thunderball, released the following year and taking (with inflation adjustments) a staggering $966, 435,555 at the box office. Claudine Auger starred as Dominique Derval (Domino for short), Bond’s love interest in the film. Set in the exotic Bahamas Domino meets Bond whilst scuba-diving, resulting in them making love underwater. She wears a sexy red wetsuit in the film but most of her costumes are black and white, in order to reflect her name and include a black and white bikini.

Diana Rigg played Teresa di Vicenzo In Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) starring opposite George Lazenby as Bond, the first actor to replace Sean Connery’s now established role. Teresa meets Bond whilst attempting to commit suicide by drowning in the sea and gets literally swept off her feet. Wearing typically 1960s little jackets, mini dresses and knee boots, she remains the only woman ever to be called ‘Mrs Bond’, but unfortunately gets shot just minutes after the wedding – perhaps it was the rather bizarre white lace flower-power trouser suit.

In 1971 Sean Connery returned as Bond for the adaptation of Diamonds are Forever. His love interest Tiffany Case was played by Jill St. John – a steely diamond smuggler. The dresses and lingerie she wears are extremely provocative even for a Bond girl; intended to emphasise her ample bosom.

Live and Let Die (1973) was the first movie to star Roger Moore as James Bond and became a box office hit, with audiences taking to Moore’s more humorous style. He went on to star in a further 6 Bond films including The Man With The Golden Gun the following year. One of the most memorable dresses in Bond girl history was worn by Barbara Bach, cast as top KGB agent Triple X – Major Anya Amasova in the tenth Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me (1977); a simple yet provocative navy blue floor length evening gown with diamante-encrusted straps and a deep V neckline. Co-starring with Roger Moore, Barbara later described the character of Bond as…”a chauvinist pig who uses girls to shield himself against bullets.”

Although Fleming’s novels only feature 25 Bond girls, there have been 86 Bond girls in the movies including the forthcoming Skyfall, with at least 23 having main roles. Featuring some of the most beautiful women in the world the title of ‘Bond Girl’ has remained a highly prized career highlight for most actresses for half a century, and one which no other action movie has ever managed to compete with.  

 

Posted on September 24, 2012 by Stop Traffic / Posted in Fashion, Film, Icons | Tagged , , , |

Movie Star Looks – Sophia Loren

Born Sophia Villani Scicolone in a charity ward for unmarried mothers in Rome in 1934, her father Riccardo Scicolone, a construction engineer, refused to marry her mother or provide financial assistance. Despite this stigma in devoutly Catholic 1930s Italy, her mother, Romilda, had another child by Riccardo in 1938, a daughter named Anna Maria, to whom he refused even to give his surname, preventing her from later receiving schooling. Sophia later used her first movie earnings to purchase her father’s surname for her sister in order to ease her of the shame of illegitimacy.

Sophia Loren young

Her mother Romilda Villani was an aspiring actress and beauty – her striking resemblance to Greta Garbo being so great that she would often get stopped on the street to sign autographs. Romilda took Sophia back to her hometown Pozzuoli, on the Bay of Naples, an area renowned for its slums and squalor where they lived with her parents; a small apartment above a vinegar factory, shared  between eight relations with Sophia never sharing a bed with less than three other family members. ”The two big advantages I had were to have been born wise and to have been born in poverty.”

The poverty of the fishing and munitions town grew considerably worse during the targeted bombings of World War II – resulting in famine. By 1942 the family were barely managing to survive; their only food the ration bread being provided.  ”I’ve never tried to block out the memories of the past, even though some are painful. I don’t understand people who hide from their past. Everything you live through helps to make you the person you are now.” Sophia was wounded by shrapnel whilst attempting to reach the train tunnel shelter during one air raid, splitting her chin and giving her the now distinctive scar. The family moved to Naples during the remainder of the war, before returning to Pozzuoli where Sophia’s grandmother Luisa opened a public house in their living room, entertaining American soldiers who were posted there and selling cherry liquor.

Sophia, who went on to become famous for being one of the most beautiful women in the world, was by no means considered a pretty child and, in reference to her lack of nutrition, nicknamed ‘matchstick’ by other children. By 1950 however, at the age of 15, having blossomed from a thin and sickly looking child to a voluptuous teenager, she became a finalist in a beauty contest, winning a small cash sum, a ticket to Rome, and attracting the attention of film producer Carlo Ponti who was judging the ‘Miss Eleganza’ competition. For Ponti, famous for having produced Doctor Zhivago, it was love at first sight, and the 37 year old married man was soon offering to become her manager and help her make a career in the film industry.

Ponti, having arranged for her to study acting and learn English secured many early roles for Sophia. Sophia travelled with her mother – who had rested all her own Hollywood ambitions on her young daughter – to Rome in the hope of succeeding as an actress and model. Wherever she went Sophia was greeted with wolf whistles from boys. She was chosen as an extra for the 1951 film Quo Vadis followed by a small role in the1952 film La Favorita, starring for the first time as ‘Loren’, but it was taking the title role of Aida the following year that sealed her position as an up-and-coming Italian movie star. Noel Coward once said that Sophia should have been ”sculpted in chocolate truffles so the world could devour her.”

Sophia was cast opposite Cary Grant in her first Hollywood film, The Pride and the Passion in 1957. Filmed in Paris, Sophia soon became embroiled in a love triangle when Grant and Ponti simultaneously declared themselves in love with her. Sophia’s much publicised romance with Cary Grant continued during the filming of 1958 Houseboat, but was ultimately cut short when Grant proposed but she chose to remain with Ponti – the man famously twice her age and half her height. She later admitted this decision was influenced by never having had a father figure and being reluctant to leave her home country for an unfamiliar life in Hollywood. ”When I met Cary I was 23. He had been my dream since I was a little girl – tall, handsome, charming, funny, gentle. Of course Carlo and Cary had nothing in common but I loved them both.”

After Ponti’s first marriage was annulled he and Sophia married in Mexico in 1957, just three days before her twenty-third birthday. It was a happy and successful partnership lasting over 50 years, until his death in 2007, but in October 1957 Carlo was charged with bigamy when it was announced that the Catholic church would not recognise his divorce. Carlo once said ”I have done everything for love of Sophia. I have always believed in her.”

To prevent scandal and keep Carlo from being jailed, the couple could not return to Italy and were careful never to be photographed together in public. For the same reason, Sophia and Carlo had their marriage annulled in 1962, only to re-marry in 1966 when Carlo and his first wife Giuliana had finally worked out an agreement and, having obtained French citizenship, he was finally granted recognition of his divorce by the French authorities. Sophia later recalled; “I was being threatened with excommunication, with the everlasting fire, and for what reason? I had fallen in love with a man whose own marriage had ended long before … I wanted to be his wife and have his children. We had done the best the law would allow to make it official, but they were calling us public sinners. We should have been taking a honeymoon, but all I remember is weeping for hours.”

In her professional life Sophia’s big screen popularity during the 1950s showed no sign of waning, with movies such as Boy with a Dolphin and Black Orchid but however much Sophia flourished as an actress in Hollywood she would never turn her back on the Italian film industry. In 1961, starring as Cesira in Two Women, she became the first person awarded an Academy Award for a non-English speaking leading role. Portraying a woman attempting to save her daughter from the terrors of World War II, Sophia relived many painful memories from her own childhood; ”I would never have won the Oscar if I’d stayed in Hollywood. I knew that there, in Italy, I could really show what I had inside, what came from my background.” It became the most celebrated role of Loren’s career; for which she won the BAFTA for Best Actress in a Leading Role, the Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award, and the New York Critics Circle Award for Best Actress.

Sophia had two miscarriages before her first son Carlo Ponti Jnr was born in 1968, followed by another son Eduardo in 1973. On both occasions she spent the entire nine months in bed in the desperate attempt to avoid miscarrying. In the 1970s Sophia and Ponti re-established themselves in Italy where she dedicated herself to spending time with her children and although working regularly, spent less time on set than previously. In 1981 Sophia showed her entrepreneurial skills by becoming the first celebrity to launch her own perfume. She also published the book Women and Beauty and several Italian cookbooks.

Appearing in over 80 movies, in 1991 Sophia received the Academy Honorary Award for her outstanding contribution to world cinema. Perhaps the last living classic movie icon, Sophia, aged 75, starred as ‘Mamma’ in the musical Nine in 2009 - her first major motion picture for fourteen years – proving once again her inimitable style and charisma. When asked about being a worldwide sex symbol for over five decades Sophia replied; ”Sex appeal is fifty percent what you’ve got and fifty percent what people think you’ve got.” 

Posted on August 28, 2012 by crocky / Posted in Fashion, Film, Icons | Tagged , , , , |

Ballgowns – British Glamour since 1950 – V&A exhibition

Opening the British Design Season at the Victoria and Albert Museum and held in the newly renovated Fashion Galleries, the exhibition is inspired by The Queen’s 60 year reign and celebrates British fashion design – showcasing the finest formal eveningwear from the elegant 1950s to the more Avant-garde creations of the present day.

Many of the dresses have never been publicly displayed and include some of the most important fashion statements of the past six decades – couture gowns commissioned for Royal occasions, charity balls, and celebrity-studded award ceremonies. These dresses were time-consuming pieces crafted from the finest materials, tailored to the individual, and always achieving high impact. It isn’t difficult to become transfixed by more than 60 spectacular gowns comprising of silk, lace, satin, feathers and latex. The drama and splendour of the ballgown unfolds from the mid half of the 20th century and culminates in a staggering display highlighting today’s fashion designers at the forefront of British design innovation.

The exhibition features a ravishing 1955 embroidered pink silk ballgown with crystal embellishments designed by House of Worth, a voluminous blue beaded crinoline Norman Hartnell designed for Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, and Princess Diana’s famous pearl and sequin studded and aptly nicknamed ‘Elvis’ ensemble by Catherine Walker, worn by the Princess to the British Fashion Awards in 1989 and emphasising the importance of the relationship between the British fashion industry and the Royal family. Princess Diana helped to revive the trend for elaborate evening dresses during the boom economy of the 1980s and her wedding dress designers Elizabeth and David Emanuel are represented in the exhibition by a ruffled pink taffeta dress (reminiscent of pink Angel Delight) which they designed for Joan Collins in 1983, on loan from her wardrobe.

In an age where debutantes gave way to the dawn of the celebrity – the ballgown symbolises the evolution of our culture through premium fashion and provides a fascinating look at society’s changing tastes. The exhibition includes dresses worn by A-List stars Sandra Bullock and Elizabeth Hurley and pays homage to some of the most influential and pioneering British fashion designers of the last 60 years including Vivienne Westwood, Ossie Clark, Zandra Rhodes, and Alexander McQueen, many of whom learnt their trade in the workshops of traditional and respected Savile Row tailors and have long been recognised for putting Britain on the international fashion map.

Gliding up the 1930s Hollywood-inspired sweeping staircase to the mezzanine level you find a dreamlike display set off by chandeliers and revolving mannequins. The exhibition finale surprises visitors with eyebrow-raising contemporary red carpet designs – a world away from the demure 1950s styles on the floor below. Today’s leading designers take full advantage of modern fabrics and technology – fully expressing their imagination and sheer forward-thinking whilst managing to incorporate traditional glamour and decadence in a unique and distinctively British way.

Memorable styles include the Gareth Pugh metallic leather dress created especially for the exhibition and the bespoke Ralph & Russo dress designed for Beyoncé, encrusted with over 20,000 Swarovski crystals which is believed to have taken a team of seamstresses three months to hand sew. Fashionistas and followers of red carpet fashion will be stampeding to the V&A to appreciate just how imaginative our designers are and why British fashion continues to be the leading force in the industry.

An accompanying book Ballgowns – British Glamour Since 1950 (£20 hardback) is available from the museum gift shop and online.

Information
Victoria and Albert Museum – South Kensington, London, SW7 2RL
Telephone +44 (20) 7942 2000
The exhibition is showing until 6th January 2013
To book tickets (£10 Adult) visit www.vam.ac.uk

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Stop Traffic / Posted in Fashion | Tagged , |