Anna Dello Russo by Helmut Newton, 1996

Love how much a departure this is from both their styles.

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Milan turns into a ghost town at the holidays, with all of its residents fleeing to the countryside or to the mountains or someplace warm. Right now, the city seems to be populated by me, a couple shell-shocked tourists, and a bevy of old ladies, taking advantage of this time when everyone else is away to air out their best furs and go striding around town, reveling in their dominion over the streets.

Old Milanese ladies are a wonderful study in doing things “just so,” as captured perfectly by this old photo I stumbled across on the Sartorialist. Nobody wears furs and sensible skirts the way they do. And I particularly love this one’s cane and daring pop of yellow at the neckline. They’re also masters of looking perfectly dignified and aloof, managing to pour just the right amount of disdain into their glance– when they condescend to look your way– to communicate to you that you are an inferior species and have lots to learn from them. I hope to grow up to be like a little old Italian lady someday. Compact, bitchy and fabulously dressed. That’s the way to do it.

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Slouching Towards Bethlehem

I saw this portrait of Joan Didion by Annie Leibovitz on the Vanity Fair website and instantly fell in love. It’s truly remarkable how this image manages to conjure up the same emotions that I’ve always felt when reading her work, a mixture of dreaminess and serenity, interwoven with a strong, unshakeable sense of dread. I first saw it a few hours ago, and it’s stuck with me, her strange, alien gaze creeping into the back of my mind at the oddest of moments. I don’t think I could expect anything less of her.

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Inspiration 10.29.10

Can you tell I just re-watched Blue Velvet?

David Lynch and Isabella Rossellini by Helmut Newton.

Chau Har Lee

The girls I work with are occasionally bemused by my taste in day-to-day footwear. Most of the time I’ll stick to ballet flats or classic pumps, but then on occasion I’ll bust out something tall and architectural that propels me well over 6 feet. I don’t think they realise that the craziest of the shoes I own is quite staid when compared to any single one of these beauties made by Chau Har Lee for her graduate collection last year.

Lee won loads of awards for her collection and is currently working at Marloes Ten Bhömer, which seems to me to be a perfect fit. I’m dying to see what comes from her next. I’d be happy to have created something along these lines as a sculpture alone, so to have it be functional is a dream!

Other side of the lens

Isabella Blow by Steven Meisel, 1993.

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I’ll happily admit I may have shrieked a little bit when I saw these scans. This editorial throws together two of my very favourite things– ultimate Texan goddess Jerry Hall and the USSR– and the combination is so exciting that I can’t help but giggle to myself with glee. Throw in some horses, some camels, and some Soviet statuary, and I’m in heaven. It’s like the shoot was done with me in mind.

Did I mention she’s a goddess?

Jerry Hall by Norman Parkinson for Vogue January 1976.

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2.19.10 Coveting

Seems I’m all about rings these days. I love big, fun statement rings, and whilst whiling away the hours I always find myself drawn to Wendy Brandes‘ wonderful Anne of Cleves* ring. Sadly, the income of a paralegal ain’t all that disposable, so I fear our love is not to be, but it still makes for some great gazing-fodder. Just lovely.

* Flexing my history geek muscles: Anne of Cleves was Henry VIII’s fourth wife. They were married for only  six months before he had the marriage annulled (reportedly because she was not as beautiful as he had believed… ironic given the fact that he was gouty and obese at this time.) She was given the title of The King’s Sister, made off with a big settlement, and actually outlived him and his last two wives. Here’s a copy of the troublesome portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger that led him to thinking she was prettier than proved to be the case:

Land Girls

I have a secret obsession with all-girl institutions. Growing up a tomboy, I’d read about British boarding schools and daydream about the joys of bosom friends and uniforms. When I actually went away to boarding school, some of my most fondly-remembered times were after hours in my all-girls dorm, where we’d cram ourselves in to a tiny little room barely big enough for a microwave and an ironing board and gossip the night away. I was never a very girly girl, but my imagination was always captured by instances of female camaraderie.

Recently, when thinking about women banding together, the Land Girls, or the Women’s Land Army, keeps popping insistently into my thoughts. These were the women who took over the agricultural jobs in the UK during WWI and WWII– a cow-milking answer to Rosie the Riveter. They were generally young girls who came in from the cities, rolled up their sleeves, and set about serving their country by making sure the  while the men were away at war. They plowed fields, tended crops, and turned trees into telephone poles. They were sexual revolutionaries and looked damn good doing it.

They were made famous through things like Angela Huth’s charming book and the subsequent film and  BBC adaptation (all of which I strongly urge you to pick up for a bit of period fun.) Land Girls were classic examples of cool girly style: badass enough to leave their homes and take up work on a farm, but still managing to  maintain an iconic freshly-scrubbed sexiness. Most of them tended to be pretty young girls, out away from home for the very first time, so you can just imagine what sort of racy stories they had to tell!  I love my mental pictures of rosy-cheeked lasses, freshly turned out in their practical little uniforms, heartily hauling barrows before putting on a quick slash of lipstick and heading off to town to flirt with the few boys left around. I’m sure I’m romanticising it quite a bit, but the accounts I’ve read of the time point to incredible adventures and stories of girls managing to be strong together at a time of great national hardship. What a time they must have had!

I’ve assembled a collection of pictures so you can see for yourselves the charm of the Land Girls.

The uniforms. How awesome is she?

Being inspected by the Queen!

America had Land Girls too. I dig the cute utilitarian outfits.

Reunion of former Land Girls. How much fun would it be to go out for a drink with them and hear their stories?

[via 1, 2, 3 (interesting interview), 4 (awesome resource), 5 (BBC site full of interviews and fun facts), 6 ]