This book is a little gem. It is beautifully made, quite smallish, bound in grey fabric, with the title written in big pink letters. Hold it in your hand and you are immediately in a good mood.
It was originally published in 1954 and has been republished by the Victoria &Albert Museum in London - which in itself is worth every minute you spend there...
Here the great master speaks himself, he is somehow chatting to us mortals, hanging on his lips for words of wisdom. And words of wisdom they are - well, not all is feasable nowadays, as we rarely - unfortunately - wear a hat for a shopping trip into the supermarket or to the gasolinestation, and the practicality of gloves for driving a car are underestimated these days too.
I found the book, as always such things come, by accident, bought it and have spent many a good hour in its company. The compilation of thoughts follows the alphabet - which in itself makes already an amusing read, accompagnied by black and white fotographs of his models, and some of the famous drawings we all know by heart.
Funnily enough, many things CD says are such basic advice, that you could write it in stone and it would be some sort of fashion advice which could be heard in 45 centuries to come.
Let me give you some little examples, to wet your appetite!
"K":
Key to good dressing.
There is no key?
If there were it would be too easy, rich women could buy the key and all their fashion worries would be over! But simplicity, grooming and good taste - the three fundamentals of fashion - cannot be bought. But they can be learnt, by rich and poor alike.
Well there is hope for all of us, no?? And on and on he goes, about the necessity of the good fit of your clothes, of the secret that less is more in everything, of the use of colour in your wardrobe, up to hairstyles and his love for the colour green. (MY favourite colour too, ha!)
I cannot resist to put another quote here.
"H" for
Hairstyles.
Like everything which comes close to your face, your hairstyle is extremely important. ... I hate dyed hair. The colour God has given to you is always the best and matches with your personality. ... You can improve yourself - by all means - but you will still be yourself and not somebody else!...
and on grey hair: If you get grey young, you will look very elegant and much younger with your grey hair than if you dye it. And after a certain age dyed hair does not deceive anybody.
Exactly my talking since 1854.
I see quite a few of you making a face - as always, this is to be taken with some distance, it was written in 1954 - we all know, that todays the technique of dying our hair is much more advanced and give a much more natural result. But you get the idea.
And a last thing, which I only can applaud is his comment about mutton dressed as lamb.
"A" for
Age
As far as fashion is concerned there are only two ages - girlhood and womanhood. .... You can dress to suit yourself - and therefore your age - but this does not mean that you have to wear clothes that make you look old...
Do admit, he is right! And would it not be wonderful, if we middle aged girls could start, for once, to dress like grown up women, and not as elderly teenagers? Fair enough for Rock chic and the blondish-longhaired ladies with jeeps, a fur vest and long boots - they are all welcome. But do we really have to look all alike? How about, if I would decree, that my fashion icon, personally, could be well Ingrid Bergman??
I would like to know, what exactly being dressed like a grown up women today means. Have my own ideas about this, but then the margin between frumpy and ridiculous is small..
Anyway: next time you are in London and happen to be in the V&A shop, have a look. Or go on the ususal suspects and have a look there!
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