Category Archive: Grande Dames
Asperges à la Pompadour
Though the ancient Greeks ate asparagus, which grows wild in the Mediterranean, and the Romans did, too, in the East the vegetable picked up a sexy reputation as an aphrodisiac, one served in Tales of the Arabian Nights. (Asparagus’s success…
Elegant Rebel of Jaipur
When I first arrived in India, Jaipur’s Wind Palace looked like an exotic fairytale castle to me, like a giant honeycomb, pierced with tiny windows from which hundreds of women in the royal entourage once watched the world go by,…
M. & Mme. Pink
When I first started working in fashion, I couldn’t spell the word fuchsia for the life of me. Even with spell check. Even with a dictionary. That is, until one lucky day when a gruff senior editor at WWD explained…
Trapeze striptease
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fapVB35E0FQ[/youtube]This short film combines two things I love, the trapeze and frilly, fussy, Edwardian-era lingerie. It stars Sacramento native Charmion, aka Laverie Vallee (why bother with a stage name?), a pioneering strong woman who thrilled audiences in New York and…
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