Surrealist Dinner Party

Château de Ferrières, the suburban Parisian mansion of Baron Guy de Rothschild and Marie-Hélène

On December 12, 1972, Baron Guy de Rothschild and his wife Marie-Hélène hosted a costumed ball stranger than fiction. Château de Ferrières was on fire, sleeping cats the size of men littered the staircase, and all-enveloping cobwebs lined the hallways.The acid-laced zeitgeist of the 70s had trickled up and finally reached the ranks of the Parisian elite in the form of the Rothschilds’ theatrical Dîner des Têtes Surréalistes.

Detail of a table with a fur dish, Mae West red lips and blue bread

the dîner des têtes surréalistes invitation with reversed writing inspired by a magritte sky

The invitations for the ball—scrawled backwards so that it had to be read in a mirror—stated simply: black tie, long dresses, and Surrealist heads. When such requests are made of those with limitless time and money, the results are impressive. What manifested at the chateau that evening was a trippy tableau vivant comprised of the most notable personalities in the worlds of art and literature and their perception-bending headdresses.

The actress Jacqueline Delubac came as René Magritte’s Son of Man painting, a large green apple hiding her face. Audrey Hepburn’s head was ensnared in a bird cage. There was a two-headed woman, a horse, a grotesque Mona Lisa, and more than one bouquet of flowers. Not to be outdone, the hostess wore a giant stag’s head that wept diamond tears. And, of course, the master of Surrealism himself was there—Salvador Dalí came dressed as himself.

Audrey Hepburn

The Baroness Thyssen-Bornemizza & Guy Baguenault de Puchesse

Salvador Dalí and the Italian princess Maria Gabriella de Savoia

Charles de Croisset, Marisa Berenson snd Paul-Louis Weiller

Claude Lebon and Charlotte Aillaud

Hélène Rochas & François-Marie Banier

For desert: a sugar made woman laying in a bed of roses

Table of the swaying dolls

Apr 3

A Renowned Art Collection

Gertrude Stein and her brother Leo shared living quarters on the Left Bank of Paris at 27 rue de Fleurus from 1903 until 1914, when they dissolved their common household. Their residence, located near the Luxembourg Gardens, was a two-story building with adjacent studio. It was here they accumulated the works of art into a collection that would become renowned for its prescience and historical importance.

The joint collection of Gertrude and Leo Stein began in late 1904 when Michael Stein announced that their trust account had accumulated a balance of 8,000 francs. They spent this at Vollard’s Gallery, buying Paul Gauguin‘s Sunflowers and Three Tahitians, Paul Cézanne‘s Bathers, and two Renoirs.

Leo Stein cultivated important art world connections, enabling the Stein holdings to grow over time. Bernard Berenson hosted Gertrude and Leo in his English country house in 1902, facilitating their introduction to Paul Cézanne and Ambroise Vollard‘s art gallery.

The art collection increased and the walls at Rue de Fleurus were rearranged continually to make way for new acquisitions. In “the first half of 1905” the Steins acquired Cézanne’s Portrait of Mme Cézanne and Eugène Delacroix‘s Perseus and Andromeda. Shortly after the opening of the Salon d’Automne of 1905 (on October 18, 1905), the Steins acquired Henri Matisse‘s Woman with a Hat and Pablo Picasso‘s Young Girl with Basket of Flowers.

To watch some of the paintings mentioned in this post, please take a gander at The Genealogy of Style‘s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Genealogy-of-Style/597542157001228?ref=hl

Jul 13

Cherry Oh…

Altough Manolo Blahnik‘s conquest of America is fairly recent, he’s been a hit in London since 1972, when Bianca Jagger, Loulou de La Falaise, and Marisa Berenson started wearing his outrageously original high-heeled platforms and sandals with green suede straps that climbed the legs like vines (they were festoned with red cherries at the top).

Manolo landed in London in 1969, where his real life began. “I was possessed by London. It was post-Beatles and all that nonsense, and to me the city seemed very exotic”.

Ossie. First created in 1971, this countryside inspired sandal dedicated to the English designer Ossie Clark, was embellished with long green straps with red rounds, representing berries and leaves. Last year the Spanish shoemaker re-released 60 limited edition pairs of this famous shoe

The rubber heeled and suede cherries was inspired by Manolo’s favorite fruit. Photo courtesy of Traffic Magazine.

Jul 9

Artistic Ménage à Trois

Anjelica Huston and Halston. 1972

Halston’s Fall 1972 collection modeled by Anjelica Huston. All the photographs were taken by Berry Berenson

Jul 8

After a Photograph

Joan Collins

Truman Capote

Anjelica Huston

Michael Jackson

Eddie Sedwick

Madonna

“Divine”

Cher

Grace Jones

Miguel Bosé

Isabella Rossellini

Maria Schiano

Debbie Harry

Diane von Fürstenberg

David Bowie

Mick Jagger

For 15 years, beginning in 1972, Richard Bernstein’s signature artwork graced the monthly covers of Interview magazine, that seminal celebrity chronicle of the social, fashion and art crowd that had met in Andy Warhol’s Factory and the back room of Max’s Kansas City in the 60′s and catalyzed in the sybaritic heat of Studio 54 in the late 70′s.

Using an airbrush, pencil and pastel on photographic portraits, Bernstein made the up-and-coming celebrities of the era-Sylvester Stallone, Calvin Klein, Madonna, even wholesome Mary Tyler Moore-look as sleek and sexy as our nostalgized memories of that era. “Things are stronger, faster and further,” Paloma Picasso wrote of Bernstein’s oeuvre in a published collection of his work, Megastar . “Superstars became Megastars.”

But though Bernstein’s work helped put many a celebrity into the hot zone, he never seemed to be able to make the same conversion in terms of his own career. “I never felt that Richard got the full recognition for his contribution to the art world,” said Steve Newman, director of still photography at 20th Century Fox studios. “He never got the representation or put himself out there enough to earn the kind of reputation that other contemporaries of his did. I still think it’s a great shame.”

Some who knew Bernstein said he never broke out because his work, which was clearly influenced by Warhol’s art, was too often confused with the Pope of Pop’s work, and that Warhol, who enjoyed autographing the covers of fans’ copies of Interview , didn’t work too hard to disabuse them of that notion.

Other friends said that Bernstein was too nice and not ambitious enough, and that he was often taken advantage of by those who were in a position to help him.

With his dark, wavy hair, good looks and unfussy fashion sense-black jeans, leather jackets-Bernstein attracted members of both sexes, and though he was gay, he had at least one significant relationship with a woman, the actress and photographer Berry Berenson.

On Oct. 18, Bernstein’s body was found on the other side of that door, in his high-ceilinged studio apartment that once was part of the Chelsea Hotel’s grand ballroom. According to friends, a note found in his apartment that said simply “Do not resuscitate” left some with the suspicion that he had taken his own life.

Jun 28

Bert Stern’s Muses

Shirley MacLaine, 1960

Sue Lyon, 1961

Liz Taylor, 1962

Sofia Loren, 1962

Marilyn Monroe, 1962

Natalie Wood, 1964

Marisa Berenson, circa 1965

Goldie Hawn, 1965

Barbra Streisand, 1966

Ali MacGraw (for a Vogue cover photo shoot wearing a bright printed silk dress with gold paillete trim by Oscar de La Renta), 1970

Madonna, 1981

Drew Barrymore, 1994

May 17

Halston’s Feminine Point of View

From left: Illustrator Joe Eula, Berry Berenson and Antonio Lopez. Photo: Pierre Scherman

Editorial feature in LIFE magazine. February, 1971. Photo: Berry Berenson

Editorial feature in Vogue. June 1972. Photo: Berry Berenson

Model Karen Bjorson. Fall 1972 collection. June 29, 1972. Photo: Berry Berenson

Black silk Mao jacket. Original photograph from editorial feature in LIFE magazine. December 10, 1971. Photo: Berry Berenson

Cybill Sheperd in white satin pantsuit. LIFE magazine. December 10, 1971. Photo: Berry Berenson

Liza Minnelli in fron of Halston Ltd., 33 East 68th street, New York 1972. Photo: Berry Berenson

May 17

Halston’s Green Dress

Self-portrait of Berry Berenson wearing a green silk jersey dress by Halston, 1971

Left: Same green silk jersey dress by Halston. Collection Museum of the City of New York. Right: Model Elsa Peretti, Halston Fall 1971 collection. 68th Street Salon. June 8, 1971. Photo by Berry Berenson

Cosmopolitan, March 1972. Photo: Francesco Scavullo

May 15

Berenson Sisters in Halston

Marisa Berenson in Ultrasuede jacket by Halston. Harper’s Bazaar, May 1972. Photo: Hiro

Berry Berenson in suede jacket and cashmere sweater by Halston. Town & Country, April 1972. Photo: Francesco Scavullo

May 12

Some Stylish Mothers

Portrait of Carolina Herrera’s daughters and granchildren by Annie Leibovitz.

Carolina Herrera surrounded by her daughters. From Left to right: Patricia, Carolina Jr., Ana Luisa and Mercedes

Colombian fashion designer Silvia Tcherassi and Sofía

Donna Karan and Gaby Karan de Felice

Elsa Schiaparelli and her daughter Countess Maria Luisa Yvonne Radha de Wendt de Kerlor (Gogo) in St. Moritz, 1934. Gogo Schiaparelli, married shipping executive Robert L. Berenson. Their children were model Marisa Berenson and photographer Berry Berenson.

Sonia and Nathalie Rykiel in a photo editorial by Jason Schmidt featured in Harper’s Bazaar. The photograph is inspired by the movie Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Pedro Almodóvar, 1988)