Heeeere Kitty, Kitty, Kitty!

Kitty, where are you?I was looking for kitten heels for a long time. But not just any kitten heels: I had a specific picture in mind. They had to be black, pointy-toed and thin, with delicate sling-backs. I was on this self-appointed mission for a year or more at the height (no pun intended) of the mania for the toweringest platform heels it was humanly possible to build. (I actually own some of these too – so big a crane is required to lift my foot into them.)

I searched every brick-and-mortar store, glimpsing neither hide nor hair of a pair. Exhaustively I trawled every shoe emporium online, to no avail. My hopes were dashed, my crest was fallen. I read, in online forums, of a curious antipathy many women have towards kitten heels: they are judged to be inexcusably dowdy. But I had nothing but fond recollections of a pair I owned many years ago. Who were these women taking as role models? I wondered in surprise.

I have only to think of Audrey Hepburn who must always be considered stylish, and another actress of the 1960s, the Italian Monica Vitti to be convinced that kitten heels are elegant, as well as comfortable.

Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’sMonica Vitti wears kittens in Michelangelo Antonioni’s classic L’EclisseMonica Vitti in kitten heels only looks cooler with Alain Delon at her side, on the set of L’EclisseHistorically, kitten heels were intended for teens. They were introduced in the late 1950s as trainer heels for teenagers, and also because higher heels ‘would have been considered unseemly for girls as young as thirteen because of the sexual connotations’ [Wikipedia]. By the 60s though, women of all ages were wearing them; the aforementioned Audrey Hepburn helped make them popular. They re-emerged in the 1980s and again briefly in the noughties. Of course since then the wedge and the platform have driven them firmly out of the fashion landscape.

Manolo Blahnik’s elegant rendition of kitten heels, Vogue Australia, May 1999I finally found my obscurely-branded pair on a sale site a couple months ago, but the leather is soft and they are comfortable to wear and walk in. Patently the fashion world has finally begun to tire of monster shoes, for once more the demure kitten heel is having a renaissance – I wouldn’t mind adding a pair of nude kitten heels (that sounds so naughty!) to my arsenal of shoes. It will be a novel sensation to put away the platform and feel the pavement beneath thin-soled shoes once more. 

The Isabel kitten peep toe pumps, by Jimmy Choo – click to buyDaniel beige slingbacks, the polar opposite of my black pair – click to buy

Gloria Swanson, the Original

Celebrating the Roaring Twenties in a Special Series

Gloria Swanson, ph Edward Steichen, 1924I bet Charlie Chaplin was kicking himself when he turned unknown movie extra Gloria Swanson down for a starring role in his film His New Job. He didn’t see her as leading lady material and gave her a small role as a stenographer.

Gloria went on to sign with Paramount Pictures and worked with Cecil B DeMille. In two years she rose to stardom and became one of the most sought-after stars of Hollywood. She played many romantic leads in costume dramas, and such was her success that Paramount, fearful of losing her, indulged her every wish and whim.

Swanson, in Male and Female, 1919Her most famous role however is not from the silent era, but Norma Desmond in Billy Wilder’s 1950 film Sunset Boulevard. Norma is a faded silent screen star who falls in love with an unsuccessful screenwriter, played by William Holden. The film was nominated for eleven Academy Awards and won three. (It’s also the only film of hers that I have seen.)

In her heydey, audiences went to see her films not only for her performances but also to gasp over her wardrobe. Whether haute couture or extravagant period pieces, they were frequently ornamented with beads, jewels, peacock and ostrich feathers. She was barely five feet tall (1.52m) – perhaps that explains her predilection for very tall hats!

One of the most famous and photographed women in the world, her fashion, hairstyles, and jewels were copied everywhere. A precursor to today’s craze for every detail of an actress’s wardrobe, Swanson was the silver screen's first clotheshorse – the Original.  

Swanson in Don’t Change Your Husband, 1919

Picnic at Hanging Rock

Picnic at Hanging Rock is an icon of Australian literature and film. The book was written in 1967 by Joan Lindsay, and such was its impact that it was soon after adapted to film by Peter Weir, in 1975.

Written in the form of a true story, and set on Valentines Day in 1900, the book centres on the disappearance of a number of teenage girls and one of their teachers during an excursion to Hanging Rock in country Victoria. The first half of the story focusses on the girls as they prepare for this longed-for picnic, and after the disappearance, the impact this has on their fellow students and the larger community. But the mystery was never solved, and hence its endless fascination.

A still from Picnic at Hanging Rock, the 1975 film directed by Peter WeirThe character that has most impact on everyone in her world is the ethereal Miranda, who looks, as her French teacher remarks, like a Botticelli angel. All the girls are dressed similarly, in white muslin dresses, buttoned high around the throat and tight around the wrists, with straw boaters on their heads, but there is indeed something special about Miranda. She floats about like a spirit from another world, and she speaks as though she knows she is only visiting for a short time. And then she is gone.

An alternate version of my image treated like a vintage photograph

All sorts of sordid and mystical theories – sexual molestation, abduction, murder – are put forth to explain their disappearance, but none of them come close to the truth. For in fact, Lindsay had written a final chapter resolving the mystery, but her editor suggested she remove it prior to publication. Chapter Eighteen was subsequently published in 1987, and if you burn to know the truth, you can read about it here.

Here is my little homage: my lacy dress (a souvenir from Vietnam) looks more like the girls’ chemises than a dress, but the cotton Battenberg lace parasol and the enamel cups are something these girls from 1900 would immediately recognise. 

Lulu

Celebrating the Roaring Twenties in a Special Series 

Louise Brooks in Now We're In the AirThe quintessence of 1920s glamour for me must be the iconic silent film actress Louise Brooks. Cute as a button with her little helmet of black hair, she was best known for the Austrian Expressionist G. W. Pabst’s films Pandora’s Box (1929), Diary of a Lost Girl (1929) and Prix de Beauté (1930).

Born in America in 1906, at 19 she was a featured dancer for the Ziegfield Follies on Broadway; she signed a 5-year contract with Paramount in 1929. She starred in over 20 films, although many of them are sadly lost, and made her final film appearance in 1938. She hated Hollywood, and was a headstrong and difficult actress to work with, eventually leading her to be placed on an unofficial blacklist. This cut short her film career, but she had no regrets. She switched careers and began writing about film, also authoring a memoir Lulu in Hollywood.

Louise Brooks as a Ziegfield Follies dancerBrooks also helped popularise the notion of the independent, fast-living, sexually liberated flapper girl, socialising with the rich and famous (including William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies) and collecting many lovers along the way. She was notorious for her ‘salty language’ and, amusingly, for vowing to never smile on stage or film ‘unless she felt compelled to’ (although she had a dazzling smile). Possibly it is her image and black bob that is most iconic however, the latter much copied still today.

It almost seems as though her life – albeit long – petered out. Married twice, childless, depressed, as an unsuccessful actress at 36 she felt that the only well-paying career for her was that of a call-girl. She dabbled in operating a dance studio, working briefly as a radio actor and a gossip columnist, and was for a few years a salesgirl in Saks Fifth Avenue. After that she was reduced to eking out a living as a courtesan. She died in 1985.

Still, she has inspired countless many creatives – writers, actors, musicians, artists – and continues to do so to this day. Once seen, who can forget that coy glance cast from under darkened lashes, those lush curves – and of course the indefinable air of doomed glamour? Not me. 

See more pics on the SNAP Facebook page.

Louise Brooks in The Canary Murder Case

A Sashbuckling Romance

Merchant Ivory’s 1985 film A Room With a View always makes me smile in goofish romance whenever I watch it. It is so light and frothy and sweet, yet filled with cheeky moments (excuse the pun) that make one chuckle. I do enjoy my swoon laced with a little sauce.

Helena Bonham-Carter’s wardrobe is so pretty, particularly her summer blouses and long white or cream skirts that are cinched in at the waist with delicate belts or ribbons. Her silk evening skirts make such a lovely rustle as she swishes away from Cecil after giving him his congé.

The costumes for A Room With a View were designed by Jenny Beaven and John Bright, who won both an Oscar and a BAFTA for Best Costume Design. This polka-dotted bodice and skirt (above) are particular favourites of mine – I love the Wedgwood blue colour. The bodice is of machine-embroidered voile with appliquéd sprigs, and Broderie Anglaise collar, yoke and cuffs. The waistband is of silk and the skirt of linen. Just delicious! 

I had long hankered after an original Edwardian white blouse, and found one last year in Barcelona (read about that fashionable adventure here). To really complete this fin de siècle picture of romance however, a sash was required. Sashes are so storybookish and quaint, especially when tied in a giant bow and worn with soulful looks.

I searched high and low for a vintage or antique sash or ribbon. I wanted it to be silk, wide, and preferably blue (inspired by Bonham-Carter’s costumes). If it was striped that would be an additional bonus. I saw a beautiful blue and white striped Victorian ribbon on Etsy, but it wasn’t nearly long enough, and it was very expensive. I kept looking and finally found striped 1940s purple and white taffeta ribbon on eBay – in rayon, which is almost as good as silk. I purchased three yards for less than $40. Then, while rummaging around in my props suitcase, I came across a large rhinestone buckle I had forgotten about. It was threaded onto a black velvet ribbon that I had never finished sewing into a choker. This would look rather nice on the striped ribbon as an alternative to a simple sashed bow, I decided.

My own room with a view from Casa Miradouro, in Sintra, Portugal last year

Vintage 1940s striped rayon ribbon, found on eBayAntique-style oxidised sterling silver, marcasite and amythest necklace, poison ring of sterling silver, rose gold and amethyst, sterling silver and amethyst ring all from Palm Beads, a jewellery boutique in MelbourneTo complete the picture I unearthed from the bottom of my jewellery box an oxidised silver, marcasite and amethyst necklace designed in an antique style, and two matching rings – one of which is a poison ring and actually flips open! The onyx earrings are my own make, and the skirt is modern, from Australian label Witchery. The perfect finishing touch is a book of the era, entitled Helen With the High Hand, which my sister Star thought would be an amusing book to gift me.

Well, I have the outfit, now I just need to get me to a barley field in Italy. 

The infamous kiss

Background of main images are of the gardens in the National Palace of Sintra, Portugal.