Excess is success

"I really don't understand minimalism. It is so polite and boring. If you don't want anyone to notice you, you should stay home and grow your own vegetables."

"Fashion should be something that in the morning, when you open your window, you say, 'Oh fantastic, sun!' Then you take your shower, you say, 'OK fantastic, which colour I wear today because I feel happy?' This should be fashion."

"In my planet, fashion, I'm the only straight man."

"What is too much? There is no such thing!"

"Excess is success."

The "go-to" designer for a raft of celebrities, from Brigitte Bardot and Sophia Loren to the Beckhams, Britney Spears and Jennifer Lopez, the great Italian fashionista Roberto Cavalli has departed to bestow endless swathes of leopardskin and animal print upon the glitterati of Fabulon.

The catwalks are going to be a lot less camp and glamorous now he's gone...

RIP, Roberto Cavalli (15th November 1940 – 12th April 2024)

Making an entrance

The Divine One

We have a centenary to celebrate...

One of the most distinctive and remarkable singers ever, the much-missed magnificent Miss Sarah Vaughan was born one hundred years ago today!

Suffice to say, her music speaks for itself:

Sarah Vaughan - The More I See You

Sarah Vaughan - Tenderly

Sarah Vaughan - The Nearness Of You

Sarah Vaughan - Fascinatin' Rhythm (live, 1988)

No-one else could do what "Sassy" did!

"I am not a special person. I am a regular person who does special things."

"When I sing, trouble can sit right on my shoulder and I don't even notice."

"There's a category for me. I like to be referred to as a good singer of good songs in good taste."

"As soon as I hear an arrangement, I get ideas, kind of like blowing a horn. I guess I never sing a tune the same way twice..."

"There are notes between notes, you know."

Sheer class.

Sarah Lois Vaughan (27th March 1924 - 3rd April 1990)

Weekend Reading

He pushed the boundaries of excess

From the fantastic tribute in the Evening Standard by David Johnson (editor of one of my fave websites Shapers of the 80s):

The press called them the “New Romantics” and the “Blitz Kids”, declaring the Eighties the “Age of the Pose”. Art-school tutor Rosetta Brooks compared their self-consciously styled poses to “street theatre ultimately extended into continuous performance as a post-punk embodiment of Gilbert and George in one person (the individualist).” Each poser, she believed, is a ready-made. Step forward fashion student Stephen Linard, who ticked all the above boxes – a flamboyant Canvey Island boy, ...who yearned to make a statement in every street or room he graced.

Arriving at St Martin’s School of Art in London (1978-81), Linard pushed the boundaries of excess…His outrageous fashion details flagged direction for the two dozen sharpest Blitz Kids who shaped the New Romantics silhouette from the Blitz onwards...

“The competition pushed you on... you might change what you were going to wear eight times on a Tuesday to try to outdo everyone else at the Blitz.”

...“The Blitz was an art students’ club. The place was choc-a-bloc with artists: Brian Clarke, Zandra Rhodes, Molly Parkin, Antony Price, Duggie Fields, Kevin Whitney and us because it was halfway between Central School and St Martin’s. People who said ‘Oh you Blitz Kids don’t DO anything’ were talking rubbish, because WE all did. We were the ones with our work in the glossy magazines long before the rest.”

Always centre stage...

With friends/fellow squatters that included Boy George, milliner Stephen Jones, "scene queen" Princess Julia, the faboo Eve Ferrett, assorted fashionistas such as The Clothes Show's Caryn Franklin and art-model Sue Tilley, and the Pet Shop Boys, and clients that included Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Spandau Ballet, Fun Boy 3 and even David Bowie, he became legendary in couture circles. He was unique!

RIP, Stephen Linard.

[click any pic to enlarge]

Liza!

...it's her world, we merely inhabit it.

Many happy returns, Miss Liza May Minnelli (born 12th March 1946)!

The Kiwi Songbird

Heavens to Betsy!

Dame Kiri te Kanawa is 80 years old...

A "national treasure" here in the UK [despite being a born and bred New Zealander] since Charles and Diana's marriage way back in 1982, Dame Kiri's dulcets have indeed been an integral part of the classical repertoire for many decades. She's appeared on the best world stages, including the Royal Opera House, La Scala Milan, Paris Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Vienna State Opera, Sydney Opera House and the New York Met; she was chosen by Leonard Bernstein for his award-winning classical adaptation of West Side Story, sang the "signature tune" for the 1991 Rugby World Cup, starred as "Dame Nellie Melba" in Downton Abbey and was an enduring favourite choice of the late HM The Queen for many a Royal celebration...

...like this one:

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa - Je dis que rien ne m'épouvante ("Micaela's Aria") [Bizet: Carmen; Golden Jubilee Prom at the Palace 2002]

Many happy returns, Dame Kiri Jeanette Claire Te Kanawa, ONZ, CH, DBE, AC (born Claire Mary Teresa Rawstron, 6th March 1944)

[Read my previous tribute to the grande dame @adecadeago on the occasion of her 70th birthday.]