I rarely look back much beyond the 60’s for style icons. On the whole, the clothes just get too costume-y for my taste and the lifestyle they exude is just too antiquated to relate to. Of course there are exceptions, the biggest one being heiress and muse Diana Cunard whose heyday was in the 20’s. When I first saw these pictures I just couldn’t believe how completely relevant she would look today.
Does she remind you of anyone?..
I absolutely love the Hollywood sign. It’s so iconic, it’s like a celebrity unto itself. It satisfies all the yearning for glamour and excitement you expect to feel when you go to Hollywood. Years ago, I took my son Zach to LA. For weeks he told all his friend’s he was “Going to Hollywood!!!!!!!” like they say in American Idol. The trouble was, when we got there, there weren’t celebrities lining the streets, no one was offering us a recording contract, and there weren’t any movies being shot within public view. So I decided on a dime that the best way to feel like we were in Hollywood was to go to the Hollywood sign. On our drive there, we ignored many posts saying “public traffic is forbidden beyond this point,” illegally parked our car, and scrambled up over a hill until we arrived at a clear unobstructed view. It was so spectacular that I couldn’t figure out why we had so few fellow trespassers. We took our requisite photos and went on home, thoroughly satisfied. The next time I came to LA, I returned to the Hollywood sign with my daughter Coco. Within the first few minutes of scrambling up the same path, again accessed from our illegal parking spot, multiple police lights started flashing from the top of the hill, with a stern voice booming over a loudspeaker “YOU ARE NOW TRESPASSING. THIS IS ILLEGAL AND PUNISHABLE BY JAIL. YOU MUST LEAVE AT ONCE!” We froze, wide eyed, looked at each other and ran down the hill. Coco cried when we got in the car. I couldn’t stop laughing, which made her furious at me. I guess we won’t be going to the Hollywood sign again anytime soon, but it certainly made for a memorable visit.
Chances are you’ve all seen these photos many times, as have I. But in the context of looking at Diana’s style over her lifetime, they are a very important conclusion. The way I see it, these photos, taken just 5 months before she passed away, were a hint of what we would have seen next in Diana’s life: a happier, independent and grown up woman who was finally free from the life that so rigidly defined her. It’s as if in the photos from the decade before she was playing a role, and in these pictures she is finally able to just be herself...
So the third significant phase of Diana’s fashion legacy is definitely questionable to some. But this is how I see it: Everyone has a very personal relationship to personal style. We all have our own tastes, experiences, physical features, ambitions and life circumstances that heavily impact the way we present ourselves to the world. Would I ever want to dress the way Princess Diana did in the 80’s. NO WAY!! Do I think she created a signature look that worked for her life as a princess and entertained the rest of us all at once...
I most personally relate to Princess Diana when she was newly married. Her style was still classic English but she was just starting to elevate her look a bit with a puffed sleeve shoulder, oversized sunglasses, a rather large hat, or bolder patterns. There is also a bohemian feeling in her clothes at this moment (inevitably left over from the 70’s) that fades out later on in her life. But it’s the softness of her look during this time – her shaggier hair, her relaxed body language, her shy but sincere smile that moves me the most...
Princess Diana has been a style icon of mine since she married Prince Charles in 1981 and remained so until her very sad and premature death. She started off as a young natural beauty, typically English in every way. I think my attraction to her began because she actually looked very much like my mother – in coloring, in bone structure and in hairstyle. There was also the fact that she was a princess, and what 7 year old girl can resist a princess?..
Last post on Jerry Hall. Hope I haven’t bored you. There are just too many great photos not to share.
So obviously the last chapter is the one of her with Mick Jagger. Although I love the stylized perfection of her and Bryan Ferry, I am also moved by the more natural quality of her style in her years with Mick, compounded by their obvious love for each other. It’s plain to see that this was a happy relationship and a happy family, at least for a time...
During her modeling years in the 70’s and 80’s Jerry Hall embodied American high-gloss glamour at it’s very best. ..
Although I was alive at the time, I regret not being old enough to witness Jerry Hall and Bryan Ferry walking the world as a couple in the mid 70’s. The combination of her overt glamour and his understated cool puts them at the top of my most stylish couples list. ..
