Vintage Fashion Therapy for Bettys

A Master Primer In Shopping

My rule is to shop for a whole body shape-not just one body part.
Most fall into one of three categories:

Type A
Bodies that are shaped smaller or narrow on top than on the bottom.
You want to draw the eye upward.
No busy prints on the lower body and no jackets that cut across the widest part of the hip.
Go with Empire-cut dresses and boatneck shirts.
Try vintage clothes from the 70s (think A-line dresses and skirts)

Type B
Bodies that are the same width at the shoulders and hips with a smaller waist.
You want a style that skims your hourglass shape.
An oval necked shirt, wide legged pants, and body skimming dresses flatter this figure.
Look for styles from the 50s .

Type C
Broad shoulders with a straight waistline.
C shaped women often look best in tailored shirts with most any pant silhouette (except pleated styles-which in my opinion look terrible on most everyone).
60s era dresses flatter.

Ben & Me

Going deeper. Are you ready?
Ben Franklin, in his autobiography, devises a 13 week course of self-improvement. Attorney and author Cameron Gunn decides to try this project of moral perfection. Ben's plan requires a person to focus for a week at a time, on 1 virtue, making it a habit. Is it possible? Here, I give you the 13 virtues;
Temperance
"Dont eat or drink too much"
Silence
"Speak only for good purpose"
Order
"Let all your things have their places"
Resolution
"Resolve to perform what you ought"
Frugality
"Waste nothing"
Industry
"Always be employed in something useful"
Sincerity
"Use no hurtful deceit"
Justice
"Don't do wrong by anyone"
Moderation
"Avoid extremes, forebear resenting injuries"
Cleanliness
"Keep your body home and clothes clean
Tranquility
"Don't be disturbed by trifles"
Chastity
"Take intimacy seriously"
Humility
"Imitate Jesus and Socrates"

American Style

Take Ivy  (the precise source for traditional American Style) which I originally thought was more urban myth due to it's scarcity, will be reprinted for the first time in 45 years with an English language text.
Drool.

My Rules To Make Your Pad Beautiful

• Do not use more than two pairs of anything in a room.
• Do not decorate with an item if you are afraid of sitting on it, touching it, or breaking it~just get rid of it.
• Always group things in odd numbers (there are very few exceptions).
• You never really know the visual impact of a mirror until you actually hang it.
• Beige is beautiful in sunlight but dies in the dark or night lightscape.
• Never paint a whole room until you have lived with a big sample board of at least three paint choices for 24 hours.
• Pick your paint colors last.

U.S. Hotels Architects & Designers: architecturaldigest.com

Art History Series VII

20th Century

I  The first period in 20th Century Art focuses on technology. The invention of photography freed the artist. Jazz became an important representation of improvisation. There was so much change that people had to redefine who and what they were.

Cubist artists were the first to represent volume by visual means. No more shadows to show depth.

The City Fernand Leger

Stables

The George Washington Bridge represents the symbol of our civilization.

The mechanised world is represented by the Futurist Movement.

The Bride Marcel Duchamp

Abstractism art draws away from or better yet separates from the peice as a whole. The artist analyzes and simplifies. It represents a break-up of the traditional view of the world.

Violins & Grapes Picasso

The theme in abstract art is to "reduce and simplify".

Red Yellow & Blue Mondrian

In architecture, Le Corbusier uses this method.

II  Expressionism and the modern self.

There was a prevalence of mechanisation influence. Our art of this period holds up a mirror to our values.

Wheelman Ernest Trova

Electronic music appeared on the music scene. It represents the manipulation of material. Assembly lines produced our goods. There was a reaction of disdainfulness of the human condition.

I and the village Marc Chagall

There appears a distortion and abstraction of the real. Interpretation of the physical world is retold without limitations in the art world.

One Number 31 Jackson Pollock

chance happenings captured in artwork

The King Playing With The Queen Max Ernst

Fur covered Cup and Saucer Oppenheim

Roy Lichtenstein

The Persistence of Memory Salvador Dali

Christina's World Andrew Wyeth

Master's Bedroom Andrew Wyeth

Mama Yves Tanguy

The Kiss Klimnt

Marilyn Warhol

Summer Fashion