Exotic Dressed Beauty - Gene Tierney.

Gene Tierney, a woman I gazed at awe in whilst watching her old movies as I grew up. Her grace, beauty, those eyes, her hair, those shoes, her makeup, those dresses, hats, jewels - she was grace personified. It wasn't so much her presence on screen as what she wore on screen that captivated me. Oh those clothes......(whistles loudly)....beautiful.

Laura 1944.

Funnily enough the films that I admire Gene Tierney in don't contain Tyrone Power. She has a most magical presence in the film The Ghost and Mrs Muir, 1947 which was the first film I ever saw her in. It is my favourite Gene Tierney film for her acting and the script. Not one for beautiful dresses or elaborate costumes, it is a film to nourish the soul. Tierney plays a young widow who moves into a lonely old house on a cliff, by the sea called Gull Cottage, which is haunted by a handsome young sea captain called Daniel, and with whom she falls in love. This is the house I desire to build, I love it so. I have watched and cried at this film easily over a thousand times. It touches my soul deeper than I can ever possibly explain.

Having watched her in the films where she starred alongside Tyrone Power, her appeal lessened and she seemed thin and insipid along side his charms, but that may of course be an immense personal preference on my part.........er hem...(coughs).
I didn't warm to her as an actress in any other film until I saw her in Laura, 1944. Where she played alongside Cliffton Webb, he of Mr Belvadere fame. It is a murder mystery as Tierney's character is the victim, and we the audience are asked to unravel the plot through her letters, friends and personal diaries, along with the policeman investigating her death - who soon becomes obsessed with the deceased character.

My favourite red Tierney dress.

Born in 1920, American actress Tierney died in 1991 aged 70 of emphysema. She suffered from mental health issues after the birth of her first born child and was treated with electric Shock therapy, something that she later claimed took large portions of her memory away. Married twice, her first husband whom she married in 1941 and divorced in 1952, was the noted fashion designer Oleg Cassini, who for several years designed exclusively for his movie star wife. He was assistant costume designer to the legendary Edith Head in the 1930's and later in the 1960's became the favourite designer for the classic American first lady Jackie Kennedy, JFK's wife.
Oleg and Tierney had two daughters together. During her first pregnancy in 1943 Tierney contracted Rubella (German measles) from a brief autograph signing of a fan meet and greet at a movie studio held event. Her daughter was born with severe disabilities due to the illness and had to be intitutionalized. All her daughter's medical bills and life long care were paid for by Tierney's good friend billionaire Howard Hughes.

I love this red dress that Tierney wears in this late 1940's photo shoot, no doubt designed and created by her loving husband Oleg Cassini. It is beautiful. Especially with the lilac sash. It's one I hope to recreate for myself one day very soon. I have a huge stash of old movie clips and photos and hoardes of dress sketches I wish to sew, but it's that old enemy time. Until then I shall just keep collecting and drooling......looking for similar at the Vintage Fairs.
This look on the right with the black and whole striped gloves and head band/turban/wrap are what I am on the lookout for at the moment. It is on my list - all except for the pink corsage flower as the finishing touch, for me I think it should be scarlet red. I love EVERYTHING about this photo apart from that pale pink flower. Her hair, lips, coat - just that flower lets it all down. It is a small bug bear, but there we have it.
I ask you, what woman couldn't fail to look timeless, elegant and absolutely stunning with a genius like Cassini exclusively designer for her?!


Tierney and her designer husband Oleg Cassini.



After their divorce Oleg went onto become engaged to Grace Kelly. He was obviously a man who had an eye for style and beauty, not just on the clothes rail but off as well. He even went on to design and produce a fashion doll named after Gene and his second daughter, Tina. Something that is quite sort after by collectors I am told, although I never had one as a child - I think the doll looks suspiciously like his ex-wife Gene, but then maybe it is more than likely to be modelled on their daughter. It's a shame she didn't end up rivaling Sindy or Barbie for their titles, along with Mary Quant's Daisy doll.

I love the delicate neckline of this outfit. Cupids and their hearts. It reminds me of the latest butterfly cardigans that you see around now in the Vintage and retro boutiques in Brighton. Something that would go well with high waisted slacks, a full circle skirt, pencil skirt or cropped jeans. It is cute not matter what the style of occasion you wish to dress it for, with almost a bedtime peignoir lure to it.

Yes, I am afraid it is her designer husband and his creations that fascinate me more about Gene Tierney, than Gene Tierney herself. Even though she had by some standards a tragic life and one of some hardship, I myself see her more as a stunning clothes horse for her husband's genius creations. Perhaps I am being too harsh on her, but really it is not so much Tierney I notice or watch in films, as her dresses that glide by my vigilant eyes.
Yes she is beautiful, yes she is a good actress, but her appeal is more for a male audience I think. All those fluttering eyelashes and demure smiles. No, my interest alone is her outstanding wardrobe - one that I envy with a clear passion. Would that Oleg Cassini design for me! x

Gowns galore to have a hissy fit over. One of the types of gowns Cassini is known for today is his Wedding gowns, of which he had a line out when he died in 2006. Beautiful, elegant and understated, almost echoing the ball and evening gowns of his ex wife Gene Tierney. What a muse she must have been for him, along with Grace Kelly and Jackie O.
If Tierney is wearing an outfit between 1941 and 1952 you can bet it will be have been designed by her clever husband. What better way to advertise your creations than on one of the most beautiful women in the world.

That Woman, That Iconic Dress.

Wallis Simpson, no matter what you think of her, she was a woman of iconic fashion sense. Born Bessie Wallis Warfield in 1896, she was an American socialite, best known and most famous for being the scarlet woman for whom King Edward V111 of England abdicated his throne for in favour of  the woman he loved. As she was a already a divorcee twice over, they could not marry whilst he was still King.
 On 11 December 1936, King Edward announced in a radio broadcast, "I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility, and to discharge my duties as King as I would wish to do, without the help and support of the woman I love."  When they married after his abdication she was given the title Duchess of Windsor, without the fore added Her Royal Highness.

Always a woman of impeccable style and grace, Wallis never looked anything less than glamorous and stylish. Her period photos have always made me stop and catch my breath. No wonder the King fell for her.

The lover's were reunited in France after the King's abdication in 1937, and were married in June of the same year at the Chateau de Cande. The date they took their wedding vows on would have been Edward's father's, King George V's, seventy second birthday leading his Mother Queen Mary to become upset.

Not one member of the British Royal family attended their wedding, where Wallis wore a beautiful Mainbouher wedding dress in a blue, later to become known as the 'Wallis Blue'. Which was designed by Mainboucher, (an American designer from Chicago who stayed on in Paris after the first world war), to supposedly complement her blue eyes. Her hat and gloves were all made of the same matching Wallis blue.
In 1950 Wallis donated her wedding dress to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City), where it is still regarded as one of the most photographed 'royal' wedding dresses.

Looking at another Wedding dress recently in the Ok magazine, I couldn't help but notice how similar it was to Wallis's 1937 dress.

Designed by Sir Paul McCartney's fashion designer daughter, Stella. It is simple, elegant and classic. I love the button detailing on the cuffs and front. I think Stella has taken all the best elements of Mainboucher's earlier 1937 dress and modernized it was a classic twist. Tres chic. xx
This is also Sir Paul's third wedding and was a simple understated affair in the same registry office that he married his first wife Linda Eastman at in Marylebone, London.......this time his recent wedding to Nancy Shevell was on buddy John Lennon's birthday, 9th October.

Heather Mills wedding dress.

Come to think of it, Paul's second wife Heather Mills also had an iconic wedding dress, that looked very much like another wedding dress we saw earlier this year worn by Kate Middleton on her wedding to Prince William. Both were based on the gorgeous and iconic wedding gown of Princess Grace Kelly of Monaco.

Kate Middleton.

Princess Grace Kelly.

It would appear that these vintage Diva's of eras past are just so iconic that their style will always live on. xXx

Total fifties bliss.

That whole full skirted
look.

It's arrived !!! My new fifities underskirt petticoat from flora weddings.....it's arrived!! The postman delivered it today!! Yay!!

It's such a specialized thing to have an underskirt now that you have to get them from Wedding shops or stockists, and it is hard to find knee length or higher ones. Most hoops and skirts are full length, due to the major design of wedding gowns being floor length.

Am really excited! Next I want a bright red one - a bit harder to find, as red isn't the usual colour, but there are some stockists in China I know that will do them in red - because in China red is a lucky colour and many brides marry in traditional red still.

It's a huge thing to house and smells all new and pristine. After a few wears and washes hopefully it won't be so scratchy and flared. It should flatten down a bit whilst still holding that full skirted look. At the moment the petti-skirt is so stiff it can stand on it's own!

The Dress.

Today is our eighteenth Wedding Anniversary! In most weddings one of the main things that the day about is the dress! It has become such a huge part of the day, event and memory. When women ask each other about their weddings most will ask "What dress did you have?" and will want to see photos of it. Some people plan their whole wedding around the dress.

The theme of our wedding was 'As poor as church mice'. Simply because we were starting out life together, I was a student, Mud Boy at the start of his career. We were both on the first run of the ladder, so to speak. I made all the invitiations, the bouquets and hundreds and hundreds of paper church bride and groom mice name places, whilst sat in hospital.

To me, my dress had to reflex who I was - I think most brides feel this way. Some will have childhood visions of the whole day, they will have planned it from a little girl. I never did that. Yet I knew that my dress, needed to be a period dress. One not of this time, but a place where I felt I belonged. From the three periods in history I have the most fascination for, I chose the Regency Georgian dress which suited my figure and size the best.
This period of dress has just the tiniest of material bustles, as the fashion was slowly graduating towards the very early Victorian's with added hoops and padding. My dress had no hoops nor padding, it was as this is a material bustle. The only way in which my dress differed from this one is the sleeves. I had a short summer classic regency sleeve instead of a three quarter length, as we married on the hottest day of the year. An August wedding is almost sure to be hot. But the small train, bustle, neckline and straight skirt with lace trimmings is otherwise correct. None of my wedding photos show my whole dress in such a beautiful or elegant profile as this divine photo - which is why I am showing you this one, which is set against a dark background and quite clearly shows it's fine details. If it weren't for the sleeves this could be the very dress that I wore on our Wedding day.
An odd choice some would say, to marry in a dress style over a hundred's out of date, yet to me it just felt right. I saw the dress and knew it was the one before I had even tried it one and when I did it fit like a glove with no alterations needed. It was as if it had been made for me. I do not believe in coincidences. This was the only dress for me.