The World’s Oldest Obsession

I have always believed that you should dress for success at work. I think appearance is important and that is why I spend hours blowdrying, making up and dressing the best that I can for my line of work. Plus, I work in the beauty industry so it is even more important that I represent my brand the best way that I can. Many people disagree with me. A lot of people spend the entire day at their desk and rarely see the sun, so does it really matter what they are wearing?

If they want to be successful, then I think it does. In a new CareerBuilder.com survey, 41 percent of employers said that people who dress better or more professionally tend to be promoted more often than others in their organization. According to the survey, dressing professionally is more important in some industries than it is in others. Financial services is one industry that places the most emphasis on professional work attire. Fifty-five percent of workers in this sector say well-dressed employees are more likely to be promoted than others. An additional 51 percent of sales representatives say the same thing about the likelihood of promotions in their industry.

Many Royals believed this as well and dressed in the finest fabrics that money could buy. Kings and Queens used clothing to define their status, their maginificance and their wealth.The textiles provided for the pattern of royal coronations, marriages and funerals. In addition the cut, construction of garments, materials and colors expressed a person’s hierarchy at court. King Henry VIII spent lavishly on his wardrobe and never appeared without wearing the finest silks, furs, wool, jewels and leather.

His grandfather, King Henry VI was a different story. King Henry VI was the only heir to the great King Henry V and great things were expected of him. He ruled from 1422 till 1461 and went on to marry the very beautiful and very French Margaret of Anjou. During his reign, he lost most of the English territories in France that his father won in battle.

Henry was a good man and very spiritual, but he just wasn’t “King Material”. And by the way he dressed, it showed. He was kind, generous and didn’t want to make war with his fellow Christians. He was “really nice” but that wasn’t good enough to rule the most powerful country in the land. He didn’t dress the part either. He avoided dressing like a King. Most of the time, he appeared in public unshaven and in ripped gowns. His shoes had holes in them and many times, his council was embarrassed to attend formal events with him. He never washed his clothing and looked like a homeless person. He was also one of the worst rulers in British history…

I have spent the past two days resting and recovering after one of the best New Years Eve’s that I have ever had.  I had so much fun, but I am exhausted. I could have never survived a night with Georgiana Cavendish, The Duchess of Devonshire. Last year, when I read The Duchess by Amanda Foreman, I learned about the fabulous and tumultuous life of Georgina Cavendish, but I also learned about her non-stop partying and destructive lifestyle.  

The Duke and Duchess entertained at the Devonshire House in London almost every day and night. During the day, the Devonshire House was THE center of Whig politics, a place for the most important politicians to meet socially and professionally. During one of the Duchess’s lying-in periods at the end of a pregnancy one ambassador complained that he was unable to conduct his business as he could not meet those politicians that he wanted to because he could not casually come across them as he was used to at The Devonshire House parties. In the evenings, Georgiana was known to turn her enormous home into a casino, complete with professional dealers and banks more than willing to lend money to London’s elite. 

According to author of The Duchess, “These were very serious gamblers”, says Foreman. “People threw up from the stress. You imagine ladies playing cards like in a Jane Austen novel, very sedate, but in fact, they were doing very heavy gambling. ” Georgiana’s game of choice was called faro. “Faro is a game of chance, essentially, with no skill involved,” explains Foreman. “You bet against the bank, and the bank almost always wins. Georgiana became addicted to the game, and it was very tragic in the end. She would let the bankers set up in her drawing room in exchange for a percentage of the profits. But of course Georgiana was so addicted that she would gamble too, and end up basically getting a percentage of her own losses back”.

A typical night for Georgiana, Foreman explained began with: “They would begin the evening with a great feast, and then they would go to the opera, watch perhaps the first three acts, and then go back to someone’s house and feast again. They would eat lots of game: venison, sides of beef. They drank enormous amounts, wine mostly, this claret that British love, red wine. They would eat at seven, and then again at midnight.

On waking they assemble in one of their rooms, and between eleven and twelve retire to the Music Room and crowd around the Pianoforte that each in her turn may have the pleasure of refusing to sing or play. . . . the moment that [supper] is brought in, everybody hastens to begin the day’s amusements and repairs to whist, chess, backgammon, billiards, according to their fancies’ direction. In the course of a few hours, the supper being sufficiently cooled, the Duke invites his friends to partake of the genial Board; every one presses eagerly for a place, especially those who do not sup. The Ladies sip by turns cowslip wine, punch, or cherry syrup, take their leave, and spend the remainder of the night in confidential discourse, dividing into small parties of two and three for this purpose, and then leaving the supper room, and separating for the night, as the Housemaids begin to twirl their mops and open the shutters to the sunshine.

[Except taken from Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman]

Perfume has become an essential part of our daily lives. Think of your typical day and all the different smell sensations that you experience, your shampoo, soap, food, your clothing. We have all grown up with so many scents and we take it for granted. There was a time when fragrance was a very rare and expensive treasure. People are essentially visually oriented, and dependent on sight and sound to gather information from the surroundings.”Smell” however is a remarkable sense. You can’t see it but it is one of the most powerful senses that we have. Since it is closely linked to the limbic system (seat of emotions and the functions of memory), it has the power above all other senses to instantly transport us, to past times or pervade our psyche to change our mood. The very word perfume is derived from the Latin perfumum, meaning ‘by’ or ‘through’ smoke, as it was with the use of burning incense that the prayers of the ancients were transported to the heavens for the contemplations of the Gods. The use of fragrances developed within the four great centuries of culture in
China, India, Egypt and Mesopotamia, and was extended in the elite societies of Greece, Palestine, Rome, Persia and Arabia. The great world religions of Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and Zoroastroism employ fragrance in pursuance of their faiths. This means that religion and pleasure have always been the main drivers in the phenomenal growth of perfume usage throughout the centuries.

Perfume has been used for many reasons from hiding the scent of decay during the Black Death of 1347 to combat the foul smell of prisons, hospitals and ships, but since this blog is only about the royals, I will focus on that. If you have any questions and want to know more, just make a comment or send me an email.

Roman emperors used perfume to excess. Nero and his wife Poppeae had ‘perfumed plumbing’ in their palaces. They also had false ceilings designed to drop flower petals onto dinner guests and scented doves which fragranced the air with perfumed wings. When Poppeae died, Nero burned a whole year’s supply of incense on her funeral pyre. Empress Zoë of Constantinople had employed court perfumers. From there the practice spread, with The Normans throwing flowers onto the floors of castles and churches to keep the air fragrant.

In 1573 Edward de vere, Earl of Oxford, brought Elizabeth I not only scented sachets, but he also brought her perfumed gloves. Around this time the first books and manuscripts describing perfumery techniques surfaced, and court perfumers became common. When Catherine de Medici (1519-1589) traveled to France to marry King Henry II, she brought two perfumers with her. Nostradamus, the personal astrologer of Catherine de Medici, was known to inhale smoke and incense as part of his preparations for prophesying.

Royal History is filled with examples of famous Kings and Queens and their perfumed preferences: Henry III was said to have fallen head over heels in love with Mary of Cleves after breathing the odor of her just removed clothing. Henry IV of France once reputedly wrote to his mistress Gabrielle d’Estree, ‘Don’t wash my love, I will be in home in eight days’. The French kings and their courts greatly indulged the use of fragrance, Louis XIII favoring neroli, based on orange blossom, and Louis XIV,the Sun King ,with his mistress Madame de Montespan, compounded his own fragrances. Louis XV spent a lot of money on ‘La Cour Parfumee’(the perfumed court) with his mistress Madame de Pompadour and Madame du Barry, where even the fountains poured fragranced water.

Mean while, over in England, Charles I (1600-1649) employed Neil Gwynne as his fragrant advisor and Charles II (1630-1685) was educated in the aromatic arts by Catherine of Braganza. Perfume rings, pomanders and vinaigrettes gave new ways to perfume the air, much needed since the strong smell of valerian musk and civet was needed to hide the lack of personal hygiene which existed at the time.

Napoleon Bonaparte loved aromas; he liked citrus and herbal smells, and was known to use several bottles a day! During the Victorian era, wearing of perfume was strictly controlled but Queen Victoria wore shawls soaked in patchouli, imbuing a rich woody fragrance to the garment.

By the way, for those that don’t know this, Napoleon wasn’t really short; he was actually the average height for his time period.

While everyone was focusing on Jennifer Aniston’s “uncool” comments in the December issue of Vogue, I was all wrapped up in velvet, corsets and silk. Famed photographer, Annie Leibovitz, shot a 14 page editorial based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet called ‘Love of a Lifetime’ and it was just gorgeous.

The editorial featured Italian classical ballet dancer, Roberto Bolle and supermodel Coca Rocha in elaborate and over-the-top clothing, which was the standard during the 16th century. 

Clothes were decorated with heavy embroidery and decorated with jewels, rich fabrics and pearls. The women that could afford this clothing were fortunate, but not comfortable and their clothes were tight, hot and unbearable. Since, the Elizabethan era was a society divided by class, clothing provided an immediate way of distinguishing ‘Who was Who’ and which class system they belonged to. This was not just the norm, this was called the Sumptuary Laws. These laws provided strict clothing guidelines in order to limit the expenditure by people on clothes - and of course to maintain the social structure of the Elizabethan Class system. Queen Elizabeth I continued to use the Sumptuary Laws, just as her father and sister had done before her. Elizabethan Sumptuary Laws dictated what color and type of clothing individuals were allowed to own and wear, an easy and immediate way to identify rank and privilege. The penalties for violating Sumptuary Laws could be harsh - fines, the loss of property, title and even life. For example, only Royalty could wear purple silk. Gold clothing could be worn by the Queen, Queen’s mother, children, sisters and aunts together with Duchesses, Marquises, and Countesses but was not allowed to be worn by Viscountesses, baronesses, and other personages of like degrees.

In Greenwich on June 15, 1574 Queen Elizabeth I enforced some new Sumptuary Laws called the ‘Statutes of Apparel’.  I researched everywhere and finally found those laws and copied them below:

None shall wear

Any cloth of gold, tissue, nor fur of sables: except duchesses, marquises, and countesses in their gowns, kirtles, partlets, and sleeves; cloth of gold, silver, tinseled satin, silk, or cloth mixed or embroidered with gold or silver or pearl, saving silk mixed with gold or silver in linings of cowls, partlets, and sleeves: except all degrees above viscountesses, and viscountesses, baronesses, and other personages of like degrees in their kirtles and sleeves.

Velvet (crimson, carnation); furs (black genets, lucerns); embroidery or passment lace of gold or silver: except all degrees above mentioned, the wives of knights of the Garter and of the Privy Council, the ladies and gentlewomen of the privy chamber and bedchamber, and maids of honor.

None shall wear any velvet in gowns, furs of leopards, embroidery of silk: except the degrees and persons above mentioned, the wives of barons’ sons, or of knights.

Cowls, sleeves, partlets, and linings, trimmed with spangles or pearls of gold, silver, or pearl; cowls of gold or silver, or of silk mixed with gold or silver: except the degrees and persons above mentioned; and trimmed with pearl, none under the degree of baroness or like degrees.

Enameled chains, buttons, aglets, and borders: except the degrees before mentioned.

Satin, damask, or tufted taffeta in gowns, kirtles, or velvet in kirtles; fur whereof the kind groweth not within the Queen’s dominions, except foins, grey genets, bodge, and wolf: except the degrees and persons above mentioned, or the wives of those that may dispend £100 by the year and so valued in the subsidy book.

Gowns of silk grosgrain, doubled sarcenet, camlet, or taffeta, or kirtles of satin or damask: except the degrees and persons above mentioned, and the wives of the sons and heirs of knights, and the daughters of knights, and of such as may dispend 300 marks by the year so valued ut supra, and the wives of those that may dispend £40 by the year.

Gentlewomen attendant upon duchesses, marquises, countesses may wear, in their liveries given them by their mistresses, as the wives of those that may dispend £100 by the year and are so valued ut supra.

None shall wear any velvet, tufted taffeta, satin, or any gold or silver in their petticoats: except wives of barons, knights of the order, or councilors’ ladies, and gentlewomen of the privy chamber and bed chamber, and the maids of honor.

Damask, taffeta, or other silk in their petticoats: except knights’ daughters and such as be matched with them in the former article, who shall not wear a guard of any silk upon their petticoats.

Velvet, tufted taffeta, satin, nor any gold or silver in any cloak or safeguard: except the wives of barons, knights of the order, or councilor’s ladies and gentlewomen of the privy chamber and bedchamber, and maids of honor, and the degrees above them.

Damask, taffeta, or other silk in any cloak or safeguard: except knights’ wives, and the degrees and persons above mentioned.

No persons under the degrees above specified shall wear any guard or welt of silk upon any petticoat, cloak, or safeguard.

Marie Antoinette and other 18^th century royals were known for their sky-high headdress and grandiose wardrobes. Historic paintings and etchings show how women extended themselves vertically with wigs, hair pads, pomades, dust and other items such as navy warships, flowers and animals. 

It is even reported that once a woman had a three-foot creation upon her head that included a birdcage with a live, chirping bird inside. During this time, the potato, yes the potato, was feared to cause leprosy. In fact, the royals banned the potato from Burgundy, France in 1619. It took a soldier and some pomade to make the potato en vogue again.

A French chemist named Antoine August Parmentier served in the Seven Years War and lived off of potatoes while in captivity in Prussia. After a while, he began to love the spawned spud and when he returned to France, he made it his mission to introduce it back into French society. Parmentier was well connected and one night, he brought King Louis XVI a bouquet of potato flowers. 

Knowing how much his wife, Marie Antoinette, loved to dress her hair with flowers and vegetables, he gave her the bouquet and sure enough she put the potato flowers in her hair for a big event. Immediate after that, potato flowers became the latest fashion accessory. Parmeniter was a PR genius and started to create lavish potato dinners for men like Benjamin Franklin and Antoine Lavoisier. Parmeniter continued to promote the potato and soon he was granted permission to plant an acre of potatoes in the French countryside. He was a smart guy and instructed guards to watch over his crops knowing that the poor would steal the crops after the guards went home. Soon potatoes were being planted all over France and became one of France’s biggest exports.

Love her or hate her but you must admit that Anne Boleyn shook up 16^th century England and changed the course of religious history forever. If you don’t know anything about her, just know that she was the second and most famous wife of Henry VIII, who divorced his first wife, Katherine of Aragon, in order to marry her and produce a male heir. While being married to Henry for about 1000 days, she managed to get Henry excommunicated from the Catholic Church, had several miscarriages and eventually was beheaded for incest, adultery and treason (these crimes have never been proven).  During her marriage, she also managed to give birth to a baby girl who grew up to be one of the most powerful English Monarchs in history, Queen Elizabeth I. At this time in history, the ideal woman had light hair, fair skin, and a voluptuous figure. Anne was the complete opposite and was an exotic young woman who was very thin with dark eyes and long dark hair. She was also very confident, witty, intelligent and extremely talented at music and dance. Men loved her and women wanted to be like her because she created her own special style by adopting French fashions and customs into English court life. Everything she did was unusual for a woman at that time, including playing cards and winning money off everyone, even the king. Anne was a fashion icon and one of her most precious accessories was her very famous “B” necklace. 

This pendent was so distinctive and became her trademark. I have read a lot about Anne and many historians claim that Anne wore this necklace to cover a large mole on her neck. There are also reports that Anne had moles, warts, extra fingers but people who tried to prove that she was a witch probably fabricated these stories. No one knows what happened to this necklace but the trend still lives on today and you can see the same necklace on Ugly Betty and in the most recent Winter catalogue from Anthropologie. You can also order your own exact replica from Parish Relics for $192, click here for more information- love, drama and murder not included. 

Prince Charles’ 60^th birthday was on Friday and last night he celebrated with celebrities, family, friends, comedians, artists and writers at his party in Gloucestershire.

This may be the longest time someone has trained for their future role and it doesn’t look like he will get the job soon because Queen Elizabeth, who is 82, is very healthy and very active. 

I will write about her soon, but I want to use this blog to write about the original Elizabeth, Queen Elizabeth I. Where do I begin…I will probably cover Queen Elizabeth in many posts because there is so much to write about her. For now, I am going to skip her terrible childhood and her life as a prisoner ( by Queen Mary, her sister!)  and just focus on a time in her life when she was a strong, powerful Queen and a fashion icon in the 16th century.

When it came to fashion, Queen Elizabeth was just as grandiose as her father, King Henry VIII. She definitely spoiled herself with silks, satins and jewels for all of those years being deprived as a child, but she also used her style for political reasons. She wore luxurious and ornate dresses but the most impressive thing was that she organized and documented every item of clothing she had. She documented the types of fabrics, who she got the fabric from, the amounts of fabrics, embellishments, costs, dates, she even wrote down what the dresses were used for. Because of Elizabeth’s fashion diary, we know what fashion was like during Elizabethian England.

Elizabeth also influenced beauty. She had fiery red hair and soon red hair became in fashion. Women wanted to have red hair, so they used a powder made of sulfur and safflower petals to color their hair. This was a dangerous concoction and caused headaches, nausea, and frequent nosebleeds.  Below is a photo of Cate Blanchett as Queen Elizabeth I.

        

During this time, the ideal woman had a pale and very white complexion. Poor women worked outside and had a sun-kissed look so the whiter the complexion, the richer and more noble a woman was. In order to exaggerate this look, the wealthy and noble used a mixture of white lead and vinegar. Unfortunately, this was a deadly and poisonous mixture…

Everyone is talking about Angelina winning an Oscar for her performance,but I think the fashion and beauty deserves an Academy Award. Ladylike glamour, red red red lips, dropped-waisted dresses, finger waves, and it wasn’t just the women either. Men wore thick wool suits, knickers and long socks. Even the casual looks were formal and very beautiful.

Josephine Baker and Louise Brooks were just two of the biggest style influencers and since movies were becoming an established medium, celebrities spread their style to everyone.

The chemise replaced the corset and for the first time in history, legs were uncovered! Some other interesting facts about this period:

• It was very chic to apply lipstick in public  
• Clara Bow was the “It Girl” 
• Cosmetic companies started to advertise  
• Jean Patou invented suntan oil in 1927 
• Favorite magazines of the decade were Vogue, Harpers and Life  

All of my good friends know that I am OBSESSED with the Royal families of England, France and Spain. Their influence, style, fashion was so important and I will spend 90% of my time writing about it. So of course, I must talk about Wallis Simpson and her influence on beauty culture. Wallis Simpson was the American divorcee who created a crisis in the UK. The King fell in love with her and was abdicated in December 1936 so that he could marry her.

The Royal family despised her and people were fascinated with her. She wasn’t as beaiutiful or brillitant as Grace Kelly but she had a major influence on style. She wasn’t exactly a role model, but she was a style icon… She is also the woman who said ‘a woman can never be too rich or too thin’. She was elegant and simple but added spunk with color, exotic materials, and accessories. She knew what looked good on her and even had her dresses created with complicated infrastructures that prevented the fabric from moving without her. She was also the woman who wore hot pants to cha cha in Paris. Did I mention that she was in her 70’s when she did that?