Saturday, June 25, 2011

Hello Hollywood!

I was born in New York City, the Bronx. My brother was born in Manhattan, we moved to Los Angeles the summer I turned 6 years old. Mind you, I wouldn't have escaped my love of Hollywood glamour and film if we hadn't have moved here. I recall coming home from elementary school to the KCET Movie Matinee. My first memory of watching a classic film was from about 2nd or 3rd grade. I came home to my mother who gave me a snack and introduced me to Bette Davis. We watched Of Human Bondage and that pretty much says all you need to know about me....

I love Debbie Reynolds. From Tammy films, Singing in the Rain, the Singing Nun and the Unsinkable Molly Brown she is fabulous! Not to mention I loved her time on television show Will and Grace: Perfection. I love that she admits to having had her share of issues, I love that she forgave Liz Taylor for stealing her husband, and I love her most because she had the vision to keep and catalog the costumes that make up the visual wanderlust we call Hollywood. She personally salvaged wardrobes and props from studios in the last near 40 years including FOX and  MGM according to the Associated Press.

Debbie Reynolds still bright and beautiful with some of her collection. Associated Press Photo


Associated Press Photo

Sadly, no one stepped up to create  the museum of hollywood costumes, that Ms. Reynolds envisioned which has lead to one of the most amazing private hollywood memorabilia collections for sale. You probably have already heard about 4.6 million dollars paid for Marilyn Monroe's Subway dress from The Seven Year Itch. How about the 3.7 million for Audrey Hepburn's beautiful black and white ascot dress from My fair Lady? These figures do not including fees of nearing a million dollars to auction house, Profiles in History. All of the images below are from the Profiles in History Debbie Reynolds Auction catalog. The catalog is available for download here. Isn't that wonderful!

Below some of my favorite catalog picks and movie moments through costume. Feel free to share yours and comment dolls!

"Cleopatra" Claudet Colbert

"Wizard of Oz" Emerald City Jacket 



"The Sound of Music" Julie Andrews
"Gigi" Leslie Caron

"Stormy Weather" Lena Horne
"Blood and Sand" Rudolph Valentino


Custom tailored High School Graduation Dress, 1956 for Natalie Wood

Thursday, June 23, 2011

NYC - Curvy in the Blog-O-Sphere Rocked!


Courtney Williams

I am in love with Courtney Williams founder of Sweet Roll Entertainment for putting together a New and Aspiring Bloggers Workshop, "Curvy in the Blog-O-Sphere". An event absolutely worth traveling 3,000 miles for. Fabulous curvy women with great ideas, talent and lots of humor endeavored to be better in the blog-o-sphere. Courtney lead a fabulous discussion and exercises to sharpen our skills and become more 'well rounded' in subject matter, focusing ourselves and our purpose!
Alicia Goodwin Rockin Lingua Nigra

Selenia Moore

Knickie D!

Nikki "BeDecadent" Buchanan

I was flanked by Alicia Goodwin the designer behind my new favorite jewelry line, Lingua Nigra; Selenia "CT Diva" Moore, Stylist and Blogger of Better than Average a great resource blog offering reviews on Boutiques and products serving Curvy women!; and Knickie D a jounalist, Spoken Word poet and natural born stylist, her smart savvy socio-political take on fashion, relationships and pop culture can be heard on Reverbnation or check out her blog. We were treated to an interview with Nikki Buchanan, independent Fashion Artist of Decadent Industries a colorful line of body conscious leggings tops and dresses as well as body products. We were all happily gifted a sample of Nikki B's amazing Mango shea butter that I have been using ever since. More to come on that interview with Nikki B!

Curvy Bloggers!
Along with the opportunity to interview Nikki B and Courtney herself we spent a lot of time on who we each are as bloggers, who we serve, becoming savvy about platform, hosting, tagging posts, external feeds and subscriber tools. We also focused on some blogger basics like staying current, creating a dialogue, and of course being uniquely yourself! I received so many excellent suggestions and ideas and am grateful to have met so many fabulous women. Thanks again to Courtney and at Linger Lounge in Brooklyn who hosted us.

The event was fantastic and I will probably have to make another trip east for one of Sweet Roll Entertainment's upcoming events by years end!