Revisited Savoir Faire

An old friend of Savoir Faire is rather upset with me at the moment. A regular feature on Savoir Faire in the early days she feels as if she has been forgotten. I keep reassuring her that that is not the case, and that I do think of her at least once a day. However to please her vanity I am going to write about her again (even if some of it is old material, for some of my newer readers) just to appease her, as believe me I do not want to get onto her bad side, which for me would be social suicide.

To quote “There are no ugly women, only lazy ones” she was an autocrat in her world and had more savoir faire than us mere mortals good ever hope to achieve. For me Helena Rubinstein was the epitome of personal style and savoir faire.

As one of the world’s richest women she used to be seen scurrying down Park Avenue in New York to her office carrying a brown paper bag filled with the remains of the previous night’s chicken for lunch.

She entertained lavishly whether it be in her penthouse in New York overlooking Central Park or in her apartment in Paris. Even when entertaining or being entertained she became somewhat notorious for apocryphal quips. On one occasion when a rather inebriated French ambassador expressed vitriol towards Edith Sitwell and her brother Sacheverell: “Vos ancêtres ont brûlé Jeanne d’Arc!” “What did he say?" Madame, who knew little French, asked a guest. “He said, ‘Your ancestors burned Joan of Arc” Madame quickly replied, "Well, someone had to do it."

Her main rivals including Charles Revson (the founder of Revlon) were not immune either. Revson who built his fortune on nail polish was always referred to as “That Nail Man”.

Elizabeth Arden was a different matter , not only was she a woman, the two never met even though their offices were practically next door to each other. To get back at each other they regularly poached each other’s staff with Madame even hiring Arden’s ex-husband at one stage.

Early one morning 1964, three burglars entered Madame Helena Rubinstein’s Manhattan apartment while she was still in bed and demanded her jewellery collection, which was reputed to be valued at over one million dollars. First of all the intruders would have been amazed at Madame Rubinstein’s lucite furnitured bedroom. Long before Philip Stark made the ghost chair famous, Rubinstein had a whole room of the stuff. This included an illuminated bed specially made that would fit her short frame.

Over ninety years old, Rubinstein refused, saying they could shoot her. Unnerved, the robbers left with only $200 in cash, which one of them had found in her handbag. With her quick wit and just plain courage she told two of the burglars that they had better make sure that they got their share of the $200.

Three hours later Madame, emerged from the building immaculately attired in Balenciaga, a Hermes scarf tied around the handle of her handbag and one of her signature bowler hats on her head and headed off for a day at the office. Mind you this was only after driving around the block in her limousine to compose herself. Still you have to admire her courage and her savoir faire as any other 93 year old would have probably died of fright when confronted with 3 gun wielding intruders or emerged still clad in their housecoat, too upset to do anything let alone spend a day at the office!

So dear Madame, I hope you have forgiven me!

Sinful Scented Sunday

With not a serpent in sight Parfums Weil for their Cobra fragrance are relying on subtle suggestion to get their message across.

Here we have an apple hanging from branches sprouting from the bottle of perfume imitating the Tree of Life. Cobra the said perfume takes the place of the serpent tempting Eve or in this case the modern woman of the 1940’s to take a few risks. The caption “Eve had been warned” is not necessarily a warning but a dare, in which if anything went wrong Eve could blame her perfume as she would not be responsible!

So will you be tempted and who are you going to blame?

Exercise Your Savoir Faire

Over here at Savoir Faire we are firm believers in exercise and staying healthy. With busy work schedules, and private lives, I always manage to try and eat healthy and to also exercise by going to the gym and walking whenever I can to wherever I have to go.

This is fine you might say, however I just don’t have the time, and what do I wear to the gym while still remaining stylish!

Our problem has been solved by the stylish young man below, who chooses to work out at the office with some low impact exercises to give him that edge before that important meeting that is on his agenda.

But I wanted lanvin!

Here I go breaking rules again by posting a video to Savoir Faire. However this time it is not the airlines that are making me break the rules, but Lanvin! If you are going to break rules you might as well do them with Savoir Faire!

H&M and Lanvin have finally released a preview of the collection due to hit stores on November 23rd.

"I have said in the past that I would never do a mass-market collection, but what intrigued me was the idea of H&M going luxury rather than Lanvin going public," he said in a statement. "A designer's work is usually tailored to a very small group of people, but the collection for H&M was about trying to translate the dream of luxury to the masses.

With the current trend for mini movies for perfume and fashion launches (think Halston Heritage here) this video does not disappoint. The collection designed for different age groups and price ranges will give people the opportunity for a bit of Lanvin Savoir Faire! I know that I will be lining up!

Who's a Pretty Boy Then?

I am sure that most of us are familiar with Oscar Wilde’s masterpiece (and only full length novel published) The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Having had his portrait painted Dorian a man of extreme beauty, realizes that one day his beauty will fade while the portrait will remain the same. The artist, Basil also becomes infatuated with Dorian, believing him to be responsible for a new direction in his art. Carelessly Dorian expresses a desire to sell his soul to ensure that his portrait would age rather than himself. Dorian’s wish is fulfilled, embarking him on a journey of hedonism and debauchery. The portrait serves as a reminder of the effect each act has upon his soul, with each sin displayed as a disfigurement of his form, or through a sign of aging.

This classic novel with themes of Faust, Hedonism, Good, Evil, Aestheticism and duplicity has been the subject of many interpretations since published, from movies (3 I can think of), graphic novels, and ballet.

I also appreciate that fact that artists. Writers, musicians and choreographers take on the challenge of re-interpretating classic works. Such is the case with Matthew Bourne’s ballet Dorian Gray. The ballet premiered at the 2008 Edinburgh Festival, and became the most successful dance production in the Festival’s 62 year history.

Updating to a modern day setting with the artist becoming a photographer and our protagonist being a poster boy for perfume, the ballet manipulates our idea of image as applicable to the 21st century, which is a huge social aspect of the times we live in.

“What happens when attention is drawn to you through the camera or through a portrait?” Bourne asks. “A lot of people want to be your friend and give you things and celebrate you in a way that’s unreal. Yes, it feeds your vanity and opens doors but it comes with a price.”

Bourne also emphasizes the homo erotic undertones of the novel. “Undertones? It’s absolutely obvious what is going on and Wilde is pushing me to go farther. I’ve also changed the sex of a couple of the characters.” So Sybil, the actress who captures Dorian’s eye in the novel, becomes a male ballet dancer; while Lord Henry, the corrupting influence, is transformed into a powerful female magazine editor.

Definitely something with savoir faire don’t you think, albeit a bit concerning?

Scottish Savoir Faire in White

Way before Syrie Maughan (God Bless her) was shocking the established rules of decorating in the 1920’s and 30’s with her all white colour schemes there was Charles Rennie Mackintosh! Major exponent of the arts and crafts movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, he is more so remembered for his designs and less so than for his colour palette. Whereas we generally associated the Arts And Crafts movement with dark woods and liberty style prints, Mackintosh threw all this out the window when designing overall schemes.

The primary use of white in Mackintosh’s schemes was a radical departure for the day. He created light and airy spaces that counteracted the gloom of the Britain that was lurking outside his stained glass windows. A prime example of this predominately white colour scheme is still in evidence in the Willow Tree Tearooms in Glasgow Scotland. We see the typical hallmarks of Mackintosh in the high backed chairs and small solid blocks of colour used as decoration, adding to the starkness and the linear approach to design.


He was then able to use the smaller blocks of colour, such as in the cut-out of lampshades etc for a visual grounding. These were repeated to give rooms and schemes a sense of continuity. Any sort of focal point of a room wasn’t emphasised by colour, but by sculptural forms in white, illustrated in the designs below for a music room. Everyday things like fireplaces and pianos were given this sculptural treatment.







If white was not the main colour of decoration and wood was used, white or off white was usually included in the floor covering to give the sense that the furniture was floating in space


For the time and period Mackintosh’s work was groundbreaking. The Victorian era was characterised with heavy dark sombre carved furniture and equally gloomy interiors stuffed full of all manner of objects. Mackintosh’s schemes and decorations were a radical departure from this doom and gloom, to light airy spaces that influenced designers for now more than a century.

The great thing is that you can still see Mackintosh’s work in Glasgow today at the Willow Tree Tearooms or at the Hunterian Art Gallery, where some of these interiors have been preserved.

Dueling Mondays

The idea of upholding your honour if you are gentleman by fighting a duel is a very romantic and rather impractical notion. Literally an engagement in combat between two gentlemen with matched weapons and the faithful representative of each, the goal of the honourable duel was usually as a matter of challenge of the champion which developed out of the desire of one party (the challenger) to redress a perceived insult to his sovereign's honour. It was fought not so much to kill the opponent as to gain "satisfaction", that is, to restore one's honour by demonstrating a willingness to risk one's life for it. And in a lot of cases a woman was involved.
So whatever you are dueling with this Monday, have a week full of savoir faire!