Sunny Savoir Faire

Don’t these travel posters for Egypt just make you want to travel?

Created by various artists for a variety of companies including Egyptian State Railways, various hotels and shipping companies they promise us a vacation filled with exotic savoir faire. Enticing us with bright colours and images of a monumental Ancient Egypt, these posters would beckon one from travel agent’s windows of grey European capitals during the winter months. Passers by would stop and dream of sunnier climes and exotic trips across the desert visiting the Pyramids, forgetting their drab surroundings for a couple of minutes of their day.

In this age of computer generated graphics and digital photography I sorely miss examples such as these. Highlighting one of travel’s golden eras these were graphics to be admired and collected.

Is it because today’s traveller has changed in their outlook, that they don’t produce posters like these any more? Or is it a different sort of exotic that leads us to travel?

Spring Narcissus

With the advent of spring, just around the corner, many of us in the Northern Hemisphere are awaiting the prospect of warmer temperatures with anticipation. One sure sign of spring is the first peek of spring bulbs poking their green shoots above the soil after their long winter hibernation.

Spring bulbs of any sort remain some of my most favourite flowers, from the humble crocus which is first, to the highly scented hyacinth, to my favourites of all, the jonquil and the daffodil. Who has not seen fields and fields of wild daffodils in pictures or in real life and not been impressed? Or, who has not smelt the heady scent of its cousin the jonquil and not thought instantly of spring?

No matter what you call them either narcissus or daffodils these flowers signify spring the most to me. There was always what seemed to be an eternal wait after winter to see their green shoots either in pots or clumps in the garden and then for them to grow and bloom in the most wonderful shades of white, yellow and orange.

Narcissus is the botanic name for this genus of mainly hardy, mostly spring-flowering, bulbs in the Amaryllis family native to Europe, North Africa, and Asia. With several 100 different types it is one of the most prolific of spring bulbs.

It is surprising of how many of the spring bulbs whose names have come from or have been inspired by Greek mythology. Hyacinth, crocus, and anemone all have origins steeped in legend and mythology, which appeals to my romantic side. None so more, as the narcissus. Narcissus or Narkissos (Greek: Νάρκισσος), is possibly derived from ναρκη (narke) meaning "sleep or numbness," In Greek mythology Narcissus was a hunter from the territory of Thespiae in Boeotia who was renowned for his beauty. Being exceptionally proud he disdained those who loved him. Nemesis saw this and attracted Narcissus to a pool where he saw his own reflection in the waters and fell in love with it, not realizing it was merely an image. Unable to leave the beauty of his reflection, Narcissus died. Another version has it that he fell into the water and drowned as he tried to embrace his own image. In both versions, the Narcissus plant first sprang from where he died.

The subject of many paintings and artists renderings the legend has served as the inspiration for many, including Carravagio, Waterhouse and Dali with each treating the subject in quite different ways.

Photographs and modern day interpretations also abound of the legend. I am always amazed at how artists take a subject and make it their own, and wish that I had the talent!

However, the myth has also given us Narcissism the personality trait of egotism, vanity, conceit, or simple selfishness, which is something that Savoir Faire does not condone in any form.

Hopefully Spring is being embraced with the bloom of the narcissus in some form!

Russian Re-Birth!

While pondering what I would write about next on Savoir Faire, today after numerous false starts I had finally settled on an historical post that would takes us back to the splendour of Russia before the revolution of 1917. My chosen subject was Prince and Princess Felix Yusupov whose wealth it was said was greater than the Romanovs themselves. The couple had immense savoir faire, and their story is full of luxury, intrigue, near poverty and a mix of scandal. Prince Felix has the dubious distinction of being one of Rasputin’s assassins and Irena was an incredibly ethereal beauty, the only niece of Tsar Nicholas II.

Their story can be read in numerous books, and research on the Internet, which I will let Savoir Faire’s readers do for themselves.

Of course I got sidetracked and stumbled on Irfé, something I had forgotten about. While in exile in Paris the Yusupovs founded a short-lived couture house Irfé, named after the first two letters of their first names. The fact that the prince had played a part in the death of Rasputin added to the house’s cachet in the late 1920’s. Irina modeled some of the dresses the pair and other designers at the firm created. But the prince had little business sense, and two years after the 1929 Wall Street crash ruined his most prosperous clients, the Yusupov’s were forced to close Irfé.

Only two of the house's original creations are known to survive, as many American clients used to clip the labels out of the dresses they bought in Paris in the hope of evading customs duties.

After being closed for over eighty years the House of Irfé reopened again in 2008 and is now located on the Rue de Fauborg Saint-Honore in Paris, under the direction of creative director Olga Sorokina. "The story of this house is a part of Russia's history and heritage," Sorokina, has said of Irfé.

Sorokina said she was drawn to the label after reading "Beauty in Exile," fashion historian's Alexandre Vassiliev's account of the artists, models and nobility who fled the Russian revolution and influenced the world of fashion. She contacted Xenia Sphiris, the granddaughter of the founders, who agreed to a re-launch of the brand. The re-launch of Irfé is testament to the growing purchasing power of Russia's new rich, who have joined the exclusive coterie of haute couture clients in recent years.

All this aside I like the fact that Sorokina is not resting on or drawing on the faded glory of a forgotten label, but designing fresh new clothes that are perfectly suited to the clients they wish to serve. These are modern clothes for the under 20 something, who is rich and has money to spend. Maybe the new rising Russian rich?

“We want to be Russian but modern, respecting our origins but not caught in the past,” explained Sorokina. This season, Sorokina showed modernist architectural lines, employing protective finishes and complementing looks with lustre detailing. There were great astrakhan biker blousons with cut off sleeves, and wonderful sculptural skirts and dresses. The clothes were also practical – with natty leather biker pants for a woman on the move and precise cashmere knits for the more active customer.

Other elements to impress were the fine high-heels and ankle-boots, made in snake-skin or leather and bags finished with Royal crowns and violet interiors, all the better to sum up the posh Tsarist rocker mood of this collection.

The Woman with the Golden Gun

We have all heard of The Man with the Golden Gun, with James Bond, well not to be left out you too can call the shots with these ‘golden guns’ from Dutch jewellery designer and artist Ted Noten.

Ted Noten born in 1956 in The Netherlands had a rather chequered career in which he was in turn a bricklayer, a nurse in a psychiatric hospital and a traveller for 3 years, until he decided to study design and aren’t we glad he did!

Basically works of art, the collection of handbags below are fabulous. Rich in symbolism of spies and glamour, they question the preconceived notion of what is carried in a woman’s purse. What is luxurious and fashionable on the outside might have a dark and sinister secret lurking on the inside. So gentleman, be careful as your femme fatale might be hiding a few secrets in her handbag!