She Took to her Bed

Countess Mona Von Bismarck perhaps one of the most beautiful women in the world and one of the wealthiest for her time had her fair share of savoir fair. Collecting husbands like they were stamps and continuously on the world’s best dressed list she was a style icon to be reckoned with, becoming a Countess when she married one of Bismarck’s grandsons.

When Cristobal Balenciaga closed his atelier in 1968, Diana Vreeland quipped that Mona didn't leave her bedroom in the villa at Capri for three days.

When she was 74 she married Umberto de Martini who was 14 years her junior much to the worry of her friends . Through her old friend, Italy’s exiled King Umberto II, Mona purchased a title for him and he was created Count Umberto de Martini on 10 January 1973. 1979, Mona’s last husband was killed when the sports car he was driving careened off a bridge Inevitably Mona’s friends referred to the accident as “Martini on the rocks.” His will made it evident that he had planned to outlive her and inherit her fortune. Having told her that he was opening a clinic, he had already pocketed $3 million in a Swiss bank account and made bequests to an embarrassing number of relatives of whom Mona was unaware. She quickly dropped his name and resumed calling herself “Countess Bismarck.”

Mona’s old friend Cecil Beaton visited her at Capri later in life and was shocked to find that all traces of her famous beauty had left her. “She is now suddenly a wreck. Her hair, once white and crisp and a foil to her aquamarine eyes, is now a little dried frizz, and she has painted a grotesque mask on the remains of what was once such a noble-hewn face, the lips enlarged like a clown, the eyebrows penciled with thick black grease paint, the flesh down to the pale lashes coated with turquoise… Oh, my heart broke for her.”

Mona spent her last years putting her affairs in order and making arrangements for various paintings to be disbursed to institutions of her choosing. On 10 July 1983, she died at her house in Paris. She was buried in a Givenchy gown with her third and fourth husbands, Harrison Williams and Count Eddie von Bismarck, at Glen Cove on Long Island.

What a way to go!

In the Swim with Savoir Faire

Savoir Faire is enchanted with the below pictures courtesy of Michael Muller. We are all so used to seeing underwater fashion editorial pictures of women, so it is nice to see a fashion shoot with men submerged in the ocean.

I am loving the colour range in these photos, with the cool blueness of the water being mirrored in the clothes chosen for the shoot. In this case white and yellow are chosen to create that “pop” of colour (so to speak).

The models themselves take on an ethereal look which is something that is usually reserved for women, creating a beguiling soft hue, which tempts one to look closer. The shaft of sunlight penetrating the liquid coolness highlights this.

So get in the swim with some savoir faire hoping we look as good as these young men.

Lest we Forget

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

"In Flanders Fields" is one of the most notable poems written during World War I.

The poppies referred to in the poem grew in profusion in Flanders in the disturbed earth of the battlefields and cemeteries where war casualties were buried and thus became a symbol of Remembrance Day.

Modern public readings of the poem, stress the debt to the dead and the necessity to honor their memory in ceremonies often focusing on the sacrifice and sorrow of war.

As a symbol of remembrance the humble Flanders poppy is one of the most beautiful and recognised. With a simple little gesture of wearing a poppy we give a sign that they are not forgotten. This little poppy has been the source of design inspiration for many as seen below. While being essentially graphic in nature I cannot help but look at any of these and think of Flanders and all those that sacrificed themselves in war and will do so in the future.

Let us remember them everyday and not just on November 11th.

Some Savoir Faire We Cannot do Without!

Bronwen Pugh, top model of the late 1950’s, the daughter of a Knight of the Realm, the muse of Pierre Balmain here was a girl who just reeked savoir faire!


Born Bronwen Pugh the daughter of Sir John Alun Pugh, she was the forerunner of today's supermodels in the 1950’s. Possessing such an unusual beauty people were really not sure what to make of her. The world of haute couture was decidedly shocked when Pierre Balmain, (the epitome of glamour and style in the 50’s) chose her as his muse. Balmain described her as one of the five most beautiful women he had ever met.

Her critics described her "as that Welsh girl who slinks along the runway with a fur over her shoulder looking as though she's just killed it and is taking it home to her mate".

Of such an unusual beauty her long tall body and somewhat angular features were the perfect frame for the fashions of the day.

In 1960 with the sort of paparazzi feeding frenzy that greets a Hollywood wedding she gave up her modeling career to marry the 3rd Viscount Astor, son of Nancy Astor, Upon her marriage Bronwen became the chatelaine of Cliveden, One of Britain’s great stately homes which her mother-in-law had made famous with her political salons.

Within three years of her marriage Bronwen's world was turned upside down and she was at the centre of one of the biggest political scandals of the century .The infamous Profumo Affair, which was said to have started at her swimming pool (unbeknownst to her) which brought down Prime Minister Harold Macmillan's government. Strangely enough another model Christine Keelor was at the centre of the scandal, and who can forget the famous photograph of Keelor posing nude that surfaced around the same period?

In 1966 Bronwen Astor's husband Viscount William Astor died prematurely, leaving her with two young daughters.

For years she has shunned the limelight, rarely requesting to be interviewed. "I felt labeled," Astor recalls, "that people were talking about me behind my back when I came into a room, that they all believed I was somehow to blame for the scandal." In her day, she explains, there had been a clear distinction between model-girls - well-brought-up young women who took to the catwalks - and models, often a polite phrase for those who were selling more than clothes. In the hysteria that accompanied Profumo, her past was equated with Keeler's present and she was ostracized. "Enough time has passed now," she says. "Profumo is history and I feel as if I have got over it."

*Pugh far right today.

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.