Spooky Scented Sunday for Halloween

Now that it is Halloween, shouldn't it be right that not only should you look the part, but shouldn't you also smell the part as well?

Lanvin with their "My Sin" (Mon Peche in French) would have been just the thing to get in touch with that sinful nature of yours albeit with a bit of Savoir Faire!

Same goes for Adrian's Saint and Sinner perfumes! Here we have a choice of being bad or good!

Want to cast a spell? Dana's Voodoo could be just the thing, or Max Factor's Hypnotique, if you need to influence the object of your affections!

Dana comes up trumps again with Tabu, well the name says it all doesn't it?

Want to be a trifle risque? Try Tigress or Scoundrel!

Happy Halloween!

Dog Day Savoir Faire

What’s this you say? Savoir Faire has dropped down a couple of notches in the style stakes by featuring a comic book character? And to top it all off his name is Dylan Dog? What is happening here?

However since it is Halloween, I have chosen to feature Dylan Dog, who believe it or not for a comic book character has a real life pedigree (of sorts) and has all the savoir faire in the fictional world. Maybe this Halloween we can take a few pointers?

Dylan is an Italian horror comic series created by Tiziano Sclavi, who took his inspiration for our character from Rupert Everett, who just oozes savoir faire from every pore. He is named after the poet Dylan Thomas, so with a pedigree like that you cannot really go wrong!

Our protagonist is a paranormal investigator (his title in Italian is "L'indagatore dell'incubo", which translates as "Nightmare Investigator") who questions and defies our preconceived concepts of horror tradition with veins of surrealism and anti-bougeoise rhetoric. For someone who is investigating the paranormal and downright spooky he is certainly stylish.

He is very set in his ways and lives in London, although will travel if need be as he abhors travel. He is defined by his clothes and always dresses the same way (maybe he knows what suits him?) in a red shirt, black jacket and blue jeans. He never wears an overcoat or even carries an umbrella, since, according to him, an overcoat "would ruin his look", and he thinks that an umbrella is a "useless invention. Especially when it doesn't rain."

Very old school he actually has hobbies including playing the clarinet, building model ships and literature. He is hopelessly old fashioned, not having a cell phone and records his memories with a quill and ink.

With a movie being released later on this year Mr. Dog, might soon be on everyone’s lips or nightmares!

Bewitching Savoir Faire

With Halloween fast approaching our minds are drawn to all things spooky, wicked and witchy. Who says that witches should be bent up old crones toiling over cauldrons and making potions with eyes of newts and the like?

We have had our young glamorous witches, such as Elisabeth Montgomery in Bewitched in the past, however who can not forget the gorgeous Kim Novak in Bell Book and Candle whom I believed the creators of Bewitched based their Samantha on.


This is one of my all time favourite movies based on the stage name of the same name by John Van Druten. Starring Kim Novak and Jimmy Stewart as the romantic leads with a host of others including Jack Lemon, Hermione Gingold, Elsa Lancaster and 19 Siamese cats who all played the witch’s familiar Pyewhacket, this is Witchcraft with the ultimate in Savoir Faire.

Kim Novak plays Gillian, a rather free spirited Greenwich Village witch who runs an art gallery for Primitive African art. After an initial chance meeting with Shep (Jimmy Stewart) she learns that Shep is to marry an old nemesis, and thus begins a rather intriguing plot where Gillian takes her revenge. Casting a love spell on Shep, she begins to fall for him herself. She must eventually make a stark choice, as witches who fall in love lose their supernatural powers. Gillian's cat and familiar, Pyewacket, becomes agitated and leaves her when she decides in Shep's favor. That is all I am going to reveal as this is a wonderful movie and I do not want to spoil it all.

There are some interesting side plots involving members of Gillian’s family that add to the whole movie on a lighthearted level.



For Savoir faire this cannot be beat. Kim Novak is wonderfully costumed by Jean Louis, and looks fabulous all throughout the movie, everything a modern day witch should look like. Also the movie gives a rather candid peek into New York in the 1950’s,especially around the emerging art scene located in the area.


So while not necessarily spooky in the Halloween sense, witches have never looked better! So for some Halloween Savoir Faire see the movie and enjoy.

Getting Lippy with Lelong

What is it with women’s lipstick these days? (Sorry girls). Here you have the main weapon in a woman’s arsenal of tips and tricks, demoted down to usually just a mundane black cylinder with a logo on it to be tossed into a handbag or cosmetic bag. These magical little items should be displayed and brandished about with savoir faire, shown off and treated with a little respect.

At Lucien Lelong, in the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s they were luxurious little objets deluxe, that women were proud of, and they were also fun!

Previously I posted on a luxurious little Lelong offering covered in mink, which had wonderful undertones of luxury and surrealism.

On the luxury side we have this wonderful little jeweled case which I am sure drew envious glances when the owner used this in a powder room with other women around.

Lelong wasn’t afraid of arming a woman with several different lip shades depending on her mood. Often three different colours were contained in the same unit, giving our young fashionista a choice of how seductive she wanted to be.

The below while a very simple box shaped container, oozes glamour.

The silver container called “Quick Change” below mimics a coin container of the type that buss or tram conductors used to carry to dispense change. Not only is the container clever and fun there is a new meaning in the name, implying that a girl could change her lip colour on a whim. It also doubled as a brooch to be worn and displayed.

The set of three green plastic tubes below is an actual whistle that works.

Advertising also was fun and innovative. Colours were given names that were fun and carefree and meaningful.



So ladies get lippy like Lelong and arm yourself with a bit of savoir faire!

Great Expectations with Savoir Faire

Very busy day here at Savoir Faire, back to back meetings and just generally falling behind in blogging and reading all of my fellow blogger’s fabulous posts. That brings me to Great Expectations, that wonderful Dickens’ novel which is filled with themes such as tragedy, love and hope.

Finding images which I like has always been a passion of mine and I always look for ways I can use them giving them another meaning than what they were intended for. Here are three images that I think have a very modern Great Expectations feel about them. I will let you be the judge!

Pip meets the convict in the graveyard.

Miss Havisham on her wedding day after finding out she had been left at the altar

Pip in a moment of reflection lamenting the loss of Estella.

Savoir Faire Then and Now

We know the big names of couture and the it designers of today, but how many of us really know the history behind a house or what the original design aesthetic was actually like?

Are the new designers who take over the creative directorships of these houses following the design aesthetics that the original names followed or are they going off in their own directions using references from the house’s archives to inspire them?

Are they reinterpreting the look, the cachet or just in it to make money? Where elegance and sophistication was the catchphrase most used to describe these “old” houses what would the catchphrase be now. Previously we could see continuous evolution, the refinement of a line, a certain aesthetic, what do we see now?

Here are some then and now photos of some such houses that had their beginnings almost half a century ago and what they are producing now? What do you think?

Pierre Balmain

Balenciaga

Christian Dior

Chanel

Givenchy

Nina Ricci

Yves Saint Laurent