Helena Rubinstein - The Portraits

Now it has been a while since I have mentioned Helena Rubinstein, as most of you know one of my favourite personalities from the 20th century. Madame had more savoir faire than us mere mortals and if there ever was a goddess of savoir faire, Madame would be it!

Maybe to constantly remind herself and her public of her incredible sense of style, Madame commissioned her portrait to be painted by the most famous artists of the day. In total 27 portraits were commissioned by artists such as Salvador Dali, Raul Dufy, Marie Laurencin, Marcel Vertes and Graham Sutherland. There has been no other woman in the twentieth century (except maybe Luisa Casati or the Queen) who has had their portrait painted by so many different artists.

It is interesting to see these portraits as they not only convey a different conception of the same women over a period of time but how Rubinstein thought of herself. By no means a beauty herself, some of the portraits are beautiful, such as the Laurencin portrait which conveys Madame as an Indian princess, serene and ethereal (one of my favourites).


On the other hand the Dali conveyed her shackled to cliff face via a string of emeralds. "He felt I was bound by my possessions, which is very far from the truth," was Madame’s explanation of the portrait, which seems a bit odd coming from someone who amassed a plethora of possessions.

Towards the later years the portraits convey a matriarch that was casting her eagle eye over all and sundry. Although tiny in stature the portraits by Graham Sutherland and William Dobell portray a larger than life figure that could have been frightening to some. Initially she hated the Sutherland portrait, but grew to like it – maybe it was a little too accurate!

With the Dobell portrait, she thought it "rather too much of a caricature", although that didn't stop her endowing a travelling scholarship for Australian artists.

However one artist did elude her and that was Picasso. She professed that "I would never have asked him for a portrait”. However she hounded him until she had annoyed him so much that finally he gave in and did a whole series of drawings. They made her look so horrible that he never showed them to her. She appears in Picasso's sketches as a cadaverous crone with gnarled, bejewelled knuckles.

The Rene Bouche portrait from 1960 below is probably a far more accurate interpretation of Madame in later life, than previous portraits, with Madame looking small and the old lady she was.

Other favourites of mine are:

Marcel Vertes

Baron Kurt Ferdinand von Pantz 1944

Edward Bernard Lintott 1936

While all the portaraits are in a different style they are umistakingly the ame woman with lots of savoir faire!

Preloved Savoir Faire!

For the fashion savvy and also those of you want to support green fashion, nobody does it better than Toronto based Preloved.

Preloved creates one of a kind clothing from reclaimed vintage fabrics. The clothes are full of innovation, combining texture and pattern along with exquisite cut that are instantly wearable and environmentally friendly. Mainly concentrating on women’s wear, they now have a children’s collection . They also have a small menswear collection which is just fabulous.

If you ca't visit Toronto or Montreal they do have an onlibe store, or you can start creating yourself!

a la carte Savoir Faire

While on the subject of restaurants/dining rooms one such room that deserves a mention on Savoir Faire is the Verandah Grill on the original Queen Mary. Before Cunard became a travelling sideshow, with the current company trying to evoke the era of transatlantic cruising with cheap modern renditions of previous times, we had the Queen Mary. While not ever reaching the cachet and glamour of the French Line, the Queen Mary was for the travelling public who were assured of their status in life.
Overlooking the stern of the ship with a sweeping view of the wake caused by the quadruple propellers, the Verandah Grill was an exclusive a la carte restaurant that seated 80 people for lunch and dinner for the ship’s elite at an extra tariff. The fact that first class passengers had to pay additional charges to eat here did nothing to diminish its popularity. Reservations were required sometimes months in advance of a sailing.

“The verandah grill is intended for the service of special "a la carte" meals for those who do not wish to take their meals in the restaurant, as well as for dancing. A cocktail bar and supper service are provided for nightclub devotees.”

This was a stunning room of subdued elegance that was different and full of exotic woods and decorative treatments

In the centre there was a small dance floor laid in sycamore parquetry, inlaid with symbolic motifs in cross-grain sycamore and bordered with mahogany, pear tree and sycamore lines, finishing at the margins with a wide band of ebonised hornbeam.
The raised platforms at the sides were covered with black carpet, which highlighted the wonderful white painted chairs with white leather upholstery. (note, I want these chairs)

Wood paneling was not a major feature of this room, the walls being decorated with paintings by Doris Zinkeisen showing pantomime and theatre scenes. These were framed in column features of silver and gold, echoing a similar ceiling treatment.

The room was given a nightclub atmosphere by color-change lighting which could be controlled from the microphone of the performing artiste. The raised floor part of the room was separated from the dance floor area by a silver bronze and glass balustrade. Color change lighting was again installed in the bottom of the glass, and fixed lights were installed in the balustrade supports.

With the ship's postwar refit, the Verandah Grill was restored to its original décor and use as the first class a la carte restaurant with a few minor changes. The chairs were stripped down to natural wood and upholstered in blue leather(I prefer the originals) The central painting, destroyed by careless handling (dart games?) during the war was completely repainted by Doris Zinkeisen. Even after the war the room held its own, with movie stars, heads of state, and royalty all clamouring for reservations.

Nowadays today’s extra tariff restaurants pale to insignificance when compared to the Verandah Grill.

Putting on Some Savoir Faire in Toronto

As most of you know I have just returned from a weekend of savoir faire in Montreal. A while a go I did a post on the 9th Floor restaurant atop of Eaton’s Department store in Montreal, that shrine of art deco which has been mothballed for the last decade or so. I kept on walking past the building, looking up to see if there was some way I could get to see it. Alas, it is out of bounds so I just had to walk on by.

However, despair not! Toronto has it’s own equivalent which luckily to say has been restored and is a fully working function space. The Carlu is a historic event space in Toronto. Known for many years as the "Eaton's Seventh Floor", the Carlu is one of Toronto's best examples of Art Moderne architecture. Again Lady Eaton, the family’s matriarch had her way and she retained the noted French architect Jacques Carlu to design the seventh floor of the edifice, which was to contain the 1300-seat Eaton Auditorium, the Round Room restaurant, lounges and a private dining room. All of the facilities were to be connected by a long foyer, designed in the style of the ocean liners of the day. Walking through the space you do not have to imagine hard to think that you were on an ocean liner in the thirties. This is a wonderful space that just reeks of subdued elegance.

Itself an Art Moderne masterpiece, the Eaton's Seventh Floor was at the heart of Toronto's cultural life for many years. The Auditorium played host to the major performers of its day, including Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington and Frank Sinatra.
The Round Room was, as the name suggests, is a circular room, with circular mouldings in the domed ceiling and recessed alcoves in the corners. At the centre of the room stood a Lalique fountain, lit from below. Carlu was responsible for all aspects of the dining room's design, from the lighting fixtures to the Royal Worcester china, the stemware, and the waitresses' black uniforms. Carlu's wife, Natasha, designed the murals on the walls, depicting various scenes of pastoral life as she had done in the Montreal equivalent. For years, the Round Room was one of the most elegant places to dine in Toronto.

As usual, with changing tastes and fashions the space fell into decline, until it was completely restored and reopened in 2003 to much acclaim as "The Carlu" event venue. Even the original Lalique fountain, which had long been believed to have been lost, was restored to its place at the centre of the Round Room. The venue's new name was chosen in order to honour the architect that had originally designed the space.

Each year in Toronto we have an annual Doors Open event and Carlu is usually open for the public to traipse through marveling at this Art Deco masterpiece! And a masterpiece it is!

On Leave with Savoir Faire

Today sees me heading off to Montreal for a long weekend, so Savoir Faire devotees; I will be incommunicado for a couple of days.

If I just happened to have been an allied officer during World War II on the North African campaign I would have been on leave with savoir faire in Cairo. Luckily also being an officer meant that I would have been enjoying my leave at either the Mena House or Shepheards Hotel. These were THE places to stay before the war and so it seems during the war also.

They might have been operating on somewhat reduced circumstances, however I could still enjoy a drink on the terrace at Shepheard’s and watch the world go by, and maybe even eavesdrop in on a conversation that was just filled with espionage.

If I was lucky to be billeted at the Mena House, enjoying my afternoon tea by the pool would have been a matter of course. If so inclined I could then climb the Great Pyramid right next door.

So we salute you and have a fabulous weekend.

*Suggested reading, Shepheards Hotel by Nina Nelson.

Savoir Faire in the Air

I think that the general consensus is that most of us are sick of the airline industry, the long lines, the cramped conditions, the lousy food (unless we are up the front) and all the extra charges. Even with the introduction of new aircraft such as the Airbus A380 and Boeing’s anticipated 787 Dreamliner, I think that we are all a little jaded. I am an airline and plane buff (I know, who would have known) and rather disappointed. The A380 is an ugly plane, that doesn’t conjure up any of the streamlined ideals that we associate with flight.

It was not always like this. The Vickers VC-10 was an incredibly sleek, stylish airliner both inside and out! It was something an airliner should have looked like! The Vickers VC10 is a British airliner designed and built by Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd and first flown in 1962. The airliner was designed to operate on long distance routes with a high subsonic speed and also be capable of hot and high operations from African airports. The performance of the VC10 was such that BOAC, the initial operator, laid claim to the VC10 providing the fastest crossing of the Atlantic - London to New York, by a jet airliner. This record is still held, to date, by the VC10, for a sub-sonic airliner; only beaten by the supersonic Concorde. What set the VC10 apart was the location of the engines. These were located aft in pods attached to the fuselage below a high T style tail. (Sorry to be technical- but the savoir faire is coming)

With the launch of the VC 10 BOAC held out no stops. Lavish promotional brochures with fabulous artwork highlighted the sleekness and the overall stylishness of this new entry into the jet age. BOAC used word such as aristocrat and superlative with abandon when promoting their new aircraft.

Capitalization was made of the fact that the Rolls Royce engines were at the back of the fuselage creating a silent cabin. Slogans such as “The VC 10 a great step backwards” boosted sales of seats.

Interiors were bright and airy with promotional material showing passengers (much more well dressed than today’s travelling public) enjoying this magnificent aircraft.

If you were travelling first class, BOAC’s famed Monarch service got you to your destination with lots of savoir faire!

Sadly the glamour of the VC 10 started to fade with the advent of the 747 and larger aircraft. Today only a few remain in the service of the RAAF.

Sandblasted Savoir Faire

As mentioned in a previous blog here in Toronto we had our annual outdoor art show, with a fabulous lot of artists and their works.

Walking through I was captivated with the glass art of Nick Chase. What caught my eye were the wonderful shapes, colours and Lalique like quality of his work. The finish on these pieces was perfect and certainly reminded me of Lalique. These are all hand blown and then sandblasted to within an inch of their lives.

Wonderful spheres and other shapes with cut out pieces in the most stunning of colours with the contrast of another colour inside glowed like jewels. These were museum quality pieces and I hope that one day Mr. Chase’s work ends up in one.

To say that I want one is an understatement!