Time Travel Suit

time travel suit for Beistegui's rooftop terrace

Intricacies of time travel mastered, Number One, and name on the guest list, Number Two, wouldn't I shine shine shine in this ensemble - suddenly appearing in 1930s Paris.  To see and feel Charles de Beistegui's Champs Elysees rooftop experience - deemed a hodgepodge of "modernism, mechanism, and surrealism" by the great Beaton. My ascent up the white spiral staircase all sparkle and flash,with one press of a button I'd activate the rolling glass wall to access the terrace. Then, on a carpet of grass beneath a ceiling of sky, I would dance dance dance, reflecting and refracting the lights and traffic below - reflected and refracted by the many mirrored surfaces past, present, and futuristic - ooh la la!

If you like the idea of futuristic 1930s, here's one of my earlier posts.
If you like a bit of fiction spotlighting imaginative decor, here's an illustrated quick fiction. 

note: image (clipped, altered and filed in my journal) from Purple Fashion S/S 2016, p.256. Pants - Loewe, skirt - Olympia Le-Tan, top - Marni. Photographer - Casper Sejersen, Stylist - Camille Bidault-Waddington, Model - Heather Kemesky.

The Glass of Fashion

Cecil Beaton's The Glass of Fashion allows a long look into some of the most fashionable lives.  There's Gabrielle Ray - a "small work of art" whose macquillage takes a cue from Pointillism's dots of color and whose self-presentation is as studied as the selfie. There's Madame Eugenia Huici Errazuriz, constantly transforming her surroundings into a work of art - deeming a house dead if it does not alter. "Elegance means elimination," says Madame E, as she - with sleight-of-hand magic presents a ladder and coat hangers, painted grey, into objets d'art points of interest. Shielding her eyes from the appearance of clutter, Errazuriz presents her photographs, knick knacks, and bric-a-brac mounted within the drawers of a cupboard. And wouldn't you like to accompany Beaton to Charles de Beistegui's Champs Elysees rooftop terrace - a hodgepodge of "modernism, mechanism, and surrealism". Let's go there now, to that terrace. Up the white spiral staircase. Now press the button to activate the glass wall, which rolls away to reveal a view of the lights and traffic below - reflected and refracted by many mirrored surfaces past, present, and futuristic - Napoleonic and Louis XV furniture painted white under the open sky - on a carpet of grass!

Odd to think these personalities and their places occurred close to a century ago! Perhaps not so odd, considering Beaton's observation:

Literature, parties, pastimes, flowers, scent, clothing, decor - all, says Beaton - "reflect the same continuum of change that rides through any given age and are, indeed, related in the sense that they often express, in their different media, the tone of an epoch." He continues - "It seems obvious that changes in fashion correspond with the subtle and hidden network of forces that operate on society - political, economic, and psychological factors all play their part. In this sense fashion is a symbol.... In art as in fashion, new styles or forms seem only a ceaseless and urgent search for some ultimate form of expression."