Friday 18 March 2011

TO BE A BOMBSHELL. BLONDE HOLLYWOOD STYLE YOU JUST CAN'T BUY



Virginia Mayo, Sheree North, Kim Novak, Marilyn Monroe, Za Za Gabor, Marlena Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Amanda Eliasch, Sandra Dee, Lucille Ball, Grace Kelly



Is it better to be blonde?  I am always asked this question and I am often told I am like an old Hollywood  movie star.   I was of course influenced by the magnificence of Marilyn Monroe, whose style and wit have lasted for more than  fifty years.  Her face is still well known even though she has been dead and born into another era.  This was the time of true glamour and of course I wanted to copy this.  It was not my idea.  It was the idea of others. In fact it frightened me. Ms. Isabella Blow was the first to transform me into Marilyn, I remember being horrified, followed by  Rushka Bergman, then Snowden Hill my hairdresser, and with the encouragement of  Julia Laverne.  I was always blonde just a nice healthy blonde.  I loved the way these women dressed, putting themselves together and they were more daring than anything walking up the catwalk now, and better dressed than the women at the Oscars.  Christian Dior, Pierre Balmain, Cristobal Balenciega, Edith Head, Walter Plunkett  can all be attributed to making women ravishing.
With make up artists like Fred Phllips who did the make up for Gone with the wind and many other films, these beauties were transformed into blonde creatures.  The bombshell was born. Definitely it changed my life.  I shall  tell you if it was positive at the end of my life.  Of course some of the above were not blonde and Lucille Ball was a true red head I am just a huge fan, and Belinda Carlisle always said I was exactly like her.  I have little desire to try red.  I am happy blonde.  My life is good.

Other English blondes that I like are Martha Sitwell and Poppy Delevigne. Martha has huge natural style, and has been my model for many years and the panache of Daphne Guinness is well known,  Isabella  Blow was behind all of us. She really was a woman of influence. Of course January Jones and Madonna both have the "it" factor and are the blonde Hollywood stars of now. Gina Brooke does Madonna's make up and Tonya Crooks in Beverly Hills does mine and in London Emma O'byrne.  Hollywood hair is done by Angela Kalinowski at Ken Vo's Salon in the Mirage, she is a total must if you wish to be camp, others have not got a clue, and in London Mr Snowdon Hill. Angela is brilliant at extensions and colour too..

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