i wanna be where the boys are

As if getting to hang out with the fabulous Beatle boys wasn't awesome enough, Pattie Boyd also cozies up to that motley crew of musicians, the Rolling Stones. 

Seriously, can a girl ever be any luckier? 

Title: from "I Wanna Be Where the Boys Are" (The Runaways)

Then and Now: Twiggy and Kate Moss

Sure, comparisons between Twiggy and La Moss are definitely nothing new. The hysteria surrounding Kate when she entered the modeling world in the 1990s was much akin to the wave that hit Twiggy when she first burst onto the scene nearly thirty years earlier. Kate’s heroin chic charm was comparable to the freshness that Twiggy’s androgynous look offered to the fashion world – both were looks so completely opposite of the type of woman that reigned supreme during the times. Twiggy came in following the long-standing tradition of having womanly, more mature looking women in clothes that emphasized their curves; Kate entered the picture when 6-foot-tall glamazon models like Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, and Claudia Schiffer were the norm on the pages of magazines.

I love the photos of Kate on her 34^th birthday – I’m not sure what the theme is exactly, but she looks stunning. With that mass of curls and a gold star painted on her face, she looks a lot like Twiggy on the cover of the December 1974 issue of British Vogue, with an equally wild amount of curls with stars placed throughout her hair.

there's a new me coming out, and i just had to live

Happy birthday to Miss Diana Ross, who today turns 67 years young. The woman is a honest-to-form triple threat: she can sing, dance, act - and do it all while rocking some fabulous hair! I love the way that Blogue intros their tribute to the singing siren: "Before there was Beyonce, there was Diana Ross." It's very true, when you think about it - the similarities between these two women are uncanny.

Perhaps best known for her lead singer status in powerhouse 1960s girl group, The Supremes, Diana went solo in 1970 and has never looked back. Considered the most successful female recording artist of the 20th century (it's a fact acknowledged by the Guinness Book of World Records), Diana had a record-breaking eighteen #1 records, has sold over 100 million records around the world, and has garnered eight American Music Awards, twelve Grammy nominations, a Tony Award, a Golden Globe Award, an Academy Award nomination (for Best Actress in Lady Sings the Blues), as well as two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. With that laundry list of accomplishments, Diana has earned the right to be a diva (with a capital 'D'!)

As the birthday gal has herself said, "It takes a long time to get to be a diva. I mean, you gotta work at it!"

Title: from "I'm Coming Out" (Diana Ross)

The Lovin' Linkful

Here again are some links that have taken up a significant amount of my study time this week: a mix of boredom busters, Elizabeth Taylor tributes, and items I pray the shopping fairy will leave under my pillow. 

Not for the faint of heart (or the tight of wallet), but having dinner several hundred feet in the air will certainly be a dining experience to remember. Even if the food sucks. (Dinner in the Sky)

Dear Sapling Press, Please send me copies of each of your charming, laugh-out-loud funny letterpress cards. Sincerely, Dolly Rocker Girl. (Etsy)

Ever wondered how to be like those elusive, PBR-drinking, skinny jean-wearing hipsters? Here's a how-to guide for becoming one. It's way ironic. Of course. (Stephemera)

What better way for a fan to honor the late Elizabeth Taylor than to recreate some of Liz's most legendary outfits? (The Gloss)

After ordering some clothes in her style, check out this list of "26 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Elizabeth Taylor." I knew 25 of them. (I never knew she had hypertrichosis as an infant). (Buzzfeed)

Drawing inspiration from everything from swans to 'Blonde Ambiton' era Madonna, shoe designer Kobi Levi brings art to a new level in fashion with his insane creations. (Kobi Levi) 

As someone who has had terrible trouble falling asleep night after night for years, I'm intrigued by this article, "Eating Your Way to a Good Night's Sleep." (Psychology Today)

Are you bored? Are you in need of answers to questions both life-changing and ridiculously insignificant? Look no further. (Help I Need Help) 

It's Friday night (Gotta get down on Friday!) - read these eight reasons to go out tonight to any of your lazypants friends. (Betty Confidential) 

The name of this site pretty much says it all. (Selleck Waterfall Sandwich) 

Similar to the book Other People's Love Letters, this online collection of personal inscriptions in books is touching and deeply heartfelt to read.
(The Book Inscriptions Project) 

I still can't do it correctly. (How to Fold a Shirt) 

nothing matters, except life and the love you make

Words cannot express how truly devastated I am by the news that Elizabeth Taylor has passed away. I know that some people may consider that statement to be insensitive and callous in light of recent events in Japan and the Middle East, but I do not mean to be uncaring or out-of-touch with world events when I say that her death has shaken me.

Elizabeth Taylor is a great hero of mine. I've written about her on DRG in the past, but never enough to accurately express how large a space in my heart she takes. She was the first actress I fell in love with on the screen. I was six years old and had recently began my decade-long love affair with horse-back riding. As a gift, I received a VHS copy of National Velvet, which starred a young Elizabeth as a girl quite like me  - stuck in the middle of a loving family, but with an all-consuming passion for horses and the sport of riding. 

From then, I grew up according to Elizabeth's movies - watching Little Women, Father of the Bride, and A Place in the Sun, before graduating to her more mature films like Butterfield 8 and Suddenly, Last Summer. Her performances were always sophisticated and nuanced - her portrayal of Maggie The Cat in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (one of my all-time favorite films) is a great example of that. Watching the film without prior knowledge of who Elizabeth was, you'd find it difficult to believe that the woman playing the Southern vixen Maggie was indeed born in London. She does the Southern social climber role so well that it seems like she's just herself and the camera is rolling without direction.

Elizabeth always made her work look easy, which was a great talent of hers but also cost her some critical appreciation. She made acting look so effortless that it was easy to lose focus from her performance and instead turn attention to her mesmerizing beauty. While she was always a famous movie star, she wasn't always a celebrated actress. After she won the Oscar for Butterfield 8 - a film where Elizabeth was plagued by severe physical ailments - Shirley MacLaine (who was nominated in the same category for The Apartment) famously exclaimed, "I lost the Oscar to a tracheotomy." It took tough roles like Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Taming of the Shrew for audiences and critics alike to see how talented Elizabeth really was.

While Elizabeth was known during her lifetime for her love of jewels, her many marriages, her violet eyes, and her scandalous public persona, I hope that she will be remembered at the supremely talented actress and wonderfully generous woman that she was.

Title: from "Crests of Waves" (Coldplay)

i'm going on down to yasgur's farm, i'm gonna join in a rock and roll band, i'm gonna camp out on the land, i'm gonna set my soul free

Spring is officially here. According to the calendar, not according to the patches of snow outside of my window. It's an annual thing for me - with the start of warm weather comes my desire for fabulously bright prints, psychedelic swirls, and light layers of fabrics so long they graze the grass that my bare feet are walking through.
And for once, I'm not the only one getting back hooked on hippie garb. After quitting cold turkey during the winter months - wearing nothing but leather, black and beige - I've seen a lot of people gettin' high on hippy dippy trippy threads.
To make it even more official, the fashion kings and queens have decreed that Seventies fashion (think Stevie Nicks gypsy skirts and piano shawls, and Farrah Fawcett's bell-bottomed jeans and simple unfussy blouses) will reign this season. Instead of washed-out denims and white eyelet dresses, I am more in the mood for dresses in ethnic prints done in traffic-stopping colors, weighed down heavily by beading, fringing, embroidery, and other embellishments so much that you can feel through your outfit every breath you take.

France Gall gets into the gypsy spirit (and her dog seems to dig it, too!) 

Jane Birkin, in a Celia Birtwell print outfit, a film known by many names (but has something to do with Katmandu), and in a frock from the legendary Wonderwall

With or without Mick by her side, Marianne never looked incomplete in her stunning threads

I have an odd jealousy of Jodie Foster's kid prostitute character in Taxi Driver - putting aside the fact that she had to sell her body at 12-years-old

California queen (and former Mrs. Ryan O'Neal) Leigh Taylor-Young looks contemplative while posing in this hippie caftan (maybe she's wondering how she can look that amazing?)

Claudia Cardinale poses alongside (apparent) friend Frank Zappa, in a photo shoot for a 1967 issue of Epoca Magazine

Anita Pallenberg never fails to amaze in her signature gypsy-rocker style

Pattie Boyd joins two models in modeling designs by The Fool, to promote Apple Boutique 

Brigitte Bardot was a true bohemian bombshell - still retaining her sex kitten charm while in ruffled maxidresses, embroidered caftans, and her various floral minidresses 

Posing in front of a wall with that many colors, Britt Ekland wisely chooses and outfit to match

Penelope Tree (thanks to Youthquaker for the bottom scans!) 

Diane von Furstenberg embodies the idea of gypsy jetset luxury

Ewa Aulin (I'm trying really hard to not make an 'I Want Candy' joke) 

Though still sporting her Bonnie bob, Faye Dunaway trades her 1930s threads for a gorge paisley blouse

Frida Kahlo

I love candid photos of young people during the sixties - it's always interesting to see how their generation dressed themselves, beyond the limited view that celebrities and magazines from that time show us

How could I have done a post about opulent gypsy clothes without mentioning my dear Janis? 

Jean Shrimpton tries bright patterns to varying degrees, with bold color-blocked minidresses, embroidered caftan tops, and flowing maxidresses 

Pamela Courson and Jim Morrison hanging out at Pam's boutique Themis 

Luaren Hutton is one of my all-time favorites, and not just because she can pull off virtually any look (seriously - how can someone look that good in a tight high-necked hood?)

It's sometimes hard to stand out in a crowd - but in a bright green patterned dress, with a matching bejeweled turban, it's easy

BFFs and costars in the Swingin' London spoof Smashing Time, Lynn Redgrave and Rita Tushingham, poke more fun at London's overwhelming obsession with the hippie trend 

Pattie, Jane Asher, Cyn Lennon (and their respective Beatle boys) pose with Mike Love, Mia Farrow, Donovan, and the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh

Marisa Berenson, dubbed a "Euroglam gypsy" by the fab Simon Doonan, poses in a variety of brightly colored dresses, on the island of Mauritius, in the pages of Vogue, and in a 1969 campaign for Halston photographed by Clarke Henry

With a voice even more incredible than that lace dress, singer-songwriter Melanie Safka proves that she was a wise addition to the Woodstock lineup many years ago

Whether in Pucci or Gernreich, these models had an easy job making these clothes look cool

Pattie and George hang out outside of Kinfauns (with a mysterious puppet alongside them)

With her carefree style and stunning looks, it's easy to see why men like Roman Polanski, Rob Lowe, and Quincy Jones fell for Nastassja Kinski 

Photographer, Laurel Canyon resident, and Monkee baby mama Nurit Wilde was just as beautiful as the photographs she took

Peggy Moffitt is always perfection

The glowing and glorious Sharon Tate rockin' a dashiki 

Miss Pamela and the rest of the GTOs take the flower child look to California

Well, I'd be in the mood too if I saw a boy wearing hot pink floral pants...

These models show that bold prints can be worn in a sophisticated way

The Beatles - they may have been the 'walrus', but they were also psychedelic style stars

Always a favorite at DRG, Veruschka rocks frocks from designers as diverse as Pucci and Hutzler's, but with a common theme: stripes and swirls in electric hues 

Title: from "Woodstock" (Joni Mitchell)

i read about her in a magazine, the writer painted her in colors of a queen

It's incredible that it's been over two years since I wrote my review of the epic music/muse memoir Dandelion, because my love for its authoress, Catherine James, hasn't wavered a bit during that time. Her story is too wild, too dramatic, too epic to believe it all really happened to one person. When I think of Catherine James' life story, I think of a quote by Tom Clancy: "The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense." Fiction has to be rooted in some plain, identifiable commonness in order for an audience to connection. Memoirs by incredible women, like James - who embodies the word 'survivor' in every sense - or Pamela Des Barres, Marianne Faithfull, Chris O'Dell, Peggy Lipton, Bebe Buell, Pattie Boyd and the so many others run in the opposite direction. The stories and lives of these women are within the realm of the fantastical, the unbelievable, the jealousy-inducing beauty of a particular moment in music history.
While I certainly was not born into the family of a cruel socialite mother, a starlet aunt, and a cross-dressing father, I identify with the desire Catherine had to get out of her home environment and create something all her own. It wasn't the insistence of Bob Dylan or the hyper-creative atmosphere of Warhol's Silver Factory that inspires me to pursue something grander - like it was for Catherine - but I still connect with her story. I'm not alone in finding inspiration in Catherine - Jackson Browne wrote "Under the Falling Sky" for her, and John Mayall penned the tune "Miss James," not attempting to hide the identity of his muse. In an interview, Catherine said, "I have received several amazing letters from people who have wanted to relate their own extraordinary experiences. Many wrote that my book deeply inspired them."
I know I'm not alone in this and that there are a lot of people out there like me who have found someone's life story to offer wisdom and inspiration to welcome into their own lives.

Who are some of your personal heroes whose lives have inspired you in some way?

Title: from "Miss James" (John Mayall)

but for now we are young, let us lay in the sun, and count every beautiful thing we can see

In a way, I (almost) can't wait to get back to New York because I'm getting too accustomed to waking up every morning to lovely weather. I find myself planning picnics, sunbathing, road trips, and so many other activities that require several feet of snow to not be on the ground. Until I have to go back to the upstate chill, I will do as the dollies do and lay in open fields of grass. 

Now all I need to do is find a meadow...

Flower power poster child Marianne Faithfull lounges in a field 

Audrey Hepburn shields her eyes from the sun

I love this scene of Sofia Coppola's film where Marie Antoinette and her gang venture outdoors to watch the sun rise 

The queen of glam, Marilyn Monroe, proves she could also be (quite literally) down-to-earth

Sophia Loren smiles in a field of dandelions

Amanda Seyfried, in Teen Vogue, is surrounded by wildflowers so bright they almost match the color of her light blonde hair

The cast from Across the Universe in one of my favorite scenes, where the group sings "Because" in an open meadow of tall grass

 Jack Nicholson's future gal-pal Anjelica Huston poses in a manicured outdoor setting

Marianne and Mick, the poster couple for the decadent bohemian glitterati of the sixties, lay on fields of grass and pelts of fur 

Audrey Hepburn picks flowers petals in Holland - perhaps playing a game of 'He loves me, he loves me not'?

I think Marc Jacobs is a genius and creates the most beautiful things, and his campaign for his scent 'Daisy' is no exception

The lovely Linda (McCartney, that is)

Marianne Faithfull, by Jean-Marie Perier

Another look at Kirsten Dunst's take on Marie Antoinette

Of this photo, Pattie Boyd said: "Me with my dirty feet in the country. George and I went to the countryside and threw down some rugs and had a lovely picnic" 

Chanteuse Françoise Hardy

The beautiful Sharon Tate

Well, I just can't get enough of Marianne

One of my personal fashion heroes, Sienna Miller

Members of the Bloomsbury group: Lady Ottoline Morrell, Maria Nys, Lytton Strachey, Duncan Grant, and Vanessa Bell

Jane Birkin still manages to look perfect, even when she's laying in a field of dirt and grass

Rolling Stone spawn, Georgia May Jagger

Another from Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette

Speaking of the Stones, a glimpse at Keith Richards soaking up the sun

Former Disney darlings, Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens in Elle Magazine

The fabulous Miss France Gall

I wish that the unnatural lighting was the strangest part of this very cool pic, but Veruschka's choice to lounge in the woods with little more than that red stretch of fabric beats the post-apocalyptic hue

Judy Garland's Dorothy takes a nap in the meadows of Oz