put your makeup on, fix your hair up pretty

Is it strange that one of my favorite things to do is put on makeup? There is something so calming, so spiritual, so superficially life-affirming about the process that I quite enjoy. It's lovely to see dolly girls that I love who enjoy the process of primping themselves in front of a mirror as well

These two models admire their own reflections with fab updos and great cat eyes (I'm digging the white cat eye on the left!)

Known for her gamine gorgeousness, Audrey Hepburn had the best eye makeup in the history of all of Hollywood (at least, according to me)

The fabulous makeover scene in Vertigo takes Kim Novak from dowdy brunette to blonde bombshell

Brigitte Bardot knows what to do to perfect her sex kitten look

A Playboy Bunny from the '60s knows the perfect compliment to bunny ears is heavily lined eyelids

Catherine James, muse extraordinaire, paints her eyes (also, can you spot those Edie-inspired shoulder dusters that she's wearing? Must be during her Factory days)

Donyale Luna gets some assistance from a fellow model

America's original sweetheart Doris Day always kept her makeup sweet and simple

Edie Sedgwick was known for her obsession with makeup - taking hours every day to contour her cheeks and define her doe eyes

Elizabeth Taylor adjusts what looks to be some pretty killer glitter eye makeup

Natalia Vodianova for Guerlain's Fall campaign last year

Here the 1944 Rockettes are caught primping in front of their mirrors

Jane Birkin fixing her appearance both offscreen and on (in Wonderwall)

The fabulous Miss Faithfull on the set of The Girl on a Motorcycle, in a magazine spread, and backstage at Saturday Night Live

The ultimate bombshell Marilyn Monroe appreciated the beauty and femininity of cosmetics, oftentimes being photographed applying them

Natalie Wood enhances her already amazingly wide eyes with coats of mascara

Mischa Barton pencils her eyelid as Rachel Bilson looks on in The O.C.

Pattie Boyd several times did spread for magazines documenting her famous dolly look

The Shrimpton girls always looked camera ready 

Sue Lyon on the set of The Night of the Iguana 

Sylvie Vartan admires her own appearance

Here all of the Polly Maggoos ready their looks in the famous film 

It's easy to see why Sophia Loren attracted the likes of Cary Grant and Carlo Ponti

The women of The Women primp themselves

I love everything about this look - from the perfect cat eye to that dark red lip

A young pre-Marilyn Norma Jeane smiles as she puts on her 'stick

Modern day dolly Drew Barrymore puckers up

Title: from "Atlantic City" (Bruce Springsteen)

everyday i watch you paint the town so pretty

Not just one of my favorite Marianne looks, but one of my favorite looks of all time. I love the combination of the patterned frock with simple knee-high boots. If I could dress like this everyday, I most definitely would. 

Title: from "Streetwalker" (Michael Jackson)

don't break my heart, and i won't break your heart-shaped glasses

I love heart-shaped glasses - they are equal parts little girl cute and grown-up gal fun. As a 1936 magazine said, these "odd-shaped eyeglasses express personality" - and indeed they do. Heart-shaped frames are not for the faint of heart, or the shy of attention. They are attention-grabbers, head-turners, traffic-stoppers and need to be rocked by people who can handle the accompanying sassiness. Made famous by a little film called Lolita, heart-shaped glasses have stayed a great fashion accessory for the last forty years. 

The fad of heart shaped glasses goes back to 1936 

The film that started it all - Stanley Kubrick's Lolita is synonymous with little Lolita's heart-shaped frames

Celebs like Drew Barrymore, Lady Gaga, Kelly Osbourne, Avril Lavigne, Lily Cole, and Nicole Richie all rock the look

Evan Rachel Wood - and her penchant for wearing Lolita-esque frames - served as the inspiration for the Marilyn Manson song "Heart Shaped Glasses"

Katy Perry rocks out on stage in her bright red shades

I love Marianne Faithfull's wire rimmed sunnies - definitely more hippie than Lolita

Mischa Barton strikes a pose in her heart glasses

Sunnies from Moschino's runway a few years back

From the pages of Barry Miles' Hippie is this stunning girl

Zooey Deschanel looks coy and cute in her rose-tinted glasses

Lolita herself, Sue Lyon, in the sunglasses she made legendary

Vanessa Hudgens does a bohemian take on the fashion staple

Title: from "Heart Shaped Glasses (When the Heart Guides the Hand)" (Marilyn Manson)

The Marianne Chronicles: The Demeanor

Marianne Faithfull is intensely intelligent, fiercely witty, and the kind of alluring free spirit that attracts countless hoards of people. Alain Delon, her Motorcycle costar, once said, "She is a happening all to herself. She is the type of girl men fought dragons for in mythology, the type that duels have been fought over." Not only is that the best thing that anyone has said about anyone ever, it's also really damn true. Nowadays she is a world-weary chanteuse, one who has lived through everything and is still here to sing about her adventures, but back in the sixties, she was a dreamer. She saw no end to what she hoped to accomplish and who she hoped to be. In Faithfull, she detailed how "between the ages of 17 and 19 I shed any number of old lives and grew new ones overnight without any of them seeming quite real to me; I discarded them as cavalierly as a child who moves from one game to another. Pursued in interest, any one of these might have led to a reasonably happy life. But then again, I wasn't interested in happiness. I was looking for the Holy Grail." I feel like that speaks to a lot of us young dollies out there who are looking for our own 'Holy Grail' (preferably one that includes Mick Jagger!)
Marianne was fiercely independent and never apologized for her behavior - she followed her heart no matter what. Whether that meant leaving John Dunbar for Mick, or doing some pretty drastic things to shake off her convent girl persona, Marianne was never satisfied following convention.

The Marianne Chronicles

What can be said about Marianne Faithfull? A lot, actually. She’s been known as Miss X, the girl on a motorcycle, the goddess of proto-goth punk, a convent girl, the angel with big tits (to charmingly quote Andrew Loog Oldham), the girl in the fur rug, homeless junkie in Ossie Clark, a vamp with a whiskey-soaked voice to match, the daughter of an Austro-Hungarian baroness, descendent of Leopold Baron von Sacher Masoch. She's been known by many names and many labels. She's been written about and then written off more times than half of Hollywood. 

I've been working for a while on a follow-up to the Pattie Chronicles centered around Marianne, and I feel confident enough to begin sharing some of what I've gathered about the enigmatic Miss Faithfull. Hopefully it won't disappoint. 

"I’ve always known who I was. Whether I could achieve to express that to everyone else was another matter. I am who I am. I’m confident enough now to show myself. Perhaps it took this long – I’ve thought of it before – it’s as if I’ve been staying undercover. You know, how animals keep to the trees and bushes, if they might get killed. I often think that’s what I was doing until very recently." - MF

Check it out: Marianne Faithfull in Spinner

Our favorite Miss X did an interview with Spinner, in which she discusses her new album, working with Lou Reed and Metallica, her appearance in Keith Richards' Life, and her take on her role as a sex symbol. She even puts to rest the public's fascination with her famous relationships, saying, "I don't like being associated with drugs and Mick Jagger - it's the association I don't like ... People change. I know the media can't accept that, but, between you and me, they do change." 

It's a great interview - Marianne is always one for exciting and insightful conversations, and she doesn't disappoint. 

Check it out here

Images from: (Diet) Coke and Sympathy, Tumblr, 

the water’s warm and children swim, and we frolicked about in our summer skin

Confession: I hate the ocean. Well, that's to say I don't like to actually go in the ocean, but I love the ocean itself. It's gorgeous. It's just that the idea of running around half-naked, splashing around in water that has god knows what kind of trash and waste in it, all the while getting an inevitable and unwanted sunburn, leaves a lot to be desired for me. I suppose you - or Bobby Darin - could say that I am 'beyond the sea' in that sense. I no longer have that desire bred during childhood to spend my days building sand castles, or scouting for jellyfish, or digging my heels in the sand in hopes of some au natural pedicure (which would wreak havoc on my bright pink pedicure). I've moved past it. I'm now content to simply look at pictures of the beach - and my skin (and toes!) have thanked me for it. 

Vintage beauties enjoy their time on the shore - props to the gals wearing heels in the sand (it must be quite a workout for your calves!)

Whether on vacation with Mel Ferer or filming scenes for her relationship drama Two For the Road (what a hard day's work to build sand castles with Albert Finney!), Audrey Hepburn somehow always manages to look chic

Jane Fonda looks gorgeously tanned while posing in the sand

The Beatles took the Bahamas by storm (no pun intended) in Help!

French actress Françoise Dorléac splashes on the shore

Brigitte Bardot made a splash (yes, pun intended) at Cannes in 1953, and enjoys some fun in the sun years later with Alain Delon and other friends

Elizabeth Taylor, in her famous white swimsuit in 1958's Suddenly, Last Summer, set the hearts of millions of men on fire - she sported a similar look in an MGM publicity shot earlier in the decade

Montgomery Clift, Alain Delon (driving alongside a guiding Bella Darwin), Hugh Hefner, Gregory Peck, Cary Grant (arm-in-arm with wife Betsy Drake), and John F. Kennedy enjoy some R&R under the sun

Edie Sedgwick has some fun in the water, sporting all the hippest fashions in plaid maxidresses and miniskirts with matching hats

Faye Dunaway in The Thomas Crown Affair looks elegant in her tan and white outfit that almost blends into the sand

This lovely photo collection of Grace Kelly on a beach was done by the princess's personal favorite photographer Howell Conant 

Grace Kelly, captured by Conant as well as her frequent collaborator Alfred Hitchcock in scenes from the French Riviera caper To Catch a Thief 

The beautiful Isabel Lucas

Jane Birkin was often seen spending time with Serge (photographing her himself on the docks in Cannes, walking along the shoreline, and playing in the sand) as well as her children on the beach

I have this odd collection of photographs of Alfred Hitchcock acting goofy (it's actually quite an extensively collection!), but I think these photos of Hitch on the beach -taken by François Gragnon - take the cake

Only a brave woman - like Françoise Hardy - would dare to bare her legs in a white miniskirt on the beach (seriously, I hate the sand)

Amanda Seyfried in Teen Vogue 

It's no surprise Jean Shrimpton would get a round of cheers from those guys in the middle photo - whether in a swimsuit or ballgown, she's pretty fantastic

Joan Crawford uses Douglas Fairbanks as her own personal beach chair

In both of the Vanity Fair cover stories that Lindsay Lohan has appeared, the photo shoots have centered around beach themes. In this 2006 issue, the spirit was in keeping with the va-va-voom bombshell beauty of Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte Bardot

The 2010 V.F. issue had Lohan channeling more of a Grace Kelly feel, with sleekly curled hair, softer makeup, and classic all-American clothes in whites, pinks, and navy blues

Marisa Berenson goes to any length to avoid dreaded tan lines in 1971

The Darling Julie Christie poses on a boat in the film of the same name, as well as in a 60s photo shoot (in the middle picture)

Mick and Marianne on vacation in San Remo in 1966, their first high-profile public outing as a couple

Only the fabulous Veruschka could be this beach-ready (seriously - gold bikini bottoms and see-through bodysuit-caftan hybrid? Only V could get away with it)

Models like Ingrid Boulting (in the red bikini) and a pre-film actress Anjelica Huston (sharing champagne while canoodling with a man on the cover of Vogue) make the beach look chic - if I was guaranteed I would look an inch this glam, then this would be an oceanic experience I could support

Jean Seberg takes a break on the French Riviera set of Bonjour Tristesse

Modern-day celebrities - including Katy Perry, Emma Roberts, Blake Lively, Kristen Stewart, Jennifer Lopez, Beyonce, Zooey Deschanel, Kim Kardashian and Justin Bieber - have fun in the swim and sand

Despite her lifelong fear of water, Natalie Wood was brave enough to don a bikini on more than a couple occasions

George and Pattie on the beaches of Barbados on their honeymoon in 1966, looking adorably in love but also highlighting how times have a-changed (it's funny how George's shorts are skimpier than Pattie's ... a total reversal nowadays)

Title: from "Summer Skin" (Death Cab for Cutie)