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)

tenderoni you've got to be, spark my nature, sugar fly with me

"This is the new British girl. Observe her. She is a novel phenomenon." 

So begins the introduction by Anthony Haden-Guest - a glorious outpouring of praise and adoration for these girls that epitomized a particular time, place, and moment in history. Haden-Guest explains that who this girl is: "She is Loyal, also Fickle, Obstinate, Gentle, Suspicious and Trusting. Also Sharp and Feckless, Realistic and Fantastic beyond belief. Just as in the horoscopes, which she never fails to read, make your character diagnosis, and it will seem to fit. Until you diagnose the opposite, and that fits too." 

"There are no rules, only exceptions. Except that the British girl is suddenly the most attractive, the most desirable, the most startling girl in the world. This is a rule, and an exceptional one.

She is a new animal, a shock genetic mutation, and she has appeared everywhere, like a new model of car, or an epidemic, or the flowers in the Spring."

"But there is, of course, a reason for everything. A new animal must be observed in its environment, and especially in this case when the British girl has exploded into a radically altered environment, which she has created, or which created her, or whatever, and which has become known as the London Scene. The Scene ... an exhausted phrase now, an adman's phrase like Image. The Image of London, the London Scene, both phrases over-used, almost to death, but always resurrected, because they are irreplaceable. There is a new way of life, and these girls are part of it.

The new girl belongs to this moment in time, and only this one." 

Pattie Boyd

"Pattie Boyd always looks on the brink of being startled by something utterly fantastic. The eyes and mouth are assuming delicate saucer shapes. The blood is about to rush from a milky and tremulous face. She has already been startled, by a precipitous success as a model, and she startled everybody else by marrying a Beatle, George Harrison, the lean one who is trying to master the Indian sitar. What more utterly fantastic things can life hold?"

Charlotte Rampling

"Apparently without trying much, she is maintaining an impressive rising graph, from toting a guitar around Spain, through modelling, to acting. There was a flash of a scene in The Knack and quite a slice of Georgy Girl - two crucial movies of the new London - and now onwards. In Georgy Girl she portrayed a Swinger, 'a really vile and hard sort of woman' in her own words. But everybody calls her Charly." 

Sue Murray

"Sue Murray is a model, and one of the bright lights of the post-Shrimpton wave. She is one of the moxt successful in Britain, or, for that matter, the United States, where she works constantly. Why? John d Green says that she doesn't have to work at it - she just stands there. She is the perfectly natural girl." 

Title: from "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)" (Michael Jackson)

the british (birds) are coming!

This photo is a testament to my supreme nerdiness; and to assure that this moment - as captured on my computer - will not be used against me as blackmail in future I am sharing it with the entirety of the interwebs. Also, because I am a bragging lil bitch. 

Today I experienced my version of Christmas morning - I received a copy of the much sought-after, hard-to-find coffee table book / dolly girl bible Birds of Britain in the mail today. As you could guess, I am beyond excited about it. The copy I purchased in excellent condition that it doesn't look like it's been around for almost forty-five years - the pages are unwrinkled and the binding is in great condition (this is the nerdy vintage archiver in me coming out now). The photographs are so excellent that they surpass all of my expectations and anticipations. I have seen many of the photos on various websites and blogs discussing the book by John D. Green (or as credited in the book 'John d Green' ... yeah, the sixties were too cool for proper grammar), but the images are such high quality works of art that my retinas are exhausted just looking over the book from cover to cover. 

What I love a lot is the text here - it's amazing on so on-the-nose about all of these girls and the scene they were a part of. The inner flap of the book starts, "Miniskirts and the Rolling Stones, the Beatles and now the Birds. That means girls - feathery and soft, swinging and defiantly independent. London has cracked out of its sober chrysalis into an ultravisual supersonic capital-of-all-the-arts, whose theatre annually swamps Broadway, whose fashions ripple down the Main Streets of the world, and whose girls are its most visible assets." And those are just the first three sentences! I wish I could write that gorgeously all the time - seriously, the mind reels. How can so much excellence and beauty be in one book?! Yeah, I'm not exaggerating in the slightest.  

Tomorrow and the next few days, I will start covering various aspects of the book - including photographs and text regarding this "incandescent maelstrom" of British birds. 

fill me with song, allah, kiss me once more, that i may, that i may wear my love like heaven

I always knew that the readers of DRG were special little dollies - everyone I've spoken to, emailed with, and blog-stalked has a passion for the retro, the beautiful, the impractical, the magical, the bohemian, and the glamorous. Imagine my excitement when I opened my message inbox this morning to see emails of links on museum exhibits (ooh la la McQueen à la MoMA), concerts, and interviews with glamazons like Debbie Harry and Florence Welch. A special merci to a certain fabulous San Franciscan who thought of moi when she saw a piece in the Los Angeles Times. 

The piece is on Pattie Boyd and her upcoming photography exhibit on Catalina Island. As it turns out, Catalina holds a spot close to Pattie's heart. A recent rediscovery of photographs from early 1971 contained images of Pattie's first-hubby George Harrison deep-sea fishing off of Catalina just weeks prior to his landmark Concert for Bangladesh event. 

I am definitely diggin' this article because it captures the dreamy sweetness and loveliness that Pattie was so known for. The article says, as follows, "Boyd gazed at those photos with her cornflower blue eyes. She broke into the slightly gap-toothed smile that made her stand out among the other models of her era and reflected on the image ... She sighed and added: 'We were all so young and beautiful.'" 

Her last comment is such a definitive statement of the sixties - it was a decade when everyone was young and beautiful, a collection of multi-colored dream children walking so high they didn't touch the ground. Despite what she thinks - and despite the passing of years and youth - Pattie is still incredibly beautiful. 

Check out the article here, as well as a sneak peek at Pattie exhibit  

Title: from "Wear Your Love Like Heaven" (Donovan)

Then and Now: Pattie Boyd and Britney Spears

Who knew that red vinyl bodysuits were such a fashion statement? Here, both Pattie and Brit-Brit rock red catsuits with matching black boots and teased blonde hair. I feel a new trend coming on...

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)