Kohle Yohannan "VALENTINA American Couture and the Cult of Celebrity"

"No matter in what milieu, a woman should never look clumsy. When she is working, even in the kitchen, she must be dressed in what is suited just for this, created just for this. It can have as much chic, on its own terms, as what she wears to dinner - and she should feel just as gay and charming in it. The woman who imagines she can become chic suddenly at six o'clock by getting all dressed up for the evening- to this I say no. Chic is something that must be with her all day, all the time. It does not matter how frugal her wardrobe is, if it is planned, if everything in it expresses a reality of what her life is, and its occupations, then she will never look clumsy. This is the only elegance." 

Valentina

"Stepping out of limousine in front of a bustling Manhattan supper club one evening in the 1940s, Valentina and George Schlee approached the cordoned-off front door with Noel Coward, Marlene Dietrich, John Galliher, and Clifton Webb in tow, filing past a gathering group of tourists who had stopped to catch a glimpse of the glamorous nightspot and equally glamorous clientele. Visibly stymied, a child in the crowd pointed and giggled at what must have been one of Valentina's more outlandish getups - a gaffe that her well-meaning, but embarrassed mother attempted to back pedal away from by saying approvingly that no doubt the lovely lady was "dressed for theater"

Bemused, Valentina stopped, then turned dramatically to face the on-looking crowd, and replied, with a bow,

"Madam, I am theater..."

With this, she raised one carefully groomed eyebrow, then turned back to the charmed laughter of her companions and the now-applauding crowd and disappeared into the club."

Valentina Sanina  Schlee and her husband, George Schlee, Russian émigrés, moved to New York in 1920s. Valentina opened up an atelier and later a high couture house, which became very successful. Valentina dressed the preeminent women of style of her day. Harold Koda noted rightly that Valentina understood the conflicting desires of women to stand out, while appearing to blend in.

She constructed a lot of outfits based on nuns' images: "I thought them the most beautiful women I had ever seen. The memory has remained to color everything I have ever done..."

Agatha Christie "An Autobiography"

Agatha Christie talks as if she embroiders - she picks up thoroughly a thread, sometimes adorning her work by pearls of wisdom.
 

I found interesting her thoughts about women.  
Agatha Christie says that with the passage of time the situation of women has definitely changed for the worse. Women behaved foolishly - they began to yell, they were allowed to operate on an equal basis with men. Men  jumped gladly at the idea. Why to defend  wives? What's wrong if she would defend herself? If she wants it, she is welcome!

Agatha finds extremely frustrating that at the beginning women declared themselves wisely as the weaker sex, now they are caught up in a situation of primitive women  working all day in the fields, marching for miles in search of camel thorns suitable for fuel. Poor women marched with heavy household goods on their heads, while their brilliant males pranced proudly in front, free of baggage except deadly weapons to protect their women.

You have to do justice to the women of the Victorian era, Agatha says. Women of that epoque kept men in such order. Fragile, delicate, sensitive, Victorian's women were constantly in need of protection and care. Were they humiliated, crushed or had a slave lifestyle? The memories of Agatha Christie tell her something different. All friends of her  Grandma were very joyful, stubborn in their desires, self-willed, extremely well-read and well-informed about everything, they achieved success in all endeavors. They  admired incredibly their men. In daily life, women were doing everything they wanted, while pretending to fully recognize the superiority of men so that  their husbands do not lose face.

What else did I find interesting in the biography of Agatha? A lot of things. Her descriptions of how they dressed, of course. Her sartorial problems with a bathing suit and her collar a la Peter Pan. Glimpses of post-Victorian upbringing, such as Agatha's dialog with her Nanny:

- Remember, the Queen of Spain has no legs.

- And what does she have, Nanny?

- Limbs, my dear. You have to call them like that , hands and legs are limbs.

As noted rightly by Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, her autobiography is"the history of a unique upbringing in a time long gone. It’s a portrait of a childhood and young womanhood that vanished with World War I.”

I liked very much Agatha's principle of not coming back to the places that are associated with very special memories. Never go back to the places where you were happy. As long as you do not do that, everything remains alive in your memory. If you find yourself there again, everything will not be the same and it will destroy your miracle.

I remembered Agatha's dialogue with a lady in the train.

"- Honey, - the lady said - never give in to the stomach. If there is something wrong, tell yourself: "Who is the boss here - me or my stomach?"

- But what can you do with it, really?

- Any stomach can be re-educated. Little by little. No matter what it is for. For example, I have endured badly eggs. Or I got quite ill from toasts with cheese. I started with a coffee spoon of soft-boiled eggs two or three times a week, then cooked them a little longer, and so on. And now I can eat as many eggs as I want. Same with toas

If you like descriptions of traveling you will find curious things on how people traveled hundred years ago, descriptions of Isfahan, Baghdad, Baku and many other places that Agatha saw. 

It is a good summer reading.

Agatha Christie and the collar a la Peter Pan

Milorad Pavic "The Inner Side of the Wind, or The Novel of Hero and Leander"

Do you like paintings by Marc Chagall?

Milorad Pavic is Marc Chagall in words. Both are geniuses.

The Inner Side of the Wind, or The Novel of Hero and Leander:

"...in dreams there is no past tense. Everything there reminds of something not experienced yet, some strange tomorrow, which started in advance. It reminds a down payment, taken from a future life, a future that happens thanks to the fact that the sleeper (isolated in the future tense) avoided the inevitable 'now'" 

"The future has one big advantage: in reality it looks always as you did not imagine it."


Last Love in Constantinople, A Tarot novel for divination:


 "You people do not know how to measure your days. You only measure their length and say that the day lasts 24 hours. And your days have sometimes more depth than length and this depth can be up to a month or even a year of the length of days."

Barbara De Angelis "Secrets About Life Every Woman Should Know: Ten Principles for Total Emotional and Spiritual Fulfillment "

If you find Kastaneda too dramatic and you think the methods he offers are not applicable to your busy life, you may try Barbara de Angelis "Secrets About Life Every Woman Should Know". 

It is Kastaneda or Hawaiian shamans packed and explained to modern women who do not want to be bothered with extravagances such as Daoism, I mean those many women who have usual life problems like a broken heart, children, job etc.

The book is a bit long - Barbara belongs to a "chewing" type. Maybe being long and sentimental is something typical for an American. I can't judge, but I have this impression. Elizabeth Gilbert is also a "chewing" type. Sometimes I think American editors ask their authors to bring bricks with no less than 500 000 words, so the authors have to chew. Why shorter novels are not in fashion? Why not to announce, just like in Vogue - "This year is the year of short stories, mini is back again"! Have you noticed how heavy children books became?

Back to Barbara. In fact, being a "chewing" type is being analytical. I, unfortunately, also belong to this type. Instead of writing something creative like "Brigitte Jones" and make people smile, a "chewing" type would rather chew and provide people with an "understanding".

Did you know that love can be explained? Barbara gives one of THE BEST explanations of love, no sarcasm here. In fact if you have no money and time to fly to India's ashrams or you do not want to pay psychologist's fees, the cheapest and, in my opinion, the best solution, is Barbara's book. She walks you through her life, she is very sincere and very helpful.