Mariages Freres
Mariage Frères is one of the finest well- known French tea companies, based in Paris. It was officially founded on June 1, 1854.
Legendary Parties
Legendary Parties is a book by Jean-Louis De Faucigny-Lucinge. The author, who traces his family to the 11th century when they ruled the Barony of Faucigny in Savoie, and who was active in French political and banking circles, records details of certain rarefied fetes held in France between 1922 and 1972, which he hosted or attended as a guest. He recalls the lavish costume balls presided over by such glitterati as the Count Etienne de Beaumonts, the Viscount de Noailleses and the Baron Guy de Rothschilds. In 1928, the author and his first wife "Baba," now deceased (he describes her as "exotically beautiful" and "one of the most elegant women in Paris"), gave a soiree, based on the theme of Proust's Remembrance of Things Past, which ended at six in the morning under the Eiffel Tower. There are handsome photographs by Cecil Beaton and reproductions of drawings by Pablo Picasso and Yves Saint Laurent, and of Christian Berard's hand-painted screens.
Slim Keith
Slim Keith invented her persona as a teenager, growing into a chic woman who became known among the socially elite as Slim. Film director Howard Hawks and Broadway entrepreneur Leland Hayward divorced their wives to marry her; and although she was pursued by the likes of Clark Gable and Ernest Hemingway, the one love of her life, she writes, remained Hayward, who in turn left her for another woman. Her next and last husband was British banker Kenneth Keith, who provided her with a title and whom she left in 1972 after a 10-year marriage. Her "memoirs of a rich and imperfect life," written with freelancer Tapert, is compulsively readable, an account of a determined striving up from the middle class to join the Beautiful People. Keith, a woman of style, is revealed also as boastful and betraying, as a gossiper who spared few friends - the real-life Lady Coolbirth of Truman Capote's infamous Answered Prayers.
Happy Valley set
The Happy Valley set was a group of privileged British colonials living in Kenya and Uganda during the 1920s - 1940s. The elite social group became notorious for stories of drug use and promiscuous sexual encounters.
Stork Club
Manhattan's Stork Club, one of the most famous watering holes in the long history of American nightclubbing, was - from its opening in 1929 to its demise in 1965 - the place to see and be seen in the Big Apple. The slick, sexy, smoky creation of a native Oklahoman and ex-bootlegger named Sherman Billingsley, the Stork was, in the words of legendary gossip columnist and radio loudmouth Walter Winchell, "New York's New Yorkiest" joint. Sherman Billingsley, Stork Club owner Sherman Billingsley Billingsley was, it would seem, born for the role of nightclub big shot; rarely a night went by when he wasn't on the floor, shaking hands, slapping backs, greeting movie stars, musicians, powerful pols and famous athletes, keeping the booze flowing, playing cards with the clientele - in short, running an upscale saloon like a well-oiled (and highly profitable) machine.
Cercle de l’Union interalliée
The cercle de l'Union interalliée, also known as the Cercle interallié is a social and dining club established in 1917 at No. 33 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris, France with Ferdinand Foch, Marshal of France, as its second president. It adjoins the embassies of Britain and Japan. The 3,100-member club has many international members and is frequently used for business conferences by organizations such as the WTO, Bank of England, Wharton Club of Paris, Forbes magazine and Radley College.
Porfirio Rubirosa
Porfirio Rubirosa was a Dominican diplomat, polo player and race car driver who competed in the 1950 and 1954 24 Hours of Le Mans, but was best known as an international playboy for his jet-setting lifestyle and legendary prowess with women.
Catwalk
A camera follows model Christy Turlington through the spring fashion shows in Milan, Paris, and New York one year in the early 1990s.
Lady Killearn
The Dowager Lady Killearn, who has died aged 105, remained, in old age, as vivacious, colourful and controversial as she had been as the glamorous young wife of Britain’s wartime ambassador to Cairo. An only child, Jacqueline Aldine Leslie Castellani was born in Ceylon on January 13 1910. Her mother was a Yorkshire Protestant, but Jacqueline took more after her Italian father, Sir Aldo Castellani, a flamboyant Florentine bacteriologist turned Harley Street doctor who discovered the parasite that transmits sleeping sickness, pioneered various vaccinations and founded the International Society of Dermatology. Sir Aldo was a raconteur, monarchist and snob, and his roll-call of patients included Rudolph Valentino, Elsa Schiaparelli, Guglielmo Marconi and Umberto, the deposed king of Italy. At the time of Jacqueline’s birth her father was head of the British government clinic for tropical diseases in Ceylon. A great dancer and a great flirt, in due course she was presented at Court in London, and was one of the outstanding debutantes of her year. Her fragile, porcelain-doll beauty, her exotic and sophisticated background and her vivacity won her many followers.
China Machado
China Machado, a model, muse and editor who was one of the first women to break high fashion's color barrier, has died at 86. At 19, she met Luis Miguel Dominguín, who was the most famous bullfighter in the world at the time — Ernest Hemingway's The Dangerous Summer is about Dominguín and his brother. By all accounts, he was immediately smitten. Machado ran off with the dashing bullfighter, scandalizing her family and kicking off two extraordinary years of travel and adventure — partying with Errol Flynn and Pablo Picasso.