A.G. Nauta couture label
The A,G,Nauta couture collection will be available for 15% off!
Date: Sunday May 4
Adress: Chassestraat 26, Amsterdam
Time: 11 hrs untill 17 hrs
a GARAGE SALE of the clothes I made for myself over the years (dresses, skirts, petticoats, winter & summer coats),
Wallis Simpson
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Duchess of Windsor, by Irving Penn; this corner was a Penn trademark.
On December 11, 1936, the King of England addressed his people: “You must believe me when I tell you that I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as King as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love. ”Edward’s words, solemn and delivered with obvious emotion, crackled out over the wireless in homes across the kingdom. The fledgling ruler—so new, he had not yet been crowned—had renounced his throne, all in the name of love. Across the globe, presses blazed with speculation about this very grand-scale—and, to many, quite puzzling—love story. The burning question on everyone’s lips: Who exactly was this “Wally” and what powers of mesmerization did she possess?
Bessie Wallis was a headstrong, violet-eyed child with sausage curls and a love of the pretty dresses sewn by her mother, the down-on-her-luck daughter of an old Virginia family. Swanning out in a satin-and-seed-pearl copy of a dress worn by the dancer Irene Castle, she made her society debut in Baltimore in 1914 as the all-grown-up “Wallis” (Bessie, she had decided, was a name for cows). Two years later, she was married to a dashing, alcoholic pilot named Earl Winfield Spencer, Jr., and living as a Navy wife in Pensacola, Florida. That turbulent marriage ended in divorce in 1928.
Divorce, of course, was still shocking in those years, a transgression that would stain a woman’s reputation ever after. But Wallis found a safe have, and stability, in her second husband, Ernest Simpson, an Anglo-American ship broker. The society decorator Syrie Maugham lent her flair to the Simpsons’ home in London and soon, their chic flat was overflowing with the cream of 1930s café society. Among the socialites and aristocrats who turned up for Wallis’s inventive cocktail fare—“[Her] hot dishes are famous,” noted Vogue—were the interior designer Elsie de Wolfe and Lady Thelma Furness, who introduced the witty, wisecracking Wallis (young Bessie had picked up some colorful language from a barman’s parrot) to Edward, the Prince of Wales.
The golden bachelor prince was a royal pin-up, a spinster’s dream from Mayfair to Milwaukee. As Vogue declared, he was “one of those people who really have glamour. ”Wallis would later record his impact on her life: “He was the open sesame to a new and glittering world. Yachts materialized; the best suites in the finest hotels were flung open; aeroplanes stood waiting. . . . It was like being Wallis in Wonderland. ”In her, Edward had found a woman as bold as the big Glenurquarhart plaids he so adored: “From the first, I looked upon her as the most independent woman I had ever met, ”he later recalled.
Three years into this acquaintance, the pair embarked on a passionate adulterous affair, which Wallis privately acknowledged in a letter to her aunt Bessie Merryman: “It requires great tact to manage both men,” she wrote. “I shall try to keep them both. ”David, as Edward was known to family and friends, would deliver his Wallis a lifetime of love notes via a most spectacular vehicle: jewelry. The Baltimore belle would one day have enough sapphires and rubies to rival a maharaja, her treasure chest stuffed with Verdura, Van Cleef & Arpels, and Cartier.
In 1936, photographs of the king and his latest mistress together on his yacht emerged. Wallis was granted a divorce from her husband, and after a waiting period of six months, was free to marry again. Wallis reportedly tried to dissuade Edward from renouncing his birthright—but to no avail.
The infamous Lobster Dress designed in collaboration with Salvador Dali, worn by Wallace Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor, 1937. The placement of the lobster was considered scandalous. Ph. Cecil Beaton
Wallis Simpson, wearing a Elsa Schiaparelli Dress and jacket. Ph. Cecil Beaton
On a bright spring day—shortly before she was to marry her David—Wallis posed for a series of portraits at the Château de Candé in the Loire Valley. Cecil Beaton, the society figure and Vogue photographer, captured the handsome brunette in a thicket, sunlight dappling her Schiaparelli waltz dress of floaty white organdy. But what captures the eye is not so much the face of the not-so-blushing bride but something unusual on the front of her frock: not ribbons or an orange-blossom print, but a fat red lobster, and a sprinkling of green parsley to taste—courtesy of Salvador Dalí. No members of the royal family were present for the small wedding ceremony; the union would cause a lifelong rift. Afterward, Beaton snapped the happy couple on the château balcony, Wallis in a Mainbocher crepe dress of soft gray-blue—hereafter known as “Wallis blue”—the bodice recalling “the fluted lines of a Chinese statue of an early century,” according to Vogue. A Cartier bracelet of nine gem-set crosses, each inscribed with a message in the duke’s handwriting, circled her slender wrist. “God Save the King for Wallis, 16.VII.36, ” (It refers to the apparent assassination attempt on the king on 16th July 1936, in which an Irishman calling himself George Andrew McMahon pulled a loaded revolver on the monarch, who was riding on horseback near Buckingham Palace) read one.
Wallis Simpson dressed in Mainbocher for Her Marriage to Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor, June 3, 1937. The crepe dress of soft gray-blue, hereafter known as “Wallis blue”.
“And so the Duke and Duchess of Windsor went off together into that tarnished sunset of exiled royalty,” Time would later reflect. Though the duchess was denied the title of Royal Highness—a persistent thorn in her side—the Windsors soon became “the international jet-set’s de facto king and queen,” as Vanity Fair later put it. In the fifties and sixties, an invitation to dine at the Windsor Villa on Paris’s Bois de Boulogne was “like a gift from God, ” recalled one insider. Inside the stately Louis XVI-style edifice lingered the heady perfume of incense and orchids. From the Steinway came the duke’s favorites: “Mr. Wonderful” and “Love and Marriage.” Obedient in mink collars and gold Cartier leashes, Gin-seng and Black Diamond, the couple’s precious pugs, greeted guests in a cloud of Dior perfume. Crisp tablecloths (the ever-immaculate duchess was fanatic about ironing, even insisting her money be pressed), were laid with the Windsors’ Meissen Flying Tiger plates, and piled high with caviar. Dinner was followed by a game of cards; guests might even be treated to a Hula-Hoop performance by their dapper hosts.
Whether playing baccarat in Monte Carlo or sipping bellinis at Harry’s Bar in Venice, the Windsors were the toast of the town. On New Year’s Eve at El Morocco in New York—where they kept a suite at the Waldorf Towers—the duke and duchess were “crowned” at last . . . with makeshift paper hats. At every event, the svelte, superbly turned out duchess was “tirée à quatre épingles [pulled together with four pins], ”according to the Countess of Rochambeau, a onetime Vogue editor.
Although her reputation was always somewhat clouded—not just by the aspersions cast on her character as a possible gold digger, but, much more grievously, tainted by the observation that both she and Edward were overly friendly with Nazis in the thirties—the enigmatic Wallis was never less than intriguing. Perhaps the most lasting legacy of this unique woman is a somewhat withering quip attributed to her in the popular imagination: “You can never be too rich,” she supposedly said, “or too thin.”
Last week my friend Astrid and I went on a trip to Tokyo and in this post I like to share some of the places we liked a lot….
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In the morning, after having breakfast is a French pastry shop in the Mitsukoshimae Subway Station (a lot of great coffee shops, restaurants and shops are under ground in subways stations!), we went to the large Muji store nearby Tokyo Station.
Muji was originally known as “Mujirushi ryohin”, a Japanese expression that means ” quality product without brand”. The value of a “Muji ” product in fact is the selection of materials, the care of its production. From simplicity of the project to the packaging. In Muji you won’t find products with excessive price, but just simple products of great quality at affordable prices. Muji has opened shops in many capitals like London and Paris.
It’s also a place where you can rent bicycles, although you have to get there at 10, when the shop opens, because there’s only a little number of bikes for rent. It is a bit adventuruous to cycle through Tokyo, it’s not always clear where you’re supposed to ride your bike. Sometimes you find bike lanes, but other times you have to choose between the sidewalk and the main road. Still it’s an exciting way to explore the city!
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MannenYa (Mannen-ya ) , is a small but unique warehouse for Japan’s construction workers in Tokyo. It’s nearby Tokyo City Hall, where you can go up to the 48th floor to get a few of the city. Outside MannenYa you’ll see many pairs of colorful overalls, exotically but practically designed workman’s pants and shirts hanging while packed inside is an assortment of various workwears.
The items of MannenYa are not exactly high fashion but basic blue-collar gears. However, that’s exactly what draws the likes of fashion designers like Jean-Paul Gaultier and Walter Van Beirendonck
Nishi Shinjuku 3-8-1,Shinjuku, Tokyo 160-0023, Japan
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In Tokyo you find many, many shops and stores, but one I’d like to mention specially is Tokyu Hands. The stores often take up a number of floors in large department stores or stand alone stores in their own right. Tokyu Hands opened its first store in Shibuya in 1976 and was originally a DIY and hobby shop, hence the “two hands” symbol and green color of its trade mark. The main flagship store is in Shibuya with other large stores in Ikebukuro and Shinjuku.
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It used to be in Harajuku, but now is Shimokitazawa, commonly called “Shimokita” on the western side of Tokyo where the young and trendy individuals spent their time in the many small theater halls, live houses, bars and secondhand clothes and record shops. With its many narrow alleys that are inaccessible to vehicles, you are given a real sense of adventure while exploring the town on foot.
The secondhand clothes shops and shops offering items from the 70s and old animation-themed toys are quite popular. The number of large-scale shops in the area has been increasing, but the nicest features of this area are the many shops expressing the ingenuity of their young owners, such as those combining a cafe and a record shop or an outlet for small handmade items.
Shimokito is also a great place to watch Tokyo’s trendies and Harajuku girls stroll by!
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Just west of Shibuya which is popular with young people, the area connecting Shibuya, Jiyugaoka and Futako-tamagawa is known as the “Triangle Area.” On one side of this triangle you’ll find Naka Megura / Daikan Yama, an area which doesn’t just have shops stocking fashionable sweatshirts , but also cafes where you can try hot chocolate fondue made by French trained chefs.
On of those places is Le Cordon Bleu. The College of Culinary Arts is housed in this building, where you find a great restaurant / cafe on the ground-floor, with a large que in front of the counter. French food and the classic French way of dressing is a trend in Tokyo at the moment. Lots of French bakeries all around town and the subway stations and many girls wearing the striped ‘sailor’ shirt and a petite beige trench coat.
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One of my favorite places for great finds is the Art & Design shop of the Mori Art Museum at Roppongi Hills.
Entering the Museum building you first pass the sculpture by Louise Bourgeois, Maman Spider. You have a great view from the Mori Museum Tokyo City View. On the 3rd floor in the store you’ll find beautiful items, books and dvd’s by f.i. Comme Des Garçons and Yayoi Kusama. This time also a lot of Andy Warhol memorabilia and tableware and little vases which could be straight out of a Fred Flintstone cupboard.
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My only disappointment was the stock in the Good Design Shop by Comme Des Garçons. Two years ago I visited the shop for the first time and loved it instantly. I bought a great ‘soccer’ scarve and saw lots of other great finds by CDG, like bags in black& white, cardigans, rain coats & jackets, wool patchwork hats & gloves and plaids. I expected to find some new items this time, but the stock stayed the same. For CDG devotees it’s a place you have to visit for sure! You can find the shop on Omotosando.
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And if you like antique and flea markets, tokyo also has some which are worth visiting!!!
check the link: http://www.japanspecialist.co.uk/travel-tips/antique-and-flea-markets/
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When you’re resting after a day of shopping in Tokyo, try to watch the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi or the movie Lost in Translation.
Born Maria Theodora Mathilde de Doelder (1938-1977) in a province in the south of the Netherlands called Zeeland, she became famous as Mathilde Willink. Young Mathilde was an intelligent girl, who graduated cum laude from high school, after which she moved to Amsterdam to attend art school.
Mathilde had always been a shy and timid girl, but this changed in her new hometown. She adopted an exuberant lifestyle and at twenty-one she met the much older, well-known painter Carel Willink. Mathilde quit art school to become a stewardess at KLM Airlines. Two years she and Carel married and they lived a very comfortable lifestyle.
In 1972 Mathilde started wearing clothes designed by Fong Leng, an artist who had started making extravagant garments with names as exotic as the clothes itself, like Chinese roof garden, Wuthering Heights and Bird of Paradise. Carel made special ‘almost permanent’ make-up for her which she could wear day-and-night. A ‘star’ was born.
Designer Fong Leng & Mathilde Willink
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In 1971 Fong Leng opened ‘ Studio Fong Leng’ in the P.C. Hooftstraat in Amsterdam, where extravagant clothes were sold. From day one Mathilde Willink was a devoted fan. She wore the fabulous creations at society parties, at media gatherings and became a known phenomenon in the streets scenes of Amsterdam. (I saw her only ones and I remember like it was yesterday! A beautiful woman who dared to be different…. I had been ‘different’ in the town I was born in and I knew how strong and determined you had to be, to dress abundant.)
Mathilde’s excentric looks were important building the reputation, national and international, for ‘Studio Fong Leng’. Fong Leng and Mathilde Willink names were synonymous and still are.
In a five-year period Mathilde bought 37 creations by Fong Leng, which could be priced up to € 11.345,- each.
Fong Leng in one of her own designs
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Mathilde Willink was a living art object, an original and a unique person, who dared to be different.
After Carel and Mathilde divorced, her life drifted into chaos and ended with the unsolved mystery her death. It’s still unclear if she was killed or committed suicide. On her tombstone just one word: Mathilde
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Decades after Mathilde Willink died, she was the inspiration for the S/S 2003 catwalk collection by Viktor & Rolf . The vivid show was based on the shows Fong Leng used to present: dancing outrageous models on ‘rocking’ music, party time backstage and on the catwalk.
International press didn’t know about Mathilde and wrote about ‘dresses out of the heyday of Zandra Rhodes and Bill Gibb‘ and ‘homage to vintage Chanel’.
(Music at the V&R show by Eddy De Clercq)
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Paul Poiret was the first couturier to embrace draping over the more traditional techniques of tailoring and corsetry; in doing so he played a key role in liberating women (Madeleine Vionnet also advanced an uncorseted silhouette, but it was Poiret, largely owing to his acumen for publicity, who became most widely associated with the new look). Draping freed not just the woman but the designer as well, allowing him to develop the innovations that became his trademarks: billowing kimono coats, neoclassical Empire and lampshade dresses and hobble skirts.
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In 1911 Poiret’s house expanded to encompass furniture, decor, and fragrance in addition to clothing, the first “total lifestyle“. Rosine, a perfume and cosmetics line is named after his eldest daughter. Poiret introduced “Parfums de Rosine” becoming the first couturier to launch a signature fragrance linked to a design house.
On 24 June 1911 Poiret unveiled “Parfums de Rosine” in a flamboyant manner. A grand soiree was held at his palatial home, a costume ball attended by the cream of Parisian society and the artistic world. Poiret fancifully christened the event “la mille et deuxième nuit,” the thousand and second night, inspired by the fantasy of sultans’ harems. Gardens were illuminated by lanterns, set with tents, and live tropical birds. Madame Poiret herself lounged in a golden cage luxuriating in opulence, waiting for her master’s arrival so that he could set her free. The bejeweled silk harem pants Poiret made for Denise (who played the part of a concubine) were said to be inspired by a production of Scheherazade by the Ballet Russes, eventually became the basis for a new kind of lampshade silhouette that was soon all the rage. Poiret was the reigning sultan, gifting each guest with a bottle of his new fragrance creation, appropriately named to befit the occasion, Nuit d’Perse. Improperly dressed guests were requested to either outfit themselves in some of Poiret’s ‘Persian’ outfits or to leave! Poiret’s marketing strategy played out as entertainment became a sensation and the talk of Paris.
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Denise & Paul Poiret at “The Thousand and Second Night” party. 
Paul Poiret in an Arabian outfit for one of his parties 
At the end of the Thousand and Second Night party
Denise Poiret at “The Thousand And Second Night”party, by George Lepape (illustrator)
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Design by Paul Poiret made for the “thousand and second night” party
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In 1911, publisher Lucien Vogel dared photographer Edward Steichen to promote fashion as a fine art by the use of photography. Steichen then took photos of gowns designed by Poiret. These photographs were published in the April 1911 issue of the magazine Art et Décoration. This is “…now considered to be the first ever modern fashion photography shoot..
In September 1913 Poiret travels to New York with Denise to tour department stores and give a series of lectures. The Manhattan fashion world welcomes them with noisy fanfare. The New York Times runs the excited headline, “Poiret, Creator of Fashions, Is Here.”
During World War I, Poiret left his fashion house to serve the military by streamlining uniform production. He returns to Paris briefly to design the fall collection, but after two of his children die suddenly (first Rosine from an ear infection, then Gaspard from Spanish influenza), he abandons the idea. His house will now lay dormant until the end of the war. He does release one perfume during this time “Sang de France” (Blood of France), but the authorities ban it..
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April 1911, Art et Décoration magazine
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Poiret returned after being discharged in 1919. He meets a young Elsa Schiaparelli. They strike up a friendship and he gives her clothes to wear to in-crowd hangouts. He encourages her to start her own line, which she will do a few years later.
Because he has failed to move on from his pre-war aesthetic, his designs start to be outshined by those of younger, more modern designers such as Coco Chanel, who were producing simple, sleek clothes that relied on excellent workmanship. In comparison, Poiret’s elaborate designs seemed dowdy and poorly manufactured. (Though Poiret’s designs were groundbreaking, his construction was not—he aimed only for his dresses to “read beautifully from afar.”) Struggling, the house was on the brink of bankruptcy, he decides to sell the rights to his business to a group of backers. His new maison du couture, however, is described by a visitor as “rich and tasteless. His struggle to be unusual has wound up making it all impossible. It’s like a sweetshop.”
After their bitter divorce in 1928 (Time reported, “M. Poiret charged that his wife’s attitude was injurious; Mme .Poiret countercharged that her husband was cruel”), Denise still held her ex-husband’s work in high esteem. She kept her spectacular wardrobe for posterity’s sake and it was passed down to her children and grandchildren.
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Poiret was suddenly out of fashion, in debt, and lacking support from his business partners and he soon left his fashion house. In 1929, the house itself was closed, and its leftover clothes were sold by the kilogram as rags.
When Poiret died in 1944 in German-occupied Paris, his genius had been forgotten. His road to poverty led him in odd jobs as a street painter trying to sell drawings to the customers of Paris’ cafes. and working as a bartender.
At one time it was even discussed in the ‘Chambre syndicale de la Haute Couture’ to provide a monthly allowance to help him, an idea rejected by the Worths (at that time at holding the presidency of that body). Only the help of his friend Elsa Schiaparelli prevented his name from encountering complete oblivion and it was Schiaparelli that paid for Poiret’s burial.
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A warning against false labels, from Women's Wear Daily, 1913
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Info about Paul & Denise Poiret: Voguepedia & Wikipedia
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Next week: Paul Poiret, Pictures of Garments (part 3)
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agnautacouture.com 
Book
This is the story of the American divorcee notorious for allegedly seducing a British king off his throne. “That woman,” so called by Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, was born Bessie Wallis Warfield in 1896 in Baltimore. Neither beautiful nor brilliant, she endured an impoverished childhood, which fostered in her a burning desire to rise above her circumstances.
Acclaimed biographer Anne Sebba offers an eye-opening account of one of the most talked about women of her generation. It explores the obsessive nature of Simpson’s relationship with Prince Edward, the suggestion that she may have had a Disorder of Sexual Development, and new evidence showing she may never have wanted to marry Edward at all.
Since her death, Simpson has become a symbol of female empowerment as well as a style icon. But her psychology remains an enigma. Drawing from interviews and newly discovered letters, That Woman shines a light on this captivating and complex woman, an object of fascination that has only grown with the years.
Duke and Duchess Windsor by Richard Avedon, 1957. .Documentary
Documentary which sheds new light on the greatest crisis to rock the British monarchy in centuries – the abdication of King Edward VIII. Usually it has been presented as the only possible solution to his dilemma of having to choose between the throne and the woman he loved. Using secret documents and contemporary diaries and letters this film shows a popular monarch whose modern ideas so unsettled the establishment that his love for Wallis Simpson became the perfect excuse to bounce him off the throne
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. info: VoguePedia and Wikipedia.