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Look for the Editor's new jewelry website!
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Mata Hari and Friends
I guess we all know by now what’s ahead of us. It’s only a matter of time now that war will be declared. Fear, heartbreak, courage: the two young men in our family are fourteen and eighteen. I am no warmonger. Yet I am terrified by the possibilities of destruction if we do nothing—and equally terrified by the thoughts of what war could bring.
Fashion plays a more important role now more than ever. Fashion will help to cheer us up, give us fantasy and most importantly, give us hope. I would like to propose three different fashion looks for this perilous and courageous era.
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The Mata Hari Look
Mata Hari was a Dutch born exotic dancer who became a spy during World War I. Her name is synonymous with sensuality, intrigue and wartime romance. Her Edwardian style was enhanced by coats with high fur collars and smoldering eyes which come through in her photographs and portraits. Men were crazy for her, but she was executed by a French firing squad after she was accused of spying for the Germans—and it is well documented that she had had an affair with a German general. Luckily, the French
learned from this incident, and let Coco Chanel go after her affairs with German officers were discovered---much to the benefit and subsequent success of the French fashion industry and luxury trade. Why the Spring 2003 runways did not show the Mata Hari look is a complete mystery to me.
The Christiane Amanpour Look
The peripatetic CNN field reporter Christiane Amanpour, with her trademark bangs and tousled pageboy dark hair, scarf wrapped three times around her neck and condensed breath as she briefs us from the freezing winter desert, was a well known coquette before her marriage. It is said that she mesmerized John F. Kennedy, Jr. and several ambassadors, and made up for her lack of elegance with charm and courage. But charm and courage are very elegant, and Christiane has a look very much of and for our times.
The Condoleezza Rice Look
America’s National Security Advisor has buffed up considerably since her Stanford University professor days. I know, as Condoleezza and I went to the same hairdresser in Northern California and I had ample opportunity to analyze her style. Condoleezza plays it safe but refined. Her favorite color seems to be navy blue, a hue that can be said to be part preppy, part military. Like Christiane Amanpour, she sticks to a pageboy hairstyle, but she enhances it with a discreet peek-a-boo bang. I like Condoleezza Rice—she rocks it at athletic events like ice hockey games, when her true rah-rah style comes out. She is sporty, fresh and All-American.
Here are my choices for the New Look—I invite our readers to come up with your own.
Happy holidays, and pray for peace.
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