H.H.H. Reviews…The New Nietzsche: Contemporary Styles of Interpretation

Another candid review from Amazon all-star Herbert H. Highstone

Dimly Printed Pages Are Almost Impossible To Read
One Star

I'm sorry to report that this book, or at least the copy that I encountered, is very badly printed. Perhaps it's one more symptom of the decadence of the paper book, but the printed pages in this volume are so difficult to read that I threw it aside in disgust. You really need to look through the book before buying it to make sure that your eyes can handle an extremely inferior print job with a tiny typeface. I also hated the heavily doctored picture of Nietzsche on the cover that makes him look like a bewildered shopkeeper.

Couturier Charles James on…"Clients whom I would have liked to dress…"

If you have the opportunity to visit the exhibition Charles James: Beyond Fashion at the Metropolitan Museum (closing August 10), don't skip the small room devoted to the designer's archives.  James was clearly aware of his place in fashion history and made sure to document his influences (including Jules Pascin, Kees von Dongen and Christian Berard) and opinions on his contemporaries ("Illustrative Designer-Artists whom I abhorred and thought in their pretention to represent fashion disgraced it: ERTE").

Here are a few of the bodies beautiful he would have liked to have dressed – "…Some I could have but did not":

Gertrude STEIN.

Massive elegance; great style.

Princess MARGARET ROSE.

Born a fairy princess to charm and court discipline; become [sic] sad with time.

Mrs William BUCKLEY    New York.

Smart, imaginative, ready to develop taste; still lacking it.

Miss Lana TURNER

Beautiful and far greater actress than recognized.

Miss Greta GARBO      New York

Need I say?

Top photo courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art: 

"Butterfly" Ball Gown, ca. 1955

Brown silk chiffon, cream silk satin, brown silk satin, dark brown nylon tulle
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Friends of The Costume Institute Fund, 2013 (2013.591)