Grace Kelly
Grace Patricia Kelly was an American film actress who became Princess of Monaco after marrying Prince Rainier III in April 1956. After embarking on an acting career in 1950, when she was 20, Kelly appeared in New York City theatrical productions and more than 40 episodes of live drama productions broadcast during the early 1950s Golden Age of Television. In October 1953, she gained stardom from her performance in director John Ford's film Mogambo starring Clark Gable and Ava Gardner, which won her a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination in 1954. Subsequently, she had leading roles in five films, including The Country Girl with Bing Crosby, for which her deglamorized performance earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress. Other films include High Noon, with Gary Cooper. Kelly retired from acting at the age of 26 to marry Rainier, began her duties as Princess of Monaco, they had three children: Caroline, Stéphanie. Kelly retained her link to America by her dual U. S. and Monégasque citizenship.
Princess Grace died at Monaco Hospital on September 14, 1982, succumbing to injuries sustained in a traffic collision the day before. After her death the French physicians treating her reported that a CAT scan had revealed she had suffered two brain hemorrhages; the first occurred prior to the crash, is believed to have been the inciting incident that led to the crash. The second, suffered while in hospital, is believed to have been the result of physical trauma sustained in the crash. At the time of her death, she was 52 years old, she is listed 13th among the American Film Institute's 25 Greatest Female Stars of Classical Hollywood Cinema. Kelly was born on November 12, 1929, at Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to an affluent and influential family, her father, Irish-American John B. Kelly Sr. had won three Olympic gold medals for sculling and owned a successful brickwork contracting company, well known on the East Coast. A registered Democrat, he was nominated to be mayor of Philadelphia for the 1935 election but lost by the closest margin in the city's history.
In years, he served on the Fairmount Park Commission and, during World War II, was appointed by President Roosevelt as National Director of Physical Fitness. His brother Walter C. Kelly was a vaudeville star, who made films for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Paramount Pictures, another named George was a Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist and director. Kelly's mother Margaret Katherine Majer had German parents. Margaret had taught physical education at the University of Pennsylvania and had been the first woman to coach women's athletics at the institution, she modeled for a time in her youth. After marrying John B. Kelly in 1924, Margaret focused on being a housewife until all her children were of school age, following which she began participating in various civic organizations. Kelly had two older siblings and John Jr. and a younger sister, Elizabeth. The children were raised in the Catholic faith. While attending Ravenhill Academy, a prestigious Catholic girls' school, Kelly modeled fashions at local social events with her mother and sisters.
In 1942, at the age of 12, she played the lead in Don't Feed the Animals, a play produced by the East Falls Old Academy Players. Before graduating in May 1947 from Stevens School, a prominent private institution in Chestnut Hill, a neighborhood of Philadelphia, she acted and danced, her graduation yearbook listed her favorite actress as Ingrid Bergman and her favorite actor as Joseph Cotten. Written in the "Stevens' Prophecy" section was: "Miss Grace P. Kelly – a famous star of stage and screen". Owing to her low mathematics scores, Kelly was rejected by Bennington College in July 1947. Despite her parents' initial disapproval, Kelly decided to pursue her dreams of being an actress. John was displeased with her decision. To start her career, she auditioned for the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, using a scene from her uncle George Kelly's The Torch-Bearers. Although the school had met its semester quota, she obtained an interview with the admission officer, Emile Diestel, was admitted through the influence of George.
Kelly worked diligently, practiced her speech by using a tape recorder. Her early acting pursuits led her to the stage, she made her Broadway debut in Strindberg's The Father, alongside Raymond Massey. At 19, her graduation performance was as Tracy Lord in The Philadelphia Story. Television producer Delbert Mann cast Kelly as Bethel Merriday in an adaptation of the Sinclair Lewis novel of the same name; as a theatre personality, she was mentioned in Theatre World magazine as: " most promising personality of the Broadway stage of 1950." Some of her well-known works as a theater actress were: The Father, The Rockingham Tea Set, The Apple Tree, The Mirror of Delusion, among others. Success on television brought her a role in a major motion picture. Impressed by her work in The Father, the director of the Twentieth Century-Fox film Fourteen Hours, Henry Hathaway, offered her a small role in the film. Kelly had a minor role, opposite Paul Douglas, Richard Basehart, Barbara Bel Geddes, as a young woman contemplating divorce.
Kelly's co-artist Paul Douglas commented of her acting in this film: "In two senses, she did not have a bad side – you could film her from any an
Wedding dress
A wedding dress or wedding/bridal gown is the clothing worn by a bride during a wedding ceremony. Color and ceremonial importance of the gown can depend on the religion and culture of the wedding participants. In Western cultures, brides choose white wedding dress, made popular by Queen Victoria in the 19th century. In eastern cultures, brides choose red to symbolize auspiciousness. Weddings performed during and following the Middle Ages were more than just a union between two people, they could be a union between two families, two businesses or two countries. Many weddings were more a matter of politics than love among the nobility and the higher social classes. Brides were therefore expected to dress in a manner that cast their families in the most favorable light and befitted their social status, for they were not representing only themselves during the ceremony. Brides from wealthy families wore rich colors and exclusive fabrics, it was common to see them wearing bold colors and layers of furs and silk.
Brides dressed in the height of current fashion, with the richest materials their families' money could buy. The poorest of brides wore their best church dress on their wedding day; the amount and the price of material a wedding dress contained was a reflection of the bride's social standing and indicated the extent of the family's wealth to wedding guests. The first documented instance of a princess who wore a white wedding dress for a royal wedding ceremony is that of Philippa of England, who wore a tunic with a cloak in white silk bordered with squirrel and ermine in 1406, when she married Eric of Pomerania. Mary, Queen of Scots, wore a white wedding dress in 1559 when she married her first husband, the Dauphin of France, because it was her favorite color, although white was the color of mourning for French Queens; this was not a widespread trend, however: prior to the Victorian era, a bride was married in any color, black being popular in Scandinavia. White became a popular option in 1840, after the marriage of Queen Victoria to Albert of Saxe-Coburg, when Victoria wore a white gown trimmed with Honiton lace.
Illustrations of the wedding were published, many brides opted for white in accordance with the Queen's choice. After that, for a period, wedding dresses were adapted to the styles of the day. In the early 1900s, clothing included a lot such as lace or frills; this was adopted in wedding dresses, where decorative frills and lace was common. For example, in the 1920s, they were short in the front with a longer train in the back and were worn with cloche-style wedding veils; this tendency to follow current fashions continued until the late 1960s, when it became popular to revert to long, full-skirted designs reminiscent of the Victorian era. Today, Western wedding dresses are white, though "wedding white" includes shades such as eggshell and ivory. Many people assumed that the color white was intended to symbolize virginity, though this was not the original intention: it was the color blue, connected to purity, piety and the Virgin Mary. About 75 percent of wedding dresses on the market are strapless dresses or sleeveless, in part because such dresses require less skill from the designers and are easier to alter to fit correctly.
However, the sleeved wedding gown as well as wedding gowns with straps have both become more popular in recent years. Many wedding dresses in China, India and Vietnam are red. Nowadays, many women choose other colours besides red. In modern mainland Chinese weddings, the bride may opt for Western dresses of any colour, don a traditional costume for the wedding tea ceremony. In modern Taiwanese weddings, the bride picks red or white silk for the wedding gown material, but most will wear the red traditional garment for their formal wedding banquets. Traditionally, the father of the bride is responsible for the wedding banquet hosted on the bride's side and the alcohol consumed during both banquets. While the wedding itself is based on the couple's choices, the wedding banquets are a symbolic gesture of "thanks" and appreciation, to those that have raised the bride and groom and those who will continue to be there to help the bride and groom in the future, thus out of respect for the elders, wedding banquets are done formally and traditionally.
Red wedding saris are the traditional garment choice for brides in Indian culture. Sari fabric is traditionally silk. Over time, colour options and fabric choices for Indian brides have expanded. Today fabrics like crepe, Georgette and satin are used, colors have been expanded to include gold, orange, maroon and yellow as well. Indian brides in Western countries wear the sari at the wedding ceremony and change into traditional Indian wear afterwards. A Japanese wedding involves a traditional pure white kimono for the formal ceremony, symbolizing purity and maidenhood; the bride may change into a red kimono for the events after the ceremony for good luck. The Javanese people of Indonesia wear a traditional kind of blouse, along with batik. In the Philippines, variations of the Baro't saya adapted to the white wedding tradition are considered to be wedding attire for women, along with the Barong Tagalog for men. Various tribes and Muslim Filipinos don other forms of tr
Petticoat
A petticoat or underskirt is an article of clothing, a type of undergarment worn under a skirt or a dress. Its precise meaning varies between countries. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, in current British English, a petticoat is "a light loose undergarment... hanging from the shoulders or waist". In modern American usage, "petticoat" refers only to a garment hanging from a half slip. In historical contexts, petticoat refers to any separate skirt worn with a gown, bodice or jacket. In both historical and modern contexts, petticoat refers to skirt-like undergarments worn for warmth or to give the skirt or dress the desired fashionable shape. Petticoat is the standard name in English for any underskirt worn as part of non-Western clothing such as the lehenga with the sari. Sometimes a petticoat may be called a waist slip or underskirt or half slip, with petticoat restricted to full garments. A chemise hangs from the shoulders. Petticoat can refer to a full-length slip in the UK, although this usage is somewhat old-fashioned.
In the fourteenth century, both men and women wore undercoats called "petticotes". The word "petticoat" came from pety coote, meaning "a small coat". Petticoats are sometimes spelled "petty coat"; the original petticoat was worn with an open gown. The practice of wearing petticoats as undergarments was well established in England by 1585. In French, petticoats were called jupe; the basquina, worn in Spain, was considered a type of petticoat. In the 18th century in Europe and in America, petticoats were considered a part of the exterior garment and were meant to be seen. An underpetticoat was shorter than a regular petticoat. Underpetticoats were known as a dickey. In the American colonies, working women wore shortgowns over petticoats that matched in color; the hem length of a petticoat in the 18th century depended on what was fashionable in dress at the time. Petticoats has slits or holes for women to reach pockets inside. Petticoats were worn by all classes of women throughout the 18th century; the style known as polonaise revealed much of the petticoat intentionally.
In the early 19th century, dresses became narrower and simpler with much less lingerie, including "invisible petticoats". As the waltz became popular in the 1820s, full-skirted gowns with petticoats were revived in Europe and the United States. In the Victorian era, petticoats were used to give bulk and shape to the skirts worn over the petticoat. By the mid 19th century, petticoats were worn over hoops; as the bustle became popular, petticoats developed flounces towards the back. In the 1870s, petticoats were worn in layers. Colored petticoats came into fashion by the 1890s. In the early 20th century, petticoats were circular, had flounces and buttons in which women could attach additional flounces to the garment. Bloomers were touted as a replacement for petticoats when working and by fashion reformers. After World War I, silk petticoats were in fashion. Petticoats were revived by Christian Dior in his full-skirted "New Look" of 1947 and tiered, stiffened petticoats remained popular during the 1950s and 1960s.
These were sold in a few clothing stores as late as 1970. It is the main undergarment worn with a sari. Sari petticoats match the color of the sari and are made of satin or cotton. Notable differences between the western petticoat and sari petticoat include that the latter is shorter than ankle length and is always worn from the waist down. In India, it is called inner skirt or an inskirt; the early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft was famously disparaged by Horace Walpole as a "hyena in petticoats". More flatteringly, Florentia Sale was dubbed "the Grenadier in Petticoats" for travelling with her military husband Sir Robert Henry Sale around the British Empire; the phrase "petticoat government" has referred to women running government or domestic affairs. The phrase is applied in a positive tone welcoming female governance of society and home, but is used to imply a threat to appropriate government by males, as was mentioned in several of Henry Fielding's plays. An Irish pamphlet Petticoat Government, Exemplified in a Late Case in Ireland was published in 1780.
The American writer Washington Irving used the phrase in his Rip Van Winkle Frances Trollope wrote Petticoat Government: A Novel in 1850. Emma Orczy wrote Petticoat Government, another novel, in 1911. G. K. Chesterton mentions petticoat in a positive manner. No ruler would deliberately dress up in the recognized fetters of a slave, but when men wish to be safely impressive, as judges, priests or kings, they do wear skirts, the long, trailing robes of female dignity. The whole world is under petticoat government. United States President Andrew Jackson's administration was beset by a scandal called "The Petticoat Affair", dramatized in the 1936 film The Gorgeous Hussy. A 1943 comedy film called Petticoat Larceny depicted a young girl being kidnapped by grifters. In 1955, Iron Curtain politics were satirized in a Bob Hope and Katharine Hepburn film, The Iron Petticoat. In the same year Western author Chester William Harrison wrote a short story "Petticoat Brigade", turned into the film The Guns of Fort Pett
Helen Rose
Helen Rose was an American costume designer and clothing designer who spent the bulk of her career with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Helen Rose was born on February 2, 1904, to William Bromberg and Ray Bobbs in Chicago, Illinois of German and Russian descent, she attended the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and designed nightclub and stage costumes for various acts. She moved to Los Angeles in 1929, where she designed outfits for Fanchon and Marco and the Ice Follies. In the early 1940s she spent two years working for 20th Century Fox, where she designed wardrobes for musical selections. In 1943 MGM hired her in the wake of Adrian's departure and by the late 1940s Rose was promoted to chief designer at the studio. Rose won two Academy Awards for Best Costume Design, for The Bad and the Beautiful in 1952 and for I'll Cry Tomorrow in 1955, she was nominated a further eight times and was very well known for designing famous wedding dresses of the era. She designed the famous wedding dress of Grace Kelly when she married Prince Rainier of Monaco in 1956.
She designed clothing for Elizabeth Taylor in the movies Father of the Bride and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof as well as Elizabeth Taylor's wedding dress when she married Conrad "Nicky" Hilton. In the late 1960s, Rose left the studio to open her own design business and continued to provide fancy attire for the famed and the wealthy, she wrote a fashion column. She wrote two books - her autobiography Just Make Them Beautiful in 1976 and "The Glamorous World of Helen Rose". In the 1970s Rose staged a traveling fashion show featuring some of her MGM-designed costumes, called "The Helen Rose Show". Helen was married to Harry V. Rose, whose birth name was Harry Rosenstein, they had a daughter, she died in Palm Springs, California in 1985. 1910 United States Federal Census, Cook County, Enumeration District 7, Sheet 17, April 22–23, 1910. 1920 United States Federal Census, Cook County, Enumeration District 6, Sheet 10A, January 10, 1920. California Death Index on Ancestry.com. Helen Rose on IMDb
Bridesmaid
The bridesmaids are members of the bride's party in a wedding. A bridesmaid is a young woman, a close friend or relative, she attends to the bride on the day of a marriage ceremony. Traditionally, bridesmaids were chosen from unwed young women of marriageable age; the principal bridesmaid, if one is so designated, may be called the chief bridesmaid or maid of honor if she is unmarried, or the matron of honor if she is married. A junior bridesmaid is a girl, too young to be married, but, included as an honorary bridesmaid. In the United States only the maid/matron of honor and the best man are the official witnesses for the wedding license. There is more than one bridesmaid: in modern times the bride chooses how many to ask. No person of status went out unattended, the size of the retinue was calculated to be appropriate to the family's social status. A large group of bridesmaids provided an opportunity for showing off the family's social status and wealth. Today, the number of bridesmaids in a wedding party is dependent on many variables, including a bride's preferences, the size of her family, the number of attendants her partner would like to have as well.
The male equivalent is the groomsman known in British English as an usher. In some cultures, such as in Norway, the Netherlands and Victorian Britain, it has been customary for bridesmaids to be small girls rather than grown women, they may carry flowers during the wedding procession and pose with the married couple in bridal photos. In modern English-speaking countries, this role is separate from that of the bridesmaid, the small child performing it is known as a flower girl. In the UK there is a National Bridesmaid’s Day held on 25th March every year to celebrate bridesmaids. Although many exceed the minimum, the bridesmaids' required duties are limited, they are required to assist the bride on the day of the wedding. Bridesmaids in Europe and North America are asked to assist the bride with planning the wedding and a wedding reception. In modern times, a bridesmaid participates in planning wedding-related events, such as a bridal shower or bachelorette party, if there are any. These, are optional activities.
If it is customary in the bride's area to have a bridesmaids luncheon it is hosted, therefore organized and paid for, by the bride. A junior bridesmaid has no responsibilities beyond attending the wedding; the duties and costs of being a bridesmaid are parsed out between a bride and her attendants in a variety of ways. Since modern bridesmaids, unlike their historical counterparts, can no longer rely on having their clothes and travel expenses paid for by the bride's family, are sometimes told they must pay for parties that the bride wants to have before the wedding, it has become customary for the bride to present the bridesmaids with gifts as a sign of gratitude for the support and financial commitment that comes with their roles, it has become customary for women who are invited to serve as bridesmaids to first ask about the amount of time and money that the bride expects from them before accepting this position, to decline or resign if this is more than they will be able to give. In some American weddings, each bridesmaid may be asked to spend US $1,700 or more, with travel to destination weddings and pre-wedding parties being the biggest expense.
In the United Kingdom, the term "maid of honour" referred to the female attendant of a queen. The term bridesmaid is used for all bridal attendants in the UK. However, when the attendant is married, or is a mature woman, the term matron of honour is used; the influence of American English has led to the chief bridesmaid sometimes being called the maid of honour. In North America, a wedding party might include several bridesmaids, but the maid of honor is the title and position held by the bride's chief attendant her closest friend or sister. In modern-day weddings some brides opt to choose a long-time male friend or brother as their head attendant, using the title best man or man of honor; the activities of the principal bridesmaid may be as many or as varied as she allows the bride to impose upon her. Her only required duty is to participate in the wedding ceremony. However, she is asked for help with the logistics of the wedding as an event, such as addressing invitations, for her help as a friend, such as attending the bride as she shops for her wedding dress.
Aside from being the bride’s right hand, the maid of honor is responsible for leading the rest of the bridal party through the planning of any pre-wedding events. For example, the principal bridesmaid will be the one to make the arrangements for the bridal shower, including invitations, decorations and any games or activities that will be played, he or she will be in charge of planning the bachelorette party, including any travel or lodging accommodations that must be arranged. On the day of the wedding, her principal duty is to provide emotional support, she might assist the bride with dressing and, if needed, help the bride manage her veil, a bouquet, a prayer book, or the train of her wedding dress during the day. In a double-ring wedding, the chief bridesmaid is entrusted with the groom's wedding ring until it is needed during the ceremon
Bodice
A bodice is an article of clothing for women and girls, covering the body from the neck to the waist. In modern usage it refers to a specific type of upper garment common in Europe during the 16th to the 18th century, or to the upper portion of a modern dress to distinguish it from the skirt and sleeves; the term comes from pair of bodies. In historical usage in Victorian and early 20th century fashion, a bodice indicates the upper part of a dress, constructed in two parts, but of matching or coordinating fabric with the intention of wearing the two parts as a unit. In dressmaking, the term waist was used. During wear, the parts might be connected by eyes; this construction was standard for fashionable garments from the 18th century until the late 19th century, had the advantages of allowing a voluminous skirt to be paired with a close-fitting bodice, of allowing two or more bodices to be worn with the same skirt. One-piece construction became more common after 1900 due to the trend for looser, more simply-constructed clothing with narrower skirts.
In modern usage, bodice refers to an upper garment that has removable sleeves or no sleeves low-cut, worn in Europe from the 16th century to the 18th century, either over a corset or in lieu of one. To achieve a fashionable shape and support the bust, the bodice was stiffened with bents, or whalebone; the bodice was different from the corset of the time because it was intended to be worn over the other garments. In earlier periods and corsets were laced in spiral fashion, with one continuous lace. In periods, both were laced like the modern tennis shoe, with eyelets facing one another; this was more convenient for women. One mid-19th-century style included the Agnes Sorel bodice, named after 15th-century royal mistress Agnes Sorel; this style was a day wear bodice, with a square cut neckline that had a high front and back and bishop sleeves. Bodice continues in use to refer to the upper portion of a one- or two-piece dress; the bodice of a dress was called the corsage in the 19th century. Bodices survive into modern times in the traditional or revived folk dress of many European countries.
They are commonly seen today at Society for Creative Anachronism events or a Renaissance Fair. Arnold, Janet: Patterns of Fashion: the cut and construction of clothes for men and women 1560-1620, Macmillan 1985. Steele, Valerie: "The Corset: A Cultural History" Yale University Press, 2001
