Daphne Guinness at the Angel Orensanz Foundation, February 12, 2012.
Dear acolytes of all things stylish:
Earlier today I sent my longtime friend Camille Paglia my report from A Shaded View on Fashion on uber-muse Daphne Guinness at the Genghis Khan fashion show and film screening during New York Fashion Week. During the course of our email correspondence, Camille had this to say about the divine Daphne--and she also had more than a few choice words about Lady Gaga. As you can guess, she didn't hold back:
"Daphne is sensational! Of course Gaga ripped off an incredible amount from her, but she has no idea how to WEAR those amazing fashions. Gaga just puts stuff on that the savvy Nicola Formichetti hands her and wears it like a donkey with a saddlebag! Daphne WORKS it--like a dancer--and she adopts and projects the correct PSYCHIC MOOD for it. Fashion as extreme as that requires a dance-like relationship to the environment--to physical space. It's really captured beautifully in the trailer for 'The Legend of Lady White Snake', where Daphne is walking in giant red clogs along a balcony rail and makes precisely the right interesting and graceful moves. Whereas Gaga in the same shoes just clunks along like a bag of potatoes, just showing off for the paparazzi. Gaga has such glaring lack of instinct and intelligence about the relationship between fashion and the body. That people can't see that drives me crazy--they're so fooled by Gaga, it's pathetic!
Daphne exudes the poetic, atmospheric mood of those European art film stars like Delphine Seyrig (in 'Last Year at Marienbad', 'Daughters of Darkness', and also 'Accident', where she's so mysterious and discreet having the secret affair with Dirk Bogarde in London). There's a little of Edie Sedgwick in Daphne (little rich girl lost), but Daphne is infinitely more glam, assertive, and urbane. She is evidently a sophisticated book lover, which is why she dropped by the National Book Awards banquet at Cipriani two years ago, when I briefly met her. She swept in like an electric breeze from a photo shoot at Harper's Bazaar. She truly has authentic charisma!!!!"
Daphne and fashion scholar Valerie Steele
Further reading: My report on Daphne Guinness, "The Legend of Lady White Snake" and the Genghis Khan fashion show
Ciao,
Glenn Belverio
Daphne is blessed with natural beauty and height. It's a big bonus to be tall, it makes any garment stand out and give the appearance of 'gliding' rather than 'plodding'
Posted by: Silvia Ef | February 13, 2012 at 04:24 PM
This is great! Very very true...
Posted by: JessicaTrentPR | February 14, 2012 at 01:22 AM
Cruella DeVille has more "style"....rolleyes..Camille Paglia is a fake "feminist" airhead who is despised by most women with an IQ above room temperature.
Posted by: LeninMarxMao | February 14, 2012 at 02:23 AM
"...despised by most women..." But loved by uncontaminated artist!
Posted by: earl gadberry | February 20, 2012 at 11:50 PM
Sorry but anyone who posts under the moniker LeninMarxMao and claims to know what "most women" think should take a look in the mirror before calling anyone a "fake feminist airhead".
Posted by: PRF | April 18, 2012 at 10:20 PM