October 15, 2016, 9:46 pm
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October 21, 2016, 4:15 pm
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October 22, 2016, 4:53 pm
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Meaning: Dressed flamboyantly or smartly.
Origin
Nine is the most troublesome number in etymology. There are several phrases of uncertain parentage that include the word.
Examples are, cloud nine, nine days’ wonder and the infamous whole nine yards. We can add ‘dressed to the nines’ to that list.
Dressed to the nines
The most frequently heard attempts to explain the phrase’s derivation involve associating the number nine with clothing in some way.
One theory has it that tailors used nine yards of material to make a suit (or, according to some authors, a shirt).
The more material you had the more kudos you accrued, although nine yards seems generous even for a fop.
Another commonly repeated explanation comes from the exquisitely smart uniforms of the 99th (Lanarkshire) Regiment of Foot, which was raised in 1824.
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The problem with these explanations is that they come with no evidence to support them, apart from a reference to the number nine (or 99, which seems to be stretching the cloth rather thinly).
The regiment was in business in the early 19th century, which is at least the right sort of date for a phrase that became widely used in the middle of that century.
The first example of the use of the phrase that I can find in print is in Samuel Fallows’ The Progressive Dictionary of the English Language, 1835.
In his entry for the phrase ‘to the nines’ Fallows gives the example ‘dressed up to the nines’ and suggests that it “may perhaps” be derived from ‘to thine eynes’ – to the eyes.
Not bad as a hypothesis, but without any evidence (and I can find none) ‘may perhaps’ is as far as we can go with that.
What counts against the above explanations, and indeed against any of the supposed explanations that attempt to link the number nine to some property of clothing, is the prior use of the shorter phrase ‘to the nine’ or ‘to the nines’, which was used to indicate perfection, the highest standards.
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October 27, 2016, 5:06 pm
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November 1, 2016, 9:32 pm
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Julianne Moore as the Greek goddess Hera, by Karl Lagerfeld for the 2011 Pirelli calendar. Photograph: Karl Lagerfeld/Pirelli
The publication to which these giants of modern style refer? A soft-porn calendar promoting tyres.
The extent to which the Pirelli calendar has been embraced by the fashion industry has been unavoidable, in the wake of 50th-anniversary gala celebrations held in a modern art gallery in Milan and attended by top-flight models, photographers, stylists and designers, and the publication of a new coffee-table book celebrating the half century.
The fashion industry, normally intensely snobbish about distancing itself from the fake-tanned, fake-boobed world of commercialised glamour modelling, has nonetheless taken the Pirelli calendar to its heart. (Or perhaps, more accurately, to its bosom.)
Pirelli’s triumph is a masterclass in image management, one that leverages basic instincts in a sophisticated marketplace.
Its power lies in the fact that being acknowledged as sexually attractive is a valuable asset to women in the public eye, whereas being seen as sexually available is demeaning.
So the deal Pirelli strikes with photographers and models is that they get to be sexy, and Pirelli gets to be classy.
A key part of the Pirelli legend is that the calendar is not available to purchase, but sent to a secret list of high-rollers and international public figures.
This exclusivity is now entirely academic – the images are widely published on the internet – but it sets a context no less powerful for being imaginary.
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French model Laetitia Casta, by Annie Leibovitz for the 2000 Pirelli calendar. Photograph: Annie Leibovitz/Pirelli
At its worst, the Pirelli calendar gives free rein to fashion’s ickiest side.
The 2010 calendar, shot by Terry Richardson, is all squeakily waxed young women with Richardson’s signature pool-party slicked-back hair, eating bananas or pretending to lick cockerels. (Seriously.)
But Pirelli has been very smart about playing up its illustrious roll call of photographers, from Helmut Newton to Annie Leibovitz, and about balancing the unreconstructed salaciousness of Richardson with artier issues.
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November 3, 2016, 3:54 pm
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November 4, 2016, 5:13 pm
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November 5, 2016, 4:42 pm
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Yasmina Rossi is revolutionizing the modeling industry while simultaneously empowering women everywhere.
The 59-year-old began her job as a model when she was in her late 20s—a time when most professionals are seen as too old and are forced to retire.
When she turned 45 years old, that’s when her career really took off as she worked for big companies like MasterCard, AT&T, and Macy’s.
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Not only did she book big brands at an age that most in the industry would regard as “past her prime”, she also managed to secure these modeling gigs while allowing her wrinkles to stand out in her work, profoundly accentuating her natural beauty.
“I like the way I look now than how I looked 20 years ago,” she told The Sunday Times.
“My body is nicer and I feel happier than when I was 20.” When asked about her beauty-related tips, the talented woman reveals that there’s no secret trick that helps her maintain her appearance.
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“All I have ever done is eat organic food – long before it became trendy,” Rossi explains.
“I take oil and use it on my skin. I put rapeseed oil on my hair. I scrub my skin once a week with olive oil and sugar. I eat an avocado a day and organic meat and fish.”
She continues on to state that exercise is key, but that you mustn’t overdo it. “This is very important,” she says. “And don’t take medicine if possible.
Go with nature instead of fighting it – this is the rule for everything.
”Whatever the secret to her beauty may be, the main takeaway from her success exceeds her personal gains.
Rossi represents a new era of beauty represented in fashion.
Though the industry has a long ways to go, she is breaking the mold and offering a step in the right direction, especially in terms of female ageism.
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November 5, 2016, 5:17 pm
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November 6, 2016, 12:21 pm
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November 7, 2016, 1:19 pm
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At the turn of the twentieth century, it was all about Evelyn, Camille, and Irene, the original “Gibson Girls” and the models for the drawings that changed the way America thought about women.
Though the 1890s may seem buttoned up by modern standards, they were anything but. Independent, well-read, and urbane, a new class of woman was emerging in America’s cities.
This “New Woman” did not care to be chaperoned in public. She was athletic and free-spirited. Above all, she was educated, taking advantage of new access to secondary school and college.
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Photo: Evelyn Gibson (Getty Images).
She was also scary. By the 1890s, the reform fervor of suffragists and their sisters had ceased to be cute and started to be all too real.
The status quo was being challenged by Progressive politics, new divorce laws, and women who chose to work outside the home.
Charles Dana Gibson, a popular illustrator, looked down on reform zeal in women.
And so he created “the Gibson girl,” a catch-all representation of a kinder, gentler New Woman—one who rode bikes, wore casual clothing, and flaunted her attitude, but was above all beautiful and anonymous.
By the 1910s, to visit Gibson’s office was to push your way through hundreds of gorgeous models with big hair and small waists, each vying for a go as one of Gibson’s girls.
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November 7, 2016, 10:23 pm
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November 8, 2016, 2:30 pm
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November 14, 2016, 2:27 pm
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Tilda Swinton for Dazed & Confused, May 2010: Carine Roitfeld, former editor of French Vogue, writes: ‘Sam has magic fingers, he makes hair look effortless and can make any girl feel confident, feel their best, just with his touch.
I see all the models and actresses smile when they are with him, because they relax and they fall in love with him …
Often he just comes on his own. But what he does bring is very important … his genius hands’
Photograph: Glen Luchford/Dazed & Confused
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Victoria Beckham for Vogue UK April 2008:
‘When Sam’s hands touch the model, you can see her expression completely change.
Often I’ll take the picture literally as Sam takes his hands off her head, before she can revert back to modelling.
I have so many pictures of Sam’s hands, split seconds after he’s let go of he model’s head – she’s in a different place.
Whether it’s Uma Thurman or Kate Moss or Naomi Campbell or Gemma Ward.
You get emotions from the girls that you wouldn’t get.
He will transform these models into characters.
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November 14, 2016, 4:40 pm
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November 15, 2016, 9:56 pm
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November 24, 2016, 1:22 am
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December 9, 2016, 1:57 pm
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December 22, 2016, 1:13 pm
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December 26, 2016, 3:44 pm
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Eugene ‘Gene’ Vernier (1920–2011) worked as a fashion photographer for British Vogue from 1954 to 1967, during one of the most exciting periods in fashion history. 
Meaning: Dressed flamboyantly or smartly.
At the turn of the twentieth century, it was all about Evelyn, Camille, and Irene, the original “Gibson Girls” and the models for the drawings that changed the way America thought about women.
Fabulous Fashion Photographs from Vogue Taken by Clifford Coffin from Between the 1940s and 1950s.
Tilda Swinton for Dazed & Confused, May 2010: Carine Roitfeld, former editor of French Vogue, writes: ‘Sam has magic fingers, he makes hair look effortless and can make any girl feel confident, feel their best, just with his touch. 
