Belle of the Ball

Marie-Helene, Baroness de Rothschild, whose husband, Baron Guy de Rothschild, is dean of the French branch of the banking family, was well known in the world of fashion and was particularly renowned for the dinners, balls and benefits she organized. Many were held at Chateau Ferrieres, the former Rothschild mansion that now belongs to the French state. Her greatest triumph was the Proust Ball in December 1971, in celebration of the centenary of the reclusive author's birth. It was the most talked about party of that era. The guests came in costume and were photographed by Cecil Beaton. After Ferrieres was donated to the Government, the Baroness did most of her entertaining at her Paris residence, the 18th-century Hotel Lambert on Ile St.-Louis, where it was built by the court architect Louis Le Vau in 1642. The Rothschilds lived in a manner dubbed the "Rothschild style" - a mixture of Napoleon III, objects d'art, comfort and luxury. The Baron described his wife as having "a fabulous appetite for life, emotions always at their height, a spontaneity with a thousand facets, as ever-changing as the sea. And charm, which defies description."

Your Credit is No Good Here

The Hotel du Cap Eden Roc, Cap d’Antibes sits on a hill commanding 22 acres of gardens and woodland, between Nice and Cannes. From the 19th-century château, a broad carriage walk rolls down to Eden Roc, surely the most exclusive beach club on the Côte d’Azur. There is, however, nothing so vulgar as a beach (the pool above photographed by Slim Aarons). F Scott Fitzgerald immortalised it as the Hôtel des Etrangers in Tender Is the Night. Since it's opening in 1889, the hotel has only accepted cash as payment, although recently it has accepted credit cards.

The 5th Earl

Patrick Lichfield, the photographer of the image of Talitha Getty, from an earlier post, was actually Thomas Patrick John Anson, 5th Earl of Lichfield. He was related to the Queen of England, and with access to the royal family, became one of the best known British photographers. He took the wedding photos of Princess Diana and Prince Charles, as well as the Golden Jubilee photos of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. The above photo by Slim Aarons from 1968, shows Lord Lichfield on the Italian Riviera flanked by Pucci-clad Italian princesses.

You can never be too Slim

Slim Aarons made his name photographing the international elite in their exclusive playgrounds during the jet-set decades of the '50s, '60s, and '70s, carrying out his self-described mission: to document "attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places." Slim started his career in the army as a photographer during WWII. His long out of print book, A Wonderful Time, can fetch well over $1000 per copy, if you can find one for sale. One of his most iconic photos, shown above, is the 1955 shot of fashion icon and socialite C.Z. (Mrs. Winston) Guest poolside with her son in Palm Beach.

Slim is a Lady

Slim Keith was a socialite and fashion icon during the 1950s and 1960s. She is perhaps best known, along with her friend Babe Paley, as the thinly veiled inspiration for the characters in Truman Capote’s novel, Answered Prayers.

Slim launched the career of a young Lauren Bacall when she spotted Lauren on the cover of Bazaar, and suggested her for a part in To Have and Have Not, with Humphrey Bogart, directed by her then husband Howard Hawks. Her second husband was the theatrical producer, Leland Hayward. They were such a popular couple in the 1950’s, and she such a fashion icon, that they rated a mention in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window. When Grace Kelly’s character in the film mentions meeting the couple for cocktails, Jimmy Stewart asks, “Now tell me, what was Mrs. Hayward wearing?”

Her final marriage was to Sir Kenneth Keith, Baron of Castleacre. Slim had become Lady Keith. "God blessed me with a happy spirit and many other gifts. What I was not blessed with I went out and got. Sometimes the price was too high, but I've never been much of a bargain hunter."

Beautiful and Damned

Talitha Dina Pol Getty was born in Java, and was the second wife of John Paul Getty, of the oil Getty's. She married Getty in a white mini-skirt, trimmed with mink. The Getty's became part of "Swinging" London's fashionable scene. John Paul Getty was described as "a swinging playboy who drove fast cars, drank heavily, experimented with drugs and squired raunchy starlets."

Talitha Getty is probably best remembered for an iconic photograph taken on a roof-top in Marrakesh, Morocco in January 1969 by Lord Patrick Lichfield. Talitha's stylish look seemed to typify the hippie fashion of the time and became a model over the years for what, more recently, has been referred to variously as "hippie chic", "boho-chic" and even "Talitha Getty chic". Although, in her lifetime, Talitha Getty, who was only thirty when she died, was not much known to a wider public, fashion gurus of the late 20th and early 21st centuries have often written of her and Marrakesh (a major destination for hippies in the late 1960s, as illustrated by the song, Marrakesh Express by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, as virtually synonymous.

Talitha Getty died of a heroin overdose in Rome, Italy on July 14, 1971. She died within the same twelve month period as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Edie Sedgwick and Jim Morrison, other cultural icons of the 1960s.

All the fringe benefits

Everyone knows about Givenchy and Breakfast at Tiffany's. But for real style, watch Patricia Neal and her Pauline Trigère wardrobe. Trigère was the French born American designer popular in the '50s, '60, and '70s. ''Fashion is what people tell you to wear,'' she often said. ''Style is what comes from your own inner thing.'' Of course the most stylish thing Patricia does in the movie, is write her "boy" a check for $1000 to take a girl on vacation. "I am a very stylish girl."

Gloria's Greatest Hits

With her swanlike neck and clever sense of humor, Gloria Guinness effortlessly reigned over the jetset in the Sixties and Seventies. Born to modest means in Mexico, she rose to the top of the social heap after wedding banking heir Loel Guinness. They maintained homes in London, Normandy, Paris, Lausanne, Acapulco and Palm Beach. Since the Guinnesses keep moving from one house to another through the year, they found that packing and unpacking could become quite a chore. Loel Guinness hated luggage, so the two kept complete wardrobes at the ready in each of their homes. Thus they needed to travel with nothing more than the clothing on their backs. "You don't have to waste time in customs, and you don't have to declare anything. It's wonderful!" They also traveled with two chefs, kitchen maid, personal maid, valet and three chambermaids. Although she was the ultimate couture client, she didn't have a problem putting designers in their place. "My husband pays for the clothes; you just design them." But the best advise Gloria ever gave concerned jewelry. “I’ve never worn costume jewelry in my life. It’s really very self-defeating. Why should a man buy a woman real jewelry when she wears false pieces?” And Gloria's final wisdom? “Chic? It is absolutely innate, it cannot be taught.”

The VIPs

It all started with Elizabeth Taylor and the V.I.P.s. The V.I.P.s is a movie from 1963 starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, and directed by Anthony Asquith. The movie is about a group of travelers waiting in the V.I.P lounge at a London airport for their fog grounded New York bound flight. The significant detail in this film is the custom mink rain coat that was made for Miss Taylor for the movie. In a famous antidote from the making of the movie, Liz kept giving away the custom coats to crew members on the set.