Mink is for football, diamonds are for suburbs

I've been on a bit of a vacation binge already this spring, or I'd pay a visit to Valentina: American Couture and the Cult of Celebrity at the Museum of the City of New York. I'll have to console myself with the book.

Valentina Schlee was a pioneer of minimalist luxury, and dressed her famous clients in monochromatic, dramatically cut couture. She was outspoken and seemed to delight in being contrarian - see two of her famous aphorisms that form the title of this post. Her work, her enigmatic reputation, and her severe appearance suggest a remote personality. That's why it was such a surprise to find this sequence of 1952 Yale Joel photographs of her in the Life archive :






There are dozens more of these. What a ham.