Andy Warhol

Andrew Warhola (August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987), known as Andy Warhol, was a Rusyn American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. After a successful career as a commercial illustrator, Warhol became famous worldwide for his work as a painter, avant-garde filmmaker, record producer, author, and public figure known for his membership in wildly diverse social circles that included bohemian street people, distinguished intellectuals, Hollywood celebrities and wealthy patrons.
Warhol has been the subject of numerous retrospective exhibitions, books, and feature and documentary films. He coined the widely used expression "15 minutes of fame". In his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, The Andy Warhol Museum exists in memory of his life and artwork.
The highest price ever paid for a Warhol painting is $100 million for a 1963 canvas titled Eight Elvises. The private transaction was reported in a 2009 article in The Economist, which described Warhol as the "bellwether of the art market." $100 million is a benchmark price that only Jackson Pollock, Pablo Picasso, Gustav Klimt and Willem de Kooning have achieved.

Warhol showed early artistic talent and studied commercial art at the School of Fine Arts at Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (now Carnegie Mellon University).In 1949, he moved to New York City and began a successful career in magazine illustration and advertising. During the 1950s, he gained fame for his whimsical ink drawings of shoe advertisements. These were done in a loose, blotted-ink style, and figured in some of his earliest showings at the Bodley Gallery in New York. With the concurrent rapid expansion of the record industry and the introduction of the vinyl record, Hi-Fi, and stereophonic recordings, RCA Records hired Warhol, along with another freelance artist, Sid Maurer, to design album covers and promotional materials.

Warhol died in New York City at 6:32 a.m. on February 22, 1987. According to news reports, he had been making good recovery from a routine gallbladder surgery at New York Hospital before dying in his sleep from a sudden post-operative cardiac arrhythmia.Prior to his diagnosis and operation, Warhol delayed having his recurring gallbladder problems checked, as he was afraid to enter hospitals and see doctors. His family sued the hospital for inadequate care, saying that the arrhythmia was caused by improper care and water intoxication.
Warhol's grave at St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Cemetery
Warhol's body was taken back to Pittsburgh by his brothers for burial.

Gianni Versace

Gianni Versace was born in Reggio Calabria, Italy, on December 2, 1946, where he grew up with his older brother Santo and younger sister Donatella, along with their father and dressmaker mother, Francesca. An older sister, Tina, died at the age of 12 from an improperly treated tetanus infection.
Versace began his apprenticeship at a young age, helping his mother find precious stones and gold braid with which to embroider dresses. He studied architecture before moving to Milan at the age of 26 to work in fashion design.
In the mid-1970s, his knits drew the attention of head-hunters at Genny and Callaghan. Complice hired him to design their leather and suede collections, and a few years later, encouraged by his success, Versace presented his first signature collection for women at the Palazzo della Permanente Art Museum of Milan. His first menswear collection followed in September of the same year. After presenting his menswear collection he joined Jorge Saud, who would later also become a partner with Giorgio Armani. The first boutique was opened in Milan's Via della Spiga in 1978. He was influenced by Andy Warhol,Ancient Roman and Greek art as well as modern abstract art.

Versace was known for doting upon his nieces and nephews: Santo's two children, Francesca and Antonio Versace, and Donatella's two children, Allegra and Daniel Versace.

Versace was shot dead on July 15, 1997, aged 50, on the steps of his Miami Beach mansion as he returned from a morning walk on Ocean Drive. It was his custom to take a stroll to a coffee shop that received international periodicals, to read the Italian-language newspapers. He was murdered by Andrew Cunanan, who used the same gun to commit suicide on a boat several days later.Versace's body was cremated and his ashes returned to the family's estate near Cernobbio, Italy.
In September 1997, it was announced Versace's brother, Santo, and Jorge Saud would serve as the new CEOs of Gianni Versace S.P.A. Versace's sister, Donatella, became the new head of design.
In his will, Gianni Versace left 50 percent of his fashion empire to his niece Allegra Versace, daughter of Donatella. Her younger brother, Daniel, inherited Versace's rare artwork collection. Allegra inherited this stake, worth around half a billion dollars, when she turned 18 in 2004. She has the final say in the Versace clothing line.

My dream was always to be a composer, but fashion came very easily. Gianni Versace

Ad Campaign: Versus by VersaceSeason: Spring Summer 2010Model: Lara Stone Direction: Craig McDeanWebsite: www.versace.com With Donatella preparing slow but seems certain Versus revival, Italian fashion house enlisted supermodel Lara Stone as front of new Versus by Versace advertising campaign.

Birkin Bag

The "Birkin" bag is a purse manufactured by leather goods and ready-to-wear manufacturer Hermès. It is named after British-born actress and singer Jane Birkin, a longtime resident of France.

Press accounts of the bag's genesis differ in details. Birkin told noted fashion writer Dana Thomas that while seated next to Hermès CEO Jean-Louis Dumas in 1984 on a Paris to London flight, she opened her Hermès-made datebook and a flurry of loose notes fell to the floor. Dumas took her datebook and returned it a few weeks later with a pocket sewn into the back (which has since become standard). Birkin went on to discuss with Dumas her difficulty in finding a leather weekend bag and at his prompting, described her ideal. Shortly thereafter, the bag she described arrived at her flat with a note from Dumas.

Hermès Birkin handbags are hand-built by experienced craftsmen, one of the primary factors contributing to the high price of all Hermès handbags. The production of each bag may take up to 48 work hours, translating into weeks. They are distributed worldwide to Hermès boutiques on intentionally unpredictable schedules and in even fewer reliable quantities, creating a sense of scarcity and exclusivity around the product.
The exterior of the bag can be made of a variety of leathers. One of the most expensive variations of the bag is made of saltwater crocodile skin. The price of these bags depends on the size of the scales. Bags with smaller scales cost much more than those with larger scales.
Typically, a Birkin bag's lining is made of goat skin and its color will match the bag's exterior color. The bags can also be special-ordered with custom leathers and colors, but order privileges are granted only to certain established Hermès clients, and again, on an unpredictable basis.

In pop culture, the Birkin has become a symbol of ultimate luxury, although its ostentatious use by the wives and girlfriends of British footballers during the 2006 World Cup caused some fashion writers to speculate about its continued desirability.In Paris it has been associated with, among others, so-called BCBG (bon chic bon genre) women. Jane Birkin remarked that by 2006, the fame of the bag had exceeded her own: "Now when my daughter [actress Charlotte Gainsbourg] goes to America, they ask her if she is the daughter of the bag."
In recent years the bag has featured prominently on popular television shows such as Sex and the City, Gilmore Girls, and Will & Grace. In the final season of The Sopranos, Dr. Melfi carried a Birkin bag into her own therapy session. In Gossip Girl, Lily van der Woodsen carries her Birkin bag in black and tan in season one and in the next two seasons she is seen using many other different Birkin bags. In Gilmore Girls episode 6, season 6 (Title: Welcome to the Dollhouse) Rory is given a Birkin Bag from Logan. In this scene she is not aware of how special the Birkin Bag is, but gets clued-in later on in the episode.

Notable references

The song "Doing It Way Big" by Lil Kim contains the lines, "...working at the Birkin Hermes bag, only multimillionaires who know about that be like damn she doing it way big."

In the Sex and the City episode "coulda woulda shoulda", the character Samantha Jones exclaims "It's not a bag; it's a fucking Birkin!" when attempting to use Lucy Liu's name to get moved up the waiting list.

Madonna's Give It 2 Me music video features rapper/singer-songwriter/music producer Pharrell, who also produced the song, dragging a purple Birkin bag along the floor, in a reference to the 'get stupid' bridge of the song.
"Comin' back with Birkin bags. Your chick was like what type of purse is that?"
(Jay-Z, 30 Somethin')
"I used to bag girls like Birkin bags. Now I bag B..."
(Jay-Z in Beyoncé Knowles' Déjà Vu)
"Hermès Birkin Bags, Manolo Blahniks, Timbs, Aviator Lenses..."
(Jay-Z in '03 Bonnie & Clyde with Beyoncé)

Fashion History

In the 1974 costume history images below you can see a variety of coat styles typical of the mid 1970s. These images reflect classic clothes of the era and were probably directed at woman of 25+. At the same time fashion history had many hippy influences in dress. However although the 1970s is often depicted as a hippy fashion era the truth is that in many conventional circumstances many people had to wear what was considered conventional dress to work. More outlandish hippy looks were often kept for out of office hours, travelling and holidays. These fashion designs of 1974 women's coats are typical of garments worn in daily professional life at work, although the hats were less likely to be worn unless it was very cold.
Ladies and girls still wore coats both summer and winter. Women would generally own both a winter coat and also a summer coat for cooler evenings. Shorter reefer jackets, car coats, suede or leather jackets, denim or swing jersey jackets had grown in popularity as more casual wear became usual. By the late 70s shorter quilted padded jackets were an acceptable alternative to a tailored coat as car use increased.