It is the holiday season and the gifts and cards have begun to arrive at our office.
Yesterday, Morgan Stanley’s bond desk sent us Steve Job’s Biography. I am first in line to read it. I don’t tend to be a non-fiction kind of gal but this one I am interested in cracking open.
When I got home I dove into the book and it began with a quote from this think different Commercial “Here’s to the crazy ones” narrated originally by Steve Jobs (this version never aired).
As her Jewels go on Auction December 13-16th I figured it was the perfect time to share the words of this week’s Icon Elizabeth Taylor. Dame as appointed by Queen Elizabeth in 2000 may have the closest runner up collection of jewelry to the crown jewels themselves.
Elizabeth Taylor’s Career stretches back to the 1940’s with her role at the age of 12 in National Velvet. She was a two-time Academy Award-winning actress for her roles as a call girl in Butterfield 8 (1960) and as Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf? (1966). Her unique beauty lit up the screen in roles like Cleopatra-one of the most expensive productions up to that time. Also making history as the first woman to earn a million dollars for a single movie appearance.
She married eight times (twice to legendary actor Richard Burton) and became infamous for breaking up other people’s marriages. Her many relationships, her jewelry and her contributions to the fight against AIDS kept her in the public eye up till her death on March 23rd, 2011.
“Everything makes me nervous – except making films.”
“Some of my best leading men have been dogs and horses.”
“Big girls need big diamonds.”
“I’ve only slept with men I’ve been married to. How many women can make that claim?”
“I am a very committed wife. And I should be committed too – for being married so many times. “
“I feel very adventurous. There are so many doors to be opened, and I’m not afraid to look behind them. “
“I fell off my pink cloud with a thud.”
“I sweat real sweat and I shake real shakes.”
“I’ve always admitted that I’m ruled by my passions.”
” I’ve been through it all, baby, I’m mother courage.”
‘You find out who your real friends are when you’re involved in a scandal. “
“It is strange that the years teach us patience; that the shorter our time, the greater our capacity for waiting.”
“I’m a survivor – a living example of what people can go through and survive.”
Image Sources: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14
Today’s Icon is of course Katherine Hepburn. Why you ask? Katherine Hepburn celebrated November 8th as her birthday in memoriam of the death of her older and beloved brother Tom. In actuality she was born May 12th, 1907.
Her independent lifestyle and spirited personality made her a cultural Icon. She helped change the perception of women over the course of the 20th century. She was fearless, though many thought her arrogant and abnormal. I say Praise be to abnormal!
Instilled with the virtues of perseverance, independence and fortitude she learned from her feminist mother that women were equal to men. In her youth she was a tomboy, cutting her hair short and referring to herself as Jimmy.
With her Father’s words in her head “if you want to get something – don’t write, don’t telephone, be there yourself” Hepburn went to visit a friend Edwin Knopf who cast her in The Czarina. Her acting career was born.
Fiercely private, strong willed on and off screen. Like Chanel, another pioneer woman wearing trousers. A radical thought of the times. She was known for her mind and intellect not sexual appeal.
.
“I never realized until lately that women were supposed to be the inferior sex.”
“I like the idea of being my own single self.”
On Motherhood:
“Only when a woman decides not to have children, can a woman live like a man. That’s what I’ve done”
“Being a housewife and a mother is the biggest job in the world, but if it doesn’t interest you, don’t do it – I would have made a terrible mother.”
We are taught you must blame your father, your sisters, your brothers, the school, the teachers – but never blame yourself. It’s never your fault. But it’s always your fault, because if you wanted to change you’re the one who has got to change.
On relationships:
“Sometimes I wonder if men and women really suit each other. Perhaps they should live next door and just visit now and then.”
“Marriage is a series of desperate arguments people feel passionately about.”
“If you want to give up the admiration of thousands of men for the distain of one, go ahead, get married.”
OR
“If you want to sacrifice the admiration of many men for the criticism of one, go ahead, get married.”
If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased.”
“Why slap them on the wrist with feather when you can belt them over the head with a sledgehammer.”
“I think most of the people involved in any art always secretly wonder whether they are really there because they’re good or there because they’re lucky.”
“If you’re given a choice between money and sex appeal, take the money. As you get older, the money will become your sex appeal.”
“Without discipline, there’s no life at all.”
“Death will be a great relief. No more interviews.”
Images: (1) Kathi Chapman (2, 4,8 & 10) Fashion’s most wanted (3,6,7 & 9) Cinema Quote (5) yisforyogini (7& 12) Supreme Design (11)heyheymymy
When the iphone came out my company gave me one as a bonus. It sat unopened for nearly 9 months as I vacillated over having to change phone carriers. Finally I made the leap. Little did I know at that moment the change it would make in my day to day life.
My phone soon became indispensible; serving as my personal assistant ~ my morning alarm, my evening white noise, my music break, my schedule keeper, my favorite camera. I found I couldn’t do without. The crackberry had nothing on this.
Years later the ipad found its way into my hands and since has been my constant companion, my portable art studio. All for the ingenuity of one man…
Yesterday the world said goodbye to an innovator whose dreams touched our lives. In tribute to an incredible entrepreneur, Steve Jobs
“It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”
— BusinessWeek interview, May 1998
“[Y]ou can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”
— Stanford University commencement address, June 2005.
“Picasso had a saying: ‘Good artists copy, great artists steal.’ We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas…I think part of what made the Macintosh great was that the people working on it were musicians, poets, artists, zoologists and historians who also happened to be the best computer scientists in the world.”
— 1994
“That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”
— BusinessWeek interview, May 1998
“My model for business is The Beatles. They were four guys who kept each other’s kind of negative tendencies in check. They balanced each other and the total was greater than the sum of the parts. That’s how I see business: great things in business are never done by one person, they’re done by a team of people.”
— Interview with 60 Minutes, 2003
“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.” — Stanford University commencement address, June 2005.
“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. … Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”
— Stanford University commencement address, June 2005.
Images: (1) DCtdesigns (2) geekologie
First I want to say Joyeux anniversaire to Coco Chanel! Born August 19th, 1883.
This weekend I am teaching a Product Development Class, catching up on my own Photoshop class homework and hopefully finding some much needed rest after a long week.
A little Weekend reading:
Coco Chanel Happy Birthday on The Simply Luxurious Life
So is Fashion Feminist on final fashion
My Manifesto for an ethical fashion on StageWear
Image: Stagewear
I read a review of the book and then took the Vanity Fair quiz. I forced myself to answer every question though some didn’t really apply to me. I Expected to be a Jackie but once tallied it turned out I was a Marilyn. Hmmmm…. So which one are you?
I think my biggest achievement is that, after going through a rather difficult time, I consider myself comparatively sane.- Jackie Kennedy
We know you understand that even though people may be well known they still hold in their hearts the emotions of a simple person for the moments that are the most important of those we know on earth — birth, marriage, death.
I’m selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can’t handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don’t deserve me at my best.
Being away from home gave me the chance to look at myself with a jaundiced eye. I learned not to be ashamed of a real hunger for knowledge, something I had always tried to hide, and I came home glad to start in here again with a love for Europe that I am afraid will never leave me.”
Never take someone for granted. Hold every person close to your heart because you might wake up one day and realize that you’ve lost a diamond while you were too busy collecting stones…..
The trouble with me is that I’m an outsider. And that’s a very hard thing to be in American life.
Being a sex symbol is a heavy load to carry, especially when one is tired, hurt and bewildered.
Now, I think that I should have known that he was magic all along. I did know it – but I should have guessed that it would be too much to ask to grow old with and see our children grow up together. So now, he is a legend when he would have preferred to be a man.
***On a side note…. I intended to leave out any picture including JFK. But as he was one thing these women had in common and in Jackie voiced “I don’t think there are any men who are faithful to their wives.”
“I’ve never fooled anyone. I’ve let people fool themselves. They didn’t bother to find out who and what I was. Instead they would invent a character for me. I wouldn’t argue with them. They were obviously loving somebody I wasn’t.”
Image: (1)Vanity Fair (2 & 4)Lisa’s History Room (3) Zimbio (5) Backup (6) jwlry.net (7 & 9) Chelsea Massage (8) Cure Talk (10) Buzztown (11) Facebook Emotioncons (12) RAD Collection (13) Claqueur
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