A THING OF BEAUTY IS A JOY FOREVER

I AM currently reading Dorothy Wordsworth's Journal, published by Oxford University Press with the title The Grasmere and Alfoxden Journals.

I have just started the book, and I am amazed by the amount of housekeeping Dorothy is doing!

Ironing -- for hours on end! She binds carpets, sews, mends old clothes, bleaches and dries the linen, nails the beds, works in the garden -- planting, weeding, gathers plants. 

In the midst of all this, Dorothy reads Shakespeare, writes letters and describes her days in the journal.

But I suppose that her major talent lies in raising the ordinary to the extraordinary, in making us see nature around her as she does, in making us interested in her simple and quiet life!

Dorothy Wordsworth is the sister of the William Wordsworth, the famous Romantic poet.

Beauty had a central place in Romantic poetry. The beauty of women, of nature, the beauty of a terrible storm. And it is my beloved John Keats who said the famous "a thing of beauty is a joy forever, its loveliness increases, it will never slide into nothingness"!

THE LIPSTICK PAPERS WEEKEND REVIEW

I will try to review a book (beauty, fiction, non-fiction) each weekend, beginning from today! All books come from my own collection.

We start with Kate Somerville's Complexion Perfection! Kate Somerville is a beauty expert, a paramedical esthetician, with her own Skin Care line and medi-skin clinic in Los Angeles.

I bought her book a couple of years ago and here's my review!

Theme: beauty advice, covering everything from what we are eating to skin type. The book begins with an interesting and short account of Kate Somerville's inspiring life-story.

Strongest point(s): personalized charts for skin care and a very informative Q and A (called "Quiz Kate!") about skin care and skin problems and treatments.

Weak point(s): large space devoted to "before and after" photos with common skin problems, which might put you off.

This is the review for this week! Have a good weekend!

P.S. I love all my books, but I will try and be objective!

EXPRESS YOURSELF

A couple of years ago, the University of Innsbruck made an amazing discovery for fashion! This was a bra dating from the 15th century, found at Lemberg Castle in Tyrol! 

The discovery surprised fashion historians, who thought that the bra (short for brassiere) is a 19th century, i.e. a modern, invention.

The term "brassiere" was adopted for the first time in 1904 in the US, when it appeared in a New York advertisement for a bust supporter. The invention of the modern brassiere itself is attributed to the New York socialite Mary Phelps Jacob. However, as fashion historian Valerie Steele says, that bra was neither the first nor a very successful model. 

The bra has a long and interesting history. American companies after the Second World War used silk for parachutes to make bras. An embroidered bra became a best-seller in 1949. There was invisible bra for the swinging sixties, and the Wonderbra for the 1990s.

Contrary to popular prejudice and myth, the feminists never burnt bras. In the 1968 Atlantic City Miss America Pageant protests, they only threw bras in a "freedom bin". Let's not forget that this was done in a decade which was all about freedom and free expression, after decades of restraint for women. In the 50s, you were unfeminine and an ogre unless you looked like the blonde and petite Sandra Dee.

The debate as to whether the bra is healthy is not settled. Some say it is essential for health, others say not so. 

I read somewhere that, with good exercise, the breast does not need a bra for support, and I think this may be true.

I want to think that, like anything which has to do with beauty, the bra can be both sexy and useful. It is certainly a fantastic fashion accessory. And who can forget Madonna's Blonde Ambition Jean Paul Gaultier bra?

In my view, Gaultier is one of those people without whom the world would be less sparkling, less good, and less fun. Express yourself!

RED ALERT

RED alert at The Lipstick Papers! The BBC announced that, for the first time, the sales of nail polish have overtaken the sales of lipstick!!!!!!!!!

Nail polish has a long and lovely history, of course, to which we can get back at a later post. Charles Revson (founder of Revlon) popularized it by famously trying polish on his own nails at promotions.

The BBC (in the You and Yours Programe) had a very interesting interview with Thea Green, the founder of Nails Inc., the new and budding nails industry. I loved the interview. Thea Green spoke about how she was editor of Tatler and then borrowed money to start her own business, and that nail polish is a way to make a fashion statement. Many girls start their own business with a nail bar. If Thea Green writes a memoir, I am buying (you know I collect beauty books and memoirs).

The story had all the things I love! Beauty, female entrepreneurship, fashion, the beauty of nail art! It was a wonderful story.

But I have to say this: I still prefer lipstick...

JUST DO EAT

IN literature, as in life, the relationship of women to food is complicated.

In many books, women are not shown to enjoy food. Beautiful women are supposed to be ethereal. The idea goes back to the 19th century, and classic Victorian fiction is full of such examples. In Charlotte Bronte's Villette, Ginevra's good appetite is considered a flaw of character. Idealized (and extremely annoying) Pauline is slim and is never shown to eat. The same goes for a list of classic heroines: Dorothea Brooke and Rosamond Vincy, Estella, Esther Summerson and Ada -- the list goes on.

Popular literature is equally bad. From chick lit to fantasy fiction, all the heroines are slim. Ana Steele from 50 Shades of Grey (my favorite book) is obsessed with controlling her weight, though Christian insists that she looks better with a few extra pounds. 

To make matters worse, popular fiction is also full of diet advice, and heroines who become successful after they diet. Pages and pages of denial and food-related guilt.

Most, if not all the advertisements on weight loss, feature women. We are bombarded with unwanted advice on "how not to eat a lot in" just about everywhere, from the restaurant to Easter, to holiday to happy (or unhappy) ever after! 

I don't agree with any of this. Food is beautiful, and we have a right to enjoy it. We have a right to enjoy our food, without being harassed or bullied by anyone!

The beauty of food is obvious in any book which deals with hunger. The girls in Little House on the Prairie always enjoy eating, because starvation is a real danger. In A Little Princess, food is almost magical in its ability to revive and make people happy. The same magic is given to food in Jane Eyre. As for Villette, chubby Ginevra is the most beautiful girl in the book and a much better character than the idealized Pauline!

A popular heroine who loves food is Rebecca Bloomwood in the first Shopaholic book. Also Eva Tramell from the Crossfire trilogy. Though I think the Crossfire trilogy is inferior to 50 Shades, I enjoy Eva's eating extravaganzas!

A MANIFESTO FOR BEAUTY

NOT even the goddess Athena can resist a beauty contest, even if it is the one which will famously (or infamously) lead to the Trojan war!

I am not in favor of beauty contests, though I am not totally against them either. Anything which has to do with beauty has value for me!

I find the myth important not so much because of the contest, but because of the idea that the Goddess of Wisdom cares about her beauty and wants other people to recognize it as well!

The idea that beauty is silliness just gets on my nerves!

It is not silly for a woman to take care of her beauty and to want to be beautiful. If she doesn't like beauty routines, that's no problem, but if she does like them, it is no problem either. To look beautiful is not for the silly: it takes considerable time, patience, taste and skill.

Besides, who said that beautiful is silly??? Some know-it-all, I am sure. Yet, didn't Socrates say that to think you know it all is stupidity? "The unexamined life is not worth living," he added.

If you think about it, Socrates was right. He believed that to know that you know nothing is wisdom. The more you learn and experience, the more you realize that true knowledge is to measure and appreciate things. True knowledge is not simply "to know".

I am sure the Goddess Athena would approve...

LIPSTICK FIX

WHAT can lift your spirits after a long bout of cold? There are many answers but, for me, it is a brand new lipstick!

After a long and tiring illness, I decided that it was time to wear for the first time a NYX lipstick I bought called "Angel".

The color was amazingly pretty, with shades of hot pink and peach. I wore it with a bright pink top, a grey flannel cardigan-like garment and a cream scarf with pink flowers!

The combination was slightly unorthodox but I loved it! It made me feel comfortable and colorful. I don't think that fashion is about looking perfect a hundred per cent of the time. I think that fashion is about feeling happy and good with what you are wearing!

BEAUTY'S SECRET (SENSATION FICTION)

A NOVEL which reads like a beauty manual is Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1862).

Lady Audley's Secret was the top selling book in the 19th century. It is about many things, but what makes it truly memorable is the beauty and fashion sense of the secret-bearing heroine, Lucy Audley.

Lucy is fascinating and pretty; nobody can resist "the tender fascination of those soft and melting blue eyes; the graceful beauty of that slender throat and drooping head, with its wealth of showering flaxen curls; the low music of that gentle voice...".

Also, I think that nobody can resist the lavish descriptions of Lady Audley's clothes, accessories and impeccable manners. Many critics believe that Lady Audley's Secret is a fashion and etiquette manual in the form of novel, teaching young women manners, demeanor and dress sense.

Of course, Lucy is supposed to be criminal and wicked, but I rather like her!!!!!!!!!!!!

The novel belongs to the genre of sensation fiction, which caused fear by portraying beautiful yet criminal women, violence inside the home and family, bigamous men and women, hidden deadly secrets and so forth.

The endings are usually good, but the goodness is often so sugary as to seem fake. They are the endings and solutions of a society ignoring its problems and hiding its head in the sand.

If you are interested in sensation fiction, I totally recommend Lady Audley, and also Aurora Leigh and The Doctor's Wife, again by Braddon. As for the sensation novel par excellence, this is considered to be The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins!

DRESSES, GOWNS AND ACCESSORIES

"GIRL wearing an Ungaro dress", is the title of a sketch I made years ago, and here it is!

I started with the figure, and then dressed her in a lovely scarlet and gold Ungaro gown I found in a magazine. The coloring is made in professional color pencil, and that is why it looks so good even in a photograph from behind glass (the sketch is framed on my wall).

I used to be quite into fashion design, though I never studied it. I copied dresses, gowns and accessories I saw on TV. I copied furiously from soap operas and TV dramas! Finally, I started designing my own clothes. I made up stories in which my fashion-clad heroines starred. 

Those sketches have not survived, but I particularly remember a black velvet skirt and jacket suit, with a floral print which was reproduced on high boots of the same color!

The stories have not survived either, but I continue to write. What's more, I continue to write in the same genre: romance! 

Also, I am seriously thinking to take up design and sewing again. Maybe in the summer. We must not postpone things. Wish me luck! 

INNER BEAUTY

Yesterday, I was to go for a free make-up session at Beauty Line in Limassol, here in Cyprus!

The occasion was a public lecture I was to give at the University. The subject of the lecture? Female beauty, of course!

I looked forward to the lecture and to the make-up session! I love pampering and, as you know, I am not that good with make-up. I can't do make-up well, so I just wear my lipstick, and seek help from experts!

Sadly, I had to cancel both lecture and make-up session.:-( I was ill with the cold and had a horrid cough. No reading in public yesterday!

Instead of looking beautiful at the lecture, here I was at home with a swollen red nose, miserable expression and a creaky voice.

In such cases, the only way out is to look for inner beauty. A good sleep (popped up in pillows, to minimize the cough), good medicine, a book, and doing things we love -- browse the Internet for fashion news and gossip, listen to our favorite radio station, watch ........ Channel (insert favorite TV channel, for me it is World Fashion TV).

In other words, what we have to do is think ourselves beautiful!