The Real Bonnes Vivantes...The Inspirational Women behind the Lingerie
Inspired: the AKIKO underwire bra
Akiko Yosano was the pen-name of a Japanese author, poet, pioneering feminist, pacifist and social reformer, active in the late Meiji period as well as the Taishō and early Shōwa periods of Japan.[1] She is one of the most noted, and most controversial, post-classical woman poets of Japan. Her first volume of tanka, Midaregami not only expresses concepts and/or issues that pertain to women and are not normally voiced in such a public manner, but also created a new, revolutionary image of womanhood, as lively, free, sexual and assertive people, nothing at all like the conventional picture of the modest, demure young lady expected in Japan.[6] -Wikipedia
Credit: The Getty
Inspired: the Amélia bralette Amélia bralette 2
Amélia Earhart was an American aviation pioneer and author.[1][Note 1] Earhart was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.[3][Note 2] She set many other records,[2] wrote best-selling books about her flying experiences, and was instrumental in the formation of The Ninety-Nines, an organization for female pilots.[5]
In 1932, piloting a Lockheed Vega 5B, Earhart made a nonstop solo transatlantic flight, becoming the first woman to achieve such a feat. She received the United States Distinguished Flying Cross for this accomplishment.[6] In 1935, Earhart became a visiting faculty member at Purdue University as an advisor to aeronautical engineering and a career counselor to women students. She was also a member of the National Woman's Party and an early supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment.[7][8]
During an attempt to make a circumnavigational flight of the globe in 1937 in a Purdue-funded Lockheed Model 10-E Electra, Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island.[Note 3]
-Wikipedia
Credit: Getty
Inspired the: ANAIS Underwire Bra
Anaïs Nin Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell (February 21, 1903 – January 14, 1977), known professionally as Anaïs Nin (/ænə.iːsniːn/,[1] French: [ana.is nin]) was a French-Cuban American diarist, essayist, novelist, and writer of short stories and erotica. Born to Cuban parents in France, Nin was the daughter of composer Joaquín Nin and Rosa Culmell, a classically trained singer. Nin spent her early years in Spain and Cuba, about sixteen years in Paris (1924–1940), and the remaining half of her life in the United States, where she became an established author.
Beginning at age eleven, Nin wrote journals prolifically for six decades and even up until her death. Her journals, many of which were published during her lifetime, detail her private thoughts and personal relationships. Her journals also describe her marriage to Hugh Parker Guiler and marriage to Rupert Pole, in addition to her numerous affairs, including those with psychoanalyst Otto Rank and writer Henry Miller, both of whom profoundly influenced Nin and her writing.
In addition to her journals, Nin wrote several novels, critical studies, essays, short stories, and volumes of erotica. Much of her work, including the collections of erotica Delta of Venus and Little Birds, was published posthumously amid renewed critical interest in her life and work. Nin spent her later life in Los Angeles, California, where she died of cervical cancer in 1977.
-Wikipedia
Credit: Yousuf Karsh
Inspired: AUDREY Underwire Bra
Audrey Hepburn (born Audrey Kathleen Ruston; 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress and humanitarian. Recognised as a film and fashion icon, she was ranked by the American Film Institute as the third-greatest female screen legend in Golden Age Hollywood, and was inducted into the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame.
She began performing as a chorus girl in West End musical theatre productions and then had minor appearances in several films. Hepburn starred in the 1951 Broadway play Gigi after being spotted by French novelist Colette, on whose work the play was based.
She won three BAFTA Awards for Best British Actress in a Leading Role. In recognition of her film career, she received BAFTA's Lifetime Achievement Award, the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award, and the Special Tony Award. She remains one of only 15 people who have won Academy, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Awards.
Later in life she devoted much of her time to UNICEF which she had contributed to since 1954. Then she worked in some of the poorest communities of Africa, South America, and Asia between 1988 and 1992. In December 1992, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of her work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. A month later, she died of appendiceal cancer at her home in Switzerland at the age of 63.
-Wikipedia
William P. Gottlieb, « Down Beat » February 1947
Inspired: the BILLIE Briefs
Eleanora Fagan (April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959), better known as Billie Holiday, was an African American jazz singer with a career spanning nearly thirty years. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz music and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. She was known for her vocal delivery and improvisational skills.[1]
She won four Grammy Awards, all of them posthumously, for Best Historical Album. She was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1973. Lady Sings the Blues, a film about her life, starring Diana Ross, was released in 1972. She is the primary character in the play (later made into a film) Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill; the role was originated by Reenie Upchurch in 1986, and was played by Audra McDonald on Broadway and in the film. In 2017 Holiday was inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame.
-Wikipedia
Inspired: the CHARLOTTE short
Charlotte Brontë (/ˈbrɒnti/, commonly /-teɪ/;[1] 21 April 1816 – 31 March 1855) was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood and whose novels became classics of English literature.
She enlisted in school at Roe Head in January 1831, aged 14 years. She left the year after to teach her sisters, Emily and Anne, at home, returning in 1835 as a governess. In 1839 she undertook the role as governess for the Sidgwick family but left after a few months to return to Haworth where the sisters opened a school, but failed to attract pupils. Instead, they turned to writing and they each first published in 1846 under the pseudonyms of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. While her first novel, The Professor, was rejected by publishers, her second novel, Jane Eyre, was published in 1847. The sisters admitted to their Bell pseudonyms in 1848, and by the following year were celebrated in London literary circles.
Brontë experienced the early deaths of all her siblings. She became pregnant shortly after her marriage in June 1854 but died on 31 March 1855.
-Wikipedia
Credit: Nadar
Inspired: the CLEO Short
Cléopâtre-Diane de Mérode (27 September 1875 – 17 October 1966) was a French dancer, model, beauty icon and muse of the Belle Époque.[1] Cléo de Mérode was born in Paris, France on 27 September 1875.[2] She was the illegitimate daughter of the Austrian Baroness Vincentia de Mérode (1850–1899), who was of Austrian and Belgian descent,[3] and the Austrian judge, lawyer, and pioneer of tourism, Theodor Christomannos (1854–1911), who was of Greek, German, and French descent.[4][5][6][7]
At the age of eight, Cléo was sent to study dance and made her professional debut at age eleven.
de Mérode became renowned for her glamour even more than for her dancing skills, and her image began appearing on such things as postcards and playing cards. Her fame was such that Alexandre Falguière sculpted The Dancer in her image, which today can be seen in the Musée d'Orsay. In 1895, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec did her portrait, as would Charles Puyo, Alfredo Muller, and Giovanni Boldini. Her picture was taken by some of the most illustrious photographers of the day, including Félix Nadar.
de Mérode became an international star, performing across Europe and in the United States.
de Mérode continued to dance until her early fifties, when she retired to the seaside resort of Biarritz in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques département of France. She then taught ballet before retiring in 1965 at 90 years old.[13
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Credit: Getty
Inspired: the COLETTE bikini
Colette (French: [kɔ.lɛt]; Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, 28 January 1873 – 3 August 1954) was a French author and woman of letters nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948; also known as a mime, actress, and journalist. Colette was most widely known for her 1944 novella Gigi (1944), which was the basis for the 1958 film and the 1973 stage production of the same name, for which she is credited to have “discovered” Audrey Hepburn for the title role. A celebrity in La Belle Epoque France, she was also famous for her scandals and bisexuality. After leaving her husband, Henry Gauthier-Villars (“Willy”) she began a more or less public relationship with the Marquise de Belbeuf, (“Missy”), niece of Napolean III.
Upon her death, on 3 August 1954, she was refused a religious funeral by the Catholic Church on account of her divorces, but given a state funeral, the first French woman of letters to be granted the honour, and interred in Père-Lachaise cemetery.[18][19][9][24]
Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Inspired: the CORA ruffled bikni
Cora Pearl (born Eliza Emma Crouch,[1] December 1836 – 8 July 1886) was a nineteenth-century courtesan of the French demimonde who enjoyed her greatest celebrity during the period of the Second French Empire.
By 1860, Pearl was one of the most celebrated courtesans in Paris. She was the mistress of notable aristocrats, the Prince of Orange, heir to the throne of the Netherlands, Ludovic, Duc de Grammont-Caderousse, and more significantly Charles Duc de Morny, who was the half-brother of the Emperor Napoleon III (the father of the lover of Colette). The Emperor’s brother generously contributed to the life Pearl demanded.[7]
While not destitute, by 1880 her financial situation had become dire. By 1883, she had returned to common prostitution.
The Mémoires de Cora Pearl had been greatly anticipated when it became known that Pearl was writing her autobiography. Published in 1886 in Paris and subsequently in England in London.
Soon after the publication of her memoirs, Pearl became seriously ill with intestinal cancer. She died on 8 July 1886.
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Dame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning, DBE (/duː ˈmɒrieɪ/; 13 May 1907 – 19 April 1989) was an English author and playwright.
Although she is classed as a romantic novelist, her stories have been described as "moody and resonant" with overtones of the paranormal. Her bestselling works were not at first taken seriously by critics, but have since earned an enduring reputation for narrative craft. Many have been successfully adapted into films, including the novels Rebecca, My Cousin Rachel, and Jamaica Inn, and the short stories "The Birds" and "Don't Look Now/Not After Midnight".
Du Maurier spent much of her life in Cornwall, where most of her works are set. As her fame increased, she became more reclusive.
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Photo: Scott Nathan
Dita Von Teese (born Heather Renée Sweet;[1] September 28, 1972) is an American vedette, burlesque dancer, model, costume designer, entrepreneur, singer, and actress.[2] She is credited with re-popularizing burlesque performance, earning the moniker "Queen of Burlesque".[3][4][5][6]
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Photo: Cecil Beaton
Inspired: the DOLLY Bikini
Dolly Wilde Dorothy Ierne Wilde, known as Dolly Wilde, (11 July 1895 – 10 April 1941) was an English socialite, made famous by her family connections and her reputation as a witty conversationalist. Her charm and humour made her a popular guest at salons in Paris between the wars, standing out even in a social circle known for its flamboyant talkers.
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Credit: Universal
Inspired: the ELLA Thong
Ella Fitzgerald Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer sometimes referred to as the First Lady of Song, Queen of Jazz, and Lady Ella. She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing.
In 1993, after a career of nearly 60 years, she gave her last public performance. Three years later, she died at the age of 79 after years of declining health. Her accolades included fourteen Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
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Credit: John Russo/Getty Images
Inspired: the EVA tanga
Eva Gaëlle Green (French: [e.va ɡa.ɛl ɡʁeːn]; born July 6, 1980) is a French actress and model.
The daughter of actress Marlène Jobert, she started her career in theatre before making her film debut in Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers (2003). She achieved international recognition for her portrayal of Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem in Ridley Scott's historical epic Kingdom of Heaven (2005). The following year, she played Bond girl Vesper Lynd in the James Bond film Casino Royale (2006), for which she received the BAFTA Rising Star Award.
Green has since starred in numerous independent films, including Cracks (2009), Womb (2010), and Perfect Sense (2011). In 2014, she played Artemisia in the 300 sequel, 300: Rise of an Empire, and Ava Lord in Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez's Sin City sequel, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. Green is also known for her collaborations with director Tim Burton, starring as Angelique Bouchard in the horror comedy film Dark Shadows (2012), Miss Alma Peregrine in the fantasy film Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016), and Colette Marchant in the fantasy film Dumbo (2019).
Green starred as Morgan Pendragon in the Starz historical fantasy series Camelot (2011). She also starred as Vanessa Ives in the Showtime horror drama series Penny Dreadful (2014–2016), earning a nomination for Best Actress in a Television Series – Drama at the 73rd Golden Globe Awards.
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Credit: Alamy Stock Photo
Inspired: the GRETA bikini
Greta Garbo[a] (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson;[b] 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish-American film actress during the 1920s and 1930s. Garbo was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, and received an Academy Honorary Award in 1954 for her luminous and unforgettable screen performances. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Garbo fifth on their list of the greatest female stars of classic Hollywood cinema.
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Credit: BBC Films/Ruby Films
Inspired: the JANE underwire bra
Jane Eyre (originally published as Jane Eyre: An Autobiography) is a novel by English writer Charlotte Brontë, published under the pen name "Currer Bell", on 16 October 1847, by Smith, Elder & Co. of London. Jane Eyre follows the experiences of its eponymous heroine, including her growth to adulthood and her love for Mr. Rochester, the brooding master of Thornfield Hall.[2]
The book contains elements of social criticism, with a strong sense of Christian morality at its core, and is considered by many to be ahead of its time because of Jane's individualistic character and how the novel approaches the topics of class, sexuality, religion and feminism.[4][5]
-Wikipedia
The protagonist and narrator of the novel, Jane is an intelligent, honest, plain-featured young girl forced to contend with oppression, inequality, and hardship. Although she meets with a series of individuals who threaten her autonomy, Jane repeatedly succeeds at asserting herself and maintains her principles of justice, human dignity, and morality. She also values intellectual and emotional fulfillment. Her strong belief in gender and social equality challenges the Victorian prejudices against women and the poor.
-Sparknotes
Credit: Getty
Inspired: the JOSEPHINE Plunge Bra
Josephine Baker (born Freda Josephine McDonald, naturalised French Joséphine Baker; 3 June 1906 – 12 April 1975) was an American-born French entertainer, French Resistance agent, and civil rights activist. Her career was centered primarily in Europe, mostly in her adopted France. Baker was the first African-American to star in a major motion picture, the 1927 silent film Siren of the Tropics, directed by Mario Nalpas and Henri Étiévant.[2]
During her early career Baker was renowned as a dancer, and was among the most celebrated performers to headline the revues of the Folies Bergère in Paris. Her performance in the revue Un vent de folie in 1927 caused a sensation in Paris. Her costume, consisting of only a girdle of artificial bananas, became an iconic image and a symbol of the Jazz Age and the 1920s.
Baker was celebrated by artists and intellectuals of the era, who variously dubbed her the “Black Venus”, the "Black Pearl", the "Bronze Venus", and the "Creole Goddess". Born in St. Louis, Missouri, she renounced her U.S. citizenship and became a French national after her marriage to French industrialist Jean Lion in 1937.[3] She raised her children in France. "I have two loves, my country and Paris", Baker once said, and she sang: «J'ai deux amours, mon pays et Paris».[4]
She was known for aiding the French Resistance during World War II.[5] After the war, she was awarded the Croix de guerre by the French military, and was named a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur by General Charles de Gaulle.[6]
Baker refused to perform for segregated audiences in the United States and is noted for her contributions to the Civil Rights Movement. In 1968 she was offered unofficial leadership in the movement in the United States by Coretta Scott King, following Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. After thinking it over, Baker declined the offer out of concern for the welfare of her children.[1][7]
-Wikipedia
Credit: John Phillips/Getty Images
Inspired: the KITTY Bodysuit
Kitty Girl
RuPaul Charles/Mark Byers
Hey, kitty girl, it's your world
When you walk the street, steppin' to the beat
Hey, kitty girl, get your twirl
In the disco heat you're the boogie-body-rockin' queen
Gone tomorrow, but you're here for today
Cat walkin' like the world is your run-run-runway
People say that when the dog is away
Kitty cats are gonna come out and play
Hey, kitty girl, it's your world
When you walk the street, steppin' to the beat
Hey, kitty girl, get your twirl
In the disco heat you're the boogie-body-rockin' queen
Portrait par Joseph Karl Stieler (1847)
Inspired: the LOLA plunge bra
Lola Montez Marie Dolores Eliza Rosanna Gilbert, Countess of Landsfeld[1] (17 February 1821 – 17 January 1861), better known by the stage name Lola Montez (/moʊnˈtɛz/), was an Irish dancer and actress who became famous as a "Spanish dancer", courtesan, and mistress of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, who made her Gräfin von Landsfeld (Countess of Landsfeld). She used her influence to institute liberal reforms. At the start of the Revolutions of 1848 in the German states, she was forced to flee. She proceeded to the United States via Australia, Switzerland, France and London, returning to her work as an entertainer and lecturer.
-Wikipedia
Credit: John Florea, 1956
Inspired: the MARILYN Lace Balcony Bra & MARILYN Satin Balcony Bra
Marilyn Monroe (born Norma Jeane Mortenson; June 1, 1926 – August 4, 1962[1]) was an American actress, model, and singer. Famous for playing comedic "blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s and was emblematic of the era's changing attitudes towards sexuality. Although she was a top-billed actress for only a decade, her films grossed $200 million (equivalent to $2 billion in 2018) by the time of her unexpected death in 1962.[2] More than half a century later, she continues to be a major popular culture icon.[3]
On August 4, 1962, she died at age 36 from an overdose of barbiturates at her home in Los Angeles.
-Wikipedia
Credit: Getty Images
Inspired: the MARLENE Skirted Thong
Marie Magdalene "Marlene" Dietrich (/mɑːrˈleɪnə ˈdiːtrɪk/, German: [maʁˈleːnə ˈdiːtʁɪç]; 27 December 1901 – 6 May 1992)[1] was a German-American[2][3][4] actress and singer. Throughout her long career, which spanned from the 1910s to the 1980s, she continually reinvented herself.[5]
In 1920s Berlin, Dietrich acted on the stage and in silent films. Her performance as Lola-Lola in The Blue Angel (1930) brought her international acclaim and a contract with Paramount Pictures. Dietrich starred in Hollywood films such as Morocco (1930), Shanghai Express (1932), and Desire(1936). She successfully traded on her glamorous persona and "exotic" looks, and became one of the highest-paid actresses of the era. Throughout World War II, she was a high-profile entertainer in the United States. Although she still made occasional films after the war like Witness for the Prosecution (1957), Dietrich spent most of the 1950s to the 1970s touring the world as a marquee live-show performer.
Dietrich was known for her humanitarian efforts during the war, housing German and French exiles, providing financial support and even advocating their U.S. citizenship. For her work on improving morale on the front lines during the war, she received several honors from the United States, France, Belgium, and Israel. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Dietrich the ninth greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema.[6]
(L) Renée Vivien, (R) Natalie Clifford Barney
Inspired: the RENEE Thong, NATALIE Bikini
Natalie Clifford Barney (October 31, 1876 – February 2, 1972) was an American playwright, poet and novelist who lived as an expatriate in Paris.
Barney's salon was held at her home at 20 rue Jacob[1] in Paris's Left Bank for more than 60 years and brought together writers and artists from around the world, including many leading figures in French literature along with American and British Modernists of the Lost Generation. She worked to promote writing by women and formed a "Women's Academy" (L'Académie des Femmes) in response to the all-male French Academy while also giving support and inspiration to male writers from Remy de Gourmont to Truman Capote.[2]
She was openly lesbian and began publishing love poems to women under her own name as early as 1900, considering scandal as "the best way of getting rid of nuisances" (meaning heterosexual attention from young men).[3] She wrote in both French and English. In her writings she supported feminism and pacifism. She opposed monogamy and had many overlapping long and short-term relationships, including on-and-off romances with poet Renée Vivien and dancer Armen Ohanian and a 50-year relationship with painter Romaine Brooks. Her life and love affairs served as inspiration for many novels, ranging from the salacious French bestseller Idylle Saphique to The Well of Loneliness, the most famous lesbian novel of the twentieth century.[4]
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Renée Vivien (born Pauline Mary Tarn; 11 June 1877 – 18 November 1909), was a British poet who wrote in French, in the style of the Symbolistes and the Parnassiens. A high-profile lesbian in the Paris of the Belle Époque, she was as notable for her lifestyle as for her work, which has received more attention following a recent revival of interest in Sapphic verse. Many of her poems are autobiographical, reflecting a life of extreme hedonism, leading to early death. She was the subject of a pen-portrait by her friend Colette.
-Wikipedia
Credit: Getty Images
Inspired: the SIMONE Short
Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir (UK: /də ˈboʊvwɑːr/, US: /də boʊˈvwɑːr/,[2][3] French: [simɔn də bovwaʁ] (listen); 9 January 1908 – 14 April 1986) was a French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist and social theorist. Though she did not consider herself a philosopher, she had a significant influence on both feminist existentialism and feminist theory.[4]
De Beauvoir wrote novels, essays, biographies, autobiography and monographs on philosophy, politics, and social issues. She was known for her 1949 treatise The Second Sex, a detailed analysis of women's oppression and a foundational tract of contemporary feminism; and for her novels, including She Came to Stay and The Mandarins. She was also known for her open, lifelong relationship with French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre.
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George Hoyningen-Huene in London, 1929
Inspired: the TALLULAH High-Waist Bikini
Tallulah Brockman Bankhead (January 31, 1902 – December 12, 1968) was an American actress of the stage and screen.[1][2] Bankhead was known for her husky voice, outrageous personality, and devastating wit. Originating some of the 20th century theater's preeminent roles in comedy and melodrama, she gained acclaim as an actress on both sides of the Atlantic. Bankhead became an icon of the tempestuous, flamboyant actress, and her unique voice and mannerisms are often subject to imitation and parody.
Bankhead was a member of the Brockman Bankhead family, a prominent Alabama political family; her grandfather and uncle were U.S. Senators and her father served as an 11-term member of Congress, the final two as Speaker of the House of Representatives. Tallulah's support of liberal causes such as civil rights broke with the tendency of the Southern Democrats to support a more typically aligned agenda and she often opposed her own family publicly.[3][4]
Primarily an actress of the stage, Bankhead did have one hit film—Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat (1944) [5]—as well as a brief but successful career on radio. She later made appearances on television as well.
In her personal life, Bankhead struggled with alcoholism and drug addiction, and was known for her uninhibited sex life, including numerous lesbian relationships. Bankhead was capable of great kindness and generosity to those in need, supporting disadvantaged foster children and helping several families escape the Spanish Civil War and World War II. Bankhead was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1972,[6] and the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame in 1981.[7] Upon her death, Bankhead had amassed nearly 300 film, stage, television, and radio roles.[8]
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Credit: Number 9 Film, Film 4, Killer Films
Inspired: the THERESE Bikini
Thérèse Belivet is a character in the book "The Price of Salt" (later republished under the title Carol), a 1952 romance novel by Patricia Highsmith, first published under the pseudonym "Claire Morgan". Highsmith—known as a suspense writer based on her psychological thriller Strangers on a Train—used an alias because she did not want to be tagged as "a lesbian-book writer",[a] and because of the use of her own life references for characters and occurrences in the story. Though Highsmith had many sexual and romantic relationships with women and wrote over 22 novels and numerous short stories, The Price of Salt is her only novel about an unequivocal lesbian relationship and its relatively happy ending was unprecedented in lesbian literature. It is also notable for being the only one of her novels with "a conventional 'happy ending'" and characters who had "more explicit sexual existences".[2]
A British radio adaptation of the novel was broadcast in 2014. Carol, a film adaptation nominated for six Academy Awards and nine British Academy Film Awards, was released in 2015.
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Credit: Getty Images, the estate of David Gahr
Inspired: the YOKO High-Waist Thong
Yoko Ono born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese-American multimedia artist, singer, songwriter and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art, which she performs in both English and Japanese, and filmmaking.[1] She was married to English singer-songwriter John Lennon of the Beatles from 1969 until his murder in 1980.
She first met Lennon in 1966 at her own art exhibition in London, and they became a couple in 1968 and wed the following year. With their performance Bed-Ins for Peace in Amsterdam and Montreal in 1969, Ono and Lennon famously used their honeymoon at the Hilton Amsterdam as a stage for public protests against the Vietnam War. The feminist themes of her music have influenced musicians as diverse as the B-52s and Meredith Monk. She achieved commercial and critical acclaim in 1980 with the chart-topping album Double Fantasy, a collaboration with Lennon that was released three weeks before his murder.
As Lennon's widow, Ono works to preserve his legacy. She funded Strawberry Fields in Manhattan's Central Park, the Imagine Peace Tower in Iceland, and the John Lennon Museum in Saitama, Japan (which closed in 2010).
She has made significant philanthropic contributions to the arts, peace, Philippine and Japan disaster relief, and other causes. In 2012, Ono received the Dr. Rainer Hildebrandt Human Rights Award. The award is given annually in recognition of extraordinary, nonviolent commitment to human rights. Ono continued her social activism when she inaugurated a biennial $50,000 LennonOno Grant for Peace in 2002. She also co-founded the group Artists Against Fracking in 2012.
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Credit: 1922 ©Contrasto
Inspired: the ZELDA G-string
Zelda Fitzgerald (née Sayre; July 24, 1900 – March 10, 1948) was an American novelist, socialite, painter and wife of author F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Born in Montgomery, Alabama, she was noted for her beauty and high spirits, and was dubbed by her husband as "the first American Flapper". She and Scott became emblems of the Jazz Age, for which they are still celebrated. The immediate success of Scott's first novel This Side of Paradise(1920) brought them into contact with high society, but their marriage was plagued by wild drinking, infidelity and bitter recriminations. Ernest Hemingway, whom Zelda disliked, blamed her for Scott's declining literary output, though her extensive diaries provided much material for his fiction. After being diagnosed with schizophrenia, she was increasingly confined to specialist clinics, and the couple were living apart when Scott died suddenly in 1940. Zelda died seven years later in a fire at the hospital in Asheville, North Carolina, in which she was a patient.
A 1970 biography by Nancy Milford was on the short list of contenders for the Pulitzer Prize. In 1992, Zelda was inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame.
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