Okay, if we really need to be historically accurate here: Tony Jones married Princess Margaret ( The Queen Mum's pretty daughter) and that is how he became Lord Snowdon and when I discovered this reading "Life Magazine" as a teenager, I immediately honed in on the "Armstrong" factor and thought to myself if I marry a WASP with a mono-syllabic surname, I am in like Flynn.
Years later, I marry the wrong man but he comes with the right surname: Bowles.
And Presto!
Just like that: I am instant faux royalty.
And at the time NOBODY knows (including myself) that the MARRIED bonnie Prince Charlie is shtupping Camilla Parker Bowles .
All I care about is---- now---- I got the right stuff.
My father's ethnic background is all Marks and Sparks and tea and crumpets and British Proms and then head south to France and toss in a few of those crimson color grapes from....... of course..... Bordeaux.... and I am liking this.
It makes me feel as though I am the cat's pyjamas.
On the other hand my mother's background is not as refined and can be summoned up in three little words: dirty little gypsy......I can see my garish oversize gold hoop earrings in my crystal ball as I sit in my caravan wagon guzzling the Sliovitz down while pathologically lying to the gullible and vulnerable, better known as fortune telling somewhere in Montenegro....... anyway you cut it.....with one of my forebears' big knives.... I feel like a DIRTY LITTLE GYPSY!!!!
Just after Christmas, I was teasingly admonished by a gay male friend (whose ancestry is by way of the Scottish Highlands) wanting me to write more about fashion and beauty.
I've been fat---- I've been thin-----THIN is better!!---- sung Phyllis Newman in the musical revue: The Madwoman of Central Park West.
Few of us would disagree with that statement and even fewer women have lived that lyric.
Enter Lady Amanda Harlech
Few of us would disagree with that statement and even fewer women have lived that lyric.
I lost 20 lbs. in 2014.
I didn’t try.
I just did.
Now the times I have been thin in my life: I am all Aquascutum and cashmere with very classic lines….. very Jackie K…..going right into the Jackie O years.
VERY WASPY.
But when I have been heavier: I am all very……leopard, and very gold….very….
BIG FAT GYPSY!!
I am neither fat or thin now.
I am in the middle.
Amanda Harlech is one of the fashion industry’s leading authorities on style. As well as enjoying a successful career as a consultant, she is well-known for being muse to both John Galliano and Karl Lagerfeld.
She was born in Camden, North London in 1959. Harlech grew up on the same street as fashion designer, Jasper Conran.
Harlech: “Even as a five-year-old, I felt I should dress up for him.
Amanda studied English at the Somerville College of Oxford University.
After she graduated, she worked as a junior fashion editor at Harper’s. In 1984, Harlech formed a partnership with John Galliano when he graduated from Central Saint Martins.
In 1986, she married Francis Ormsby-Gore, 6th Baron Harlech, at which point she became Lady Amanda Harlech.
In 1996, she became Karl Lagerfeld’s muse. She still works directly with him today on his collections for Chanel and Fendi.
Harlech: “I say I am an arch assimilator. I’m quite good at understanding what somebody means. Fashion is the process of articulating an idea, and a proposal of what to wear. Who is that woman in Karl’s head? Or that spirit? Or that idea? That’s what fascinates me.”
(Lady Amanda Harlech was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1997.)
Harlech: “I say I am an arch assimilator. I’m quite good at understanding what somebody means. Fashion is the process of articulating an idea, and a proposal of what to wear. Who is that woman in Karl’s head? Or that spirit? Or that idea? That’s what fascinates me.”
What I hope you are getting from Mandy’s min-bio is basically like Anthony Armstrong Jones she married royalty.
However, Snowdon married the real thing.
This Francis Ormsby-Gore, 6th Baron Harlech character is probably just one titled and entitled SOB. I don’t think he has the front door key to Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle.
But for Robyn Armstrong Bowles this is pure manna from heaven.
Amanda is my new fashion inspiration.
Sartorially speaking, this woman has a real pair of fashion cojones. Finally, I can mix both my mother and father’s ethnic backgrounds along with my new middleweight status and add my first name with my two surnames and morph myself into Lady Amanda Harlech.
Presto.
Just like that.
Like Barbra Streisand always says: “I am a work in progress.”
I think I can do this.
Seriously, I really think I can pull it off.
Some might say that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery while others might view this as nothing but pure and downright THEFT.
And to those HATERS, I say……. REALLY!!
Leave me alone, I know I am nothing but mutton dressing as lamb but what do you really expect from a DIRTY LITTLE GYPSY.
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