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Posts Tagged ‘Andy Warhol’

Edie Sedgwick in her signature KJL oversized earrings.

One day early that fall of 1964, I was going to visit my grandmother, who was drifting further and further into dementia, and I was wearing a nice sweater and skirt and my Gucci loafers and, as usual, no makeup. The elevator door opened, and out stepped Edie in a black body stocking, high heeled boots, and a little fox-fur vest; not only that, she was wearing false eyelashes and the most enormous earrings I had ever seen, made of peacock feathers. I was so shocked. I remember saying, “Is that the way you want to go around?” Edie just giggled and said she thought it was fun. Those enormous earrings became her trademark, and guess who designed them? Ken Lane. He had been saying for a while that he wanted to make really big, really lightweight costume jewelry, and now all at once he became a hugely successful designer and sought-after member of the jet set. Ken told me he owed it all to Edie wearing his earrings.

Alice Sedgwick Wohl – scholar/translator and author of the book As It Turns Out: Thinking About Edie and Andy (FS&G).

We’re talking American pop icons Edie Sedgwick and Andy Warhol. As Edie’s older sister, Alice gives readers a unique perspective on the Sedgwick family, Edie and her partnership with Andy, and just what the heck her appeal was (and still is).

Both sisters knew jewelry designer Kenneth Jay Lane, who was also a buddy of Warhol’s.

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Andy Warhol Illustration for Harper’s Bazaar, July 1958.

When I used to do shoe drawings for the magazines, I would get a certain amount for each shoe, so then I would count up my shoes to figure out how much I was going to get. I lived by the number of shoe drawings – when I counted them I knew how much money I had. 

Andy Warhol, American Artist.

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Shoe and purse c. 1956.

Before Andrew Warhola became Andy Warhol, Pop Artist he was a commercial artist and advertising illustrator. In the 1950s he illustrated for fashion publications Glamour and Harper’s Bazaar. He created ads in newspapers for Neiman Marcus and I. Miller, among others.

I have a thing for illustration as an art form and I really like Warhol’s style. It helps that his subject was fashion and done in an artistic era that appeals to me. Beyond all that, I like his sense of whimsy and fun. His illustrations make me smile.

In my collection of fashion books is – Andy Warhol Fashion (Chronicle Books, 2004), which is a little volume of Warhol’s illustrations from the 1950s when he was working in NYC. Every so often I slip this book off the shelf and flip through over 250 images, some in color and some black and white. I pause on various pages to feast my eyes on kitten heels, jaunty hats, and attractive handbags.

It’s a little candy box of visual mid-century treats.

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