Click image to go to the Washington Post story
The Washington Post asked me to write an appreciation for Ben Bradlee, the executive editor of the newspaper who hired me as a Style staff reporter in 1989. He was a wonderful boss, editor and man.
The Rose by Jay De Feo
The sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy — otherwise known as Rodarte, the wildly successful fashion designers from California — took their turn at the winter issue of A Magazine Curated By assembling a glorious spread of many surprises and dangerously kitsch fashion photos, all California-inspired. Golden State natives will want to savor this issue over and over. And, best of all — for me — the issue includes an essay of mine about the Beat artist Jay De Feo and her commitment to her transcendent, seminal work, The Rose, a huge painting that is now at the Whitney but, for many years, was an albatross relegated to a dusty corner of a conference room at the San Francisco Art Institute, then covered up by drywall.
The issue of A Magazine Curated By is available for 20 Euros or the U.S. equivalent. (If it is sold out on the A Magazine website, copies may be available on Amazon and other sites selling literary collectibles.) If you are interested in De Feo and would like more information about her, Jay De Feo and The Rose, a collection of essays and academic writing about the painting, and the artist, is available from University of California Press for $85.
A Magazine Curated By RODARTE
I have a terrible habit of borrowing clothes. (Hand-me-downs are great too.) Here’s a light-hearted essay I wrote for today’s New York Times about the best thing I ever borrowed — a roller derby jersey worn by Farrah Fawcett on Charlie’s Angels. It tells how I got it. And, painfully, how I had to give it back.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/15/fashion/charlies-angels-didnt-look-that-sexy-without-help.html