Wendy Brandes Jewelry Blog

Never Is the Next New Thing

Put the Blame on Kenneth Jay Lane

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In 1986 — when I was an undergraduate at Columbia College and some of you weren’t born — I got the book that made the long-forgotten Edie Sedgwick an icon. It was then called Edie: An American Biography (it has since been retitled Edie: American Girl) and it had been out for a few years, so a hard-cover copy was on sale for $1.99 at the bookstore. I read that book from cover-to-cover, beginning to end, backwards and forwards and every other way you can possibly read a book. I fantasized about being glamorous and tragically fucked-up like Edie. But I wasn’t rich and didn’t do drugs (my parents would have yelled at me, for God’s sake!), so I settled for wearing black leggings for years. Edie often wore a black leotard and/or black tights.

WendyB wearing leggings in Amsterdam in 1989. Click to enlarge.

Edie wearing a leotard and tights in August 1965 Vogue.

Edie is an oral history and one of the interviewees is costume jewelry designer Kenneth Jay Lane. In the book’s afterword, Lane said of himself:

“… In 1963 I invented costume jewelry for the beautiful people — was lionized by them and became one of the most splendidly beautiful of them — a genuine Sixties character! Handsome, tall, thin … sitting in the back of my vintage Rolls (and matching driver) wearing either my floor-length leopard — or monkey — or unicorn, coat — all of which have disappeared. ….”

I was enthralled by this image. (Lane was named to the International Best-Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1974. Click here to see him with Diana Vreeland in 1976.) I also knew that leopard fur was legal in the ’60s (it was banned by the U.S. in 1973) and that unicorns don’t exist (right?!?).

Jackie Kennedy created a craze for leopard. Photo from Blue Velvet Vintage. Click for more info.

But in those pre-Google days, I wasn’t sure whether monkey fur was like leopard — something people wore back in the day — or if it was imaginary like unicorn. It stayed in my mind as a symbol of a fascinating, decadent era. So,  last March, when I stumbled across a 1960s-era monkey-fur coat by the fascinating, decadent designer Jacques Tiffeau, I had to get it.

Fascinating, decadent model Donyale Luna and her fiance had matching monkey-fur coats. Click for photo source.

However, when the coat arrived, I thought it was a little scary in a hairy way. I also remembered that I detest monkeys.

I hate baboons even more than I hate monkeys.

I left the coat in the package it came in and pursued my newfound interest in Tiffeau in other ways.

I wore this Tiffeau dress at my pop-up shop in November. Click!

I finally wore the coat in December. I was going out with a couple of designing friends and figured they would appreciate an unusual fashion artifact. We had so much fun that we forgot to take a picture of it! So I wore it again a few days later for happy hour at Lure with a group including my photographically talented friend Tina.

Coat by Tiffeau, photo by Tina.

I highly recommend Lure’s happy hour: oysters are $1 each! We got 20 for four of us.

Tina, WendyB and Jacob at Lure. Photograph by Stacy.

If you like the look of my coat but detest monkeys … or fur in general (I don’t give a fuck what you think of my Tiffeau, thanks very much) … you can get a ’70s faux-fur-sleeved jacket by Giorgio Sant’ Angelo, another vintage designer I love, on 1stdibs.com.

Click to shop.

Speaking of Edie, back in 2007, Sienna Miller portrayed the Casey-Johnson-of-the’60s in Factory Girl. Sienna went to the after-party of the New York premiere dressed Edie-style in a black leotard and tights. (I was more conservative and wore black tights with a vintage Ossie Clark dress.)

Another photo of the real Edie in a leotard.

Sienna partied Edie-style, but without the amphetamine. I hope.

People everywhere went all fashion-police on Sienna’s ass, making fun of her about what they should have known was a cool tribute to Edie. Now the no-pants look is all the rage.

Lady Gaga

Beyonce

French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld

Sienna, in copying someone from 40 years ago, was way ahead of her time. Who’s laughing now, bitches?

UPDATED TO ADD: Miss Cavendish had Kenneth Jay Lane sign her copy of Edie! Check it out here.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. ok…i feel & probably sound like a broken record…because i’ve said this before…but what i LOVE about your posts…is how you can take topics that have nothing to do with each other…and somehow make them connect…kind of like the movies i like…where there are all these different characters…and all of a sudden you start seeing how they are all somehow connected…
    truly a talent…
    btw…i LOVE your tiffeau dress…you look absolutely fabulous!

  2. How funny… around the same time you picked up that book I met the author’s personal assistant on a train to my parents house! (Gosh that book made me hate Warhol.) LOVE the coat and the Giorgio Sant’Angelo one as well! You made me remember I have some fantastic Giorgio Sant’Angelo pants packed away somewhere, def have to find those for spring! I hear ya on the Sienna deal, I was quite surprised that no one got the Edie reference and just bashed her for not wearing pants.
    XXX
    Suzanne

  4. Ah Wendy… I am very excited to say that I will be in your hood again in the near future and can’t wait to be graced with this sass in person. Assuming of course that you’ll have time to see me. 😉
    You never fail to make me laugh, or at least smile in a goofy way.

    xox

  5. I love your Tiffeau coat, but the fur could just as easily be some type of goat. Don’t know if that makes you feel better, but there is a certain long haired black goat fur that looks exactly like monkey and has been used since monkey went on the endangered list.

  8. What a fab post Wendy and you look great! I really enjoyed reading it, and you are so right about Siena, I loved her outfit, and Carine’s is too fabulous! I love the randomness of the furry sleeves especially on the embroidered jacket xx

  9. It’s early o’clock on a Sunday morning and I wake up to a large baboon ass staring at me from my monitor. God, I love you, woman!

    I’m back! The stepdaughter Teenzilla has been relocated to her mom’s, and I am happy to be checking out the likes of you again. I was having withdrawal, Wendy!

    I LOVE this post. Kenneth Jay Lane sounds like a memorably fascinating and glamorously creative soul. In fact that sounds like someone else I know. Is that a requirement to be a jewelry designer?

    OT…thanks for the heads up on Advance Style. I did not know about i and it’s awesome!

  10. Well of course I read that book too only my copy was from library…had to return it. Ken Cinema in San Diego runs “Ciao Manhattan” and other Warhol films sometimes so we all got dressed “up” to go see, back in the ’80’s. Black tights we de rigueur for me until I had kids, then I stopped bothering. Also, developed girl crush on Edie’s little cousin Kyra I guess cuz she was still alive.

  11. How typical of you Wendy, to have rediscovered Edie Sedgewick ahead of everyone else! You’re always about ten steps ahead of the pack.

    And yes, it was probably Jackie who launched my lifelong love of leopard. (Just a little aliteration for you on a Sunday morning.)

    My arms are looking like the sleeves of that coat these days, am overdue for a wax. 😉

    LOVE oysters. Yum. Next time I’m in NY can we go there?

  15. We are. You make the best connections. I knew only a tiny bit about E.S. and that tiny bit didn’t include her leotard look.

    You look great in that coat.

  16. Wendy, there’s something about this post… it’s absolutely perfect. What an enjoyable read!

    Ps. I guess the weird part about the monkey fur is if it smells like monkey? Which I’m now going to assume it doesn’t otherwise people would probably not wear it. I never thought about real coats made from big cats. Maybe since it has been banned for so long.

  17. I thoroughly enjoyed this post! And I think your Tiffeau is fabulous. It’s funny how people ridiculed a pantless Sienna Miller a few years ago and now the look is all the rage amongst the stars (and the brave few who wear the look in the clubs).

  18. WendyB looks great, as always.

    Miss J’s paternal grand-parents kept a monkey for a while…a nasty-smelling bitey little motherfucker he was. Miss J thinks if she wore a monkey coat, she would always think of the wretched thing.

    But how she’d love something made from unicorn. Or maybe its horn… Perhaps Superfoxy WendyB could develop a jewelry line…

  19. LOVE THIS POST! Amazing. Where to begin? So full of great information and PICTURES – you find the best! And finally a photo of you in the monkey coat! Your “young Wendy” pictures are always great. Such a budding designer/fashionista.
    Well done, thanks for sharing!

  20. Couture Allure, you’re right, that goat is used for anything new identified as “monkey fur.” I’m guessing this one could be the real thing based on when Tiffeau had his own line. He gave up his original line in 1972.

  23. I can eat oysters all day. Always feel so decadent when I eat them. Perhaps because I try to pair it with some bubbly. Another wonderful post WB!!!

  24. Love the photos except the one of Carine Roitfeld who looks utterly ridiculous in that outfit.
    It’s hard to imagine that the French vogue editor can too be a fashion victim.

  25. I love it when you show pictures of you when you were a bit younger! You could totally be styling today in that.
    I’m not a fan of the tights as pants look, but it is true that so many people wear it as a tribute/for fun…I mean fashion isn’t supposed to be “safe/boring/serious.”
    Also, now “put the blame on mame” is stuck in my head. Gonna go watch Gilda…

  27. What a fun post! (Except baboon-bottom, how creepy is that?!) You look darling in Amsterdam, and incredible in the Tiffeau, how cool you have something by him! And can we just say how much we adore Kenneth Jay Lane? Sigh.
    tp

  28. Honey this is an excellent post, love Edie’s style. she was way ahead of her time. Adore Kenneth Jay Lane’s costume jewellery. Edie was queen of the leotard alright, way before Gaga discovered it.
    Your posts are always super interesting. I hope the jewel meeting you mentioned on my Daisy Lowe post went well.
    big kiss
    xx
    marian

    p.s LOVE the photo of you in the leggings! You have not aged a zilch!

  30. what a great post- you’re posts are jealousy inducing on so many levels..also, I am totally drooling over those oysters, they’re usually at least $4 each where I go.

  31. “I fantasized about being glamorous and tragically fucked-up like Edie. But I wasn’t rich and didn’t do drugs (my parents would have yelled at me, for God’s sake!), so I settled for wearing black leggings for years.” I adore you. Seriously. Can I be you? 🙂

  32. Well look at you in Holland, so cool!

    Hmmm, I think it’s great that more girls are wearing just the tights around. I find it fascinating, and what was I talking about? Oh yeah, there was a German girl at the gym a few weeks ago like that. Not sure if there is a point, but y’know.

  37. oh, and my post almost didn’t go through — because I kept getting my anti-spam word wrong.. it was … get this — I swear — it’s the best — so far, you will all agree —

    HENRYDOG = and I kept writing in HENRYGOD – typo ? I think not.

    Finally I put the right one in.

    this one is Kickline – not bad, but not Henry, god, dog..

  40. I loved that book! I so wanted to steal it from the library when i checked it out and read it. I refrained form doing that though.

    Edie is still edgy and could be walking around today wearing exactly what she wore in the 60s and be fashionable.

  45. Wendy this is the post that made me fall in love with you. Honestly. Ohmigosh I love how blunt and honest you are; but even more I adore the fact that you, like me, adore Edie Sedgwick. I am so obsessed with her. And now you’ve made me obsessed with that Giorgio Sant’ Angelo coat. To buy or not to buy, that is the question!! 🙂

  46. I adore that quote and I’m linking to you…great post. Enjoyed it muy mucho chica!!

    And you know i want a monkey! If only they could be housetrained!

  47. i’m so intrigued by this monkey coat, I’ve never heard of such a thing and unicorn coat? That I must see! You look fab as always, I love the young wendyb pictures!

  50. I really think you’re the only person I know who can actually pull off wearing a monkey fur coat.

    But then, you are the most glamourous person I know anyway, so it stands to reason.