TONIGHT'S EXTRA SPECIAL JUDGE.....

If anyone is looking for me, I'll be in Luigi's cell with him running lines...

 

LET US PRAY

 The Casa du Borghese Altar of Patron Saints is almost complete!

While the Casa du Borghese has many Patron Saints, these are the most major ones....

Ann Miller, Patron Saint of huge, fabulous hair and Talented Taps.

Amy Winehouse, Our Patron Saint of Song, Libations and Wing Eyeliner.

Luigi Mangione- Patron Saint of Adorable Rogue-ness, Killer Smiles, and Antiheros

RuPaul, Patron Saint of Creativeness, Uniqueness Nerve and Talent.

Joan Crawford, Patron Saint of Style, Good Housekeeping, and Giving No Fucks.

And soon, the collection will be complete with the Ultimate Patron Saint....

Lady Bunny, Patron Saint of Filth, Mod Style, and Drag Queens.

Let us bow our heads...... 

A COLORFUL KALEIDOSCOPIC

And so, it has come to pass...a very rare bird, and of our Patron Saints at the Casa du Borghese, that of one fabulousness, in the form of Iris Apfel has blown the doors off Fabulon to enter it. Iris Apfel, an interior designer, art collector, fashion icon and designer, New York socialite, smart businesswoman and camp role model has passed on at the ripe age of 102 yesterday. Iris Apfel has been dishing a century's worth of advice to anyone who'd listen on how to define your own style and would take every opportunity she'd get to express her own joyous and creative point of view. And talk about Maximal style? She was the queen of laying anything and everything...a maximist to the extent and embodied her iconic fashion sense and employed her rich history of expertise in textiles that began when she was a young child creating schemes with her grandmother's fabric remnants. As a connoisseur of artistry, and textile maven herself, Iris's imaginable and dynamic taste is fervently infused in every pattern and color imaginable. Three worlds for Iris..Bold...witty and exuberant, not to mention eccentric. I had the pleasure to talk with her once, while working at Bloomingdales while doing a display as she walked past. She was tickled a young person even knew who she was I believe. But it would be unlawful as a gay man to not know who Iris Apfel was, at least in these parts. She was complimenting a display I was working on. I recall telling her of the finished display and how I might get a scold for doing what I wanted. I recall her advice being, "Color outside the lines sweetie, those that make their mark don't get there by coloring in the lines." And she was right. And if anyone lived by my favorite quote- " LIVE LIVE! Life's a banquet and some sorry suckers are starving." it was Iris Apfel. Even till her death she stayed colorful and took to Instagram in often colorful post, celebrating life. And if anything, she marched to her own drummer and didn't care of what people thought of her over the top style. Just because your in your elder years, doesn't mean living and having fun has to end. I couldn't agree more. One this rainy day, I'm sure New York feels ever gloomier.

Iris Apfel

August 29 1921- March 1 2024

INTO FABULON......

....Our Patron Saint Gina Lollobrigida 

" We are al born to die- the difference is the intensity with which we choose to live."

Here! Here!

July 4, 1927-January 16, 2023

CURRENT MOOD...

 I was at a 6 myself for the day.

You gotta love Ann Miller and her hair. 

If Beverly Hills zip code was 90210 then 90211 must have been Ms.Miller's hair. And while we're here....why not.....

ALL HAIL ANN MILLER

Ahhhhhhhhh, Ann Miller can always make everything better. With exception to the legend Cyd Chaise, Ann Miller may have been one Hollywood's best dancers in my opinion. And she was just deemed a Patron Saint here at the Cas du Borghese.

GET THE PARTY STARTED

Let's get this party started...finally, it's Saturday night.....Late night....with the fabulous, the legendary, and a Casa Patron Saint.... Dame Shirley Bassey! Grab a cock-a-tail and a mask.

WHAT BECOMES A LEGEND MOST?

One of the most famous advertising campaigns of the 20th century began in MID 60'S: the series of full-page, black-and-white print ads for "Blackglama" furs, with the memorable, never-changing question: "What becomes a Legend most?"

The story goes that, in the 60's, the Great Lakes Mink Association, a group of about 400 mink ranchers, were looking around for an advertising firm that would help them "remodel public opinion," though the notorious red-paint attacks on fur-wearing women were still a few years off.   New York ad executive Jane Trahey conceived the campaign and it was executed by her associate, who later bought out the firm and continued with the campaign.  The "Blackglama" brand name was invented by Trahey, who also came up with the "legend" tagline, and the idea of spotlighting high-profile....legends, mostly from the movies and Broadway, swathed in a Blackglama mink garments, which they were allowed to take home after the shoot. It went on the be one of the most successful and long running ad campaigns.

Ann Miller

Roz Russel

Debbie Reynolds

Judy Garland

Marlene Dietrich

Beverly Sills

Carol Channing

Lucille Ball

Lena Horne

Diana Vreeland

Lana Turner

Carol Burnett

Peggy Lee

Tis fur season after all.

ENTERTAINING THE CRAWFORD WAY

As one of our Patron Saints here, Joan Crawford and I agree greatly with holiday entertaining style, especially the last tip. Take it from me, it works, and you'll even have the boys eating out of your hands!!

OUR NEWEST PATRON SAINT

1990 was a really important year for me musically. In 94 I came out, as in to gay clubs, (hell, I came out of the womb wanting a man), started my love affair with gin and rum and anything else wet , and fell instantly in love with club and house music, in addition to my love for the lonnnnng nights clubbing. For the first time ever, I started to empty out my piggy bank which paid for nights out and for two cassette tapes: Clivilles and Cole, and Deee-lite's World Cliché, and Madonna’s “Vogue” which to me all of these were the pinnacle of human musical achievement. But an amazing song was released, with a video that would provide me with enough giddy ’60s fashion inspiration and fly dance-move fabulousness to last a lifetime. That song was “Groove Is in the Heart” by Deee-Lite, and its lead singer, Lady Miss Kier, quickly became my own personal proto-Spice Girl, not to mention my major source of drag style.... the pop idol against which all other pop idols would forever be judged. Deee-lite and Lady Miss Kier would be my introduction to New York City night life, another idol, Lady Bunny and all the nights of labor with my good friend and sister Mame, on the club scene. Just thinking back gives me chills, seems like yesterday, I can still hear the thumpa thumpa of the music. My first musical love will always be house music.

Like most of us, Lady Miss Kier was from a small town.... in Youngstown, Ohio. She moved to New York to study fashion design at FIT and began selling her crazy, disco-inspired clothes to friends she met on the club scene., silver platform boots and blue glitter suits—and that was just for the dudes. One of her clients, the Russian DJ Dmitry Brill, convinced her to record a demo with himself and the Japanese DJ Towa Tei, and thus the three-headed hydra of disco-house-funk amazingness known as Deee-Lite was born, which gave us endless night of worshipping to the cool vibe house sound to this way cool group.

Adopting the name Lady Miss Kier and styling her band in addition to co-writing their songs, Kirby transformed herself into the ultimate club diva. A lot of people were working the colorful retro-’60s thing at the time, but she was the most fabulous of them all. With her penchant for skintight Pucci catsuits, oversize chunky cocktail rings, sculptural John Fluevog heels, and a teased-and-flipped hairdo, Miss Kier was largest-than-life in a scene where EVERYBODY was competing to look the craziest.

Can we also talk about her makeup at the time? With her white-powdered face, razor-sharp drawn-on brows, and three-inch fake eyelashes, Miss Kier was like a female drag queen. I could say a whole lot of Feminist Theory 101 stuff about how her over-the-top makeup was like an ironic commentary on the construction of femininity in our culture, but I’ll spare you my second-rate Judith Butler spiel and just say that she looked really freaking fabulous

I can also remember talking to her on two occasions, one as high as a kite and the other probably drunk and high. Once in Philly, and another time in Baltimere....yes, yours truly went all over the place to club. She was the most cool vibed person I ever talked too, laid back, extremely nice and kind hearted. I think I even adopted her dance after the second night. Even though it was before my time she was like a modern day Emma Peal. And gurrrrls could she ever spin for a club........... while I still enjoy going out, club music WILL NEVER be like this again.

A 3 Hour set by Lady Miss Kier kept the dance floor packed at this venue for a LGBT event a couple years ago. Excuse me now while I tear up the living room floor. This is my music!!!!!