Let's Lunch Like the Ladies.....

Happy Monday all! How did you enjoy Madge's performances last night at that little shindig? Now this got me to thinking if we all had off, we could discuss and gossip about it over a long drunken lunch like the ladies of society used to do. Don't you miss the days of yester year when you would see pictures of the ladies all decked out and heading to lunch? In the big cities, I think the gay men have picked up this tradition. Just last week I saw a group of gay guys, all dressed up heading into a dinning establishment, dressed oh so chic and urban, and it made me feel good. Ladies who lunch, a phrase to describe slim, well-off, old-monied, well-dressed women who meet for social luncheons, usually during the working week. Typically, the women involved are married and non-working. Normally the lunch is in a high-class restaurant, but could also take place in a department store during a shopping trip. Sometimes the lunch takes place for the raising of money for charity. Often times, the women simply gossip about trivial and frivolous things. Sounds like our Sunday Brunch's




What was also amazing is the way women dressed for lunch and at such gatherings places for the clans, such as the Colony Club, La Côte Basque, and Le Cirque—impossibly glamorous, hugely entertaining, and utterly without purpose; when Nan Kempner, Estee Lauder, Betsey Bloomingdale, Pat Buckley, C. Z. Guest, and Jacqueline Onassis ruled the banquettes. Most ladies fore go a large plate, in favor of tall glasses of a libation and long cigarettes, and then go gossip inside the powder rooms. While ladies still lunch I feel, alas, all the pomp and circumstance is gone. As is keeping on hats, gloves laid on top of the clutch, and some even wore a corsage.




Here's Alice Mason with Celestine Wallace leaving after lunch with Alice carrying a doggie bag. Alice didn't have a dog, was word on the street.



Tispy exits could often be seen.



Dressing like this for lunch may seem a bit "over the top" nowadays, but I promise you, will have a far more fantastic luncheon if you take a few minutes and put together an elegant outfit. The French do it every day, and who does it better than the French when it comes to Food & Fashion? Maybe the Mistress one of these days will host a luncheon here at the Casa! And I do love a tipsy exit. Tootles.

The Park Avenue Princess

I have no idea why, but the Mistress has always been fascinated by socialites. And I'm not talking about the tacky white trash of reality tv or that cheap Hollywood trash. I'm talking about real old money, with some class and finery. Good taste. From time to time I think of the late Nan Kempner.



All those "real housewives" who are touted as "socialites" should really take notes from Mrs Kempner, and her circle of friends that included Anne Bass, Blaine Trump, Georgette Mosbacher, Nancy Bloomingdale and Pat Buckley. These war horses would have had these wanna be's for a late afternoon nosh! But Nan reigned supreme. Nan Kempner was a New York socialite famous for dominating society, events, shopping, charity work and fashion. Nan was originally from San Francisco and later married Thomas Kempner where they lived in London for a short time, before moving to New York. She was also famous for her charity work. She raised $75,000,000 for cancer research, and had also amassed the largest private collection of haute couture. Later she was also a contributing editor for French Vogue and Harper's Bazaar and a design consultant for Tiffany & Co. I can remember when I was a teenager flipping through the pages of Vanity Fair and Town and Country to see her in the society and parties sections. I wonder if now looking at all the fashion she wore got me interested in working at luxury goods stores? And the fashion that comes along with it. Diana Vreeland, a pass editor of Vogue once said "There are no chic women in America. The one exception is Nan Kempner." Her style is definitely missed.








The Metropolitan Museum of Art added a whole exhibit of Nan Kempner's extensive collection of over 3,000 pieces of haute couture . I wonder if they would ever consider loaning the Mistress a few pieces? Tootles.