Sarah Burton Royal Limelight | Dear Queen Elizabeth

Design

Sarah Burton Limelight

Sarah Burton, the Royal Wedding Dress and the McQueen Legacy NYTimes May 4, 2011

Talk about compressed exposure. Last Friday British designer Sarah Burton took the world stage as the designer of Kate Middleton’s wedding dress. Monday night she stood as a center of attention at New York’s Metropolitan Museum Costume Exhibit honoring Alexander McQueen.

People are quick to say that Sarah Burton isn’t the total opposite of Alexander McQueen, but she is a far less tortured soul. Many thought Burton wouldn’t hold up as the designer’s intern, because of her gentle manner.

In fact, writes NYT, Lee adored her and felt ‘the collection was completely safe with her, that she had that DNA.’

People

Two Cheers for Royals

India Hicks Explains the Royal Wedding to an American | Little Gold Men Vanity Fair April 28, 2011

Clearly I hold the royal family in much higher regard than Vanity Fair’s Eric Spitznagel, who chatted up India Hicks — one of Diana’s bridesmaids —  with American guy questions like: 

Obviously you can’t share it with us, but could you give us a hint about the Queen’s e-mail?

I really couldn’t.

Is it QueenBitch23@aol.com?

I have no idea.

Monarch4Life@hotmail.com?

I cannot begin to speculate, and I’m not going to be drawn. (Read WSJ’s recent interview with India Hicks in which she has choice words about Cleopatra, ones that became a rallying cry on my Facebook page.)

We Are Amused More Intelligent Life May 5, 2011

From the ATT|T-Mobile video on YouTube to the second kiss on the royal balcony, the wedding of Kate & William was a much relaxed affair.

Most of the world regards this duo as a match with staying power. We say, if they get divorced, let’s just call it a day on the institution of marriage.

What the wedding isn’t is a referendum on the monarchy. The royals are just there, part of the scenery. Few Britons imagine that having a president would be any better. And since Diana’s death, something else has come along that has altered the public’s relationship with the monarchy: intelligent films about the royals.

 … Helen Mirren as “The Queen”, allowing herself to be dragged into the 20th century by Tony Blair; Colin Firth as her father, a reluctant king manfully overcoming his stammer. In both cases, we emphasized. We saw that it can’t be much fun for them.

Humanity

Dear Queen Elizabeth

Chipping Campden, Carversville and an American Cry for Help  AOC Green Beings

The 2006 movie “The Queen” articulates the push and pull of British history with modern life. My favorite scene from “The Queen”, one in which Elizabeth II talks with a majestic, 14-point stag being hunted in the lush, Balmoral countryside, resonated deeply with me.

In stark contrast to the seemingly stone-faced, propriety-at-all costs woman we see in the film and in real-life public events, the stoic Elizabeth breaks down in quiet tears in the company of this stag, now targeted for culling (death) because of his age. For me, this scene underscored the potential relevancy of old style reticence in today’s high-emotional, therapeutic, global culture.

‘The Queen’ with Helen Mirren