Opulant is the first word that comes to me when I look at the pictures inside of Betsey Johnson's home. I am in love with the pink!
Look at the stainless used in her kitchen, doesn't look like a lot of room but I love the layout.
Dining room with canary yellow chairs- I think they offset the pink perfectly.
Two different views from the bedroom.
A photo collage of rooms including that fabulous bathtub! Sadly, she no longer lives in this pink palace, she lives in the UES of New York on the 10th floor of an apartment building her daughter and grandkids live at - on the 5th floor.
I know a lot of people buy clothes like shopping for groceries; they are necessary and need to be replenished often. Not everyone buys strictly for the designer label either. When I am out thrifting, I do keep an eye out for those labels and one in particular is Betsey Johnson.
Betsey is probably the coolest person I know of from this planet. She has been a fashion editor, a fashion designer, has owned her own boutiques on and off since the 60's (Edie Sedgewick was her in house model for a short time AND she designed the clothing Edie wore on her last film, Ciao! Manhattan), she created sewing patterns for Butterick, took dancing classes and was even married to The Velvet Underground's own John Cale for one year.
Betsey even had her own line of fashion fabrics!!
Edie Sedwick 1969 modeling for Betsey's Boutique under the label Betsey Bunky and Bini c1969
As one journalist recently quoted, "If Betsey Johnson didn’t exist, we would have to invent her, simply to remind ourselves that fashion can be fun. She's the original wild child and set to paint the town pink!”
When someone mentions Betsey I immediately think of youth and the color pink. Pink is Betsey's signature color and you see it on almost all her merchandise and boutiques.
Her clothes are fun and flirty, colorful and alive. I am drawn into her visual and soak it up like a sponge. Betsey has led a full and fantastic life. I am in awe of her and her magnificent style. I would love to randomly run into her somewhere in Manhattan and take a selfie with this fangirl! I would be tickled pink!
It has been five days since I heard the news that Malcolm McLaren passed away. When I heard the news I felt ambivalent. I didn’t want to do a “happy” dance or shed a tear. *shrug*. Whatever…So why am I blogging about this? Reflection tends to come with death; any death, and Malcolm’s death has made me pause and reflect upon my fashion influences. I vividly remember trying to recreate the looks that were depicted in the film “The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle”. I saw the beautiful and the vulgar coexisting and that concept excited me! This was the first time I ever heard the name Malcolm McLaren and it was also during this time that I was most excited about clothing. I started to read all the fashion rags including the imported “Vogue” magazines from London and Paris. I thought I was so chic. The 80’s were a great time for me to mix and match and have fun with clothes. Vintage clothing seemed to be teeming from every thrift store and parents of friends were giving it away to me in truckloads! I would put together the most hideous outfits, wear them, knowing I might be put to ridicule but damn it, I was proud of my creations. I ponder what my wardrobe would have been like all these years if I had never seen video clips of Adam Ant on music shows prior to Mtv. Today, I still have fun mixing and matching styles, designs, colors and textures. Now I take cues from Betsey Johnson and designers on Etsy. I’m not hard to miss sporting a Joan Jett haircut, wearing Chuck Taylors and a Max Azria dress while carrying one of Betsey’s signature bags.
Malcolm didn’t put his name on a label, and there are those of you out there to dispute just what he DID contribute to fashion; but acknowledging he was in the middle of an explosive time of fashion is without a doubt.
