"She jettisoned Elizabeth Taylor and Cher from the cover of Vogue in favor of models such as Lauren Hutton, Patti Hansen and Lisa Taylor, who wore little makeup and had natural, unfussy hairstyles. Hutton’s gaptoothed smile replaced the closemouthed gaze and white eyeliner of Vogue models of the 1960s. 'It was make-believe, the wilder shores of love,' Ms. Mirabella said of the magazine she inherited from Vreeland. 'I was a great fan of hers, and I followed her around like a bird dog. But when I took over, that wasn’t wanted anymore.' Ms. Mirabella occupied a front-row seat at the fashion shows in Paris and New York, but her sense of couture leaned more toward outfits that women could wear at work or at parties. She had little interest in passing trends. Rather than looking to Europe for fashion cues, she preferred the straightforward approach of American designers such as Bill Blass, Geoffrey Beene, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren and Donna Karan.... 'She’s a very practical woman in her point of view, and she thinks of women in their clothes and how they’re wearing them,' Beene once said of Ms. Mirabella. 'She’s been sort of a martyr for modern women.'"
From
the WaPo obituary for Grace Mirabella, who edited Vogue from 1971 to 1988. She replaced Diana Vreeland, when Vreeland was abruptly ousted, and she herself was ousted, replaced by Anna Wintour.
It was during the Mirabella years that I read Vogue — read it because it was one of the scores of magazines that I read every month (
for a job I had back then). It seemed as though fashion had come to rest in that natural, human place occupied by Lauren Hutton and Patti Hansen — the models who laughed and seemed freewheeling, not pissed off or haunted or abused and in bondage.
In retrospect, this is too plain and ordinary to last as a fashion magazine concept:
That's Patti Hansen, who absolutely exemplified the look of that time — "pretty!" She's still pretty, at the age of 65, living with her husband, Keith Richards, in Connecticut.
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I wonder what it's like being married to Keith Richards?
It seems in all artistic realms the obsessive quest for the nouvelle often leads to farcical or even risible results.
In retrospect, dog bites man is too plain and ordinary to last as a magazine concept.
I actually read Keith's book, which is interesting in a number of ways. He lured me in with something on the flyleaf, if that's the right expression. The obvious joke would be: if you're Keith Richards, you don't remember your life. His little epigram is simply: yes, I do remember.
The story with Patti is really quite romantic. Neither of them were really in the Studio 54 crowd, but that's where they met. Patti's girlfriends took her out for her birthday, Keith was apparently hiding from the paparazzi or something. Sounds weird, but supposedly they would expect Mick there, but not Keith. Patti's friends were told they couldn't be served after closing time, but they were pretty sure Keith could get what he wanted. I don't know if this makes sense or not. So he bought them a bottle of champagne, and they introduced themselves. He and Patti didn't exchange coordinates, but they remembered this first meeting when they met again and then history etc.
The story has some nice, sort of down home twists. Patti, despite being a kind of supermodel, was in regular contact with her blue collar family in Staten Island, and it was practically unthinkable to her to get serious about any man without her family getting involved. I'm thinking she was the only girl, and her brothers were very protective. She brings Keith for a visit, he tries playing his guitar, there's an argument about something and he actually smashes his guitar. Gosh, you're thinking, this isn't going very well. Patti runs upstairs crying, her mother follows and says something like: all things considered, this isn't going too badly.
Sure enough, Keith and the menfolk established some kind of accord or concord. Patti believed she couldn't have children, but this turned out not to be true. They have beautiful daughters, and in a further weird twist, we're asked to believe that Keith would get the whole family in a motor home and drive to Oklahoma or someplace to visit Patti's extended family. Robert DeNiro in Meet the Parents?
The Richards live a few miles up the road. The story has it that years back, when the girls were in high school, they were down in the basement late one night with some boys; the basement was filled with instruments and memorabilia from Keith’s career. When Patti sent dad down to check up on too much quiet, he found them doing when teenagers do. “You can do want you want with my daughters” he deadpanned, “but if you touch my guitars I’ll kill you”.
My impression is that, despite his unconventional life, that when it comes to family life Keith Richards is very conventional.
In the documentary “Under the Influence” there is a picture of Keith being mobbed by his grand children. The look on his face is utter delight and joy. Not something one would expect.
In retrospect, this is too plain and ordinary to last as a fashion magazine concept
I forgot who said that "fashion has to be ugly". It has to be constantly changing so this year's "in look" has to be next year's "I wouldn't go out in that."
I look forward to every major environmental organization condemning fashion.
"She's still pretty, at the age of 65, living with her husband, Keith Richards, in Connecticut."
I wonder if Keith is allowed to smoke in the house.
Damn......is she rocking the freckles in that VOGUE cover picture?
I wonder what it's like being married to Keith Richards?
I wonder what's like being married to Patti Hansen!!
One day in the ‘90’s my husband called my office to ask me if I knew the name Keith Richard’s. My husband didn’t have a clue. I asked why and he told me that he and his wife wanted to buy some paintings for their house in CT which is a few miles from our house. I filled him in on what I knew about Keith Richards, which wasn’t much. Neither of us were Rolling Stones fans or for that matter Beatles fans either. Wrong generation. So, Patti Hansen comes to our house (I didn’t know she was a super model) to see some paintings. She sat in the room and chatted with me and then chose several paintings. She was in a hurry since she had to pick up her girls from school. She was lovely and could have been any suburban mom wearing jeans and driving an SUV. My husband brought the paintings to the Richards house for Keith to see. Keith was very pleasant and spoke about the art with my husband. The paintings were left with them for their consideration. They bought four paintings, 19th early 20th C American. I was surprised that they were buying this school of art knowing their rock n’roll background. A very large seascape was hung in Keith’s office. Patti told my husband, at a later date, that Keith sat in his office and loved looking at the seascape. My husband went back to the house a couple of more times. You would have to know my husband to know how unfazed he was about the whole episode. But, I love telling this story.
Enjoyed reading the retrospective comments vis-a-vis Patti & Keith
I picked up Mirabella magazine which she founded and edited several times. It was aimed at normal older women but it was beautifully photographed and laid out.
My partner was modeling during that time, and loved that look. She hated makeup, which is a necessity for being before the camera. It wasn’t the type that women normally wear, but much heavier, and was a pain to remove. But modeling paid for her college. According to her, most models aren’t really that beautiful until made up. The makeup hides their imperfections, such as slight asymmetrical features. You apparently need perfectly symmetrical features to get that minimal makeup natural look. Most women don’t have it.
Funny story about makeup. When we were first dating, a couple decades ago, we ran into a well known newscaster in town in a club. He knew her, and essentially asked her out. She responded that she doesn’t date guys who wear more makeup than she does (and he was that night). According to his weather guy, whom she ran into a couple weeks later, this put down was quite the gossip around the station for a couple weeks. News guy is still in the air here, 5 days a week, with a face lift or two, and the weather guy is finally back, after a long hiatus for inappropriate on-air behavior.
That's a terrible cover for Vogue. You can barely see what she's wearing and her eating is cut off.
Vogue is about selling the illusion that if you wear the right clothes, the right makeup, the right accessories, you can look as pretty as Patti Hansen. There's almost nothing in that cover that gives the reader the slightest hope of looking that pretty.
The saying is 'nobody's perfect.'
But after doing an image search of Patti, I just might have to revise that...
Holy cow.
I loved the Vreeland Era Vogue for the intelligent (to the 16 yr. old me) articles. After reading the obituary, I'm wondering if I've confused the eras. Harper's Bazaar had more accessible fashion and prettier pictures. I tried Mirabella magazine for a while, mainly because of my outrage over Vogue dumping her, but it never captured my interest. I suspect I simply outgrew obsessing over fashion as I approached 40.
You can find the content of that issue on line, but you have to log in. I was curious about "Gossip 1976," but no way am I giving them my data.
I had a coworker who read "Mirabella." She liked that it was directed at older women, though she wished she was a little more hip. I wonder what she would make of today's "Teen Vogue."
Guys like girls who look good without makeup for the same kinds of reasons that girls like strong, handsome guys. Of course girls who don't need help looking great are not the best target for a fashion magazine. It would be like a magazine for aspiring basketball players with articles like "How to be Tall."
Too much "frecklestache." Nowadays, that would have been adjusted post-shoot.
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