"You Get to Live When You are Living"

Orchids and royalty in Mrs. Post's front hall

The end of another week, elhamdulileh, and a busy one it's been, too, with some odd and unexpected ups and downs.

When Worlds Collide

Yesterday's birthday girl, Miss Marlene Dietrich, gives what is apparently the bemused glance of death to a really rather touchingly terrified young Miss Barbra Streisand, who has clearly only this very moment realized that being Kicky at a Chanel runway show might be classified by some - Miss Dietrich among them - as Trying Too Hard.

Meanwhile...

Carmel Snow and Mademoiselle meet to plot next season's fashion crimes. currently under consideration: peplums, basques, and ruching.

Chez Elle

If, I suppose, I had to dwell somewhere other than the Villa Muscato, I might do worse than to settle down in the onetime flat of Mlle. Coco Chanel, a cozy retreat full of Venetian mirrors, crystal bibelots, and buckets of tulips.

The only downside? It's actually located in her fabulous headquarters at 31 Rue Cambon, which means Karl Lagerfeld as a neighbor.

Just another confirmation of that old proverb: there's no place like home. I don't see Karl and Koko getting along...

Les Girls!

Since we seem to be on a kind of francophilic kick today, how about a flash mob of fierce Frenchosity? These ladies are formidable in more ways than one:

Mistinguett

de Beauvoir

Colette

Chanel

Moreau

...et bien sur, la Môme.

It must be something in the water...