THE CARNEGIE LIBRARY

Original Logo of The Carnegie Library of Crawfordsville Indiana

Exhibition Hall of the new Carnegie Museum of Montgomery County

Original rendering of The Carnegie Library

From 1902 to 2005 the Carnegie Museum of Montgomery County, Indiana served as the Crawfordsville Public Library. Museum visitors are now able to view the building in its restored glory. The original floors containing mosaic tile from 1902 are visible on the 2nd level. (see original Carnegie logo above).

Owned and operated by the Crawfordsville District Public Library, the purpose of the Carnegie Museum is an interdisciplinary museum of Montgomery County and for the people of Montgomery County, Indiana. It contains history, art, science, and culture. The two-story museum houses six large galleries and a rotating exhibition schedule. Other galleries include the Business & Industry Gallery, which features both past and present businesses of the county. The Athens Gallery will focus on literature, learning, arts & culture, military and democracy. Other galleries cover Sports & Pop Culture, Montgomery County highlights, and Early History.

Now… would I be telling you all this just because Miss Lambert was from Crawfordsville, Indiana???

Images and information provided by The Carnegie Museum of Montgomery County.

THIS MONTH'S VANITY FAIR...

Comtesse Jacqueline de Ribes and Eleanor Lambert

The September issue of Vanity Fair has an incredible article entitled The Last Empress of Paris by Amy Fine Collins -- is a great read about the interesting and inspiring life of Jacqueline de Ribes. It should come as no surprise that Jacqueline de Ribes and Eleanor Lambert were great friends. The photo above of Comtesse de Ribes and Eleanor Lambert was included in the article. The September issue of Vanity Fair on newsstands right now is truly not to be missed -- it also includes Vanity Fair's International Best Dressed list - originated by Eleanor Lambert and given to Vanity Fair upon her death.

HALSTON: From the Videofashion Vault

Check out Miss Lambert around who appears at 0.27

special thanks to Videofashion.

PREVIEW...

lights.... (and photographer pit)

camera (crew)

action...

I am getting very excited to share with you the trailer for the upcoming ELEANOR LAMBERT: EMPRESS of FASHION documentary.

Above are three stills from the trailer captured by Brainchild Films.

I have spent many years working on this project to bring it to life and it is very exciting to share it with the readers of this blog. In the last month alone, I have been taken back by the incredible response from people all over the world! Besides the documentary receiving initial funding there are a few other pieces of the project coming together as well as some entirely unexpected things that have come my way that I will be able to share with you in the coming weeks...

Keep checking back... I will be posting the trailer in the next few days....

photo stills from ELEANOR LAMBERT: EMPRESS of FASHION trailer, courtesy of Brainchild Films.

THE SOUTH OF FRANCE

At age 92, Miss Lambert had 20 clients, she was on a plane all the time and when she was in New York, she worked very hard every day at her office with a staff of five or so and then went out to events every night.

After receiving her treatments at the Clinic in Germany, Miss Lambert was off to the South of France in early August to enjoy some R&R with friends before the busy season started back up...

After sailing and yachting in the South of France, Miss Lambert would immediately jump back into her work the last two weeks of August for one of her most beloved events.... SAVE VENICE.

TO THE CLINIC IN BAVARIA

all photos of Rottach-Egern, Germany

After Austria, Eleanor Lambert flew to Rottach-Egern in Germany for her yearly “Live Cell Treatments” at the Four Seasons Medical Center and Clinic.

The Clinic, as we called it, was one of the clients I worked on with Miss Lambert. Headed up by Dr. Claus Martin, Medical Director, the Clinic is located on a beautiful lake in Bavaria. Dr. Martin is a leading expert in therapy to halt the aging process, stop chronic disease as well as diseased organs—with a natural form of genetic engineering called Live Cell Therapy.

Miss Lambert was very healthy - so her treatments consisted of therapy to stop the aging process. While at the Clinic, Miss Lambert called the office a little more than usual – sharing the details of her daily shots…

Did it work???

All I can tell you is that when Miss Lambert came back to New York she looked great and claimed she felt even better! Miss Lambert lived to be 100 – and she professed her longevity in part to the treatments from Dr. Martin. I know a few other celebrities and high-profile people who benefited from the treatments at the Clinic who might not have been as forthcoming as Miss Lambert.

SALZBURGER FESTSPIELE

La Traviata

The Vienna Philharmonic

Stiftskirche St. Peter

The Hofstallgasse with a view of the Fortress at night

Salzburg, Austria

After Paris, Miss Lambert was off to Austria for ten days of the month-long Salzburg Festival.

The Salzburg Festival (Salzburger Festspiele) is a prominent festival of drama and music in unique venues all over the Austrian town of Salzburg -- like the Stiftskirche St. Peter (above) which is an incredible cathedral. Of course, Salzburg is also the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The festival is held each summer for five weeks starting in late July.

The Salzburg Festival was inaugurated on August 22, 1920, when Hugo von Hofmannsthal's morality play Jedermann was premiered on the Domplatz,
directed by Max Reinhardt. Since that time, the Salzburg Festival has established itself as the most important festival for opera, drama and concerts.

“The New Salzburg” inaugurated in 1990, has followed a policy of opening up the festival to a broader and modern repertoire, to unfamiliar, occasionally also provocative views as regards aesthetics, to different and a younger generation of audiences… …like the then 92 year old Eleanor Lambert.

For more information on the Salzburg Festival log on to: http://www.salzburgerfestspiele.at/

All photos courtesy of The Salzburg Festival.

HAUTE COUTURE

Mouna Ayoub in Chanel

As I mentioned a few posts back… Eleanor Lambert was spending her summer away from New York and when she got to Paris, she met up with her friend Mouna Ayoub. They attended the haute couture shows that summer – which was the summer of 1995.

I remember Mouna proclaiming her love of Chanel during one of her visits to New York. In fact, Mouna Ayoub has owned the largest private collection of haute couture in the world since the 1980s. Her incredible collection is composed of more than 10,000 items, which she continues to add to each season.

I remember Miss Lambert checking in with the office from Paris at the end of couture week and telling us that Mouna bought every single piece from the Chanel couture show that season!

After the couture, Miss Lambert was off… she did not have time to hang around Paris for long, it was only July and she had a busy summer ahead…

THE BIG ANNOUNCEMENT....

HAPPY 107th BIRTHDAY ELEANOR LAMBERT!

Today I have a big announcement to make... I have been excited to share the news for a few days now but strangely enough... everything did not fall into place officially until just a few hours ago... right before the clock ticked to August 10th which is Miss Lambert's 107th birthday! For those of you new to the EMPRESS of FASHION blog, scroll down and read the very first post and learn all about Miss Lambert's belief in the number 7....

I have been working to produce an online documentary that will give an in-depth look at the incredible life of Eleanor Lambert and today I am excited to announce that the Eleanor Lambert: Empress of Fashion pilot episode has been funded! We immediately start pre-production this week and will be filming during New York Fashion Week this September!

I want to thank Lidia Jimenez-Vilabella for kindly underwriting our initial pilot! Muchas Gracias Lidia!

In the days and weeks to follow I will be introducing you to the whole team - that is the Brainchild Films production team -- headed up by award-winning director Robert Jason. The team and their list of projects and awards is truly impressive -- but more importantly they share my incredible passion to tell Miss Lambert's story.

In the next few days I will be posting the preview trailer of the project, so keep checking back! And as always, I look forward to your comments and feedback!!

I would also like to thank my friend Andy Morris for suggesting that I blog and of course Eleanor Lambert who showed me that persistence does pay off. Unfortunately, Andy and Miss Lambert never met, but I am sure she would have approved of his advice as well as his chic art-filled offices!

A DIAMOND OR A YACHT?

"The Mouna" - the world's largest yellow diamond

Imagine having a diamond named after you – but not just any diamond – how about the world’s largest yellow diamond! Well, that is exactly what Mouna Ayoub had…

The Mouna Diamond is a 112.53-carat, intense yellow diamond. Since November 1995, it was the largest yellow diamond ever to have been graded by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA). This cushion-shaped stone measures 26 mm in diameter and was set by Bulgari in a baguette-cut mount.

It is still called the Mouna Diamond, even though it was sold by Christie's in Geneva for $3.2 million in 1998.

And just what did Mouna do with those proceeds from the sale of her diamond?

The Phocea

Phocea on the high seas

Mouna Ayoub bought a yacht... but not just any yacht -- Phocea was the world’s largest sailing yacht until 2004. Mouna spent over $24 million transforming it -- including major interior and exterior upgrading throughout. The interior contains living and accommodation areas with wood paneling, and some furniture by Viscount David Linley.

What would you rather have -- a diamond or a yacht?

MORE MOUNA....

Mouna Ayoub

The beginning of Mouna Ayoub's story sounds happy enough. But as she goes on to write in her book -- La Vérité, or The Truth (Publisher Michel Lafon), an autobiography that shot to the top of France's bestseller lists in 2000, her 18-year marriage to a Middle Eastern billionaire was no fairy tale. It was a juicy picture of Saudi Arabia's super-rich oil sheiks, she recounts how she was seduced by all the baubles that money could buy, only to discover herself living in a gilded cage, trapped by a male-dominated desert society with zero tolerance for modern women. Her complaints — which she made public during a bitter divorce dispute — may not surprise anyone familiar with Saudi customs that, for example, require women to be veiled from head to toe and forbid them from driving cars. But seldom have outsiders been treated to such a scathing, firsthand account of Arabia's unhappy wives.

Ayoub acknowledges that she owes her extravagant lifestyle in part to the wealth of her husband, whom she gives the pseudonym Amir Al-Tharik in the book. He made a fortune building hotels, conference centers and mosques on government contracts.

French Best-Seller Le Verite by Mouna Ayoub

But if her tale provides a rare look at the extravagance often wrought by unimagined wealth, it also serves as a disturbing manifesto against the extreme restrictions imposed on women by some ultraconservative Arab societies.

Soon after they wed, she says, her husband overheard her laughing with foreign male guests at a dinner party in Saudi Arabia. From across the room, according to Ayoub, he thundered, "Shut up!" Sometimes Ayoub's attempts to circumvent the traditions that keep Saudi women wrapped up were comical: once, in Tunisia, she disobeyed her husband's edict not to leave the hotel, only to run into him at a china shop, where his colleagues did not recognize her because they had never seen her unveiled before. During summers on the family yacht, she would venture ashore disguised as a member of the crew.

From the Article in TIME EUROPE, July 31, 2000 "What Money Can't Buy" By Scoot Macleod

COUTURE! COUTURE!

Mouna Ayoub, LIFE Magazine

When Miss Lambert arrived in Paris, she joined up with her friend Mouna Ayoub...

Mouna Ayoub's interesting story starts off like this:

A beautiful young woman goes from her life in Lebanon to Paris, the city of romance. Soon she meets a tall, dark, handsome and wealthy man who, professes undying love and devotion. Soon she is swept away to live in a far-off land (Saudia Arabia), lavished with the most amazing jewels (the world's biggest jewels), surrounded by servants and blessed with children.

Well, that is how the story starts....

COUTURE!

YSL Couture, July 1995

YSL archives

I thought this image was so incredible... that it could completely stand alone.

Miss Lambert was in Paris to attend the Couture shows taking place in July.

More to come on the Paris Couture... including Miss Lambert's new friend who joined her in Paris...

TO PARIS...

I promise to have a few more dedicated posts about the amazing Sybil Connolly.

After Dublin, Miss Lambert headed to PARIS.

Can anyone take a guess what Miss Lambert did in Paris??

OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE PORTRAIT

First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy

Official White House Portrait

Dress by Sybil Connolly

ON MERRION SQUARE WITH SYBIL CONNOLLY

Irish Designer Sybil Connolly

While in Ireland, Miss Lambert would stay with her old friend and client Sybil Connolly at her mansion on Merrion Square, the most stylish area of Dublin.

Sybil Connolly was an amazing fashion designer and product designer who created the linen dress that Jacqueline Kennedy wore in her White House portrait and who elevated Irish style to high fashion...

More to come on Sybill Connolly...