More from: Stuart Husband
Style April 2020
THE LOVELIEST JOKE: David Niven
In a legendary career that spanned 50 years and nearly 100 movies, David Niven had ample opportunity to become who he was: the Englishman abroad. Still, you got the impression that he couldn’t believe his luck.
Icons March 2020
Michelangelo and the yearning for tragedy
‘We lived in silence… He has only one way of expressing himself: his work.” So said Michelangelo Antonioni’s first wife, Letizia Balboni. It’s true, the Italian director was notorious for taking existential inquiry — and his own artistic purity — to another level. But what a legacy of film he left behind…
Icons February 2020
CROSS-STITCH
To celebrate International Women’s Day we’ve burrowed into the archives, specifically Rake 39 where Stuart Husband takes up the challenge of trying to pin down the ‘real’ Marlene Dietrich. At one time she was the world’s highest-paid entertainer despite being described as a cipher and an allegory. Goddess or strumpet, gay or ‘unstraight’, she is one of the most influential women of all time.
Back Issues February 2020
THE SUNLIT UPLAND
Monaco was once regarded as a seedy bolthole — “a sunny place full of shady people”, according to the writer Somerset Maugham. Enter Prince Rainier III, the stocky, pencil-moustached monarch who, from his palace on the Rock, had a plan to transform the world’s second smallest country… (Spoiler: he kept the climate.)
News December 2019
Anda and Tom's Call to Garms
For the second successive Christmas, the stylist Tom Stubbs and Anderson & Sheppard’s Anda Rowland are aiming to raise money for the homeless charity Crisis by creating the world’s most luxurious pop-up store on Savile Row.
Icons August 2019
John Cassavetes: Out of the Shadows
John Cassavetes was the godfather of American independent cinema. He was obsessed with intimacy and authenticity, and his style and sense of integrity were ahead of their time. In fact, today’s iPhone auteurs owe him a debt of gratitude…
Icons April 2019
Patrick Swayze: The Miracle Dude
Patrick Swayze combined macho swagger and fluid elegance in a unique way, and his acting style — a kind of artless sincerity — helped turn movies such as Dirty Dancing and Point Break into pop-culture classics. Yet what remains of Swayze’s life and work is more significant still: an unfashionable sense of joy.
Icons April 2019
AMELIA EARHART: A SYMBOL OF NEW WOMANHOOD
Amelia Earhart disarmed ideas about femininity in her manner and her attitude, and her legend is as strong today as it ever was.
Icons October 2018
John F. Kennedy: For One Brief Shining Moment
What might have been? What might have been had John F. Kennedy avoided Dallas in November ’63? Would he have remade the world? For as long as we yearn for the counterfactual, the legend of Camelot endures…
Icons May 2018
Serge Gainsbourg: Master Provocateur
Serge Gainsbourg was a Gallic colossus of the 20th century, writing songs for, and having affairs with, some of the era’s most beautiful women, and his gift for shocking the bourgeoisie was nonpareil.
Icons April 2018
King of Bling: Farouk of Egypt
During his 12 years on the throne, King Farouk of Egypt hoarded a thousand bespoke suits, cars, jewels and watches. In fact, the corruption seemed embodied in his bloated figure and cartoon-villain moustache.
Icons October 2017
Pamela Harriman: Of Vice and Men
We give you Pamela Harriman, a woman of aristocratic stock who blazed a trail through the international scene of her era, enticing powerful men like moths to a particularly feisty flame.
