perhaps it’s the color of the sun cut flat, and covering the crossroads i’m standin’ at, or maybe it’s the weather or something like that, but mama you’ve been on my mind

In a belated ode to Mother's Day I celebrate the original 'Mama' Michelle Phillips. Michelle is the last surviving member from the original lineup of the Mamas and the Papas. With her long brown-blonde hair, wide eyes, and rich hippie style in kaleidoscope colors, it's easy to see how Michelle had pretty much the entire male population California dreamin' over her. Besides her legendary relationships with John Phillips, which started the Mamas and the Papas, and Denny Doherty, which led to her temporary expulsion from the group, Michelle dated Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty, married Dennis Hopper (their union lasted eight days, but Michelle has said that those days were "the happiest days of my life"), Grainger Hines, Robert Burch, and Steven Zax (to whom she is still married). In 1968 Michelle had a daughter, the gorge and talented Chynna Phillips (of super-chick-group Wilson Phillips), with partner in marriage and music John Phillips. After a legendary life like hers, I hope Michelle got the proper treatment fitting for a legendary mama this Sunday.

Title: from "Mama, You've Been On My Mind" (Bob Dylan)

pigtails and freckles, braces on your teeth, who would have thought they'd become so sublime? i would have thought, for i thought so all the time

I don't know what's wrong with the world these days - somehow one of the most innocent of hairstyles (pigtails) has turned into one of the 'sexiest'. I use that term loosely because this is according to various mens magazines and action flicks, as I think the cast of Sucker Punch took all of my elementary school yearbooks and mimicked my plaid skirt-and-pigtails look, though I wore comparatively fewer (i.e. none) bustiers than they do. 

That's something best not thought about - I prefer to think of pigtails in the way that I used to wear them, before they were taken over by whorish Catholic schoolgirls (the ones in costumes, not the actual girls!) every Halloween. When the style was sweet and innocent, and the girl wearing them looked like she smelled like daisies and pet kittens all day and drank apple juice on her swing set. 

And yes, I think that all of these things are connected in some vast mutually inclusive phenomenon. 

So here I celebrate the bygone innocence of the pigtails. I hope you all whip your hair back and forth in fond remembrance 

Brooke Shields was quite the 'pretty baby' in pigtails as a young teen model (Was that allusion creepy? My b.)

Pigtails go high fashion

One of the official arbiters of pigtailed cool, Judy Garland as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz

The adorable Natalie Wood gets back into touch with her former child starlet roots when she does the look in the late 60s

Always one to try every trend (and do each look completely over-the-top) Veruschka rocks waist-long locks

A young Brigitte Bardot in braids - it's such a treat to see her so carefree and goofy here!

Zooey Dechanel often pulls her hair into low pigtails for a cute carefree look on the red carpet, though always manages to blow all the other primped girls out of the water

Drew Barrymore is probably the only thirtysomething woman in the world who can still pull off pigtails and a peace sign and still look adorable

Britney Spears (my role model in the late 1990s) first made it big in the video for "... Baby One More Time." While wearing pigtails. Coincidence? I think not

Anna Karina in two different films (Une Femme Est Une Femme and Bande a part) sporting not just similar expressions but also similar hairstyles

Audrey Hepburn got all the men while in her pigtails - George Peppard in Breakfast at Tiffany's and Gary Cooper in Love in the Afternoon

Marianne Faithfull does little to dispel that former convent girl image while holding daisies and sporting pigtails

Brigitte Bardot pairs her pigtails with ribbons and bows - how cute!

A scene from Sedmikrásky (aka Daisies)  

 

Pattie Boyd poses in braids alongside Samantha Juste, and strikes a pigtailed pose by herself

Kate Moss channels a late 90s Lolita in this Ellen von Unwerth photo shoot

Perhaps her penchant for adorable pigtails was among the reasons why Serge Gainsbourg named France Gall the 'French Lolita'

Nastassja Kinski first shot to superstardom as the teenaged love interest of Roman Polanski. Which has nothing to do with her wearing pigtails here

Pigtails were the go-to style for Marilyn Monroe on the set of The Misfits

  

Françoise Hardy makes a rare change from her usual muss-free style, ditching her long hanging locks for them tied back in ribbons

Raquel Welch works the look throughout the sixties

Sucker Punch starlet Emily Browning

She doesn't look old enough to be a 'Mama' - Michelle Philips sings with her band in an innocent look

Sylvie Vartan makes the style look somehow more badass than one would think bright blonde pigtails would allow (I think it's her crossed arms and slight resting bitch face)

Penelope Tree makes the 'do look anything but plain

Both Theodora Richards and Lizzie Jagger are equal parts Rolling Stone and supermodel (Theo by dad Keith and mom Patti Hansen, Lizzie by papa Mick and mama Jerry Hall), so of course they'd look rock'n'roll hot in pigtails and Terry Richardson-style glasses

Title: from "Pigtails and Freckles" (Perry Como)

13 most beautiful women (right now)

Here is the second installment of my "13 most beautiful..." series. Just to rehash what I'm doing with this, I publish a list of the 13 women that I envy and/or admire at the moment. This idea was stolen from Andy Warhol, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind.

1. Susan Bottomly - the immediate successor to Edie Sedgwick at the Factory, sixteen-year-old Susan Bottomly was dubbed "International Velvet" by Warhol himself in 1966. She lived a lot like Sedgwick -- holing up at the Chelsea after moving away from her New England family, who gave her a handsome weekly allowance. She also looked a bit like Edie -- wearing long, elaborate earrings and painting herself for hours with makeup. Warhol once said, "watching someone like Susan Bottomly, who had such perfect, full, fine features, doing all this on her face was like watching a beautiful statue painting itself." The semblances to Andy's former friend were not coincidental; Susan said that the desire to go to the Factory and live in New York came after seeing Edie's Youthquaker spread in Vogue. Her main lasting fame came from her appearance in Warhol's cult film "Chelsea Girls," where she played up her decadent reputation. Her fame at the Factory was not long-lasting because just as Sedgwick was replaced, Bottomly would soon be replaced by Viva as Andy's no. 1.
2. Françoise Hardy - an iconic French singer/actress/astrologer, Hardy has remained as influential today as she was in the sixties during the yé-yé music movement. With her chic rockstar style and cutglass cheekbones, it is quite understandable why Nicolas Ghesquière names her as one of the chief influences in his creations for Balenciaga. Back during her heyday, she hung out with the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan, the latter of which mentioned her in a poem on the cover of the album "Another Side of Bob Dylan."
3. Audrey Hepburn - when discussing actresses of the 20th century, Audrey Hepburn approaches almost untouchable Mother Teresa territory for some people. And who could blame them for loving the most un-diva A-list actress who essentially gave up her career to volunteer for UNICEF and help malnourished and sick children of wartorn countries, children that she identified with after going through many of the same experiences in occupied Netherlands. After her debut in "Roman Holiday," Hepburn would become a fashion icon for women who sought after a classic yet modern style. Her innate style, slim ballerina figure, and relationship with Hubert de Givenchy is legendary. Recently she has been named the most influential fashion icon of the entire twentieth century and the infamous black Givenchy gown she wore in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" being named the best costume ever.
4. Jean Shrimpton - "the Shrimp," as she was known during the 60s, was really the first important waifish gamine model. Coming before Twiggy and the flood of pin-thin girls after her, Shrimpton developed a strong modelling career in high fashion magazines. She had a four-year relationship with David Bailey, one of the most celebrated photographers of the time, and soon became the face of Swinging London. She was the first to publicly wear a 'mini dress' (a shocking 3.9 inches above the knee) to an event that had women wearing modest dress, pantyhose, and elaborate hats.
5. Kim Novak - probably best known for her portrayal of the beautiful and aloof Madeleine in Hitchcock's "Vertigo," it probably is no coincidence that Novak's first job was modelling as "Miss Deepfreeze." She first gained success in the mid-50s, touted as Columbia Studios's version of Marilyn Monroe, this curvy blonde made a name for herself doing films with Jimmy Stewart and boys from the Rat Pack. She was among the most tortured of Hitchcock's leading women; his demands for her to repeatedly do takes for a scene requiring her to jump into an icy river below her for his own amusement (without even filming) are legendary.
6. Ali MacGraw - admittedly the only film I have seen her in is "Love Story," but that's okay, right? When she wasn't romancing Ryan O'Neal as Jennifer Cavelleri, the epitome of collegiate cool, Ali had a five-year marriage to Steve McQueen (the epitome of cool in general). Now a yoga-enthusiast, Ali's seventies style was similar to that of her Love Story character -- simple, minimalist clothing, tanned makeup-free skin, long middle-parted hair, and the "Ali cap."
7. Britt Ekland - Ekland accomplished two of my goals in life at an early age: one, to meet and marry Peter Sellers; two, to become a Bond girl. The first of those goals is quite impossible for me now, but still I am envious. She was a Bond girl in '74's "The Man with the Golden Gun." She was Roman Polanski's first choice to play Rosemary Woodhouse in his 1968 masterpiece "Rosemary's Baby." Now she just sort of is a fabulous jetsetter who kind of stalks rock stars. Which is pretty awesome, too.
8. Ingrid Bergman - my favorite actress of all time, Bergman will probably go down in history as the lead Ilsa Lund in the most romantic film ever made (not my opinion -- its a legit fact). She is a fascinating woman who, during her life, endured both being the most celebrated -- then the most hated (following her affair with Roberto Rossellini where she was forced into exile)-- star of her day.
9. Ann Margret - what can one really say about the girl who made red hair hot, was dubbed the female Elvis, and had her own Flintstones character named after her? Ann Margret is simply cool...and hot...all at the same time. Didn't think it was possible, did you? Well Ann-Margret makes it possible.
10. Anita Pallenberg - if it was possible, I would worship at the altar of Anita Pallenberg. The model-actress who possessed an 'evil glamour' has become a legend in the fashion community for her utterly decadent approach to dressing. Someone a half-degree less cool than Pallenberg would look like an absolute fool in the outfits she wears, but I suppose that is the way she has remained the number one icon for gypsy cool. Someone who can wear a velvet bolero with silk Chinese silk pants and a large turquoise necklace is worthy of that kid of title though.
11. Tippi Hedren - the last important Hitchcock heroine, Tippi (mama to Melanie Griffiths) made a name for herself starring in two back-to-back films for the Master of Suspense, "The Birds" and "Marnie," with Sean Connery. After these two films, Tippi - who was under an exclusive contract with Hitchcock and had to endure a creepy crush he had on her - wanted out. She was a big star by then, having been stylized by Hitch to be the sixties answer to Grace Kelly. But Hitch wouldn't have that, and made sure that if he couldn't work with her, then no one else would want to either.
12. Michelle Phillips - Mama Michelle was one of the most gorgeous rock stars in history. She dressed in a very cool laid-back California style which involved colored jeans, knit ponchos, and pigtails. All of those clothing items sounds as though they would be in the third grade reject pile, but somehow Michelle made it all look so damn cool. The last surviving member of the original lineup of the Mamas and the Papas, Michelle has segwayed over into acting (including a stint on the original 90210), but will always be remembered for being the mama of California cool.
13. Jane Birkin - the unearthly gorgeous singer and actress who has seemed to blur the lines of French sophistication and English cool must have something magical in her genes -- both her daughters (Charlotte Gainsbourg and Lou Doillon) exude the same coolness factor their mother does, much to my jealousy.