While home over winter break, I caught up on the huge stack of magazines taking over my desk. Peering through Harper's Bazaar, Town & Country, Vogue, Traditional Home, Vanity Fair, and an assortment of others...I came across several interesting articles.
In one of the magazines, there was a feature on the history of "ladies who lunch" an iconic phrase either coined by Stephen Sondheim or WWD (arguments accepted on both sides). The article chronicled the history of society women who spent their afternoons lost in conversation with like socialites at french-inspired cafes scattered throughout the classiest areas in New York City. The scene reeked of chic. Restaurants designed and embellished by interior decorators like of Dorothy Draper, coated with a steady stream of musky cigarette smoke. Women were dapperly dressed nibbling on their salads, catching up on the latest gossip, and observing the sophisticated and esteemed clientele. Photographers would station outside these hot-spot restaurants waiting to capture the iconic socialite demurely exit the building in her perfectly styled outfit.
As the years progressed, these women were criticized for their "wasted" afternoons conversing over trivialities (although I do wish I was a fly on the wall at some of these weekly meetings...can you imagine chatting with Diane Vreeland or Lee Radwitz?!) It was not only the rest of society who frowned upon these women, but the younger generation, unsupportive of the materialistic nature of their mothers. Now, society women have no time for such things as lunch gatherings. The ladies who lunch appeared to be a moment in time that has left to remark with wonder and awe.
Here are a collection of images capturing those iconic women in their element and the remaking/staging of such scenes:
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