Come Fly with Me

Braniff International Airways was an American airline that operated from 1928 until 1982. Their planes travelled between the central midwest to South America, Panama, Asia and Europe.

In the mid sixties the airline drastically changed its image on the advice of Harding L. Lawrence. Lawrence became the new President of Braniff International after leaving his position as the Executive Vice President of Continental Airlines. Over the next 15 years, he led the airline into a ground breaking marketing campaign. On a quest to alter the companies public image, Lawrence hired Jack Tinker Associates who in turn assigned advertising executive Mary Wells as account leader. Wells brought on board New Mexico architect Alexander Girard and Italian fashion designer Emilio Pucci. The "End of the Plain Plane" campaign begins.

Girard started with the exterior of the planes. He wanted the planes to be painted nose to tail in vibrant colors like "metallic purple". Braniff's advertising team modified the color to beige, ochre, orange, turquoise, baby blue, yellow and lavender. Lavender was dropped in less than a month as lavender and black are consider bad luck in Mexico. The interiors were outfitted in 57 different varitations of Herman Miller fabrics. The color scheme transcended to the gate lounges, ticket offices and even corporate headquarters.

Pucci used "space age" themes for the stewardess' clothing including clear plastic helmets worn between the terminal and the plane to keep their hair in place. Stewardesses were called "hostesses" and their clothing and accessories were composed of interchangeable parts that could be removed as needed. In 1969 Pucci designed "Pucci IV" for the intro of "747 Braniff Place", the airlines most famous plane. The collection debuted at the Dallas Hilton by Pucci himself in 1970. Even today the vintage Pucci designs for Braniff are deeply desired and extremely valuable.

In 1968 Braniff started an "if you've got it - flaunt it" advertising campaign. The ads featured Andy Warhol, Sonny Listen, Salvador Dali, Whitey Ford and a Playboy Bunny.

In 1977 Pucci was replaced by American fashion designer Halston. His new uniforms and leather airplane seats were dubbed the "ultra look". The simplistic designs were praised by critics and passengers.

In 1982, due to escalating fuel prices, expansions and fierce competition the airline ceased operations.

Happy Birthday Supermodel

Stephanie Seymour (July 23, 1968) is a model from San Diego, CA. She began her modeling career at 14 years old working locally for department stores and newspapers. A year later she entered the Elite Model Management Look of the Year contest. She won first place and moved to New York to join the Elite Modeling agency.

When she was 15, she began dating John Casablancas, the head of Elite, who was already married at the time. After two years she moved in with Casablancas and she continued living with him until she was 19 when she ended the relationship. Seymour married guitarist, Tommy Andrews in 1989. The marriage lasted only a year, but resulted in the birth of Dylan Thomas Andrews in 1991.

At this time Seymour was dating actor, Warren Beatty, when she became involved with Axl Rose, the lead singer of Guns N' Roses. She appeared in the music videos for "Don't Cry" and "November Rain". Seymour and Rose lived together for two years when the relationship ended in disaster and the courtroom, leaving Rose in a deep depression.

While still with Rose, Seymour began an affair with the married Peter Brant. Brant is an American news print mogul, art collector and film producer. In 1995 they married and subsequently had three children. They reside in Connecticut.

Standing tall at 5'10", Stephanie is still one of the top models in the world, having achieved "Supermodel" status in the early nineties and appearing on hundreds of magazine covers. She is also noted as one of the models, along with Jill Goodacre and Frederique, who helped catapult the fledgling Victoria's Secret catalog into the behometh it is today. Now at 40, she still represents some of the top fashion and beauty companies in the world, including Chanel, Versace and L'Oreal.

shopgirls

Yesterday we travelled to NYC to do a little buying for the shop. We hit a newer trade show called Capsule that focuses on men's lines. Turned out to be a great show in an amazing location (an old crumbling synagogue) and we wound up picking up three new lines for men that will be in the store starting in February of 2009. We were even able to score men's high waisted flares, oh yes, you heard me right! And over the weekend Tracy scored some new jewels for herself and in the process found a great source for us for buying the pieces in the store-disco necklaces, arm cuffs & more. Hopefully we will be getting that stuff in the store in August. After tradeshowing for the day we looked through the day's orders over some wine at one of our favorite little spots in Noho, The Corner Shop Cafe. And no trip to New York would be complete with out the madness of the Chinatown bus at rush hour.