RIP Kenneth Paul Block

It is Friday, 65°F (18°C) and Sunny and I am wrecked.

Again.

Last Summer Yves Saint Laurent passed. And now Kenneth Paul Block has passed as well.

It is getting harder and harder to find the human touch in fashion..........something that was created by a real person, that has their fingerprints on it.

How much more digital photography, copycats, misogyny, porno chic, designer t-shirts, skinny jeans, latex leggings and tranny shoes can I take?

No matter what happens, I promise to focus harder to see the tangible beauty in this world. I remain open to all positive possibilities.

Yves Saint Laurent, by Kenneth Paul Block:


Yves Saint Laurent's Mondrian inspired dress, by Kenneth Paul Block:


Yves Saint Laurent's 1976 Ballet Russes collection, by Kenneth Paul Block:


Longtime WWD and W magazine illustrator Kenneth Paul Block, 84, a champion of the art of fashion illustration, died Thursday at St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital in New York.

The cause of death was complications from a fall he suffered earlier in the week, according to his nephew, Steven.

Men wore fedoras and women still wore gloves when Block joined Fairchild Publications Inc. in the Fifties. And none of that dash was lost on Block, whose fondness for ascots, cigarette holders and impeccable jackets never waned, nor did what one friend described as his Dorian Gray-like youthfulness. But his studied drawings were never strictly surface, always managing to capture the gesture at hand, whether it be the swing of a skirt or the tilt of the head. “I was never only interested in the clothes. I was more interested in the women in the clothes,” he once said.

One of three boys growing up, Block was the kind of kid who appreciated the chicness of his fashion editor aunt Elsie Dick’s zip-front fur jacket. He combed through Harper’s Bazaar magazines in the attic of his family’s home in Larchmont, N.Y.

At Parsons School of Design, he was drawn to what he described as the “world of immense style,” introduced by interior designer Van Day Truex. After graduating, Block’s first job was sketching for McCall’s Patterns, a post friends said he would rather have omitted from his résumé. But Block went on to cement his presence as a leading fashion illustrator during his reign at Fairchild Publications, which lasted until the fashion illustration department was disbanded in 1992. Through it all, he swiftly, yet fastidiously, captured an array of subjects with a cool and detached manner, jetting to Europe for the couture shows or sauntering just up the street to sketch unsuspecting notables at lunch (martini in hand to mask his intentions). All the while, he fulfilled what he once described as a childhood quest “to draw glamorous women in beautiful clothes.”

Block’s portfolio was packed with portraits of blue bloods such as Babe Paley, the Duchess of Windsor and Jackie Kennedy, as well as commercial work for Bergdorf Goodman, Bonwit Teller and Lord & Taylor and labels such as Halston and Perry Ellis. But for Block, the end result was never just a matter of lines on a page.

“Gesture to me is everything in fashion. It is the way we stand, sit, walk and lie. It is the bone,” he once said.

Love

On today in 1937, Edward VIII's abdication as King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the British Dominions beyond the Seas, and Emperor of India became effective.

The Edward VIII abdication crisis occurred in the British Empire in 1936, when the desire of King-Emperor Edward VIII to marry Wallis Simpson, a twice-divorced American socialite, caused a constitutional crisis.

The marriage was opposed by the King's governments in the United Kingdom and the Dominions. Religious, legal, political, and moral objections were raised. Mrs Simpson was perceived to be an unsuitable consort because of her two failed marriages, and it was widely assumed by the Establishment that she was driven by love of money or position rather than love for the King. Despite the opposition, Edward declared that he loved Mrs Simpson and intended to marry her whether the governments approved or not.

The widespread unwillingness to accept Mrs Simpson as the King's consort, and the King's refusal to give her up, led to Edward's abdication on 11 December 1936. He was succeeded by his brother Albert as George VI. Edward was given the title His Royal Highness the Duke of Windsor following his abdication, and he married Mrs Simpson the following year. They remained married until his death 35 years later.

Before, during and after World War II, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor were suspected by many in government and society of being Nazi sympathisers.

The Duke and Duchess lived in France in the pre-war years. In 1937, they visited Germany as personal guests of the Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler, a tour much publicised by the German media. Hitler said of the Duchess, "she would have made a good Queen."

In the 1950s and 1960s, she and the Duke shuttled between Europe and the United States, living a life of leisure as society celebrities. After the Duke's death in 1972, the Duchess lived in seclusion and was rarely seen in public. Her private life has been a source of much speculation, and she remains a controversial figure in British history.

The Woman I Love (1972, made-for-TV movie) focused on Edward VIII's love affair with Wallis Simpson. Wallis was portrayed by Faye Dunaway