Oh, Natacha... did you have to buy all those hats?

I raided Jenny P's basement last night to gather supplies for our new window display. Vintage circus themed, of course, in honor of our upcoming event! I want it to be playful but a little dark... and Jenny P's basement is both. One of her relatives was Natacha Rambova:

I mean, really... my relatives were all goose herders and rice farmers.

Natacha was, among other things, a designer of silent film costumes and sets, a ballerina, an actress, a fashion designer, an Egyptologist (of course) and... Rudolph Valentino's wifey!

A good looking pair, right? BTW, several women around the world KILLED themselves in fits of tragic passion when Rudy died!

Apparently she created quite a stir wherever she went, whether because of her controversial control over her husband's career or her extravagant trip to Spain in which she nearly bankrupted the studio with her purchase of one billion* hand-embroidered Spansh shawls. I got one of the shawls for the window... come on Thursday and see if you can guess which one it is!

There was also an enormous hat box in the closet that read, in huge, scrawling script "Mr. John's Fine Hats" and contains the most beautiful, sassiest olive alpaca felt fedora with a striped velvet flat bow and a lovely straw fedora with interchangeable bands, to match Natacha's many outfits. That's gonna stay in the closet, unfortunately, but once I find my camera attachment I can show you a picture of Jenny P and I modeling them.

Auntie Ann, Jenny P's elderly matriarch, has this to say:

"In those days, EVVVERRRRRYONE wanted a Mr. John hat! Now pass me my diamonds, I want to count them again." Then someone gives her a sack of rock candy, and she's happy until supper.

*considering inflation, that's more like 100 shawls today.