Samaurai Suzy Triumphant!
Manolo says, Ayyyyyyyyy! The greatest fashion writer in the whole of the world, the Samurai Suzy Menkes, she has been given the Légion d’honneur!
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June 17th, 2005 at 6:25 am
Y’know, I just love Samurai Suzy…she stubbornly sticks to her crazy, Oompa-Loompa hairdo and yet she oozes confidence and style; she reminds me of the late Diana Vreeland (a sartorial eccentric herself) in that way. She’s nobody’s cookie-cutter, black-clad, Wintour-esque Style Maven, and God bless her for it. Apparently the French understand such things, whereas the best she could hope for in the US is a mention in US Weekly’s Style Police, as a “victim” instead of a commentator. Le sigh.
June 17th, 2005 at 8:09 am
That is a very unfortunate picture. At first glance, I thought it was a man in drag.
June 17th, 2005 at 8:16 am
Robert Benchley is alive?
June 17th, 2005 at 8:45 am
Ayyy! The yellow of the teeth is quite frightening! Get thee some Crest Whitestrips immediately!
June 17th, 2005 at 8:56 am
For which publication does Samurai Suzi write?
June 17th, 2005 at 9:26 am
Deja pseu: Get thee to the search engine! Suzy Menkes writes for the International Herald Tribune
June 17th, 2005 at 9:45 am
I have some of her books. One, entitled “The Windsor Style” about the Duchess of Windsor, is very collectible and belongs in any decent fashion library.
She is a wonderful writer and I have always admired her.
You go Samurai Suze!
June 17th, 2005 at 10:01 am
Her nickname is a testament to Manolo’s gentleness.
You just know that he had…uh…..wrestled…. with calling her ‘Sumo Suze’.
June 17th, 2005 at 10:23 am
Robert Benchley LOL…
June 17th, 2005 at 12:59 pm
The whiter than white teeth is what differentiates the Americans from the rest of the world. So she smokes and drinks the real coffee that does not pretend to be the milkshake, and does not use the Crest White Strips or maybe even the pantiliners every day. That’s what the people outside the United States do.
June 17th, 2005 at 1:11 pm
It may be a shocker but not everyone in the United States is obsessed with appearances. The Cake of Johnny for one likes to be well-groomed and appropriately (she did not say trendy or richly or logo-ly) dressed. Other than that she could give a rat’s anal orifice what the peoples think of her. She imagines this is how is the Samurai Suzy as well, and imagines this is why the Manolo admires her.
June 17th, 2005 at 2:56 pm
Oy. Could they have given her some White Strips with that award?
June 17th, 2005 at 4:10 pm
Woodcock and Johnnycake are correct! Ms. Menkes is a unique personality in a world of tooth veneers, silicone, botox, and liposuction. Oh, and not to say that the Manolo is not a comedic genius, but the name “Samurai Suzy” came from colleagues. The Manolo has also generously provided a link to a wonderful article that provides more background.
June 17th, 2005 at 6:10 pm
Mary: Is that hair gel?
– Mary from “There’s Something about Mary”
June 18th, 2005 at 3:53 am
^^^ LOL Robert D.!
June 18th, 2005 at 10:58 am
Whoa! I had no idea Europeans used panty-liners to whiten their teeth.
June 18th, 2005 at 11:14 am
Johnnycake,
Rethink.
It would certainly be self-defeating for anyone in the fashion industry to promote the sort of mindset that doesn’t care about appearance or the effect it has upon others. Let alone someone who uses reams of glossy pulp matter in order to expound upon such things.
However, appearing individualistic (as long as your look isn’t so individualized as to be unfashionable) is the sort of cache that takes tremendous time, concern and attention to pull-off.
If you’re going admire this woman, admire for the success she’s had in doing that. Because she most certainly does… give a rat’s tushy…. about appearances.
June 18th, 2005 at 3:09 pm
That red satin is very rich and intriquing! I wish I had the nerve and the occaision.
June 18th, 2005 at 4:42 pm
Of the course the Suzy, like the Manolo, she cares very much about the appearances! However, again like many of us, she must work with what the nature it has given her.
Yes, perhaps she has not always made the best fashion or coiffure choices for herself, (and who cannot say the same!) but she is still is the smart, funny woman who writes beautifully and knowledgably about the fashion. And even if she were to appear in the burlap sacking of the potatoes, the Manolo he would still love her for that alone.
June 18th, 2005 at 6:58 pm
Well, sweety, if she were to appear in a burlap sack, you could be sure that it was designed by Prada.
Isn’t that the real point…
June 18th, 2005 at 9:51 pm
The Cake of Johnny will now throw the grenade: so what is the Fashion? Is it (according to her thesaurus) “a despot whom the wise ridicule and obey”? Pardon, obey?? Even when it demands the wearing of the awful uncomfortable lowrise jean which leads to the painful belly button piercing situated now so perilously close to the very primordial knot of the body? The straight-out-of-the-70s (shudder) strapless flared babydoll puckered-over-the-bosoms top which make all the womens appear as pregnant virgins? The Ugg?????????? Hmm. The Fashion to the Cake of Johnny, and she imagines to the Suzy, is that which makes the wearer feel good about herself without regard to what others may perceive.
The Cake of Johnny will never forget an outdoor alternative rock festival she attended, advertised 24/7 for a month as “the coolest,” where everyone was dressed so trendy & hip & cutting-edge “different” that the one person who stood out from the crowd (as old as & looking much like Samauri Suzy) appeared as if she had just stopped by after shopping at the A&P grocery store in downtown Mayberry in the 1950s. (The Cake of Johnny she recollects wore some shorts/sleeveless tee/sneakers assemble suitable for setting on the grass listening to the bands in the 95-degree summer heat without a thought of much else — oh she was *cool* all right, she made sure of it.)
June 18th, 2005 at 11:06 pm
Shorts in the summer heat, oh well, nowadays I guess that’s so commonsensical it makes folks weep.
For a minute I pictured your “cool” lady, who dressed to stay cool, sheathed in enough red satin to cover the garment district, and donning diamonds and inexplicably moussed-up hair.
But then I’d suppose your lady would have had to be awesomefully talented and powerful enough to make you wet your pants, in order to have gotten away with that.
June 19th, 2005 at 4:44 pm
I did not know that chicklets came in the lemon…hmmm.
Cecilia you, as always, crack me up and are correct..hehe..the pantyliners.
Johnny Cake is in the station but missed the train, for the love of Jesus @ least have the commonsense ,since you are in the public eye and assocaited w/ a business that would dictate such, to take care of yourself. Decorum differs from a slave to fashion.
June 19th, 2005 at 6:50 pm
Thanks for the compliment, Kathleen.
I really didn’t mean to diss the lady as much as say, that her look is finely calculated and stylized, rather than being based on caprice or inattention or utility.
Nothing wrong with that. As Manolo suggests, she is able to carry it off by virtue of the respect and affection she has earned.
June 19th, 2005 at 8:19 pm
Intelligentsia, fashionista. Tomato, tomahto. Yes, it all sounds somewhat of the same.
June 20th, 2005 at 10:10 am
I do not expect my sportswriters to be athletes, and I do not expect Suzy Menkes to actively engage in the acitivity she writes about so well. She has the respect of those in the fashion industry, she understands the structure of clothes from the ground up and the skin out, and has more than paid her journalistic dues. Good enough credentials for me!
Her integrity prevents her from accepting “freebies” from designers, and her income level prevents her from purchasing the clothes of the designers she writes about, so her style–of dress and of writing–remains her own. Thank heavens. We have more than enough examples of cookie-cutter style in the fashion industry, and not enough fabulous originals.
June 20th, 2005 at 12:18 pm
I don’t know. I’d consider a “FABULOUS original” to be someone who could combine pieces from Target and Walmart with panache and ingenuity.
I think Menkes will have to settle for looking different.
June 20th, 2005 at 3:53 pm
woodcock Says:
June 17th, 2005 at 12:59 pm
The whiter than white teeth is what differentiates the Americans from the rest of the world. So she smokes and drinks the real coffee that does not pretend to be the milkshake, and does not use the Crest White Strips or maybe even the pantiliners every day. That’s what the people outside the United States do.
I don’t think anyone’s suggesting she needs whiter than white teeth, just that she actually brush her teeth.
June 22nd, 2005 at 10:12 am
In using the term fabulous, I was referring to her work, not her appearance. She is a journalist, editor, author, and historian–not a model. Have you read any of her work, or are you basing your judgement strictly on her appearance in some photographs?
December 7th, 2006 at 4:57 pm
Great Shoes,i like shoes
Karin