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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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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Comments
Evie 17 years ago
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.
enygma 17 years ago
That is a very unfortunate picture. At first glance, I thought it was a man in drag.
Rick T. 17 years ago
Robert Benchley is alive?
Lea C. 17 years ago
Ayyy! The yellow of the teeth is quite frightening! Get thee some Crest Whitestrips immediately!
deja pseu 17 years ago
For which publication does Samurai Suzi write?
The Scarlett 17 years ago
Deja pseu: Get thee to the search engine! Suzy Menkes writes for the International Herald Tribune
karla 17 years ago
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!
Cecelia 17 years ago
Her nickname is a testament to Manolo’s gentleness.
You just know that he had…uh…..wrestled…. with calling her ‘Sumo Suze’.
cris 17 years ago
Robert Benchley LOL…
woodcock 17 years ago
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.
Johnnycake 17 years ago
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.
africankelli 17 years ago
Oy. Could they have given her some White Strips with that award?
Karen 17 years ago
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.
Robert D. 17 years ago
Mary: Is that hair gel?
— Mary from “There’s Something about Mary”
anonymouse 17 years ago
^^^ LOL Robert D.!
Cecelia 17 years ago
Whoa! I had no idea Europeans used panty-liners to whiten their teeth.
Cecelia 17 years ago
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.
pdotfu 17 years ago
That red satin is very rich and intriquing! I wish I had the nerve and the occaision.
Manolo the Shoeblogger 17 years ago
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.
Cecelia 17 years ago
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…
Johnnycake 17 years ago
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.)
Cecelia 17 years ago
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.
Kathleen 17 years ago
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.
Cecelia 17 years ago
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.
Johnnycake 17 years ago
Intelligentsia, fashionista. Tomato, tomahto. Yes, it all sounds somewhat of the same.
dimestore lipstick 17 years ago
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.
Cecelia 17 years ago
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.
Esther 17 years ago
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.
dimestore lipstick 17 years ago
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?
Der-Vertrag 16 years ago
Great Shoes,i like shoes
Karin