A Beautiful Face

A beautiful face appeared in the crowd while viewing an exhibit at LACMA. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is presenting an outstanding collection of mid-century art and design. Part of the exhibit was fashion. I asked my husband to start clicking away with his iPhone. Now I would have photos to send my friend Melissa who co-founded HiFi, an organization whose goal is to inspire, promote and sustain an integrated fashion community in Hawai’i. She would be thrilled to see a gold lamé one-piece bathing suit by designer Margit Fellegi from 1950-51. He captured that image and then on to, OMG, a polka-dot swimsuit jacket bathing suit ensemble. ‘Round every corner, a surprise awaited our eyes. I stood gawking over an Eisenhower jacket; nothing special to the average spectator, until I overheard an elderly woman say to her friend, “that’s an Eisenhower jacket!”. I’d been thinking it, but didn’t comment to my husband. Quietly, I interrupted her and chimed in, “I had one in a red tartan plaid”. The charming lady, with a very fifties perm in her hair (who knows, could’ve been natural; just reminds me of the perm my mother gave me when she lopped off my hair at age six. My God, I already had ringlets!), turned around to face me. I saw a clear, blue-eyed, chiseled-featured face, rather petite. She responded to my comment and said, “best thing about him!” Oh, so we’re already getting political, I thought. She made a reference to the atomic age during his presidency, which led me to divert to a phrase he coined, “Atoms For Peace”, a counter-culture statement attempting to alter the connotation from atom bomb and all things destructive to the Atoms from which we are all One! “Oh”, she said with delight, “I remember that”. Now, this darling woman had to be in her eighties, still bright and very involved with life. I continued to tell her of my son’s involvement with a musical group calling themselves “Atoms For Peace”. Well, she really lit up and replied, “music is the answer – the universal language”. Oh, dear God, can I take her home with me? We had such a moment and all over this little flesh-colored Eisenhower jacket. I was so intrigued by her, I forgot to photo the jacket. For your pleasure, though, here’s a sampling of what the bathing beauties wore back in the 50’s.