Women Who Inspire Me

April 10th 2011

‘She appears as a force of nature, dangerous so long as she remains untamed.’

- Simone DeBeauvoir from Brigitte Bardot and the Lolita Syndrome

My role models AT life are really exceptional women who courageously defied conventions particularly of their time, who exhibited the spirit of individuality and self awareness, whose lives were the work of self expression, and whose legacies remain today the inspiration of art, culture, philosophy, individuality, and equality. I love them, I admire them for their complete irrationality; which is thought of as a womanly trait… is it not? I adulate them for their beauty, femininity, eccentricity, and offbeat lives. These were interesting and untamed women, whose lives are examples for what I aspire for myself.

Mata Hari (Margaretha Geertruida “Grietje” Zelle MacLeod) – 7 August 1876

I suppose my affinity for Mata Hari is based on sharing the same birthday of August 7. It was for this reason that I always felt some sort of connection with her. To me she is forever the epitome of the femme fatale, a seductive, alluring, and dangerous woman. Well-behaved women rarely make history and makes for a rather boring lifestyle. Mata Hari is infamous for being executed by the French during World War I on charges of espionage. However, it was unlikely that she was really involved in any sort of spying. Her story is one primarily of a individual being condemned because of her lifestyle choices.

Mata Hari was considered a ‘worldy woman’ because she had many lovers, traveled during the time of war, and supported herself rather lucratively through exotic dance and escorting important military gentlemen. I don’t applaud Mata Hari’s prostitution, but understanding the historical context in which she lived in, she did not have many other options or opportunities, but she knew she what she did have and she banked on it. Her choices may have been initially out of desperation, but I believe she preferred a lifestyle of independence, choice, and exuberance; all of which was not permissible had she succumbed to marriage and motherly duties. She was an unconventional woman and happy for it. She refused to apologize or change her ways. When she was executed, she stood proudly and unwavering. She refused a blindfold and stared directly at her executors. Lady GaGa’s ‘Born This Way’ is an modern anthem for the same belief for which Mata Hari died. There’s nothing wrong with being different.

Marchesa Luisa Casati – 23 January 1881

The Marchesa is the most eccentric of all the women I adore. I was first introduced to her during my undergraduate studies at Georgia Tech when I began to take up an interest in the art movement of Futurism. To the Futurists, she was the embodiment of what they considered ‘the Futurist woman’. She was a filthy rich Italian heiress, a muse, and patroness. What I think I love most about the Marchesa was her unusual beauty. She was not considered beautiful by any classical sense. She had an androgynous figure with big bulging eyes and harsh features. As she came of age, she began to embrace and enhance her look in an over the top way. She emphasized her remarkable green eyes with dramatic kohl lining, died her hair a deep red, painted her lips vermillion, and took on a macabre like look. She was the first fashionable goth. As with her dramatic makeup, her attire was outlandish and decadent. She wore fantastic gowns, furs, and pearls. Her fashion was meant to astonish an she was an international celebrity. She reinvented herself from blasé to a living work of art that captivated and entranced all those around her. Fashion is something not everyone cares or delights in, but for me it is surely an outlet for self expression, of which I value greatly. The Marchesa is a fashion legend. She has inspired couture designers since her time to the most celebrated names of today such as Karl Lagerfeld, John Galliano : / , Alexander McQueen, and the Marchesa label of course.

Although she was married for namesake, the Marchesa’s fortune allowed her to live a life of independence and that she did. Like Mata Hari, she had no interest in marriage or motherhood. She lived for love, travel, art, culture, and scandal. She was incredibly strange and deeply interested in the world of mysticism. Although I do not share a curiosity with mysticisim, I do share with her a deep appreciation for aesthetic and the artistic mind. She was the patron and muse of an incredible number of literary and artistic figures such as Robert De Montesquieu, Jean Cocteau, Cecil Beaton, Giovanni Boldini, Man Ray, Umberto Boccioni, and Augustus John. She had a life long love affair with the celebrated author Gabriele d’Annunzio, which is the type of love that I find incredibly beautiful.

By far, the Marchesa is my inspiration for individual self expression. As a patron and muse she commissioned an incredible number of portraits and artworks of herself. She is rumored to be the most replicated woman in art aside from the Virgin Mary and Cleopatra. She did this on purpose of course as self preservation and proof of her infinite variety. That was the quote upon her tombstone on her death: “Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety”

Coco Chanel (Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel) – 19 August 1883

So many of the women I admire were born and lived during the turn of the 20th century. I generally have a fascination with this time in history because of its parallels to the time that we live in today. Coco Chanel is the most popular of the women who inspire me. She needs no real introduction. The reason that Chanel is on my list has very little to do actually with the fashion line itself. My appreciation for the fashion of Chanel is only secondary to the amazing story of the woman behind it.

Coco Chanel was a woman who achieved the feat of pulling herself up by the bootstraps. She was an orphan child who grew up to be the leader of a fashion empire and changed the course of history. Although she was completely French, she certainly exhibits the American ideal, which I’ve grown up with and believe in whole heartedly. Like Chanel, I believe that hard work pays off and you can make something incredible out of nothing. Her entrepreneurship inspires me on so many levels. I also find inspiration in her desire to create and design. As a designer myself, I look at her work as an incredible example of the power of design and its ability to affect great change. Coco Chanel changed history by introducing a new style of women’s wear that was active, athletic, modern, and liberating. She designed clothing for women that reflected the necessary freedom of movement modern women required. She redefined femininity and certainly impacted the feminist movement.

In Chanel’s personal life, she was again like Mata Hari and the Marchesa. She would never marry nor have children. She lived independently and lived very well on her own accord. She was a woman of great ambition, class, and style; all of which is represented in classic Chanel fashion. Unlike the Marchesa, whose style was extremely eccentric, Chanel’s style was minimalist, chic, and defined our contemporary understanding of ‘classic’. My personal style must be some contradiction of the two, but more closely associated with Chanel’s minimalism.

Chanel happened to be a Leo like myself (and the Mata Hari of course), and while I have since stopped believing in Horoscopes and Zodiacs; I like to think, through self fulfilling prophecy, that we did share Leo traits such as creativity, courage, confidence, and bossiness!

Simone de Beauvoir – 9 January 1908

I want to be a dangerously intellectual woman, which were words I once read to describe Lou Andreas-Salomé by Sigmund Freud. He said, she was “a woman of dangerous intelligence”. I think the same could have just as easily been said of Simone de Beauvoir, who inspires me on an intellectual and philosophical level. I’ve come across Beauvoir in the past on feminist readings, for which she is famous for her treatise The Second Sex, but my admiration for her is quite recent. Since moving to New York I’ve started reading philosophy on a much grander scale then I ever have previously in my life. I never had the time while I was in school to read so much of my own selection. I think that I always had an inclination or interest in philosophy, but it wasn’t until recently that I’ve been able to dedicate a great deal towards understanding and finding my own. I definitely dove into existentialism, again due to my fascination with the turn of the century, and most likely as an antidote for spiritual reasons. In any case, I met Simone de Beauvoir in this exploration.

I admire Beauvoir most for her intellectual pursuit, particularly in an arena dominated by men and for her lifelong partnership with Jean-Paul Sartre, which I find beautiful. I share with her an existential and feminist philosophy, or rather I owe her for it. Philosophy is dominated by male figures, so it is easy for me to be attracted to her as a female figure. I love how philosophy transferred to lifestyle for her and Sartre. I applaud their relationship, their respect towards one another, and the influence they had on each other’s work. In many ways they are my relationship ideal.