One Frickin Day is a charity cofounded by model and eco-activist Elettra Wiedemann and James Marshall. Elettra was last seen looking beautiful on the red carpet of the Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum's 'Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty' in a Gattinoni gown which had belonged to her grandmother, Ingrid Bergman and was reworked by Prabal Gurung.
Elettra Wiedemann in Gattinoni in Vogue
We all have so many demands on our time and the idea behind the charity, is that though it may not seem like much or even enough, just One Frickin Day of our time, One Frickin Day of service, One Frickin Day of our annual salary can affect the rest of someone's life.
Top models were asked to donate a dress they wore one night on the red carpet to be sold to buy solar panels for clinics in Haiti and Rwanda. I will be posting dresses worn by Iman, Elle Macpherson, Isabella Rossini, Tyra Banks, Heidi Klum and other amazing women.
OFD has partnered with Solar Electric Light Fund and Partners in Health. I was thrilled when Elettra asked me to be a part of this project that will help bring solar power to remote health clinics in developing countries and provide much needed power to enable lifesaving care after dark and to operate medical equipment. Just goes to show that you can have style and substance.
Now onto the style! And the drama! This first piece, donated by Shalom Harlow is all about the drama! It is a billowing black taffeta domino designed by Bob Mackie in the 1980s. It is for a modern day Countess Mona Bismarck (you of course remember Mona Bismarck in a fabulous Balenciaga in her equally fabulous Hotel Lambert in Paris photographed by the very fabulous Cecil Beaton). Balenciaga was a skilled tailor and was able to create sculptural drama in silk.
Shalom's Bob Mackie also reminded me of this Alexander McQueen in the Savage Beauty show at the Met.
Alexander McQueen ensemble from The Girl Who Lived in the Tree Collection. 2008. Sarah Burton said that he wanted regality but also a sense of lightness.
Bob Mackie did not do small. Did not do minimalist. He did spectacular. He did beads. He did feathers and he did Glamour (note the capital G!). But this domino in black taffeta while still wildly glamorous is also restrained. And speaking of beading, when Shalom Harlow wore this to the Party of the Year at the Met two years ago, she wore a black beaded Olivier Theyskens catsuit underneath it.
Bob Mackie black silk taffeta domino. Donated by Shalom Harlow. $5,000.00
50 percent of the proceeds will be going directly to the charity, One Frickin Day.
