Alain Delon was one of our first ever {STYLE IDOL} posts on The Eye of Faith, and quickly became and remains one of our most popular delves into classic timeless cool vintage style. It’s not a surprise – this guy just oozes bad ass nonchalant elegance, sophistication, and beauty!
He is always portrayed as a dangerous type, a rebel, a bad boy, a beautiful bad ass . . . but still very clean cut and classic.
So this year when we found out that the French bad boy would be honoured (and justly so) at this year’s Cannes Film Festival we were thrilled!
For his “wonderful presence in the history of film” the award is definitely just, but delving back into his timeline of wicked looks over the past 50+ years it is impossible to deny his presence in the history of style, as well!
So, in honour of this God of Style we delved deeper into our archive of looks from an icon who is on the level of James Dean or Marilyn Monroe. We are fortunate enough to have him with us still today!
Not all the rebels die young…in fact, you can watch his acceptance speech here (it is in French):
We checked out this brilliant list of 12 of his best cult classics from DW to find some super vibes we hadn’t picked up on in our initial post 7 years ago (yikes!). From baroque to gangster, from dapper to scuba, modern playboy to Victorian dandy…he does it all!
One thing’s for sure …
No one rocks a cut on their face quite like him!
Bless his soul
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What’s your favourite Alain Delon look? Let us know in the COMMENTS below!
Infamous for bringing a dark turn to 1969’s Summer of Love co-ordinating a string of horrific murders in the Hollywood Hills of 7 highly influential and well-to-do victims including the heiress to the Folger coffee fortune, owners of a successful grocery chain, and iconic beauty – actress and model Sharon Tate.
You could say 8 victims total if you include that Tate was pregnant.
While he never committed any of the murders with his own hand – there is little doubt that his cult-like hold on his followers was so powerful that he was able to control and manipulate seemingly ordinary people to do some of the world’s most vicious atrocities using his strange magnetic quality, and the help of psychedelics like LSD.
All across the internet you can buy merch featuring his face and words, countless best-selling books about the man, his cult, and their crimes, successful feature films, and even an NBC series ‘Aquarius’ featuring the handsome Gethin Anthony as the cult-leader.
Most recently the popular FX series American Horror Story featured a scene in their latest season ‘CULT’ depicting Evan Peters telling his own followers about the legend of Charles Manson and the murders that incited his revolution. This episode aired only less than two weeks before his death, in a strange twist of fate with Peters also doubling as Manson, and series stars Sarah Paulson, Bilie Lourd, and Leslie Grossman as Susan “Sexy Sadie” Atkins, Linda Kasabian (granted immunity for her testimony at the trial), and Patricia Krenwinkle – California’s longest serving female prisoner.
Personally it felt a bit like a gross glamorization of a horrific act, and a bit of a gratuitous showcase of violence (which is very AHS these days), and the thought that these twisted fuckers could get any kind of glorification from something like this was disgusting.
We’ll post it here, and let you decide:
Then it was announced that Charles Manson was dead, and somehow it seemed like a door had been closed on all that, and maybe we can feel good that some strange twisted energy has been depleted from this world.
Or maybe, its only out there running rampant looking for its next conduit….either way:
Ding Dong Charles Manson is DEAD!
We collected some fascinating headlines from the murders and trials, and thought they made for a unique visual of the horror and terror these seemingly simple-minded and harmless people brought onto this world.
His legacy will live on for better or worse, and if there is one thing we can learn from Manson is that evil truly does exist in this world, and we can never underestimate its reach. He may have indeed incited some kind of wickedness when you consider all the messed up things that have begun to avalanche in our society.
Also, never underestimate a starving artist scorned!
From the world of darkness I did loose demons and devils in the power of scorpions to torment.
And we love the myth and legend of Judy Garland, so to discover this rare gem on the interwebs, was to say the least, a huge score!
If you haven’t seen the film, “Valley of the Dolls” was based on Jacqueline Susann’s best selling novel about several young ladies entrapped in the tumultuous world of the entertainment industry.
It is camp, it is glamour, it is a bona fide classic piece of cinema starring the late Patty Duke as the self-sabotaging but talented Neely O’Hara, Barbara Perkins playing a naive small town girl trying to make it in the big city of New York, and Sharon Tate as their gorgeous pal who is forced to do some “shameful” business to make a little cash . . .
One of the antagonists of the film is the character of Helen Lawson, who is a big-shot Broadway star of the ages who Neely goes up to bat against during the production of a play. There are plenty of bitchy moments that incur, which make the film a true joy to behold.
With this in mind, we were shocked the find out that Helen Lawson had originally been given to none other than JUDY GARLAND!!!
This was big news at the time, with the contract being signed February 1967, and a press conference with Judy and Jacqueline Susann at the St. Regis Hotel on March 2, 1967.
“Lets face it; the role calls for an old pro over 40. That’s for me. It’s for sure I am no longer Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz…the part of Helen Lawson is no more me than the part in Judgement at Nuremberg. It doesn’t pertain to me…”
Work on the film began shortly thereafter with songs being recorded, and scenes being shot. However, many of this footage hasn’t survived, and many claim the scenes that were shot were few and far between and mostly unusable, with Judy refusing to leave her dressing room.
Things reached a head on April 27, 1967. Judy was fired.
Fox announced that she had resigned for “personal reasons”, which Judy quickly denied citing that she had showed up on set ready to film at 6am and had no idea!!! In the end, she admitted to objecting to certain obscenities in the film, and many fans agree that this film was far beneath her talents….so in the end, everything works out (I guess, minus the fact she died 2 years later from a heavy drug overdose)!!!
Oh, Hollywood….so strange. So weird. So mysterious and odd. And if you’re wondering what I’m talking about, lets get to the point of this all – the wardrobe tests!
You know we love fashion and style, and William Travilla’s glorious designs for Valley of the Dolls are one of the highlights of this film, and Helen Lawson’s costumes are no exception. In these clips, Judy does her thing showing off the designs, as only she could.
If that doesn’t shock you just a little, I’m not sure what will. The legacy of Judy Garland is so odd and sad. So young and full of talent; thrown into a monstrous machine that only cared to crank out dollars from her…in the end, she lost her vitality, and her mind.
Let her be a lesson to us all to stay true to yourself, and never be a pawn to those in authority. It’s just not worth it. You live one life. Let it be the best life you can imagine!
In the end, the role of Helen Lawson would go to Susan Hayward, who was a legend in her own right, and had even won the coveted Best Actress Academy Award in 1958 playing a death row inmate in I Want to Live! .
When it comes to bad ass boho gods, I’m sure we could all name a few; but very little do I ever see the name Caetano Veloso pop up, and this is for us….OUTRAGEOUS!!!
We should be worshiping this icon of perseverance, elegance, rebellion, philosophical contemplation, compassion, counter culture, and activism. . .
Very few bohemian icons really get the credit they deserve when discussing men’s style . . . the mainstream would rather iconize GQ demi-gods Tom Brady or Ryan Gosling, and that’s all fine and dandy, but when it comes to that elicit feeling of cool. . . boho gods cannot be beat; and Brazilian tropicalia folk rock artist Caetano Veloso is on the top of our list!
Bad ass to the core, Veloso’s music touched a generation in the heart of Brazil with his inciting lyrics and enchanting melodies that brought a fusion of traditional Brazilian sound with psychedelic rock and folk helping create the “tropicalisimo” movement alongside best friend Gilberto Gil, Os Mutantes, and other bold and innovative artists of the time.
First premiering in 1965, fresh in Rio De Janeiro, Caetano won a lyrics competition for his composition “Um Dia”, getting him signed to Phillips Records. Two years later he received a standing ovation for his song “Alegria, Alegria” at the Brazil Popular Music Festival, marking the first time rock n roll music was ever played at the festival.
Him and his psych rock buddies were pioneers for a new sound, a new world, a new way of being; however, the powers that be would do anything they could to stop this burgeoning. Marxist students and communist supporters condemned the music for commercializing Brazilian culture, and incorporating musical influences from the United States.
The tensions between the Tropicalistas and the student left peaked in September 1968 with Veloso’s now-legendary performances at the third annual International Song Festival, held at the Catholic University in Rio, where the audience included a large contingent of students who were vehemently opposed to the Tropicalistas. When Veloso (backed by Os Mutantes) performed in the first round of the Festival’s song competition on 12 September, he was initially greeted with enthusiastic applause, but the situation soon turned ugly. Dressed in a shiny green plastic suit, festooned with electrical wires and necklaces strung with animal teeth, Veloso provoked the students with his lurid costume, his sensual body movements and his startling new psychedelic music, and the performers were soon being bombarded with loud insults, jeers and boos from the students, who became even more incensed when American pop singer John Dandurand made a surprise appearance on stage during the song.
Tensions would hit an all time high when he and his buddy Gilbert Gil were actually arrested in February of 1969 for little to no reason, and held in prison for three months, followed by four months of house arrest. Brazil’s military dictatorship which held the country under its grips until 1985, further had many and most of his songs banned or censored.
“… if you are the same in politics as you are in aesthetics, we’re done for!”
-Caetano Veloso
The two were exiled from the country for over a year, and spent most of their time in the dark and gloomy dims of London, England. However, by 1972 the pair were allowed back into the country quickly returning to their musical careers that have since landed Veloso 9 Latin Grammy’s and a Grammy for World Music Album in 2000.
Here at The Eye of Faith we always have great respect for people who stand for something. After all, if you don’t stand for something, you stand for nothing! And Caetano Veloso definitely exemplifies this.
Never fearing the opposition, never backing down on his own sense of self; apart from his penchant for wildly magical psych rock stylings, it is his character that truly makes this man an E.O.F. STYLE IDOL.
“I TALK too much…Everybody from Bahia is like this. We are always touching each other, too. We are a bit too much.”
-Caetano Veloso
Let us not forget this beautiful bohemian God and his willingness to stand for freedom, for beauty, and to live life to the fullest!
“Alegria means joy, or joyousness… It is the best-known song of any that I have written, and it was the opening song of tropicalismo, the first to use rock-and-rollish electric guitars. Whenever I sing it, it is just like the Rolling Stones singing ‘Satisfaction.’ It was the first anthem. It’s an affirmation-of-life kind of song, but it has an ironical hint to it.”
The song begins, “I’m walking against the wind, without handkerchief or documents in my pockets,” and ends with a chorus of “Why not?”
It’s about being able to walk and be alive and be real and feel the sun…It was against the dictatorship without saying anything about it. And everybody likes that ‘Why not?’ at the end.”
“They didn’t imprison us for any song or any particular thing that we said…It was a difficult atmosphere for them to understand, so they thought, ‘We might as well put them in prison.’ ”
1. One that is not fully understood or that baffles or eludes the understanding; an enigma: How he got in is a mystery.
2. One whose identity is unknown and who arouses curiosity: The woman in the photograph is a mystery.
3. A mysterious character or quality: a landscape with mystery and charm.
4. A work of fiction, a drama, or a film dealing with a puzzling crime.
5. The skills, lore, or practices that are peculiar to a particular activity or group and are regarded as the special province of initiates. Often used in the plural: the mysteries of Freemasonry; the mysteries of cooking game.
6. A religious truth that is incomprehensible to reason and knowable only through divine revelation.
7. a. A religious cult practicing secret rites to which only initiates are admitted.
b. A secret rite of such a cult.
+ E.O.F. MYSTERY SCHOOL +
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What are the secrets locked deep in history that are haunting us each and everyday? Who are the makers of today, and who shall we become tomorrow?
The aspirations that seem to be engrained into our soul are to finally climb out of the epic pits of insanity that we collectively call humanity. Nothing ever seems to make sense. In fact, it is impossible not to feel in RAGE!!!
We’ve always been left simply searching…
Perhaps you search the aisles of the school library for some sign of truth, or perhaps you are wise enough to search the labyrinth of light in the sky for a pattern or sign to guide your every wake. The riddle of the sphinx, has it ever been solved? Or is it simply that it’s question has never even been asked . . . ?
What is it about the night? What do we achieve when we dream? This is a journey by man, a mystery that never ceases to delight. Deep in our dreams, we have found our very own {MASTER MASON} waiting patiently for our arrival. Waiting for us to say we’ll stay.
But that would be like laying awake in the shadows you can actually see at night. We can go about our day to day and never once seek the layers beneath the fragile surface of time and our past . . .
In fact, it continues to live on and on forever, like something eternally true.
Go about your day to day. Seek the seekers in the shadows.
Lets find the {MASTER MASON} that’s within us all…
+Cum Lupis Ulula +
“Howl with the Wolves…“
The wind really picked up today, and the sky was just full of grey.
There is much planned. Our invocations are only just beginning! We will be conjuring many {traditions} from the past, and hope to inspire the {ritual} of dress.
So definitely be sure to check up with the {SHOP} for wicked deals and for all of our new arrivals!
And use secret code XIXIXI for 25 % OFF!
The past is living. It reverberates with every single day.
We are so excited to announce that we will be costuming “HAIR” at Hamilton Theatre Inc. this May, and for the first time in ages your boys at The Eye of Faith will be gracing the stage as peace-loving, flower-wearing, fringe-flinging New York City hippies during the Summer of Love!
So to celebrate the news, we thought we’d bring back this {MUSIC MINUTE} that we originally posted back in 2012!
We love this performance from the 6.26.1969 episode of “The Mama Cass Show”! Like, the fact that a celebrity like Mama Cass existed and went as far to hosting her own T.V. show is so flipping cool! This performance features Mama Cass herself, Canadian Lady of the Canyon Joni Mitchell and Peter, Paul & Mary’s own Mary Travers. It’s a beautiful song, and they all look beyond great!
Its a great way to kick-off our dive into the rabbit-hole of 60s psychedelic glory, and we can’t wait! We will be posting more inspirations in the days and months to come!
Also in the spirit of The Eye of Faith and our union of the {past},{present}, and {future} check out how remarkable of a parallel it is between the fashion donned by especially Mama Cass and Joni Mitchell align with Chloe’s latest S/S 16 showcase in Paris!
What’s more is that the Claire Waight Keller’s Chloe collection is actual ly an ode to the 90s (after all, 60s bohemian fashions had a bit of a revival in the 90s), so we are actually being treated to quite the smoothie of fashion style, going to show how important it is, and empowering it is to have all eyes open, and take in all we can to create a richer, and ultimately more beautiful life!
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+EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN+
If you haven’t ventured, be sure to check out the depths of our blog by using the side menu where it says ‘BLOG’. From there you can access the dozen+ topics and categories we have covered over the year, and as we like to say, use it to escape your everyday . . .
“Edie was spoiled materially, but starved and tortured emotionally. You can see that in her eyes. Oh, those sprightly, beautiful but also deeply sorrowful light brown eyes that I will never forget.”
– Andy Warhol
+Style Divinity+ Edie Sedgwick is one of those icons of style that cannot be denied. She also seems to represent a sort of decadent disheveledness that seems to have swept the upper classes of the 20th Century (for better or worse).
And for those in that world, it must have been most shocking to see a socialite like herself take off on a truly remarkable roller coaster ride through the world of Art & Fashion only to pitfall into a dark hole of abuse and addiction.
We admire her freedom. But like we always say – is freedom free?
After all, could she really have lived such a life if it weren’t for her entitled upbringing? Probably not. But, in all respects, we all wish we could have a piece of that entitlement, really, and there are those who are brought up with the same regard to status in society who live very successful and honourable lives.
In the end, it all comes down to choices.
“You have to put up with the risk of being misunderstood if you are going to try to communicate. You have to put up with people projecting their own ideas, attitudes, misunderstanding you. But it’s worth being a public fool if that’s all you can be in order to communicate yourself.”
-Edie Sedgwick
So in the end, what will you choose?
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Our {MUSIC MINUTE} gives an ode to this Stylish Queen of Tragedy, and points to some of these ideas, and the world Edie inhabited, and looked toward.
It is a rare song from one of the most iconic bands of the post-punk/goth rock movement of the 1980s, led by the singularly iconic Ian Astbury whose mystical and almost enchanted rock persona still pushes the bounds of style for men (giant black hats, anyone?), so its not surprising that he also grew up in the same hometown as us here at The Eye of Faith!
Recorded in 1989, ” Edie (Ciao Baby)” is one their great songs, and seemed all too fitting to not feature!
We are also excited to announce that we have in possession a very rare tour t-shirt from the iconic Electric World Tour of The Cult back in 1987!! That in itself is quite unusual, but what makes the piece in our collection that much more unique is that it was from a run of shirts made in Canada featuring only the cities in Canada they performed at on the back.
Rare THE CULT Band 1987 Electric World Tour British Punk Goth Mystic Rock N Roll Canadian Soft Unusual Bad Ass Graphic Concert T-Shirt
Thanks to the team at Online PhD for sending us this graphic!
Hopefully everybody remembers the post we did on Stephen Hawking and his wild sexual escapades in Los Angeles! But don’t think we forgot the brilliant genius that has made this 70-year old thinking legend an icon of science, as well as a real-life model for the extreme powers of the mind and spirit.
Online PhD has created an awesome ode to Dr. Hawking, with a timeline set in the stars of the world’s brightest bad-ass and his life and greatest achievments. We are honoured to showcase it for you right here on The Eye of Faith, so let us know what you think!
One thing is for sure, Stephen Hawking is an amazing inspiration to anyone at odds with limitations, whatever they may be. Through perseverance, hard-work, and above-all the confidence to explore the limits of possibility, Stephen Hawking is above-all a hero for hope in mankind itself.
Visit Online PhD whether you’re prepping for your PhD or simply thirsting for knowledge, the site is full of endless resources at your disposal. So check it out today!
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