Happy Birthday, Yma Sumac!

Today would have been Yma Sumac's 94th birthday (if one is to believe varying accounts of her birth). Hailing from Peru, with the claim of being an Incan princess related to Atahualpa (the last sovereign emperor of the Inca Empire), Sumac moved to America in the 1940s and became a singing sensation in the world of "Exotica" music, a genre named after the 1957 Martin Denny album of the same title, popular during the 1950s to mid-1960s. Sumac possessed an impressive five-octave vocal range, able to sing as a low baritone or as a soprano. There was a great "lounge music" resurgence in the late 80's and early 90s, and along with it, a revival of Exotica, which is where I found her...

Happy birthday, Yma!

http://www.yma-sumac.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Richard James

Richard James is reportedly on a year-long sabbatical so for the Fall-Winter '15-'16 collection, his design team took us on a sartorial journey to the Andes with some pretty gorgeous--and by appearances, all-purpose--rugged leather boots. Traditional Puruvian and Bolivian clothing and textiles were represented throughout the collection in the classic poncho of the area as well as the classic Bolivian bowler hat. Swatches of Peruvian weaving showed up attached to jacket lapels, worked itno scarves, and as hat bands on aforementioned bowlers.

The house included some very special shoes in the collection as well: beautiful silk slippers embroidered with an Incan figure or small geometric shapes traditionally found in Peruvian textiles.

http://www.richardjames.co.uk/