Fashion / Remembering The Queen Of The Nile: Dame Elizabeth Taylor

Remembering The Queen Of The Nile: Dame Elizabeth Taylor

Fashion Nov 29, 2012

by Hina P. Ansari

I woke up this morning and as per my usual routine checked my Facebook and Twitter accounts. Both inundated with updates about the sad passing of cinematic icon Dame Elizabeth Taylor.

She left us at the age of 79. And what a life she led. She has been ingrained in our psyche from the minute we could form the comprehension of what a star is. And a star she was. The Star. The Icon. The Queen.

She has been the leading lady throughout our lives. She moved fluidly from one look to the next, one lover to the next, one husband to the next, one country to the next and one glorious chateau to the next. And of course one riveting cinematic role to the next. Stardom was defined by her and she defined stardom.

She breathed it. She ached for it. She dedicated her life to it. She mesmerized star watchers from Morocco to Italy to Montreal where she wed her long time soulmate Richard Burton at that city's Ritz Carlton Hotel.

This union just like a starburst, gave birth to the hurricane winds of celebrity couple to reign all celebrity couples: Dick and Liz. They created a mythological presence among A-listers of that era and beyond.

Their lives were private jets, chateaus dotting every possible landscape all doused with diamonds and furs. All personally purchased by them mind you. Unlike the freebie-obsessed celebrities of today. The sheer illumination of their celebrity was undeniable. Long before the days of ambulance chasing papparazzi, Brad and Angelina, La Lohan and TMZ, Liz Taylor knew the true value of being in the public eye. And the value of her photographs which was why—an unprecedented move at the time—she hired her own personal retoucher who would finish up her photos before they were hand delivered to the media. She was as astute as she was beautiful.

And let's not forget the obvious here: her unrivalled influence to generations of South Asian women. It was her Bollywood-esque lifestyle, deliciously decadent which enthralled all of us. She was our Bollywood Icon. When Cleopatra came out in 1963, I would hear stories from my mom, telling us that as soon as they came home from the screening, she and her cousins would rush into their rooms and go nuts with their kajol. Desperately trying to imitate the legendary cat's eye makeup. Name one Hollywood star that created such a flurry among our aunties and mothers? Exactly.

Liz Taylor was the one who eagerly embraced the true international world. She brought the caftan and turban to the mainstream. In a recent exhibition, famed photographer Firooz Zahedi—who was also one of Elizabeth Taylor personal photographers—showed a series of incredible photographs of her during her 1976 trip to Zahedi's home country of Iran. Even there, her eyeliner, caftans and dupattas were elevated to ridiculous heights of fashion fierceness.

But that defines Ms. Taylor. She was and forever will be The Queen.

To see Zahedi’s photos click here:
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2011/02/zahedi-lacma-slide-show-201102#slide=4

Here are some classic shots of her though the years.
http://abcworldnews.tumblr.com/post/4043824815/elizabeth-taylor-through-the-years-one-of-the

xoh

_{Source: twitter, ritzcarlton.com, and imdb.com}

Hina P. Ansari

Author

Hina P. Ansari is a graduate from The University of Western Ontario (London, Ontario). Since then she has carved a successful career in Canada's national fashion-publishing world as the Entertainment/Photo Editor at FLARE Magazine, Canada's national fashion magazine. She was the first South Asian in...

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Remembering The Queen Of The Nile: Dame Elizabeth Taylor

by Hina P. Ansari

Hina P. Ansari

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