#occupation:designer

[ladiesalmanack]

Leonor Fini (1907-1996)

Leonor Fini, born Eleonor Fini, was an Argentine-Italian painter, designer, illustrator, and author. She was close to Surrealist circles and participated in the movement's major exhibitions, but refused to join the group in order to protect her independence and autonomy. In her paintings, Leonor Fini reversed the traditional power relationship between men and women by depicting women as powerful and erotic goddess figures, and men as passive and androgynous.

Leonor Fini was also a theater set designer and costume designer for films, operas, and theater. She illustrated numerous books and wrote three novels. She created the bottle design for Elsa Schiaparelli's perfume "Shocking », based on the torso of the famous actress Mae West. In 1954, Leonor Fini painted the actress Maria Felix, who had been introduced to her by the cabaret manager Frede, who was Maria Felix's lover and Leonor Fini's friend.

[ladiesalmanack]

Natacha Rambova (1897-1966)

Natacha Rambova, born Winifred Kimball Shaughnessy, was an American costume and set designer, as well as an Egyptology scholar later in life. Rambova started her career as a ballet dancer in New York City and it was during this time that she adopted her new Russian-inspired name. At the age of 19, she relocated to Los Angeles where she became an established costume designer for Hollywood film productions, notably as an art director for Alla Nazimova working on such films as Camille (1921) and Salomé(1923).

In June 1928, back in New York, she opened an elite couture shop which sold Russian-inspired clothing that Rambova herself designed. During the late 1930s and 1940s, she devoted herself to studying Egyptology after becoming fascinated with ancient belief systems and symbols.