Beauty marks have always fascinated me. Especially the idea that something beautiful could evolve out of something so ugly and disfiguring as small pox scars. My spirit resonates with taking things that are ugly, worthless and rejected and creating something beautiful. Reinvention. That would be my superpower if I had one. I feel my calling in life is to leave this world a little more beautiful than I found it.
The language of beauty marks developed during the seventeenth century among aristocratic women. Small patches of black velvet or taffeta were cut into shapes such as hearts, moons, stars and pasted onto the face or décolleté to draw attention to the whiteness of their skin and highlight certain features while covering scars. Each mark was carefully placed to send a specific message to a woman’s admirers:
Corner of eye-“I’m interested in you”
Above the lip-flirty “I want to kiss you”
Near right cheek-“I’m married”
Left cheek-“I’m engaged”
High on forehead-”I’m superior”
Photos: Norma Sheerer in Marie Antoinette, Warner Brother's Phantom of the Opera, book Plumes and Dentelles by Ellen Von Unwerth
Chateau de Bagatelle in Paris, France is by far the most adorable achitectural gem ever to behold. I pray that my mansion in heaven will look like this. It was originally a hunting lodge but would later become this adorable little castle designed by architect Francois-Joseph Belanger. In 1777, Comte d'Artois, brother of Louis XVI — acquired the property. He demolished the hunting lodge following a bet with his sister-in-law, the Queen Marie-Antoinette. She bet him that he could not build the French chateau in less than three months. The chateau was estimated to cost over two million livres and was constructed in 63 days. Comte d'Artois kept the crews working day and night in shifts. Marie lost the bet. I wonder what she wagered. Maybe diamond necklaces or perhaps something more scandalous?
