Adèle Collins

This portraitback to top

This fashion photograph shows Adèle Collins wearing a red velvet toque by Otto Lucas and a flannel suit by Bazaar. Parkinson deliberately focused on the background of distressed rich brocade to create a photograph in the style of paintings by the fashionable society artist Kees Van Dongen such as Le Coquelicot (The Corn Poppy) c.1919 (collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston). In 1981 as one a series of commissions for the National Portrait Gallery Parkinson used the same technique in his photograph of the fashion designer Zandra Rhodes.

Events of 1959back to top

Current affairs

Harold Macmillan wins the general election with an increased majority, returning to office as Conservative prime minister. The victory was the result of perceived economic improvement under the Conservative government, and his (misquoted) boast: 'you've never had it so good.' During his premiership he earned the nickname 'Supermac', coined by cartoonist, Victor 'Vicky' Weisz.

Art and science

Claudia Jones organises the first West Indian-style carnival in the country, starting the tradition of the annual Notting Hill carnival. The event was a response to the race riots of 1958, and an attempt to celebrate West Indian culture and help overcome racial prejudice by giving the whole community the opportunity to join in the event.

International

Fidel Castro becomes leader of Cuba. After defeating the American-backed Batista government, Castro's revolutionary army arrived in Havana on 8th January where Castro proclaimed himself Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. Within a month, Prime Minister José Miró Cardona had resigned, and Castro took over.
In Tibet, an uprising against Chinese rule is brutally crushed, and the Dalai Lama flees to India, beginning his long exile.

Comments back to top