Category Archives: Robin Lawless

Pedro Menocal

This dashing man was Pedro Menocal, the Cuban-born painter who did my mother’s portrait which hangs on the wall of the room on the cover of Chanel Bonfire.  Pedro was born outside of Havana in the country house of his Grandfather, General Mario Menocal.  He was born into a world of privilege (his family owned sugar and rice plantations) and pursued an interest in horses and art leading eventually to the study of architecture at the University of Havana.  Because of trouble with mathematics (I can totally relate) he never completed his studies.  After the revolution, he fled to New York City with his wife Magda and their daughter Magdalena.  It was in New York that he first started drawing and painting professionally, eventually becoming one of the most popular society portratists (and horse painters) of the late 20th Century. In addition to portraits of international financier, John Loeb, the children and horses of mining king, John Englehard, Jr., and the official portrait of first lady, Nancy Reagan, Menocal did Mother’s, my and Robbie’s portraits.  His wife and daughter now live in Mexico City and graciously allowed me to use Mother’s portrait for the cover of Chanel. 

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Posted by Wendy Lawless  Cuba, Genral Mario Menocal, Georgann Rea, Magda Menocal, Maria Menocal, Pedro Menocal, portraits, Robin Lawless, University of Havana, Wendy Lawless

The Underground

Mother would never in a millions years have let us ride the subway in New York.  She never did.  Even with our nannies we would take the bus or Mother would give them cab fare.  But after only a year in London, Robbie and I were riding the Tube or the Underground everywhere — by ourselves or with a pack of other kids from school.  Busses were fun but the Underground was fast and filled with cool people and round and much cheaper than taking a taxi.

And when you’re saving all your money for platform shoes and trips to Biba, that’s an important difference!

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Posted by Wendy Lawless  70s London, Biba, London Underground, platform shoes, Robin Lawless, subways, The Tube, Wendy Lawless

Platform Shoes!

What was a girl to do in 70s London if she wanted to see a AA rated film and she was only 12 or…
…an X rated film and she was only 14?  Buy the tallest pair of platform shoes she could stand in, of course!

The platform shoe has been around at least as long as the Greeks who used cothurni to raise up important characters on stage.  They were big in Chinese opera and rose again in Europe in the late 16th century.  I first experienced them as a girl when my dad was in the “House of Atreus” at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis   (more on my and Robbie’s House of Atreus dolls from the Guthrie’s set designer in another post).  But it was in the 1970s when the platform shoe made it’s biggest mark.

For me, Elton John and glam rockers made platform shoes a much desired style accessory.  But trying to score Babycham at the pub and bypass the British film raiting system (U – universal, A – five and older, AA- fourteen and older, and X- eighteen and older) made them a necessity.  

In 1972, Robbie and I and our friends absolutely had to see “Endless Night” the new Hayley Mills horror film.  But it was rated AA and we were only twelve and eleven.  SO with a lot of make-up, stylish clothes and some new pairs of giant platforms, we bluffed our way in.  I seem to recall at least one of us tripping down the aisle.  A couple of years later when American Graffiti hit London it was rated X and once again our platforms were called into service.

That movie ushered in a craze for all things American in London which for us included trying to get into the Hard Rock Cafe.  More on that tomorrow!

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Posted by Wendy Lawless  American Graffiti, cothurni, Elton John, Endless Night, glam rock, Hard Rock Cafe, Hayley Mills, House of Atreus, movie ratings, platform shoes, Robin Lawless, Wendy Lawless

Sisters Shelf on Goodreads

Me and Robbie
Partners in Crime

The scene of the crime. 
My graduation from Beaver Country Day.  The picture is taken out front near where the ceremony is held and where, a year later, at Robbie’s graduation, mother would be arrested.

Return to the scene of the crime.  
Me and Robbie at BCD Alumni Weekend 2013.  We lived to tell the tale: together.

Goodreads has a new (or at least new to me) “Sisters Shelf” on which you can find many many terrific books fiction and non-fiction touching on the subject of sisters and sisterhood including Chanel Bonfire.  My reading list has just grown by leaps and bounds!



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Posted by Wendy Lawless  goodreads, Goodreads Sisters Shelf, Robin Lawless, Sisters, Wendy Lawless

Hooray for Hump Day! Summer Pleasures

Robbie learns to ride a bike.

Summers with our dad in Minneapolis meant the simplest joys — bright summer nights of tag and kick-the-can, running over the neighborhood with a pack of kids with no schedules or agendas, wearing clothes we could get dirty and shoes we could wear out, and of course riding bikes.
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Posted by Wendy Lawless  bike rides, Chanel Bonfire, children of divorce, James Lawless, Minneapolis, Robin Lawless, summers with your dad, Wendy Lawless

Family Photos on Chanel Bonfire

One of our last summers in Minneapolis with our father.  A friend of the family took this amazing series of the three of us in the park.  Thanks to the publication of Chanel, they resurfaced as if from a time capsule or the messages Robbie and I stuffed into coke bottles and dropped from the QE2 as our mother sailed us away.

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Posted by Wendy Lawless  Chanel Bonfire, Georgann Rea, James Lawless, old photos, Robin Lawless, Wendy Lawless

Beaver Graduation

“At graduation, after the diplomas were handed out, my class sang the Beatles song ‘In My Life.’  I’m sure that to the faculty or other students it seemed an appropriate choice of a song for a group of people whose lives were about to change forever, and who had happy times to look back on, but to me, it sounded like a dirge.

Mother, decked out in one of her Chanel suits, took my picture in my white cap and gown beside Robbie in the pretty, tree-lined courtyard in front of the school, where the Beaver graduations always took place.”

from Chapter Eleven, Smoke and Mirrors
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Posted by Wendy Lawless  Beaver Country Day, Chanel Bonfire, Georgann Rea, Robin Lawless, Wendy Lawless

T-Rex and the Young Americans

“The Groover”
If, as the song says, music can save your soul, then the Glam Rock of early 70s London definitely saved mine.  This footage was shot May 3, 1973 just as Robbie and I and our wild expat friends were stepping out and away all over London while our parents partied and went crazy.  We were truly becoming Bowie’s “Young Americans” and T-Rex was performing a great deal of our soundtrack.
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Posted by Wendy Lawless  70s London, Americans Abroad, ASL, Chanel Bonfire, David Bowie, Robin Lawless, T-Rex, Wendy Lawless, Wendy Rea, Young Americans