An Eye on Toni Elegance
Who or What is Toni Breland?
Toni Breland is a concept created by Janet Walker and is best personified, the author believes, in the photo she selected as her website's logo.
Toni is a symbol of the high fashion that was dominant during the 1950s. This decade (along with the latter part of the 1940s and early part of the 1960s) is noted for its striking international haute couture images and overtly feminine fashions.
These decades also promoted the version of ladyhood (Toni's First Lady look) seen in the wardrobes of such prominent women as Coretta Scott King, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, and 1950s supermodel Suzy Parker.
The Toni philosophy supports the belief that, contrary to the thinking of too many designers today, a woman's sex appeal often finds best expression when she is artfully draped rather than when she is overly exposed.
Slide the bar and enjoy Toni style!
British actress Carmen Ejogo with a Toni-esque retro look that is, our author says, "very Grace Gresham."
(Photo: Caitlin Cronenberg, 2015/VOGUE magazine, 2016.)
Hat, Legroux Soeurs. Vogue, ca. 1952. (Norman Parkinson)
American supermodel Suzy Parker.
A coquette's conquest. (Henry Clarke)
Traffic. 1957. (Norman Parkinson)
Welcome to my world, dahling! (Henry Clarke)
Suzy Parker, Givenchy, 1952. (Henry Clarke)
Model: Simone. Designer: Venet. American Harper's Bazaar, 1963. (Melvin Sokolsky)
Bouvier. Sporting Toni's First Lady look. (Mark Shaw)
Actress Leslie Uggams, a 1960s Toni Girl in an updo.
Fur Elegance.
Fabulous approach at the Eiffel.
Model: Patricia. Jacque Fath, mid-1950s. (Walde Huth)
1955 Academy Award nominee Dorothy Dandridge.
A swingin' swing coat!
Quintessential Toni. LIFE Magazine, 1950. (Gordon Parks)