“Elegance is elimination.”–Balenciaga

Ngaio Marsh by Henry Herbert Clifford (1935).

This 85-year-old photograph of New Zealand writer Ngaio Marsh proves that elegance, coziness, and individuality can be as stylish as anything out of the pages of a 21st-century fashion magazine.

Embellishments are minimal: an eccentric shoulder, a few buttons, an indifferently tilted hat, a bit of pattern and texture here or there. 

Clean lines. Confidence. 

She is, more than anything, mysterious.

How appropriate.