Irina Belotelkin
Encyclopedia
Irina Roudakoff Belotelkin (January 1, 1913 – January 21, 2009) was an American artist
and fashion
designer
.
(alternatively: Yelisavetgrad, now Kirovohrad
or Kirovograd) to the Russian
noblesse ancienne as recorded in the imperial registers of Tver
. A morganatic descendant of Catherine the Great
, she was a student at the Mariinsky Noble Ladies' Institute
, Novocherkassk
, Russia (former capital of the Don Cossacks
). She was orphaned at the time of the Russian Civil War
after her father, General Paul Roudakoff, was fatally wounded in battle; 5 days later her mother died of typhus.
Her surviving brother, Paul Roudakoff
, was at school in the elite Corps des Pages, and was evacuated to the banks of the Nile
in Egypt
with the entire Corps by their patron, King George V
of England
who took responsibility for the school after the assassination of his cousins. (King George V was a first cousin to both Czar Nicholas II
, and his Empress, Czarina Alexandra.)
Still unaware of her parents' death, and after witnessing her two sisters' deaths from starvation, the young Irina, then 8 years old, made her way over 1,000 kilometers, alone and through many privations (which forever shaped her core character), to Moscow
and the Estonian embassy there, with whom her Estonian uncle Volodya Blonsky had made arrangements.
After a year in Moscow, and appeals to the Estonian consul, Irina was aided in a dramatic escape from the Soviet Union
, to her aunt Anna Blonsky Lassburg (1882–1940) and her husband Doctor Genrick Lassburg in Tallinn, Estonia
. Eventually, after in 1929, traveling through Ellis Island
and admitted as a student, of voice studies, she joined her brother who—having been located in Egypt by the efforts of the International Red Cross—had settled, in 1923, in the United States
. She was reunited with her Aunt Lucy (Olga) and Grandmother Natalia Blonsky (who had arrived earlier, in 1909, to New York from Constantinople
(now Istanbul
)).
in 1931.
Her status as a visiting student was threatened when a spurned suitor reported her for working as an artist. She was returned to Ellis Island. Through the intercession of, and personal interview with, Fannie Perkins
(then New York State's industrial commissioner and soon to become the first woman to serve as Secretary of Labor) Irina won a reprieve. Later, in a ceremony conducted by Chief Justice Hughes
, she became a naturalized citizen. She studied voice, drama and opera. She finished fashion design school in New York City. She served one season as social director at the Sagamore Hotel
, where one day her fast action saved the life of the senior Bechtel, Warren A. Bechtel
, cementing a life-long friendship with the family.
She was an avid, and ultimately champion, fencer
. In one match, January 7, 1934, reported in the New York Times in which her brother, Paul Roudakoff
, also competed, the New York Times reports: The Hartford Fencers Club women's team upset New York University
's intercollegiate championship women's fencing unit, 10 to 6. Miss Irene (sic) Roudakoff, Hartford, in foils, defeated Miss Seiden, 5-4, Miss Suskin, 5-4, and Miss Mildred Atlas (substitute for Miss Hurwitz), 5-2. She lost to NYU's Miss Harriett Graver, 5-4.
Later she was awarded first prize, in foils, at the 1937 N.E. Women's Championship.
She gave fencing lessons to Amelia Earhart
, who offered to give Irina flying lessons in return.
At one point engaged to Katharine Hepburn
's brother (Irina gave Russian lessons to their mother), ultimately, on September 17, 1942, Irina married Konstantine Belotelkin (May 18, 1905 – July 7, 1996), a classmate of her brother's from the Corps des Pages, a graduate of Yale
(MS Forestry '35), and a fellow member of the Russian Ancien Régime. They lived in Hartford, Connecticut and New York City, before settling in San Francisco, California
.
Irina was a masterful hostess, a discipline developed through years of dedicated practice. Here is an early example (May 5, 1943, New York Times) of what became her typical pattern of combining high-entertainment and worthy causes:
Among Irina's devotions were ballet
and opera
. She often entertained friends Rudolf Nureyev
, Mikhail Baryshnikov
, and Sergei Leiferkus
when they were in town. Natalia Makarova
and Yuri Possokhov were often guests at Irina's Russian Christmas and Easter parties. She was a major contributor to the San Francisco Opera
, maintaining a box during the season for many years.
In later years her Easter party preparations and recipes were featured in several magazines. The March 1978 issue of Sphere
ran a multi-page article entitled A Russian Feast. Irina is pictured, with the caption:
She was greatly cultured, well-read, and a doyen
ne of the old school, and more than anything, was a wonderful conversationalist with amazing stories and historical vignettes to share.
She lived with her husband in San Francisco, California
. They were devoted to their dogs, Samoyeds, Dushenka and Dushenka Deux. She died at home on January 21, 2009, at the age of 96.
Following fashion design school in New York City
, and her move to San Francisco Irina opened, in 1945, her first studio-salon, as a millinery
designer: EraBelle Hat Shop. For her shop's logo she used her fencing mask and a pair of foils.
She created 118 headdresses for the Headdress Ball at the San Francisco Museum of Art. Her hats were recognized in San Francisco (where they were frequently remarked by Herb Caen
) and beyond. She also created a special collection of miniature hats.
She later shifted to American haute couture
. She became San Francisco's most notable couturier
, designing gowns, outfits, and coats under the label Irina Roublon, with her own maison at San Francisco's Union Square.
Among other accomplishments, in 1953 she was invited to Milan
, and designed the costumes for the La Scala
production of Puccini
's opera La Fanciulla del West
.
Her 1955 Holiday Collection show at her Stockton studio featured 43 selections, one executed by Gellenghi, Florence, Italy. She later moved the atelier to 260 Sutter St.
She dressed many of the city's grande dames, including Ann Getty Light, Katherine Trefethen, Barbara Morgan Eisele, Kathryn Crosby
, Maud Hill Schroll, Princess Natasha Romanoff, etc. Herb Caen
often referred to her as Chanel
of the West Coast.
The August 20, 1961, Saturday Evening Post describes her decade-long effort, as part of the San Francisco chapter
of Fashion Group International (FGI), with Jane Winthrop, in the San Francisco Mental Health Fashion Therapy Program which aimed to give fashion therapy to the mentally ill. These activities involved the patients in both staging and presenting fashion, and in showing them how to dress fashionably. The doctors commented on the improvement of their patients. Irina introduced, in 1961, the blue print of Fashion Therapy to the Paris Fashion Group.
In 1963 Irina was the Advisor for Fashion Lift, a tour of US Fashion Industry of European Couturiers.
Among the rare quality images are those by renowned photographer David Lees (1918–2004), of Irina and Irina Roublon gowns and outfits in Florence, Italy, in the years 1951–1955.
In 1965 she undertook private study with two prominent Russian painters, including Serge Ivanoff
; she executed a portrait of her two masters. She cherished her portrait as executed by Serge Ivanoff.
Among her most accomplished pieces are those of iris and the large white Matilija poppy
, which she grew and attended in her own garden.
One rare instance of foregoing her famed Easter parties was 1988 when she was preparing for her April 30, 1988, show at Mae Woo's William Gallery in St. Helena.
She painted portraits of several prominent San Franciscans. One portrait, a charcoal, of a young Gordon Getty
, who'd frequented her studio as a young lad, remained in her personal collection for 3 decades. She presented it to Gordon at his 2005 birthday celebration.
She continued her artistic endeavors, including a foray into sculpture, until she lost her facility to a crippling mastectomy
.
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
and fashion
Fashion
Fashion, a general term for a currently popular style or practice, especially in clothing, foot wear, or accessories. Fashion references to anything that is the current trend in look and dress up of a person...
designer
Designer
A designer is a person who designs. More formally, a designer is an agent that "specifies the structural properties of a design object". In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, such as consumer products, processes, laws, games and graphics, is referred to as a...
.
Early years
Irina Belotelkin, nee Roudakoff, was born in Elisavetgrad, UkraineUkraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
(alternatively: Yelisavetgrad, now Kirovohrad
Kirovohrad
Kirovohrad , formerly Yelisavetgrad, is a city in central Ukraine. It is located on the Inhul River. It is a motorway junction. Pop. 239,400 ....
or Kirovograd) to the Russian
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
noblesse ancienne as recorded in the imperial registers of Tver
Tver
Tver is a city and the administrative center of Tver Oblast, Russia. Population: 403,726 ; 408,903 ;...
. A morganatic descendant of Catherine the Great
Catherine II of Russia
Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great , Empress of Russia, was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia on as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg...
, she was a student at the Mariinsky Noble Ladies' Institute
, Novocherkassk
Novocherkassk
Novocherkassk is a city in Rostov Oblast, Russia, located on the right bank of the Tuzlov River and on the Aksay River. Population: 169,039 ; 170,822 ; 178,000 ; 123,000 ; 81,000 ; 52,000 ....
, Russia (former capital of the Don Cossacks
Don Cossacks
Don Cossacks were Cossacks who settled along the middle and lower Don.- Etymology and origins :The Don Cossack Host was a frontier military organization from the end of the 16th until the early 20th century....
). She was orphaned at the time of the Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
after her father, General Paul Roudakoff, was fatally wounded in battle; 5 days later her mother died of typhus.
Her surviving brother, Paul Roudakoff
Paul Roudakoff
Paul P. Roudakoff was a Lt. Colonel in the U.S. Army, serving in 1945 through 1948 as Executive Officer and Deputy Chief, and later as Chief, of the Liaison and Protocol section at OMGUS in Berlin, Germany...
, was at school in the elite Corps des Pages, and was evacuated to the banks of the Nile
Nile
The Nile is a major north-flowing river in North Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world. It is long. It runs through the ten countries of Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Egypt.The Nile has two major...
in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
with the entire Corps by their patron, King George V
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
of England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
who took responsibility for the school after the assassination of his cousins. (King George V was a first cousin to both Czar Nicholas II
Nicholas II of Russia
Nicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Prince of Finland, and titular King of Poland. His official short title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias and he is known as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.Nicholas II ruled from 1894 until...
, and his Empress, Czarina Alexandra.)
Still unaware of her parents' death, and after witnessing her two sisters' deaths from starvation, the young Irina, then 8 years old, made her way over 1,000 kilometers, alone and through many privations (which forever shaped her core character), to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
and the Estonian embassy there, with whom her Estonian uncle Volodya Blonsky had made arrangements.
After a year in Moscow, and appeals to the Estonian consul, Irina was aided in a dramatic escape from the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, to her aunt Anna Blonsky Lassburg (1882–1940) and her husband Doctor Genrick Lassburg in Tallinn, Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
. Eventually, after in 1929, traveling through Ellis Island
Ellis Island
Ellis Island in New York Harbor was the gateway for millions of immigrants to the United States. It was the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 until 1954. The island was greatly expanded with landfill between 1892 and 1934. Before that, the much smaller original island was the...
and admitted as a student, of voice studies, she joined her brother who—having been located in Egypt by the efforts of the International Red Cross—had settled, in 1923, in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. She was reunited with her Aunt Lucy (Olga) and Grandmother Natalia Blonsky (who had arrived earlier, in 1909, to New York from Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
(now Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
)).
Young lady
Irina (her early transcription was Irene) lived with her brother in Hartford, Connecticut, attending post-graduate programs at Hartford Public High SchoolHartford Public High School
Hartford Public High School was founded in 1638. It is the second-oldest public secondary school in the United States , second to the Boston Latin School. It is a part of the Hartford Public Schools district.-History:...
in 1931.
Her status as a visiting student was threatened when a spurned suitor reported her for working as an artist. She was returned to Ellis Island. Through the intercession of, and personal interview with, Fannie Perkins
Frances Perkins
Frances Perkins , born Fannie Coralie Perkins, was the U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945, and the first woman appointed to the U.S. Cabinet. As a loyal supporter of her friend, Franklin D. Roosevelt, she helped pull the labor movement into the New Deal coalition...
(then New York State's industrial commissioner and soon to become the first woman to serve as Secretary of Labor) Irina won a reprieve. Later, in a ceremony conducted by Chief Justice Hughes
Charles Evans Hughes
Charles Evans Hughes, Sr. was an American statesman, lawyer and Republican politician from New York. He served as the 36th Governor of New York , Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States , United States Secretary of State , a judge on the Court of International Justice , and...
, she became a naturalized citizen. She studied voice, drama and opera. She finished fashion design school in New York City. She served one season as social director at the Sagamore Hotel
The Sagamore
The Sagamore is a Victorian era resort hotel located on Lake George in Bolton Landing, New York. The name Sagamore is taken from the title for the chief of a Native American tribe. The Sagamore of the Mohicans was a featured character in James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans, many...
, where one day her fast action saved the life of the senior Bechtel, Warren A. Bechtel
Warren A. Bechtel
Warren A. Bechtel was the founder of the Bechtel Corporation, one of the world's largest engineering and construction services firms.-Early life:...
, cementing a life-long friendship with the family.
She was an avid, and ultimately champion, fencer
Fencing
Fencing, which is also known as modern fencing to distinguish it from historical fencing, is a family of combat sports using bladed weapons.Fencing is one of four sports which have been featured at every one of the modern Olympic Games...
. In one match, January 7, 1934, reported in the New York Times in which her brother, Paul Roudakoff
Paul Roudakoff
Paul P. Roudakoff was a Lt. Colonel in the U.S. Army, serving in 1945 through 1948 as Executive Officer and Deputy Chief, and later as Chief, of the Liaison and Protocol section at OMGUS in Berlin, Germany...
, also competed, the New York Times reports: The Hartford Fencers Club women's team upset New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
's intercollegiate championship women's fencing unit, 10 to 6. Miss Irene (sic) Roudakoff, Hartford, in foils, defeated Miss Seiden, 5-4, Miss Suskin, 5-4, and Miss Mildred Atlas (substitute for Miss Hurwitz), 5-2. She lost to NYU's Miss Harriett Graver, 5-4.
Later she was awarded first prize, in foils, at the 1937 N.E. Women's Championship.
She gave fencing lessons to Amelia Earhart
Amelia Earhart
Amelia Mary Earhart was a noted American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart was the first woman to receive the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded for becoming the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean...
, who offered to give Irina flying lessons in return.
At one point engaged to Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...
's brother (Irina gave Russian lessons to their mother), ultimately, on September 17, 1942, Irina married Konstantine Belotelkin (May 18, 1905 – July 7, 1996), a classmate of her brother's from the Corps des Pages, a graduate of Yale
YALE
RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
(MS Forestry '35), and a fellow member of the Russian Ancien Régime. They lived in Hartford, Connecticut and New York City, before settling in San Francisco, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
.
Irina was a masterful hostess, a discipline developed through years of dedicated practice. Here is an early example (May 5, 1943, New York Times) of what became her typical pattern of combining high-entertainment and worthy causes:
San Francisco
Irina and Kostya came to San Francisco during the Second World War, where Kostya, an engineer, was involved in the building of Liberty ships. Later, Kostya's engineering firm executed several high-profile projects. Irina's fashion design and art careers also flourished.Among Irina's devotions were ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
and opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
. She often entertained friends Rudolf Nureyev
Rudolf Nureyev
Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev was a Russian dancer, considered one of the most celebrated ballet dancers of the 20th century. Nureyev's artistic skills explored expressive areas of the dance, providing a new role to the male ballet dancer who once served only as support to the women.In 1961 he...
, Mikhail Baryshnikov
Mikhail Baryshnikov
Mikhail Nikolaevich Baryshnikov is a Soviet and American dancer, choreographer, and actor, often cited alongside Vaslav Nijinsky and Rudolf Nureyev as one of the greatest ballet dancers of the 20th century. After a promising start in the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, he defected to Canada in 1974...
, and Sergei Leiferkus
Sergei Leiferkus
Sergei Leiferkus is an operatic baritone from Russia, known for his dramatic technique and powerful voice particularly in Russian and Italian language repertoire. He is most notable for his roles as Scarpia in Tosca, Iago in Otello, Grand-prétre de Dagon in Samson et Dalila and Simon Boccanegra...
when they were in town. Natalia Makarova
Natalia Makarova
Nataliya Romanovna Makarova is the legendary Soviet-Russian-born prima ballerina. The History of Dance, published in 1981, notes that “Her performances set standards of artistry and aristocracy of dance which mark her as the finest ballerina of her generation.” She has also won awards as an...
and Yuri Possokhov were often guests at Irina's Russian Christmas and Easter parties. She was a major contributor to the San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera is an American opera company, based in San Francisco, California.It was founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola and is the second largest opera company in North America...
, maintaining a box during the season for many years.
In later years her Easter party preparations and recipes were featured in several magazines. The March 1978 issue of Sphere
ran a multi-page article entitled A Russian Feast. Irina is pictured, with the caption:
She was greatly cultured, well-read, and a doyen
Doyen
Doyen is a surname. The word doyen is derived from the French term for dean, e.g. Dean and Dean ....
ne of the old school, and more than anything, was a wonderful conversationalist with amazing stories and historical vignettes to share.
She lived with her husband in San Francisco, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. They were devoted to their dogs, Samoyeds, Dushenka and Dushenka Deux. She died at home on January 21, 2009, at the age of 96.
Fashion design
Irina excelled in several design fields.Following fashion design school in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, and her move to San Francisco Irina opened, in 1945, her first studio-salon, as a millinery
Hat
A hat is a head covering. It can be worn for protection against the elements, for ceremonial or religious reasons, for safety, or as a fashion accessory. In the past, hats were an indicator of social status...
designer: EraBelle Hat Shop. For her shop's logo she used her fencing mask and a pair of foils.
Herb Caen
Herbert Eugene Caen was a Pulitzer Prize-winning San Francisco journalistwhose daily column of local goings-on, social and political happenings,...
) and beyond. She also created a special collection of miniature hats.
She later shifted to American haute couture
Haute couture
Haute couture refers to the creation of exclusive custom-fitted clothing. Haute couture is made to order for a specific customer, and it is usually made from high-quality, expensive fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finished by the most experienced and capable seamstresses,...
. She became San Francisco's most notable couturier
Couturier
A couturier is an establishment or person involved in the clothing fashion industry who makes original garments to order for private clients. A couturier may make what is known as haute couture. Such a person usually hires patternmakers and machinists for garment production, and is either employed...
, designing gowns, outfits, and coats under the label Irina Roublon, with her own maison at San Francisco's Union Square.
Among other accomplishments, in 1953 she was invited to Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, and designed the costumes for the La Scala
La Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
production of Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
's opera La Fanciulla del West
La fanciulla del West
La fanciulla del West is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Guelfo Civinini and Carlo Zangarini, based on the play The Girl of the Golden West by the American author David Belasco. Its highly-publicised premiere occurred in New York City in 1910...
.
Her 1955 Holiday Collection show at her Stockton studio featured 43 selections, one executed by Gellenghi, Florence, Italy. She later moved the atelier to 260 Sutter St.
She dressed many of the city's grande dames, including Ann Getty Light, Katherine Trefethen, Barbara Morgan Eisele, Kathryn Crosby
Kathryn Crosby
Kathryn Crosby is an American actress and singer who also performed under the stage-name Kathryn Grant.-Early life and career:...
, Maud Hill Schroll, Princess Natasha Romanoff, etc. Herb Caen
Herb Caen
Herbert Eugene Caen was a Pulitzer Prize-winning San Francisco journalistwhose daily column of local goings-on, social and political happenings,...
often referred to her as Chanel
Chanel
Chanel S.A. is a French fashion house founded by the couturier Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, well established in haute couture, specializing in luxury goods . She gained the name "Coco" while maintaining a career as a singer at a café in France...
of the West Coast.
The August 20, 1961, Saturday Evening Post describes her decade-long effort, as part of the San Francisco chapter
of Fashion Group International (FGI), with Jane Winthrop, in the San Francisco Mental Health Fashion Therapy Program which aimed to give fashion therapy to the mentally ill. These activities involved the patients in both staging and presenting fashion, and in showing them how to dress fashionably. The doctors commented on the improvement of their patients. Irina introduced, in 1961, the blue print of Fashion Therapy to the Paris Fashion Group.
In 1963 Irina was the Advisor for Fashion Lift, a tour of US Fashion Industry of European Couturiers.
Among the rare quality images are those by renowned photographer David Lees (1918–2004), of Irina and Irina Roublon gowns and outfits in Florence, Italy, in the years 1951–1955.
Artist
From the early 1960s through the late 1980s, Irina studied and prolifically created still life and portrait paintings in oil and water color, excelling in flower compositions. She held studio and feature exhibitions; she competed and won prizes. Her work is in holdings throughout the SFBay area.In 1965 she undertook private study with two prominent Russian painters, including Serge Ivanoff
Serge Ivanoff
Serge Petrovitch Ivanoff is a Russian painter.- Biography :The son of a family of Moscovite merchants, Serge Ivanoff was artistic from a young age. On his parents' move to St. Petersburg he took the opportunity for further studies, and contact with Europe...
; she executed a portrait of her two masters. She cherished her portrait as executed by Serge Ivanoff.
Among her most accomplished pieces are those of iris and the large white Matilija poppy
Matilija poppy
Romneya is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the poppy family . There are two species in genus Romneya, which was named for Irish astronomer John Thomas Romney Robinson. They are known commonly as Matilija poppies or tree poppies and are native to southern California and northern...
, which she grew and attended in her own garden.
One rare instance of foregoing her famed Easter parties was 1988 when she was preparing for her April 30, 1988, show at Mae Woo's William Gallery in St. Helena.
She painted portraits of several prominent San Franciscans. One portrait, a charcoal, of a young Gordon Getty
Gordon Getty
Gordon Peter Getty was born on December 20, 1934. He is the fourth child of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty. His mother, Ann Rork, was his father's third wife. When his father died in 1976, Gordon assumed control of Getty's US$2 billion trust...
, who'd frequented her studio as a young lad, remained in her personal collection for 3 decades. She presented it to Gordon at his 2005 birthday celebration.
She continued her artistic endeavors, including a foray into sculpture, until she lost her facility to a crippling mastectomy
Mastectomy
Mastectomy is the medical term for the surgical removal of one or both breasts, partially or completely. Mastectomy is usually done to treat breast cancer; in some cases, women and some men believed to be at high risk of breast cancer have the operation prophylactically, that is, to prevent cancer...
.
Cultural references
- "Isn't it fabulous? Valery is a genius," said our official Russian aristo, Irina Belotelkin, who didn't need to read the supertitles. Valery, of course, is GergievValery GergievValery Abisalovich Gergiev is a Russian conductor and opera company director. He is general director and artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, and artistic director of the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg.- Early life :Gergiev,...
, Kirov artistic director and maestro. - The "A" List. Irina Belotelkin.
Memorable anecdotes
- When Dior saw one of her coat designs, he asked her, slyly, if she would 'forget' her coat for a few hours.
- When her work was displayed in a downtown San Francisco department store display windowDisplay windowA display window is a window in a shop displaying items for sale or otherwise designed to attract customers to the store. Usually, the term refers to larger windows in the front façade of the shop...
, the caption was DiorChristian Dior SAChristian Dior S.A. is a French company which owns the high-fashion clothing producer and retailer Christian Dior Couture, as well as holding 42% of LVMH Moët Hennessy • Louis Vuitton, the world's largest luxury goods firm. Both Dior and LVMH are controlled and chaired by businessman Bernard...
or Roublon? The display had works by both designers. Customers overwhelmingly selected her designs over his.