Above, an elegant trio at work: Jazz composer Duke Ellington sits with Billie Holiday and pianist and music critic Leonard Feather in this 1945 photo. Holiday starred in a short film with Ellington in 1935 and toured Europe with Feather in 1954.

ELEMENTS OF STYLE contd.
…archival imagery in “Elements of Style,” then reading an interview with a stylish contemporary excites and cements the sartorial linkage and sympathy between the ongoing narratives. Both departments serve to inform, paying homage to stylish predecessors and pointing to historical sources of design: they inspire dialogue between now and then and acknowledge influence.