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Ben de Lisi & Gerardo Vidaurre
May. 31st, 2015 11:50 am
Ben de Lisi (born May 31) is an American born fashion designer based in London. He is best known for his collections with high street store Debenhams, and as a mentor and judge on the television series Project Catwalk. He has also appeared on UK television show Come Dine With Me.In 2009 he revealed his long-term relationship with his partner, Gerardo Vidaurre, had ended 18 months earlier. "I became single but not by choice, which was heartbreaking. I put my life on hold for two years waiting for him to come home." Unable to process the grief — "It hit me at a bad time and I just couldn't breathe" — he found it hard to get out of bed. His elderly parents — "the most important people in my life" — flew over from America for a month to look after him. "They just got me back on track and I started to put my ducks in a row."
He decided he could expand his interior design business, which he started a decade ago, and focus on his "BDL by Ben de Lisi" collection for Debenhams. "After 30 years of nurturing this brand — this child — it was time it went out and took care of Daddy for a change. When you're so close to something, you just don't realise how valuable a brand is. Because you're just dealing with the crap that's on hand, and the banks. You never realise what you can do when you put everything into perspective. I began to think: who's going to take care of me? I don't have a wife or a husband who's going to watch over me. I wanted the brand to pay me back." He also wanted to work from home — a ultra-stylish but modest terrace cottage built in 1862 on the river by Battersea Bridge he shares with his three French bulldogs, Luca, Noah and Tea. 
Ben de Lisi with his three French bulldogs, Luca, Noah and Tea
Ben de Lisi is an American born fashion designer based in London. He is best known for his collections with high street store Debenhams. In 2009 he revealed his long-term relationship with his partner, Gerardo Vidaurre, had ended 18 months earlier. "I became single not by choice, which was heartbreaking. I put my life on hold for two years waiting for him to come home." Today he and Gerardo are seeing each other again but he's learned how important it is to be more independent in relationships.
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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_de_Lisi
( Further Readings )
More Fashion Designers at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Art
More LGBT Couples at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Real Life Romance
Ngô Xuân Diệu (February 2, 1916 – December 18, 1985) more commonly known by the pen name Xuân Diệu, was a prominent Vietnamese poet. A colossal figure in modern Vietnamese literature, he wrote about 450 poems (largely in posthumous manuscripts) especially love poems, several short stories, and many notes, essays, and literary criticisms. (P: Xuan Dieu (©2))
In 1943, he joined the Viet Minh and became one of the leading poets writing to promote resistance against the French.
Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time by Elisa Rolle
Browsing for the lives of known artists and writers (Christopher Isherwood, George Platt-Lynes, Paul Cadmus…), I started to always find the same names for those models who were the above artists favourites. I started to wonder, who were these men? How was their life? Most of the time they were themselves artists, not famous enough to even have money for a meal, they shared their lives (and bodies) with artists (and not only on the canvas). Some of them had wealthy patrons, some of them even inherited money or real estate properties from those wealthy patrons, and some of them loved each other in poverty. 
Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time by Elisa Rolle
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