Fashion Inspiration: Summer to Autumn…

Alexandra Spencer by Sybil Steele for Spell Designs February/March 2016.

 

 

 

Picture found here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scanned by Miss Peelpants from Petticoat, February 1971

 

 

*

Fashion Inspiration: Early 1990s – Velvet Dresses, Dark Colours, Hippie Revival

Majority of pictures found here.

Fashion Inspiration for Autumn 2020 II

Awhile ago I made a post about my fashion inspiration for autumn and well, I found many more pretty pictures that I thought I’d share and here we are!

Pictures above are by Petra Collins.

Tavi Gevinson.

Picture by Laura Makabresku

Two pictures above by Natalia Drepina

1970s Fashion: Real romantics let longdresses set the mood

Some fun 1970s fashions, mostly from the first half of the decade, which I enjoyed looking at recently. And also the amusing descriptions from the original magazines!

October 1973. ‘Real romantics let longdresses set the mood.’

May 1973. ‘The good time begins when you step through the doorway and hear the beat of the band.’

August 1973. ‘He calls and says, “Let’s see a flick.” You say, “Fantastic,” then wonder what to wear.’

March 1977. ‘The soft prom look.’

March 1970. Skinny Bones by Thermo-Jac

April 1973. ‘The outfits that give you the best mileage, even when you’re not on the road, are the ones that mix well with each other…’

June 1973. ’…Splashy summer mixers, sunny little dresses, accessories you punch up in your own clever way…’

April 1973. ‘Here, sister-models Cindy and Lorraine try out long dresses. The kind that can stay home now, go to summer parties later.’

July 1972. ‘Crisp days call for easy pieces with plenty of options.’

September 1975. ‘How long has it been since you gave your jeans a rest and dressed up in something soft and pretty?’

August 1973. ‘What’s going over big in those good-looking school classics? Coats with neoclassic touches.’

February 1975. ‘The color of lipstock and the shine of gloss in one sheer, creamy lipstick.’

September 1975. ‘Challis charm in print with a streak of solid blue…’

May 1973. ‘How do you tie your prom look together…? You add little things here and there that say a lot about your personal style.’

June 1972. ‘Mix it up in a cling-top dress that goes anywhere.’

December 1970. ‘Natural Wonder by Revlon. For pretty young things.’

May 1970. ‘Puckering hug-tops bloom into ripply skirts and bring spring to full power.’

June 1972. ‘Get around in a puff sleeve T that stops short so your midriff can tan.’

July 1972. ‘Take a long skirt in a clan plaid that wraps to the side.’

December 1970. ‘Fresh. Free. Natural. That’s the feeling you get with Cover Girl.’

August 1973. ‘Getting back into dresses? Try a good two-piece plan…’

May 1973. ‘Summer whites get you into the good times, fast.’

May 1973. ‘Fabulous fashions bright-on for summer’

May 1973. ‘Forget the real world and dance the night away; celebrate, enjoy, tonight is for you!’

March 1970. ‘Wide-eyed slink. Come-on innocence. It’s marvelous to have it both ways with Aziza Smoke-Rings.’

January 1973. ‘Now’s the time to get sewing for spring, to stitch up dresses in just about the prettiest, girl-test prints ever.’

September 1973. ‘The fantasy feeling brings together color, shine and really romantic hair.’

October 1973. ‘For the traditionalist, the heirloom look of a Victorian dress in delicate white-on-white striped satin.’

January 1973. ‘Soft lines, feminine patterns – that’s what gentle dressing is all about.’

January 1973. ‘Inside Clairol’s beautiful new creme rinse is the breathtaking fresh essence of mysterious green herbs and enchanted flowers.’

January 1970. ‘Softly, prettily projected…’

November 1977. ‘Bold, gilded accessories add a glamourous touch t a very special evening.’

All the pics found here.

Egon Schiele’s Heroin Chic Look – Lipgloss and Cigarettes

The distinctive trashy glamour of Egon Schiele’s nudes is unsettling and alluring at the same time, provocative and eye-catching. His drawings and watercolours of skinny, fragile, starved nymphets who look like they live on lipgloss and cigarettes, made from 1910 to about 1914/15, before the war and before his marriage, encapsulate the heroin chic aesthetic decades before was defined and popularised by models such as Kate Moss. Things that connect these drawings and watercolours are the same mood and aesthetic and the same reaction from the public. Schiele’s portrayal of female form was shocking to the early twentieth century Vienna, and photographs of Kate Moss’s skinny body received the same reaction.

Kate Moss by Corinne Day

In the beginning of this year I watched a new documentary about Egon Schiele called “Egon Schiele: Dangerous Desires (2018)” made to commemorate the 100th anniversary of his death. It which was super cool and I loved it to death, it was hard not to like it: the soundtrack was rock music and the first lines were spoken by Iggy Pop, who clearly appreciates Egon Schiele’s art. One woman says something really interesting in the first two minutes: “If someone were to show you a Schiele watercolour and ask you: ‘when do you think this was done’, I think the answer would be: yesterday.” I partly agree; as a nostalgic person who romanticises the past, I would never believe that something as great could have been painted yesterday, but I agree in that his drawings, great majority of his art, appears not modern but timeless.

I can’t really say “modern” because Schiele wouldn’t agree. In one of his watercolours from prison he wrote: “Kunst kann nicht modern sein; Kunst ist urewig.” or “Art can not be modern, art is primordially eternal.” I don’t think this can be said about all art, but Schiele truly succeeded in creating art that is eternal. When you look at it now, it doesn’t seem out of place, kitschy, or strange, on the contrary, those colours and lines on papers that he held in his hand sometime in 1912 still have so much to say – or scream. And Schiele’s art goes so well with modern music as well, rock music particularly; in his self-portraits of the tormented artist staring right at us from the canvas, you can imagine a streetwise yet vulnerable heroin addict from the song “I’m waiting for the man” by The Velvet Underground, or the raw and trashy sound of The Stooges’s “Raw Power” or the sleek sound of urban alienation from David Bowie’s Berlin-era albums.

Egon Schiele, Nude against coloured background, 1911

I like Schiele’s paintings, and I also enjoy looking at pictures of Kate Moss, particularly those from the 1990s, it’s just an aesthetic thing, I don’t care for her personality or her life choices, although her love life is interesting. I look at a picture only to get a shot of beauty in my veins and possibly a seed to inspire my future reveries. I am certain that Kate Moss would be a perfect model for Schiele. His ideal was a thin, fragile, bony body with that elegantly wasted look; protruding spine and collar bones, under eye circles, ribs peeking under thin layer of skin, strange complexion with patches of unnatural colour…. The heroin chic look that Schiele clearly painted decades before, has become synonymous with Kate Moss whose appearance at the beginning of her career was in stark difference to the perfect and unattainable looks of the supermodels of the previous decade. Calvin Klein spoke in her defense back in the day: “For them, what is real is beautiful—looking plain is beautiful. What is less than perfect is sexy.” Schiele liked strangeness and imperfections and never resorted to idealization.

Kate Moss by Bettina Rheims, 1989

Egon Schiele, Girl with black hair, 1910

Schiele’s models were often girls from the streets, pretty prepubescent street urchins hungry for attention and amusement. He was young and poor and probably couldn’t even afford a proper model, and why would he when these little things were around, looked and behaved unpretentiously and were a good thing to draw. In his book about Egon Schiele, F. Whitford wrote: “Physically immature, thin, wide-eyed, full-mouthed, innocent and lascivious at the same time, these Lolitas from the proletarian districts of Vienna arouse the kind of thoughts best not admitted before a judge and jury.” The same words could be used to described the teenage Kate Moss; thin, wide-eyed, with full lips and gorgeous high cheek bones, on the pictures taken by Corinne Day for The Face magazine in 1990 she looks innocent and vulnerable, a bit shy, hiding herself behind a straw hat. In 1990 this working class nymphet from Croydon, a drab suburb of London, had already left school, and despite being a rich and famous model today, back then the prospects were bleak and she was in a similar position as the street urchins who posed for Schiele. Her beauty wasn’t yet recognised, but she did attract the attention of some designers very early on such as John Galliano who chose her for his spring/summer collection 1990 and saw her as his “Lolita”; the half-child and half-woman appeal made her stand out.

Kate Moss for Calvin Klein

Kate Moss by Corinne Day, 1993

Egon Schiele, Sitting girl with ponytail (Sitzendes Mädchen mit Pferdeschwanz), 1910

Schiele’s drawings were outrageous and provocative in his day and age just as they are now still. Viennese public had perhaps grown accustomed to Klimt’s nudes, but the vision of the female form that Schiele had presented was a tad too much. Likewise, pictures of Kate shot in the early nineties by a young and ambitious autodidact photographer Corinne Day were considered equally outrageous and accused of perplexing ideas that neither Kate nor Corinne had dreamt of; in the pictures she looked skinny and childlike, but her clothes and poses weren’t childlike at all, mingling sexuality with innocence. Kate Moss’s appearance represented the nihilistic spirit of the decade and a culture that believe in nothing. Hippies had hope, acid and belief in a better world, punks had their anger and outrageous clothes, and nineties seemingly had nothing, to quote Manic Street Preachers: “I know I believe in nothing, but it’s my nothing”.

Pictures above by Corinne Day for The Face magazine, July 1990

Over the ocean, grunge bands expressed their dissatisfaction and in Manchester the youth tuned out in the reviving sounds of psychedelia of bands such as The Stone Roses, The Charlatans and The Happy Mondays. Kate’s “elegantly waisted” look was perfect for Corinne Day’s aims in photography, for her love of realism. A new philosophy required a new look, and strong, over the top and glamorous models of the 1980s were passé. Just like Egon Schiele in his nudes and self-portraits, Corinne Day’s photographs penetrate to the bare essence and expose the truth, and what lies within. Schiele freed the women from Klimt’s suffocating gold and poisonous flowers, and focused on the psychology of their faces. In a similar way, Day freed the model from the excessiveness of shoulder pads and too much blush. Calvin Klein said “For me, Kate’s body represented closing the door on the excessiveness of the ’80s”.

Here is an expert from Maureen Callahan’s book “Champagne Supernovas“: “The culture at large didn’t see Kate that way. Up against the skyscraper supermodels of the ’80s, their very perfection a comment on American supremacy, a small-boned, flat-chested model like Kate Moss was heresy. Someone her size hadn’t been seen since Twiggy in the ’60s; suddenly, Kate and Calvin Klein were accused of promoting anorexia, heroin use, child pornography, and the downfall of Western civilization. She was on the sides of buses, kiosks, and pay phones, naked and draped across a velvet sofa in a ramshackle room, “FEED ME” often scrawled across the ad by protesters.”

Under Exposure, Kate Moss by Corinne Day for Vogue UK, June 1993

Here is another interesting passage from Callahan’s book “Champagne Supernovas” about Corinne Day’s photo shoot with Kate Moss: “When British Vogue commissioned Corinne for a lingerie shoot with Kate, Corinne insisted on creative control. She shot in Kate’s London apartment and staged it to look like her own flat: modest and cold, with white walls and gray carpet, exposed wiring, a mattress on the floor. Kate had been crying after a fight with her boyfriend, and Corinne exploited the juxtaposition of distress and seduction, putting Kate in tiny cotton tanks and silk underwear, some of it from a sex shop on Brewer Street. In the finished editorial, Kate, silhouetted by a string of multicolored Christmas lights, looked frail and lost.”

Egon Schiele, Nude With Blue Stockings Bending Forward, 1912

To end, here are some lyrics from the song which inspired me to write this post in the first place: “Lipgloss” by Pulp:

No wonder you’re looking thin,
When all that you live on is lipgloss and cigarettes.
And scraps at the end of the day when he’s given the rest,
To someone with long black hair.
All those nights up making such a mess of the bed.
Oh you never ever want to go home.

Egon Schiele, Sitting Female Nude with Yellow Blanket, 1910

Egon Schiele, Lovemaking, 1915

 

Kate Moss and Johnny Depp by Annie Leibovitz, 1994

Egon Schiele, Lovers – Self-Portrait With Wally, c. 1914-1915, gouache and pencil on paper

Fashion Inspiration: Please – consider me a dream

Awhile ago I found these pretty pictures of dreamy girls wearing unusual almost circus-like make up with a lot of glitter and pink eye-shadows, often dressed in a bit old fashioned white gowns with lace, holding porcelain dolls or bunnies in their arms, or little tea cups, feathers tangled in their silken hair, smiling or just looking wistful. I was instantly captivated with the whole aesthetic so I thought why not share them with you! They all look so utterly dreamy and I thought this quote would suit the mood of the pictures perfectly:

“Please – consider me a dream.”

Note on the quote: “Once while visiting his friend Max Brod, young Kafka awakened Brod’s father, who was asleep on a couch. Instead of apologizing, Kafka gently motioned him to relax, advanced through the room on tiptoe, and said softly: “Please – consider me a dream.”’ from Franz Kafka by Franz Baumer

All pictures found here.

Autumn Fashion Inspiration: Lest I should be old fashioned I’ll put a trinket on…

This autumn I find it so hard to chose between so many different aesthetics to embody; shall I be Poe’s mournful bride with face pale as the moon, dressed in long gowns in white or dusty purple, instead of pearls my neck adorned with invisible kisses; shall I dress as Miss Havisham in a wedding dress, and put on a fragrance of wilted roses and dust, with spiderwebs on my hands instead of lace gloves; or wear my hair in braids with bows and roam the chambers of my castle as a ghost of a Victorian teenage girl, or simply curl my hair and take a porcelain doll instead of a purse and be a child-vampire for all eternity; or a Biba girl dressed in many shades of violet, brown and mauves; or a Pre-Raphaelite muse with flower woven in my hair, my cheeks rosy as ripe apples and lips as pink as rosebuds. Oh, the agony of choice! Is that what Donovan meant when he sang “So many different people to be, that it’s strange, so strange….” in “Season of the Witch”? Anyhow, I instructed my sweet darling bats who reside in the tower of my castle to weave a long veil and a white dress for me, and I kindly asked the butterflies to search the woods and the meadows and make a flower-crown from all the nature’s richness they find; last wild flowers, yellow leaves, rose hips, acorns and birch twigs. Now the only thing left to do is to ask the autumn wind to braid my hair…

A whimsical poem called “Autumn” by Emily Dickinson:

The morns are meeker than they were—
The nuts are getting brown—
The berry’s cheek is plumper—
The Rose is out of town.

The Maple wears a gayer scarf—
The field a scarlet gown—
Lest I should be old fashioned
I’ll put a trinket on.

Picture found here.

Picture found here.

 

Picture found here.

Picture found here.

Fashion Inspiration for Spring 2018

You seem to like these aesthetic post with plenty of pretty pictures, and love them too, so here is my fashion inspiration for this spring! At the moment I really love colours red, magenta, lilac, yellow, pink, white, gingham print, flower crowns, flowers on fabric and flowers in hair, braids with bows, lilac and light blue eyeshadow, big earrings with feathers, Elle Fanning’s style, Brooke Shields’s flimsy white dresses in Pretty Baby (1978), Jane Birkin’s simple and cute style, her white t-shirts, red shoes and straw hats, white blouses with lace, Frida Kahlo’s long skirts and flowers, Romanov sisters with their white gowns and voluminous Edwardian hairstyles, Kirsten Dunst in “Virgin Suicides” with long gowns with floral pattern and wedges. So, I hope my male readers will enjoys the pictures, and the female readers to, perhaps, find some fashion inspiration as well. Enjoy!

Picture found here.

photo found here.

photo found here.

Picture found here.

photo found here.

photo found here.

photo found here.

two photos above found here.

 

two photos above found here.

 

photo found here.

Screenshot from this video.

Edwardian Daydreams of the 1970s – Lace, Pastel Colours, Countryside Idyll

Today we’ll take a look at the Edwardian influence on the fashion of the 1970s and the dreamy world it created where white lace, straw hats, floral prints and pastel colours rule.

Photo by David Hamilton, 1970s

Fashion-wise, the 1970s were an eclectic decade, a trend-driven one, especially compared to the previous ones, like the 1950s which were homogeneous. Fashions ranged from Hollywood-inspired Biba glamour, Glam rock, Yves Saint Lauren’s gypsy exoticism to disco, Studio 54 extravagances, Punk and New wave. There was also one trend that I absolutely adore at the moment – the Edwardian revival which brought a gentle, girly and romantic touch to one’s wardrobe. It is in stark contrast to the bold patterns and bright colours of sixties mini dresses.

I already wrote about the influence of the late Victorian and Edwardian era along with Art Nouveau on sixties psychedelia, both in visual art and in fashion here, but this influence is a tad different. Forget the vibrant colours and shapes of Mucha’s paintings that go perfectly with groovy sixties posters. Open your mind for something whiter, gentler, dreamier….

Jane Birkin (1970) and Edwardian lady (1900)

Photo by David Hamilton, 1970s

Left: Bette Davis, Right: Jerry Hall by David Hamilton

Wearing certain clothes can transport you to a different place in imagination, don’t you agree? Well, the mood of this Edwardian revival fantasy is that of an idealised countryside haven where a maiden in white spends her days in romantic pursuits such as pressing flowers, strolling in the meadows, picking apples, lounging on dozens of soft cushions with floral patterns and daydreaming while the gold rays of sun and gentle breeze peek through the flimsy white curtains, reading long nineteenth century novels by Turgenev or Flaubert in forest glades, Beatrix Potter’s witty innocent world of animals, illustrations by Sarah Key, all the while being dressed in beautiful pastel colours that evoke the softness of Edwardian lace, Lilian Gish and Mary Pickford’s flouncy girlish dresses, long flowing dresses with floral prints and delicate embroidery, straw hats decorated with flowers and ribbons, lace gloves, pretty stockings, and hair in a soft bun with a few locks elegantly framing the face, or all in big rag curls with a large white or blue bow, resembling a hairstyle of a Victorian little schoolgirl.

Brooke Shields in “Pretty Baby” (1978)

Left: Lillian Gish, Right: Mary Pickford, c. 1910s

As you know, films have an influence over fashion. I myself often watch a film and caught myself mentally going through my wardrobe and looking for similar outfits that a heroine is wearing. It’s beyond me. Many films from the seventies have the same romantic Edwardian revival aesthetic, such as Pretty Baby (1978) set in a New Orleans brothel at the turn of the century, women are lounging around in white undergarments and black stockings which is so typically fin de siecle, and Shield Brooks in a white dress holding a doll, adorable.

In Australian drama mystery film Picnic at the Hanging Rock (1975) set in 1900 girls from a boarding school go out in nature for an excursion and are dressed in long white gowns, have straw hats or parasols and white ribbons in their hair, Polanski’s Tess (1979) brought an emphasis on the delicate beauty of floral prints on cotton and that also inspired the designer Laura Ashley, even the film Virgin Suicides (1999) which is set in the seventies has a wardrobe of pastels and florals and all the girls wear such dresses to a school dance.

Left: Brigitte Bardot and Right: Nastassja Kinski

ELLE France, 1978, Gilles Bensimon

Left: dreamy hairstyle, Valentino Haute Couture Spring 2015, Right: photo from 1910

Virgin Suicides (1999)

Left: Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), Right: two Edwardian ladies, 1900s

Models of the era are also seen wearing the fashion, such as Twiggy with her straw hat with cherries and Jerry Hall in white dress. Many photos by David Hamilton also capture the mood of this Edwardian revival; there’s something dreamy and ethereal about them, a frozen moment with girls in a reverie, either lounging on bed half-naked or surrounded by trees and flower fields wearing long floral dresses and hats, looking so serene as if they belong to another world. The first picture in this post is my favourite at the moment, a girl with a straw hat with ribbons, and stocking, and those warm Pre-Raphaelite colours… mmm…

Edna May photographed by Alexander Bassano, 1907

Jane Birkin looking so Edwardian and adorable!

Even Brigitte Bardot couldn’t resist elegance in white.

Tess (1979)

Seventeen magazine, February 1974

Twiggy in Valentino by Justin de Villeneuve for Vogue Italy, June 1969

Brigitte Bardot

Wedding dress ‘Faye Dunaway’ by Thea Porter, 1970, England – All that lace!!!

Left: Abbey Lee Kershaw by Marcin Tyszka, Vogue Portugal (2008), Right: Alexis Bledel in Tuck Everlasting (2002)

As you can see in the pictures above, the Edwardian revival has found its place in contemporary fashion and cinematography as well. If you like this style, look for things that capture the mood, regardless of the decade.So, do you want to be a pretty and dreamy Edwardian lady too? Well, it is simple, you can wear a white dress, have a cup of tea, read Flaubert’s “Madame Bovary” or Forster’s “A Room With a View”, stroll around wearing a straw hat, pick flowers, press flowers, chase butterflies, surround yourself with white lace and indulge in reveries!

Season of the Witch – Fashion Inspiration for Autumn

This is my fashion inspiration for the Season of the With, or Autumn; the most beautiful season in my opinion. I hope you’ll enjoy the pictures I’ve chosen, mostly sixties and seventies fashion, a little bit of Sharon Tate and France Gall with her knee-high socks, a bit of Carolyn’s style from Dark Shadows (2012), a bit of late 1970s Joy Division-look from the film Closer (2007), cord trousers with wide belts, Uschi Obermaier’s large necklaces, colourful tights, a bit of 1970s does 1930s and 40s fashion, long dresses with floral prints, and of course the classic sixties mini skirt.

I’m always on the look out for groovy colour combinations, so if you have any suggestions, feel free to share them. I noticed that chocolate brown, warm yellow and raspberry red-pink go really well together. Beware, there’s a lot of pictures.

16th December 1969: Rainer Langhans and his girlfriend Uschi Obermaier in a Munich restaurant

 

 

misspandora.fr