Fashion Icons: Uschi Obermaier

Uschi Obermaier (b. 24 September 1946) is mostly remembered for being a groupie and a sex symbol of the ’68 generation. She really led a ‘wild life’, so it’s very appropriate that they named the film about her Das Wilde Leben or Eight Miles Heigh (2007), and she’s played by Natalia Avelon. I think the film captured the spirit of the times, and her clothes are wonderful. Her life was one big adventure, but it wasn’t always like that. In the early 1960s she was a bored and miserable teenager living in drab suburbs of Munich, just waiting for something fun to occur. She started modelling and for some time she was a member of an art bend/commune called Amon Düül. There she met Rainer Langhans and the rest is history. In 1969 she was already living in a commune in the capitalistic West Berlin with students and ‘rebels’ who praised socialism and sexual freedom.

Uschi and Rainer soon became ‘the star protagonists in a bizarre political experiment involving group cohabitation that was explicitly designed to shock Germany’s corseted conservative establishment to the core. Commune 1, as it was called, was Germany’s answer to San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury, but it had a seriously Teutonic streak. The gang of long-haired, dope smoking Maoist students who started the experiment by occupying a spacious turn-of-the-century apartment in central West Berlin, were out to explode and revolutionise the moribund values of post-war German society.‘ (source)

Uschi Obermaier and Rainer Langhans, c. 1969

After the Kommune 1, Uschi spent some nights together with Jimi Hendrix, Keith Richards and even Mick Jagger. She went on The Rolling Stones 1975 tour. From 1973-1983 she was in a relationship with Dieter Bockhorn and the two of them travelled in a bus through Asia, where they married in India, then Mexico and U.S. Uschi’s style is very psychedelic and rock chic. In my collages I used some photos from the film as well as pictures of Uschi herself.

You can read more about her here and here. You can watch a short footage of Jimi Henrix and Uschi in Berlin in 1969 here.

Films with Brilliant Costumes

Two Aprils ago, I wrote a similar post. As expected, I watched a lot of films in the mean time. Costumes in films are an interesting topic, and I’m afraid they tend to captivate my attention quite a lot. This list is rather different then the previous one, which consisted mostly of period dramas set in Georgian and Victorian era.

1. Factory Girl (2006)

‘Poor little rich girl’, Edie Sedgwick, led a short, but turbulent and glamorous life. In Factory Girl she was portrayed by Sienna Miller, I loved her performance. Her look is equally alluring as unattainable – gold and silver mini-dresses, Beatnik-style no-trousers-look with black tights and kitten-heel boots, large earrings, cigarette and an amethyst ring. Regrettably, Edie’s chic ’60s wardrobe is more suitable for Andy Warhol’s Factory, than for a lifestyle of a schoolgirl like me.

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2. Lolita (1962)

Despite the film’s subject being more or less controversial, the clothes that Sue Lyon wears are rather nice, and I’m not even a fan of 1950s fashion. Thanks to Bern Stern’s publicity photos of Sue Lyon wearing heart-shaped sunglasses, they became a symbol for nymphets (both the book and film), even thought in the film Lolita wears only the simple cat sunglasses. I think Sue Lyon was brilliant as Lolita. She seems so mature considering that she was only 14 years old by the time filming started.

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3. Eight Miles High (2007)

This is a biographical film about the life of a West German groupie Uschi Obermaier played by Natalie Avalon. Appropriately, the clothes Uschi wears are in tune with the late ’60s and 70s fashion, which means plenty of mini skirts, sequins, messy bed-hair, gypsy skirts, jeans… Uschi’s life was really wild, and she had a wardrobe to accompany it.

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4. Darling (1965)

Interested in what an elegant lady climbing up the social ladder, in 1965 London, would be wearing? Well, you should watch Julie Christie in Darling. A very classic, elegant 1960s style with chic tweed suits, long evening dresses with sequins, kerchiefs, skirts with knee socks. I’d call this film a portrait of London’s society in the mid 1960s.

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5. Cheri (2009)

Michelle Pfeiffer plays a retired courtesan in this costume drama set in La Belle Epoque. Her costumes are so evocative of fin de siecle; wide-brimmed hats, roses, black gloves, silks, beautiful silks, white lace and pearls. Michelle Pfeiffer must have signed a deal with the devil because she doesn’t seem to age, she’s still simply drop dead gorgeous.

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6. Irma La Douce (1963)

Another charming courtesan, Irma La Douce, played by Shirley MacLaine, in a comedy set in 1960s Paris. Irma is mad about green colour, and her costumes prove that. She often wears a black skirt with green stockings, green shirt, green bow in her hair, green eyeshadow, even a green bra.

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7. Une Femme Est Une Femme (1961)

Anna Karina’s vivid red and blue outfits in ‘A Woman is a Woman’, perfectly match the grey backdrop of Paris. And the costumes are just one tiny bit of this film’s brilliance. I confess, I’ve been very keen on colourful tights ever since I first watched this film, I have them in all colours.

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8. Dark Shadows (2012)

I’ve always wondered how would Tim Burton mix ‘Victorian Gothic’ and Psychedelic aesthetics, and this film answered my question. I already wrote a post for itself discussing costumes and my opinion about this film, so I’ll quote myself: I can imagine myself having Carolyn’s bedroom; a psychedelic style decorated room with yellow carpet, vivid purple walls covered with posters of Iggy Pop and various other musicians of the time. It’s very bright, groovy, colourful and inspirational. I really loved the fact that every character has its own distinct style.

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9. Little Dorrit (2008)

This adaptation of Dickens’ novel is set in the 1820s, thought it has that doll-like 1830s vibe in some costumes, specially those worn by Fanny Dorrit. You can see her costume in the photo, on the left: that extravagant hairstyle with feathers, lace mittens, and wide sleeves – quite a theatrical flair about her character.

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10. An Education (2009)

A film about a bored schoolgirl who meets a charming (and married) man who introduces her to a life of luxuries, parties, art auctions. Carey Mulligan plays this little modern Emma Bovary, and her quote says it all: ‘You have no idea how boring everything was before I met you.’ Most of the film she wears her school uniform, but when she goes out in the evenings she’s clad in classic and elegant 1960s style.

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11. A Little Chaos (2014)

This is the most recent film from this I’ve watched, starring Kate Winslet and Alan Rickman. Winslet is dressed rather plain throughout the film because she’s a gardener, but there one scene near the end, at the court, where everyone’s dressed in late 17th century/ Restoration era finery. Cream coloured silks, lace, wide sleeves, and the hairstyle are so romantic and carefree.

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12. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

Vivian Leigh as a withered Southern Belle with fragile nerves who doesn’t want ‘realism, but magic’, and is always dressed in fine silks, lace and fur, adorned by the finest perfume, of course never in the daylight because it would reveal her true age and looks. I so empathise with her.

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13. Jezebel (1938)

This film, starring the beautiful Bette Davis, is a proof that rustling of taffeta petticoats and silks skirts is the sweetest sound in the world. I thought the plot and the ending were a bit vague, but costumes absolutely delighted me.

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Have you a film you’d add on the list?