Before I saw the movie Marie Antoinette, I would never have imagined that the holy trinity — music, fashion, sugar — could be combined in such a fantastic, salivation-inducing way. At every turn in this film, you are met with a feast for the eyes and the ears; it’s like 1780 and 1980 collided in a fortunate time machine accident, and as you’re along for the ride, you munch away on a bitesize pastry while bobbing your head to Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Cure, and Bow Wow Wow being played on a harpsichord.
let them eat cake!
The food — the pink pastries and yellow mini cakes, decked out in strawberries and ribbons of icing — are just as much a part of the art of the movie as the gorgeous wardrobe designed by Milena Canonera. The costumes themselves bear resemblance to a confectionary masterpiece; gowns like waves of smooth, pastel-hued icing, and hair like piles of pale whipped cream, bejeweled with sugary flowers and birds.
The problem of leisure - what to do for pleasure?
Director Sofia Coppola’s modern take on the historical “teen queen who rocked Versailles” shows Marie Antoinette as a confused, angsty, and bored teenager with a lot of money and time to waste. As such, we see scenes of Marie and her giggling entourage trying on dozens of gorgeous gowns, pondering important questions (which do you like best - with or without ruffles?), guzzling down champagne and going through boxes upon boxes of shoes (where we catch a brief glimpse of a pair of Converses).
During a montage of extravagance and overindulgence, accompanied by Bow Wow Wow’s I Want Candy (80’s anyone?), Marie brings in her own personal hairdresser who piles her blonde hair up to a staggering height, pats it down to powdered perfection, and then proceeds to add feathers, fake birds, glitz, and glamour. In a later scene, Marie’s brother comments that she could hide a small pet in her hair.
Reminiscent of a modern prom-slash-nightclub, Marie Antoinette sneaks out with her hubby and clique to a masquerade ball. While dancing the night away to Siouxsie and the Banshees, Marie rocks a gorgeous black ballgown and “mask”, while her BFF, the Duchess de Polignac, shows off a lovely green peacock look.
The ladies in this movie know how to accessorize — be it with exquisite and ornate hand fans (I am such a sucker for fans), elegant drop earrings, hot pink feathers, and even a simple sliver of black velvet tied around the neck.
The makeup is kept quite simple in this movie, and it all adheres to a basic formula: smooth, ghostly-white faces, neutral eyes with minimal mascara and no eyeliner to be seen, and a shock of pink or red just at the apples of the cheeks and staining the lips.
Critics have ripped Marie Antoinette to shreds. (Who listens to critics, anyways? Not I, said the cat.) But, no matter how you feel about the non-conformity, or the acting, or the accents (or lack thereof) or any of it, I find it hard to believe that anyone would dare to say that this movie is not a sweet feast for the eyes, as well as a fashion influence.
I heard this song at work the other day and, surprisingly enough for something playing at work, I really liked it. So, thanks to the powers of the internets, I discovered that the song is Early Winter by Gwen Stefani, and that the video for the song is friggin’ pretty.
First you get to see Gwen running about in cute boots. Then you get multiple shots of throwing rose petals around in a really long white nightgown. Then you get Gwen staring in a mirror at her perfect application of smokey eyes and baby pink lips. Finally! you are treated to a really huge green and black ballgown.
Because I couldn’t find any screencaps, you get to just watch the video.
Imogen Heap’s style is a lot like her music: otherworldly, cute, fairylicious, and definitely experimental. I really can’t help but smile when I see some of Immi’s getups.. smile, and think, “Ahh, I get it, Immi, I get it.”
The woman loves corsets. Hip, hip, hurray! More people need to show corset love. Beautiful corsets, big flouncy skirts, makeup worthy of the cover of a Sephora catalogue, and Marie Antoinette hair: big, tall, full of flowers and sparkles and feathers and woodland creatures.
I was lucky enough to meet Imogen after her January 2007 concert at the Tabernacle in Atlanta. The woman is tall, and she wears very high heels, plus the three foot tall hair to boot. Pictures do not do her tallness justice. She passed by me like a big, tall, pink cloud, and I was a bit alarmed until I realized, oh, it’s Imogen Heap. Holy crap you are tall. Close up, I realized that her outfit was much more intricate than I could have ever imagined. I silently admired her pink corsety wonderness, her faux fir trimmed skirt and stole, and wondered about what else might be hiding in her hair that wasn’t visible, while my friend verbally complimented her on her playing and her beautiful clear furry electric piano. “It’s so pretty,” I quickly piped up. “I just want to take a nap in it.”
She smiled politely and said, “Oh.. well. Oh. Yes.”
When you think of Tori Amos, the image that most likely comes to mind is a giant question mark as you ponder, “Who the hell is Tori Amos?” … but! If you are in the minority and you actually know who she is and you have seen her at some point, the image that most likely comes to mind, then, is a red-haired woman who suggestively straddles piano benches and makes heavy love to the microphone while performing.
For her latest album, American Doll Posse, Tori created a (gasp!) concept album that featured her in character as five different “dolls” — Isabel, Clyde, Pip, Santa, and Tori (yes, she did a charactature of her self). Each doll has a set of songs on the album, each with her own sound, theme, vibe, and look. For shows during the 2007 American Doll Posse tour, Tori kicked off each show as first coming out fully dressed, wigged, and in character as one of the dolls. She would do a mini-set with “their” songs, and then she would disappear for a short interlude, and come back out as herself/Tori-doll and do “her” songs.
It sounds gimmicky, but I’m sorry, I buy into it. For me, it works. If you’ve stared at the woman for eight years and studied her transition of various shades of red locks, from scarlet red to orange red to muted red to bright red to brown red to firecracker red, it’s actually really refreshing to see the transformation from Tori to Doll.
Plus I have a not-so-secret thing for wigs. Love wigs. Need wigs.
Of the five dolls, I enjoy Pip’s style the most. Pip is the angry rock chick of the bunch. Pip is the one who comes out in black vinyl pants and goes on a cursing tirade in the middle of the song she’s singing. Pip is the one who plays the piano by reaching up from a squatting position on the floor. Not to mention, Pip was the one who came out on stage and sang Me and a Gun, the rock version, complete with knife and gun props. (And if you’re not an avid Tori fan, that doesn’t mean much to you. But trust me. It’s pretty special.)
Though I hoped and prayed for Pip to open the show I attended at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta on November 14, it was Santa who came out instead. (Santa still rocked, it was fine.) I can get my Pip fix on the internets, and so can you.
Niecy Nash is best known for her role as Raineesha on Reno 911. She is the host of the show Clean House on the Style network, where she and her team invade people’s disgusting and cluttered homes, sell all their useless stuff at a yard sale, and then use the money to make their homes look fabulous instead of foolish.
Though she may be the queen of foolishness and mayhem, there’s nothing foolish about Niecy’s style. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Niecy in something unflattering. (This picture of her in character as Raineesha at the premiere of Reno 911: Miami just doesn’t count, okay? it was in character.) Her signature beauty mark is wearing a very large, very brightly colored flower in her hair, which is always color coordinated to her outfit — and it works.
Flower = perfectly color coordinated.
At the Simpsons movie premiere.
(I love that she wore orange to the Simpsons movie.)
