Don’t forget to tell your nattily dressed other half how much you love their style, and their very pretty hair, on this very important day.
What??
It’s just as arbitrary as tomorrow 😉
It seems a bit strange to be relaunching the site after yesterday’s terrible news about McQueen. He was one of the few modern designers I had any respect for, because he was original and strived to be different. I never had the money or occasion to buy any of his work, but I do vividly recall gasping in delight at his work in Harrods (when I was 18 and used to go around there for kicks, and sneer at the finishing on certain other designers’ garments) and toddling off down the road to buy a very, very McQueen-y rip-off in Miss Selfridge. He had that kind of effect on you; his clothes (after you stripped away the spectacular catwalk shows) were pure genius and extremely womanly. May he rest in peaches (see my previous post about YSL).
Designers like him are what inspires people like me into our little niches in the fashion world, and I thank him profusely for that.
So…yeah…the website is back up. It’s been a bit Remade/Remodelled…..and definitely restocked. There’s Ossie, Biba, Janice, JohnB, Billy, Lee Bender; basically you need to go and have a look, don’t you? Go on, you know you want to…..
I generally assume that, were I around in the Thirties, I would probably be Claudette Colbert. She’s now facing some tough competition from the gorgeous Hollywood clothes-horse Kay Francis. Mainly for her wardrobe, but I love her hair as well.
A couple more detail shots to whet your appetite. I’m hoping the new website will be up and running by the end of this week, but I’ll keep you posted!
I’ve signed up to LoveFilm in an attempt to cut down the amount of DVDs I seem to accumulate. It’s also frustrating to take a gamble on a film you might not like, or feel the need to watch more than once. As if to prove why this was a good plan, my first film was Flashbacks of a Fool – which Paul Gorman mentioned recently because there’s a Janice Wainwright piece in it (although, strangely, it’s worn by Keeley Hawes in the modern section of the film…but hey-ho!). I had felt a desire to see it at the time, what glam-rock-loving person wouldn’t? But it didn’t have great reviews, and I just sort of forgot. As I so often do.
It’s stylish, no doubt about it. And well worth watching for this reason. Antony Price gear (in his Che Guevara days), a replica of the BryanGod’s lustworthy sparkly jacket and this most beautiful section where Ruth and Joe mime to If There Is Something. Her outfit here reminds me of why, every single time I look at the cover of that first Roxy album, I want a wardrobe full of pink and blue satin. And she’s pinched my mantra: “Think…Roxy girl”.
http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/xbbvdm
Flashbacks of a Fool – If There Is Something
But the film really falls down on the very thin premise. There’s little or no real character development and most people seem to have just turned up on set, lines in their head and a lot of exposition to spout (poor Keeley gets the worst of this, as Joe’s sister, but handles it admirably). Emilia Fox is hilariously bad as an American, and as a drug dealer.
Basically, I didn’t want to come out of the Seventies section and then, when we did, I was wondering why the storyline had been so dull. Joe was a wannabe Glam Rocker, fancied a pretty girl, shagged the neighbour instead, ran away for 25 years (early Seventies plus 25 years equals late 1990s….so I haven’t got the foggiest why they were, apparently, setting it in 2008) and returns home, only to mooch around a bit looking moody. Yes, yes, Daniel Craig has built a career on that, but it’s not enough for this film. Is he really a changed man by the end? It’s a remarkable volte-face if so, and not really justified by anything we see or hear.
I didn’t feel particularly connected to any of the characters, and the locations were very peculiar. If you’re trying to connect to the nostalgia in your audience, why on earth set it in a location where very few people would have lived (I think it must be an Essex estuary….but who the hell knows?). Yet it was almost trying too hard at other points, tugging at the nostalgia strings, such as the whole ‘choose between Ferry and Bowie’ conversation and the artfully ‘placed’ posters of The Sweet (et al) in the background.
Top marks for costume design and music choices; everything else gets a B-. Must try harder. Go watch Velvet Goldmine. Although I don’t know why I’m surprised, given the hefty involvement of all those White Cube gallery-types. I know glam rock was all about the ‘image’, but this film just demonstrates how even the glam image and sound was full of soul. Modern art and ‘style’ gurus can only fantasize about such things. If you’re signed up to LoveFilm, definitely try it on for size. If nothing else, you can ogle the clothes and Daniel Craig.
…going to make a film about Roxy Music and cast Hugo Weaving as Brian Eno? When, I ask you, when???
There would be more sneaky peekies, and the website revamp would be further advanced, were it not for the poor natural light I seem to be suffering from at the moment. Not conducive to working behind my lovely new camera and not conducive to feeling chirpy and positive either. However, I seem to be feeling rather good about the website and about the line-up of pieces I’ve got on offer. So there will just have to be descriptions and measurements before there are photographs a-plenty.
So I thought I would show you all that I’m not just sitting here scanning in dodgy Seventies magazines and otherwise twiddling my thumbs, scratching myself or fiddling with my hair all day. No. I’ve already shot a few beauties, and there’s much, much more to come.
Sadly, I have no choice. I was not blessed with luxuriant, Audrey Hepburn-style eyebrows. Mine have always been sparse, so I have to choose my eyebrow heroines with this in mind. I rarely go to such extremes as shown here, but I do have to tame the few stragglers and pencil them in a bit. It’s a bit strange to have such thick dark hair on your head, then have the eyebrows of a mousey-person. Sigh.
Last week I had the very great pleasure of attending a video shoot for Mr Jah Wobble‘s new track, Blow Up. I was asked by Paul Gorman (Yes! He of the superb book and blog, The Look. Very chuffed I was too…) if I might like to be a Sixties-styled extra and, naturellement, I jumped at the chance. Also, naturellement, I managed to fail to take my camera with me on the shoot so you’re best off going and having a butchers at Paul’s blog about the day (in case you didn’t already).
The very awesome Jenny Drag of The Priscillas was a stunning companion and vastly superior in the ‘rhubarb, rhubarb‘ department as well. My only prior experience in such things, a small chunk of my life dedicated to attempting to get into drama school aside, was as an extra for a ‘lesbian cafe scene’ in some strange teen drama I somehow got involved with (in a wardrobe capacity). I was pretending to be a lesbian, but it didn’t involve any method acting. I’m not stupid, I wasn’t being paid.
Pint-sized Peelpants on tiptoe with the gorgeous Jenny Drag
Anyway, the day was fascinating, very entertaining where Mr Wobble was concerned and I was given slightly scary eyebrows by the grumpy make-up artist (which was also entertaining). My dress is a black and cream Joy Stevens of California number, if anyone is vaguely interested, and I’m wearing my dearly beloved Aristos velvet coat in the shot with Lloyd Johnson (I really look like I’m ignoring him horribly, certainly not the case – he was fabulous….I was either trying not to move for fear of my make-up and hair falling apart or for fear of Lloyd falling off the arm of the very [jah] wobbly chair).
I will let you know when I know of the video being completed, so you can all crowd around your monitors to see my arm acting. Perhaps.
p.s I had forgotten this Jah Wobble song from way back when. I remember loving it, but I can’t have had a clue who he was!
Contrary to what most people seem to [bizarrely] think, I am really quite dorky. The other morning I found myself lovingly preparing Shepherdzzzz Pie from a Seventies recipe my mum has been using since, well, the Seventies. Shepherdzzzz because of the Heinz Baked Beans origins and contents of the recipe. I’m not a natural cook, but it’s one of the things I’m fairly adept at doing.
As per usual, I was also listening to GOLD. My default radio station for most occasions. So I found myself in the dubious scenario of cooking this pie whilst shimmying around the kitchen, in rollers, to the divinely dubious sounds of the Andrea True Connection’s More More More. I still get urges to start singing ‘if you steal my sunshine‘ but my Seventies-self slaps the Nineties-self around the face and carries on with the shimmying. I know I should really be slinking around to Roxy Music or whoever, as usual, but there are times you need a bit of cheese (if not on top of the pie, because someone doesn’t like cheese).
Liz Eggleston 
