Monday, April 22, 2013

Cleopatra, King Tut, and Me: Art Deco's mania for Egypt

Shirt: Initiatives; Hat: C.C. Exclusives; Dress clip (on hat): vintage
Recently, when I was staying with Beau way out in the burbs, his mother told me about a store frequented by the ladies in her "over 55" (read, mostly much older) apartment complex. The prices, she said, were right. She was not kidding!

I got this top for something like $10, new.


The yoke on it immediately called to mind the frenzy for all things Egyptian after the excavation of King Tut's tomb in 1922. 


 

With its geometric patterns, bright colours, and plethora of gold, it seems likely that ancient Egyptian art would have influenced Art Deco fashion regardless of whether or not King Tut's tomb had been discovered, but his discovery caused a positive fashion mania.



The first vision that came to my mind when I saw that yoke on my top was Claudette Colbert as Cleopatra in the 1934 movie of the same name. 

Lest you think her outfit above is not Art Deco and is instead ancient Egyptian... well, come on, look at those eyebrows!



Anyway, who wouldn't think of Colbert's Cleopatra when she saw this top? Okay, quite a few people wouldn't but I did.


Indeed, such a yoke is pretty much mandatory for all Cleopatra costumes to this day.


Of course, the style of art uncovered, yoke and all, was not a complete surprise. Many Egyptian artifacts had already been excavated before this and therefore influenced any depictions of Cleopatra. This is Theda Bara in the role in 1917.


And, of course, perhaps the most famous Hollywood depiction of Cleopatra was that of Elizabeth Taylor in 1963. 

Bonus points if you can tell me why I know this photo was taken during a break in filming. Look closely. You'll see it.


And, no, she's not authentically Egyptian here either. If you doubt me, just look at that hair! It looks more like something you'd see on Star Trek than in ancient Egypt. 

Oh, yeah, Star Trek wasn't set in the 60s either, was it? Right. See how contemporary fashion influences Hollywood's depictions of both the past and the future?



However, the biggest liberty Hollywood has taken with depictions of Cleopatra has been in making her white. She would not have been white, and certainly not the creamy white of Bara, Colbert, and Taylor. Most recently, she was played by yet another white woman: Angelina Jolie.

Tina Turner probably looks more like her in this fashion spread than any Hollywood depiction of her does.



Still, for my money, the costumes worn by Colbert are most in keeping with...


http://www.doctormacro.com/Images/Colbert,%20Claudette/Annex/Annex%20-%20Colbert,%20Claudette%20(Cleopatra)_04.jpg

... well, not Cleopatra, but King Tut. The cloche hats of the period lent themselves to this low on the brow look.


So it was Colbert I used as my model when I put this outfit together.


Jacket and jeans: Reitmans; Boots: Ecco; Purse: thrift; Cane: Sunburst
Now that I'm of a certain age, I don't like to be too costumey, so obviously I did not try to look just like I'd stepped out of a 1934 movie. Nowadays, I like to allude to vintage fashions rather than ape them precisely. I think I managed to look modern, despite my decidedly vintage inspiration.

Besides, I was going to a birthday party for one of Beau's friends (who is a reader of this blog, though he cares not a fig for fashion), so I didn't want to be too over the top or stagey.


Note in particular the dress second from the left.
But Dim Sum? I mean, given the strong influence of Asian art and fashion on Art Deco fashion, I couldn't help but really push my Deco theme, mere allusion or no.
Flapper dress with strong Asian influence. Fun fact: in Asia , dragons are not seen as evil but rather as benevolent.
It was a kind of colonial Western pilfering of all things "exotic" but that's certainly nothing new. Such pilfering is still regularly seen on Western runways today.



So, somewhat modestly attired, I was ready for my first Dim Sum at the ungodly hour of 10:00 on a Saturday morning. Sleeping in (when pain permits) is one of the few benefits of being disabled; I work part time and primarily from home so I set most of my own hours and they don't start at the crack of dawn

But I managed. Sort of.


Beau took photos while we were on the metro and I caught myself trying to look younger by doing, God help me, the "I'm ready for my closeup, Mr. DeMille," pose from 1950's Sunset Boulevard. 



See what I mean?


Gloria Swanson was, ironically, playing a washed up movie star from the 1920s, the very era that I was mimicking.



Once I realized what I was doing, I just had to ham it up. Even the sign behind me supported my assertion that I was ready for my closeup.

Beau's face in this photo just kills me. I may not have mentioned it but he's really funny.


Anyway, I did try to look kind of understated and "normal." I realize this is more my hangup than any desire on Beau's part or any conservatism on the part of his friends. I grew up very counter-culture and have remained so, while Beau and many of his friends, though liberal now, grew up very conservative. Sometimes I worry they'll think I'm weird. But, really, who wants to be normal?



And I couldn't stop myself from going all Deco in the details anyway. Check out this fabulous purse! I got it for a few dollars at a thrift store.

Ring: Birks; Earrings: thrift
And I got these earrings for 30 cents. Seriously! 

(Don't ask me about the price of the Birks ring. I've been known to splurge from time to time, though this will have to change as I'm no longer sure when I'll be well enough to work full time again.)


I was fairly sleepy and not very eccentric in public at Dim Sum, but that Asian Deco thing was on my  mind... 



And once I saw the wall paper in the washroom, I kind of had to get a little artsy-fartsy. I turned the sound off on my phone so the old lady with her granddaughter didn't know that there was a madwoman photographing herself in the stall.


But, really, who could help herself if she was wearing a cloche hat and saw wallpaper this close...



... to original Art Deco wallpaper?



And, you know, that was the period for doing all sorts of hand to face, artsy, feminine stuff in photos...



... so I had to do that too.


Check out that watch! I am so excited about it. I got it for $30. I think it's from the 1940s. It works perfectly and, upon doing research, I found out that it was made by Bulova, is almost certainly gold-filled, and has jewels in the works!

I know. You're jealous. It's understandable. I'll only gloat occasionally.


On another note, when I was looking for these photos, I was astonished by the amplitude of Theda Bara's body in her role as Cleopatra. She was considered extremely sexy in her day, in large part because of her ample proportions. 


So how could I possibly worry about mine when they're so much smaller than hers? It's simply amazing how different types of female bodies go in and out of style, like we're just wines to be tasted and tossed aside when trends change. If I'd been born in a different time, my body would have been considered perfect.

Well, except for the fact that my back is a mess.



And here's a cat...


... who would not stay still for my attempt at a photo.

Given the Egyptian love of cats, I thought a photo of my Bobby would not be out of place. Plus he's cute.


Until next time, I bid you adieu. 

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Tea, Sympathy, and the Blouse that Did Not Get Me My Beau

Blouse, belt, jeans, and camisole: Reitmans; Shoes: Ingledew's; Clutch: thrift
This was not a particularly special day. It was just one in which I'd been stuck inside in pain for too long and just had to get out, no matter what the physical cost. I thought I might as well look halfway decent, since I get out so little. I thought I'd make it a little event, in my own way.

Beige and navy is not a colour combination I would ordinarily try but I went for it this time, with the navy camisole against the beige blouse offsetting the beige and navy in the shoes.

I got Mark from Mark's Pet Stop to take some of the photos.


On the way, I encountered this great graffiti. Someone's been stenciling up some pretty cool stuff lately. I think this image is pretty feminist, particularly given some of the grim history of missing street women here in Vancouver, and the recent attention being brought to rape culture.

Fight like a girl. Fight like a boy. Just fight to end all this!


And then have a little laugh too. You've got to be able to laugh too.

Ring: vintage
An iced coffee in Little Italy, which is where I live, is a lovely balm to a rough day.  So is a little sparkle.

Once you've had real Italian coffee, you can never go back to any of that Starmuck's nonsense, let alone drip coffee or, perish the thought, instant drek!

My dull day ended up being far from dull. At the cafe, I met two women who are high school teachers. After chatting with them about our mutual disillusionment with the educational system as it is today, we discovered that we all three suffer from chronic pain. Indeed, they were there as one helped the other fill out her disability paper work.

We felt like kindred spirits. We spoke particularly of the difficulty in making others understand our pain because we don't "look disabled." We thanked God for our unions, human rights codes, and labour codes. It is not easy to keep a job when you're invisibility disabled. It's not easy to be believed.

We talked for a long time, with a lot of, "Oh my God, I know exactly what you mean!" and, "You went through that too? Wow," etc.. It was really really good to talk to people who could understand my circumstances.


I felt quite giddy and excited, like as if I'd had a real coffee, which I hadn't.

Sad to say, I can't actually drink real coffee anymore and have to settle for decaffeinated. I used to drink a lot of our fabulous local coffee but, when I became bed ridden, coffee because a recipe for panic attacks. 

Try it some time: drink strong Italian coffee and then lie still and in pain for several hours, staring at the ceiling. I suspect you'll come to the same conclusion I did.

It's tea for me now.


This works fairly well, since Beau is a tea freak. He and I met online and apparently it was the tea in the background of my photo (one taken in my office) that won him over. 

One of the photos I used in my online dating profile. Beau was not a fan of the blouse but wrote me anyway.
It was not the shirt, he tells me, the very same shirt I wore on this day for my little outing. 

Nope. It was the tea, the expression on my face, and the fact that, in my profile, I said I was both "iconoclastic" and looking for someone "not allergic to theists." He really liked that. 

He decided to be brave and contact me. What a lucky break for me!


I'd hoped my profile showed me as someone with some divergent thinking and unusual qualities. One certainly does try to be an original, in thought, and deed, and dress. How dull it would be to be generic or to fit in. I've never understood the desire to fit in, not even when I was a bullied child.

Notice that I often post photos in which I don't look... conventionally beautiful, or conventionally posed. I'm a real person in real life. I've no interest in trying to look like one of a herd.

Headbands: Stylize; Green earrings: thrift on the street; Sleeper: ??; Rosebud earring from Barefoot Contessa

I think it's hard to look conventional in shoes like these. Dapper, yes. Dull? God I hope not.

But I long ago realized that it's not how I look or what I wear that marks me as unconventional. All I have to do is open my mouth and speak, and it's known: Charlotte is not your average bear. Some love that about me. Some hate it. 

But I can't be any other way.