The Last Picture Show: The most stylish film you've never heard of

Showing this week at the Triskel is Peter Bogdanovich's classic The Last Picture show, which celebrates it's 40th birthday this year.

It's one of my favourite films.  Based in rural Texas is the early 1950's (an incredibly baby-faced) Jeff Bridges and Timothy Bottoms star as two high-school seniors poised on the brink of a very depressing adulthood.  It's sad and it's beautiful and it's painfully real. 

The set designs and costumes by Bogdanovich's wife Polly Platt (he would later leave her for Cybill Shepard, the ingenue of the film - she apparantly had affairs with Bridges and Bottoms during filming as well, which must have been a fun environment to work in) are some of the best to be seen in films and marked a turning point for realism in the cinema. 

Up until 1970, costumes for period dramas were pretty contrived.  Platt made the characters look realistic and unobtrusively stylish at the same time, which complements Bogdanovich's genius eye for a composition.  At the time of filming Orson Welles was living with Bogdanovich and Platt and I think the influence really shows.  Here are a few pictures.

This film is every west-coast style blogger's inspiration; slouchy cool and a touch of urban decay and general apathy.  It looks a bit like  Band of Outsiders lookbook - forty years before Band of Outsiders was even thought of.

Kiki de Montparnasse

The past week I've been sick in bed, which is not fun.  The upside was that I finally had the time to read the books that I had stockpiled for such an occasion (and watch the boyfriend scurry about getting me hot lemony drinks).

A new addition to the pile, which arrived on my doorstep this week, was the graphic biography of Kiki de Montparnasse, the model, muse, artist, actress, drug addict, cabaret singer, prototypical scenester and general inspiration to large-nosed women everywhere.  I'm starting to love the graphic biography genre, because it appeals to both the comic book nerd and the history nerd that hold an uneasy truce inside my brain.

This book, by Catel and Bousquet, is a joy to read.  For the first time in years, the minute I finished the book, I went back to the first page and started to read it again.  Here she is as she appeared in the book.

Illustration by Catel for Self-Made Hero

 And here's some real-life Kiki.

Kiki in Man Ray's 'Emak Bakia' (source)

 Kiki was Man Ray's long-standing muse until the arrival of Lee Miller.


Violon d'Ingres by Man Ray

Nu Couche a la Toile de Jouy by Tsuguharu Foujita

Kiki de Montparnasse by Pablo Gargulo

Kiki with Accordionist by Brassai

“All I need is an onion, a bit of bread, and a bottle of red; and I will always find somebody to offer me that.” - Alice Prin (Kiki de Montparnasse)

Women of Style and Substance

International Women's Day is drawing to a close, which is appropriate since I've spent the past few days in the company of Aisling of Think What You Like and Dawn of Skinni Peach. We're in Dublin, busy with press days and a few top-secret projects (hence the lack of posts).

Here are a few inspirational women who may also get your style juices flowing - hope you had a suitably female-focused day.  Ours consisted of running about town in matching beige macs (which was a coincidence, but it didn't stop us singing Return of the Mac on a loop) and eating pancakes upon pancakes in Fafies.  Yep, doing our bit for womenfolk everywhere...

Tamara De Lempicka

Coco Chanel (as suggested by Dawn)

Cleopatra (as suggested by Dawn)

Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (as suggested by Aisling)



Beyonce (as suggested by Aisling)



Grace Jones

Hedy Lamarr (co-invented modern mobile phone technology!)

Kelis

Mary Wortley Montagu

Elizabeth I

Louise Brooks

Lydia Lunch

Natalie Portman (as suggested by Aisling)

Nellie Bly

Queen Medb (as suggested by Aisling)

Osa Johnson

What women inspire you, in terms of style and otherwise?

The Clothes On Their Backs

Riccardo Tisci's Givenchy couture offerings this season were all about Asian influence. It's little wonder, because Asia and all the rich facets of it's culture are slowly permeating Western consciousness. Asia also has a major commercial influence, what with Prada joining the ever-increasing ranks of companies choosing to list in Hong Kong as opposed to their home markets.

This collection draws on a LOT of Asian influences (butoh, Kazuo Ohno, anime, embroidery, cranes, dragons... the list goes on) but I'm really interested in (as far as my incredibly amateurish, untrained eyes can see) the samurai and origami influences.

Japanese samurai circa 1870

When you go on websites that feature this collection and the insano, day-glo Philip Treacy headgear, the comments section is inevitably clogged with cries of 'VIKING!' - you can really see the influence of the samurai helmets.  Irrelevant note alert - One of my favourite places to go in the V&A Museum in London is the Japanese section to look at all the samurai uniform.  It's all so intricate and well crafted.  Every aspect of the samurai uniform is carefully considered; every colour, every fold, every image has a cultural or practical significance.  Perhaps it's this attention to detail that aligns it so well with Givenchy.

Samurai circa 1880

You can really see the samurai and origami influences in the sharpness and angularity of the shoulders.  The pink motif above looks like it could be a representation of a samurai helmet (or a backpack in the shape of a bug if you think about it in a Rorschach kinda way).  I love the pristine whiteness of this dress.  It's like a fresh piece of paper begging to be folded into all sorts of magical shapes.

Origami samurai helmets

The headgear made so much more sense when I saw these mini samurai helmets made out of paper.  I know that it's supposed to be based on robots... but I like thinking it's an origami samurai helmet.  Let me have my wrongfooted delusion, ok?  Here is a link if you want to make a tiny samurai helmet and wear it on your finger.

I'm not very good at conclusions, so let me just say that the Givenchy collection is beautiful and batshit crazy.  Just the way I like it.

My Personal Style Resolutions #4: Vagabond Language

Vagabond Language is a lifestyle blog, chronicling the life and style of a twenty-two year old Irish girl living and studying in Glasgow. Zoe likes to read, she wishes she was the heroine of a Nancy Mitford novel. The blog was started in the Spring of 2010, in the hopes of meeting kindred spirits.

When Sarah approached me to do this post it came at the right time, as I was already considering my personal style resolutions for 2011, that is, if my clothes still fit me after the gluttony of the festive season!

This year I made a concentrated effort to be more considerate of what I buy – what its made of, where it comes from, quality, style, etc. I refuse to pay too much for an ‘on trend’ acrylic sweater from Topshop when I could buy a vintage 100% wool jumper on etsy for the same price or less.

I think with all the glossy magazines out there, pushing the latest catwalk to high street trends on you, the pleasure of shopping and dressing yourself has diminished. Our parents looked good and they had less disposable income (as my own like to remind me, anyone else?). This year I volunteered in an Oxfam shop in my town (Oxfam Sligo!) and I really embraced the charity shop culture. Previously, I used to do a monthly charity shop thrawl with one of my friends in Dublin. However, its in the small towns that the bargains and gems are to be found. There’s nothing more thrilling than finding the perfect blouse or blazer in a charity shop after a long search.

Many trips to charity shops may present nothing, but that’s missing the whole point of the experience. Consider for a moment all the ridiculous things you’ve come across in past thrawls, that bonkers artifical flower arangement that actually turned out to be a hat or the size 18 green viscose jumpsuit, they gave you a giggle and I bet you tried them on too! Not to mention that charity shops are nowhere near as crowded as high street stores and you're less likely to bump into someone you know, trying on the same dress as you, eek! This month I think I may have found the perfect pair of tweedy pants that I’ve been keeping an eye out for all year. For £2 in my local Shelter. They’re Italian made and fully lined, I can't wait to find the perfect cream shirt to go with them next!

My main resolution this year is to be more frugal. To forsake the temptation of the high street and its disposable trends.

My style icons are timeless, many of them fashion muses.

 - The teddy girl, a working class revolution. A brooch or a ribbon; simple touches, carefully placed, add a degree of playful femininity to an outfit, they transcend the everyday and become dandyfied.

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 - Diane Keaton is an obvious one, but I just love her masculine aesthetic, best demonstrated in Annie Hall, where she was permitted to wear her own wardrobe, rather than be ‘styled’ for the character. She is the ultimate girl next door; her teeth aren’t perfect, she forsakes make-up, she has flyaway hair and her clothes look slightly worn, in the best way. It means she’s lived in them!

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 - That being said, I find Woody Allen a style inspiration too. Jam jar glasses, check shirts and courdroy blazers/trousers, yes please! Comfortable but still retaining an aura of intellectualism.

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 - Next is Shelley Duvall in her 1970s hey-day. An unconventional beauty and dresser, embracing bold colours, patterns and textures with giddy glee. I want to have such a refreshing attitude to clothing, dressing for fun! I love her eye lashes, very mod.

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 - Finally… The British Bardot?… Julie Christie.  She’s everything I want to be, but am generally too sloppy/lacking in grace/sexual allure ever to attain. I envy her svelte figure, her smile, her hair and make-up, such a sixties sex kitten, full of bounce, health and vitality! This is a girl you want to hit the tiles with in your local discothèque and she probably wouldn’t break a sweat! Men want her, women want to be her. I want her to do my hair. Ms. Christie has lost none of her elegance or beauty decades later.

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I can’t end this without mentioning a fictional character, books and films are where I find most of my inspiration.

 - Cassandra Mortmain, heroine of Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle.  Living in a decaying English castle, Cassandra can only dream of silk gowns while her eccentric family life constantly interrupts her daydreams. Cassandra finds beauty in the little things, despite her straitened circumstances. Wearing a simple dress, a cloche hat, some cardigans, oxfords and her journal, Cassandra is not deterred from embracing her romantic and imaginative spirit.

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Other mentions – Faye Dunaway, Mia Farrow, Sissy Spacek, Katharine Hepburn, Molly Ringwald in all of John Hughes films

I've only recently discovered the Argentinian model Tati Cotliar and her haphazard tomboy aesthetic. It's fun and fancy free and I love it! Looking at the shots here, the individual items all seem lovingly acquired over a period of time, a favourite pair of shoes, tights from the high street, blouses and waistcoats discovered in second hand stores from all over the world, all combining in a colourful encore.

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Read more from Vagabond Language at the blog or on twitter!