Monday , November 16, 2009
We're Obsessed: The GTOs, Holly and the Italians, Summer Dresses
The GTOs (Girls Together Outrageously)
I first found out about The GTOs from the Laurel Canyon book, and I was reminded of their existence the other night while watching Mayor of the Sunset Strip. Originally named The Laurel Canyon Ballet Company, the GTOs (Girls Together Outrageously) were a late-60s all-girl "groupie group" produced by Frank Zappa. The one you probably know best is Miss Pamela (Des Barres), but there was also Miss Mercy, Miss Cynderella, Miss Sparky, Miss Christine, Miss Lucy, and Miss Sandra. Here's Miss Pamela talking about The GTOs' fashion philosophy:
"A hippie was sort of the unwashed, unkempt kid. A freak was someone who put a lot of care and intention into their appearance, wanting to stand out instead of blend in. I was a combination flower child-freak, because the former was all about love and sharing and adoring each other and having flowers in your hair, literally, and lace and feathers and all that. I never considered myself a hippie. She'd be wearing one of those Indian madras-type skirts with her hair split down the middle, no makeup, sandals, braless - of course, we were all braless. I would have on an old vintage lace tablecloth with ribbons woven through it, feathers in my hair, loads of makeup, sequins stuck all over my face, and spike heels."
I don't know if I could pull off the vintage lace tablecloth thing, but I do like the idea of getting glam and hippie all squished together like that. And in general I'm really inspired by The GTOs over-the-topness and crazy-silly unapologetic giddiness, both of which are very much present on this little number, "Love on an Eleven-Year-Old Level." I wanna meet a boy who just screams Brian Jones! (Liz)
Holly and the Italians
I have to confess that I first heard of Holly and the Italians back in the day when Winona Ryder was dating Johnny Depp and name-checked them in some interview or another. Remember when Nonny dated Johnny? That was a super-hot couple -- but I digress. Holly and the Italians blazed briefly but fiercely, and through the magic of YouTube, you can still get a glimmer of their genius at making "pop-punk" a term of endearment and not an insult. When you have a chance, listen to Holly's duet of "I Got You Babe" with Joey Ramone. There's a YouTube clip that has a montage of photos with that track, but I don't know -- I hate those kind of YouTube clips. If I wanted to see a montage, I'd go back to my art history class or something. (Kat)
Summery vintage day dresses
Whoa! Isn't it weird how the photomontage above looks like there are five clones of me, all standing in a row? I guess that's a taste of what my life would be like if I was a quadruplet. Five Lauras- that would be wild, to say the absolute least.
My feelings towards summertime style are pretty much the polar opposite of Kat's. I'm not one much for jackets, I rarely come across cover-ups that I'm super madly head-over-heels in love with, so I always end up thinking of them as a really annoying and oppressive force existing only to obscure whatever awesome outfit I happen to be wearing. That's my main bone of contention with autumn/winter dressing- I feel like I'm always hiding.
But who cares? It's JUNE! I never thought it would come, but it did. Sweet, lovely, sunshiney, perfect June. My birthday falls in June, so whenever it rolls around, I feel like I am more myself somehow, like I own the whole month. I've been asking a lot of people if they feel the same way about their own birthday months; interestingly, the irrational belief that the month you were born in belongs to you seems only to affect spring and summer babies. Which makes sense- I can't imagine not being born in the summer. It kind of spooks me out, like if Yuletide were rescheduled and jammed into April.
My favorite quality of Thee Summer Dress is that it has a really killer laziness-to-awesome ratio, meaning that it takes minimal effort to throw one on, yet you end up looking ten zillion times more put-together than you would if you bothered to match your shoes to your shirt to your jeans and accessories. My five faves are displayed above, here's the run down (from left to right):
1. This prissy pink confection is by far the most hyper-feminine item of clothing in my entire wardrobe; as such, I feel the need to scrap it up by pairing it with my grey grandpappy lace-ups. I'm also really in love with how my tattoos give everything a bit of a bad-ass edge; I can't wait to rock them on my wedding day. This dress is a costume from some 1950s CBC musical; when I bought it, the waist was so tiny I couldn't breathe- I guess the Canadian television actress who wore it first accompanied it with a whalebone corset. Ew! Gag me with a spoon (though not literally, please).
2. I call this guy my Anjou Pear shift dress because, up until five minutes ago, I thought the textile was made out of pears. It turns out it's just flowers, which makes it worse to me, but oh well. I wore this dress constantly when I went to London last summer, so now I always think of it as being really Brit. You just can't beat a good shift dress, can you? Nuh-uh. Thanks for making my life easier, Mary Quant.
3. This is my Soulmate Dress. I found it for twenty bones at Eva B. in Montreal; it was a hundred billion sizes too big for me and came down almost to my ankles, but I tried it on and felt a really insane cosmic connection bounding betwixt us. It must have been mine in a past life, and boy am I ever happy we've been reunited. Based on its general aesthetic, I'm assuming its either from the twenties, thirties, forties, or 1993. It feels very war bride to me. I recently had it perfectly tailored to my body; the losery tailor was completely baffled as to why I'd want to wear a dress with a couple of tiny little holes in it! She kept asking me if it was for a costume party. I should have said, "My whole life's a costume party, Bro," but felt instead just felt like a weirdo.
4. This is my Blossom minidress. Isn't it the stupidest thing you've ever seen? I can't believe I'm such a total nut that I'd be caught dead wearing this in public, but whenever I wear it, I always feel totally effervescent. It makes me want to hop, skip and leap around town. I've generally been kind of anti-bright colors lately, preferring to go for a more muted, neutral color palette, but the hot pink and turquoise of this bad boy are absolutely unbeatable. Here comes the sun, Ladies & Gentlemen!
5. My Daddy gave my Mommy this dress when they were a-courtin'- thanks, Dad. I've reappropriated it into being my Grecian Goddess dress, totally Pallas Athena Chic. This is the second most feminine article of clothing I own; luckily, it is also the most comfortable. There is nothing cooler in the world to me than the feeling of waking up in the morning, throwing this on, and running out to buy coffee. It makes me wish that I were a celebrity so a paparazzi would take a picture of it, and then the whole world would know that I am the most dashing and elegant person ever to have been born.
Happy June! (Laura)
Share | 
| 
| 
|
|
Posted by Kat, Liz and Laura in We're Obsessed |
Permalink |
+ Contact Us
+ HOME
