A Secret Agent Extraordinary: Modesty Blaise

One of my all time favorite movies is Modesty Blaise (1966), because it contains all elements I love in a movie: a fearless leading lady with an excellent profession, great outfits and a crazy storyline. Somehow these movies are always from the sixties, like Barbarella or the Avengers.

Modesty Blaise is a secret agent whose hair color, hair style, and mod clothing change at a snap of her fingers. Hired by the government to prevent a diamond heist, Modesty (played by Italian actress Monica Vitti) recruits her sidekick Willie Garvin (Terence Stamp) to help her battle crafty, colorful foes on the secluded island of a suave mastermind thief (Dirk Bogarde).

At the time the movie was a commercial disappointment, but today it’s still worth re-examining if only for the chance to see Vitti in her prime, being funny and tantalizing and modeling a succession of outre sixties-knockout outfits. It’s one of the very few “comic strip” movies of the Warhol era that actually deploys a Pop Art style with some edge and aesthetic sense, and that’s campy in a way that isn’t harmless, but has some bite. But I’ve also seen reviews of the movie that say it’s an “interesting mess”.

Oh, and the movie has a little bit extra because some scenes were shot in Amsterdam, like the dollhouse scene.  And one scene is named ” Haarlemstraat 74, Apt. C”. Someday I must find that appartment…..

Check out the mad, mod world of Modesty Blaise:

Beyond Biba movie!

Girls, time to fuel our Biba obsession some more!

Beyond Biba is the first ever film entirely about Barbara Hulanicki. Her life and work has been sketchily documented in fragmentary newspaper features and various television programmes covering 1960s London culture and fashion, but she still remains very much one of those “where are they now?” figures. The re-publication of  her exraordinary autobiography From A to Biba by the V&A in 2007 reminded may of her seismic impact on the British fashion industry. The book however, brings the reader up to the year 1982, leaving a huge portion of her career unwritten. The film provides an invaluable glimpse into Barbara Hulanicky today, in the context of the contemporary world, rather than through the fugue of nostalgia that surrounds the 60s. The film features also amongst others; Kate Moss, Ron Wood, Molly Parkin and Twiggy.

images from the trailer(which can be viewed on the website)

http://www.beyondbibamovie.com

Progress reports such as info about screeinings and press of the Biba documentary can be followed also in the blogoshpere at http://beyondbibamovie.blogspot.com/

Style Icon from the Past: Ellen Foley

When I was a kid I had a best friend named Marloes, and our favorite activity together was playing her mother’s vinyl singles collection and use our hairbrushes to sing along. Most of her mother’s records were terrible 70’s glamrock bands (Mud! Status Quo! Smokey!), but there was one record we both loved: “We Belong to the Night” from Ellen Foley. At the time I had no idea who she was, but I loved the way she looked on the record sleeve.

Later I found out more about her.  She’s mostly famous for her vocal contribution to the Meatloaf song  “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” from 1977. For some reason she was replaced in the video by a hysteric dark haired woman, who lip-synched to her voice.

Foley’s debut album, Nightout, produced by Bowie collaborator Mick Ronson, was a cult splash in 1979. Foley’s second album was produced by boyfriend Mick Jones of the Clash and has songs on it with ridiculous titles like “The Death of the Psychoanalyst of Salvador Dali”. She can also be heard on The Clash album “Sandinista!”. Her relationship with Mick Jones did not last. In this period Jones wrote the Clash song “Should I Stay or Should I Go?”. In the 80’s she became an actress and starred in movies (like Fatal Attraction) and musicals. She now teaches at the Paul Green School of Rock Music (best know from Jack Black’s movie).

Somehow she seems to be forgotten nowadays, but I think she used to look really cool and definitely was a style icon. Check out her looks:

Like Clockwork: exploring an inspiration

I LOVE tracing back inspirations. The movie “Clockwork Orange” is one of those neverending inspirational wells. The movie is about the adventures of a young man  who couldn’t resist pretty girls or a bit of the old ultra-violence went to jail, was re-conditioned and came out a different young man … or did he?

The 1972 classic directed by Stanley Kubric is a very unique movie, bordering of the bizar. The cinematography is very bleak and crisp. Stylistic elements that characterize the movie are the bowler hats, the suspenders and contrasting colors, monochrome everything and most importantly the freakish-institutionalized-dandy take on menswear(which when you look at images posted below in female fronted editorials works also perfectly on women). It’s very interessting to see what people can do using the movie as inspiration. Because of the many cliche’s surrounding the movie, reacreating it in different stylistic manners can prove difficult. The road to satire and fashion faux pas is not long, you risk your inspirational source becoming very obvious and it can lose that stylistic edge very easily and become a gimmick. But that it is possible to make it work i will prove to you in images as you scroll along this little post 😉

original movie poster

another very 70s feel poster

In Music

The band No Doubt used Clockwork Orange as one of the main sources for their summer comeback tour.

poster for no doubt’s 2009 summer tour kick off show

“You know, it’s kinda funny, whenever we do an album or a tour we’ve noticed that if we have a really strong theme that everything falls into place better,” guitarist Tom Dumont told Buzznet. “Gwen [Stefani] came up with the Clockwork Orange thing — she started getting into the visuals of those modernist movies from the ’60s.”

Here’s a hint at what fans can expect: “It’s like this space-age modernism — it’s retro and modern at the same time, so we’re building this crazy stage set that has that vibe. We have a bunch of really great artists doing T-shirts and posters that echo that,” Dumont revealed.

In fashion

Citizien K Spain Clockwork Orange themed editorial “La Nueva Bohemia” shot by Sarah Seewar.

Editorial very obviously inspired by Clockwork Orange recreating some of the scenes featuring male model Boyd Holbrook. Photographer unknown.

Rodnik F/W08

Hendrik Vibskov S/S09

In Street Style

Mischa Barton taking it a bit far..

Last and not least…..

much better than Mischa

sources: tfs, beaconstreetonline, imdb,livejournal

More Kate – Preview Summer 2009

Just a few more days and Kate’s third summer collection will arrive at Topshop. A couple of posts back you could see Kate modelling a part of her summer collection. These pictures are the first product images. My personal opinion: Some stuff is really nice, some is the worst I’ve ever seen…… 

Somehow, I don’t like this dress. Boring shape and colours that remind me of happy childeren’s tv-shows………..

Glamorous cardigan.

This looks really pretty………love it, although it looks simular to the leopard print Barbara Hulanicki has used for her Topshop collection.

Cute!

This is one of those dresses that looks horrible when you see it on the hanger, but can be brilliant when worn in real life.

Love the folkore print…….but since I had a conversation with miss Fairynxd about this dress I’m having associations with blushing milkmaids, cows and meadows……

Huh? WTF is this?

Hmm…..I’m expecting you will see these type of studded gladiator sandals in every store this summer.

Must have!

I like the sleeves, but the v-shape of the pink fabric at the torso is weird. 

I’m absolutely not getting this top. Hate it.

The collection will be in Topshop stores at the 21st of May! Check www.topshop.com.

Pictures from thefashionspot.com.