R.I.P. Malcolm McLaren

Shocking news today: the legendary Malcolm McLaren died yesterday in Switserland, 64 years old. His influence on music and fashion is immense. Without him we would never ever have heard of the Sex Pistols, Adam Ant and  Bow Wow Wow,  SM- and bondage gear as regular wear wouldn’t be mainstream, we wouldn’t shop at his sons store Agent Provocateur or at his ex-girlfriend Vivienne Westwood,  Madonna could never have used the “Waltz Darling” imagery for her song “Vogue”, and the list goed on and on and on…

Some personal McLaren favorites:

The Great Rock ‘n’Roll Swindle – Trailer (1980)

Malcolm McLaren -Madame Butterfly (1984)

Malcolm McLaren & The Bootzilla Orchestra – Waltz Darling (1989)

Early picture, left Vivienne Westwood, right Malcolm McLaren 

During the “Buffalo Girls” period

Early 80’s Madonna

A couple of days ago I’ve watched Madonna’s Sticky & Sweet Tour on tv.  The dance routines, her stage outfits, the video screenings, every detail is 100% perfect. But somehow I got bored by it.  I miss the early 80’s Madonna. She had her brilliant own style at that time and sadly that seems to have gone.

These are my favorite pictures from her from 1979-1983. Without any budget and without an army of stylists (she did work together with French stylist Maripol, who came up with the rubber bracelets and the crucifix earrings), she looks amazing:

One of her first video’s, Burning Up from 1983, directed by Steve Baron. Madonna’s friend Debi Mazar was hired as the make-up artist for the video, Maripol was the stylist and Madonna’s then boyfriend Ken Compton appeared as her onscreen lover.

L.A.M.B. Spring 2010

Finally Gwen Stefani’s L.A.M.B. label made a comeback on the runway! Two years ago L.A.M.B. had a beautiful mod/ska influenced Spring 2008 collection on the runway during New York Fashion Week, and after an absence of two years (and mediocre collections), L.A.M.B. looks reborn with a fresh Spring 2010 collection.  

 

The clothes for this season can be described as “80’s street chic”: off-the-shoulder shirts, tye dye prints, zippers, harem pants, leggings, slouchy tops, “diaper skirts”, very short dresses and a bit of leopard. Although the fashion press names Bow Wow Wow and Bananarama as references, this collection is much more elegant and streamlined than the messy 80’s look. Love it!

 

My favorite looks (the jacket on the first picture is my must have item):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pictures from style.com, popsugar.com and justjared.buzznet.com.

 

Disque d’Année: Primary Colours by The Horrors

Wow, I’m writing French…….;-)

My favorite album of 2009 is Primary Colours by The Horrors. I know the year isn’t over yet, but the album is so incredible fucking fantastic. I’m surprised that I like it so much, because I wasn’t impressed by their first album. My thoughts before listening to Primary Colours: an overhyped band, they spent more time on their looks than their music and any link with Peaches Geldof is, too put it mildly, not really a pro. My thoughts afterwards: WTF??? Huh? Is this the same band? 

A friend of mine, who used to be a music journalist, once said that he didn’t like listening to new rock bands in general, because they all imitate bands from the past.  Altough I understand his point of view, I don’t agree with him. Yes, Primary Colours is very 80’s new wave/shoegazey, but in my opinion this record is even better than records from that period. And that is really special.

Check out their (first?) single from their new album: Sea within a Sea.

More info on www.thehorrors.co.uk and www.myspace.com/thehorrors.

Live dates: 02/11/09 Melkweg Amsterdam, 03/11/09 Doornroosje Nijmegen, 04/11/09 Tivoli Utrecht.

Memories of the Dolly Dots

Another sad day. At work the radio always plays, and when I was listening to the news this morning I found out that Ria Brieffies from the Dutch pop group the Dolly Dots has died at the age of 52. I was actually much more in a shock than when I heard about Michael Jackon’s death, because the Dolly Dots are so much a part of my youth.

When you’re from the Netherlands, I don’t have to explain who they were, because they were the most popular girl group in the eighties.  When you’re not from here, here’s a small introduction to the Dolly Dots and their infuence on how we all looked at that time.

First you have to know that when you were young in the eighties and lived in a small village at the Dutch countryside (like I did), there was no internet, no MTV (actually, the tv only had two Dutch channels and three German cannels), no H&M, and no fashion magazines for girls. Once in a while there was a music show on tv (Toppop), and sometimes I bought a music magazine (Popfoto).  So I never understand this whole “back to the eighties”-vibe there is today. It was totally crap to live in the eighties!!!

So, all girls between 8 and 12 years old were fans of  the Dolly Dots. It was that simple. Every girl loved them. They had good pop songs, they were nice and friendly and they wore cool clothes. A bit like the Spice Girls, but without the arrogance of Posh Spice.

Everything they wore was copied by us girls. Like oversized t-shirts worn as a dress. Oversized trousers with the legs rolled up in trendy pastel colours. With matching rolled up socks ofcourse. Transparant hair scarfs, tied in a bow. Long, skinny belts, wrapped twice around the hips. But pictures say more than words….

At the start of their carreer in the late seventies. Ria is the second girl on the right.

Actually, this looks quite modern now!

Big hair, oversized clothing, neon colours: must be the eighties!

One of the more horrible examples of eighties fashion. Yes, once I thought this looked great.

Boyfriend blazers with shoulder pads? Nothing new, we did it decades ago darling!

One of the must have items was a hair crimping iron, the one with two metal (!) plates to make waves in your hair and made you look like a poodle. When you couldn’t afford one of those, we made braids in wet hair, let it dry, took the plaits out and tadaa……the poodle effect!

Ticking all the eighties fashion boxes. I wanted the gloves but couldn’t find them anywhere.

The girls looking fabulous for their reunion concerts in 2007.