French Hippie Chic by Jean Bouquin

My current obsession is French fashion designer Jean Bouquin.  He’s not a very well know designer, I’ve  recently found out he dressed Brigitte Bardot in the late ’60’s and early 70’s and I’ve been craving info about him, but there’s almost none!

He started as a fashion designer in St. Tropez at the end of the 1960’s. After his success in St. Tropez, he opened a second shop in Paris called Mayfair. His designs can be described as “hippie chic”. His vision was a natural woman, draped with beads, who lives an ironically privileged hippie life wearing luxurious clothing: printed  velvet minidress,  ruffle maxi dresses, beaded transparent tunics and the use of etnic influences. A style adored by another St. Tropez resident: the legendary Brigitte Bardot:

Promoting his clothes in a French Magazine:

He also was a costume designer for movies, like the movie “Les Idoles”(1968), about the rise and fall of three pop stars (someone please release this movie as a dvd!):

Another movie image from the Italian horror movie “Il delitto del diavolo” (1970), aka “Queens of Evil”:

Gangster Chic: Bonnie & Clyde

One of the most stylish movies ever is the film Bonny & Clyde (1967).  The film is based upon the real lifes of Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, a bank robbing and murdering gangster couple from the 1930’s, played by Warren Beatty and an incredible pretty Faye Dunaway.

The real Bonny and Clyde

 

The funny thing about the movie is that it has set the standard for the looks of criminal couples: classic suits, pencil skirts, berets and neck scarfs. (The real Bonnie Parker could never have worn a pencil skirt, because they first made an entree in fashion in the 1940’s….).

The movie is more than 30 years old, but still a major source of inspiration for film, fashion and music today. Like in this month’s edition of US Harper’s Bazaar magazine: 

Or this fashion shoot from the New York Post (2009):

They are currently shooting a remake of the film with Hilary Duff as Bonnie (why!?!), it should be finished this fall. This is how they portraited her in Allure magazine (May 2008):

A musical remake was made in 1968 by Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot. The song is based on a poem written by Bonnie Parker herself, a few weeks before she and Clyde Barrow were shot.

And finally, the Raveonettes paying homage to the duo:

Finally here: Gainsbourg (vie Héroïque)

Hopes are high and grand for this very anticipated film: “Gainsbourg: vie héroïque”. It’s a bio-pic about the life the of the legendary(i would not use the word heroic, cause he was kind of an asshole as the movie also points out in his relations with women, but a musical legend he certaintly was) Serge Gainsbourg. It follows him from early childhood to his death at the age of 62 in 1991 and the many women that crossed his path during that time obviously take up quite a significant part of the movie.  It stars a cast of brilliant look-a-likes such as Eric Elmosnino as Serge, Laetitia Casta as Brigitte Bardot and Lucy Gordon(who committed suicide after the movie had been shot) as Jane Birkin amongst others. I’m excited to see how it turned out. Bio-pics are a tricky genre, but it looks promising and i’m already inspired by the 60s home-decor and clothes styling as seen in the previews!

Release dates:

January 20, 2010 (France)
January 27, 2010 (Belgium)
March 18, 2010 (Russia)
April 15, 2010 (Netherlands)
September 30, 2010 (UK)
No US release date announced as yet.

Kinky or Cool: Over the Knee Boots

Once in every five years “over the knee boots” make a comeback. And every time I’m tempted to give it a try and buy them, but always have some excuses not to. The very small, sane part of my brain says: “You will look like a cheap tart, you can’t wear them to work (some of my clients are extremely conservative christian white males), and they will only last one season. But then I saw these pictures of the Dutch Royal Family: Princess Maxima is wearing them! Shocking! I mean, if she can wear them, so can I! So maybe I’m going to listen to the little devil in my head this time and wave my creditcard… 

 

 Royal Highness Princess Maxima wearing brown and grey suede over the knee boots. (And leopard……I suddenly feel very frumpy).

 Brigitte Bardot’s wearing hers with a leather and sequin mini dress.

Marc Jacobs, Fall 2009. 

Daisy Lowe showing her boots and her underwear. 

The Royal Highness of Cool: Debbie Harry.

Gucci, Fall 2009. 

Lindsay Lohan on the September 2009 cover of Elle UK.

Isabel Marant, Fall 2009.

Actress Barbara Parkins (Valley of the Dolls) from head to toe in leather.

I never thought I would like Roberto Cavalli, but I love the dress and the boots – from the Fall 2009 collection.

 Raquel Zimmermann as Debbie Harry with trademark boots in French Vogue, September 2009. 

And ofcourse: Kate. Shot by Mario Sorrenti for Vogue China, December 2008.

A Crush at Russh

Yesterday I went to the bookstore to buy myself a bunch of magazines. The summer isn’t the most inspiring time for magazines. They’re usually full with articles about how to look good in a bikini, miracle diets that make you lose half your body weight in ten days and luxurious holiday destinations to tropical islands……..so I started to look for something different and to my surprise, I found a wonderfull magazine called Russh. It’s an Australian bi-monthly magazine and their May/June ’09 issue is now in Dutch stores (altough their July/August ’09 issue is already published!!!).

What I like about Russh is it’s perfect mixture of retro and modern. I’s not as sentimental-romantic as Lula, but it’s also not a big parade of trends that only last two months. I usually tear out the pages of magazines I like to make scrapbooks, and I wanted to tear apart the whole magazine…. so that’s good!

Some images from Russh: 

For more info check their website: http://www.russhaustralia.com, blog: http://blog.russhaustralia.com and myspace: http://www.myspace.com/russhmagazine.