Kings of Cool

This week I have watched two very different films; one a timeless war film, the other an 80s comedy, yet they have both inspired and mesmerised me. The first is The Great Escape and the second is Big. I wasn't exaggerating when I said different.
          The Great Escape is the story of Allied prisoners of war escaping, obvs, a prison camp in Germany. The main attraction is Steve Mcqueen, or the King of Cool (lets just call him Steve), who plays Hilts 'Cooler King' and darts around like a cat, flitting from place to place with ease and grace, which no one has ever managed to recreate(and I don't recommend, you'd just look dumb). Despite living in a prison camp, he seems pretty chilled most of the time and is ALWAYS wearing rad clothes. Yes, for pretty much the entirety of the film he is wearing the same outfit but he rocks it every time. Think leather jacket, blue sweatshirt with severed sleeves, chinos and WWII service boots (cooler than they sound).

All pictures from The Great Escape (1963)



Big is the story of a 12 year old boy, Josh Baskin, who wishes he was ...well..big, on a magic carnival machine and the next morning..BAM what do you know, he is a 20-something year old Tom Hanks. Naturally, his mother does not believe that her 12 year old has grown a foot overnight so Tom Hanks has to run away to New York until him and his trusty pal find the magic carnival machine which can revert him to his former self. In the meantime, he acquires an ace wardrobe and all you notice is what fab clothes he is wearing all the time, well I did anyway - bomber jackets, patterened shirts, oversized knits and slogan tees. oh and one solid pair of Nike Air Force II.

  

All pictures from Big (1988)

What these two characters have in common is the fact they are both effortlessly cool, in very different ways. Josh Baskin is kitsch cool whilst Hilts is classic cool, like Mcqueen himself.  Mcqueen may have the upper hand here, being the 'King of Cool', however, there's no denying the radulous (new fav word) 80s feel to Hanks' wardrobe. Either way, both films are a great watch and offer style tips to all.

(waves goodbye)

Suzie

Lo-lee-ta

Dolores. Lo. Lola. Lolita. The three syllables that had Humbert's every move.
    

 My current read is Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov and I'd say I'm about 1/6 of the way through, this doesn't seem like far, I know, but trust me it's a time consuming book. So far, it has proved very interesting, I see it is as a way of seeing into a man, Humbert Humbert, who isn't a paedophile (he is only attracted to a certain age bracket of young girls or 'nymphs' as he calls them) but simply a man who cannot let go of his first love and spends the rest of his days trying to recreate it. It has also proved tough work; the language and style of the writing is pretty hard to decipher, he even says so himself; "if you can still stand my style", and I often find myself re-reading paragraphs 2 or 3 times (which makes me want to throw it at a wall). Nonetheless, it is a beauty of a book that should be read by everyone, it's effect on culture is notable if not always noticed.                 
      Of course, one cannot write a blog post about Lolita without mentioning it's style influence ('scuse the first person - feeling regal today). There are of course the famous (or should I say infamous???) heart-shaped sunglasses. These have wormed their way from a book cover into high street stores and onto people's heads. There is no denying that they instantly add a certain 'je ne sais quoi' to a face (apologies for the pompous vocab, again).




Left- Sue Lyon by Bert Stern


Below left- Georgia Frost in Tank Magazine (Volume 5, Issue 3)

Below right- Lana Del Rey (www.lanadelrey.com)

Lolita is set in the late 1940s, and from seeing stills from the film and from Humbert's descriptions; "She wore that day a pretty print dress that I had seen on her once before, ample in the skirt, tight in the bodice, short-sleeved, pink, checkered with darker pink," and "She wore a plaid shirt, blue jeans and sneakers" recreating the Lolita style seems fairly easy; its practically all high waisted attire and cutesy prints. One more thing, Lolita can only really be worn in summer unless you want to freeze (well, fair enough if you live in the southern hemisphere, but English people will know where I'm coming from with this)

 

 

L-R 1940s photo in New South Wales Australia by Ray Leighton, Dominique Swain and Jeremy Irons in Lolita (1997),Sue Lyon by Bert Stern and Sue Lyon in Lolita (1962)

Lolita has inspired many and continues to inspire fashion-lovers, musicians and writers alike.

(waves goodbye)

Suzie



Welcome / good morrow / submit greeting here

Hello, my name is Suzie and I'm from England.

         The blog name is partially based on my tendency to day dream, I rarely pass a minute without drifting off, but is also inspired by the array of bizarre dreams I occasionally have; past ones have included playing tennis with a giant almond instead of a ball and sliding down a building as a tribute to Paul McCartney's death (I don't know where these ideas come from). Sometimes my dreams make me question how much cheese I ate the night before, or if I actually ate any cheese at all and that my sub-conscious state just has a very vivid imagination.
          Anyway, I'm not new to the blogging world, I started a couple of years ago but recently I've run out of steam/ideas/energy/bother and so I'm starting fresh. I hope (emphasis on the hope) to keep this blog as a collection of thoughts, inspirations and musings on fashion, music and culture.

(waves goodbye)
Suzie