the happiest day of my life: 2011 edition

There's just something about wedding gown photography. The dark eye makeup? The facial expressions hovering somewhere between fear and loathing? The decrepit locations? Is there something about weddings that just causes our minds to linger on evil spirits? Dress like your bridesmaids to confuse evil spirits. Carry the bride across the threshold to ward off evil spirits. Marry on the right day of the week to avoid evil spirits. Tie cans to the car to scare away evil spirits. Wear a veil to disguise yourself from evil spirits. And so on. There is a virtually bottomless well of evil spirits waiting to set upon you on your special day.

A while ago I showed some 1967 takes on the wedding dress. Christo's concept (a woman lashed to an immense object using white silk ropes) in particular seemed a tad political. The dresses from 2011 below, on the other hand, look a lot like little girl fantasy fairytale wedding gowns. Notably, fairy tales are getting back to their gruesome roots these days. Please enjoy.







Consider the evil spirits confused.



I'm not saying that this photo shoot for Vogue Italia by Paolo Roversi is intended for a wedding spread, but there are really only just so many events in a lady's life where she's going to be wearing a white, jewel-crusted, floor length gown with a lacy headpiece.

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Besos! -Skyler

http://www.theseearthltbodies.com/

does this make you feel like going shopping?

So I just wanted to point out that this photography is a thing that is happening somewhere on earth. Specifically it seems to be coming out of Eugenio Recuenco, a Madrid-based photographer.

Eugenio reportedly does most of his work commercially and for advertisements. I'm having a hard time imagining the products. Life insurance? Breakfast cereal?

"The first meal of the day is the most important!"

I'm not complaining though. Really, I'm not. These photos are dreamy, twisted, and macabre.

The panoramics are worth a click through if you want a better look at how sexy cannibalism can really be.

Suffice to say that Mr. Recuenco probably had a look or two at the collected works of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio.

More or less sombre?

- Judith Beheading Holofernes 1598–1599

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Besos! -Skyler

www.theseearthlybodies.com

         

idyll & ennui

What could be more perfect and perfectly horrifying than a bunch of unsupervised rich kids? Obviously, they are up to no good. This is a classic horror storyline and a designer favorite. I heart overlap.

Here are eight terrible possible activities for kids that have too much time and not enough after school work on their hands.

 #8 Road Trips

 Every bored kid can relate to this. When there's nothing to do, just have your driver take you and your eight friends for a spin around the neighborhood. 

Bergdorf Goodman h/r 2008


#7 Smashing Everything
For a sweet real life example, see "Psycho Scions Rampage," a not-even-New-York-Post headline taken from the news of 1963. Basically, Fernanda Wanamaker Wetherill's pink-themed debutante ball in Southampton turned into a no-holds-barred smashfest at a rented mansion. Windows, chandeliers, crystal goblets, diamond earrings- everything ruined! See, they got bored at their rented mansion after the party at the mansion that they owned. It was a whole thing. You understand.



#6  Theme Parties


Looks like it's probably the entrance to a mansion. They are so dead. They don't even see it coming.

Tommy Hilfiger via the skinny beep

 #5 Poisoning & Murder
Rich kids travel to mansion in Mexico. It's safe to say that no good will come of this one.

Here's a description of Christopher Pike's sophomore YA horror novel, Weekend,

The sun is out. The beach is beautiful. And for nine friends this weekend in Mexico is a dream holiday. But the dream turns into a nightmare when they are poisoned and trapped in a snake-filled room - someone seems to be out to spoil their fun - but surely it couldn't be one of the group?

Everything I ever knew about what happens to four guys and five girls ( I know, right? Perfect.) who travel to Mexico to stay unsupervised at a wealthy friend's vacation home, I learned from this book.

This one is totally different than Slumber Party, where a bunch of rich kids go on a ski trip together and get all murdered. For more information on the 18 plot devices that CP managed to turn into 70 horror novels, see Forever Young Adult.

#4 Eccentricity

Vanity Fair's article celebrating British eccentrics paints a chilling picture of what generations of ennui does to a country of landed gentry.


Among them, this sort of thing. "Otis Ferry poses, in pinks, with foxhounds at the keeper’s cottage in the village of Eaton Mascott."

 #3 Pranking & Murder
April Fool's Day came out in 1986 and had a lot to add to the "rich kids go to remote mansion to die" trope.

IMDB explains,

A group of nine college students staying at a friend's remote island mansion begin to fall victim to an unseen murderer over the April Fool's day weekend.

Nine friends! They should have known! More:

A group of eight college friends gather together at an island mansion belonging to heiress Muffy St. John to celebrate their final year of school. They soon discover that each has a hidden secret from their past which is revealed, and soon after, they turn up dead. Yet, are they really dead? Or is it just part of some very real and cruel April Fool's jokes? The hostess, Muffy, is the only one who apparently knows what's going on. But then again, is it really her doing the killing?

Contains gems such as "welcome to lifestyles of the rich and undeserving" as well as teenagers drowning, stabbing, decomposing, etc. Why have you not seen this movie if you have not seen this movie?

#2 Pool Parties

  

Okay, then what?

Tommy Hilfiger 2011 via MM Scene



#1 Bonfires & Skinny Dipping

This is naturally going to happen with a bunch of bored teenagers at a resort town in New England. I think we all know that it isn't going to end well for poor Chrissy.



Or any of the people of Amity.

Jaws directed by Steven Spielberg, Universal Pictures, 1975 via Dan McGuigan

**

Besos! -Skyler

http://www.theseearthlybodies.com/

 



classic horror bangs

They're big. They're a little trashy. They really open up the face, allowing more big eyes, wide with terror. Okay, they're a lot trashy.

Making the runway-



Vogue Paris showing Naeem Khan
The trucker walk is not making these ladies look any less trashy.



Imaxtree showing Carolina Hererra

and in the classics-  



Lives; dies. Bangs do not seem to help one way or the other.

Grace Kelly in Rear Window via Sew Indigo "What?!? It's right off of the Paris runway and I don't see any problems either gardening OR breaking and entering in this;" and Lee Remick in The Omen getting a good additional 4" of height on her "Oh no, I'm raising the devil!" face.

 

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Besos! -Skyler

a carnival should be all growls

Not since I read Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes in middle school, have I stopped worrying about carnivals.

lo-fi via mjcphotoblog
by the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes - that scottish play

An unnatural preoccupation with youth and aging? Fantasy, horror, glamor, the macabre? Sounds like a fashion ready story. Here's three SWTWC style inspirations.

#1 smells like cotton candy in town?

When this happens, you know things are about to get very weird.

john galliano at Paris Fashion Week via lala london; oscar de la renta spring 2012 via changing room; marc jacobs http://prettycoveted.blogspot.com/2011_02_01_archive.htmlspring 2011 via pretty coveted

Rei Kawakubo, Comme des Garcons, Paris Spring Summer 1996 via monsieur j

#2 Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show

Cue the random photo montage. Alexy Titarenko's long exposure photo series "City of Shadows" is pandemonium and dark.

via Alexy Titarenko

Death doesn't exist. It never did, it never will. But we've drawn so many pictures of it, so many years, trying to pin it down, comprehend it, we've got to thinking of it as an entity, strangely alive and greedy. All it is, however, is a stopped watch, a loss, an end, a darkness. Nothing. -SWTWC

#3 Illustrated (wo)man

The runways favor a slightly less permanent vision of painted skin, be it in marker, eyeliner, or lace.

via elements magazine; marchesa f/w 2012 via thevoguevibes; rodarte spring 2010 via trendhunter and secondtimearound

The stuff of nightmare is their plain bread. They butter it with pain. They set their clocks by deathwatch beetles, and thrive the centuries. They were the men with the leather-ribbon whips who sweated up the Pyramids seasoning it with other people's salt and other people's cracked hearts. They coursed Europe on the White Horses of the Plague. They whispered to Caesar that he was mortal, then sold daggers at half-price in the grand March sale. Some must have been lazing clowns, foot props for emperors, princes, and epileptic popes. Then out on the road, Gypsies in time, their populations grew as the world grew, spread, and there was more delicious variety of pain to thrive on. The train put wheels under them and here they run down the log road out of the Gothic and baroque; look at their wagons and coaches, the carving like medieval shrines, all of it stuff once drawn by horses, mules, or, maybe, men. Something Wicked This Way Comes, for sale here

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Besos! -Skyler

http://www.theseearthlybodies.com/

judging, reframing

Maybe I'm just projecting, but when New York-based photographer and mixed-media artist Bradly Brown says that he's into "organic decay, scrap-heap epiphanies and the reframing of consumer-culture ephemera as accidental poetry," I feel a little bit bad about myself.



via bradly brown


I'm sorry, consumer-culture ephemera. It's just that I'm so into you.

**

Besos! -Skyler

http://www.theseearthlybodies.com/

walking dead like me

Louis Vuitton's $8 million fashion train at Paris Fashion Week A/W 2012



via Harper's Bazaar





via theclotheswhisperer





via fashion breakout



Whatever that was, exactly the opposite.

Magnetic Fields "Born on a Train"

I know that you were never young,
And I know you probably won't get old.
But honey, nobody's gonna hurt you anymore.
And nobody's gonna make you wanna die.

I hope this helps.

**
Besos! -Skyler

carrie goes to prom

I saw “Carrie” the musical this weekend at the Lucille Lortel Theater. It starred Mollie Ranson as Carrie and Marin Mazzie as her demented mother. The music was great, the lighting design fantastic, and what can I say about the story? Girl tries to fit in, fails dramatically, and everyone dies horribly. It’s too late to help Carrie, but she can still help us.

Here are some of my favorite Carrie-inspired looks:

#1 The cardigan with everything

I love cardigans; they are demure and speak of your status as an outcast and possibly your crippling social anxiety. Cardigans go great with everything and Carrie thought so too. My mom used to tell me that wearing a cardigan made me look like a hobo. Check these out, and let me know what you think.



Cardigan 1 via thestar





Cardigan 2 via stylespotrun





Cardigan 3 Peter Jensen via lynnandhorst

Okay, so this is not right. Fair enough, mom.

More via Brainy Mademoiselle

#2 The doused gown

Why get doused in pigs blood, have a violent psychotic episode, and murder a room full of people, when you could just look that way? Here are some of my favorites.



Doused 1 Tom Ford via bergdorfgoodman







Doused 2 Michael Kors via lookonline





Doused 3 Marchesa via edressmenow





Doused 4 Oscar de la Renta via Marquis of Fashion





Doused 5 via chic-a-boom

"Carrie" closes April 8. Go see it!

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Besos! -Skyler

dressing for mortal terror: noir edition



Seriously, who hasn’t found themselves married to the wrong guy, faithlessly pursuing someone else, eventually embroiled in a ridiculously convoluted murder and extortion scheme, dogged at every turn by relentless detectives?

Plane via statelibraryqueensland; Terrance  Rattigan's play, "Man and Boy," via; men's trenchcoats via the Coat and Tie; Gucci pants via; “Angel Face” via Washington Post; and investigator’s suit, £585, and tie, £69, gievesandhawkes.com; shirt,£100,start-london.com; hat, £186, lockhatters.co.uk via



Traveling incognito is a snap with a hat and the right lighting!

morbid & shallow

Hi guys. Sorry it's been a while. Don't want to get into the details of what's been going on lately, but I think it's over for now.

The good news is that I'm on Tumblr now too. You can find me at Morbid & Shallow.

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Besos! - Skyler

Anh Duong and Marie-Sophie in Emanuel Ungaro, Vogue, Chateau Raray, France; via

give a man enough rope and he'll hang himself

This morning I was eavesdropping on my neighbors in the elevator when one of them told the other that he was going to “give him the rope he needed to hang himself.” How colorful! It totally got me thinking of some great looks involving rope, self-destructive behavior not required.

Marian Toledo loves rope in this big bold nautical number, via; Paule Ka goes for the throat in this halter, via;

Givenchy went haute with rope via

 

maison martin margiela artisanal does coat dress via; ligia dias does glamour rope at the swarovski runway via and alexander mcqueen of course manages to out-rope rope, for sale via chic little devil



gifts to bury yourself in: dangerous jewelry edition!

Need to give a gift that sends that special somone the right kind of message?

Try these crystal brass knuckles by Debra Baxter

more legal than the other kind

hotel california

Okay, I admit it. I miss home sometimes. In honor of my home state, I’m doing a special tribute to the stylings of Hotel California. You’re welcome!

 

  

Douglas Lyle Thompson; Larent Elie Badessi, prints available here

On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air