Links post: James Bond, Starfleet uniform bras, real-life Zoolander, and more.

There will be more image-heavy posts than usual this month because I'm at the Edinburgh Festival, working full time and going to shows most evenings. I don't have as much time as usual to write reviews but we should be back to regularly scheduled programming come September! A quick question for readers, though: It's been a few weeks since both The Dark Knight Rises and the final installment of The Hollow Crown were released -- is it worth it for me to post reviews for these in the next couple of weeks, or is it too late and/or already talked to death by other people?

The 10 best Bond outfits. Kind of baffled by this list, to be honest. Pierce Brosnan's rollneck jumper is an iconic 007 outfit? Really?

Handpainted Starfleet uniform bra. And by "Starfleet uniform" I don't mean regulation underwear. They come in Redshirt red, Command gold and Science blue, all with the Starfleet insignia, and you can even send your own bra off to get Starfleeted. I love Etsy. Or I would if I had any money.

10 real-life Zoolander moments. Funny, but kind of missing the point of Zoolander as satire. Fashion is ridiculous -- and? Karl Lagerfeld shipping icebergs halfway across the world to garnish his shows will never not be ridiculous and reminiscent of the actions of tinpot dictators throughout history, but mocking fashion for looking like "Derelicte": not so much. Also, the male model fight club sounds like it'd be pretty popular.

Jack Kirby: costume designer. Renowned comicbook creator Jack Kirby once designed costumes for a college production of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar! This phot gallery is AMAZING. If only all college theatre had ridiculous costuming like this! Colour me impressed.

Costumes by Nicolas de Larmessin II. These 18th century costumes/grotesques are surreal to the point that I don't think most of them could have been made in real life. I do hold out some hope, though. People used to put a lot of effort into their fancy-dress costumes. Particularly if it was servants putting the effort in for them.

Fisherman.

Wine merchant.

And finally, an ~educational link: Why do we wear pants? The surprisingly deep history of trouser technology.

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Links post: Medieval armour made from rubber inner-tubes, "sexy" 1970s sci-fi convention fashions, vintage crime-scene photographs, and more.

Beyond badass: Chicago designer creates “Joan of Arc” armour from recycled bike tubes. Bicycle inner-tubes are a great material to use for Halloween costumes/punk gear because they're so cheap, versatile, and easy to manipulate, but this woman has made something more awesome than I could ever manage: Medieval-inspired body armour.

Photos from here.

She's clearly thought this through very well because it's not just panels -- she's interwoven the lengths of rubber and used different sizes for texturing. It's so cool! Better than a lot of the post-apocalyptic goth/armour/fetish gear you see in movies like Mad Max because you can tell that this outfit was hand-made using easily-available recycled materials, but it still retains the WTF (in this case, Medieval armour) aesthetic required for this type of costume. I wish I'd thought of it myself!

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25 Vintage Police Record Photographs. Warning: some of these may be disturbing to some people. Nothing graphic, but they do include photos from the aftermath of car crashes, and a deserted backstreet abortion room.

"Missing friend" poster, from here.

Personally, I found this gallery fascinating, mainly because it differs so greatly from what we think of as "crime scene photos". You may have seen vintage mugshot photos before -- the internet likes that sort of thing because it combines a very human morbid curiosity about criminals with the nostalgic whimsy of sepia-toned 1920s flapper girls -- and these pictures share that same sort of feel. These photos seem so much freer and more natural (and probably less helpful, from a forensic standpoint) than the carefully framed and labeled photos we see in the newspapers or on forensic crime shows.

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from here.

Another thing from the department of "awesome costumes made from everyday objects": Nina Katchadourian's Lavatory Self-Portraits in the Flemish Style. These have been knocking around the blogosphere for a few weeks now and therefore probably qualify as old news, but I don't care. They fill me with glee. Using a scarf and the paper toilet covers one finds in public bathrooms, artist Nina Katchadourian produced a series of photos of herself posing in airplane bathrooms, all modeled in the style of dark-toned, serious-faced 15th-century Flemish portraiture.

from here.

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A Treasure Trove of Cosplay from the Swinging 1970s [NSFW] -- I love this because it combines the horrors of "sexy" 1970s fashion (Will the "sexy" fashions of now look this bad in 40 years? Probably.) with the sort of glorious, idiotic ingenuity one finds in the all the most fun parts of geek fandom.

photos from here.

I tend to agree with the writer of the original blog post, here: there is something more appealing about these costumes in comparison to many of the cosplay outfits we see at conventions today. Although I greatly admire the people who put huge amounts of work into making exact replicas of the Iron Man armour or figuring out how exactly one would construct a steampunk Dalek ballgown, there's something to be said for sheer, balls-out enthusiasm. I'm far from an expert on cosplay culture, but on the occasions when I have dropped into a sci-fi or comic convention, I've noticed a great divide between the truly awesome costumes that end up getting photographed by everyone, and the costumes worn by everyday plebs like you and me. Although there are always a few cool low-budget outfits and witty, clever ideas that people have managed to throw together using cardboard boxes and duct-tape, most of the younger cosplayers always seemed to be wearing costumes ordered from the internet -- especially the anime and manga fans. There are high standards to live up to, I suppose.

Love that soft-focus!

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Finally, this isn't really a link to anything, just a photo I came across on Tumblr today: k.d. lang after winning the American Music Award for Best New Female Adult Contemporary Artist in 1992. In my opinion, this is a very accurate visual representation of what "awesome" looks like (NB: other examples include photos of the original crew of the USS Enterprise). I'm dying over her combination of '90s Christian Slater hair, tiny sunglasses, awesome sartorial dandyism, and unabashed smugness.

 

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Links post: stylish new video from The Correspondents; 18th century wigs; Pringle Of Scotland; the joys of fashion jargon; Martin Scorsese's Hugo, and more!

The Correspondents: Dapper electro-swing merchants The Correspondents are back with a new video, Cheating With You. I saw this band many a time back when I lived in London and not only do they give great live performances, the frontman's costumes are a consistent delight. Usually it's some variation on the slimline neo-Edwardian suit, but I also recall hankering after his splendid green peacock-feather-patterned catsuit (not everyone can pull that off).

Engravings of preposterous 18th-century wigs (via The Oncoming Hope): Waiter, there's a hair in my satire! Because who doesn't love 18th century wigs?

The non-season known as "Pre-Fall" has begun, apparently: With Pringle Of Scotland, who for once have produced some clothes that I rather like. Ordinarily I don't have much interest in Pringle because I'm not a knitwear person (sorry) and the silhouettes aren't to my taste. Yes, sometimes even the endorsement of Tilda Swinton, Ultimate Human (to give her her full title) is not enough to seduce me. However, some of the pre-fall 2012 stuff is rather nice:

pics from NYMag.com

More pics and links below the cut!

The only item from this collection that's actually to my own taste is the grey coat in the first picture, but I enjoy the colour palette and the hood-things on the shoes. I always think bare legs look so cold when they're exposed in autumnal collections like this, though! You can practically see the goosebumps.

I enjoy the juxtaposition of the orange collar/jacket and the burgundy thing underneath, so the furred overcoat is quite annoying. Take it off so I can see the outfit properly! Tch, honestly...

How wives should undress in front of their husbands (according to Life magazine n 1937, that is): A thinly-veiled reason to feature burlesque dancers in a reputable publication in the 1930s. One has to wonder, whichever way you're undressing in front of your husband, the husband is still ending up with a naked wife so does it really matter all that much? (No nudity, but probably NSFW because of 1930s ladies in their underwear?)

Darcy Clothing: I'm too poor to go hunting for awesome period costume outfits at the moment, but this company looks brilliant. They describe themselves as supplying "accurate replicas of mens period clothing" and appear to produce everything from braces to nightcaps. (I mainly sort of looked at the pictures and sighed to myself.)

"Cheap clothes for old fat women": This glossary of fashion jargon terminology is so accurate, even now. 

Hugo: Although I didn't find this film as mind-bendingly incredible as many seem to have done, it was pretty excellent. I do think that part of its critical success can be attributed to the fact that it's about the magic of cinema, a topic that obviously hits straight to the heart of any reviewers/movie buffs. Visually it was absolutely beautiful, though.

Pic from here. I seriously did not realise this character was played by Sacha Baron Cohen until the credits.

From this blog you might assume that I totally obsess about all the costumes in movies, but in fact I don't pay huge amounts of attention to them most of the time. That being said, I really enjoyed all the heavy, old-fashion tweedy fabrics they used in Hugo -- it really added to the warm, nostalgic colour palette. I left the cinema this evening with a craving for that blue-grey heavy suiting that went out of style sometime around WWII.

From here. Gotta love the sensible, shapeless woollen childrenswear of the early 20th century!

Hugo would be a pretty good movie for the "spot the Harry Potter actor" drinking game, a pastime that usually only works for British films. I spotted Madame Maxime, Uncle Dursley and Narcissa Malfoy, but there may have been more in there that I didn't pick up on!

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Saturday afternoon links post: X-Men cosplayers, 19th century Russian ballgowns, Tim Gunn discussing Star Trek costumes, and more.

Halloween! The number of "sexy" costumes I saw last night was truly mindblowing. I love them. I have very little respect for shop-bought sexy-nurse or sexy-cop costumes, but when someone goes all out and makes a sexy NyanCat or sexy male Sailor Moon outfit, well, I can only respect that shit. Personally, I was Sexy King Charles II. (ie... my embroidered pantaloons and a feathered headpiece thing, because I was too lazy to actually buy or make a proper costume) If only I'd had a camera with me. (N.B. This year the sexy female Where's Waldos far outstripped the male ones. Is this evidence of the hipster takeover of youth culture?) Anyway, I suspect a lot of you are currently still lurking in bed hiding from the sleet and/or nursing a Halloween hangover. Here are some links of stuff!

Madonna and her daughter in a funny video about her new Material Girl clothing campaign. Why can't she point this sense of humour at her terrible new movie? I mean, first of all it's called "W.E." which I immediately translate as "What. Ever." rather than, well... "Wallis/Edward? It's not totally clear to me what "W.E." is really supposed to stand for. But apparently it's so abysmal that people were laughing out loud during screenings, which makes me wish that Madonna would just release it as-is instead of re-editing it to make it "better" (ie, presumably more boring). It could be the new "The Room"!

The dresses of Tsarina Alexandra Romanova at How To Be A Retronaut.

Spider-Man themed swing dancers! (And more links beyond the jump.)

I already admired Tumblr-person Rayitastic for creating this fantastic photo of herself and her boyfriend as Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr from X-Men: First Class, but now she's also made X-Men jumpsuits for her and her friends. How cool is that? I'm not a cosplayer myself, but seeing people home-make such excellent versions of recogniseable movie costumes makes my nerd-heart happy.

Photos of young, dapper Ian McKellan. (!!!)

Tim Gunn discusses classic Star Trek costumes. This is AMAZING. Tim Gunn, I love you. Star Trek, I love you. I've never seen the first movie Star Trek, but having seen those vile flesh-coloured jumpsuits my desire to watch it grows ever stronger.

The evolution of the spacesuit, at Wired.com

Mary Katrantzou is designing a dress for Topshop! Ordinarily I have little interest in this type of collaboration because queueing for an entire day outside Topshop or H&M in order to spend hundreds of pounds on a watered-down catwalk look isn't my idea of a good time. HOWEVER. Mary Katrantzou is a genius, and even though I won't even be able to afford the dress she's deigned to make for us plebs (a mere £350), I can still appreciate that it's beautiful.

Picture via StyleBubble.

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Chinese steampunk action movie; superhero costumes; beautiful menswear; Julia Roberts, Evil Queen; catwalk makeup.

•  A new black-and-white silent film, set in the jazz age: The Artist (via The Oncoming Hope).

• Couture-style redesigns of X-Men costumes from artblog Project: Rooftop. (I love it when people link me to this kind of thing. Water-colour paintings of X-Men: YOU KNOW ME SO WELL.)
• In a similar vein: Superheroes in classic art, from How To Be A Retronaut. 
• This film looks STUNNING: Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame. The visual beauty of The Fall in what is described as "Sherlock Holmes meets Crouching Tiger", a Chinese steampunk story involving... well, I can't really tell aside from lots of awesome action sequences, a female martial-arts expert, some kind of super-sleuth, a dastardly plot, and dubstep music. So, basically... what is not to love?
•  Menswear crush: Hackett Autumn/Winter 2011 lookbook. SO MANY AWESOME SUITS!

• Another thing sent to me on Twitter: Jugend und Tolheit, a 1913 film about a woman who crossdresses and joins the army in order to be close to the man she loves. Ffff, I want to see this!
• BEAUTIFUL NONSENSE: Lily Collins and Julia Roberts as Snow White and the Evil Queen. These gowns are perfectly cartoonish. Also, is that one of Giles Deacon's Spring/Summer 2012 swan hats?
• Model-Morphosis. Photos of models with a slider to see their faces before and after catwalk makeup has been applied. I was actually surprised to see how little makeup they often seem to be wearing!

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