Life's a Drag, and then you sparkle...

So I went to see Priscilla Queen of the Desert: The Musical the other day, accompanied by my dear friend, fellow Barbie-worshipper and partner in theatrical-watching crime, the lovely Anthony, and let me tell you, the costumes were FABULOUS, with a capital Ooh! Aah! And an Oh Yes Please!!

Now the costumes in the original movie were pretty darn superb, and quite rightly won the oscar for costume design in 1994 - all the more astounding given the tendency of the Academy to be blind to all but the frilled frippery of a good old period romp. Impressive too because of the low budget designers Lizzy Gardiner and Tim Chappel were working with, (though perhaps all the more innovative because of this fact), and those in the show have been done by the same team - but there's more of them!! So where can I start? With the dresses shaped like cupcakes; green with multi-colour spots and candle headdresses? The dresses shaped like paintbrushes, pink and shiny with black tinsel skirts? The whole scene of Australian-themed costumes - Kookaburras, those big lizard things with the neck frills, the cutest lavender fluffy koalas, ahhhh! Seriously, for those with any interest in costume, this is something you simply have to see. (And don't be telling me you haven't even seen the movie...What's that? You haven't? Go stand in the corner...)

And of course, how can I forget the flip-flop dress, as seen here, and in the movie? Apparently inspired by Gardiner's Dad falling alseep outside in the hot Australian sun on a pile of the family's flip-flops, and waking to find them stuck to his body, but also by the flip-flop being an Australian icon...which I would have proved to you with a link, dear readers, except that down under, the flip-flop is called a thong, and you can only imagine what horrors google threw up the minute I approached it with ‘thong dress’...

Now, for some, drag will mean panto dames, but for me, its only ever about the sequins and the glamour...and Priscilla: The Musical certainly has buckets of these - is this a start of a trend in the West End? Oh I do hope so...

Fantastic garbs...succeed each other, like monster devouring monster in a dream.

Thomas Carlyle (1795 - 1881)

I'm Frock Dolly, Fly Me...

I spent a lot of time on planes when I was but a wee frock dolly, and although the food probably made the most impact (to this day I prefer my dinner in separate compartments!), I cannot forget the beautiful air stewardesses and of course, their outfits! Today, my nearest tube station is on the line to Heathrow airport, and I often see neatly turned out airline staff on their way to work – so precise and well-groomed! Maybe I’m just jealous, or perhaps a little bit scared of their Stepford-like perfection (and the fine line they walk between the latest super glamorous Virgin Atlantic advert and their potential to suddenly take up heels and march on the capital…)

Now, those lovely ladies you can see above are from Gulf Air, who managed to combine Arabian culture and modesty with a certain flair for style - the uniforms even underwent a re-design by Balenciaga in the 1990s, which I suppose shows just how importance elegance in the skies is to some airlines....

However, is it just me, or do they look a little bit too much like this..?

Anyway, if it wasn't for a lady called Ellen Church, who in 1930 persuaded Boeing that having women aboard planes would soothe nervous passengers, we wouldn't be able to enjoy all these delights. Considering what Miss Church would have had to wear - and, natty as those outfits are, would you have been soothed? - I think we've come a long way!

Air Stewardesses have been dressed in everything from Pucci print jumpsuits with plexi-glass bubble helmets (yes really, apparently ideal for protecting the coiffures of the famous Braniff Babes from wind when walking to the terminal) to hot-pants and kinky boots (Southwest Airlines winning no prizes for taste in the 1970s), salwar-kameez and sarongs (Air India and SIA respectively). Even our lovely Barbie had a go, though by the 90s, she had progressed from pushing a trolley of barely edible re-heated meat, to flying the plane. No bubble helmet for her, thank you...

A man becomes the creature of this uniform.

Napoleon (1769 - 1821)

My Kind of Girl...

Oh Barbie, with your tiny feet and impossible proportions, I don't care that if you were real you would fall over, or that your perma-blonde hair and twinkly blue eyes might not be the best stereotype for young girls to have around (actually, no, that would be Bratz, brrrr), I just know that you're my little plastic friend, and more importantly, I want your clothes! And aside from wanting to wear them all, I want to make them into art projects! Possibly...

Now you see, I've gone and gotten myself distracted by looking for perfect illustrative Barbie pics and instead finding all sorts of other things, like the fact that the original ad for Peaches & Cream Barbie (yes, thats her up there - I hope you're looking after her Anthony!) is on youtube, don't make me post the link as that'll mean going back there, and half the reason I got distracted was the HUGE list of 'related videos' which were all divine 80s Barbie adverts *sigh* However, I will give you this, the first ever advert for Barbie, back when, admittedly, the living doll's career options were limited to...erm...dressing pretty and getting married...

But anywaaaaay, Barbie's come a long way since then; she's been an astronaut, run for president, and my personal favourites (mainly through receiving them as an entirely unexpected Christmas present last year), been transformed into, amongst other DC comic book characters, Batgirl and Black Canary. She's even, and see how this ties neatly into my previous post (I am SO getting the hang of this blog thing!), been Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra.

Oh, I can't possibly fit all I want to say about Barbie into one post, so until the next time (and there will be a next time), go here and try not to spend as much time cooing at the screen as I may well have done in the past...


You know you've made it when you've been moulded in miniature plastic. But you know what children do with Barbie dolls - it's a bit scary, actually.
Cate Blanchett

Cleopatra, coming atcha...

Have you seen Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra? Isn't she/it the most fabulous thing? Ok, so the costumes have less to do with Ancient Egypt and more to do with what was fashionable at the time (and what would show La Taylor's splendid décolletage to its best advantage), the one above, for example, is a beauty.

But who cares? 4 hours and 65 costumes later, I defy you not be sit there in stupefied wonder at the gold! The Sequins! The Glitter! At $194,800 the budget for lovely Liz's wardrobe was the highest ever for a single screen actor, and included one dress actually made from 24 carat gold cloth (I'm hoping it's this one). Nice asp indeed...

I had a friend who wrote her dissertation on the many different versions of the Cinderella story (we never agree about The Slipper and the Rose, I love, she hates)), and I think (were I at college again with vastly sympathetic tutors) I would do the same for the many versions of Cleopatra out there, from the smoky eyes/string of pearls of silent movies to 'Cleopatra 2525', which judging by the imdb plot summary, is something I can't believe I missed. But then, off I went a-googling, and it appears it's already been done. Darn.

In an epoch as somber as ours, one must fight for luxury inch by inch.

Christian Dior (1905 - 1957)

She Who Sews, Wins...

Are you brave enough to attempt making up a John Galliano pattern? Yes? You have great big fashionista steel cojones? Well then, here you go. Ok, ok, so its not the frock in the picture above, more on that later...

I downloaded this pattern a couple of years back and I have to admit I've never had the courage to do more than stare wistfully at it on my screen. But it appears others have not been so cowardly, and there are pictures of their results that make me think, hey, now might just be the time...

Talking of Galliano (as we were), what a beautiful freaky genius that man is. Whether he is inspired by homeless people living alongside the Seine, or an aerial tour of Egypt (that'll be the one above, reviewed better than I ever could here), his designs never fail to take my breath away...and make me trill the same coo-ing noise I tend to reserve for exceptionally beautiful shoes (there will definitely be more on them later...)

Now I was going to cunningly link this into some chat about the costumes worn by Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra, but I'm afraid that will just have to wait...to keep you amused during the wait (which may be an hour, or two weeks, depending on how distracted I am by fabric!), why not try this.

Show me the clothes of a country and I can write its history.

Anatole France (1844 - 1924)