Archer, Sterling Archer

I'm really feeling this new show, Archer.  It's a mature-audience-only spy spoof on Fox that features a host of famous voices (including a trifecta of Arrested Development alumni) and swinging 60's styles.

Between this and the upcoming X-Men First Class movie (set during the Cuban Missile Crisis), I should get enough of a beehives-and-bakelite-bangles fix to make it to Season 5 of Mad Men.

So throw on your Kinks LP and zip up them go-go boots, we're going baaaack:

                                                                                                   



Silver FX hair dye



eBay seller: cookingcatlady




eBay seller: cupcake vintage





browline glasses



plaid bowtie, Etsy seller: dasiylaine

BCBG sweater dress                            leather hip belt                                      hammered silver hoops         

Christian Louboutin boots




<> 

ebay seller: 1918james                                     J.crew suit                   

 

Casablanca

Maria Bello in an undone tux look.

While I was unemployed I ran through the entire American Film Institute's Top 100 Movie list.  It was quite the UN-accomplishment.  Although, it felt good to finally see, in their entirety, those films that have become part of cultural zeitgeist and hear famous quotes as part of a greater dialogue.  I never knew what "Plastics" meant until I finally saw The Graduate.  And now, I can appreciate "the beginning of a beautiful friendship" in the full flower of it's context.

Casablanca  (1942) is so perspicuously beautiful, the moody film noir lighting especially (see above).  The costumes are simple and elegant, invoking the reality of unoccupied Africa without losing that Hollywood gleam.  Costumer Orry-Kelly won three Oscars for other films (Les Girls, Some Like It Hot, An American in Paris) and worked on countless other films over a thirty-year career.  When you watch classics like Irma La Deuce, The Maltese Falcon, 42nd Street, or Arsenic and Old Lace think of Orry-Kelly.

Orry-Kelly's official screen credit was often that of "Gowns", but he managed to make male leads like
Bogart, Stewart, and Grant look just as devastating as their female counterparts.
Then there was the time he had to make the male leads devastating AS females...



Orry-Kelly and Tony Curtis on the set of Some Like It Hot



Casablanca was based on a play, Everybody Comes to Rick's.  Several sell-traveled tales of the script sale involve it's comparison to the very successful film Algiers from a few years earlier.  It's often both ridiculed and lauded for the same reason - it is broad and easy to love.  The storyline and dialogue are corny (even by 1940's standards), the characters drawn and acted with wide strokes, and there is just enough tension to keep audiences entertained but not so much as to alienate anyone. 

It is romantic and appealing.

Hokum, but appealing.

This is why Casablanca lives on more Top Movies lists than any other title.  Yes, Citizen Kane (AFI's #1) is in many ways a superior effort, but it is far less lovable a film.  I quite like the Umberto Eco quote: "Two cliches make us laugh.  A hundred cliches move us".  Casablanca is such a series of stereotypes, made more powerful through simplicity. 

Casablanca.  Simple.  It epitomizes that Golden Hollywood era, all the sweeter for having passed.



 Pencey blazer ($498)

  
 



Vintage sewing patterns: sweetheart necklines, flounced peplums, bishop sleeves, etc...



Eugenia Kim fedora, almost as good as the real thing.



Vintage Yves Saint Laurent pencil skirt.  eBay seller: mintmallstore

Abaete 'Lilian' blazer ($298)



Vintage garbadine suit ($158) ebay seller: Violetville Vintage



Vintage 40s suit eBay seller: Mill Street Vintage

Vintage 40's dance pumps in navy satin and gold velvet.



For leather gloves with a vintage vibe, try: Portolano



The classic Burberry trench.

Jewelry Faceoff on the Upper East Side

For the last few weeks, Blake Lively has been sporting the same style of mixed media jewelery on Gossip Girl.  What the storyline lacks in consistency, Serena's neckpieces have been making up for.  Big bib necklaces have been appearing on the show since day one, but lately La Lively's are of a particular breed.  Every episode she dons a new tangle of metal chains, dotted with large roughewn stones. 

There are lots of knockoff versions of these out there: Fenton Fallon did a great line for J Crew, Banana Republic and Club Monaco make reasonable approximations, Madewell, Fiona Paxton, etc...
However, there are only two high-end contenders I think might be gracing Blake's clavicle.

Up first, Gemma Redux:

Secondly, Dannijo

According to the CW's blog, it's mostly Dannijo on the Serena VanDerWoodsen of 2010.  Kudos to the duo (sisters) for reaching such celebrity cult status. 


They've had a steep ascent since launching in 2007.  They now have an impressive website divided into 5 themes: Cult, Americana, Rock, Grace, and Boho.  I hope they continue to add breadth to their collection and break away from the teen soap opera set.

Lake Bell in Dannijo

.
.
So I guess there are really two Queens of the Upper East Side. 

At least... for now.

XOXO gillespiegirl

Klute

I adore Jane Fonda.  The majority of her film career came before my time, but that hasn't stopped me from emulating her onscreen style like so many others got to while the movies were still on the marquee. 

The most recently demonstrated Fondness for Fonda? Kim Kardashian's new Beach Bunny Swimwear line, which she claims is "inspired by Jane Fonda in the movie Barbarella, where she plays a super-sci-fi-sexy Queen of the Galaxy!"

While the reference is apt, it seems to have everything to do with the addition of a cosmonaut's helmet and lace up go-go boots rather than the plain white (*yawn*) string bikini Kim 'designed'.

It's hard to believe the same little actress embodied the space vixen Barbarella, desperate dance marathoner of They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, gunslinging Cat Ballou, and literate half of Stanley & Iris.  She's so versatile.  But far and away, my favourite Jane Fonda role is her 1971 turn as hard-boiled call girl Bree Daniels.  The thriller may have been named Klute, but it was all about Bree.

Like the acting, the costuming was pitch perfect and a prime reason for seeing the film.

That slinky sequin maxi-dress was a character all it's own, driving the action forward as Bree met with a client and then slowly disrobed back at her apartment, luring Klute all the while.  Some actresses have the ability to move inside their wardrobe in such a way that the sartorial comes to life.  Sarah Jessica Parker always seems to manage both hair-acting and clothes-acting, adding realism to her performances.  I love her for that.

While I don't have the lithe physique to pull off a full-body sequin sock with aplomb, I do intend to don some of The Fonda's other 70's looks:

Klute looks that keep on keeping on: feather choker, maxi skirts, saturated jewel tones, feathery false lashes and pale lips, neutral turtlenecks, chunky leather accessories, poet sleeve blouses, suede vests, leather-piped camel trench, knee or thigh-high boots.

Klute looks that didn't quite make it to 2010: skirts so short they might as well be belts, tank tops sans brassiere, shaggy mullet, having sex for money.