inspiration: femme fatales by niagara

Run by Niagara

darksilenceinsuburbia posted this image quite some time ago, but it's only now that i got around to digging up a bit more information about the artist. a little bit of Litchenstein, a dash of Warhol, swirl it up with a love of ladies with guns in film history and there you have it: the art of Niagara.

her femme fatales evoke some of the most powerful women from the golden age of cinema, joan crawford, bette davis, clara bow... not to mention the "pretty faces" like veronica lake and jane russell. i'm personally drawn to the bold and tough attitude the women have, and totally have my own empowering feminist interpretation of them. here are a few of my favourites:

Bang Bang


Double Shot


I'm Pretty When I'm Angry


Don't Fuck with Me

Fuck Off Outta Here

Double Back

not to mention, the artist herself has quite an impressive and interesting story. she fronted the band Destroy All Monsters (who, as a fan of MC5, i am quite surprised i had never heard of before). here's a picture of her having quite a time in the late 70s:

plus, thurston moore of sonic youth helped to put together a compilation of Destroy All Monsters' music in 1994, since they had never formally recorded. here she is hanging with two of my favourite people, thurston moore and kim gordon.




she seems all around quite badass to me.

current (long) hair inspiration

things are hectic, happening, hilarious in my life at the moment and i'm away from the computer trying to soak it all up. you would not believe the amount of writing i have in the "drafts" folder on my dashboard, nor the ridiculous amounts of inspiration being thrown at me every single day. so it is not for lack of fodder that i have been absent! rather, lack of time alone with my thoughts and my words.

in the meantime, dear readers, you get some lovely fluff.

in mid-august, my partner's mother gave me a nice set of bangs. the amount of hair i have on my head at the moment is still shocking and surprising to me, but i must admit i am really enjoying it. so in lieu of actual critical discourse about the politics of hair length/texture/colour, i'm simply going to post pictures of people who always made me want to have the haircut i am currently rocking.

needless to say a lot of them are french brunettes.

julie doiron



cat power circa "you are free"



jane birkin






françoise hardy


seriously style icon for life.



eline ros


aretha!

and of course, uncredited images from tumblr











hedy scott, playboy 1965

and with this last heat wave of the summer, i really just feel like doing this:



happy last days of summer!

what i wore today: femme tea party

pervers/cité is happening in montreal this week, and let me tell you i am wishing i could be there. yesterday, there was a femme tea party happening in montreal at parc jarry from two to five. seriously, how can you resist an awesome (bilingual!) invitation like this one:

Mixer for femmes of all genders and our friends! Come frolic in all your finery and enjoy a terribly refined afternoon of iced tea, cupcakes, games and a fabulous femme photoshoot. Rain or shine.

seriously. what femme is not reading that and thinking "AH I WISH I COULD HAVE BEEN THERE!"

if you're like me, and couldn't make it there, what would you have worn? instead of moping around about the fact that i couldn't meet up with some of my wonderfully sexy montrealer queers, like my friend jesse, i decided to get dressed up anyway, even though i just had a pretty dreary lazy sunday at home and running errands.

here's my outfit:

vintage hat + veil: emmaüs thrift store, qc
necklace: gift from meghan
shirt: zara, thrifted from le vestiaire
black shawl: le vestiaire
gloves: from le vestiaire
sandals: thrifted from village des valeurs, qc.


and then i had tea for one.

did any of my readers out there attend the femme tea party? i can't wait to see the results of the photoshoot! what did you wear? what kinds of conversations did you have? how gorgeous did everyone look?

oh yes! and i almost forgot, i have a little announcement: yeah, sure, i love writing about fashion culture from a critical feminist perspective here, but i like to write about other things, too! film, for one! shameless mag invited me to cover film fridays over there starting next week. i can't decide whether to start with the runaways or youth in revolt... comment there to make requests and all that jazz.

until then,

xo
julia

recommending reading browsing
pervercité - official website
fuck yeah femmes - tumblr
5 feminist conversations i'm over - number 6!

what i wore: perfect july dance outfit

photos by simon dumas

these were taken near dolores de hidalgo, as liliana, simon and i made our way in search of the san luis potosi desert in early july. it was so much fun to stop and take pictures along the way of our trip, and i'll share more of my favourites on flickr and perhaps here in the near future.

as i was dancing to the music blaring from our little rental car in the middle of nowhere, mexico, i realized that this is potentially my absolute favourite dancing outfit. and i remembered the very first time i wore it: june 2008, at pride in toronto. i had just purchased the skirt from a vintage store across the street at a very discounted price, and hadn't quite found a good way to accessorize it. the day before pride, though, at my best friend morgan's encouragement, i decided to go with a semi-rainbow theme, even though i often find it a bit... ridiculous. sequins, glitter, boas, i can go for and wholeheartedly endorse. even rainbow suspenders, or belts, etc. but a whole rainbow outfit? i wasn't sure it would work. but! in fact it's really just four bright colours.

what to wear to pride is always a big conundrum. there are a whole host of factors a queer must take into consideration:

1. hotness, of course. and by hotness i mean you gotta be sexy. clearly this definition/requirement changes for everyone, depending on tastes (style wise and sex wise of course). looking sexy, however is not nearly as important as...
2. feeling sexy.
   
3. practicality. this goes extra if you're in the dyke march or any type of parade you've gotta prepare yourself for lots of walking... and that ain't so easy in your favourite pair of 4 inch heels.
4. weather. pride in toronto falls at the end of june or early july, which is usually when it just starts to get to that smoldering summer heat us canadians long for during our excessively long winters.
5. and, of course, there is the stereotype that gay men are the harshest fashion critics. are you going to dress for yourself, or for them? (my vote is always to dress for yourself)
   

for me, this was definitely my pick for best pride outfit. it was great for the heat (although i really wished my hair had been a few inches shorter), for dancing in the parade, for flirting with cute queers, for seeing friends i hadn't seen in months and even years, and last but not least topping off the night dancing to a free hidden cameras show.

while in mexico, i realized that i still love and wear that outfit that i first wore exactly two years ago! but, with my long hair and glasses, i feel like i look a lot different.

aa dress (yeah i know, gift from an ex) worn as strapless top
vintage circle skirt from king of kensington
(i lived on kensington ave. for 8 months and managed to buy this skirt and one other dress... an incredible feat considering my affection for vintage, the selection on the street, and the fact that i was actually flush with cash during that brief time in my life)
vintage shoes from st. vincent de paul, peterborough
leather satchel from value village, ste. foy
wooden necklace from now closed vintage store, montreal

with some lovely ex-peterboroughites, melissa and muna, taking a break from the heat at pride 2008, toronto

OMG J.D. SAMSON
this doesn't really have anything to do with this post or my outfit other than
OMG I MET J.D. SAMSON AND TOTALLY FANGIRLED

so tell me! what do you wear to pride events? do you have a favourite outfit that you first wore years ago and can see yourself wearing years from now?

what i wore: lucha libre

when we told pati, the housekeeper at la casa d'escritor in mexico city, that we were going on a date to the lucha libre, she exclaimed: "wearing THAT?!" i was wearing what i normally wear on a nice summer day; a simple red knee-length dress with white piping, and comfortable sandals. no no no, she insisted. i should wear a t-shirt and jeans.

ha! me, in a t-shirt and jeans. i thought...

why not.

for those of you who know me in person or have seen what outfits i have posted online... well, i am hardly a t-shirt and jeans kind of person. in fact, i do not and have not owned jeans in a good three or four years now. but my relationship to denim and pants is a whole other story... i scrambled through simon's closet and dug out two of my favourite of his clothing. seriously doubting my ample hips would be able to squeeze into his already skin-tight jeans, i gave it a go anyway. pairing it with his awesome "SCREAMING FLAMING OHMYGAW EAGLE" t-shirt, as we love to call it, a gift from a stylish belgian friend, i found i looked, in fact, quite badass.

and here is some proof.

photos by simon, edited by me.

honestly i've found many people's concerns about what i "should" and "should not" be wearing on the streets of one of the world's largest cities slightly exagerrated... but that said, i really did not end up spending much time in the city itself, and only went out by myself once. in fact, my experience with mexico city have really reminded me of people's reactions when i first moved to toronto: omg you can't ever go out by yourself/wearing that/in neighbourhood x/don't talk to strangers/etc. this is something i could really go on about at length but! another day, another time.

i have three days left in this wonderful country; tonight we are going to celebrate at los toros in colima, simon's favourite bar in the world. tomorrow, we are waking up early, packing a bus with food and friends, and celebrating our three year anniversary while playing in the waves of the pacific ocean. sunday, a goodbye party in mexico city. monday, we catch our flights back to québec city.

i know july has been slow here posting-wise, but believe you me i'll have LOTS to share with everyone in august, i promise.

self-portraits: characters/decay

a bad habit of mine i've been trying to change is actually sharing some of the thousands of photos i take. i still have ones from last fall i took with the explicit goal of sharing them here and other places online... but here they are, still stagnating and find ways to get lost on my harddrive. but not this time.

on my last day in quebec city before i head to mexico via toronto, i decided to sneak into an apartment in the midst of renovations with some tools of my own: vintage dresses, lingerie, jewelry and of course my trusty pentax. the canon rebel doing the photo taking is courtesy of my wonderful friend ben. here are a handful of the results... i'll upload a few more to flickr later.

also, off-topic: i'm looking for inspiration for a new layout. i still have a lot of love for the one susanna made for me, but i keep thinking back to why i made this blog in the first place... it's time for something more streamlined so you can easily see where else i post online, and an atmosphere that fosters more comments and discussions (i don't know about you guys, but i really dislike the way blogger handles comments and have been seriously considering moving to something more like wordpress). one of my main goals with this blog was to generate discussions and i often end up feeling like we don't get the chance to respond to one another individually.

aside from that aspect, aesthetically i'd really love something vintage inspired and classic, kind of like clevernettle, verhext, celine pinckers or katerina d'autremont. or perhaps i should just go the simple route and go for a nice header, something like cardboard sea has, or the wonderful nikki dekker. last but not least, what do you bloggers use for stat counter? i've been applying for guest blogging positions and things of the sort and the one i've been using for a month is not really cutting it. if anyone has any tips in this html department, suggestions of how to make or adapt your own layouts, your favourite blog layouts, etc, send me an email (juliacaron AT gmail DOT com) or leave a comment! sorry for all the technical boring discussions.

hiatus: on the road

as you may have noticed, i have been away from the internet for the past little while and will have sporadic access for another week or two. i miss you guys, but it's been a good break. the more time i spend away from the internet, the more i think about what i love about social media and, let's be honest, what i hate about it. remembering what is so great about dis/re/connecting...

but to be brief: i've been having some really amazing experiences here in mexico and i can't wait to write about them and share them with family and friends. i've been listening to (and trying to understand) a lot of spanish, learning how to use an SLR, taking many rolls of film, and traveling all over the place with strangers, lovers, and best friends. writing, thinking, singing, and laughing. i lost my moleskin in estacion de catorze, sadly, but i'm telling myself it is probably the world's way of telling me i may need a fresh start. july has been all about renewal.

to tide you over until i provide you with some more cultural criticism and fashion discussions, here is a mix i made for our nine day road trip through distrio federal, san luis potosi, queretaro, and veracruz. it starts off dancy and ends mellow and slow, with a lot of simon's favourites scattered throughout (i thought i should cater to his tastes seeing as he did all of the driving over the course of nine days). enjoy!

1. a sweet summer's night on hammer hill - jens lekman
2. down in mexico - the coasters
3. swimming - martha & the muffins
4. on vacation - the robot ate me
5. odessa - caribou
6. 16th & valencia, roxy music - devendra banhart
7. timebomb - beck
8. IRM - charlotte gainsbourg
9. desert eagle - ratatat
10. texico bitches - broken social scene
11. you're the one - the black keys
12. drivin' on 9 - the black keys
13. summer light - the cave singers
14. you're dead - richard laviolette
15. game shows - plants and animals
16. wet road - scout niblett
17. jesus loves me - cocorosie
18. chocolate jesus - tom waits

download here

as always, if you like the songs, support the artists by buying their cds
at your local record store and going to their shows!