STYLE ICONS

Even though it's not art, recently I have been thinking about women I admire for their own style, perhaps style I could even borrow.  The Style Icon list:  it's girly and it's typical of a blog.  But anyways, we'll just go with it.

There are very few people in the world I admire.  Sadly, even fewer of them are women.  And while we think we have inspirational figures, we only know what we know from the filtered sources we get them through.  This said, I think I found a few that inspire me, even if they are fictitious on some level.

KATE LANPHEAR- Elle Style Director.  Seriously, I've decided I will try to clone myself after this woman.  She only wears white, gray, and black, is never sexy but cool, loves goth and metal accessories, and her haircut is totally rad. 

TILDA SWINTON- She's a weird-looking woman, and I don't know that much about her personal style, but she looks awesome in the shoot Another Magazine did with her.  She seems generally eccentric, and she has the same haircut as Ms. Lanphear, both pluses for me.

SIOUXSIE SIOUX- Maybe it's just the make-up and the attitude.  And I  want one of these 70s punk boob shirts.

KRISTEN STEWART as JOAN JETT- Originally I was going to put in the real Joan Jett, but her style is actually kind of lame most of the time. Kristen Stewart made her look much cooler in The Runaways, even if it is sacrilege to say that.  I respect Joan Jett for her rock pioneering, but I have to admit I never wanted to give her band, the Runaways, a chance because of that super ugly haircut they were all sporting in the 70s stolen from David Bowie.  Kristen somehow made it look better and the movie stirred all the old desires in me to have a band.

VIVIENNE WESTWOOD- Even now she is still a bad ass weirdo with dyed hair and lots of make up.  I can totally see myself making this face when I get old.

QUEEN ELIZABETH I- Maybe I can't really dress like this these days, but the level of power she was able to portray through massive jewels, huge ruffs, the stark white face and bright red hair, while never marrying and ceding the throne, make her a total icon of feminism to me, and we know where Ms. Westwood is taking her cues.

CATE BLANCHETT as QUEEN ELIZABETH- OK, again, a movie actress and a stylist make a difference in how a person is perceived historically, but Cate Blanchett was especially hot in the younger days of Elizabeth. 

KATHERINE HEPBURN- She liked to wear pants in the 30s and was known as kind of a bitch.  

COCO CHANEL- It's cheesy to use Chanel as a style icon, I know.  Again with the movies:  I didn't know how rad she was until I saw the biopic with Audrey Tautou in Chanel.  I always thought she was rich, but it turns out she was ingenious at manipulating men with money into helping her create her super famous fashion label.  She was also responsible for taking women out of the girdle and putting them into cool working class outfits like stripy fisherman shirts and pants.

AUDREY HORNE in TWIN PEAKS- aka Sherilyn Fenn, the bad rich girl.  She constantly stirred up trouble with Agent Dale Cooper and was way cooler than those skinny bitches.

VELVET in THRASHIN- aka Sherilyn Fenn again!  This time she was the uber cool bad girl skater chick/girlfriend of the anti-hero skater group who were against the blond, goody-two-shoes skater group.  She had teased hair and cropped shirts and cross earrings.  Duuude.

IVY in the NEW 90210- aka Gillian Zinser.  WTF is my problem?  This is a total guilty pleasure.  I thought I would hate the new version, and I kind of do, especially with the creepy super skeletal girls that replaced the 90s cast.  Without Brenda I am forced to like the surfer chick of the show, who is the only one who doesn't look like she rolled around the mall for hours and came out looking like a Bratz doll.  And I wanted one of these ponchos ever since I saw Point Break and then in 1994 I made my Santa Cruz cousin give me his.

TYLER in POINT BREAK- aka Lori Petty, the only surfer chick in the movie.  What even happened to her?  Like the 90210 reference, I think I only like the idea of being a surfer because I grew up in the woods.  I don't think her style was that great, but I like her messed up hair and her off-the-shoulder 90s wear.

CHAN MARSHALL- Doesn't she just look like she doesn't have any fucking problems?

TAVI GEVINSON- The teen blogger of Style Rookie is one of the only people I can imagine rocking gray hair.  Maybe at 31 it would look like it was real, instead of cute.  Still, do I take style cues from a 15 year old?  Yes I do. 

VALERIE STEELE- This amazing woman is a true icon, as an incredibly intelligent scholar of Fashion Theory.  Don't scoff- she's written a ton of books on subjects from fetishism to goth and she is the director and curator of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology.  Often these scholars research so much about dress that they sort of implode and give up even trying, but she looks amazing in her all-black ensembles.

What's the lesson in all of this off the topic post?  Even though I have graduated school and am now an adult, it doesn't make my identity crystal clear.  I'm not a punk anymore, nor am I a girl, or a student.  These women give me ideas on how to dress as an adult but I believe there is no such thing as true personal style.  You can be one person one day, and someone else the next, as long as you stay inspired.

All photos found through Google.