Hair From Beyond #5: Do the Clara Bow

It dawned on me the other day that I'd never styled short hair. I mean, sure, I've styled long hair into faux-bobs plenty of times, but actual, real short hair? Never. Conveniently, my flatmate happens to wear her hair cropped very short and very straight. Always up for a challenge, I marched straight into her room and declared I was turning her into Clara Bow for the evening. She never knew what hit her.

Clara Bow was one of the very first silver screen icons, THE 'it' girl of the 20s. As Anne Helen Petersen writes in this fabulous post for The Hairpin, "Girls wanted to be her, boys wanted to date her, and old people thought she was a sign of the apocalypse, which obviously meant she was star material".

And so I set to work curling, teasing and spraying, until I was moderately satisfied with the results. Now, you can't have a Clara Bow without the Clara Bow eyebrows. This posed a bit of a problem, as you can't really get Clara Bow eyebrows without plucking it all away, and my flatmate/beautiful model was (understandably) really not that keen. Thus I was forced to compromise and draw them in on top of her (partly concealed) natural eyebrow, but oh well.

~

Here I'm looking for Clara Bow, but all I see is Theda Bara...

Theda Bara

~

Model: Betty. Hair, make-up and photography by moi.

Outfits from Outer Space #3: Halloween

Better late than never, right?

Leaving you to ponder this for too long is potentially dangerous, so here's a distracting compilation of all my Halloween 2013 costumes.

1. Pop Art

This was put together very last-minute for MCM Comic Con, inspired by Roy Lichtenstein's art. Mostly it just involved orange face paint and a LOT of eyeliner. Drawing on those dots took fucking forever.

A very confused Castiel discovers pop art.

2. 50s movie character

After reading this inspiring blogpost, I decided to go greyscale for Halloween and aimed for a 50s-inspired look.

Top - Collectif

Skirt - Coast

Behind the scenes:

Originally, we were meant to go as a greyscale couple, but he flipped out when I brought out the eyeliner and wouldn't let me paint the rest of his face..

3. Last-minute Cruella De Vil

I got invited to a Disney pub crawl in Shoreditch, and was too lazy to go home and change, so I concocted this with what little clothes I had at my boyfriend's... Fun fact: I've owned this faux fur jacket since I was 6 years old and my cousin's bridesmaid. It's served me well.

People kept complimenting me on my 'white face makeup'... I wasn't wearing any. Sob.

4. Creepy nondescript Tim Burton character

Inspired by Emma Pickles' makeup tutorial, I wore this for Voodoo Rock Night. 

Corset - Primark

Skirt - Topshop

Armwarmers - Claire's

Annoyingly, it turned out to be one of those cases where everything looked better during the makeup test than on the actual night.

My eyebrows just wouldn't disappear!

5. ...And a minion

...What did YOU dress up as on Halloween?

The Vintage Family Album

An amazing photo album resurfaced at a family reunion last weekend...

My grandmother, age 20 (1946). This is seriously amazing, for at least 3 reasons.
1) She hasn't changed a bit.
2) I look a lot like her.
3)HAIR!

My great-aunt in the late 30s and 40s. The bathing suit shot on the right is so cool!

Fur and victory rolls...

1941

1958. Travelling in style!

Amazingly 80s... *cough*hats*cough*... The hottie on the far left is my mother.

So adorably 60s <3 I absolutely adore the short flower dress on the right.

A very 50s wedding...

This I find just incredible. It's my great uncle in his Tunisian army uniform,
presumably - judging by the photo style - in the late 30s.

Winter 1961.

Hilariously 70s... This is like a caricature of all the fashion faux-pas that characterised the era.
I promise I will never let the concerned parties live it down.

A 60s wedding...

...and more 60s partying goodness

French cafe terrace... I would love one of those bags in white. Or pale green.