This weekend, in between coats of paint in my living room, I ended up Netflixing The Wings of the Dove, which is of course a fantastically self-indulgent period piece based on a Henry James novel featuring Helena Bonham Carter in an infinite amount of silly hats and the long, flowing Grecian-style dresses, hobble skirts, and fancy umbrellas of the early 20th century. (Which in turn lead to the usual internet k-hole of historical fashion research…expect a post-Victorian pre-20s image dump post soon!) Though it wasn’t intentional, I think this was on my mind when I put this together — the Fortuny-esque pleats of the skirt and the wide V-neck definitely mimic those silhouettes that I’ve been compulsively saving to my hard drive for the past week.
I wore this to work with a frumpy cardigan and my crazy hair down and felt like it was really casual albeit a lil’ witchy, but once I braided my hair up (stupid half-grown out bangs and increasingly enormous mane can be solved by two things only: a series of messy french braids pulled back into a high bun, or 60s-esque teasing and a bottle of hairspray with a headband) it suddenly looked unexpectedly formal. Same with my day-to-day makeup here: matte foundation, a slight cat-eye that starts only at the edge of your eye (rather than tracing the lid), a shimmery white powder at the inner corner of your eye, mascara, and a matte red lipstick takes about 4 minutes to do and with the right clothes seemed suddenly very classic Hollywood glamour. (Softboxed speedlite to improvise butterfly/George-Hurrell-esque lighting doesn’t hurt with photographing it that way, either — shh!)
skirt h+m
tank h+m
wedges opening ceremony
