I have been thinking about this, for ages. My mum keeps insisting in having a white lock on her sleek raven black hair. She is not a goth, her skin is not pale but olive and she doesn't wear black clothes...never! She is the typical latina who loves very! bright colours (such as lime green or bright orange) PUaghh..!. Umm.....I am not convinced. I don't know about her but what I know is that is a look that is hard to make work and it's high maintenance but actually, I reckon some people could pull it off, if:
1/ You are young, look young or even have a "young attitude"; in other words, if the white lock starts to look like you are not bother in covering your grey hair anymore, then it loses all its glamour. (Sorry, mum, I have decided it is going to be a "no").
As I mentioned in the 1st part of this "multi-post", this post is about the concept of "femme fatale", specifically film noir femme fatale. A femme fatale is a villainous woman who uses her sexuality to achieve her (usually selfish and maquiavelic) own gains. The expression is obviously french, meaning "fatal woman".
Femme fatales are usually portrayed as independent strong individuals with brains (something socially unacceptable back in those times). This, combined with a strong attractivenes and beauty, configures a deadly weapon to use successfuly on any man.
Everynow and again when I get approached and asked what my collections are about. I always answer "film noir". It is my main theme as well as black because it encompases a combination of my two main passions: Old Hollywood Glamour and Gothic or Dark. However, I am starting to suspect that not everyone has a clear clue of what film noir represents or "looks like".
Heroes (or anti-heroes), corrupt characters and villains included down-and-out, conflicted hard-boiled detectives or private eyes, cops, gangsters, government agents, a lone wolf, socio-paths or killers, crooks, war veterans, politicians, petty criminals, murderers, or just plain Joes. These protagonists were often morally-ambiguous low-lifes from the dark and gloomy underworld of violent crime and corruption. Distinctively, they were cynical, tarnished, obsessive (sexual or otherwise), brooding, menacing, sinister, sardonic, disillusioned, frightened and insecure loners (usually men), struggling to survive - and in the end, ultimately losing.
Storylines were often elliptical, non-linear and twisting. Narratives were frequently complex, maze-like and convoluted, and typically told with foreboding background music, flashbacks (or a series of flashbacks), witty, razor-sharp and acerbic dialogue, and/or reflective and confessional, first-person voice-over narration. Amnesia suffered by the protagonist was a common plot device, as was the downfall of an innocent Everyman who fell victim to temptation or was framed. Revelations regarding the hero were made to explain/justify the hero's own cynical perspective on life.
Film noir films (mostly shot in gloomy grays, blacks and whites) thematically showed the dark and inhumane side of human nature with cynicism and doomed love, and they emphasized the brutal, unhealthy, seamy, shadowy, dark and sadistic sides of the human experience. An oppressive atmosphere of menace, pessimism, anxiety, suspicion that anything can go wrong, dingy realism, futility, fatalism, defeat and entrapment were stylized characteristics of film noir. The protagonists in film noir were normally driven by their past or by human weakness to repeat former mistakes.
Film noir films were marked visually by expressionistic lighting, deep-focus or depth of field camera work, disorienting visual schemes, jarring editing or juxtaposition of elements, ominous shadows, skewed camera angles (usually vertical or diagonal rather than horizontal), circling cigarette smoke, existential sensibilities, and unbalanced or moody compositions. Settings were often interiors with low-key (or single-source) lighting, venetian-blinded windows and rooms, and dark, claustrophobic, gloomy appearances. Exteriors were often urban night scenes with deep shadows, wet asphalt, dark alleyways, rain-slicked or mean streets, flashing neon lights, and low key lighting. Story locations were often in murky and dark streets, dimly-lit and low-rent apartments and hotel rooms of big cities, or abandoned warehouses. [Often-times, war-time scarcities were the reason for the reduced budgets and shadowy, stark sets of B-pictures and film noirs.]
Some of the most prominent directors of film noir included Orson Welles, John Huston, Billy Wilder, Edgar Ulmer, Douglas Sirk, Robert Siodmak, Fritz Lang, Otto Preminger, Henry Hathaway and Howard Hawks.
Hello everyone! I hope you haven't lost your nerves over the stressful christmas shopping. I have been posting new items on my website. Here is one of the latest ones.
The Black Wardrobe has been reviewed on Alt Fashion magazine!
Back from the Shopping event (from last weekend) but still, busy as usual. I managed to find time to post the pics from the fair. I apologize in advance for the awful! quality of the pictures (they were taken with my mobile).
of the boutique where I sell my collection through and another designer, Andrea, who makes the petticoats herself. You can find their links here: http://www.theblackwardrobe.com/pages/links
Dear all, 
Here is a post for all those taxidermy enthusiasts, thrilling to do some christmas shopping. Yeah, that's right. You can shop real taxidermy in a real shop now.
