Sunday 22 August 2010

Edinburgh Style


My first discovery at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival was that people are very into their Daniel Day Lewis-esque method acting. If they are appearing in a period drama, they will approach you in the street as if you are part of said drama, which is kind of sweet but a little unnerving. Some of the costumes were pretty fantastic, though, such as the woman in yellow, above (only shattering the image by talking furiously into her mobile phone about meeting her friends). The attention to detail is admirable, down to her bag and hat, but the dress does remind me of those strange crinoline lady dolls or the equally bizarre loo roll cosies featuring women with generously-bustled dresses. Maybe that would explain why I saw her, an hour later, still trying to meet up with her friends. They obviously didn't want to be seen with her...



The second image here was taken right in the middle of the festivities, truly demonstrating the determination of a drag queen. I will never understand how anyone can wear heels when walking on cobbled streets, but here the feat (excuse the pun) looks like a small one. Drag queen style is particularly fascinating because it ignores most conventional boundaries and then sticks two fingers up to them. Here we can witness the combination of fake fur and disco leggings in August, without batting an eyelid.


The third image is a piece of performance art on the Royal Mile. Nope, I have no idea what it was about, either. I saw the simplicity of the basic white dress as a kind of blank canvas for what would follow, allowing you to perceive events for yourself. In a festival full of gaudiness and shouting and some very worrying dancing, it was great to see something gentler take shape.

Tuesday 10 August 2010

Corporeality


Above is a photo of me (taken by my friend, without me realising!) the day after I had an operation on my toe. Yeah, that's me cleaning up my shoe after things got a bit bloody. Somewhat logically, after all the toe stuff, I decided to wear my skeleton jumper - you could say I was feeling a little more aware of the ins and outs of my body after watching it get stitched up and constantly re-bandaged! And the leopard print dress underneath (seen as a skirt) is one of my favourites. The scary thing is that leopard print is 'in' for this Autumn/Winter, and I just hope it doesn't put me off because scarcely a day goes by when I don't have something on that features it. But I hate wearing what everyone else does - where's the originality in it? I take elements of the high street and photoshoots from magazines and work them into my existing wardrobe and hope for the best, but I would never want to look like a clone. It's nice to express your personality in your dress sense, and not someone else's.
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