TANK GIRL!!

My icon is Tank Girl..

tank girl is a cartoon strip written by Alan Martin and illustrated by the wonderful Jamie Hewlett (who now does the illustrations of The Gorillaz.. and makes me wish i had an under bite.

 Tank Girl (real name Rebecca Buck) drives and lives in a tank. She rides around in post- apocalyptic Australia ( mainly because Hewlett didnt want to draw any buildings..) She enjoys sex, violence, vomitting, spitting and drunkeness. She has a boyfriend called Booga and he is a mutant kangaroo. Tank Girl definately wears the trousers in the relationship, he does whatever Tank Girl tells him to do this includes all of the cooking and murder...

Tank Girl is often called Tank Grrl- a reference to Riot Grrl the underground feminist punk movement. She is definately a punk, she scavanges the post-apocalypic landscape to find clothes, she makes boob tubes from  the ripped up coat tails of her enemies, socks become armbands, a skinned kangaroos head becomes a hat, a bead necklace is made from tranquilisers, all worn with big old workman boots and unconsealed weapons... here are a few of favourite outfits...

Tank girl doesn't have a soft maternal side at all she is mean and nasty, she didn't care for anyone but herself, and she has never considered the consequences of her actions on those around her. There is little plot to the comic, she doesnt have any superpowers and does not act at all for the greater good. In one issue she makes a pact with satan for 3 wishes... Firstly, she wants a giant can of beer... secondly, a guest spot of the Dame Edna show and finally, to avoid Satan's retribution, she wishes that satan was Peter saville.

The comic was made into a film in 1995 starring Lori Petty as Tank Girl, Naomi Watts as Jet girl and malcolm Mcdowell as the vilain Kesslee...Although, it was a commercial and critical flop, I really liked the clothes...

Arianne Phillips made the costumes (who incidently made the costumes for another 90s cultural ICON Courtney Love who starred in The People Vs. larry Flint with Woody Harrelson... 

 And she also made the costumes for Goth cult movie The Crow...

 But I digress..
There are 27 costume changes in the Tank Girl film, including eye colour changes.. Here are some photographs of Lori Petty taken by photographer David Lachapelle for The Face magazine..

 

And I love her hairstyles...

Tank girl has definately influenecd fashion in a big way. Famous model used by Vivianne Westwood, sarah Stockbridge, was dressed up as tank Girl in a famous fashion spread..

The image was used in countless magazines such as Elle and The Face. They cited her as a crucial influence on 'Bad Girl Fashion', (shaven head, piercings and tattoos..)I found this quote on a website from an unknown source...
"She was Thelma and Louise before the fact; she was Mad Max designed by Vivienne Westwood, Action Man designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier. She had style, wit and attitude in abundance and she’d spit in your eye and kick you in the nuts if you said different."

Manolo Blahnik

Manolo Blahnik's name has become synonymous with beautifully crafter, highly desirable theatrical shoes that ooze originality, style and exuberance. for four decades his unique vision has held the fashion world spellbound. His design process begin with colour-rich sketchs that are so finely excuted they are often sough-after as the shoes themselves. Here you can peruse over 150 of these witty, seductive drawings.

Manolo Blahnik is one of the worlds most influence shoes designers, his career has spanned over 40 years.  His designs are known for being spell blinding, this has developed him a loyal followers across the globe.

During the 1970’s he meet Diana Vreeland, the then editor-in-chief for American Vogue, who encouraged him to stop being a set designer and concentrate on his show designs.

To study the craft of shoe design and production he visited shoe factories and talked to machine operators, pattern cutters and technicians, by 1971 he was making shoes and in 1973 he opened his first store in Chelsea. 

Manolo has won servile designs awards including,

Council of fashion designers of America

1987 – Special award

1997 - the stiletto

1990 - Accessory designer of the year

British fashion council

1990 – accessory designer of the year

1999 – accessory designer of the year

Manolo hates platform and hoped they never come back into fashion, his favorite designs are his shoes heels as the styles are always chagning but his most popular selling shoes are his slingbacks.

First shoes commisson, 1971 for  Ossie Clark.

Manolo uses his illustration as art works with serval book all about them.

On cushion, scarfs and bags, these products we made for the Libert pop up shop.

He now has stores across the globe including China, London, Germany, Japan, Korea, Kuwait, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Turkey, UK, USA.

New york

London

Dubia

During 2010 he also had a pop up store in Liberty London, this was a special event where for he designed shoes from Libertys prints, the store was open for 3 1/2 months. The stock inculded shoes, scarfs, cushion, chairs, books and cards.

Manolo also has books published that are didicated to his illustartions. He enjoyed doing the illustration for these books as he was able to sit and draw all day which has become a source of pleasure for him.

Manolo designed the shoes for the film Marie Antoinette. He was choosen by Miliena Canonero (who won an oscar for the costumes in the film" because Manolo creates characters with his shoes, the shoes are comfortable so can be worn all day while filming while still being beautiful and elegant designed. the shoes he designed for this movie have a sense of lightness, elegance and extravange as well as humour.

Manolos shoes have constandly been featured in Sex and the City by Carrie Bradshore (by 2000 he was a household name because her), who loves her shoes to the piont where she has spent over $40,000 on shoes. Has even been an espidoe about her love for her Manolos when a pair go missing. 
A Womans Right To Shoes

Manolo "I adore Ms. Parker. the character she has played has had such a role in my career - i cannot help but regard them both as muses!"

Manolo talent for creating flattering, feminine, sexy shoes. The heels are high, colours striking and materials diverse. As always the art is in the detail. 

The reason that I love Manolo shoes is that, they look like they belong in a fairy tale for a princess. Therefore letting the everyday woman start a transformation from ordinary into a glamorous princess or a sex siren for the night. Although i do find his illustration far more appealing then the shoes, but i think that is beacuse the drawing are limitless impossible where as the shoes are real and need to be worn so the heal cant be quite as high, the arch of the foot as curved.

 

 

ANNA WINTOUR

My Muse is Anna Wintour.
Her style is always impeccable!  I love her.

She was born November 3, 1949, is the British-born editor-in-chief of American Vogue, a position she has held since 1988.
With her trademark pageboy bob haircut and sunglasses, Wintour has become an institution throughout the fashion world, widely praised for her eye for fashion trends and her support for younger designers.

Her reportedly aloof and demanding personality has earned her the nickname "Nuclear Wintour".

She is always at the Front Row of the majority of Catwalk & Fashion Shows.



Stylish

 Looking tired, but Elegant

And to millions of people to whom her power is less real (who know her only in connection with “The Devil Wears Prada”) she is also a symbol: the small cross-armed woman in the front row, inscrutable behind her dark glasses and self-protecting English bob, her effect equal parts terrifying and calm, like the centre of the storm she has dominated for two decades.

 Classy

  

If there is one thing that no one doubts about Anna Wintour, the editor of Vogue, it is her power. To many she is the dominant figure in the fashion world, her influence greater than any contemporary editor and running close to a press baron, because she has sought through her magazine and its spinoffs to set the agenda for an industry and through her civic causes, like the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to influence the cultural life of New York.

And to millions of people to whom her power is less real (who know her only in connection with “The Devil Wears Prada”) she is also a symbol: the small cross-armed woman in the front row, inscrutable behind her dark glasses and self-protecting English bob, her effect equal parts terrifying and calm, like the centre of the storm she has dominated for two decades.

In more recent years she has made young designers her mission. This could be her legacy as an editor, though it may be a mixed one. She helped lay the groundwork for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, which, after years of industry lip service, provides the first practical support for young talent.

But many fashion insiders and critics feel that by promoting labels of dubious design merit but with an obvious social or power connection, like Georgina Chapman of Marchesa, whose companion is the producer Harvey Weinstein, she leaves herself open to the complaint that her magazine promotes a kind of a pedantry.--From "Citizen Anna" by Cathy Horyn, Feb.1, 2007.

The New York Times.  30 April 2011



A former personal assistant, Lauren Weisberger, wrote the 2003 bestselling roman à clef The Devil Wears Prada, later made into a successful film starring Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly, a fashion editor widely believed to be based on Wintour.

In 2009 she was the focus of another film, R.J. Cutler's documentary Called: The September Issue.

The film revolves around the making of the Vogue September 2007 issue.



It depicts the effort that goes into making the magazine, and the passion that Grace Coddington, a former model turned creative director and the only person who dares to stand up to Anna Wintour, has for the highly-regarded fashion magazine. In the film, Coddington is often portrayed as the leading victim to Wintour's aggressive personality.

However, the relationship between Wintour and Coddington reveals itself to be symbiotic as Wintour recognizes Coddington's expertise and keen eye for design. In the end, Wintour approves most of Coddington's ideas and they appear in the final version of the September issue.

In a real life Anna has two children by David Shaffer: Charles Shaffer (Charlie) and Katherine (known as Bee).  Anna divorced in 1999.

Some Pictures of Anna Wintour & her Beautiful Daughter Bee Shaffer

Bee says that she won't follow her mother into fashion. 

Anna Wintour Quotes:

“Just because you like to put on a beautiful Carolina Herrera dress or a pair of J Brand blue jeans instead of something basic from K-Mart it doesn't mean that you're a dumb person.”

“I think what I often see it that people are frightened about fashion. Because it scares them or make them feel insecure they just put it down. On the whole people that may say, the meanny things about our world I think that's usually because they feel, in some ways, excluded or, you know, not a part of 'the cool group' so as a result they just mock it.”