Hi everyone, how is your day going? Those who follow this blog, or simply know me, may have noticed that I have been subdued lately. One would think, hmm, the 47%, Big Bird, why isn’t Erika shouting on her blog. Frankly, I’m too mad, too vitriolic right now. I need to calm down, take a breath, allow reason back in to my psyche. Then I can blog on these items and do them justice. At the moment I only feel the need to destroy. This is not the way to solutions.
In the interim, I spotted a post from one of my favorite fellow bloggers, a Canadian woman who writes a wonderful column called, “Wind Up My Skirt.” As she describes it, something that gets her dander up is the equivalent to the “wind up her skirt.” This past week Yahoo released its top twenty-five iconic dresses of all time. Well, Miss Windupherskirt took issue and put out her own list. Please see the link below:
http://windupmyskirt.com/2012/10/06/truly-iconic-dresses/
Borrowing from Miss Windupherskirt (I don’t know her real name, quite the heroine in the shadows, our blogger), I decided that until I can talk about our current American political clusterf&*k without using swear words in every sentence, this would be part of my therapy.
I chose the following dresses because if I saw someone wearing one of these ensembles then it would be instantly recognizable to me and most of those around me. Also, in each case, I remember where I was and who I was with when I saw the dress (sometimes the term “dress” was used liberally).
A few ground rules:
– These are not always dresses I would actually wear.
– Sometimes I don’t even LIKE said dress.
– No, we’re discussing ICONS, the stick-in-your-head visual that you carry with you forever. That’s the criteria.
So, in no particular order… here’s my top twenty.
1,) Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly, 1961 in Breakfast At Tiffany’s, designed by Givenchy. We were all rooting for her, and gosh, Moon River was lovely.
2.) Sharon Stone at the 1998 Oscars- believe it or not, there was a time when Stone was so cool and on trend that she could simply borrow a Gap shirt from her husband and be perfectly dressed. Not a stylist in sight. It was only in later years that the freaky-ness set in.
3.) Diana’s Wedding Dress, by David & Elizabeth Emmanuel, 1981. How could we know how terribly wrong it all would go? I mean, I was twelve.
4.) The infamous J. Lo dress at the 2000 Grammy Awards- by Versace. Personally, I think it’s a great color on her.
5.) We’ve got the good (Princess Di), the bad (J. Lo) and the ugly, sorry, Bjork. But thank you for the memories of the 2001 Academy Awards.
6.) C’mon, people, how could we have this list and NOT include it? (Of course Yahoo left it off) It’s the gorgeous white halter Marilyn Monroe wore in Some Like it Hot’s subway scene. Please, everyone knows this 1955 dress by William Travilla.
8.) This movie sparked the first real argument between me and the boy I was dating at the time… well, I married him, so it couldn’t have been that bad. 1993’s Indecent Proposal was a crappy film with a degenerate premise, but I have to admit, Demi Moore looked hot in this black ensemble.
9.) Carol Burnett’s parody 1976 of Gone With the Wind’s infamous drapery window, entitled, “Went With The Wind.” To quote this comedic sketch, “I saw it in the window and I just had to have it.” God bless Bob Mackie.
10.) Give it up for Halle Berry at the 2002 Oscars in this gorgeous dress by Eli Saab, the year she became the first black woman to win for Best Actress. She looked amazing making history for Monster’s Ball.
11.) This is simply a personal favorite of mine. I thought Nicole Kidman (at that time still Mrs. Tom Cruise) looked amazing in this John Galliano creation at the 1997 Oscars.
12.) I’m not sure if this one counts as a dress, call it a two-piece with really high slits, but it’s got a skirt and really has the whole “iconic” thing covered. I mean, you’d know it anywhere. I give you… Leia and her slave girl outfit. Fueling geek fantasies for decades now.
13. Reaching back in time a bit to the original blond bombshell herself, Jean Harlow. This little number from the 1933 film, Dinner at Eight was so tight that the designer, Adrian, provided Ms. Harlow with a “leaning board” for between takes as she was unable to sit down. However, va-va-va-voom.
14. Also from the same era, Mae West epitomized the hourglass figure with her clinging “mermaid” dresses. Pick any of them, they are immediately recognizable.
15 & 16. Two for the price of one, both classics. From the 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy’s blue gingham and Glinda the Good Witch of the North’s fairy princess get up. You must give props for the crown and six-foot wand, I mean Billie Burke was only 5’3″! And, girlfriend is working the pink.
17. The wedding dress from The Princess Bride (one of the best movies EVER). Buttercup’s gown is lovely and easy to move about in, making escape from your bloated, warthog, baboon-faced fiance a snap.
18. Again, flirting with the definition of dress on this one, but, hey, everyone knows what Maggie the Cat wore in 1958’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Elizabeth Taylor was smoking hot in Helen Rose’s design.
19. I have to include this next one, so iconic that even Madonna had to steal it. In 1953’s Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Marilyn Monroe wore this pink stunner by William Travilla and turned heads.
20. Keira Knightley in 2007’s Atonement, The Green Dress. O.M.G. Gorgeous.
This was a pleasant diversion, and definitely subjective. I’ve enjoyed playing ostrich and putting my head into the sands of pop culture for a bit. Next week I shall have to go back to reality, but this was fun. Maybe you should take a page from Miss Windupmyskirt and come up with your own top 20. I’m sure I left plenty out, and besides, it’s more fun when it’s your own, right?
Stay well, my friends, and as Ellen would say, “Be kind to each other.”
