While I write a lot of posts about style icons, I would have to say that my very first one was either Rainbow Brite or Jasmine from Aladdin. And why should they stop providing amazing sartorial choices just because we get older? I decided to do some Polyvore sets of some of my favourite cartoon characters & how they might dress in "the real world". Because let's face it, capes and latex are not the most comfortable or suitable outfit elements a lot of the time!
So, here is my little love letter to my favourite cartoon style inspirations.
So, here is my little love letter to my favourite cartoon style inspirations.
From princessofpower.co.uk: "The story of the show is that She-Ra, whose secret identity is Adora, and here friends called ‘The Rebellion’ strive to free Etheria from the evil Horde and there leader Hordak, who rules Etheria, much to every one dislike. Like He-Man’s sword of power, She-Ra’s sword of protection transforms her from Adora to She-Ra, and her horse Spirit in to the flying unicorn Swift Wind, When She holds it aloft and says, “For the Honor of Grayskull….I am She-Ra!” He-Man and She-Ra’s swords are identical except She-Ra’s has a crystal in it and can transform in to other objects such as a shield or Lasso, at She-Ra’s command."
I think that She-Ra girls would wear a lot of gold jewellery, white for the main part of their outfit & a splash of red (unless you want to go the whole hog and wear a cape too!). Jewelled sword optional, but the phrase "By the power of Gray Skull!" MUST be uttered at any opportunity. Leave your hair long & freely flowing, and perhaps leave the tiara adornments and use stacks of bangles as your accessories.
From Wikipedia: Jem is the leader of the Holograms and the most popular singer of her day. She is the alter-ego of Jerrica Benton, owner of Starlight Music. Jerrica also runs Starlight House, a home for foster girls. Using the power of Synergy, an incredibly powerful holographic computer with extremely advanced audio/visual synthesizer technology, Jerrica can become Jem by touching her special star-shaped earrings (the "Jemstar earrings") while saying "Showtime, Synergy" (Jem changes back to Jerrica by saying "show's over, Synergy.") A primary storyline of the series involves her hiding her identity from others, especially Rio Pacheco, who loves both Jem and Jerrica.
Obviously for Jem you have to go pink - well, what else are you gonna do? Wear this look proud or not at all! I think that in today's world, Jem would go crazy over the sequinned boyfriend blazers & wouldn't work it back, instead pairing it with an equally loud hot-pink dress & pink stockings to match. As for the headphones - how else is she going to listen to The Holograms? Not on a regular pair of iPod headphones, that's for sure ;)
First off, including a Disney princess in here is proooooobably stretching the cartoon theme a bit, but like I said in the intro, she was one of the first style inspirations I had, so here goes. From the Disney archives: The beautiful Jasmine, daughter of the Sultan, is only a few days short of her 16th birthday; the day on which, by law, she must choose a husband. However, she wants to marry for love, so -- to her father's great dismay -- she keeps turning away her high-born suitors. She then decides to flee the luxuries of the palace for the wild adventure of the marketplace ... where she happens to fall into the company of a young street thief, Aladdin.
Luckily for Jasmine-lovers, harem pants are still going strong - while you may not like the bright turquoise version, black is still a safe & flattering option! Stack on the gold jewellery, the more Arabian-inspired the better, and find a patchwork bag that has a vaguely magic-carpet-like feel. I remember that Jasmine had a huge tiger for a pet, so I found these animal print shoes and little tiger toy that you can put in your bag (because walking a tiger down the street is most likely some sort of hazard). Oh, and if you spot the other Aladdin reference you get five hundred thousand cool points :P
From imdb.com: Laurie is liberal-thinking and a "modern" woman. She is vocal in her feminist and humanitarian concerns and is quite a conditioned fighter, and at the start of the story is shown to have a strained relationship with her mother. Silk Spectre is extremely proficient in the various styles of martial arts, and is among the world's best fighters. She is also an expert motorcycle rider. Laurie is a strong leader and strategic thinker. She also possesses great detective skills.
In the movie, and to some extent in the book, Silk Spectre's style is pretty overtly sexy. In real life, it might be better to leave something to the imagination and pair a great pair of leather boots with some skinny jeans instead of some PVC! I included the owl ring because of Nite Owl II (OBVS), and some 80's inspired earrings (Watchmen was set in 1985, remember?). The only real colour palette you can stick to is yellow & black, but with some imagination you should be able to make it work...
So who were your first style icons? Would you wear their look today?
x
this was really fun to read :) i especially liked the bit on She-ra girls :)
ReplyDeleteI love it!
ReplyDeletea really cool post, Tara! Gotta love Jem. I would love to see another one in this vein but all of the Disney Princesses! Personally I believe Briar Rose from Sleeping Beauty would have picked a green dress if the blue and pink godmothers would have stopped being so dominating - the green fairy would obviously have been her favourite of the mother figures growing up because she was so lovely, and Briar Rose is so into nature it just makes sense.
ReplyDeletePlease think about giving it a go! I'd do it myself but you're way more fashionable! ;)
LOVE the outfits you came up with!
ReplyDeleteOh My Goodness! I looove this post!!! So great to read!!! Love your blog title too! ;)
ReplyDeletehaha i love this post! it's so fun to take inspo from cartoon characters.
ReplyDeletei'd say my first style icon when it comes to cartoons was cardcaptor sakura!
This is such a great blog post! I love Laurie's style! Hrm, can't think of a specific style icon that I have.
ReplyDeleteKate's Irrelevant - Thanks, that one was my favourite ;)
ReplyDeleteMonster Girl - Haha, well people seemed to like this post so I will consider it! Part two is in the works...
chicknamedhermia, thegoodgirlgoneblog & Jamie - Thank you! I had so much fun with it, I hope it shows! <3
A dreamer - I know, they have fantastic outfits! I will have to look yours up ;)
Sinta - It was actually watching Watchmen that inspired the post :D
the Aladdin t-shirt was far too easy. five hundred thousand cool points please!
ReplyDelete500 000 points worth of cool, or, in my case, you're just old enough to REMEMBER Aladdin Sane... ;>
ReplyDeletethe sequin blazer... super cool ;)
ReplyDelete