Shirley Love!

Shirley Manson, the rocking frontwoman of Garbage, has captivated listeners worldwide with her signature huge green eyes, red hair, and sultry voice. Apparently the looks that we all love earned her beatings from her schoolmates when she was a child. That caused her to go into depression and while she's overcome the depression through music, she still struggles with how she sees herself. I don't understand the whole beating someone up because you think they're ugly thing. I mean, I'd be more likely to hurt someone out of jealousy that they looked good. I mean, what's the point if they're ugly? Just my two cents that they were totally jealous, Shirley, and anyone else who suffered teasing about their looks!

Shirley is not just the vocalist and face of Garbage. When she first signed on to the band, she went through and heavily revised all the lyrics. She became their lyricist, and she plays guitar in the band. She is one talented and beautiful lady.

What I love about Shirley is that you can put her in anything, even the most conservative outfit, and she still gives off this rocker vibe. In fact, she often does keep it simple, and lets her hair and make up do the talking. Plus, she seems so fun in interviews and even in some of her videos and photos. And of course I admire powerful women, involved in music or otherwise, not afraid to do their thing.

I love her kind of Jetson/futuristic style in these two videos, for "Push It" and "Only Happy When it Rains". Push it might not be quite safe for work; it has some fetishy stuff and aliens. "Only Happy When it Rains" should be cool though. Love her brightly colored minidresses.

I was inspired by this, since I've been on a Garbage kick lately, and decided to do my own thing.

No, I am not widening my eyes to make them look really big. My eyelashes get stuck together and I widen my eyes like that to unhook them. It happened to be the picture that showed off the outfit the best. I kept it simple like garbage and added some fun rock accents. I also think the trash shirt goes well with my Garbage theme. I made those elastic bands on my feet and over the shoes because I've seen similar things built into shoes now, which I thought looked cool and I read somewhere that the trend originated from elastic bands used to keep models shoes on their feet on the runway. I'd say they work good. Really simple and cheap to make. Just some thick elastic from your local fabric store and stitch it into a tube, and you're good to go. Plus, I can wear them as wrist band-bracelet things.

My hair really has nothing to do with Garbage. I just felt like doing this to it. It was orginally going to be my usual ponytail with the front down, but I wanted the hair out of my face so I took the very front part of my hair and swept it back and pinned it with a bow.

Later on, I hiked the skirt up and tied it with a scarf.

Here, I simply didn't belt, despite my total love for the belt. It was hard, but it's for Shirley! I would have worn taller shoes too, but I was walking to campus from my condo for the fist time so I wanted to be comfy. Only took bout 15 minutes and I ran into Purple while I was there. I forget Purple's real name , it's something normal, but I dubbed him Purple since he has this plain purple tee that is just the perfect shade of purple. I earned my title as "Distracto Girl" again, since Purple always ends up passing where he's heading when he walks with me. Something to do with pirate ninja ghost zombie dragons, in disguise.

I leave you with various pictures of Shirley Manson throughout the years to the song "#1 Crush." ("I would die for you/I would die for you...") She's about 40 now and cute as a button, though I'd be wary about petting her...

Pics: Click for more info. The Shirley pic was on my compy and I think I got it off flickr. And the videos can also by clicked to head back to their youtube pages to see their info there.

Dressing for the MANson*,

Ivy Frozen

*Bwahhahahaha! I couldn't resist. Remember, I am a nerd.

Josie and the Pussy Cats

I've really been thinking about the Josie and the Pussycats movie lately. Come on, you know you love it too. It's up there with the Spice Girls, and we're all excited about their pending return, whether openly or secretively.

How the uncool girl was dictating to everyone what was cool reminds me of many, many fashion magazines. Take Seventeen's August issue. (I just read it because my dad neglected to tell me he gave it to me until recently, and he has my September copy.) Anywho, I love the section where they tell you the cutest stuff at the mall, so you don't have to work that tiny brain of yours to pick out something you like and put your own outfit together. I mean really, who has time for thinking for themselves?

That's generally why I stick to fashion blogs, although some blogs have the same sort of attutude, like they are Lisping Lisa trying desperately to be cool by telling you what is cool.

But, I digress. This post isn't about raking our practically zombie-ish society over the coals. I also love the movie for another reason. Shiny and leopard print, need I say more?

I actually totally adore Tara Reid's hippie sweet style in the film. Never thought she'd get fashion icon status, did you?

While she still does not have a bra on, I feel she shows skin at the waist in a chicly sexy way. It's really tough to do that. Most of the time, skin shown at the waist tends to make you look street whore rather than rich/classy/snob whore that I prefer. Unfortunately, there are a lack of photos online of her good outfits. I like the one in the picture above though. She's rocking those tie-tied, wide-legged pants with the simple, flowy top.

I also adored Paulo Costanzo's-- who played Alexander-- style too. It's actually a lot like a cross between the two brothers in The Royal Tenenbaums and/or Duckie from Pretty in Pink. You can see some bits of him in the videos I posted above, but they're like flashes. Just watch the movie. It's silly, and fun, and doesn't take itself too seriously. Just how I like my movies. It also has some great pop-y music. I got the CD, cried when I left it in the CD player of a rental car in Florida, where it was taken by someone, and cheered when I received a new copy via one of my sister's friends. It's nothing prolific, but good music to do something to, like driving or cleaning. It's got the generic pop rock feel to it.

Here's a better look at my outfit. Going a little boho with the scarf in the hair, but I just had to have that scarf hitting the shirt somehow. Too hot for pants, so I used a flowy tunic tucked inside the shorts. I altered the top of the tunic so it wouldn't fall off me, like it usually does. Gave it a whole new neckline which I love and might just make permanent.

Pix: Clix them for more info.

With the Pussycats,

Ivy Frozen