Let's Go Get Stoned

Rock and roll style is the stuff of legend and fodder for fantasies.  Guitar heroes and soul singers such as Hendrix, Prince, The Supremes, Sly Stone, and Madonna had profound influences on everyone's personal style.  Kinky, funky, cool.  Controversial, sexy.

A rock style retrospective takes you from neat little identical suits for men and bouffant hair, form-fitting satin dresses and inch-long lashes for women to feathers, leather, sequins, lace and denim for all.  I loved 1970s androgyny and was down with the grunge look which made everyone look like either a lumberjack or an orphan.

The Rolling Stones are celebrating their 50th anniversary this year and Thursday's NY Times featured a mini slide show of the group's styles over the years.  What a time capsule!  Who could forget Brian Jones's bowl haircut, Mick's body con jumpsuits that confirmed that he often went commando, or Keith's more recent turn as a pirate?  So, if you're reading this in your cubicle draped in drab gray and black duds, take a look at this and be inspired!

By the way, did you have a rock style icon?  Who was it?

Carmen Jones

Harry and Dorothy

Back in the day, movies about regular folk had style and elements of glamour.  The stylish 1954 Otto Preminger film Carmen Jones inspired me with an all-black cast led by the fabulously talented and gorgeous Dorothy Dandridge and the still smokin’ Harry Belafonte.

Carmen Jones is a sexy, tragic love story where the lead character seduces, abuses, and subsequently drives a naïve young army pilot mad. Years earlier, Oscar Hammerstein, Jr. had taken Georges Bizet’s Carmen, switched the story's focus from 19th century Spaniards to World War II blacks, and the locale to a Southern military base.

As Carmen Jones, Ms. Dandridge is as sultry as a mid-August day. She struts, flaunting and taunting, heating up the screen while she flirts shamelessly with her prey and her film audience.  Ms. Dandridge is rarely mentioned as a style icon; other black stars such as Diana Ross or Lena Horne are usually cited.  But, as this film shows, she absolutely had the stuff.

Check out this 2009 post from the "Gettogethablog," and read more about this slice of black Hollywood glamour. And if you haven't seen Carmen Jones, what are you waiting for? Add it to your Netflix queue!