The North China Lover, Marguerite Duras, 1991

Synopsis

“The Child”, as the reader only knows her, falls in love with “Le Chinois”, who she meets on a riverside in French Indochina in the 1920s. A novel built on themes of sexuality, the narrative braids together two beautiful, stylish and melancholy characters. The Child is fourteen and poor, Le Chinois twenty-eight, rich and elegant. She has a devastating desire for him but also lives a kind-of-semi-sexual relationship with one of her boarding school girlfriends. Didn’t we all.

So yes, this is another story of lust, pain and hopelessness, and no, this blog post will not be about mixed-race fruiting in Asia.

L’Enfant is very beautiful. Not a classical Greek beauty, but an uncommon, distinctive beauty. She has wide green eyes and messy hair the colour of straw.

Here with a picture of Kate Moss when she was sixteen taken by fashion photographer Corinne Day in Borneo in 1991. Hi, Kate.

Just like Kate, L’Enfant seems effortlessly cool. An antique of a man’s hat on her head, her lips clumsily coloured in red and out-of-age sparkly ballroom shoes on her feet, her clothes sticky by the moist and overly stuffy day, this is the day when she manages to attract the attention of the most eligible bachelor in town who way luckily passing by. Well done her.

L’Enfant does not do tight clothes. The local climate would not allow it. Instead, she focuses on floaty fabrics and white and beiges, whether at home, at school or at the town’s dancing.

Clean and crisp, this Ralph Lauren Spring 2009 garment feels a bit safari-like but gives a slouchy, relaxed silhouette to the model. The ideal everyday dress in the Vietnamese French controlled territories.

And for more special occasions, this dramatic pearly dress from the Elie Saab 2012 ready-to-wear Spring collection could be the dream outfit for our heroine; unembellished, with clean lines but nonetheless extremely delectable….

Le Chinois is more conservative: tailored suits of dark colours and light materials and English leather shoes, it is easy to draw the comparison with a well-to-do banker of today. And why wouldn’t I.

Just like that. Ha.

Or like that. With a lot of pouting and a masterful use of manly eyebrows.

His shoes are shiny and polished and his trousers perfectly ironed; no matter how much it is pouring it down outside during the rain season or how the dust sticks to people in the dry summer days.

The both of them form a wonderful contrast. She, fragile, fresh and serpentine and he, international looking, clean cut with expensive materials.

I had to put down these two Louis Vuitton models (Fall 2012 Menswear and Spring 2012 Ready-to-Wear) that in my opinion perfectly represent the two characters. And please notice the pretty, candy-coloured shoes the female model is wearing.

The only clothing folly that Le Chinois allows himself is a black dressing gown made of silk (no, not a kimono) that he wears in his garconniere during his illicit encounters with The Child.

(Yes, a Chinese man, predator of a young white girl, who smokes opium in a silky dressing gown somewhere in Vietnam)

…Hopefully with a better fit than this very small man in this very oversized dressing gown.

Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov, 1955

Picture of Nabokov’s own Japanese copy of Lolita

Lolita is nearly 60 years old and still feels fresh, funny and subversive. I am not going to dwell on the story as we have all seen some type of interpretation of the illicit relationship between the American child and her fading, graying European beau.

In terms of imagery, Lolita gave me troubles. So many trends, articles, pictures, adverts, plays inspired by the novel and its characters have reached me throughout my life that I cannot guarantee whether my approach will be original, if at all readable.

As all post-pubescent females should know, attempting to play the Lolita is risky business. An appealing but unforgiving, slippery route.

Here are a few images I gathered from a genuine website named  “lolitafashion.org”.  I have learned that you do not kick someone when they are already down. I will therefore let the reader form her own opinion and comments of the below.

A picture of Innocence somewhere in East Asia

Please note the (s)hooves detail (and excuse the pun)

Still on the topic of ambulances, Katy Perry openly admits being obsessed by, and identifying with the Lolita character. One of her album covers also riffs on the original movie adaptation from the novel. This is an image of Katy Perry. Once again, comments are be superfluous.

Katy Perry at her most nymphetic.  Meow, tiger.

One perhaps closer visual comparison (yeah, sorry Katy) would be with the 1999 film American Beauty – and especially Lester’s (Kevin Spacey) fixation on Angela (Mena Suvari), which touches similar themes: beauty (again, sorry Katy…) and repressed sexuality.

The very pretty Mena Suvari in American Beauty.

Coming back to our heroine, Lolita is what I would have called a pretty bubble-chewing brat when I was her age. I carried History books under my arms, greasy flat hair on my head, and had fencing lessons forced upon me to ameliorate my posture. She had the glossy nails, the permatan and the boys, and knew how to ride a bike provocatively, which a decade or so later, I am still unable to do.

A little bit like that. Oh, yes.

“Teenage girl in a bikini riding a bike on beach”: one of the most popular results on Google Images for “teenage girl on bike”.  A picture that sweats health, wellbeing, and shamelessly entices its male user to accompany  underage girls on dodgy bike rides.

Our little Dolores, from her youngest age, seems to own an innate sense of style.

The colours are frank, bright and often mixed with whites, which bring out her tanned skin and slender limbs. Plain cotton and wool are her privileged materials and she does not look to evolve towards more sophisticated fabrics or fabrics.

This easy-to-wear Christopher Kane dress (Spring 2010 collection), for legs-proud women, could well have been a favourite of our Dolores, with its innocent tulle and tidy, small pleats.

For more special occasions, Lolita does not hesitate a second to display red glossy toenails, red lips, adjusted but simple dresses and little heels.

Despite the controversy around the brand and its intrinsic credibility, I believe that this “utility-chic” and universally likeable little dress from Savannah Miller’s Twenty8Twelve’s Spring 2012 collection would have suited Dolores Haze perfectly on a day out with Humbert.

… it also looks undeniably attractive against this summer sky blue giant curtain.

And to conclude, perhaps a touch too elegant for our countryside beauty, but so perfect for all occasions, these bright coral high waist shorts, assorted with the fuchsia bustier, are a summer wardrobe’s ally. Yves Saint Laurent’s Resort 2011, baby.

The First Circle, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, 1968

Summary

This largely autobiographical Russian novel describes the lives of political prisoners in a special prison in the suburbs of Moscow in 1949. It describes the lives of the oppressed intelligentsia alongside the doubts of the young bourgeoisie in the last years of a crippled and paranoid Stalin’s reign.

The Soviet-era woman: long, thin, evanescent, drapes herself in floaty mousselines and under the knee skirts. She covers her arms and shoulders, which are shaped by tight fitting, silky blouses. Expert with layers, she privileges black, beiges and neutral tones.

I think this Valentino Spring 2012 ready-to wear outfit, reflects the spirit of the book whilst also making great use of the word “Beautiful”:

Make-up and jewellery are absent: no matter the age or the social class, the bling is kept in the drawers and the natural look comes in force.

I cannot help but think of Tilda Swinton’s impeccable style and mastering of colour tones as a reference.

In the special prison of Mavrino, the denim is omnipresent, queer reminder of a forbidden Western world. The jeans worn are thinning with age, fading and left unbuttoned for comfort. They are paired with colourless linen or cotton shirts, old woolen jackets and army coats, survivors of the past days of freedom. Socks are things from the past.

The prisoners spend their days hunched over working desks and their nights spread across their bunk beds. Motion is rare. In this environment, the hair and beards are growing freely, the bodies are thin and the skins left untouched by the sun and fresh air.

Oh, Henrik Vibskov, his mad scientist glasses and his blown-up jackets…

Occasionally, when inmates receive visitors, they are allowed to wear under their jackets the fragment of a shirt with a tie attached around their neck:  a sort of bib concealing nudity and long-gone allure.

Here is a screenshot of an anonymous male stripper with what I (sadly) imagine being similar accessories.

The party officials are thick, solid men, neatly shaved and sporting heavy coats and tailored suits. The colours are misty, the materials costly but sober and the posture straight and military. They form a strong contrast with the inhabitants of Mavrino.

A stiff upper-lip look from Alexander McQueen Fall 2011 Menswear to conclude this very first post.