Nov 27, 2009 @ 14:40

I know it’s winter, but there’s this spring-summer trend already disturbing me. Did you noticed how creepy spring trends are ? First bone-bodies then this one, even creepier because apparently sweet and innocent. Bows and pastels and kittens and pink. Where’s the trick?

The trick is in this atypic reversal of the woman, a somewhat unresolvable Peter Pan complex. Creepy kidult faces in sweet delicious cake-a-like outfits. Or even cute heroes, cute invented friends, such as Giles bags. There’s also room for horror: red spiders or dolly faces (I remember a novel by Agatha Christie which was super frightening about a doll that moved…I read it when I a kid and I still clearly remember it ;D), clowns reminiscences in the make-up. Coulrophobia. It’s how the fear of clowns is named. The word itself comes from greek: κωλοβαθριστής, wich is actually a funny word meaning the man who walk on stilts. It’s of course a fantastic theme for both horror and art, as well as a literary topos. Stephen King’s It tells a story about a clown criminal. Of course the story remains John Wayne Gacy’s story, because it’s a true story. You probably know about this serial killer, I think he has been the “most successful” serial-killer in the United States. “He became notorious as the “Killer Clown” because of the many block parties he threw for his friends and neighbors, entertaining children in a clown suit and makeup, under the name of “Pogo the Clown”.” (wikipedia) If you want to know more go here.

John Wayne Gacy

And who doesn’t think about the magnificent Joker – and the ultimate purple trenchcoat (so funny, this is what came out googling “clowns qui font peur”, which is actually the first option when you type “clowns” on google.fr. Hilarious !) ? And of course… there is the champion of depressing clowney melancholy, which is Fellini.

Gelsomina in La Strada (played by Giulietta Masina)

Still from I clowns and promotional poster…

I clowns is a touching melancholic symphony about clowns. Because of course there is the creep, but the melancholy is also the principal definition of the clown. Movies as La Strada, I clowns or the final of Otto e mezzo (8 1/2) embrace that almost anachronistically lost sense of je-ne-sais-quoi. Even the figure of the director itself was frequently clowned.

I had so much fun googling ‘Fellini clowns’ and finding… my own article for skyrock (with a photo from Miles Alridge besides… I’m so predictible) ! I totally forgot about it… but I wrote:

“Le cirque est Glam, le Glam est cirque. De Miu Miu à Stammy, de Viktor & Rolf à Galliano, depuis quelques temps la mode s’amuse à cligner à un des arts les plus mélancoliques qui soient. Un art peut-être fini mais toujours envoûtant et riche. Il y a la classe triste d’un Clown Blanc, larmoyant, incandescent dans son maquillage figé, il y a l’amère bouffonnerie de l’Auguste, il y a les acrobates, les dompteurs, il y a les paillettes, les décors, les costumes, les odeurs. Un monde pittoresque où tout est renversé, un monde magique qui ne cesse d’inspirer le monde de la Mode. Et on aime, parce que ces regards langoureux et ces revisitations de la Commedia dell’Arte en Lacroix, Chanel, Saab, nous ravit. Pierrot lunaire comme la douce lumière des défilés printaniers: et oui, c’est vendredi…”

Funny how circular fashion is ! A few seasons ago there was that huge clown-theme… and it was beautiful. This time this trend is more about kids. Childhood. Even infancy… see Miu Miu and the baby sheets. Or Marc Jacobs white baby-like clowns. Or 4 years old – Giles, again. Or 10 years old girls dreaming to be princesses, the classical leitmotiv. Vichy creatures. Bows. Ruffles. Colored hair. Lunar faces, etc. etc…

But there’s another aspect about childhood in fashion . Don’t you find it often scary when you look at Haute Couture for kids? 2-years kids dressed like forties rich women? This dehumanization of kids is frequently present in the work of Miles Alridge, which is by the way one of my favorite fashion photographers, if not my favorite. Alridge works with the figure of the antithetis: french call his style futurétro, and there’s always a crazy décalage between the colors and the message. It’s this discrepancy which makes his photos creep, most of the time. But also atemporally beautiful. Miles Alridge isn’t in fashion or out of fashion. He simply is, as a fashion photographer, as an artist. And his way to picture kids or peterpancomplexed women is always sarcastic, if not mean. See for yourself !

You can find many more HERE !

Miles Alridge also bring us back to clowns. Clown-creeps…

…but let’s return to melancholic clowns. Speaking about melancholy a reference work is Anatomy of Melancholy (1618) by Robert Burton. In the iconography the use of clowns, acrobats or arlequins as symbols started in the rococo period. We think about Gilles (1719) from Watteau, maybe the precursor of the tragic-clown-in-art trend, followed later by Cézanne, Picasso, Hopper, and even Schlemmer…

Antoine Watteau, Giles (1719)

The idea is that the clown isn’t the mad one, but we are (a beautiful approach on this thematic -clownless tho- is Maupassant’s novel Un fou. I absolutely recommand it to you!). But anyway. The clown is therefore an allegory of the artist, which is marginal only because we are wrong – not him. Clowns as self-portraits, mirrors for the artists.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Le Clown, 1868

Paul Cézanne, Fastnacht, 1888

Edward Hopper, Soir bleu, 1914

Pablo Picasso

James Ensor, Christ entrant dans Bruxelles (detail), 1888

James Ensor, The death and the masks, 1897

And if you like this imagery, here’s a really exhaustive list about clowns in the movies…

I wrote mainy about the ‘clown triste‘, a.k.a. the white clown …

But there’s also the funny clown, the Auguste.

There is even the eighties clown !! This movie seems like so much fuuun !! Has anyone seen it perhaps ?

And since I live in Switzerland… there are Grock, and Dimitri !

Which are your favorite memories about circus? Or greatest fears?

I Clowns:

Here you can find 8 more extracts from the movie… simply sublime.

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So finally, how to challenge all of these inspirations? Because everyday is not Halloween and you don’t necessarily want to become the next serial killer… you can challenge the sweet kidult look, which is not so difficult. Take a look at Luella… The mix of pastel colors gives a surprising result, which is very à la Lula but still totally possible to challenge ! Of course Miu Miu, it’s kind of easy, take a baby sheet and use it as a foulard. Voilà.

But you can also play the Alridge card. Which means superacid and strong colors that kids would love. Try fuchsia + turquoise if you have the courage… But remember you have to wear disturbing clothes, a.k.a. severe tailleurs or forties/eighties-inspired powerdressing.

Or you can just play pink Barbie. Or white clown – try the make-up… But then… it’s your responsability ! ;D