Rita Ora's Chanel Float

Elle May 2013

As soon as I turned the page, I knew that this was a Chanel creation. Oh, and in pink and black ... what a lovely cotton candy confection. And the scouse-brows and red lips are so francais. This month's Elle is the yearly women in music edition, and it was chockfull of fascinating stories and pictures of the women in music: young and old. This is Rita Ora, a British songstress ... I am not a fan of her popness, but she is lovely in these pictures.

Elle May 2013

Oh goodness, and turn the page ... the cotton candy hardens to become punk rock. What I love about the look is that it is so bird-like. The leather boots are her crane legs: skinny, long, and strong. Look closely and they are scaled ... like a lizard or some other reptilian creature. They are some bad ass boots, and the contrast of the pale fluff and the hard, scaled black is sublime. The pose mirrors it as our pop star pouts and nervously chews a nail ... the girl hesitates, but she wears the big ones. It's powerful.
But then, Karl Lagerfeld is the master of this look. He can make creations of float better than anyone, and then style it with racing gloves, or some other such envisioned toughness. But that is how we women, I imagine, must protect what is feminine in us. That is rock 'n roll.

I would not wear these boots, perhaps the gloves. And I am not a fan of the hi-low dress. But pull that front hem down a bit, and put that fascinator on my head, and I think that I would float swan-like across any surface that I encountered, and find the strength to stand up.