Unlikely Fashion Icon: Jimmy Olsen

Most people know Jimmy Olsen as that goofy kid from Superman wearing a bowtie. As soon as people stopped wearing fancy bows as neckwear, he was made fun off by the comic community and everyone else who laid eyes on him. It’s time to change that! Bowties are awesome and Jimmy Olsen’s getting back into style.

Let’s dive into the history of bowties. According to Wikipedia it originated among Croatian mercenaries during the Prussian Wars of 17^th century. They used a scarf to hold together the opening of their shirts, which they called a cravat. So not actually a bowtie, but that’s where it all started. Soon it was the fashionable thing to do. Later on it became a real choice. While most people switched to the necktie, some made the definitive decision to make the bow their signature look. After looking like that in public, there was no turning back. Some famous bowtie-wearing men of the olden days are Winston Churchill, Pee-wee Herman and Fred Astaire. Nowadays, wearing neckties is as fancy as we get, but there are still some fashionable figures out there who don’t believe that bowties are for old men and clowns.

The most famous one for me is Jimmy Olsen, which is why I picked him as the style icon. He accomplished the adorkable look and turned himself into a style icon for many men who weren’t as tough and muscular as Superman. The geeky guy became a dapper hottie. Although not every ‘reïncarnation’ of Jimmy Olsen has sported the neckwear (they changed his look in the ‘70’s), to most it is still his iconic image.

Looking over a list of bow tie wearers on Wikipedia I’m extremely surprised James Bond isn’t on it. Although he also wears other sorts of neckwear, he still is the most dashing when wearing a big black bowtie. It gives him more charm and style than the British accent and his suave words together.

Other contemporary wearers are fashion designers Alber Elbaz from Lanvin and Karl Lagerfeld. I was so excited to see that the Lanvin loves H&M collaboration included his signature bowtie! Steve Jobs had a bowtie fase in the 80’s and Matt Groening has a tendency to give a lot of his characters awesome neckwear as well. 

 

But there have been two recent characters who’ve really brought it back into style: Doctor Who and Chuck Bass. I mentioned Doctor Who in an earlier post, where he said the following about his appearance:

Doctor: Trust me?

Kazran: Okay...

Doctor: Oi. Eyes on the tie. Look at me. I wear it and I don't care. Trust me?

Kazran: ...Yes.

Doctor: That's why it's cool.

— Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol

Why wear a bowtie? Because they're cool! After the start of the new Doctor Who season, a leading fashion retailer exclaimed that they prompted the sales of bowties! Good news! Not only did he bring back the bowtie, he also made the fez fashionable and will work his magic on the Stetson next season.

Another contemporary dandy is off course Chuck Bass from Gossip Girl. He wears bowties for many occasions and has really brought them back to popular culture. Take a gander on Lookbook and you’ll see lots of boys creating outfits with a bow in the center. But it’s not just men wearing them anymore. Even girls are getting in on the action, and I’m not talking playmates.  Alexa Chung, Rihanna, Diane Kruger, so what’s not to like! Famous people are wearing them, so should you!

I ran into bowties in a second-hand clothing store in Antwerpen. They had this big square bowl filled with colorful bowties. I especially liked the thick velvet kind, so I bought three of them. After that I started to wear them with as many different outfits as possible, but the reactions of most people weren’t as enthusiastic as I thought it would be. They would say, ‘how quaint’ or ‘My, what a big bow you have on’. Even though my new style didn’t catch on as I thought it would, I still think wearing bowties is the best way to look dashing. Next stop: suspenders and a Stetson!

Back from Berlin

Finally my Berlin post! I got home on Sunday, but I was just too tired from having a four hour train delay and Christmas dinner that night. Yesterday night was spent watching Dr. Who and finishing Twin Peaks, which was totally worth not writing a post (especially the Dr. Who Christmas special, it was amazing!) I was not sure what to write about my trip, because it wasn’t very fashionable or innovating. We did nice touristy things like visiting the East Side Gallery, Checkpoint Charlie and Weihnachtsmärkte. Germany apparently really loves Christmas, because there were so many markets and lights everywhere that even I kind of got enough of the holiday. But besides all this, I had a lot of fun and saw some cool things! We went to a place called Hackesche Höfe which was originally a Jewish part of town. In the second World War the entire area was damaged. Shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall the building was returned to its rightful owners, who turned it into a cultural community. Now it’s a marketplace for designers, artists and other creative people. There are restaurants, movie theaters and concert halls. Right now it is one of the most expensive places in Berlin, because of its booming culture and influence on the city, which I thought was pretty cool! They had some nice stores, but I mostly liked the aesthetic of the place. It’s divided in small ‘hofjes’ (there isn’t really a great English translation, but you could call it a sort of patio) surrounded by trees and nice front walls. I took most of my pictures with Lotte’s analogue camera, so I don’t have that much to show yet, but just to give you an impression:

Near to this was the magazinestore I posted about earlier Do you read me?! and all I can say was that it was great! There were so many magazines and the owner had a really cute dog! I decided to buy some German magazines, because they were the cheapest and I can’t get them at home. I bought Sleek, Zoo Magazine and Indie. They are all partly in German, which is sort of a problem. I only know a small bit of German, so I might just skip over those parts and look at all the pretty pictures. 

One of the funniest things we did was look for the grave of Hegel, a philosopher I just don’t seem to get (I had to retake a test on his book Elements of the Philosophy of Right 5 times). He was buried on a small cemetery near the magazine shop. It was a very snowy place and we looked all over for the grave but couldn’t find it! When we finally looked at the map, counted the graves and finally found him, we took so many pictures of us next to his stone, it got kind of hilarious and creepy at the same time.

I love taking pictures of cemeteries!

We also saw the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin play at the Philharmonie. It was my first classical performance and I was really impressed. They played an amazing organ symphony by Camille Saint-Saëns with this tiny Asian girl on a double bass and another small girl on the organ. I was surprised the organ was played by someone so small and adorable, because it produced a wall of sound.

I also found a new cute cultural thing called Unser Sandmännchen. It’s an East German children’s series, with the cutest main character! They had a set of small magnets with images from the show, but I didn’t buy it which I now regret. Next time I’m back in Berlin, I’ll buy them for sure!

I hope everyone had a very nice Christmas, I had a great time. If you haven’t seen Dr. Who or don’t even know it, I strongly urge you to start watching. I’ll soon post something about bowties and unlikely style icons and this last episode of Dr. Who made me love them even more. Ok,  I’ll stop praising the show now… but it’s just so good! Go watch it!

Is he dreamy with that bowtie or what?

Beating Roodkapje with a burger in ROT(T)TERDAM

Our street style shoot didn’t go as planned… While walking through Rotterdam, on what might have been the coldest day of the year, we only encountered people wearing Uggs and fur-trimmed jackets. We’re blaming it on the cold right now, because it would be a bit disappointing if this was all the street style Rotterdam had to offer. Never the less, we met some nice people at the Meent! The old City office is being redeveloped, but to make sure the street will still be nice for shopping and wandering about, upcoming artists get a chance to show their work in the empty stores surrounding the old building. The initiative ROT(T)TERDAM was formed by Roodkapje, an art platform interested in new and exciting artists, willing to challenge and contribute to the social debate. The project uses about 700m2 and calls itself a cultural supermarket. Artists rotate in a small shop to show and sell their work, there are two galleries for workshops or temporary sales and a small burger shop for biological or vegetarian hamburgers. They show movies, curate events, parties and cd releases. If you’re looking for art and culture in a new and interesting way, you can definitely find it here.

Sander, de van der Poort in Duran//vanderpoort

Today we found a really cool art exhibition and store by Duran//vanderpoort called Enlightenment. They look for designers who take a lead in this new era of Intuition.

One of our favorite pieces was a light object called ‘Naked City Light’ made by architects Natascha Madeiski ( Italy) and Alexander Graef (U.K.).

Another great collection was by StudioRUIG, a clothing-label from Eindhoven that works with leather and soft jerseys resulting in sober fashion for wayward types (that’s us!) They also love moustaches, which we also do!

PIGBLACK, StudioRUIG

  
Also a designer based in Rotterdam is sold in the store: the young (only 21 years old!) and upcoming Ruby Verhoeven. 'The colour palette with an indispensable eye for detail, shows well thought combinations and the esthetic value of one-tone.' The details might not be seen on the first sight and you'll only see a simple dress, but as Ruby herself says: 'Take a closer look, and you might see what I see..'

Our next stop was a wintersale next to the beatburger organized by Zone 5300. They sell comics, art and other fun things. Angelika bought a really nice art print and Lotte was in love with a Superman Comic. The comics were sold by Comiquest, who is opening a comic bookstore in Rotterdam coming spring. He was nice enough to have his picture taken by us. Go see his store when it opens!

Comiquest

The nice people of Zone 5300

 We ended up eating a nice luch/dinner at the beatburger. They not only sell great biological burgers, but also make tasty pancakes, chestnuts and prosecco with a cherry. We’ll end with some pictures of our fancy feast!                          

The Awesomeness that is November

We all know every month is special in their own way, but November seems to be even more awesome than all the other months. I recently found out that it is not only the month to write a book, but also to make your own album or to grow a moustache.

I first found out about NaNoWriMo last year, right at the end of October. The National Novel Writing Month is all about writing a book of at least 50.000 words in one month. As an aspiring writer I was immediately excited about the idea. I joined right away and started writing on the first of November, only with a vague idea of the story that was to grow. It took some long days of missing school and work, but I succeeded at the 31^st of November with 50.007 words. This crazy way of noveling started in July 1999 with just 21 people who had nothing better to do and thought writing a novel would get them dates. The satisfaction that was achieved at the first of August didn’t wear off and the year after they did it again. The number of participants grew every year and rules needed to be added. In 2010 NaNoWriMo is a huge happening on- and offline with 183.000 writers and counting. It has become a big operation within these 10 years. Famous novelists will write you peptalks, libraries and bookshops will host write-ins and every single person joining will learn the joy of finally sitting down and writing that novel.

As the above paragraph shows, I’m a big fan of NaNoWriMo. You can imagine how I felt when I found out there was more than just writing this month. Hometaping is a somewhat smaller organization run by four friends from London. The objective is to make an album of at least 20 minutes in one month. Hometaping is for everyone that loves music, not just professional artists. It’s okay to cover or sample songs, because it is not a competition, it is just a way to help people make music. Because it is a smaller organization, it is also more ‘hands-on’. There is a helpline number on their website for anyone who can’t handle the pressure and there will also be two get-togethers where the founders can help you smooth over any technical problems you might be having.

The reason I love these concepts is that they put some sweetness into making art. It’s no longer about the competition, selling your art and the public opinion. This month is just for you as an artist, it’s just about having fun with some creativity.

Movember is something completely different, but just as good for the soul. Mo is slang for Moustache, but don’t be scared by its masculine undertone. Movember challenges men to grow a moustache to raise money and awareness for prostate cancer. You start at the first of November clean shaven and just let it all grow throughout the month. As a global organization, they are active anywhere near you (Our local coffeeshop even named their monthly special after them). As a Mo Sista you can get off course also try to grow a moustache, but for most ladies who don’t have this option, it is also ok to donate, help organize of just show support and love for the Mo Bro’s.

All these events make November a lovely month. As the leaves are changing color and falling of trees, we are not left out in the cold. If you want to get involved with other creative people who care about others, just walk into a coffeehouse, bookshop or music store. Look out for the ones behind their laptop, actively typing away or the one bobbing his head to imaginary music and if you see a guy with a moustache, give him a smile. Although November has already started, it’s never too late to become creative. You can still join the fun.
Esmée