Thursday 10 March 2011

Beehive Hair and Growing Old Disgracefully


After the addition of my sixties-style pics to the RoSa Shoes Gallery last week, I was surprised to see something rather similar to my beehive hairstyle on Jean Paul Gaultier's Paris catwalk models the very next Saturday.

This is me:



This is them:



Mind you, I know the great man has to get his ideas from somewhere. In the 1980's, legend has it that he could often be seen wandering about in London's Kensington Market soaking up influences from the up and coming street fashion designers. He may even have encountered our early handmade "Roger and Sarah Adams" shoe designs in Kim West's "Heels of London" shoe department. (Madonna certainly did - she bought a pair). Now it seems he's looking to yours truly for inspiration in styling his ladies. Not that I'm not flattered. Of course I am. And it was only a matter of time.

What's gratifying to see is the homage paid by Gaultier to the beautifully coiffeured, towering hairstyles of the early 1960's. For far too long the word "beehive" has been synonymous with the Amy Winehouse style of "up-do". No disrespect to Amy but, let's face it, hers is more like an abandoned bird's nest. Not at all like those earlier elegant, smoothly sculpted wonders.

The main difference between Jean Paul's models' beehives and mine is that they just had wigs plonked on their heads, whereas mine was lovingly created over a period of an hour or so. Oh, and theirs were grey, and mine ..... isn't. This is because (in their case) Gaultier's theme was that of "growing old gracefully" and (in my case) because ... I don't seem to have grey hair.

By the way, to complete the sixties look in this series of photos, I wore a pair of shoes from the new RoSa range of Ultra-High Stilettos. The Pointed-Toe version of course.


There are also some very cute Round-Toe designs on this (five-inch plus) heel more reminiscent of a slightly earlier era, the 1950's - but these must be the subject of another blog. In the meantime, please excuse me as I have to rush to the shops to buy a few more cans of hairspray.