style profile: imelda may

For my second edition of Style Profile I thought I'd take a leap into the 21st century with a small feature on one of my favorite musicians of late. Take one Irish beauty, factor in some wailing vocals, add a punch of rockabilly style and you have the lovely and incredibly talented Imelda May. Raised on the music of Dean Martin, Bing Crosby and other greats, the Dublin-born songstress discovered rockabilly at the age of thirteen and fell madly in love. Its influence is clear in both her music and her style - and she totally knows how to rock it in both elements.


I consider her style to have a similar effect to that of everyone's favorite burlesque diva, Dita von Teese. Vintage, but with an edge all her own, Imelda's look is fiercely iconic and utterly memorable. I admire her fearless red lips, unstoppable curves and the overall boldness of her style. I'm always inspired when women really take strides to create their own personal image, and when you feel hit by their style from just one look...well, that's fascinating to me. I love a style that demands attention like that.


There's a great sense of completeness to her look as well; a very polished element that really illuminates her in a way. The way she maintains a lot of the traditional qualities of rockabilly style while simultaneously making you feel like she created the whole thing on her own is a tribute, I think, to her confidence. It's more than just the clothes and the hair and the make-up with Imelda May - you get the feeling that she is rockabilly. The way she carries herself and the way she talks (not to mention the way she sings her songs) makes you feel like she's somehow a time-traveler from a bygone era.


"No matter how you're feeling, red lipstick will always make you look and feel good."
Imelda is my make-up soul sister. She creates my favorite look - the black winged eyeliner and the piercing, brilliant red lips - with nary a flaw. Watching videos of her, I often get distracted checking out how she did her eyeliner. Speaking of videos, seeing her rock the vintage look in pictures is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg; watching her perform her fabulous songs takes you straight back in time. Check it out...


Imelda May - "Johnny Got a Boom Boom" Official Video
Those of us in the States haven't had the chance to see much of Imelda, though you may remember her performance at the Grammy Awards in January of this year. If you didn't know her before, I hope I've managed to provide a decent introduction to the fabulous Imelda May and her fierce, fearless and fabulously vintage style.

If you want more Imelda, here are a few extra videos I love:
Walking After Midnight
Big Bad Handsome Man
Tainted Love (Acoustic Cover) (love her striped trench!)

Previously on Style Profile: Audrey Hepburn
image sources via Google

style profile: audrey hepburn

Welcome to a new series here at The Girl Who Stole the Eiffel Tower! Style Profile is my small attempt to capture the style of artists, celebrities, icons, historians and other people of the world whose looks inspire me. I thought it was only appropriate to start the series off with my most beloved icon, the indisputably lovely Audrey Hepburn. Everyone knows Audrey for everything from the little-black-dress to cigarette pants, but as watching some of her lesser known films will show you, our dear Audrey was not afraid to take risks in fashion. Of all her years of statement-making style, I've selected the two decades in which she inspires me the most: the 1950s and 1960s.


Behind the scenes of Sabrina, 1954.
I think Sabrina was the film in which she found her style. It was here that she began her lifelong friendship and collaboration with Hubert de Givenchy. The Cinderella story of Sabrina really seems to reflect her off-camera style at the time. She went from being the fresh-faced sweetheart who swept the Oscars off their feet in 1953 to the sophisticated European with the mysterious je ne sais quoi. Even her hairstyle went from the cute cropped cut of Roman Holiday to something much more chic and mature.


On the set of Funny Face with Fred Astaire, 1957.
For a lot of women, Audrey is the quintessential fashionista. Everyone knows the image of Holly Golightly outside Tiffany's dripping in jewels and munching on a danish. Audrey was a bit more subdued in her own style, I think. She didn't create her look for the purpose of drawing attention to herself. Her instant style icon status seemed to happen just by the simple act of being herself. Even her most streamlined minimalist looks were quietly romantic, as she was.


How to Steal a Million, 1966.
Her style is iconic, and yet she changed drastically throughout her film career. Comparing her look in productions like Roman Holiday next to her later films such as Two for the Road will give you two amazingly different Audreys. I think her off-screen style was represented quite accurately through her on-screen style and the changes she went through on camera were similar to the fashion risks she took in real life. The 1960s, which were kick-started with her unforgettable turn in Breakfast at Tiffany's, launched a whole new style for Audrey. I think she grew out of the classic, timelessly chic look after that. She started experimenting with bold make-up and modern hairstyles. Her clothes maintained a classic silhouette, but she was vibrant and colorful as the years went on.


Shot by Howell Conant, 1967.
By all accounts, her style was a reflection of her personality. At the beginning of her Hollywood stardom in 1953 she was timid, demure and anxious. As she grew accustomed to her status and as her personal life took her through many hardships and joys she grew more understanding of the world and more confident in herself. In the '50s, with her romance and marriage to her first husband, Mel Ferrer, she believed in fairy tales and relished the timelessness of true love. That was her quietly romantic period. After two divorces, multiple miscarriages and the harsh realities of Hollywood attempted to take her down she realized that fairy tales are what you make them and that life isn't always black-and-white. She never married the man she called the love of her life, Rob Wolders, because she no longer believed in the institution. I think it was then, later in her life, that she was at her most independent and artistic and I think the 1960s were the years that started shaping that vision.


I hope you've all enjoyed this peek into the icon and simultaneously rather unpredictable style of Audrey Hepburn. It's difficult to capture the entirety of Audrey in just one post, but I wanted to at least touch on some of the ways she has inspired me. I'll be featuring Audrey again in a secondary upcoming series with a focus less on style and more on character. Thanks for reading and stay tuned!