the mice have gnawed at it, and sharper teeth than teeth of mice have gnawed at me

i read great expectations in my english class, and was honestly not interested in pip at all.. but i did love reading about estella and miss havisham (the scene where they scream at each other and estella spouts those metaphors about knowing the darkness is just ughhhhhh). there was something immensely attractive about the entire setting of satis house, derelict surroundings of a woman who stopped time in mourning of the person she loved.

the book first describes her as dressed in rich "satins, and lace, and silks" that that were once white but have now become "faded and yellow," like the flowers in her hair and on her gaunt skin; the most fascinating character visually and in my opinion the most complex character in the entire book.(please email me if u want to talk about her!)

this is what the 2012 movie says she looks like.

 

commes des garcons (fw05)

 patchwork-looking victorian lace and tulle shreds + the exaggerated paleness of the models' faces in this context add something ghastly. i really love the collars and the ruffles on the first jacket. they both have that timeworn yellow color.

 

miss havisham is also described in the book as having the look of a waxwork statue, and the silvery dustings in john galliano fw09 add to that image. the whole thing is really slinky and mysterious / rotting flowers are like miss havisham's jam; there's no train on the second dress, but it just feels like something that would be worn by someone absentmindedly dragging along random bits and pieces of rotting things with their dress.

 

these two are kind of more modern interpretations: i love the sleeves of the shirt for the velour magazine one on the left. the fabric in tao ss07 is really innocent and the bows and ruffles at the bottom add extravagance to the overall clean shape. 

 

 

i feel like the last four (chanel s15 couture; cdg fw1990; cdg s12; junya watanabe fw2000)all have a really similar look in their drama. the pilled material that seems like it's stuffed onto the  first and second ones looks like really soft insulation. the headpieces of 1 and 3 just make me think of the word goop (and seem to relate to mis havisham's decaying pile of wedding cake). also, they're all really obstructive, so the wearer is keeping everyone who wants to get close to her far away which is literally her entire character. 

--

i don't have a tattered wedding dress :((( so i kind of had to pull together my interpretation of what miss havisham would wear (the best photo is the last one): i DIYed the white button-up shirt (lol i found it in my fashion classroom and then i shortened and hemmed it, and drew on it), it kind of has a scalloped collar, and i thought that was really cute;  i just found the lace camisole, which was a softened layer; the shirt as skirt is my dad's to add layers; and i wore the skirt i made underneath because i thought the strings would make it look like more tattered. white sandal block heels for like, stomping on hearts n stuff. i also wore this silver necklace with a circular pendant that i've had since childhood. 

 

-=-

kanyinsola