Skulls And Friends...

Where did the craze about the skulls has come from? I keep trying to find that one person - [A designer? An 'It-Girl'? A fashionista? A socialite?] - who started it all... Do you know?

Unless you know it and want to tell me, I was unsuccessful in my research. All I know that it's been so hot and happening in the last few years that it's not even funny. From scarves and bags featuring skulls to pants, shirts and accessories - it's been all about skulls. First I was very remote from the idea of wearing something with skulls, it reminded me of both - the old proverb-fairytale of a knight finding a skull of his horse that he held in his arms until a poisonous snake's emerged from it and bitten him to death and/or of Hamlet holding a skull, saying "To be or not to be, that is the question..." Not sure, why I had those images in my head, but that was how I approached the whole look of the skulls on clothing, shoes, and accessories.

But then I came across this over-the-shoulder bag that had metal skulls all over it and fell in love with it - so much in love that it's been torn to pieces, some of the skulls fell off, but I'm still carrying it around, because it's so damn stylish and... unbelievably comfortable for all the occasions. And I'm not done with it's skulls either. They fell off, I picked them up and made a necklace out of it and other pieces! Ha!I

So, the morale of my skull bag story is - never ever throw something cool and stylish away, even if it fells off...Use it, re-use it, abuse it to its best!

I've been, actually, inspired to do so by my friend, a designer, Leonid Gurevitch, who, the last time I've seen him, wore a necklace, made out of the Home Depot bolts! Yes, that's right! And it looked amazing! [By the way, stick around, because in three weeks I'm going to his Manhattan showroom to check his absolutely amazing collection that he debuts next fall in Moscow! He's a genius. He's so creative that it's not even funny. He blows my mind away of what he does with the clothing and, especially, accessories!] I told him about the necklace I've made and he told me to bring it to the showroom to show it to him, but who can stand against a designer, right? Nevertheless, I'm now and will be wearing it until that falls off...

Back to my bag with the skulls...

It's funny that it was a limited bag edition at Zara and the reasons I grabbed it were, because it was 1. on sale, 2. it was black, and 3. it was big enough to fit all my crap. But once I had it, I was getting so many compliments about it all the time, even when I traveled with it in Europe. 

Skull designs are insanely hot in the area of high end fashion around the globe. The wide skull craze can be seen anywhere from Hollywood - [favorites of Lil Wayne, 50 cent, Jim Jones, Paris Hilton, Lindsey Lohan] to the best of the high end designers like Alexander McQueen, who used skulls in his scarf designs. It looks that it's been started in the hip hop world, but has been quickly picked up and adapted with the rest of us.

 

Now you can spot a skull across the whole fashion industry. Check out Ecko skulls. The skull design is also used widely in tattoo style fashion, like Ed Hardy. Fly Fresh is another hot new designer of tattoo style gear. 

I wonder, though, how long it'll be around?

It's incredibly interesting to see what's going on in the fashion industry. More often than ever I see the designs of insects from high-end designers, like in the collection of Delfina Delettrez, who I've featured in my blog a while ago. She's been kind of a pioneer in revamping the whole look of insects - [and other 'disturbing' stuff] - in the accessories, which are so hip right now as I see more and more women wearing some kind of an 'insect' on them: be it a ring in the form of a spider and/or earrings in a form of butterflies.

Delettrez has an amazing imagination when it comes to her designs. It's been a while since I've seen something like what she's been designing, like a double-ring in a form of a mouth with vampire-like golden teeth sticking out. You'd think that you'd never wear something like that, but when you look close and long enough, you'd realize that you'd really, really want to have it.

So, boys and girls - there's no limit of what one can design and wear in this day and age. We are lucky to live in the times when we can 'afford' to be as creative with our bodies and things we wear. This could not have happened in the 18th Century, you know...