Monday, July 28, 2008

"El Topo" Inspired

Don't let that cute movie poster fool you. As my husband has been unfairly dominating the queue lately, there have been no period dramas or Jane Austen films. No, El Topo is more like it. If you're into surrealistic, gory westerns by the guy who almost got Salvador Dali, Orson Welles and Pink Floyd to collaborate on a Dune adaptation, go for it. Actually, I couldn't stop watching El Topo, although I did have to pause it right at the very graphic and bloody beginning in order to finish eating dinner without puking.

Sadly, while watching I was distracted by these (look closely at his hands):













The leather fingerless gloves. They figure prominently in the first half of the film, with El Topo lovingly buttoning them over his hands. And then all I could think about was these two:


Luckily, the film has a loose narrative. El Topo was released in '71, and Jodorowsky was involved in the avant-garde in Paris, so could this be the origins of the Kaiser's obsession with the short glove? The rest of El Topo's gun-slinging ensemble was pretty bad-ass, too, and involved lots of black. Hmm, the plot thickens. (During the dog days of summer, when I'm feeling uninspired and dull, I like starting fashion myths. Like "The Origins of the Kaiser's Fingerless Mitts - El Topo, the Mole!")

Unfortunately, the only gloves I could find that may currently be available on 34th Street were these from Forever 21:


not fingerless but they do have a button. The Chanel "inspired" versions have not yet hit stores.




Top these off with an El Topo-inspired woven fedora:

and get some weird looks. I'm sure guys like El Topo got weird looks all the time, thus the bad, gun-slinging propensities. Unfortunately, altogether our accessories look more Michael Jackson "Bad" than "El Topo" bad. Well, I am a child of the 80's.


Forever 21, 50 W. 34th between 5th & 6th

14 comments :

Xmastime said...

is that a naked kid? what the f%$@#@k is going on over here?

Tricia said...

Yes, played by Jodorowsky's son. In this first part of the film he's naked and burying his mom's photograph, conveying the sense of a tragedy that just occurred off-camera.
Sheesh, do I have to spoon-feed everything to you?

WendyB said...

MrB was mocking me for buying fingerless gloves last year. Humph.

Tricia said...

that means you're being stylish, right? I kind of want the two (or is it three?)fingered ones this year!

Siljesfashion said...

Love those gloves!

Lipstick said...

Funny about the MJ mention. Way back I had a necklace with a sparkly glove charm and I wore it so proudly.

Nancy said...

Ain't nothin' wrong with a little Michael haha. I almost never find the things I see on the F21 website in stores -_-

Anonymous said...

Oh, Lindsay looks nice )))

Tricia said...

so true, Nancy, I'm going to drop by the 34th Street store today.

Fashion Is Poison said...

i kind of want to get some black gloves and just cut off the fingers. hmm.


i got the jodhpurs last winter :]

Tricia said...

fip - yeah, right? I think you could even do this with those leather motorcycle gloves for the total Karl look. Hmm, smart of you to get those adorable jodhpurs last year!

Imelda Matt - The Despotic Queen of Shoes said...

LOL...I'm such a fucktard...I clicked on the picture to closely examine his hands. I couldn't figure it out so I assumed he was holding a pack out fags for the kid to smoke!!!!

Yes it's a little Michael Jackson but I'm going to go out on a limb and say 'I like it...shamon'

Anonymous said...

OMG, Imelda absolutely killed me. Dead. On the floor dead.

Okay... we've stopped with the cackling and can move on to the glove issue. And yes, you do have to spoon feed some of us. Have we not at least made that clear yet? (Heh-heh-heh.)

BTW, Lindsay is scaring me. Just so you know. Frightening images like this demonstrate precisely why I can't read your blog just before bedtime. It's bad sleep hygiene.

TP

Elizabeth said...

Now I will never be able to think of fingerless gloves without thinking of The Kaiser. Too bad; the new image replaced the old image—Billy Idol.