Since adolescence I had acquired an obsession for the sixties. Of course it began with Twiggy because that is who America glamorized as a fashion icon. I think she's extraordinary but as I started developing a fashion sense and wearing makeup I understood the Mod heritage. It began in London and globally evolved over to New York. The swinging sixties was born in Carnaby street, London. Or so I was told in a documentary when I was fourteen. The style and shops that paraded the streets of London was where I yearned to be. I had a nostalgic anxiety to be apart of an era that was two decades before my birth. (Two decades after my birth I would be walking on the cobble-stoned pavement to work everyday). Then I discovered Andy Warhol's, Interview magazine, which contributed to art, culture, and fashion all in one. I can admit that I was too young to understand it all but I was very determined to educate myself. I became infatuated within pop culture and magazines was my candy. I begged my dad to buy me magazines and I cut form them and started a series of journals that I continue with today. Shift dresses, mini skirts, false eyelashes with hard but blended lines on the eyes with powder pale lips was all the rage for me. About six years ago I discovered the legacy and allure of Edie Sedgewick. She was indeed Andy's protegee but unquestionably an eccentric female all her own. Everyone did and still vaguely does want to be her. Her departure was tragic and some would frown upon her drug use but her story provides a sympathetic pass for her tribulations. Who is anyone to judge anyways? The movie, Factory Girl, I thought was great but I was optimistic from the beginning of filming. It didn't get great reviews and even Sienna Miller called it a horrible film, which was quite disappointing, but I loved it. It was actually delayed and edited prior to its release because some argued about the negative portrayal it bestowed upon Andy Warhol. I don't doubt that it was true. He glorified celebrity, drugs, and an outlandish sort of beyond borders lifestyle; however, his contribution to the art world is tattooed to American history. He introduced a new kind of obsession: mass marketing over saturated ideals through art. Edie was his muse and his infatuation. She was a trendsetter and a fashion icon, the original Twiggy. We are constantly seeing references to the mod look in makeup ads and on the runway. Typically its a heavy set lash with loads of black and white eyeliner. Sixties shift dresses and a mod mini will never retire from a fashionable year. It's beyond inspirational because it evokes a mood and feeling of a time, similar to the roaring twenties, of freedom and rebellion from conventional beauty. Politically and musically it was the beginning of equality in gender, race and sexuality. Gone was the typical Hollywood beauty of the 1950's and in was the distinct and celebrated zeitgeist of the 1960's.
